martybose

When I ran a telco central office, my plant pulled over 1500 amps of 48V DC power, and the busses were solid copper bar stock. Marty

I had a little history that made me think that a failure was coming. The OD worked flawlessly literally for years, until one day it engaged and immediately started whining. I knew that this was a warning of seriously low oil and an impending failure, so I stopped immediately, locked the OD out and drove home. Checked the oil level in both the tranny and the OD, and they were both low. Drained them both completely, then refilled with new Napa GL-1. Checked the level several times until it didn't move, then closed everything up. The OD seemed to work okay, but had a new vibration when engaged that I suspected was the first sign of some damage. It worked that way for a while, until the day that it engaged and promptly tried to throw me through the windshield while grunching loudly. Once again, stopped immediately, locked out the OD and drove home. Left it sitting until Idrove it 30 miles to Stockton to get it repaired. Marty

Actually it was good news, because he said that all of the parts I need are common with most of the R10's out there, but I would have been totally screwed if I had damaged the output shaft, which is unique to Mopar's, and he hasn't seen any in years! He commented that he could sell a lot of R10's if he could find some of those shafts. Marty

Well, the verdict is in. I ran the OD out of oil and burned it up. I will be getting a new ring gear, a new sun gear, and new needle bearings. Cost TBD so far, but certainly over $1k. I asked if there had been a gasket inbetween the OD and the tranny housing, and they said there wasn't, and there should have been one. The funny thing is that that OD has been in the car for literally years, and never had a problem, but for some reason it must have started leaking maybe a year and a half ago, and I didn't catch it. Damn. They should have it back together by the middle of next week. Marty

Well, my car goes into the shop in Stockton to fix the OD on Monday; we'll see how long and how much! Marty

+1. I've had a pair of them from Stovebolt on my engine for some time now. I actually read up on Weber jetting, bought a bunch of different types of jets and air bleeds, and eventually went back to what they came with. The only hassle is setting up the linkage, since they open in the opposite direction. Marty

You can get some extra torque by milling the head; you just need to make sure that you don't mill it so much that the valves hit the head. Measure very carefully, and remember the head gasket thickness! Marty

I don't think the cost will be low at all, but we'll see. The steering box came out fantastic; the only issue is that they filled it with grease, which I will try to remove and refill with oil. Marty

Well, I called up A&A Standard Transmission in Stockton. CA, and they said that they can fix it. I just have to wait until one of their racks frees up; they're occupied by a 37 and 42 Ford right now! Fingers crossed! Marty

Many thanks for the referrals. I'm going to try calling the Stockton shop, they're only about 30 miles from me. Marty

GL-1 is definitely the right oil for the R-10's; it is still available from Napa Auto Parts .... Marty

Max is probably about 8 to 1. Mine started out a 9 to 1, and gets real grumpy if I don't feed it 91 octane. Marty

My 47 has been out of commission for quite a while, because I removed the steering box and sent it out to be rebuilt. I got the steering box back and reinstalled it, but got busy with other things in my life and hadn't taken it out for a while. So I fired it up late last week, and it wasn't running smoothly. So I decided to see if going for a drive would clean things up a bit. Drove it a few miles, and it cleared up nicely, then decided to put it in overdrive and let it run for a while. As soon as it went into overdrive it sounded like I threw a handful of bolts into the transmission, and it was bucking badly. Stopped the car, locked out the OD and drove home. I'm pretty sure that I just destroyed the R10 planetary and sun gear setup. Ten years ago I had a second OD gearbox, but sold it; now wish I'd kept it. Not sure what I'm going to do, as I don't think it is likely that I can find the parts to have the tranny rebuilt. It's been a bad year or so for my car. First the car bounces wrong on the nasty road into my ranch and flattens the bottom of the oil pan; haven't done anything about that yet. Then the steering box wears out to the point that I don't feel comfortable driving it across the narrow bridges around here; that I fixed. Now the OD gets destroyed. It's almost like the car is trying to tell me something. I'm not sure what I am going to do. Marty

I was a little surprised when I opened up the fill plug to check the oil, because it appeared to be filled with a whitish clear grease. My mechanic had commented that when he rebuilt his 57 Chevy steering box he refilled it with Torco assembly lube, and it made an amazing difference. I was going to try it too, but didn't see any way to get the grease out with disassembling the box, which I was not going to do. Marty

Well I finally got the steering box back in the car. Actually the steering box was easy, but I had to get some help to get the suspension lower A-arm bolted back up to the crossmember. Took it out for a short drive yesterday, and there is absolutely no dead spot in the steering at all. As soon as the steering wheel moves, the car moves. It hasn't felt that good for the last 15 years! Marty

I've never seen a Weber carb with an adjustable main jet; They usually have a number of fixed jets controling varying aspects of the fuel mixture. I actually bought a bunch of different types of jets/air bleeds for my Carter-Webers, and eventually gave up and went back to what they came with. Marty

Sorry, didn't remember that you had an OD in a fast 2nd transmission. Maybe if you really want to go after it you should make a standard ratio transmission for the OD, which would give you less drop going into 2nd gear, then a nice drop into 2nd over followed by 3rd straight ........ I find that 2nd over is a great gear for getting onto the freeway, then I just shift into 3rd over and cruise. Marty

Robin, Sounds like you should put in an Overdrive in your car, not because of the RPM reduction in high gear, but because 2nd over is a nice split between 2nd direct and 3rd direct........ Marty

You will also need a 230 flywheel to get everything in the right place. Marty

I just got mine back from Midwest Remanufacturing. From what they told me they replaced everything but the casting. It cost me just under $500 with the freight both ways. The freight's rather high due to the non-removable steering shaft. Marty

I've got the full ECI front brake and mastercylinder conversion package on my 47, and found them much superior to the stock brakes. That said, there are a number of us who have felt that the ECI mastercylinder package could have been done better, and have modified them. There are several threads detailing this, including one where Don and I documented modifications. Marty

The bulb should be isolated from the base, so the screw should not be the cause. The likely explanation is that one of the wires that is normally grounded by one of the switches has had the insulation crack and is grounding against the body someplace. You might try wiggling the loose wires at the switch end and see if you can get the light to flicker, otherwise you may just have to use the old wire to pull in a new ground wire. Marty

Even if the pinion yoke was a direct interchange you couldn't use a modern driveshaft. Modern transmissions use a slip joint at the back of the transmission to allow for shaft length changes as the suspension moves with a fixed length driveshaft. Our cars use a fixed location at the transmission, so the adjustable length provisions have to be in the driveshaft itself. In the 50's Chrysler made a retrofit kit that fit a modern U-joint setup to our cars, and I lucked out and found one. It uses bolt-on adapters at both the transmission and rearend, modern-style U-joints, and a sliding spline section in the driveshaft. Other people have said that you can make up new ones for $300-$400; I can't confirm that. Marty

+1. With that much of a gap between the fan and the radiator, the fan is probably just moving air around in the engine compartment instead of pulling it through the radiator. You need a fan shroud badly. Marty

Sounds like we are in almost the same situation! I'm 68, driving my 2002 M Coupe (Z3M) while my 47 is sitting on jackstands waiting for the steering box to come back from being rebuilt! I've occasionally thought about trying to sell it, but don't think I would find anyone who would appreciate what I have done to it, so I soldier on. Marty