TodFitch

If it fails on the road with a 6v+ ground electronic ignition you can have the car towed to the destination as the parts will have to be shipped to you from the manufacturer. So you get to ride in the cab of the tow truck and enjoy the rest of your trip with someone else driving. But if you have the old points and condenser system you are obliged to buy new parts at any decent nearby auto supply, fix it by the side of the road and then continue driving to your destination. That is just such a hassle. Kidding aside, I find that points based ignition systems are cheap, reliable, easy to diagnose problems when they happen and easy to fix. What's not to like about that? Just checked with NAPA online and for my ZIP code here's the complete list for my car: Rotor: $19.60 Points: $16.00 Condenser: $12.00 Cap: $13.60 So worst comes to worst, you are out a bit over $60 and half a day. At least half a day is all it take for my "local better auto supply" to get all those parts into the store. And the most failure prone part, the points, are small enough that if you feel insecure you can carry and extra set or two so no need to even go to a store. I can get a spare original distributor for about $50. Cleaned up and rebuilt we're talking about $110 with new rotor, cap, etc. So I can have a complete spare distributor for about the cost of a Pertronix unit. But in all the years I've driven points and condensor ignition based cars I've never had a failure on the road. They generally degrade slowly as the points wear and you can schedule things to do you tune up/repairs in the comfort of your own garage or driveway before they become an issue on the road.

And, as a point of trivia, for the first year this basic engine was used in Plymouth cars that stud was actually a tube with a small check ball. The assembly works as a manifold drain so if you flood the engine when trying to start it the gas has someplace to go. Check valve ball assembly was to keep you from having a large manifold vacuum leak when the engine was running. It was the first year for a down draft carburetor and they worried about that as the older updraft carburetors simply drained out the air intake if you flooded them. Didn't take long for them to decide that they did not need a drain there with a automatic check valve that might fail and they replaced it with a stud. I haven't looked at a later intake manifold stripped down and up close, so I don't know if the stud hole goes through into the intake passages like they do on the '33 Plymouth or not.

Sender is just a variable resistor hooked onto a float arm and doesn't care what the voltage is. As you think, it is the dash gauge that might need a voltage dropping circuit.

Maybe for some eastern states it was that low. But by 1941 there were plenty of states with posted limits of 60 MPH. During WW2 a 35 MPH national speed limit was enforced to conserve tires and fuel but that went away when the war ended. If your P15 era car can't cruise at 60 MPH in stock configuration then something is wrong with it. Trucks were geared for slower speed running, so there could well be an issue running them that fast in stock configuration, but not for cars.

Here's my first Mopar

Went through a series of relay type cutouts in the late '70s where the points would weld themselves shut and I'd have to pop the cover and pull them apart nearly every time I stopped the engine. Got tired of that really fast and simple gutted a cutout case and soldered in the biggest power diode I could find at the local electronics store. Haven't had a problem with it since and its been over 30 years.

I'm running an electronic voltage regulator, solid state diode in the generator cutout, quartz-halogen headlight bulbs and seat belts. None of those are on the list.

Listed as a national event with the entry form in the national magazine. Hey, Sedona is only about 230 miles from Tucson via the freeway (about the distance between DC and NYC).

It is a POC event. Don't know if they've changed the rules but for the equivalent ones that were held in Oregon and California you had to be a POC member. Correction: On the last California meet there was, if I recall correctly, a region sponsored simultaneous event for non-POC members and modified cars. So I guess the Grand Canyon Region could be doing something like that but I don't see any mention of it on their web site. Entering Palmdale from the west via Elizabeth Lake Road, exiting to the east via Palmdale Blvd/Pearblossom Highway (Hwy 138). Not sure at this time if we'll spend the first night in Lebec (top of the Grapevine), in Palmdale or in Hesperia/Victorville. Depends on who is traveling the same way and what they want to do, especially if they want to do sight seeing on day 3 on the way into Tucson.

Can't say. Its the first time that region has put on this type of show. Distances are pretty big and I haven't any idea how many people are in driving or trailering distance.

