Dan Hiebert

I'll be through there on business in a couple of weeks. Do they let folks wander through the yard? I've been past there a couple times but was always in too much of a rush and didn't notice the old iron, even though I'm usually pretty quick on the uptake when it comes to spotting that stuff.

Amazing how each state differs in its requirements and methods to reach the same end. I've had to register cars in 6 states and have had to do it 6 different ways, and they had 6 different ways to figure out what I owe them. Believe it or not, the easiest has been New York:eek:

Wouldn't make a difference, ethanol is ethanol. (Which, by the way, is the same alcohol in adult beverages;).) Earlier in this thread someone queried the effect of ethanol on modern systems. Part of my job is seeing to the maintenance and fueling of a sizeable fleet, which means I have to worry about ethanol in gas affecting the service length of our cruisers. Once the oil industry standard went to 10% for basic fuel in many States, (Govt agencies have to buy the cheapest gas available), the auto industry did the same with its fuel systems (don't forget, that's all regulated by Uncle Sam and his 50 nephews). That's only about 5-6 years along, so if you have a car older than that, you'll eventually have problems. Some locations with air pollution problems have been mandating 10% ethanol for much longer. You'll see the "E85" vehicles driving about, those are engineered to use the higher ethanol percentace in E85 gas, but you can't run the E85 gas in other modern vehicles - well, you can, but it will eat the components much quicker. To lengthen this short story, ethanol will affect the fuel systems on our older vehicles (mainly the "rubber" stuff and gaskets). To what extent depends on how much care you take with your fuel system - additives, storage, etc.

The "Enhancements" section of this site recommends DOT 5 silicone brake fluid. I'd highly recommend it, especially in the more humid areas. Eliminates a lot of issues associated with DOT 3. Doesn't attract moisture so you don't get crud and rust in the lines and cylinders, and doesn't eat paint. I've been running silicone fluid in the D24 for @ 4 years - absolutely no problems. It is expensive, tho, $35 a quart four years ago.

Mmmm......Long Trail at the source.......I'm in the wrong place.

The AACA Museum in Hershey, PA has one each of the stainless steel Lincolns and T-birds on display.

Ooh-rah! I drove the Dodge in to work today, too. Tho there aren't many cars on the road when I head to work, I see the same lack of distinctive cars. Western New York is rife with collector cars that tend to get driven (tho most are 60-70s muscle types), so the trip home may prove to be more interesting. Anyone else observe Collector Car Appreciation day with a spin, either to work, or otherwise? Paddock Chevrolet in Kenmore (a Buffalo suburb) is having a free collector car show in honor of today, too. They'll have the whole street shut down in front of their dealership.

Kanter Auto products has most of what you'll need as well.

One of the benefits of bouncing around the country so much is experiencing all the neat history tidbits of the various places I've been, and sometimes how it plays into my job (usually by surprise). Attending a "regional critical infrastructure protection" planning session a while back, I found out that the General Mills grain elevator and plant in Buffalo is not only "on the border" (with Canada, thus warranting consideration for border security), but is where they make Cheerios. ALL the Cheerios. Since 1941. (They were originally called "Cheerioats" - anyone out there remember that?) Imagine the chaos if the Cheerios plant where attacked I'd wondered about the local T-shirts that say "My town smells like Cheerios", on a good day that's exactly what Buffalo smells like, mmmm. Kind of neat seeing the 700-foot Lakes freighters at that dock - unloading a shipfull of future goodness. Anyway, for all those who started their days as kids (or even nowadays) with a bowl-o-Cheerios, watched Saturday morning cartoons with a "Jethro Bowl" full of 'em (apple cinnamon are my favorite), gave them to their kids as their first finger food, fueled up on 'em before tackling a session with our cars (or all of the above) - Cheerios are 70 years old this year. Well, the brand is anyway, I certainly hope the cereal isn't that old.

Hmm...would this count as an "elite" group because we're all the smarter for it? Either way, count me in. Ran out of gas several times in west Texas with an S10 Blazer that only had the 13 gallon tank with a 45 mile commute, before I put a bigger tank in it. And twice with the Terraplane because the guage is off and I can never remember by how much, the second time I thought I was about empty and it sputtered out as I pulled into a gas station - but that still counts because it didn't get to the pump under its own power. So far (knock on wood) I haven't run aground with the D24.

In our great southwest, that could just be the ambient temperature, but that's doesn't look to be where you hail from. Don't know if the sun could get your car that hot in San Fran if you leave it outside. The cold reading of the guage is not what's really important, its where it is when your car is running - "operating temperature". The needle could be off kilter when cold because it has already been adjusted for accuracy when hot. There are previous threads for that proceedure, but the most accurate involve having the guage out of the car. If you don't want to do that you can compare the coolant temperature at the radiator with the guage reading as noted previously, but remember that the guage reads the temp at the rear of the engine where the coolant has only made half its journey through the engine, but it'll be close enough to know how to interpret your guage reading.

The answer to the question is that its not supposed to downshift by itself. Fluid drive is the coupling, not an automatic or semi-automatic transmission.

Well, the Dept. of Homeland Security is going to be moving its headquarters into the former St. Elizabeth mental hospital in D.C., I work for DHS so I can vouch for that being an appropriate move , which means I'll need to prepare for the snide comments - so - no offense taken here. Otherwise, doesn't matter what the building is used for, its a nice building to use as a backdrop for your car.

