Rusty O'Toole

How about Seigfried Marcus who built an experimental car in the 1870s.

That is what I said in the first place. If you read my original post I said a) they were available at one time but not anymore and it's not worth the bother of changing for all you would get out of it. There seems to be a consensus on these points. So I don't know what all the fuss is about.

OK you win. Column shifters are a rotten idea, especially for Hydrive equipped Plymouths. Nobody in the history of the world ever made a floor shift conversion and if they did, none of them fit a Plymouth. I'm dumb, You're smart, and I have no right to comment about anything without swearing to it under oath. And any suggestion must be backed up with a complete illustrated 200 page manual of how to do the job. Still waiting for your genius solution.

The gadget on the back window is indeed a defroster. They were common in Canada at one time but disappeared after about 1960 as heaters got better. They were made of a sheet of thin plastic or celluloid with foam rubber or felt around the edge. You just glued them to the window. A primitive form of double glazing but it prevented fog and frost from occurring on the area it covered. I suspect the portholes are an accessory, also the spotlight, mirrors, and driving lights. Evidently Mr. Hunter liked to see where he was going! The photo could be a self portrait taken with a camera on a tripod with a time switch.

You got the wrong guy. I'm trying to figure out how to hook a 4 speed to the stock column shift. As for installing something as bought with no modifications, where's the fun in that? The original question was where to buy a floor shift. I suggested it was a waste of time, but also gave 3 links for floor shifters at various prices.Where is your solution?

I don't recall anyone putting a floor shift in a Mopar flatty either. You know why? They were boring. But anything with a V8 sure got a floor shift. Don't know why anyone would bother to build one when you can buy one for $39.95 and up.

Maybe we should all shut the hell up and let you solve your own problems.

Ask a silly question, get a silly answer. How do I know if it works or not? Ha ha Just kidding. Now on to the serious part. The 1 wire alternator is a slightly different version of the one you have. The difference is, ah, it has one wire. They were invented for bulldozers and tractors. They feature a self exciting voltage regulator that does not need to be connected to the wiring harness. They only have 1 wire, a big one that goes to the battery. There are a couple of drawbacks. One is they are more expensive. Another is they don't start working till you rev your motor up. Not too bad, on the other hand all they are good for is to save you connecting 1 more wire so big deal. PS do not be tempted to connect the field wire of your alternator to the battery wire. This is a favorite hillbilly trick but it has a disadvantage. If you do this your battery will slowly run down because the field is always drawing power. Leave your car for a week or 2 and the battery will be dead. Just connect it to keyed power.

Don't know if it will work, it looks pretty scroungy. Try it and see. Also don't think it is a 1 wire, not with 3 wires out the back. The 2 small ones go to keyed power (red/black) and the idiot ligh (brown/white). The big wire goes to the battery.

Can you find an old time radio tech or hobbyist to have a look at it? The main trouble spots are the vibrator (already mentioned) and the capacitors. The old caps were made of wax paper and tin foil and had a life of roughly ten years. Although, some are still working at 60 or 70 years. Capacitors are now made of mylar and have a much longer life. The caps are available, they cost from 30 cents to a buck or 2 apiece and there are 10 or 20 of them in there. It is a fiddly job to replace them but not bad if you know how to solder and have a couple of evenings free. Tubes are still available brand new old stock. Prices are low, maybe $5 or $10 apiece. You will be impressed if you can get it working. Better tone and pulls in more stations than any AM radio of today. Of course what you get these days may not be worth listening to. But it is possible to wire the amp stage to take signals from your MP3 player. Or a hidden FM radio.

Should make no difference to the pump, as the pressure is the same on the inlet and outlet ( no pressure differential). If anything, the pressure would guarantee no cavitation and no steam pockets in the system. So the pump should work more efficiently especially under severe heat conditions. The only thing to be possibly concerned about would be extra pressure causing the water pump to leak. I don't think this is a concern though. They used pressure cooling systems on the flatheads in the late 50s, I expect all pumps today are rebuilt using seals that are suitable for pressurized systems. O ya if your heater core is iffy it could leak too.

Don how old are you? In the sixties and seventies every auto parts store sold floor shifters, along with long shackles small steering wheels and 5 slot wheels. I would think you would remember that. Jegs still sells them. http://www.jegs.com/i/Mr-Gasket/720/7667A/10002/-1?parentProductId=1406823 Auto Zone sells this one http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Spectre-3-speed-manual-street-floor-shifter?itemIdentifier=352794 And of course for real class, you have to spend the extra $$$$ bucks for a genuine Hurst shifter http://www.hurst-shifters.com/hurst-products/INDY-SHIFTERS/INDY-PICKUP-TRUCK-3-SPEED-SHIFTER

If you don't have the head off try prying the stuck valves down with a screwdriver. It should not take much force, the spring should do most of the work. Usually they let go with a snap as soon as you pry a little. If it is too hard to pry down it is really frozen and will probably have to be replaced. PS yes the valve guide is supposed to stick up into the port like that.

