blueskies

The help it go faster on the salt flats... Pete

Bob- The Willys is down for brake work, the old master clylinder blew it's seals and leaked all the fluid... Been busy with life so haven't spent much time with the wagon since May in Moab. It is a low budget project, so tinkering on it as funds allow (which isn't much). Waiting for a new master cylinder to show in the mail to get it back on the road. How is your new house coming along? Hope you are settling in to the aftermath in a positive direction... Pete

Howard- I feel your pain, and I am sorry to see your Plymouth go. It is hands down the nicest '49 Plymouth out there. I hope you don't regret selling, I wish I still had mine... Pete

Bob- My son Joseph loved the bug deflector when we were in Tulsa, I hope you can find another... Pete

My old '50, dual smithys

Bob- If there is anything I can do to help with your new plans, let me know... Pete

Joe- The trick is finding a momentary switch that is normally closed. Most switches are normally open. As mentioned, the switch breaks the ground circuit. The only switch I could find that was small enough to fit in my shifter was normally open, so I used a relay to reverse the function of the switch. Pete

Ed- I did not have the factory signal wiring stuff on the car- I had one of the aftermarket signal switches, and the wires ran along the column in a length of plastic wire loom. I have not seen the factory wire cover, but that sounds like the way to go... Pete

Yes, the wires were visible, they ran out of the end of the shifter handle, down under the column, and up under the dash. But, they weren't very noticeable, and I couldn't see them from the driver's seat... You can barely see them in these pics- Pete

Joe- I mounted the kickdown switch on the end of the shifter handle. Works great to "split shift", giving you five forward speeds. You can read about what I did here: http://www.50plymouth.com/05-tra/tra.html Scroll down toward the bottom of the page for the kickdown stuff. Count the shifts in this clip: Also, if you haven't already downloaded the Borg Warner manual from the downloads section of the P15-D24 site, you should. It has the best troubleshooting guide and factory wiring diagram. Pete

I used the same Ford 12v coil supplied by Langdon, in an Obrien Truckers cover. The cover completely covered the coil. I had to "clearance" the inside of the coil cover to get the Ford coil to fit inside. The body of the coil fit inside fine, but the rib at the top of the coil didn't fit by just a bit. So, I used a dremel to remove some of the aluminum to get it in there. I never had any issues with the coil overheating in the 16,000 miles I put on the car, and as far as I know, it is still working fine somewhere in Texas... Sorry Howard, I sold my original distributor a few weeks ago... Also sorry to hear you have had so much trouble with your Plymouth... I hope you get it sorted and on the road soon. Pete

Our thoughts and prayers go out to you Bob, glad you are ok...

This was posted on my Willys forum a few days ago... A tree blew down in the tornado that passed through Chatanooga... crushed the truck...

Don, I removed the post after you offered to buy... Pete

Cleaning out my garage, just posted a thread in the classifieds. Not sure how many look there so I thought I'd post a link here. http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?p=244704#post244704 Lemme know if you see something you like... Thanks, Pete

I saw a pic of my old ride in one of the HAMB forum Roundup threads, still looks the same. Got an email from Michael yesterday, said the car made the 300 mile trip without issue. Happy to hear he is using the car as I would have... ROAD TRIP! Pete

Happy to see this post Bob, and happy to hear Dale is doing well. Looks like the coupe is coming along nicely too.... Pete

Yep... the tip has a flare on it with a lip, so that once it is pulled through the hole, it stays put. Pete

The area toward the front of the hood, on the sides, where it curves downward to the grill is where I had issues with metal to metal. Maybe it was because the hood/front clip weren't perfectly aligned, don't know. The first road trip I took in the car, I was on a rough freeway for about a hundred miles. The hood moved around enough to rub a couple of the bumpers, shearing off the rubber tip that goes through the hole in the body. The rubber fell out, and chipped the paint. I replaced the rubber, and it did it again. After that, I added the additional bumpers all the way down the sides, and it was fine. Pete

I had a hellava time getting my hood to fit right with the fenders... never did get it perfect. I think the passenger fender was set too far back, and I didn't want to change it. I also found that the original hood rubber bumpers weren't up to the task of keeping the paint from chipping, so I installed new ones about every 8 inches down both sides so that there was no way for metal to contact metal. Your car is looking great Joe, looking forward to seeing the finished product. Pete

Hey Joe- Happy to hear you have your flatty running again! Now to post a vid clip so we can hear it... I miss the sound of my old '50... Pete

All my best to Dale, hope to run in to you two again someday... Pete

There is a great Borg Warner overdrive manual in the downloads section of this site. It has the best troubleshooting guide and wiring diagrams too. Here's what I did with mine: http://www.50plymouth.com/05-tra/tra.html

That took a bit of head scratching... I let the smoke out of the motor controller in about 5 minutes of "testing" circuits... I used a relay to cut the power when they hit the park position. The motor is from the back of a Tahoe, so it is not very fast, but fast enough for the wagon. Pete

Dodger- I have been driving my wagon quite a bit, and sorting out "issues" as they come up. I have redone the rear axle mounts, new rear brakes, rebuilt the carb, tuned the engine with new plugs, wires, points, coil, condenser, got the heater and defrost ductwork working, changed all the fluids, worked out some wiring bugs, and misc stuff like getting the door latches to work. Also rebuilt the generator with parts from my old Plymouth generator on the cheap. Fab'd a new windshield wiper motor from a 2002 Tahoe rear wiper and adapted it to work with the stock wiper linkage, It has left me stranded once, and failed to start on two other occasions after long back road runs. But the fix has been simple each time. It has been lots of fun driving it in the snow and in the hills, two places I couldn't drive my Plymouth. Took it deer hunting with my oldest boy, let him drive it all day in the hills. Lots to do though, to make it a reliable driver. I am planning on taking it to the 2nd annual Moab Willys ralley in May, so I need to get busy with all the little stuff that needs to be done. I am helping put the event together, I did the graphics for the event flyer and t-shirts. Probably tow the wagon there on a trailer, too far to drive it without an overdrive... Here is the event stuff: And here's a clip driving through the snow just before Christmas: Others here: http://www.youtube.com/user/idahoblueskies My forum, http://www.oldwillysforum.com, has really taken off with a great bunch of regular users, it's up to 738 members now. Lots of great info turning up there, just like this forum was when it started 10 or so years ago. That's it for now, until it warms up a bit progress on the wagon will be slow... Pete