TodFitch

I had the reverse problem once: I expected the wire to run down the column and come out the bottom on a '57 VW Beetle just like my '33 Plymouth. Apparently there had been a problem and a PO had put a push button on the dash for the horn. I wanted to return it to stock. Turns out there was a brush holder on the side of the column and the shaft had an insulated bushing around it that the horn wire was attached to. The brush made contact with the bushing to provide power to the horn button. It took me the longest time to figure that out as it just wasn't what I was expecting and I was looking in all the wrong places.

A few of us explicitly asked for photos and commentary on this install and now half the posts are about justifying the choice of equipment. We all make choices. Some want to spend the money on fuzzy dice for the mirror and you couldn't pay others enough money to put fuzzy dice on their mirrors. So lets just skip the justification part... I was actually hoping that the install would be one that kept the stock transmission (with parking brake) and used a short shaft to connect to the OD unit. Seems like that would be a way to get OD without making modifications to the car that the next owner couldn't just unbolt. But that is not what Suessbyr is doing. Fine. I'm still interested in the photos and how it works out.

I am curious about this enough to want to see you post a blow-by-blow account of the installation and the issues found/fixed, etc.

Letting the smoke out is not a good thing... Especially in or near a tank full of gasoline. http://www.ply33.com/Repair/fuelsender.html

As previously noted, the shocks are modern style. Plymouth switched to them in '37 and was, I think, the first auto manufacturer to do so. They called them "aircraft style" when they were introduced and the early ones were repairable. With my short memory span nowadays I keep getting surprised when some late 40s or early 50s American car owner posts a question about where to get fluid for their lever arm shocks. I think some makes, Buick comes to mind, were still using lever arm shocks after the war.

Since the gauge is also sometimes jumping to full, you may well have a frayed and shorting wire between the gauge and the tank. Definitely verify the grounds on both the tank and the gauge and look carefully at the wire between the two.

My vote, with the limited information given in the post, is for the hand brake not being fully released.

+1 No, actually make that at least +10.

Seems very reasonable to me that short trips and leaded gas are culprits. If they were cheap on the oil and got non-detergent that could be another factor. The weight/viscosity of the oil itself should not, as I understand things, have made that much difference with respect to sludge build up.

I've had good experiences with YnZ's and with Harnesses Unlimited. And as noted by other posters RI Wiring has a good reputation. That said, while I've never previously heard of Vintage Wiring of Maine their web site seems to have all the right photos and wording. They might be okay and it would be interesting to get a first hand review of their product. Having more companies in the business of making good reproduction harnesses can't be a bad thing.

And how is this different than from any large private employer? The corporations with consistently good and helpful "customer service" are very few and far between.

No doubt the rules vary state by state but I think your experience depends largely on the clerk you happen to get when you get to the counter. As noted by karl head, a small town office that is less busy and hectic might have employees that are more willing to help out. I actually did exactly what you are trying to do when I moved to Baltimore back in the mid-70s. The clerk took about 40 minutes in some back room, eventually came back out and said the numbers match and there would be no problem. In retrospect I think she might have been on the phone with what ever passed as the Chrysler Historical Collection back then. I can see where a state that requires that type of check might have clerks unwilling to do the work in a busy office if they are being rated based on how many transactions per hour they do.

Congratulations! Now you know you can drive it anywhere. I've done just under 500 miles in one day in my '33 only once in the last few years and will have to say that is just about my limit before too much fatigue sets in. In the new car with cruise control, air conditioning, good sound system, etc. I can do more. But in the old one I try not to plan for more than 300 or 400 miles in a day as the fun goes out of the drive and it simply becomes work.

I see nothing in that short article to say if the Model A was stock or not. For all I know it might have been modified to have four wheel disc brakes. I strongly suspect that it was not upgraded to have seat belts as the driver was ejected from the car. But there is nothing to indicate how close to stock the car was. The key here is exactly as bamfordsgarage note: You need to leave sufficient room to stop at all times. If the visibility is restricted due to terrain or weather then you need to be going slow enough to stop as soon as something comes into sight. If you are driving a stock Model T with only a transmission band brake you should leave more room than if you driving a stock Model A with four wheel drum brakes. If you are driving a '33 Plymouth with small drum brakes you leave more room than if you're driving a modern car with power assisted four wheel disc brakes. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Woodside,+CA&hl=en&ll=37.509488,-122.346325&spn=0.019881,0.041285&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn=10.206527,21.137695&oq=woo&hnear=Woodside,+San+Mateo,+California&t=m&z=15 It is a little unclear to me from the article, but in that area traffic from a local road, the north bound exit from I-280 and the west bound traffic from a freeway section of California 92 is funneled into a single lane transition to the two lane section of 92 that goes over the mountains to Half Moon Bay. After all those traffic sources are funneled together there is a sharp left hand turn with limited visibility followed immediately by a traffic signal for the traffic for the south bound California 35 and south bound exit from I-280. I know that in a modern car I have been surprised by traffic stopped for the light. The lesson learned is that you approach that curve at a speed slow enough that you can stop immediately. But if you aren't familiar with that intersection, and the Model A drive might not have been, you can easily be unpleasantly surprised.

