Dan Hiebert

To be on the safe side, at least have it pressure tested, and most shops can also check the flow rate through it. Neither of those require it to be taken apart. It may be nice and reliable, but it's still 78 years old. Good to start there, that way - as noted before - if it isn't broke, no need to fix it. If it's not up spec, then you can have them address whatever issues it has.

I've only had clutch chatter problems with one of my newer cars years ago - but - your described fix, except for the gaskets and motor mounts, is exactly what I had to do to fix it.

That sounds more like an alignment issue. The steering not returning to center while driving can be because the caster (king pin angle to front/rear of the car) of the front wheels are not set right. I don't have the specs for DeSoto, but a '48 D24 is 0 to +1 degree (positive being towards the rear of the car). Improper camber angle would cause the car to pull to one side or the other, rather than go straight down the road.

Cool! I like that nice, slow, unconcerned gait that moose have.

Ditto PA's message. Valve seats on these Mopar flat sixes are already hardened.

After tending to the ol' D24 most of the winter, didn't have to do much get it fired up a couple days ago, actually didn't have to do anything but hook the battery cables back up. Didn't start right up, it never does, but after some moderate cranking it did come to life. Left it to idle in the sun while I dusted it off, then took a jaunt up the road in the uphill direction. Never got over 160, but it was "only" 60 degrees out, not a cloud in the sky, and no insects, yet. Ran like a top. First club cruise is tonight (yay!), but it'll be cold and raining (boo!), D24 doesn't have a heater, so we'll take the Bug (some may argue it doesn't have a heater, either, but it has more of one than the Dodge). I hope everyones' spring start-up is as anti-climactic, and ditto the above sentiments - happy Mopar motoring!

Not relevant, but perhaps interesting, my '37 Terraplane has a push button, with a threaded brass cap to protect it, right on the solenoid that is mounted to the starter. I would imagine both the Hudsons and Terraplanes had that feature, for how long I don't know. The original "remote start"..sorta? Makes indexing the flywheel to check the clutch fluid, and to get to TDC that much easier. Flywheel is exposed, timing mark is a star stamped on it, and it's timed off a mark on the bellhousing. Maybe not unusual for that era, but took time to get used to.

When we lived in Michigan a number of years ago, we would often take the ol' D24 out to Goodells County Park where the St. Clair County Farm Museum is located. About 10 miles west of Port Huron. It's a rather nice museum, and at the time they had two Port Huron Threshing Machine Co. steam tractors, one was kept in working condition, and I believe they were restoring the other. They have an annual farm machinery show where they have pulls to demonstrate just how powerful steam tractors are, and demonstrate how to work various farm implements with it, such as threshers (duh) and saw mills. It's an impressive show for how small the site is, (though I've since forgotten just when they have it) and it's a rather nice little park, too. I found it especially interesting since the old Port Huron Threshing Machine Co. facility still existed (when we lived there it had become a lumber yard, tool and die shop, and industrial machine shop) and was only two blocks from our house. Our neighborhood had been created to support that tractor company.

I like that - "taming" your acreage/property! I have need of that term to convince the missus we need a tractor to even stay ahead of our "untamed" piece of The County.

Learn something new even after 27 years with the D24. I Knew the Plymouths' speedos changed color, but had no idea the Dodges' did, too. Never occurred to me. Wow.

I'll raise my hand to that! Spent summers on a farm in southern Illinois when we were kids, one of our cousins would talk about tractors the way other kids talked about hot rods. I loved the putting-purr of a Johnny Popper in the distance, working a field on one of those days that were so still you could hear the corn grow. We pretty much grew up around farming, although not directly involved in it. This being a farming region, tractors are a big deal (duh), and there are a few farmers with awesome tractor collections around here

We have yet to see 60 this spring in northern Maine. Couple of days a hair over 50. Back to teens and twenties for overnight lows next few days. And yes, this is unseasonably "cool" for us, but the snow is receding, slowly but surely. And me being a silver lining guy - at least I've still got some snowbanks to throw a few brewskies in. Amazing what constitutes "warm" once you acclimate to this place...

