knuckleharley

Was the pedal all the way up before you pushed on it? How long has the car been sitting? Has the clutch pedal ever been all the way to the floor before? Is the car a drive that you drive at least once a week? Is there a threaded metal rod anywhere in sight? If there is and it is not connected to the clutch pedal and the arm on the bellhousing that engages the clutch,it should be. If you don't see one anywhere,start looking where the car was the last time you shifted gears.

Good guess.

Mount it as close to the gas tank as possible. Electric fuel pumps like to push more than pull. Make sure you put a fuel regulator on it to make sure it pumps no more than 4psi of pressure. If it were me,I'd put the switch on or under the bottom of the dash,maybe on a chrome panel with a red light to show when it's pumping.

So does mine.

Thanks,I figured they were right up to 49 when the body changed,but wasn't sure.

Was that a question for me? I wrote 42 because just a couple of weeks ago I dissassembled a bumper for a 42 Dodge to send to another board member,and I am unsure if the 46 and later bumpers are still 3 piece bumpers,or one piece bumpers. BTW,the 42 bumper style was a one year only piece. Seems like everything on the body but the hood,the rear fenders and the trunk lid were 42 only.

Hard to say for sure by looking down on them instead of directly at them from the front,but they MIGHT be the bumper ends for a 42 Dodge. In case you don't know the bumpers on the early 50's Dodge's were made from 3 pieces bolted together to the bumper reinforcement piece that runs full length from one side to the other,

Good luck to you! If it were me,my first move would be to drop it off at an upholstery shop and let the pros do it. I don't even have to try it to know it would be a mistake for me to even get started on putting in a headliner. I have trouble putting on bumperstickers without getting them wrinkled. It's important in life to know your shortcomings.

Ok,*I* drove them with no problems. They really are simple systems to work on and figure out. I once used a wooden matchstick to hold one set of points open on a voltage regulator so the generator would charge so I could drive 275 miles back to Fort Bragg on a Sunday instead of being AWOL. Even in the 60's it was really hard to buy a good running,dependable car for 75 bucks,and my 55 Ford came out of a junkyard. Let's see ya do THAT with a alternator system. Most of the mechanical systems on pre-60's cars and trucks were designed to be worked on and repaired/adjusted by home mechanics with a minimum of specialized tools. I knew I had blocked open the right set of points when I took a battery cable off and the engine kept running.

Yet people drove cars with generators for decades with no problems.

Thanks,but none of us are born knowing this stuff. We all learned from others and from bitter experiences as we went along. Helping someone else is just paying back. BTW,when/if you adjust your voltage regulator,make sure you have your headights,heater blower,and radio on to make sure your system is charging enough to keep your battery charged with all the electrical systems working at once. You may not drive it much at night in the winter,but it sure is nice to know you could if you needed to.

Or the throw out bearing. Which,like the pilot bushing,requires the transmission to come out for it to be replaced. If you do discover it is the throw out bearing,the wise thing to do would be to replace the pilot bushing while you have the transmission out.

Not if the points were stuck in the voltage regulator. The simple test for this is to remove the cover,and visually inspect the contacts to see if it looks like they have been sticking or are burnt. If they look rough,you can take a emery board to file them clean,and then then regulator will usually work To do the job right you need an accurate ammeter gauge you can connect under the hood so you can adjust the points in the regulator so it's putting out the proper charge at idle. Don't forget to check that the charge rate drops off as the battery reaches full charge. One set of points inside the regulator is dedicated to cutting back the charge rate when it receives a full charge rate from the battery. Having a charging system that charges at a full rate all the time is a recipe for a battery explosion and maybe a car fire.

Good plan with the new gas tank. Next time you break down from fuel starvation it might be in the middle lane during rush hour,and there is no one to help you push it off to the side of the road. When you consider what it cost to rent a roll-back these days to get hauled home after a breakdown,you can buy a new gas tank and avoid all that grief and embarrassment for less than two rollback trips home. When you look at it that way,you almost have to be nuts to waste your time trying to flush out tanks and lines and then coat the tank inside to keep the rust from coming back. Do yourself a favor and replace the old gas lines while you are at it. Do it all once and be done with it.

I don't know. Wouldn't that just cause the Bendix to kick in and spin? MY big suspicion at this point is a bad ground at the voltage regulator,or stuck points in it. Or both. Most people would be amazed at what a few passes between the point contacts with an emery board made for filing fingernails can do for a old voltage regulator that has been sitting around for decades.

I REALLY like the idea behind that one,and I will be buying one tomorrow. Not that it is likely to do me any good. I live up a dirt road on an island,my closest neighbor is over a mile away,and I work inside a shop that is closed all the time because I have AC and heat in there. Still,there might be somebody passing by right at the time I need help that could hear it if I had it.

