TodFitch

When my car has the symptoms you describe, I can get it going again by pouring some water on the fuel pump. Seems like the fuel in the pump gets too hot and some of it vaporizes. Since the fuel pump is no where as good at pumping vapor as it is at pumping liquid the carburetor runs out of gas. I call it vapor lock though that may not be the correct term. Cooling the fuel pump eliminates the vapor in the pump and it starts working again. Presumably appropriate routing of fuel lines and having the fuel pump heat shield installed should reduce this particular issue. However I did a test on a recent hot day and was still able to reproduce the problem on my car. . . Maybe the pump is a bit weak on my car to begin with and that is making the high temperature situation worse (putting a fuel pressure check on my list for the next time I am going over the car). If your car was running fine when parked and you go back to start it again after a few minutes and it does not start, then I'd expect that to be due to percolation (vaporization) of fuel in the carburetor bowl leading to raw gas getting into the manifold. Call it flooding due to percolation. This is not what you describe in your posting. So adding a spacer or heat shield to your carburetor probably won't fix your problem. You can double check which of the two issues you have by pulling off the air cleaner and checking for symptoms of flooding next time it does this. If it is percolation then I'd expect you to see gas in the manifold. If the pump failed to pump because of heat your carb bowl would be dry (or at least very low) and your accelerator pump probably won't be putting gas into the venturi when you actuate it.

Never dealt with any of these so this is not a recommendations (my battery lives under the floor under the driver seat where no one sees it so I am not even tempted to get a period correct Willard battery for my '33). http://www.antiqueautobattery.com` http://restorationbattery.com/chryslerproducts.html http://www.batterycentralmall.com/Batteries/TurboStart/Chrysler.html

Napa lists both the left and right hand threaded lug bolts: Right hand thread: http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group22#386984 Left hand thread: http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group22#856981

I think that next time I'll follow greg g's advice. In the past I've simply bought the 6v group 1 battery that was in stock in my local auto supply. Typically get 3 to 6 years out of them. My car has a hand crank stowed behind the rear seat so if the battery gets so bad that it won't crank the engine (and I haven't parked on a hill), I guess I could get it started with only enough juice to run the points coming from the battery. But I'd rather not rely on that. I find that by watching the ammeter and checking the water level and density from time to time I can tell when a battery is going bad so I replace before getting stuck somewhere.

But you'll also need a really big refrigerator to keep the stuff you haven't yet eaten from rotting before you get around to it. (My car was in pieces for nearly 20 years because just walking into the garage and seeing all the work to be done overwhelmed me. It took getting married and having a gentle reminder, about every year or so, that "if you aren't going to do anything with that maybe you should sell it" to get me to finish the project. I really admire the people who can do a whole car in a reasonable, say, year or two, period of time. I am not one of them.)

Plenty of posts and threads on this, the search function should turn up something for you. I personally think the originals are adequate as long as you have good boots on them. Basically they are primitive CV joints and like CV joints will last a long, long time if the goods are in good shape but will fail rapidly if the boots are bad.

My rear spring hangers look different but I had a similar problem: Some previous mechanic had taken a cutting torch to the rivets to remove the hanger. I imagine it was to work it on the bench. Lousy torch work meant that parts of the frame were damaged. I ended up building up the missing frame material by gas welding. To re-install the hanger I used bolts to hold it in place and then I hot set rivets replacing one bolt at a time. Been a lot of miles and a lot of years since then and there is no sign that my install is having a problem. As I recall it, I got the some of the rivets at a local hardware store. But I also recall that there was a size that they did not have and I was able to take a carriage bolt, grind off the square at the top of the shank and then cut the unthreaded portion to length for the other rivets. With respect to removing rivets, I had to do that for the battery box support. I recall using the method you say Dave Claussen recommends. Worked for me.

That opinion might be influenced by the climate where you live. The Central Valley is basically a desert so even a slight bit of rust can be stable for years with no other issues. Move Paul's truck a few miles east up into the Sierra or 100 miles west to the coast and your metal protection issues change greatly.

The '33 and '34 blocks do not have the full length water jackets so the block is a bit narrower just above the crankcase. So the '33 and '34 bell housing is setup with the starter a little more inboard and creates a clearance issue when using a '35 and up engine. I've seen some cars where the solution was to grind a flat on the back of the starter case. And I've seen some cars where the bell housing was modified to work. I don't know when they stopped using the funky '33/'35 shift lever setup but maybe a '35 is the same and a '35 bell housing might fit up though I've never heard of one doing it. Anyway, other than the starter clearance issue, a later engine should bolt right in. And it just occurred to me that there were some small sized starter motors on some later cars. Might be 12v, but if you could find a 6v one that might be option.

Just realized that while looking for a relatively recent thread on the topic of hot start issues I picked one on the truck side. Oh, well. Same basic engine, same basic issues.