Regarding your paint question. You'll need to ensure there is no rust left in the pitting, either by media blasting, or chemical treatment, or both. If not, it'll just start to rust again under your nice new paint, especially in Michigan humidity. It's always best to replace the metal, but working on a limited budget can be overcome with preparation. Don't rely on the color coat to fill any imperfections (pitting), that has to be done during the prep, which is easy enough, though time consuming. Depending on how bad the pitting is, if not so bad, either use layers of regular primer with sanding between them, or best, use high build primer so you don't have to sand as many times - either one until you get the surface you want to put the color coat on. If badly pitted, you can prime, and use glazing putty to fill imperfections more quickly, or use body filler (i.e. Bondo) per directions on the bare metal before you prime. Bondo gets a bad rap, but it's purpose is really just to clean up imperfections in body work. Whichever you choose, prep is key to a good color coat, body, frame, whatever. Good surface preparation (biggest component of that being patience) will get your metal where you want it. I've always used rattle cans or a sprayer to paint the chassis, seems to cover better, and I like the finish better as well, although I've used a brush or foam brush to paint inconspicuous parts when I've been concerned about overspray on occasion.

Well, yeah...buzz killer... (I take my small victories where I can.) We have a "few days" between the melting of the snowbanks and arrival of the blackfly hordes. We're lucky that the place we bought is on rocky ground on the side of a hill, so our property only gets "mud season" for a week or so when the snow first starts melting off with no place for the water to go, so our hyper-local mud season is over, but the rest of northern Maine has another week or two before it starts. The timber industry actually closes the working forests during that time, it gets so bad. Lasts two to three weeks - depending on Mother Nature, of course. Places get that weird Jell-O like ground, too.

Thanks for the run-down. Things that make you go "hmmm"...we're not having any issues at all with the original carb on our car, but I do happen to have one of them Carter YF carbs from an old Ford PU we used to have, aging in one of my parts boxes.

Aaah, finally, our adopted right of passage into "spring" in northern Maine. Temp outside was higher than inside the shop, and above freezing overnight forecast for a week or more - so - put the water hose reel outside the shop, turned on the water to the shop, and turned off the pellet stove (albeit not decommissioned for the season - yet). But we still have "feet" of snowbanks and a few patches under the trees.

Excellent thread, thanks for posting your ongoing adventures with your D24! We also have a 48 D24, although a 4dr sedan. It was a piece of junk when we got it in 1991, so I've had to do a lot of work on it, just not a full blown restoration. We haven't had any troubles with it for several years now, but I'm sure that won't last. I've got some "puttering around" things I want to do with it, but nothing I'd consider major, and I sometimes get ideas for things I need to do or check from this Forum. I'd like to read more about that "different" carburetor you installed and how the car has responded, particularly using the fluid drive feature, since the original carb has a retarded throttle return to keep the car from stalling if one chooses to leave the car in a higher gear and not use the clutch. This is my favorite forum among the several I haunt, welcome aboard!

Ditto PA's guidance. Our D24 had this issue when we got it (except that for one door the rotor was completely missing), a good cleaning and lubricating brought the handles back to horizontal. I know of some folks that look at that and deem the shaft twisted, thus not repairable, which 99.9% of the time is just not so.

