TodFitch

Gray area. I believe that when an ad is created there is an automatic announcement post that is made. Not sure which forum(s) it shows up in as I normally have my browser set to show me new posts regardless of the forum it is in.

There has been a number of parts wanted posts made in the the regular forums. Remember that any such request must be made in the classified ads area. Any made in the regular forums will be deleted. Thanks!

There has been a number of parts wanted posts made in the the regular forums. Remember that any such request must be made in the classified ads area. Any made in the regular forums will be deleted. Thanks!

Those fittings had to cost more than just buying some tubing. Only thing that comes to mind is that some PM must have had a pretty full odds and ends drawer so the fittings were free (i.e. already in the junk drawer).

The locals were saying that the summer blend switch over was going to happen around the time I returned to California. So I guess they were on winter blend.

FWIW a few years back I discovered that the "crap california gas with lots of nasties in it" was better than Arizona gas. I was not expecting that. I took a 2000 mile round trip in the '33 from the SF Bay area to Tucson and the only heat related gas issues were in Arizona. First full tank in Arizona started the problems and the first full tank west of the river cured the problems. This was in the spring so the ambient temperatures were only in the 80s and the California desert was basically the same temperature as the Arizona desert. I did a little research when I got home and discovered that California limits the volatility of gasoline and apparently that made the difference.

And the stand is on a jack so they are using it as a "jack stand".

And little slivers of tape are shed when the fittings are screwed together. Those slivers are not what you want going into places with small passage ways like a carburetor.

Wow! My one experience was much less painful than that. But that was back in '98 or '99 and a whole generation of DMV clerks have come and gone since then.

Your photo reminded me that I wanted to ask you about the J1772 charging cable connector you are using. I was under the impression that it was a North American standard and that other parts of the world used something else. Is the J1772 also standard in Australia? Or is your use of it based on using some North American designed components?

Back when I was getting my mechanical engineering degree I got a job as a “Summer Engineering Aide” with the state highway department. The job was basically being a “gofer” on a survey crew. Mechanical engineering and surveying are two different fields so there was a difference in terminology. But I was young and did not want to admit ignorance on anything. So when a term or phrase came up that I was unfamiliar with I’d look it up in the section on surveying or civil engineering in Encyclopædia Britannica in the evening. I figured out most of the lingo that way. For example, the tape measure marked off in tenths and hundredths of feet was called a “chain” because historically they used chains. And that a “vertical curve” was actually a parabolic curve. But I never figured out why they called the nails we drove into the asphalt for temporary location points were called “PKs”. So at the end of the summer I finally asked why the nails were called that. The crew chief looked at me like I’d just fallen off the back of a turnip truck, walked to the line wagon and pulled out a box of the nails. The logo on the box showed that they were manufactured by the PK Manufacturing Company.

I know now. Would that be an internal or external star washer? (Or “Shakeproof Lockwashers” as the 1928-33 Plymouth Master Parts Book calls them.)

If “Joe 6 packs” can afford a new pickup he can afford a new electric car. Whether or not the performance and cargo carrying capability of the EV would suit his needs is a another question. With respect to Henry F and his high (for the era) wages coupled with low (for the era) prices allowing a “common man” to buy a car: Recall that that was an era where the price of automobiles was dropping with time while performance was improving. Much like it is today with consumer electronics. If you look at current trends, the price of electric vehicles is dropping and performance is improving while the price of gasoline vehicles has been rising. Even at present, forgetting any tax incentives, there are some studies indicating that an EV has a lower total cost of ownership.

Definitely looking like it's becoming “a thing”, at least outside of the US. I saw an article about it in the BBC news recently. And, I guess if you have enough money to chop up a brand new car, you can make your own Tesla pickup truck too:

Too bad about being on the road that much. But it has to feel great to get to the bottom of a long term issue that has eluded others. Congratulations on getting the cooling problem sorted!

My guess is that the choice of materials for the contact surfaces of the switch is such that any arcing when the switch opens doesn't damage things. But that is only a guess. And, as Dodgeb4ya noted, modern replacement switches may not have that feature.

Wasn't trying to shoot the messenger. Just noting my interest in the information you made available. And I was at the beach earlier today, water temp 70°F according to the information board on the pier. Pretty warm at the house as it is in the high 70s°F. Life can be tough when you live in a beach town.

Interesting that the contact materials selected resulted in a switch that was polarity sensitive with respect to how long it lasted. I wonder if any of the currently available after market switches are built that way. I sure didn't pay any attention to which wire went on which terminal when I replaced my switch about 10 years ago.

Look carefully at the other welch/core/freeze plugs. On my '33 when one failed a close examination showed issues with the others. It's a lot easier to deal with that at home on your own time than by the side of the road.

I am the POC tech advisor for the 1933 models. I get maybe a half dozen questions per year. Mostly by email but some by phone. Since I have a website with the same email contact information it is sometimes hard for me to determine if the question came from a club member via the listing in the magazine or from general public via my website.

I don’t thing the orange and white paint was the issue. Looks like a brittle fracture, I wouldn't be surprised if they were dropped onto a hard surface or hit with a hammer. Cast iron can do that fairly easily as it is not a good material for things like impact. At least that is how I recall it described all those decades ago in my materials class. I think you should be careful about dropping or hitting a Harbor Freight (or other imported) jack stand for that reason. But cast iron should be fine when loaded in compression. It would be nice if that style jack stand were available for a low price but made with forged materials. Seems unlikely as forging is a much more expensive process than casting. Going for a large safety margin is always a good idea. Not sure how to load test a jack stand though as the heaviest thing I've got to put on them is my car so it isn’t easy to load them up enough in a home shop environment to see if the rating is anything more than words on paper. That said, I've got the same jack stands that you have and will continue to use them. Absolutely! Best advise for working around anything remotely dangerous and cars fall into that category.

Since the topic is "from the driver's seat" and since I just got a setup I am comfortable with posting new videos to, here is some footage from last march that might be of interest: https://video.fitchfamily.org/videos/watch/0a9fd5e9-0501-4310-8981-d7370e2b4d4f

I haven't actually seen it with my own eyes, but I've been told that the later 1930s Chrysler product transmissions with floor mounted shifters can be used on the '33 & '34 Plymouth by removing the top cover and shift tower and bolting on the '33/'34 top cover. Apparently the bolt pattern is the same and the shift forks/shift tower interface is the same. You'd probably want to look closely at the actual transmission before buying it to see if it looks like the above statement is correct (i.e. pull the top cover off and measure the key locations).

I've heard that an overdrive transmission from something like a '37 DeSoto is almost a direct bolt in replacement for the original. Use the freewheeling control to control the overdrive, use the top cover from the '33 Plymouth transmission and shorten the driveshaft. Apparently a number of people in the Cascade Pacific region of the Plymouth Owners Club have done that.

According to the one Dodge truck vin/serial number decoder I know of at http://www.t137.com/registry/help/decode.php that is not a valid number.