TodFitch

Seems like this type of statement is made a lot about all sorts of organizations from county land registration offices, state birth records, company archives, etc. I always wonder if reasons are more mundane. For instance it is fairly common practice nowadays for companies to destroy records older than some date that the tax and legal people have given approval for. Easier to not have the records than to process some legal request to pull and make copies.. For government records that should be kept indefinitely, I bet a whole lot more are mis-filed and misplaced than were lost in fires or floods. A lot easier to tell someone who has a legal need to get some files that they were all lost in a file than to say we can't find it and don't want (or have the time and people) to go search for it. Maybe the California DMV did have a fire at one time that did burn "all those records". But the cynic in me wonders. It does seem to me a financially risky deal to put any money into a car unless I have clear title to it. Or even to drive it for that matter.

Yes 1934 PE and PF were independent front suspension. 1934 PG went back to the beam axle for cost savings and then it was dropped on all versions in 1935. Oil filters were also standard on Plymouth through at least 1934 but were dropped on standard/business/roadking models later and/or became options on all of them.

'34 PE (DeLuxe) Plymouth had an automatic choke. Standard (PF) and Business (PG) did not. Not sure if they later dropped automatic choke from all Plymouths or if they only had it on the upscale version for each year.

I guess I was mis-reading the question. Probably because my '33 distributor has a grease cup on the side rather than an oil cup. Something like: In the old days there was a very stiff bodied grease called "cup grease" that you filled this cup with. And for my distributor you are supposed to turn the cap on the cup once every 500 miles to force some of the grease in the grease cup into the distributor bearings. Later distributors went to oil cups like So I guess until Dodgefran clarifies which he was referring to I'll sit out of further commenting in this thread.

I've always assumed that is should be cup grease. And while you can still buy grease cups new, I really have never found a source for old fashioned cup grease so I use chassis grease. Looks like event the people with expensive cars wonder the same thing: http://www.packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=418

According to the calculator over at http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm $35.80 in 1956 would be the equivalent of $298.33 today.

Movie version with Marvin and Eastwood is good but the story line changes between it and the original Broadway play are huge. Basically all they have in common is a lot of the music. Back to the original picture: Black cars.... Without air conditioning.... In Yuma, AZ... All I can say is wow! I guess it could have been worse, if those cars were 10 or 15 years newer they'd have been upholstered with vinyl. It does bring back memories of our trips from home in Tucson to visit relatives in Southern California when I was a child. In summer these trips were done by packing the car the day before, bundling us sleepy kids in the back seat in the middle of the night, driving with plenty of drinking water and salt tablets with the goal to be across the worst of "The Desert" before the heat of the day. For us, "The Desert" was roughly bounded by Gila Bend on the east and the grade out of the Imperial Valley on the west with Yuma smack dab in the middle. When we got a car with air conditioning in the early 1960s the routine changed dramatically. Changed even more as old US80 was rebuilt into I-8.

Yes, the side play is taken up by the threads and grease is spread up and down the lengths of the bushings by the thread action as the spring moves. Clever design but if they aren't kept lubricated they can wear out pretty fast. With lubrication they last a long, long time.

Passenger out side rear view mirror is a pretty interesting accessory for that era too. Bet there weren't many cars fitted with that.

One of the skills my father thought would be good to teach me when I was a child was soldering wires. I guess that soldering is just one of those things that is second nature to me. Surprised to hear that others are having problems soldering a sleeve to repair the temperature gauge capillary since I never used more than average care when doing it. If the story I heard was correct and if I am remembering it correctly, Mr. Fahrenheit tried to anchor the two points of his temperature scale to something that was reproducible in everyones laboratories. So he picked body temperature for 100°F (he apparently had a mild fever or above average body temperature) for the high calibration point. And he picked the coldest freezing point for a salt water solution for 0°F. Your photo shows that he was not far off on that end of the scale.

Almost down to where I bought mine years ago...

