TodFitch

A shorter link without the tracking stuff is: https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1948-dodge-b-1-b-half-ton

I installed a set of rubber boots on my driveshaft and, due to other things going on, it was about a month before I got around to installing the driveshaft. I found that in that month of sitting one of the boots had cracked. My take was the boots were decades old and had been sitting on the shelf long enough for the rubber to deteriorate. So I went with leather boots. That was some years ago now and last I checked the leather ones are still in good shape. Using a modern CV joint boot (if you can find one that fits) or a MX fork boot as suggested by greg g shouldn’t have the issue with being old and deteriorated. Won’t look correct if that bothers you, but should work.

With the proper depth media, a bypass filter gives you the effect of a full oil change every few miles. Is that what you mean by “it won't make much difference”?

And any requests for parts need to be in the classified ad area, not a general discussion forum.

Been there, done that. Not a pleasant thing to have happen. Definitely put a cotter pin in immediately upon putting the nut on, forgetting is too easy and the consequences could be pretty bad if you drive without it.

At least on my '33 the fasteners for the cowl weather strip are of a different size with a different head shape than those used to hold the serial number plate. I believe the ones holding the serial number plate on are called “drive nails” or sometimes “screw nails”. See https://www.mcmaster.com/drive-nails/

There were a number of aftermarket bypass filter housings available back then in addition to at least three variations from the factory. I just took a look at the information I have for the factory variants and don’t see a Fram C-3 listed as a cross referenced insert cartridge. So either my cross reference information is incomplete or you have a non-factory housing. I suggest you take careful measurements of that C-3 cartridge and then look for a currently available replacement.

Your 1940 P12 came from the factory with a 201 cu.in. engine. The switch to the 218 cu.in. engine was in the 1942 model year. The 1940 201 was rated at 84 BHP where the 1942 P14 and the 1946-48 P15 cars were rated at 95 BHP. Engine bearings, etc. are different but most of the engine gaskets are the same. Taking a quick look through the service manuals for the two, there is a lot more that is the same than what is different. Most of the advice you see here for a P15 is directly applicable for your P12.

Thanks for the link to the Timken cross reference PDF! Looks like a very useful document to keep a link too. Out of curiosity, I searched for the original Chrysler part numbers for a couple of bearings and found a cross for everyone I looked for. Not an exhaustive test but sure gave me a good feeling about that document.

Yes, the spliced in fitting on the lower radiator hose is for a return from a heater for cars before the bypass style thermostat housing (or on lower trim business models that didn’t have the bypass thermostat after that was introduced). The fitting on the top of the bypass thermostat is for the return from the heater on later/higher trim cars. You certainly don’t need both. Having the two returns hooked together might not be a problem but definitely looks strange. Source to the heater should be on a tapped hole on the back of the head. In the early days some mechanics used an adaptor to pull water out of the temperature sensing bulb hole on the driver side of the head if they were afraid to drill and tap the head. I would replace the lower hose with a new one without the splice in it. The inlet on the pump can be closed off with a threaded plug.

I notice in your latest video that you have a hose directly from the return tap for a heater on the lower radiator hose to the bypass on the top of the thermostat housing. Sort of bypassing the thermostat bypass. Not sure if that is a problem but if you don’t have a heater I’d cap that off and remove that short hose.

I am going to have to closely examine mine for that defect. The hose between the handle and the tire chuck failed on mine and I replaced it with some 600 psi rated tubing from the local hardware store. At least on mine, the readings while putting air in are different than those from a static source (i.e. the tires) with the static value being closer to what my “gold standard” (1970s vintage US made) pressure gauge show. So I do a fill then check cycle when using that tool.

Great idea! I’ll use that next time I have to open one of those vacuum motors up.

The Model A has a pretty low compression ratio which means it doesn’t need much clamping force on the head to keep things sealed up. On my '33 Plymouth with a 5.5:1 compression ratio and non-pressurized cooling system I have been able to remove one or more head stud nuts in order to remove or install things like the horn and oil filter. I would think the Model A would be about as forgiving and my old Plymouth. Even if the cooling system is unpressurized while running, you could probably rig something up to put some static pressure on the block to check for leaks. Probably only need a couple of PSI. Maybe some block off plates for the block inlet and outlet along with a pressure gauge, valve and tire chuck. If you gently pressurize it with air then at least any leaks won’t be filling the pan with coolant.