Well, its still on my calendar, but duty calls and it looks like I have to go to Disneyland Central instead. Definitely not the preferred "instead of", but Uncle Sam still signs my paycheck, and in one of those ironic twists, I've promoted to the level where I don't have a lot of say-so. Great job, but planning anything in advance is always iffy.

Unknown about Califas, but since you brought it up - Paddock Chevrolet on Delaware Ave. in Kenmore (Buffalo) NY will be having their 13th annual "Super Cruise" to celebrate National Car Collector Appreciation Day on July 8th, 1600-2100. The locals tell me this is the better of these events in western New York.

I just did my steering wheel earlier this spring. Used PC-7 and initially used good ol' soap and water to clean everything. Don't think that was good enough as I still had some of the repairs cracking after everything cured, it was separating right at the joint between the epoxy paste and the original steering wheel material. Re-grooved that area and cleaned with ethel alcohol (what I had lying around). Seems to have done the trick, you just need something that will clean out the oils and such without attacking that original material - whatever it is (rubber, plastic, both, mystery fiber?). The areas that separated happened to be where most folks hold the steering wheel - thus (I'm guessing) more oils and contaminants that soapy water couldn't cut. That steering wheel material does seem to be somewhat absorbent, so you should allow it to dry thoroughly before applying the PC-7.

Excellent timing! Logged on this AM to ask if anyone remembered the article about grafting a new capillary tube onto the original temperature guage. That's this upcoming weekend's project if I can get the house trim painted during the week (gotta love the long days up north). This forum comes through again!

Kinda hard to tell, but from what I can see, the wear pattern on your differential gears looks about perfect, means your backlash was set OK. If I remember correctly, that is what the factory calls the freeplay, which tends to feel a bit "looser" on older cars. So someone familiar with newer cars would suspect something when checking older vehicles. I'd go with replacing the bearings while everything is apart as well, but I'll leave comments about foreign vs. US engineering alone.

Joe - I had the same issue with my D24 from the time we got it until I rebuilt the steering box over this last winter. My "temporary" (18-year) fix was to make a new keyway in the splines of the steering shaft so the steering wheel would be square with the wheels straight ahead - I would not have done that knowing what I do now. Primarily, my steering box was shot and no manner of tweaking would keep the steering wheel square. Anyway, first thing is to make sure your front end is properly aligned, if the geometry between the front and rear tires is off, your tires can be straight ahead, and the steering wheel still won't be square (your car would "crab" down the road, too). Any alignment shop should be able to do this for you, but you'd need to make sure your steering wheel is aligned on the keyway so the shop can square it for you. With the steering wheel where its "supposed to be", and everything to specs, it should be square. BUT, I understand you can't find that keyway anymore....So....If your steering is aligned, and your steering box sound - turn the wheel from stop to stop (full left to full right and back again), count the number of turns it took, and turn it back from either full left or right 1/2 that number of turns, (this is much easier and more accurate if you have a pair of turntables). This is the center of your steering system and where your steering wheel should be squared (bottom spoke straight down). If there were a keyway left, it would be straight up at this point. If the steering wheel is not square, and your satisfied everything else is copacetic, just pull the steering wheel and put it back on square. That's how the shop manual specifies to center the steering, it's amazingly simple but effective. If you did this with your steering wheel centered on that key way and it didn't end up square, then something would be out of alignment. If your steering shaft and worm gear (worm gear is part of the steering shaft) are in good shape, and the only problem is bunged-up splines on the shaft, I would not necessarily replace the shaft. Hope this helps. Dan

Back to the original Q - I have the same "problem", you can always tell where I've been with the Dodge by the cloud of blue smoke . Neighbors don't seem to mind since it keeps the skeeters at bay, but annoying none-the-less. (Not REALLY that bad, but makes for a better tale.) Good compression, etc. Besides the renowned members of this forum, (this issue comes up on occasion), I've checked with several mechanics in at least three states, a couple of whom date back to working on these cars when their mileage was getting to the cusp of "worn". The unanimous first diagnosis has been worn valve guides as the primary culprit, and according to the Mopar-centric ones, a common malady. Other issues such as plugged valve galleries and sludge contribute and make it worse. The guides don't even have to be excessively worn to draw oil up. Matter of fact - just stands to reason that the better your compression is, the better the engine will be at drawing oil into the cylinder during the intake stroke through worn guides. My engine's innards are very clean, but when I did a partial rebuild (honed cylinders, new rings and bearings) I didn't replace the guides and the car smoked more than before.

I've never really been annoyed by any of the questions folks ask about our car. The one exception being if the FIRST question is "What's it worth?" I get a slew of different ones, many comical, most genuine, and just a few "stupid". When out and about in the ol' Dodge when I have to be somewhere, I too work in some delay time for questions an curiosity.

They look like the emblems on the side of the pickup truck hoods from that timeframe.

A ray of sunshine through parting storm clouds and angels singing - this forum comes through again. My speaker diaphram went the way of the dodo a long time ago, and I've been searching for someone to fix it with no luck. Never even thought of putting a newer speaker in the car becuase of the 4 point connector on the original vs. 2 point on new ones.

Takes me half an hour to pick up just the cigarette butts every weekend, and I've only got 90 feet frontage.

Sounds like the horn ring is bent just enough on that side to keep the contacts from closing.