Dodgeb4ya

Just Unbolt the 8 nuts on the Fluid drive coupling after pulling the lower bellhousing pan.Then remove engine to bell housing bolts-pull the engine forward couple inches and pull the engine. Leave the trans/fluid drive coupling alone. The fluid drive coupling will be supported safely on the trans input shaft. You need the mark the crankshaft to FD coupling so you can mate the 8 holes in the crank to the 8 studs on the FD coupling - only assembles one way. Bob

Check oil level in trans as you know. The other issue as I just did a 42 Desoto Simplimatic that did the same thing- Always upshifted fine but under a hard full throttle acceleration always in low range it would kick out of 2nd high and go into "Scary" second low and feel like it was free wheeling as you said. Problem was a worn out free wheeling gear cam and rollers. Put all new countershaft free wheel cam/roller retainer and rollers in,no more trouble. In low range (High) all the power is transmitted through the 14 rollers and countershaft/cluster gear assembly ramped cam. If these rollers/cam/retainer are worn out they slip on the ramped cam causing loss of applied torque under heavy loads. Bob

I think maybe he needs an old R-1 OD or maybe an M-3or 4 trans. But wait-there is the old reliable 3 speed powershift tranny too. The Hy-Drive 2 nd gear close ratio 3 speed probably would be a bad one for his 230 with a mild cam-probably would twist the torque multiplier right out of the bell housing.Hmmm... lots of choices! As to the rear end-2 spider or 4 spider? Barrel case or open case. And on and on it goes with these old MoPars!!!

Here are some pic's of a early 42 trans I just rebuilt for a customer-should be like yours if it isn't a piston type shift. Bob

I'm on the west side of the BIG HILL! 60 miles to the top. A lot of camers/cops too- this side of that hill watching for big city slickers speedin in their high powered cars trying to get somewhere before anyone else. Spokane westward doesn't have that problem like we do. From Seattle to Ellensburg you have to be careful about the speed limit. Bob

Its all flat heading west to Vantage from Antique Auto Ranch. Heading east to Vantage from Puyallup you have the Cascade mountains to get up and over! Thats not fair! Bob

It's probably a 226 ci. The inboard bendix starter and bell housing it mates to, thats the 1st thing I noticed-typical on most all old fords-they always looked odd.

Looks like an old ford- 40's early 50's?

No one has mentioned a front end alignment after checking and replacing all worn front end parts. Rear axle needs to be checked that it is centered over the dowel pins too... Adding positive caster -top of king pin (slants to rear of the truck) will cause the truck not to wander as much as a straight up or leaning forward on a front I-beam axle. Steering gear must not worn out and properly adjusted at center. Drag links on these trucks are an issue also-kinda hard to find as is the steering gear box. Weak front leaf springs can let the front I-beam twist and change caster angle so much as to cause scary steering! Look for bad leaf springs. A good a really good alignment person who understands the old stuff-king pin inclination-checking I beam for being bent twisted ect. is a must. A alignment tech who will actually drive the truck with the customer and will see/feel the steering issues is absolutely necessary! These trucks will never drive like the current cars we drive today but they should be able to be driven without the "White Knuckles" ! Bob

More close up pictures to show you that the woven ground cable has eye connectors at both ends- NOT one end. One end bolts to the coil mounting bracket and the other end connects at the transmission relay mounting screw for complete grounding between the coil and the transmission relay. Your woven ground cable end eyelet is missing. It should not terminate with heat shrink 3/8" from the end of your primary wire- it must continue on to the next ground terninal. These better pictures are clear. Note also that these pictures are of a original transmission harniss. Your wire should be taped inside of the complete transmission harniss to look like stock. Bob

You were correct. This special wire assembly is taped into the Tip Toe wire harniss- both on 46-8 DeSoto and Chryslers. Your wire is not correct in the fact that the grounding braid has only one eyelet at one end.You need two eyelets-one to ground the coil bracket mount and the other to connect at the transmission relay mount screw on the fenderwell on the drivers side if thats where your relay is mounted. Through the center of this woven grond cable is the Black/W white tracer 16 ga. wire rthat connects at the coil+ stud and the other end goes to the trans relay "Pri." terminal. Here are some so so pictures of an old original transmission harniss assembly. Bob

You can find them on ebay all the time- 2 of them on ebay right now. Prices on them are starting to stall too! I've seen them sell for $500.00 or more! Way too much.

Here is a picture of a major adjustment with Ammco 1750 tool.

You might ask the machine shop about the main caps possibly being distorted when you were trying to tighten then down with .040" bearings installed. Possibly could be an issue. Crankshaft/rod bearing bore's are critical in that they need to be round to within a few ten thousanths. Bob

I also bought some of those 1948-53 JC Whitney truck floor mats back in the mid 80's when they had a close out on them-around $20.00 each as I recall. I have them in a couple of my trucks. I cut and installed 3/16" commercial roof torch down as a sound deadner 1st - this material is super tough too! Quiets the truck down and also helps keep the floor temp lower too. On top of the 3/16" layer I have my Old Stock JC Whitney mats on top of that. Bob

Usually they do come right off, but when one of them doesn't come off easily you need to use a puller. Caused by tight spline fit-sludge ect. In the 1946-52 Plymouth shop manual it shows miller tool C452 being called for to remove the rear yoke. I use a 10 ton PosiLok 2 jaw puller on the tough ones. Bob

Use a bigger puller! It will come off. Bob

Freeze the shaft and then install it. I did one last week in a 47 Chrysler.

How is the Die Cast -Potmetal chrome? 1951-2 MoCars had very poor quality Korean war chrome. The DeSoto grille would be huge$$$$$$$$$$ to replate. Really goodDeSoto grille teeth are worth a lot to the Hot Rodders! If perfect chrome you might want to insure them with Hagarty! Has the car got a clock and radio? How many miles on it? It's sounding like a pretty good car for a 51-2 DeSoto!

If it's got a perfect plastic steering wheel and a light up hood ornament buy it!

Just as in the design of a performance engine camshaft and valves- both the cam lobe ramp contour/speed of rise ect. and spring pressure are important design issues to prevent valve float-same theory with the 3 lobe distributor cam. I also have a "Spaulding Flamethrower" 4 lobe cam in my Chrysler Hemi engine. They -(Spaulding) touted the higher attainable RPM's with the 4 lobe cam design.Too much spring pressure can cause premature wear on contact point rubbing blocks and distributor cam lobes so they created back in the day this 1/2 cylinder lobe design as a new high performance marketing? -solution. Bob

Randy, I special ordered a new Mallory "Rev Pol" distributor-think that was the name of it for my 51 Plymouth in 1969. I wanted a optional 3 lobe cam for higher RPM-just what I needed or so I thought. I used to be able to get to 5000RPM in 1st gear=30 MPH. Anyway the 3 lobe cam gave smoother transition for points to open and close with out point bounce like what you mentioned. Distributor shaft speed is normal-1/2 speed of the crankshaft. This is a picture of it today still in the same car. Still works good, and I see that I need to clean it up a bit-little oily. Like me I don't rev it to 5000 RPM anymore either! Bob

You sure ask for a lot Reg!

It depends on what rear fenders you have on your Chrysler. There is a early and late. See this picture. Later cars required a different rear fender for 8:20 X15 bigger tires on the NewYorkers! Bob