martybose

Vintage Powerwagons has the kit. Marty

I checked the one I have. Centrifugal advance started at 1300 RPM and added 13 degrees by 2800 RPM. I've got mine running with the weights tiewrapped so they can't move, and 5 degrees initial, with the vaccuum advance (19 degrees) operational. YMMV. Marty

Interesting; I just got a reply from Neil Riddle. He stated that the shaft lengths for the 6V and 12V solenoids are identical, but that there is no need to change a Plymouth 6V solenoid to 12V anyway. He states that they are wired heavy enough to work okay with 12V, and that he has several customers who have been running 6V solenoids on 12V cars for years with no problems. He said that if I really wanted a 12V solenoid I could probably find them at a swap meet for a Chevy or Ford application, as they are fairly plentiful for them. I'm confused; I thought that using a 6V solenoid was pretty much guaranteed to fry it. So is anyone here running a 6V solenoid on 12V? Marty

Thanks for the tip, Pete; I just sent Neil an email. I had previously bought an OD control cable and the OD pamphlet set from him, but hadn't considered him as a source for the solenoid. Marty

I can't tell what engine is in it from the photo, but if the size of the rear tires is any indiction, he probably put the roll bar and rear braces in to keep the frame from winding up under power! Marty

When I put the new tires on my wheels for my 47, I found a tire dealer that has one of the newest balancing machines that in addition to balancing actually measures the concentricity of the mounted tire. On one of mine they rotated the tire about 90 degrees on the rim to get rid of a high spot that they said might have been noticable at highway speeds. Marty

Yep; the right angle drive I have is a 0.5 to 1 ratio for that very reason. Stewart Warner used to make a kit for mounting this adapter to the crankshaft of flathead Ford V-8's; the few times I've seen them for sale they have gone for a fortune! Mine will be something a lot simpler, methinks. Marty

Technostalgia has also started accepting orders for the center taillights for P15's, available in both coupe and sedan versions. Should be shipping them by May at the latest. Marty

Since it is now April, I decided that today was the day to start on my winter project for my 47. Up until now, every time I went into my garage to work on the car, I wound up going for a ride instead. What can I say, I like taking it for a drive! But today I drained the radiator and the block, removed the distributor, the alternator, the water pump, the intake manifold, all of the head studs, and finally the head. Tomorrow I'll clean everything up, remove all of the remains of gaskets, and start getting ready to send the head to my machinist. He's going to convert my Edmunds head from 1/2" reach plugs to 3/4" reach plugs using timeserts and spacers. This should make it easier to find a plug that is designed for the large gaps the HEI wants. While he's doing that, I'm going to try to seal up all of the various bolts and studs that have been leaking (due to my use of Evans NPG coolant, which works well but will find places to leak from like you wouldn't believe), and I'm going to polish the alternator and the intake manifold (also an Edmunds). I'm going to replace most of the standard slip-on heater hose connections with AN fittings and hoses for leak resistance. I'm also going to pull my OD solenoid and have it rewound for 12V. I've got all of the rest of the parts/relays/push buttons for a 12V OD installation, but needed a 12V solenoid to complete it. One less excuse for not getting it done. I mean, I've only been driving it with the OD installed but not functional for almost 5 years now, so what's the rush? I'm also going to try to figure out the best way to mount and connect a right angle tach drive to my front damper, so that I can install the vintage Stewart Warner mechanical 5K tach that I have. When I get my head back from my machinist I'll polish it too, then finish cleaning up the engine compartment and put it back together. Given my goals and my slow start, I figure with luck I'll get it back together just in time to put it away for next winter, so I guess it's really my 2007/2008/2009 project! Marty PS IF this takes along as it is likely too, I'll probably try to squeeze in some front disk brakes and a dual master cylinder into the program as well.