The DeSoto shop manual is a good thing to have,but it was written for professional mechanics who already had a history of repairing these cars. The Motors Auto Repair Manuals carefully explain everything in layman terms you can understand,and provide VERY nice and detailed photos that show you what they are writing about. They have whole sections dedicated to diagnosing mechanical or electrical problems. We ain't talking big money or hard to find,either. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2055119.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X1950+motors+auto+repair+manual.TRS0&_nkw=1950+motors+auto+repair+manual&_sacat=0

Yeah,but you are going to be in awe of the changes you have made once it's done.

It means your generator isn't charging. Since you wrote the generator has been gone through recently,I'm betting the problem is you didn't polarize it when you put it back on the car. If you don't polarize the generator and the voltage regulator when you install a new one or reinstall a rebuilt one,it won't charge. Since you say you have a technical book you can't understand,that tells me you do NOT have a Motors Auto Repair Manual. If you did,you would understand it. They write for novice mechanics,and they have plenty of photos to visually show you what they are writing about. Buy one that covers early 50's American cars now. When it comes in,go to the generator and voltage regulator section,and start reading and looking at the photos.. Once you do,things will become clear.

First things first. Have you checked your battery to see if it will hold a charge? Get it running again,and at a high idle remove a battery cable and see if it still runs. If it does,you need a new battery. If it doesn't keep running you may still need a new battery,but first you are going to have to see if you can clean and adjust the points in your voltage regulator and put new bushings and brushes in your generator. Don't forget to polarize them after getting everything back together. That sure is a nice looking old DeSoto. I doubt your amp gauge is part of the problem. Seems to me if it acted as a fuse your car wouldn't start if it were shorted out/ Does it show a discharge when you turn the switch on? Does it show a discharge while the car is running. What about when the car is running and you turn on the headlights? Does the needle ever move at all? As I wrote above,check the battery first,and the voltage regulator and generator next. You DO have a Motors Auto Repair Manual that covers early 50's American cars that will show you how to clean the points and adjust the voltage regulator,and to polarize it if necessary,right?

It's really hard to put a value on a typical antique car just by looking at photos. Especially when the car is located in another country where the economy is different and the car is even much rarer than it is here. Add to that the fact that this car seems to have a VERY nice non-original interior and has been repainted and it becomes impossible to give you a price valuation range from America. Maybe some of our British members will chime in? I can tell you one thing that remains constant about buying anything regardless of what it is or where you are,though. Don't pay more than YOU think it is worth because you are the one that is going to have to live with the purchase. The flip side of this is if you really,really like the car and know you will enjoy owning and driving it,it's pretty hard to pay too much. What price happiness?

Take LOTS of photos of anything pre-1960 you spot in there. Some of us may see something we just can't live without,or something we need to buy for parts.

That looks like a solid and almost complete 49 Dodge. I sure hope somebody saves it. The only thing I see missing is the rear window.

Try building a "wall" around it using body plastic or anything else that might work. Once you get the "Walls" up,pour the center part that where the sending unit is full of vinegar. Vinegar eats rust like nobody's business. Let it sit over night,soak up the vinegar,and try to loosen it again. If you get it to move even a tiny bit,spray PB Blaster or something similar around where it spins and use a chisel to tap it open and closed and until you can get it to spin,spraying the PB again with every move. Repeat as necessary until it comes free. BTW,if the top of the tank is really so rusty your sending unit is rusted in place,chances are it is so full of rust on the inside that you are wasting your time fooling with it. Yeah,you can half-fill it with vinegar to eat the rust,let it set for 24 hours,pour the vinegar into a tub,turn the tank over after sealing the top,and let the vinegar eat that rust too,but the sad,sad truth is it is going to start rusting again immediately. There are coatings you pour in your now clean tank that are supposed to coat it to keep it from rusting again,but I am not so sure they work with ethanol. AND.....,it's a lot of damn work to do all that and then have to drop your tank and clean it out again after the fuel line and filter gets clogged up again with gas tank sealer. I went through that crap maybe 15 years ago,and now I just go ahead and buy a new tank from Tanks,Inc or a similar supplier,and spend my time doing other stuff. One of the things I hate most of all is coming home on a rollback. Buy the time you do this twice,you could have bought a new tank.

YIKES! You have somehow decrypted the secret! I am not a betting man,but I would almost be willing to bet there isn't one person in a thousand anymore that can honestly say they enjoyed driving their new car anywhere. It's just a tool they use when they need a tool for transport. This means you are already ahead of the game,and spent tens of thousands of dollars less to get there. Most people around here don't understand what I am talking about when they ask me why I drive my old stuff in nice weather,and my new truck when it's raining,and I tell them I do it to preserve the good stuff.