We've had extraordinarily hot weather yesterday and today. We seldom get into the 90s even in the middle of summer and yet the last day of April and first of May have done it for us. Oddly, we had a high of only 65 a few days ago. Fortunately it is supposed to be back to normal in another couple of days with temperatures around 70°F. Anyway, it seemed like reasonable weather to see if the heat shield I installed on the fuel pump a few months ago would make any difference. Had about 1/8 of a tank of March gas in the tank so it was probably winter blend (although I haven't read in the paper that they've switched yet so maybe it would be the same with a fresh tank of gas). 92°F on the outdoor thermometer when I left. Made 20 mile or so loop on local freeways at speeds between 55 and 65, temperature gauge reading visibly higher than usual because of the weather. Ran long enough for the oil pressure to drop to the lower levels that it gets to when really warm. Having achieved all that, pulled into an ice cream establishment and had a cool and refreshing treat. After five minutes by my wristwatch, restarted the engine. No issues with starting which is normal for this car. I let the engine run at a slow idle for a while. After five minutes, just about when I was going to declare success, the engine died. That is longer than it used to go so I think the issue has been mitigated somewhat but obviously there is still a problem. For what it is worth, just before starting the engine my handheld IR temperature sensor showed about 185°F both on the block adjacent to the fuel pump and on the fuel pump mount itself. I couldn't get a reading on the main body of the pump because the heat shield was in the way. But if the metal of the pump only an inch or so away from the gas was 185°F the it is not too surprising that some of the shorter hydrocarbon molecules in the gas were at or above their boiling point. After dousing the fuel pump with some water (made more difficult by the installation of the heat shield) I was able to restart the engine and it ran fine on the way home. This was probably a tougher test than I'd done before but so maybe the issue I've had has been reduced. But it was still disappointing that the heat shield didn't fix the problem. On the plus side, if I'd just driven off I think the heat shield would have directed more airflow from the fan and radiator across the pump and I would not have had the issue. If so, then it is a bit better than last year.

Low compression can cause hard starting. And a weak spark also. Easy to check both of those. And there is, of course, the infamous use of 12v battery cables on a 6v car causing really slow cranking which won't help starting either.

Since you mention you are looking for a transmission OR repair manual, I assume you will be open to suggestions on how to repair your existing. And this thread can serve for that. And 48mirage has already gotten the ball rolling on that. If you had only asked for a transmission, I'd have to ask you to repost in the classified section. . .

Might still want to have some decent reflectors on the car. They will continue to work if/when you pop a fuse or have other electrical issues. For what it is worth, most of the lighting and safety equipment listed in the California motor vehicle code has break in dates (e.g. item x required on all vehicles manufactured or first sold after Jan. 1, 19xx). However there are a few things that have no dates and are required on all cars and must be retrofitted to ones that did not come with them. As I recall, the list is: 1. At least one rear reflector. 2. At least two rear view mirrors one of which as to be on the exterior of the driver side. 3. If equipped with a windshield, must have at least one non-manual wiper. Don't know what requirements are in other states so you might want to read the equipment section of your motor vehicle code, but having reflectors in addition to good brake and tail lights is definitely a safety issue.

Good news for you is that the front fender brackets are the same for all PD body styles. Bad news is that other than a parts car, I don't know where you can get them. Second bad news is that you can't really photograph them with the fenders on the car and I don't feel like taking my fenders off for a photo. I'll look through my photo archive and see if there is a photo that clearly shows the brace. It wasn't high on my list of things to photograph when I had everything apart as it was obvious where they went and that there was only one way for them to be installed.

GTK mentioned on another thread about this same topic that using a 1/2" impact wrench with a large diameter hose on the puller's hex end will do the job. I only recently got a 1/2" impact wrench so I haven't tried it myself. And my drums have been off several times in the last 10 years so they come off fairly easily so I can't say it will work from personal experience but it is worth a try. Barring that, ditto using a bigger hammer.

Is the coil in the car with the primary wire attached to the coil? At least on my car the engine usually stops at a position where the points are closed so I'd be measuring the resistance through the primary windings of the coil which might be close to 2 1/2 ohms. If the primary wire is off, then the resistance should be infinite.

At least on my car the escutcheon plates/rings hold the pins in place. You press the escutcheons down, compressing the spring that is behind the board, to expose the pins.

Seems like many states have that bit about having current registration plates in the car. I guess that means that the police can't run the numbers until they actually pull you over and talk to you. YOM plates in California are basically standard vanity plates: You pay full normal registration AND a special plate fee and the YOM tag number is listed on the registration slip. Since you are paying full fare and more, the state does not care how many miles you drive the car per year. Your insurance company might, but not the state. Anyway, since the YOM plates are the plates the the car is registered with cops can run them on sight and the plate number recognition software at things like the bridge tolls should be able to read them.

I don't know for sure as I haven't taken my Plymouth through a FastTrak lane but I've not heard of this before so it seems unlikely to me. Now that I have a FastTrak account and have put all the tag numbers on the account (they prefer you have the transponder in the car but apparently they will do plate recognition if there is no transponder) maybe I ought to give it a try.

It really is amazing how much the antique and/or YOM tag laws vary from state to state.

How do they specify the octane listed on the pump? In the US it is required to be the average of the octane ratings determined by the "motor octane number" (MON) and the "research octane number" (RON). Generally the RON about 10 points higher than the MON and in the old days the gas companies advertised RON. A guess of 5 points between the average and the RON is reasonable. So 87 (RON+MON)/2 probably maps into something around 92 (RON). Edit: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating it looks like Canada and the US use the R+M/2 labeling while most of the rest of the world including Australia use the RON number. So yes, add about 5 point to the US numbers to get the Australian numbers for the same fuel.

In front of or behind? Seems like mine is behind the wheel.

Does it use one like this: http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Starter-Solenoid-Switch/_/R-ECHST11_0431180922

I've heard that O'Reilly is trying to match parts prices and availability. Haven't tried it myself yet but another fellow local to me shopped online, found the parts he needed for his '40s vehicle at Rock Auto. Used those modern part numbers to find them at O'Reilly and then had them set for pickup at his local store. Net result: He got Rock Auto prices, no shipping cost and was able to look at the parts and decide if he wanted them before paying and taking them.