Merle Coggins

That's cool, guys. I was just down that way recently. I was in Monroe last week, doing some work with Green County Hwy Dept., at their shop. And Yesterday I had to make a run down to Argyle to visit a customer. That event in Blue Mounds sounds interesting. I'd probably thinking about making the drive down there with my truck, but it's looking like I'll be teaching motorcycle school that weekend down in Waukesha.

Nice solid looking truck. Getting it running, be sure the brakes are good, and drive the crap out of it. (Maybe with newer tires) What part of 'Sconsin are you in? I'm in the Appleton/Fox Valley area. There's a few other Pilot-House truck guys around here too. And I know there are several others scattered around the state. The rolling hills in the background look like you're over on the western side.

My condolences regarding your loss. But it's good to see you got Tank up and running around again. Nice looking DeSoto too.

I'm not sure how the fuel gauges worked in '36, but if they are similar to the later ones there is a constant pull electro-magnet that pulls the needle to "E" and another electro-magnet that connects to the sender. This creates a variable magnet to pull the needle to "F". The fuel sensor has lower resistance at full and higher resistance at empty. Lower resistance causes the magnet to be stronger to pull towards the "F" mark. If the sensor wire is shorted out that equals Zero resistance and will peg the gauge to "F". However, I've also seen cases where the gauge housing wasn't properly grounding to the dash and this caused the constant pull magnet to be dead so there was no pull towards "E". This would also peg the gauge to "F" even though the sensor circuit was good.

Just like it shows. BAT is the power input (Battery) which likely comes from your Ammeter IGN is the wire going to your ignition coil ACC is Accessory power, for radio, wipers, heater fan, etc. ST, in the center, is Start. This would go to the starter relay, if your car is key start. If you have a start button you would ignore this one.

Did you remember to turn the key on? Sounds like a dumb questions but it’s probably happened to many of us at one time or another. (I know I’ve done it) Or maybe your ignition switch failed and isn’t getting power to the coil?

I would never do that... ? (I was in a private lot)

I thought I heard that the EAA Air Venture event was off this year too. I’m about 15 miles north of there. I got my WPC news today and they have announced the WPC meet has been canceled this year too.

I've never seen one of those with a decal. Very cool.

I have the Rusty Hope kit on my 3/4 ton truck too, and I'm still using the stock master cylinder. I'm very pleased with the brake performance.

Brookfield is about a 1 - 3/4 hour drive for me. Or a little over 2 hours if I stay off the Interstate. The closest entrance Into Canada would probably be at Sault Ste. Marie, MI. That’s closer to 6 hours away. Canada covers a lot of area. What part of Canada? Maybe some of our northern friends would be interested.

I was hoping I could make a run down to Brookfield with my truck that Saturday to check out the cars, and maybe meet a few people. I’ll just have to wait another year now... like pretty much every other event that I was planning for this year.

When a manual specifies to re-torque head bolts after getting the engine up to operating temperature I always torque them hot. Everything is warm and expanded, so this is the time to re-torque to get everything tight again.

Ford trucks with the 6.9 or 7.3 diesels, from the ‘80’s and ‘90’s had belt driven vacuum pumps for operating the heater controls. I wonder if one could be adapted to assist the wipers. I also have the electric wiper option in my truck and have no issues. I would highly recommend it if you can find one one.

Transmissions won’t always shift between gears easily when there is no shaft rotation. Since you already have it installed, have a helper (Dad) rotate the tail shaft while you manipulate the shift levers to see if you can select all gear ranges. Ideally this would be done by rotating the input shaft and watch the tail shaft speed change to variety the gear changes.

Oh yeah... that's right. Thanks. I was close... it starts with a "W". ?

Wasn't the Grumpy Old Men movies based in Winona?

I don't have any recommendations for aftermarket seats, or seats out of other vehicles, but I will say that after I had my seat done by a local upholstery guy, and added some good foam into it, I've put a few 6-8 hour travel days in that seat without any comfort issues.

A mirror with an offset stud like that would certainly make my passenger side mirror more usable. It's why I continue to run the larger rectangular mirrors. They're not "correct", but at lease I can see something.

Paul, Either you need to invest in a better set of drill bits, or learn how to sharpen drill bits. If the drill bit won’t cut it’s either dull or the steel you are drilling is harder than the bit.

Many years ago I sold a 3 speed column shift trans to a guy that was hoping to convert it floor shift with a top cover from a floor shift trans. As I recall it wouldn’t work for him for some reason. Something about the shift forks being slightly different. But that was a long time ago and I never got a full follow up from him. I’ll be interested to here how it works out for you. Merle

Well... I didn’t actually work on my truck yesterday, All I got done, truck related, was to hang my new Battery Tender so it didn’t have to sit on the fender. I realized my old battery maintainer/charger (Schumacher brand) wasn’t keeping the battery charged up when I tried to start it up a couple weeks ago. So I got a new Battery Tender brand (I’ve always had good luck with them) and needed to get it mounted so I could monitor the indicator lights, and be able to plug it into the truck without an extension cord. It was good filler work while I was smoking some short ribs on my smoker.

A couple of real shade tree shady mechanics there.

So, apparently this is another case of a re-branded Plymouth for the export market? Like the D25's (a.k.a re-branded P15's)

I don't know many mechanics that are only a few years old. ?