oldodge41

My '41 Dodge was pretty bad. Dad and I wanted it anyways. We were told we were nuts, and we probably were but it was what we could afford. We too did all our own work.It is the worst one I have done but my dad and my brother did a '65 Mustang that was worse. Where we found it After we cleaned and disassembled for a couple weeks. As it is today. My brother just called me to tell me he bought another basket case Dodge Demon, so here we go again. Probably tow it home next weekend. Edit to fix picture.

Very nice. Looks great against the white stuff.

I swapped the rear axle on my '41 Dodge with one from a Ford Explorer. Same concept as what you are looking to do. I did it myself and learned as I went. I first removed the old rear. I then welded the spring perches in the proper position on the new rear, I used the same pinion angle of 3 degrees up that the old rear had (there is tons of reading about pinion angle available on the net). The new rear has larger axle tubes than the old one so I was going to modify the shock mount/u-bolt plates to accept the larger u-bolts but found that the shocks were going to interfere with the larger axle tubes so I fabbed up complete new shock mount/u-bolt plates that moved my shocks ahead a little to clear the axle tubes. This allowed me to get the rear hung under the car. I reused the brake lines from the old rear on the new rear by buying adapters to mate them to the new wheel cylinders. The brake hose and splitter bolted right on the new rear like they were made for it. The next issue was the drive shaft. My old rear was set up with ball and trunnion u-joints and the new one had a flange type mount for the drive shaft. The new rears pinion sits off center by a couple inches and the axle centerline to pinion flange is shorter than the old one. I would have liked to have a new drive shaft made using cross style u-joints but the finances didn't allow that. Instead I made an adapter that bolts to the old driveshaft and also bolts to the new pinion flange with the length I needed to mate them up. At this point the car is back on the road and working great with one exception. The speedometer is way off due to the change from a 4.10 ratio to a 3.27 ratio. Not sure what I am going to do about that yet because I don't think the correct speedometer gear is available for the original three speed to correct the error. I am using my original 16" wheels. I have purchased some wheel spacers to retain the original track width but have not installed them yet. This could also be accomplished with deeper offset wheels and may be in the future but for now it will be originals with spacers. Here is the new rear partially installed. Hope that gives you an idea what is involved.

Those men look ready to "spring" into action.

16 of 19 on the second set.

Welcome, the more 41's the better.

Very nice!

My '41 with the flathead does seek and maintain a level just as Greg described. On my '69 Dart with a slant six the level would never stabilize. For all the years I have owned it, and before according to the receipts from the previous owner, it would go most of a summer spitting out a little every time I parked until it would start heating up from lack of coolant. I put an overflow tank on it and expected it to keep spitting out until it would overflow the tank but it didn't. After a full summer of cruising the radiator never spit out more than the tank could handle and I never needed to add coolant. I used one I bought from ebay like this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-X-17-STAINLESS-SS-RADIATOR-OVERFLOW-TANK-6324-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4cf32a27c8QQitemZ330497140680QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories Easy to find a place for it to mount and could be painted if you don't want the bright finish. My .02...... Tim

15/17 Tim

Got my speedi-sleeve and rubber seal installed. Works good. I ran it in the garage for half an hour or so with no leakage. Still need to put half the grille back in and put the hood back on.

It may work twice as good on six volts since the current would be doubled. Now if you double no benefit you still have no benefit so the efficiency remains the same. It must be universal!

I have seen one also. Can't remember where but the wood made an impression.

Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for. I appreciate the effort.........Tim

That is a beautiful car, diesel or not.

Thanks Shel, no hurry at all, too darn cold for me too. 19 degrees with a couple inches of snow here today...........Tim

I need some info on 46 - 48 Dodge car rear wheel cylinders. If anyone has one laying around I would appreciate it if you could get a couple measurements for me. I would like to know the center to center measurement of the mounting bolt holes and the diameter of the raised portion that protrudes through the backing plate. Thanks...........Tim

Thanks for posting that. God bless America!

Happy Birthday! good story too.

That looks great!

shel_bizzy_48: Thanks for sharing your cross reference info. Folks like you who share this info freely are what makes this board great........Tim

Nice job. Well worth the effort.

They make a nice pair!

Looks good. I like it.

Happy New Year!

I am running an eight volt battery with the six volt regulator tweaked to charge the 8 volt system.