Since the more common usage of "long block" and "short block" are as you mention, perhaps we should call the Plymouth/US Dodge car engine the "small block" and the Chrysler/DeSoto/Canadian Dodge engine the "big block".

Careful about adding more leaves. My one experience with that made my car ride like a truck. I imagine if you are already starting with a truck, you might end up way past where you want to be ride wise. I agree with Niel that the spring is toast. I agree with aero3113 that your local spring shop can probably repair it. But it will be by replacing the broken leaves, which looks to be all of them. However it might be cheaper to simply replace. IIRC a forum member was able to get brand new springs from someplace in the mid-west. Chicago maybe. Might be worth checking the price each way.

Its okay if that day or two rest turns into a month or two. Or even a year or two. It is a hobby that you can work on when you want, not a job you have to go to every day. Throw away all the receipts for things like nuts, bolts, paint supplies, trim items, etc. If you sell the car it will be obvious that you've dealt with those but showing receipts for a professional engine rebuild, etc. could be very useful. The reason you don't want to keep receipts? You really don't want to know how much money you are wasting on that d*mned vehicle. Also if its a Plymouth up through 1948 please let me know what you find for cross references so I can add it to my database at http://www.ply33.com/Parts/numeric That database got started just as John-T-53 suggests you do: As a list of parts cross references I started when I first started working on my car.

Decided to look this up for you in the 1936-42 Plymouth Factory Service Manual and was surprised to find clearance information but not the actual diameters... If I come up with a period reference that has that, I'll get back to you.

They look great!

Is the flex line between the frame and the fuel pump original? Modern gas can swell the insides of old rubber hoses and block the passage of gas. This image is of an original 1960 fuel hose from a Plymouth. Same hose but two places shown the open piece was clamped over the metal tubing and was not in contact with fuel. The swollen closed section was exposed to modern gas. I agree: A good rule of thumb is that 99% of carburetor problems are electrical. Or it might be just about right it the issue is not fuel related.

Depends on how rusty the threads are. The nuts on the U-bolts on the springs on my car came off pretty easily. Have you tried to unbolt them?

For at least some of those you are looking for a #51 light bulb. See: http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group8#8-44-04 A quick search turns up a bunch of vendors for that (assuming you can't find it at you local auto supply). For example http://www.bulbtown.com/51_MINIATURE_BULB_BA9S_BASE_p/51.htm

If I recall correctly a number of cars from the mid and late '70s had a vacuum gauge on the dash for exactly that reason. They typically had MPG numbers on them instead of inches of Hg but they were basically just vacuum gauges.

A circuit is a full loop: Battery negative post to starter switch, starter switch to starter solenoid, starter solenoid to starter, starter to bell housing/engine/transmission, bell housing/engine/transmission to battery positive post. The current has to go through all those pieces and any place along the line a restriction will cause a problem. 6v uses twice the current for the same power so any restriction along the way causes more problems.

The opening on the bottom of the tube should be low enough that it is in the air flow under the car. This helps the venturi effect to create a partial vacuum. That will draw air out of the crankcase. The air inlet to the crankcase is the wire mesh air filter in the filler cap. If the tube is at much of an angle, it will not be extending as far into the air flow under the car. So I'd say it should go pretty much straight down. Actually I just did this search do see what would come up. And while "draft tube" has a number of hits I did not notice a posting that answered this specific question.

http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group5#5-63-01

Pop it off. Bottom "hinge" is actually just the pedal popped on to couple of ball studs. Top of pedal is popped onto a ball on the end of the push rod attached to the end of the accelerator linkage. With old rubber and rusty ball studs it might be stuck on. But you can buy new ball studs and replacement gas pedals are also available if you damage something pulling it off.

Good looking car! I don't know how the prices work out among the various wire harness vendors, but YnZ's is just down the road from you in Redlands and they make a very good product too. I guess having the headliner out is a bonus for you.