You don't have to change anything inside. When you take off the speedo cable there is a nylon gear that comes out. This is all you change. The factory makes a variety of gears for all occasions, the same trans might use a dozen different gears depending on the rear axle ratio and size of tires of the vehicle the trans goes in. The number of teeth is marked on them and they are even color coded. Go up the hiway and time your speed against the mile markers or use a GPS to calculate your speed. Compare this to your speedo speed. Calculate what % you are off. Now take out your speedo gear, see how many teeth it has, and calculate how many teeth it would need to have, to change your speedo the same %. This tells you what gear you need. A speedo shop may have it, or order one from the dealer, or from one of the old parts specialists.

With a 6 pound cap you can run a hotter thermostat, you can also add a coolant recovery container. By doing this you will improve cooling, reduce the chance of overheating, increase the life of your engine by eliminating moisture and gas in the oil, and get more power and better gas mileage. There are no downsides as long as your cooling system can stand the pressure.

3 speed floor shifters used to be a common accessory you could buy at any parts store. I guess now they are an antique. Why would you want to do this? The rationale used to be, for faster shifting but that would not apply to a Hydrive car. You would be better off with the column shift especially if you like to drive around cuddling your girl friend.

It is common for intake valves to freeze especially if someone left the air filter off. Dampness gets in and rusts whichever valves happen to be open. Usually if you oil the stems and tap them down they free up, if they are real bad you may have to replace valves and guides.

Old truck cabs are rather cramped. They carefully designed a seat to fit in, and leave as much leg room as possible but if you are tall it is still barely enough. Fitting any kind of non stock seat results in a loss of leg room. Here is what I did with an old truck. It happened to be a 59 Ford but the same principles apply to any truck. The seat was completely beat so I measured it, stripped it down to the steel frame, and went junk yard shopping. I looked at rear seats in various sedans. Rear seats get less wear than front seats and are easy to find in good condition. After measuring I settled on a 77 Ford LTD II sedan seat as being the closest match in size and color. It cost me $20. When I got home I cut off the hog rings and peeled the upholstery off the frame. Then fitted the foam and the covering to the old truck frame. It needed a little extra padding stuffed in the corners to get a good fit. But once I hog ringed the covering on, it looked like a brand new seat. It was also comfortable and lasted as long as I owned the truck which was several years. That is the cheap way out. If you are rolling in dough you can just have the seat reupholstered or buy an upholstery kit. I recommend having a local upholsterer do the job. The kits I have seen are made of cheap material and are hard to fit right. A local upholsterer can use better material. I recommend the vinyl used for boat seats and be sure they use nylon thread. Cotton thread will soon fail in a car or boat, it should only be used on house upholstery. A truck seat is dead easy to upholster and you will most likely get a better job and more durable material for around the same money. Incidentally if you want to go the junkyard shopping route there are a lot of luxury cars today with leather upholstery, And modern luxury cars are often small and narrow. I bet you could find some real gorgeous upholstery that would fit in your truck for a few $$$ bucks.

Bertie Wooster tells me a firkin of Duckham's from Gamage's will replenish your sump for a guinea, with enough over to top up for a fortnight. Old bean. I also have a full set of BSF and Whitworth spanners. But I don't have a King Dick. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Your local auto electric shop should have them or be able to get them.

Can't imagine why you would be interested. The chance of finding a US 217 or 230 engine is small since they were never used or sold in Canada. You would be much better off finding a Canadian long block 218,228, 236, 251 or 265.

You would have to move the front motor mount. Some frames are drilled for both motors.

Probably screwed in tight as the hubs of hell with litharge pipe dope on them. Could you leave them as they are and drill new holes in the firewall?

No I dropped a wire down the plug hole of a Triumph motorcycle doing the same trick. After I took the head off I made a special tool of brazing rod, bent into an L with the measurements marked in red paint. That one fell into the engine too. So I made one in a T shape too big to go down the hole. Triumph motorcycles have no timing mark as such, you time them with the piston 7/16" below top dead center. So you have to find TDC, mark your measuring stick, measure down 7/16, turn the engine 1 full turn then stop it at 7/16. Turning the engine by putting it in gear and turning the back wheel. So it is easy to drop something down the plug hole if you are not careful. You can't use a screwdriver because it hits the gas tank.

1941 Dodge is a 3 speed manual trans behind the fluid drive. It differs from a normal manual trans in having longer input shaft. I believe this trans will interchange with the semi auto model. Not sure what you mean by thrust bearing? If you mean throwout bearing it is easy to replace.