Just say this on the web site for the local newspaper: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_21663417 I don't know who the driver was but I am pretty sure the Model A Ford club people will find out soon.

Been doing that a long, long time ago in this country. Starting with the National Pike, changing to building railroads using direct payments, loan guarantees and land give aways. Still happening with government money supporting air transport and highways. Almost everything to do with every type of transportation has some government money behind it somewhere. Reading period literature about the state of farm to market "roads" before the national government got involved indicates that private enterprise wasn't very successful in providing transportation. Commercial success only for a few turnpikes between major cities and toll bridges and ferries. And many of them required official monopoly status from the appropriate government bodies to make them viable.

The former head of GM apparently thinks all cars will driverless in 20 years: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/cars-driverless-20-years-bob-lutz-133826028.html Choices: 1. It will be inexpensive. 2. Or the trend of the last 30 years for worker bee wages falling behind inflation will need to change with some of the increase in GDP going to people in the 99%. 5. Or nobody will be able to afford a new car. 4. Or Bob Lutz doesn't know what he is talking about. 6. ???

Yes. Don, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car

I am a bit confused about what you are about here. The original style is not a "closed drive line" like Fords and many other cars used in the 30s and 40s (maybe into the 50s). It is an open drive line. Are you saying that the original style drive shaft can't handle the change in length needed by you because of a proposed large change in axle position? On the ball and trunnion U-Joints the change in length needed to account for axle movement is handled by the centering springs inside the joint. If you are having a shop weld modern U-joint yokes on the end of the original shaft you'll end up with a shaft that can't change length at all which is a bad thing. Better to simply have a new drive shaft made up from scratch that has a splined section to accomplish what the spring loaded housings do in the original.

Clueless drivers indeed. Yesterday I was driving 28 on a residential street posted at 25. Yeah, I was speeding. But I wasn't speeding enough for the sedan behind me as they felt obliged to tail gate. We come up on a cross walk with someone in it. So I stop. The "driver" behind veers to the right into the bicycle lane and roars on by the pedestrian. They are stopped at the next traffic signal when I pull up behind, so they didn't get very far ahead for all their effort. but they might not have noticed as they were talking on their non-hands free cell phone (illegal here). I am leery of the concept of computer driven cars, but I guess if it means that people like the one I encountered yesterday don't actually control the car it might be a good thing. On the other hand it might also be the death knell of driving antique cars. If the computer driven vehicles prove safer than human driven ones then I can see where in 20 or 30 years all cars would be required to have computer control to be driven on public highways. Could be more of a problem for the hobby than finding an appropriate liquid hydrocarbon fuel... Hadn't thought about that car bombers part. Scary prospect.

I am assuming you mean me when you used the name "Tim". Heres a search for how to set up a "Let me Google that for you" link: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=let+me+google+that+for+you&l=1 There is an equivalent one for Bing: http://letmebingthatforyou.com/?q=let%20me%20bing%20that%20for%20you

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mechanical+temperature+gauge+repair&l=1 Or just go to http://www.ply33.com/repair/tempgauge

Do it wrong and you'll just get more smoke out of the oil filler. The draft tube works by having the tip in the air stream below the vehicle and using a venturi effect to create a vacuum to pull vapor out of the crankcase. There is, or should be, air flow into the crankcase via the filler cap where a oil coated wire mesh acts as a filter. A more reliable way to remove the smoke would be to rebuild the engine. And/or you could fit a positive crankcase ventilation system to the engine. Search for PCV in this forum to find out how. Easiest way is probably to get the parts used on the military version of the engine but there are ways to roll your own with parts from the hardware and local auto supply stores.

The parking lot of the local sheriff's substation might be a good place for the transaction.

No, they are not polarity sensitive: The direction of rotation is based on the relative wiring of the field and armature. Basically when you reverse the polarity on the power you are reversing the armature and the field so you end up back where you started from as far as rotation direction. (If you reversed only one of the two it would run backwards. Most small DC motors nowadays use rare earth or ceramic magnets for the field so reversing the power only reverses the armature and they will run backwards but that is not true of the old DC motors that us field coils to provide the field.)