If you go on the McMaster-Carr website and search for "tappet wrench" you'll find the right tool for the job. Tappet wrenches are longer for more leverage and have thicker wrench heads for better bite. www.mcmaster.com Marty

I certainly could be wrong, but I didn't think the Runtz units were meant to be used with motors, just lights and instruments. They might not be able to support the initial amperage draw to get the motor started. Marty

The head and manifolds have to be off so that you can get a valvespring compressor on them. You don't have to completely remove the valves, but once the keepers are removed you will have to lift the valves up enough to get the springs off and back on. I replaced all of mine in the car after removing the manifolds and head. Marty

You might be okay; my mechanic thought that my problem might have been that my original springs had been plated; my new ones aren't. Marty

I've got both, and then some. I used the mildest cam he had, and his lifters, and his headers, and his side covers too! I especially like the headers, which I ultimately had ceramic coated. Barry was out of sight for a long time, with an "under construction" website; is he back in operation again? Marty

I hate to ask this, but did you take a close look at the valve springs when you readjusted the valves? The ticking noise that I had several years ago turned out to be a broken valve spring! It happened twice; after the second one I replaced the entire set of springs, no problems since then. Marty

Boy, I'll say it's cheap! When I did the 6.5" x 16" wheels on my RV it cost me $60 per wheel, and I delivered them and picked them up! Marty

It's the centrifugal advance curve that I want to change, not the vaccuum. So far all of the centrifugal advance kits I've found are for speeding up the rate of advance, hardly what I need! I probably will figure out a way to space the counterweights farther out with the stock springs, which would both delay the start of the advance and limit the total amount achieved. But to answer the question, there are aftermarket vaccuum cans for these distributors that can be adjusted with an allen wrench on a screw inside the vaccum hose connection. Marty

My 230 is bored out, has about 9 to 1 compression, has a mild cam, an Edmunds head and dual carb manifold, cast iron headers, a 60 amp 12V alternator, a pair of Langdon's Carter-Weber carbs and full flow oil filtration. My Langdon HEI currently is set up with 5 degrees initial timing, the centrifugal advance is locked by a tiewrap around the weights, and I have the vaccuum advance connected to straight manifold vaccuum. The plugs are Autolite platinums opened up to 0.060" gap. It starts easily, and drives nicely. Some day I may go back and experiment with the centrifugal advance, but I believe that the Cheeby advance curve is too fast, at least for my flathead. Marty

just a sidenote: In addition to selling a multitude of different seatbelts, Julianos has a special floor nut for seatbelts that is definitely superior to just using flatwashers against the bottom of the floor. Highly recommended. Marty

ECI makes a setup for our Mopars in 2 versions; one with the clutch pedal, and another without for those converting to automatics. http://ecihotrodbrakes.com/index.html Marty

When I was checking the centrifugal advance on my HEI, the very first time it moved it did retard just a little, then continued back into advance. On mine nothing happened until 1300 engine RPM, then it retarded a couple of degrees, then started advancing. I picked up a total of 13 degrees by 2800 RPM. When I looked at the mechanics of the centrifugal advance, it is designed to retard when it starts moving, probably to keep from jerking the car when it started advancing. What I eventually found was that at high RPM (like highway speed without an overdrive) I had 5 degrees initial, plus 13 degrees centrifugal, plus 19 degrees vaccuum, for a total of 37 degrees at cruise, which is a lot for these old girls! If I stood on it at that speed, I would lose the vaccuum advance but still have 18 degrees advance, which my mechanic said was too much for a built flathead under full power. His comments made sense to me, because the car was pinging badly on my favorite test hill and the water temp went up a lot, even though I am running 91 octane gas. So I tiewrapped the counterweights to disable the centrifugal advance and left everything else as is, so I now have 24 degrees at cruising and 5 degrees under power, and seems to run fine. There is absolutely no pinging on my test hill anymore, and the water temp only goes up maybe 5 degrees after a couple of minutes of hard running (it's a long hill!). Don't give up yet! Marty

I know mine wouldn't sell for $20K, but over the years I've sure spent that much. If I was going agreed value, I would probably put $20K, so that if it was destroyed the insurance would pay for building its replacement. Who knows what Edmunds manifolds and heads would cost by then! Marty

OEM Mopar alternators are notorious for not putting out much amperage at idle; it is typical to have a slight discharge if the lights are on. Marty

I actually wound up leaving the vaccuum advance alone but putting a tiewrap around the centrifugal advance weight to immobilize them. So I'm now running 5 degrees initial with no centrifugal advance and full vaccuum advance. Marty

I had the same issue, and did just what Greg suggested. I actually did it twice because I guessed wrong on how much initial advance I needed. I also had a problem with the junk clamp that Langdon included, so I wound up making my own out of some tubing with a setscrew that had the adjustment section from a stock distributor pinned to it. Much better! Marty