Actually if you print that page (or print it to PDF) you will get the attribution and copyright information in the file. I think the PDF that is circulating was created by someone copy and pasting rather than downloading. Not much that I can do if they decide to not copy and paste the attribution and copyright. I suspect they did the copy and paste because if you print or print to PDF you get the thumbnails rather than the full images. It has been a while since I looked into the formatting (via CSS) to see if the print style can use different image links than the display style. That might be worth looking into.

No problem. You mentioned it was emailed to you. And looking at the PDF, whoever created it stripped off the information about the original source so there was no way for you to know.

I travel to Arizona quite frequently and know the trucks move faster there than here in California. Arizona has some day/night speed limits but I don't recall seeing separate limits for trucks except for on some steeper mountain down grades. Seems like most truck are doing close to the 75 MPH speed limit there. Speed kills gas mileage, for any given vehicle traveling at the speed limit they will need 23% more power to move at Arizona’s 75 MPH limit than at California’s 70 (rural freeway) limit. Simply a matter of physics, only way to mitigate it is to reduce the frontal area and to improve the coefficient of drag. Since most people prefer big and poorly aerodynamically shaped vehicles (pickups and large SUVs) there is no way they can get decent mileage at higher speeds. In my Prius I see the MPG dropping from about 60 MPG on the 65 MPH freeways to 45 to 50 MPG on the higher speed freeways through the desert. Utah has lots of miles posted at 80 MPH and last time I was there our Prius really sucked gas, got only in the low 40s MPG.

Instead of the PDF printed from my web site you could have just linked to it. https://www.ply33.com/Repair/brakes

My '33 is pretty close to bone stock and it will cruise all day at 60 to 65 but is much more comfortable at lower speeds. Unfortunately, where I currently am in the southern part of the Los Angeles mega-mess makes freeway driving a requirement for at least a couple of directions when getting out of town. I have found a trick that helps but it only works in California and even then not always. California has a 55 MPH speed limit for anything towing a trailer including 18 wheel semi-tractor trailer combinations. The truckers don’t go that slow, they usually are just under 65 MPH. (My guess is that keeping just below the “10 over the limit” keeps them from getting tickets and if they get a ticket for that it is not a big deal.) Anyway, the result is that all light duty vehicle drivers keep an eye out for slow moving semis and usually change lanes well in advance of getting behind a big truck. Which makes a big truck a pretty good vehicle for me to follow in my '33. The acceleration, braking, etc. on my '33 is not all that different from that of a loaded semi so I can follow them at a safe distance. The semi provides a very visible and known type rolling obstacle/road block which keeps most light duty vehicle drivers away from me. Unfortunately none of this helps the OP with driving on Texas freeways.

Not sure how I missed this thread this time around. I don't have as many organizing drawers as @billrigsby but enough that finding things in them could be hard. My solution is to use my label maker to label each drawer and then group parts based on type. One thing I did when setting up my current garage was to put “French cleats” around all the walls and then make various shelves and hangers that fit on the cleats to actually hold all my junk stuff. I did that because I knew I’d be moving things around at least a few times until I got things organized enough. And it has helped over the years as I acquire or get rid of things. Very easy to re-arrange all the hangers, shelves, etc. Attached photo was when I was just getting started putting things on the walls.

There is a Mid-Atlantic Region of the Plymouth Owners Club based in the Baltimore area. A pretty recent edition of the Plymouth Bulletin lists it and give the contact as a fellow in Ellicott City. I would rather not post his name, phone and email on an open forum like this but if you would like I can sent it to you in a private message. p.s. There is/was a very active region of the Antique Automobile Club of America in Baltimore too. I'd have to do a little digging to find the contact for them. p.p.s. Chesapeake Region AACA web site is at https://www.chesapeakeaaca.org

I understand the non-ethanol but I don’t understand the 94 octane. . . Have you modified the engine’s compression ratio enough to need that? Or is non-ethanol not available in 87 (or lower) octane in your area.

I have a Dorman interchange for 33208, see: https://www.ply33.com/Parts/group22#33208 I don’t have an interchange for 575469. Perhaps 575469 superceded 33208. I don’t have very much documentation on when old numbers were replaced by (superceded by) newer parts. Here is the Dorman page for the nut that I cross to: https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-32738-615-016.aspx

As Rich says, get a parts book and look up the number. There is a chance that I have that number in the "standard parts" section of my online database: https://www.ply33.com/Parts/group18

Interesting. Just noticed I have a bolt (officially a “hexagonal head cap screw”) holding my timing cover on while the 1934 service manual shows what look like round headed screws. Just looked at both the 1928-1933 and 1934 parts books and both show the fastener should be part number 120854 which is a hex head cap screw. I wonder why the illustration in the 1934 book shows a round headed screw.