Mark D

Hi Tim - Here's an update. Drove the car for 35 miles yesterday, all backroads. Added about 10 table spoons of oil before I took her on the road. When I got back the sump dry as a bone. Before I left, I also installed an ever-dri wire & cap system that I got from Roberts motor parts. I checked the plugs and they all seem clean. Checked timing & dwell and all seemed well. Exhaust on cold start shows some black soot and condensation on the garage floor, but clears quickly. Thankfully never have had an issue with blue smoke, although the exhaust does smell much richer than your average modern car, but I chaulked this up to the the lack of smog equipment. There is no PCV system on the car as of yet, just the factory installed crankcase vent tube. Air cleaner assembly appears to be just as clean as the day I doused it with kerosene (steel wool interior appears bright and shiny). Air cleaner assembly seems to be in factory condition as well. I will get photographs and post shortly. Other than that I do get some smoke from the oil fill vent, but this seems to be normal from what I hear. thanks - Mark

Looking for referecnes so I can make contact with a good old fashioned transmission repair shop (preferrably in central Massachusetts) to talk about replacing the clutch in my '48. Driving around this weekend, the slipping (or at least what I think is slipping) seems to be more notceable when I accelerate in 2nd or 3rd gear. As I back off the gas peddle, it is less noticeable and seems to transmit more of the power to the wheels. While this is ultimately something I'd like to attempt, I just don't have the time (or garage/lift/equipment) at this point in life. While I'm at it, Ive also noticed that there seems to be a bit of side to side slop in the common linkage shared by the clutch & brake peddle. Does this require rebuild or is there some undercar tightening that can be done to eliminate or reduce this. I would say at most there is about an 1/8" of play in there. Hoping a little bit of wrenching now can eliminate a bigger issue down the road. thanks - Mark

Just checked it again and it's dry after only 65 miles of back road use. And yes I filled it to the "fill" marks inside the reservoir... There's no holes in the reservoir. Carb seems clean too. Underside of the filter looks clean as the day I washed it up with a combo of brake cleaner & kerosene... This is baffling me.

I cleaned and filled my oil bath filter three weeks ago with my oil change. New to this sort of thing as I've onlyhad the car for a few months, so I pulled the filter cap off a day ago to check the oil. What I found was a nearly half empty reseroir... Where'd it all go? I topped it off again and added a little STP oil treatment this time as it's quite abit thinker than the oil in hopes that it will keep it from being aspirated into the car. (not sure thats such a bad thing). by the way I checd to make sure the bath is seated well on the card and that the cork gasket was in place. I'll monitor it more often in hopes of determining whats going on. Mark

Drove Ruby to work today. Can't get any work done cause people keep stopping by my office to ask questions. Last time I looked out the window there was at least 6 people standing around gawking at her. Maybe this wasn't a great idea, I can't concentrate on getting any work done!

If my '48 wasn't one too many already I'd go grab that! So clos to home too.

The center mounted stop light on my p15 works great, but I too worry about the dual filament bulbs not being bright enough. More recently I've been driving about and find that people are so interested to see the car that they tail gate within feet of the bumper. I'm actually considering a scrolling sign in my rear view window asking people back off for safety sake. I've also bought a couple of small bullet style single lamp LED's from Ebay last week. Going to rig them up so they flash with the signal lights, but they'll be mounted in the top open holes on the license plate.

John, You'll have to bring the car up next fall and take home a few bushels. The towns only four miles square, we're not too far from any of the orchards.

Sitting here contemplating my first ever carb rebuild. Anything in particular I need to keep in mind? Anyone got a source for a rebuild kit? Would I be better off finding a shop to do it, or sourcing a second carb as a spare and learning on that one? Here's a few photos taken today of what I'm dealing with. Any insights happily accepted. Mark

Gents - I'm planning on it. John, Im not a member either. by the way where do you live in Mass? I'm in central Mass (Bolton). I think that the Hemmings show is going on up there about the same time.

Found it! But the switch tested fine and wasn't the problem after all. As usual it was a bad ground. Ran a separate ground to the trunk lid and everything works fine now. And the bonus is that the lights are much brighter too! Thanks all.

