MarcDeSoto

MoPar cars of the 40s had a 17 gallon fuel tank.

You don't mean corks for sending units do you? You probably mean wine bottle corks.

Yes, they said these M-5s and M-6s never wear out, but can develop problems if you are not lucky. Electrical problems are what you hope to have rather than mechanical problems inside the transmission case. I've never heard very much from guys who have the Fluid Torque Drives. I think they came out in 1952. because the fluid drive torque converter used the same oil as the engine, and oil change would use a lot of oil, maybe 11 quarts or so. Are these couplers much better than the pre-52 fluid drives?

yes you got it Adams! the business end of the governor pinion meshes into the a gear on the countershaft of the transmission and turns the governor points at the speed of the car. If the car is going over 14 mph in the high range, the governor points open which cuts off the power of the electromagnet in the transmission relay, which cuts the power to the solenoid and allows the oil pump in the transmission to complete the upshift when you release your foot from the accelerator.

I knew this was going to be kind of hard, but I bet Dodgeb4you would know what it is. Andy, as a former teacher, I'm assigning you to two hours in the detention room.

Looks like that was the perfecto solution for your case with an odd size tank. Why does a wagon need a different tank? That company looks good, but what was the cost?

That's what I thought at first, but no, has nothing to do with the distributor or the oil pump.

Greg, that's actually very good guess! No, nothing to do with king pins and it's not a tool.

Here is my video of my old wiring harness that I took off my 48 DeSoto back in 1984. I carefully labeled each wire with sticky labels, but as you can see about half of them have fallen off and are in the bottom of the box. The new wiring harness made by Egge Machine back around 1984 still has all of the wires with numbered tags. The numbers refer to a sheet they included saying what each number means. Luckily the Egge numbers on the wires are attached much better than my sticky labels!

Here's a little trivia question that might be hard to answer. Can you name this part that I bought decades ago for my 48 DeSoto business coupe? I don't know if I'll ever need it, but if I do, I've got a good NOS MoPar part!

After talking to some pros, the majority are saying to buy the new tank. It looks like the old one and comes with all the trimmings and shipping is free. Marc.

I asked a good friend who owns a nice 30 Model A roadster about a good radiator shop in Orange Co., Calif., and he said he knew one that all the old car guys use, even the ones who own Auburns and Dusie's. He said they do great work, but couldn't remember the exact price, but thought it was $250 - $300. My gas tank doesn't leak, and has never had ethanol gas in it. It did have some gas in it when it stopped running in 1980, and I didn't get around to draining it until about 1988. So it's been empty ever since. My tank is not rusty on the outside because the car was undercoated. It does have surface rust on the inside. I might just buy a new tank kit, but I'm going to wait until I get an estimate from that good radiator shop. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-DESOTO-BRAND-NEW-GAS-TANK-COMPLETE-PACKAGE-SENDING-UNIT-STRAPS-GROMMET/173807433846?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D93d01df8df654912a77e10018282ebbc%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D183175874442%26itm%3D173807433846%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa09f6dc4-b444-11ea-92f2-74dbd180c6b7|parentrq%3Ada61d1db1720abc1c979b0f6fff3905b|iid%3A1

wow! There are quite a few procedures that are required to clean the gas tank before you put the sealer in. There are so many steps, I wonder how many of those steps does a radiator shop do when they clean out a tank? Do they do the whole thing including the sealer, or are there still more steps that you have to do when you get the tank back? Here is the POR 15 method of cleaning a gas tank:

thanks, Sniper! Bernbaum's looks like the way to go for this one.

Did it include all of the trimmings, such as new sending unit, new filler neck, new straps, new clamps, etc.?

This brings back some old memories of working on my first car, a 1950 Chrysler Windsor. I was working on the engine and resting my left hand of the heater box, when Wham! my hand broke through the box. I think I jury rigged it with cardboard and duct tape. Now of course they sell re-pops. I couldn't fin Andy Bernbaum's heater box, but I did find this one on Ebay. Not cheap. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Air-Duct-Chrysler-DeSoto-6cyl1949-1950-1951-1952-OrigStyle-install-ready/272832648001?hash=item3f8617d341:g:XZ0AAOxyNDxRYWvw

I'm debating keeping the original fuel tank on my 1948 DeSoto or replacing it. A new tank with all the trimmings, including straps, filler neck, clamps, sending unit is $500 on Ebay. Or I could remove the old tank and take it to a radiator shop for a boil out and a rust treatment. I've heard bad things about the rust treatments, that the plastic coating they roll around in there comes off with the Ethanol gas. So maybe going all new is the way to go. I don't know what a radiator shop would charge to treat my old tank. Any opinions on this?

Well, I finally removed the fuel sending unit from the trunk of my 48 DeSoto. The sending unit is toast, since it's 72 years old! Ever seen a 72 year old cork that's been sitting in stale gas forever! What is the going price for these sending units. I know Ebay has them for $89 plastic float, and $99 real cork float, and free shipping. Does anyone sell the same thing for less?

Roger, good going there and sorry to hear about your health problems. Hope you recover very soon. I'd love to see pics of your work, since I'm about to do the same job on my 48 DeSoto.

For what it's worth, I have the the original Fluid Drive rebuilding tool kit made by Miller tools for Chrysler.

If you read in the manual to put 10W oil in the fluid drive unit, you read wrong. It says to put fluid drive fluid in there, which they don't make anymore.

Would checking the pin require disassembly of the pump? I will take a look at it, and thanks for the warning.

I went to the garage and tested the fuel pump again. I was doing a couple of things wrong. First, I forgot to remove the plugs on the in and out ports. I tested it again and it does suck air now. I just have to push the lever with a lot of force. My old fuel pump, which was working in 1980 now is frozen and the lever doesn't move.

I bought this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fuel-Pump-Single-Action-1946-1953-DeSoto-6cyl-NEW-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53/142987275025?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I just bought a new fuel pump for my 48 DeSoto. When I used to press the lever on my old pump, it made a sucking sound. Now it just goes down and stops, so I bought a new one. The new one does the same thing. I'm not close to ready to start my engine, so I don't know if I should return it or keep it. Does a new fuel pump make a sucking sound when you push down on the lever?