Don, what job haven't you held? Seems like you've be a "jack of all trades"... Typical color film fades and the colors don't all fade at the same rate so you get color shifting too. There are, or at least were, some archival types of color processing. If I recall correctly, Cibacrhome is/was supposed to be much better than others. Nowadays with digital images the issue is that you won't be able to read the magnetic tape floppy disks hard sectored disks mass media. And even if you can get the files off the media, you might not be able to find a program to open the files.

The Plymouth Owners Club's national meet will be in Tucson this April 11th through 14th. I've driven all the roads from here to there at one time or another with most of them driven in the last few years: I've family in the Tucson metro area and I've planned on driving the '33 there for sometime but don't want to take freeways so I've been scouting ways across the Arizona desert on each trip I've taken. The meet is an excuse to actually do the drive. Undecided about splitting the drive into three almost equal parts (First night in Lebec, CA, second night in Parker, AZ). Or go longer on the first two days (first night in either Palmdale, CA or Hesperia/Victorville, CA, second night in Gila Bend, AZ) to allow for tourist stops at places like Casa Grande National Monument, Biosphere 2, etc. on the third day. Actually, from Gila Bend one could also drop south through Ajo to Organ Pipe National Monument and then head east for the third day. https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=almaden+expressway+and+blossom+hill,+san+jose,+ca&daddr=37.1927938,-121.7482061+to:34.9871605,-119.4317375+to:34.637811,-118.3455912+to:Holiday+Inn+Express+Hotel+%26+Suites+Hesperia,+Holiday+Inn+Express+Hotel+%26+Suites+Hesperia,+9750+Key+Point+Avenue,+Hesperia,+CA+92345+to:34.4710861,-117.2651214+to:33.508768,-113.1618997+to:33.270074,-112.7978394+to:33.0623988,-112.665758+to:Gila+Bend,+AZ+to:Hilton+Tucson+East,+Hilton+Tucson+East,+7600+E+Broadway+Blvd,+Tucson,+AZ+85710&hl=en&ll=34.642247,-116.586914&spn=6.21699,13.040771&sll=33.094993,-112.663422&sspn=0.395771,0.815048&geocode=FaVmOAIdElS8-CnvfUzs3jOOgDF8r4zAhsSYYA%3BFVmENwIdEkW--CknJdYDlyWOgDHurr_16PyElg%3BFZjcFQIdx53h-CkrWk32ztLrgDFTxJ5btXA8KA%3BFfOHEAIdiTDy-Cn3_fGNM2bCgDGfL383SF4lnQ%3BFaFTDQId19sA-SGl9VWVAK9A1ykxD7jwaWjDgDGl9VWVAK9A1w%3BFa78DQIdH60C-Skx1-pe1WDDgDH_a3nraQCKKg%3BFaBN_wEdVUlB-SlfwdhVk5rUgDHl3IjggVfnKQ%3BFTqp-wEdcddG-SlHegGIcM_UgDFQvkMZnNKMvA%3BFf59-AEdYttI-Sk9-EdBiCrVgDEaZVCWh-4-ZA%3BFXC-9gEd4hNI-SnjfTCNQCjVgDErggvuexfqbQ%3BFQai6wEdQ91k-SnxyjvlQW_WhjEkLe06PKiOpA&oq=tucson+hilton+east&dirflg=h&mra=dpe&mrsp=8&sz=11&via=1,2,3,5,6,7,8&t=m&z=7 In any event, there will be no freeway driving for the entire 900 miles to Tucson. There will, however be some four lane highways and some highways posted at 65. Some of that 65 MPH road, like Pinal Pioneer Parkway, is two lane but with relatively little traffic. Getting back will be a bit longer as there are parts of Arizona I haven't shown my wife. Probably head down through Sonoita and Tombstone to Bisbee, then up past Montezuma's Castle to Sedona and maybe take the remains of US66 back across northern Arizona and the Mohave desert to Barstow. Don't see a feasible way to avoid some freeway driving going that way but most of it will be back roads. Minor little jaunt compared to the trips Bamford's Garage does, but it will be a few miles on the old car. And it should be fun. It will be the right time of year for wildflowers coming down California 25 by Pinacles and across the top of the Antelope Valley. And the temperatures in the low desert should still be in the 80s so the lack of air conditioning shouldn't be a problem.