The two differences I see between your alignment procedure and that described in the service manual (I have manuals for both the P15 and D24): 1 - Weight of the car, unloaded, is supposed to be on the (level) ground. Book doesn't specify turntables or anything, but it works easier if the tires can move freely, putting them on a few layers of newspaper works; 2 - This is where I had the same problem you note with the long tie rod, except I had the same initial results with both sides (I wrote notes in my manual, elsewise I wouldn't have remembered this - duh), loosen ALL tie rod end clamps, and adjust both at the same time in opposite directions to each other, for the proper toe-in/out, not each side separately. I had done what you did to get the overall measurements close and center the steering wheel after I had removed and rebuilt the steering box. Then I wanted to get the toe-in/out alignment down and stayed with trying each side separately - didn't work well until I loosened everything. I don't remember if I figured out why it works that way, I just noted it to emphasize to myself to follow the service manual procedures next time. That may be a bit of overkill, since you were just trying to get it close to get it to a shop. This may or may not help, from the manual: "Lengthening the short tie rod moves the steering wheel center spoke to the right. Lengthening the long tie rod moves the spoke to the left. One full turn of the tie rod will change the front wheel position one half inch, and will move the steering wheel about three and one half inches, measured at the rim." So, if you were turning one tie rod at a time, you were probably moving the steering wheel, not the road wheel. When I did it one side at a time, neither wheel moved, but I was under the car and didn't notice if the steering wheel moved or not. I re-read the procedure, had the "ah-hah" moment, then centered everything up again and started over.

Any good auto paint shop should be able to mix paint based on the original code, regardless if the original paint maker can. Paints themselves are different now, so the tone may still be off a hair. I know some NAPA stores can do it, too, that's where I had the last batch done for one of my paint jobs. Many shops have the equipment needed to analyze paint for proper formulas, too.

Patience, Grasshopper. Nothing wrong with your post or problem presentation. Like me, many folks here won't chime in if they don't have a good answer, or at least an educated guess. I have to go out to the shop to consult my manual to see if something was missed - which I'm hesitant to do right now since we had a good old fashioned northern Maine spring snow storm overnight that dumped 8 inches of snow that I haven't plowed, yet. I'm intrigued for an answer myself. Your string alignment is a good start, that's how I had to do our D24 several years ago, since none of the shops in western NY would do it. Only good tool I had for the job was a pair of turntables (the tires still have to move freely if the car's weight is on them - perhaps something to consider with your issue?) I've found a shop here in northern Maine that will do it, but they would have to use the string/measure method, too, no one up here has an alignment rack these old cars will fit on.

The roundish pieces are indeed the blower covers for those kick panel heaters, the Y shaped part is what splits the coolant flow from the engine to each of those kick panel heaters.

Yeah, I don't recall exactly off hand, but these cars weigh less than 3,000 pounds, a bit surprising for their appearance. Heck, I had a 2013 Beetle that weighed over 2,000 lbs more than our four-door D24.

That's a mess. I've never liked getting someone else's project where they didn't remove any of the old wiring when installing "new" wiring for whatever purpose. I've found it easer to just remove all the old stuff and start fresh, that way it's the way you want it. Unless you suddenly develop a passion for wiring cars and want to rewire it again later, I'd rewire for 12v with your end goal in mind so you'll have one less challenge when that time comes. Basic circuits for the good ol' flathead for now, with additional room/circuits for the needs of that 5.7 in the future. But as PA noted, if you wire for 12v you have to stick with it, wiring for 6v will easily transition to 12v (not the other way around tho) but there is additional cost due to heavier gauge requirements of 6v..

When I was in the Army in the '80s, there were still a good number of Vietnam veterans still in service in the senior NCO and officer ranks. We tended to listen to them more often than the other leadership. A few had a couple of loose screws, but all of them knew what they were doing, and more importantly, why. I'm not talking the nebulous reasons for a war, but how to get the job done and stay more or less in one piece during one. When we went to Grenada my platoon had one of the very, very few Vietnam vets as its platoon sergeant / leader (no Lt.). That was just a bar-fight compared to other conflicts, but we had a few scraps that the SFC saw us through with just a few scratches. When I joined the Border Patrol, just under half the organization were Vietnam vets (total BP number was 3k at the time), those guys were a hoot to learn from and work with. That video is a good reminder that the U.S. wasn't the only nation fighting for democracy in Vietnam, we just had the largest presence, thanks for posting. And thanks to all the Vietnam vets out there - for many reasons. Glad you'uns made it home, just wish there had been more that did.