Thanks Gents - Will jump it out and report back later. - Mark

Thanks Gents - Will jump it out and report back later. - Mark

My parts book still hasn't arrived or i'd be looking this up myself. Can someone tell me where the brake light switch is located? Lost my brake lights last weekend and I want to start troubleshooting at the switch. All bulbs and grounds seem to be in order at the trunk, so I figured it was the next logical location to look for trouble. Second question, are the front blinkers supposed to act as parking lights as well? First detent on the light switch doesn't seem to turn them on. thanks - mark

Appreciate the offer Moose, sure would be cool to see your new toy. I'd love to have you scope the distributor. Wondering if it has anything to do with the dead spot in my gas peddle? It appears that the weather is not going to cooperate this weekend. But if it clears up on Saturday afternoon I will give you a shout. Wife and I have plans to head to Maine on Sunday to check how our camp made it through the winter months. Wish I could say I was driving Ruby up there, but Sugarloaf Mountain is too far a voyage still. Mark

Your hired!

Uncanny how timely some of these questions can be. I also noticed the cowl vent tube on my car was brittle and in need of replacement. Now i have the answer to carry to the local napa store!

Excellent picture, and as I suspected, it's just too flimsy to not have something there to stiffen the hood. Appreciate the part # and the other info as well. Now, I wonder if one of the south western junk yards might have one of those? Time to do some searching...

I've had my P15 for about two months now, driving it almost every weekend and having a great time with it. Even the wife likes going for rides! This weekend I spent quite a bit of time under the hood tinkering with things that need attention. What I've noticed is that the hood seems very flexible where it meets the cowl and thought it strange. So I was looking in the service book for images of that area (not many)... I think I might be missing a rib at the back of the hood underside that would act as a stiffener. I don't have the parts manual yet with the exploded diagrams, and was hoping that one of you gents that has one can tell me if I am missing a part of my hood... Thanks! PS, weather and cruising this weekend in central Mass was great!

Fantastic cars, love to see the 38 as well.

Thanks for the pictures Tom. This looks fairly easy to do.

Just got a quote from Pete at www.dodgecitytruckparts.com to supply a NOS lined brake/band. He quoted me $115.89+tx. Seems reasonable if you're looking for a full replacement and want to tackle it that way. Now that I see the info in this thread, I think I'll pull mine and have it re-lined. Question for Ed about tackling it yourself. Did you get new rivets with the replacement lining? How did you know how deep to make the countersinks in the lining? Pardon the questions, but this may be something I'd be willing to give a try myself. -mark

Tim, It shows how the world has converted to "just in time" and no one keeps anything in stock anymore. H owever I was at an Autozone yesterday in Framingham, MA and they had a pretty good selection of 00 cables hanging in blister packs. Prices where pretty reasonable too. They where pricing out at about a buck/inch. Guess I should go grab 'em while they still got 'em. I checked ebay last night and there was a complete set of 1/0's on there for $128! Granted they are cloth jackets and all, but I can't see spending that type of money for car that will never be a trailer queen and will likely onlu ever be competing with my 2010 silverado LTZ for best in show.

After reading many threads about battery cable sizes I decided to do some investigation last night on Ruby. I replaced the battery a couple weeks ago and noticed some craking on the cable insulation and this added to my inspiration. So I pulled the battery and wrenched off the nut that holds the lug under the generator. Other than an awkward reach, it was an easy exercize. Once in my hands I instinctively tried to straighten the cable in preparation for measurement. As soon as I tried, the insulation cracked open proving to me that this was likely an original cable. I then grabbed a pair of side cutters to do some further investigation and cut off the terminal head just to see the conductors and to see how good the bond was in the lead. At least 30% of the conductors where loose. Headed down to the big apple for business tonight, but as soon as I get back to Mass tomorrow, first stop is NAPA for a new 24" cable. Can anyone confirm the OEM size is 1/0, or should I go for the 2/0? By the way ground cable to the starter solinoid looks recent as does the lead to the starter itself. Both of these cables appear to be 1/0 if I where to make a guess from appearance. Should I upgrade those as well? I also noticed that the OEM battery hold down frame (rectangular in shape) was intermittantly touching the terminals and had evidence of recent shorting. It is coming off the car and will be blasted and dipped in a rubberized coating to prevent this from happening again. In the interim I picked up a cheap $4- "I" shape universal to keep everything in place for the weekends cruising. - mark

Same thing happened to me when I bought my car. Only got 4 hours of garage time before I had to hop a coast to coast flight and hang in Los Angeles for 12 days. But it made the return all that much more pleasant. Happy motoring!