Not an electrical engineer, but you can't extend the range by adding resistors either in series or in parallel. You could add a 10 ohm resistor in line to offset the output (change it from 0-40 to 10-50). You say it has a "flat winding plate" so I assume it uses the old style resistance wire. Other than rewiring it, I don't know what your option is. The newer universal senders seem to use a thick film screened "resistor card" which have an advantage that you can take a Dremel tool and remove resistive material to raise the resistance. By selecting where on the card you remove resistance you have the posibility of customizing the fuel level response curve. I took advantage of that to come up with a sender for my 1933 which uses a range of values no longer available: http://www.ply33.com/Repair/fuelsender2.html

Screwed up and was thinking water pump... Thought I'd edited that before others noticed.

Only one failure for me on all my cars over all the years... Only rebuilt the one on the '33 because it was apart and I was rebuilding everything. Edit: I was going to link to a photo on my web site but got a "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community." message. It was only a JPG and not all that big (748x486).

I don't recognize the application for that transmission but on this forum that "underseal" is often call "under coatney" in honor of Don.

Sounds about right to me. I know the '63 Plymouth I learned to drive on did not have hazard flashers. And I am uncertain in my memory of the '68 Dodge truck (but trucks might have gotten them after cars). Seems like I first became aware of the existence of hazard flashers in the early '70s. First car I owned that had them was my '82 Plymouth. I recall the fender mounted indicators aimed back at the driver on my grandfather's '68 Dodge.

I've seen that on my posts but not on others too. I think it is for you to see how bad the moderator(s) think you've been but not for others to see.

Don't know what the typical life span of a mechanical pump is. The one on my '33 has about 15 years and 30K miles on it. I had to replace the mechanical fuel pump on the '82 Plymouth I once owned at about 150K miles. Don't think we ever replaced the mechanical pump on the '63 Dodge truck, '63 Plymouth wagon or '68 Dodge truck that we had over the years. My feeling is that if it is an older pump (good core) that has been properly rebuilt with a kit that has materials compatible with modern fuel it should go a long, long time.

Very true. I used DOT5 on my car based on the best information at the time. However I am not sure, now that I've spent a massive $20 to make a pressure bleeder, that I'd use DOT5 again. Reasons: 1. With a pressure bleeder it is very easy to fully flush the old fluid out every year or two. That mitgates the issue with DOT3 and DOT4 being hydrophilic. 2. DOT3 and DOT4 are a fraction the cost of DOT5. 3. While DOT3 and DOT4 are poisonous, they do break down in a soil or dirt environment in a few days. While DOT5 is apparently more benign if ingested, it is persistent in the enviroment and the recommended disposal is incineration. So getting rid of the fluid you bleed out is easier for DOT3 & 4. 4. Some manufacturers of brake parts only back them if OEM brake fluid is used and all OEMs use DOT3 or DOT4 so failure with DOT 5, while it should not happen, is an excuse to not stand behind their product. All that said, given the way I spill things, I do like that DOT5 doesn't ruin the paint. Flip side of that is serious painters don't want brake work with DOT5 done anywhere around where they will be painting as the dried silicone brake fluid can contaminate the area and cause issues.

Out of curiosity I just dug through the drawer in my tool chest that should have had the ridge reamer... Not there. And not in any other obvious spot either. I wonder where it walked off to. At least the L-head valve spring tool, ring spreader, ring compressor, valve lapping tool, etc. are still where I think they should be.

Found it on each individual forum. I wonder if it is possible to have a "mark all as read" in the new content search area as that seems to be where I'd come into the forum in order to pick up where I left off.

Where is that "Mark Community Read" button? I don't see it (Firefox 11.0 on Ubuntu Linux).

Tire chains on the drive wheels, tire chains on the spare with snow shoes strapped on. Even before hitching up the horses it is evident that he was serious about "the mail must get through". Wheels and tires look like they might be the larger diameter option for rutted rural roads too.

Isn't there already a large gauge wire from the ammeter to the regulator as part of the stock wiring harness? I would have guessed #8 but maybe #10. I've never needed to polarize the generator as the residual magnetic field in the iron cores of the field windings has always been enough to self-energize them. Even after sitting on a shelf for 20 years. You should be able to do it by using a jumper to momentarily connect the armature connection on the regulator to the battery connection, shouldn't need to run a separate wire to do that.