TodFitch

Is the $160 price within your budget? If so, then there are a number of forum members who live within striking distance of SF who might be able to get them for you and then meet you in SF. . .

If you are going to be in the San Francisco area, Stockton is not too far from there and that is the location for Rare Parts which should have your shackles. Sounds like you'll be there a week or so after the Truck BBQ which is also pretty close to Stockton. . .

Repaired, or preferably, replaced wiring would be on my list before trying to drive it very far.

A web search comes up with this for Illinois: "If the theft crime is designated a felony, the statute of limitations as of the time of publication is three years. If the theft crime does not fall into one of these categories and is designated a misdemeanor, the statute of limitations during which the crime can be prosecuted is one year. There are extended limitations for some circumstances, for example when a party was a minor or disabled, or in circumstances where the crime was not immediately discovered." Don't know if the law was the same back then as now, but it appears that the son and father would not be prosecuted. But just because you aren't going to go to jail for stealing the motorcycle (or helping hide it) I don't see how that gives you ownership rights to sell it either. I wonder if there was a stolen property report filed by the original owner and if it still exists. Seems like it should go to that person or their estate.

Not sure what you are trying to describe, but the "leading shoe" will be self-energizing (i.e. once the shoe contacts the drum the rotation of the drum will tend to pull the shoe out a little more). Basically a simple form of power assist. And a dual wheel cylinder setup is to make both shoes leading shoes. I believe the Bendix drum brake setup allowed both shoes to move with the drum for the same self-energizing effect and for years Chrysler dissed that as being too grabby and thus the smooth controllable action of the Lockheed setup was better. Didn't hear much about that argument after Chrysler adopted Bendix in the early 60s though. Very difficult to make disc brakes self-energizing but I did hear of some early systems where the calipers could rotate slightly and had some sort of wedging mechanism.

Isn't a square a special case (subset) of rectangle? Seems like I'd be able to better organize a 24x24 space than a 36x18 so that is what I'd recommend. But read DonC's post! If you are starting with a clean slate then you can plan for where you'd like work benches, power, lighting, compressed air, etc. Sketch them out and see which shape will work for you. For myself, I'd add to Don's list a high enough ceiling so that I could have a lift.

Sounds like you are not familiar with the design and construction of the generator and/or starter motor: Since the field is provided by a field coil, changing polarity of the input voltage will result in reversal of both the armature magnetic field and the field coil's magnetic field. Since both are changed the starter motor will rotate the same way as before the polarity reversal. Same holds true for the generator. A modern DC motor with permanent magnet fields will be different and will reverse direction when you change the polarity of the power.

I think the sandpaper I got was a little thicker than that. Maybe 0.030, so my effort ended up with the shoes undersized by that amount, about 0.010 smaller than they should be. If/when I find a Safe-Arc machine in my price range I'll try to snag it. In the meantime the sandpaper was cheap and readily available and got the shoes to fit the drums far better than they did before the operation.

Having drums that have been turned a bit, and not all the same, I've been interested in this subject. Haven't found a ePay deal on an arcing machine in my budget so. . . I believe from what I've read that you actually want the shoes to be arced to a slightly smaller diameter than the drum. I found some sticky back sand paper at my local hardware store that was fairly thin stock. Can't recall the exact thickness at the moment, but I did take the calipers to the store with me when I was looking. I cut lengths of it to be about the circumference of each drum and stuck them in. Then I simply rubbed the shoes for each drum against the sand paper in the drum until they contacted evenly. Pretty unscientific and probably no where near the official specification for arcing shoes. But it did allow me to use the Amco tool and get a pretty good fit which I was not able to do before the sanding operation.

I like that caliper/dividers method of looking at the shoe adjustment. Maybe you should add that post as a new thread in the technical archives area. . .

I hadn't seen that particular filter before. Looks like a good one for bypass applications with its 10 micron media and 1 to 3 gallons/minute flow rate. I'll have to re-think my plans for what to do after I run out of my stock of disposable canisters, this looks like a really good option.

Paper/cardboard is a pretty good insulator if dry. Wax can protect against moisture. And we are only talking about 6v here. So if you are on a budget, cut some cardboard from the inner tube of a roll of toilet paper or paper towels, soak it in candle wax and install. Shouldn't cost you more than the time to scrounge the materials from around the house.

No, if I come (fairly good chance) it will be in the Plymouth. For just getting somewhere I often hop on the freeway. Right lane at 60 or so MPH. But I've found that a lot of people don't want to take their older vehicles on the freeway at all so I figure I ought to ask.

In my new (only 10 year old) car it seems I need to have some music on. If not the radio then a CD or the MP3 player. Awful quiet and odd feeling otherwise. With the old Plymouth I have no radio or MP3 player and don't miss it, I just like listening to the sounds of the car itself.

Looks like garages could be subject to other problems: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26159110

Certainly that is an option, but please use steel and steel pop rivets to cut down on the additional corrosion you'd be getting with dissimilar metals.

Yes. My wife and I have pretty much the same reaction when we see someone pulled over: Wow!, that person must really have been doing something really egregious. That reaction is based mostly on what we see people do everyday that should get tickets but somehow they seem to get away with.

I'm finding the bias ply tires available for my narrow 17" rims only seem to last for 10K to 15K miles which works out to 5 to 7 years with the number of miles I drive per year. Must be a conspiracy by the manufacturers to have them wear out at the same time as the rubber officially ages too much. I will be considering radials (there is now one brand available in the size needed) next time.

Tool I have is same as shel_ny posted. But you will need to remove the manifolds to do the job. It has been a long time, but I think you may have to remove the valve to remove the spring which means pulling the head too.

The '33 Plymouth used studs instead of bolts, but I think the block holes are the same size and thread as later engines. Here is a list of the studs used for 33 and you can follow the links on the studs to the description of what they are. Looks like it is 3/8-16 for the block. . . http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group7#600794

I asked a Wix representative about the micron rating of the old canister style bypass filter. Turns out that depth media filters don't really have a micron rating. They will capture sub-micron particles but may also let pass some larger stuff. Guess that is why the people who are serious fit their engines with both a full full paper media filter and a by-pass depth media filter.

Glad you got it fixed. But $360? Ouch!

From your serial number, the look up tool on my page at http://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin returns the following: Serial Number: 12970563 Found in range: 12906701 to 13066238 Serial: 63863 of 159538 Year: 1952 Make: Plymouth Model Name: Special DeLuxe or Cranbrook Model Code: P23C Plant: Detroit Engine: 6 cylinder 217.8 cu.in. L-head Wheelbase: 118 1/2 inches

Way back when before our family could afford a car with air conditioning my parents tried one of those things. Didn't even make one full crossing in summer from Southern Arizona to Southern California before the decision was made to take it off and roll down the windows. The person sitting right beside it got some cool air but everyone else in the car sweltered. At least with the windows down everyone got equal cooling as the sweat on your skin evaporated. I figure if it didn't work in the dry desert heat it doesn't work anywhere, just for show. The evaporative/swamp cooler we had on the house worked pretty well but that moved a whole lot more air through the house than the car cooler moved through the car. Different beast altogether.

Apparently you haven't worked on too many cars built more than 50 years ago. From my page on rear axle seal repair is a brake drum puller: