lizmcl527

Thanx, all. I tapped on the generator a bit with a mallet but didn't seem to get any results. I also listened to the VR with a stethoscope, expecting to hear at least some kind of vibration or hum, but nothing. It certainly seems like the problem is in the generator itself, so we'll take a closer look this weekend...

My '41 Dodge D20 -- a Canadian "Plodge" -- has developed an annoying electrical issue. It used to start right up and the ammeter would kick over to + to indicate a charge, and off we go. But now it starts up and the ammeter just sits there, leaning a bit to the - side until I let it run for five or ten minutes and then, if I'm lucky, the charging circuit kicks suddenly to life, and finally, off we go. Sometimes I can run it for fifteen or twenty minutes and it doesn't start showing a charge, so there we sit. No fun. My first thought was a bad regulator, so I've replaced it with one of the new-manufacture ones from Bernbaum's, but no improvement shown. The generator I bought as a rebuilt about ten years ago, and it now has about 15000 miles on it. I've checked all the wiring to and from the generator, battery, and regulator, and everything seems OK, I did remember to polarize the new VR when I replaced the old one. Before I bite down and take the generator out of the car to check the brushes, can anyone think of any other issue that might cause this? And if the brushes aren't that bad, anyone got a handle on a good GDZ-4801-A generator? I don't have a decent rebuild place nearby and I don't have the kind of tools I'd need to try and do it myself. Many thanx for any thoughts!

The 671950 has arrived and is identical to my cracked original -- and interestingly, the only number visible on it is 1124780, so as Sniper hypothesized, that must indeed be a casting number. It looks like the original had a mismatched bearing applied to it at some point before I got the car, but I have the correct 658998 in hand and will hopefully be back on the road soon. Thanks to all who helped out!

Didn't see that listing -- thanks. Mine doesn't have that bossing at the top of the casting -- it's straight-sided, like this photo (not mine, but also listed on ebay as a 671950. The dimensions look right, though. I'll take a chance and see how it goes. Many aspects of this car have turned out to be not quite what the parts manual say they should be, so it's been an interesting adventure.

Nope, doesn't have that third projection aside from the two spring ears. Mine has just the two ears. I don't have a cellphone or a digital camera (last person alive who can say that) or I'd post a photo of mine -- it looks like the 671950 I see on a couple of eBay listings, but I'm wondering if there's some random weird Canadian size difference between that and the one I have. I've gotten caught out on things like that before.

Hmm. Stamping on the piece I have is not 1124787 -- on closer look it may be 1124780 or 1124786, but definitely not 7. And I'm not getting any hits for that number anywhere. On the opposite side of the piece there's a triangle-in-a-circle mark, a 5, and the DPCD logo, so it seems like an original Mopar/Chryco part and not aftermarket. Inner diameter of the sleeve is 1 1/4., assembly is 2 1/8" high, width at the widest point of the spring ears is 2 7/8".

Getting some clutch work done on my '41 Dodge Kingsway (Canadian-built) and have run into some oddities that don't match up between what's on the car and what the parts book says should be on the car. I have a cracked clutch release bearing, showing part number 1124786, which has been on the car since I got it (fourth owner since 1941, so who knows what went on) but the parts book calls for 671950. The release bearing on the existing sleeve has a larger inner diameter than the bearing I got with the 9 1/4 inch clutch kit (9 1/4 plate has been on the car since I got it) and wouldn't fit the 1124786 sleeve in any case. I can get a 671950 easy enough, but not so much luck with a 1124786, which seems to date to 1937 or so. Has there been some kind of random parts swapping going on deep in the car's past, or was this a common switch? Can I use the 671950 sleeve that the parts book says should be there? Transmission is non-Fluid Drive, and I have no reason to think it isn't the one that came from the factory. Thanx for any advice!

I use my 1941 Dodge D20 as a daily driver except during the winter and during inclement weather, and generally put about 2300 miles a year on it. The engine, a 218 Canadian long block, was rebuilt in 2012 at 92030 miles, and I'm just getting ready to lay it up for the winter at 101473, so that's 9.443 miles in four years since the rebuild. I use maybe half a quart of oil between changes, and get about 18 miles to a gallon.

Thanx all for the suggestions -- the nearest radiator shop to me is fifty miles away, but he may be an option. The leak seems to be right at the inlet tube, so possibly a good solder job is all it'll take. In the meantime, I'm going to just bypass the heater for the time being. When I tried to start the car the other day to back it out of the garage to do that, the accelerator return spring chose that moment to break. That's going to be more of a pain that it should be to fix -- the arrangement on my car in no way matches what the parts book diagram says it should be. When a previous owner installed a spin-on oil filter arrangement, they removed the bracket where the stock return spring went, and bolted that bracket onto the starter pedal lever in place of the throttle pickup pin, and then replaced the stock spring with a spring about 7 1/2 inches long, with three coils stretched out to make it fit, winding it thru the maze of tubing that feeds the oil filter. Finding a similar spring has proven a lot more difficult than it ought to be -- I've been reduced to pawing thru old bins in the back of hardware stores. Maybe it's time to just lay the car up for the winter and come back to it in the spring....

My Mopar Deluxe No. 36 heater has finally begun to drool and dribble along the inlet side -- not a lot, but enough to trickle down the floor mat after the engine's warm -- and I'm resigned to the idea of pulling it out and sending the core out to be repaired. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good shop to perform this kind of work -- I don't mind mailing it off somewhere, since it's about time to lay up the car for the winter anyway, but I'm wary of just using the first place that shows up in the search results. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanx!

This worked for me -- it's sold for a 1940-48 Chevy, and the knob isn't quite identical, but it works. I had to cut off about a foot, but otherwise it was an easy install.

I got under and got a good look at the mounts -- not easy for me, because my eyes are quite bad -- and while they don't appear to be cracked or catastrophically failing, they do look a bit squashed and compressed. I had thought they were replaced when the engine was rebuilt three years ago, but in looking back on the paperwork, I don't see any documentation for that so I'm going to assume they go back at best to when the car was first restored in the '70s. I've also had a bit of judder on pulling away in first gear, which would seem to fit in with all this as well. I've gone ahead and ordered a new set of mounts, a new bearing and a new pilot bushing. I'm a bit concerned about what the clutch disc and pressure plate will look like -- those were also new 8000 miles ago -- but we'll see. Thanx for the help!

Rear motor mounts look tight, and I couldn't budge them to tighten them further, so I think they're OK. Going to look up that clutch article -- thanx. Only 8000 miles seems like kind of poor durablity for a clutch release bearing, but who knows what the quality is of the stuff that's out there these days.

I've been getting in a lot of miles on my '41 Dodge Kingsway -- the Canadian rebadge of the Plymouth P-11 with a long-block engine -- and lately have noticed some untoward noises that I'm looking for some guidance on before I turn them over to the mechanic. The first is a clanking sound I'm hearing from somewhere toward front end -- a heavy clank like a manhole cover -- which occurs on shifting gears. It appears, not always but often, when I depress the clutch and will sometimes continue after the clutch is engaged before going away. The second is a faint hissing sound that is noticeable when I'm depressing the clutch -- this is not the usual rushing-air sound from the opening of the pedal floor seal, it's in addition to this, and can also be heard when the car isn't in motion. It isn't loud, but it's new and noticeable. The third is a jingle, like loose washers on a bolt. I had the radiator out earlier this week for an unrelated issue, and thought at first there was a bolt that didn't get tightened. But I've gone around and tightened everything I could find and it's still happening on occasion when I hit a bump in the road. Sometimes it can be heard when shifting gears. I thought it might be the throttle rods rattling, but they don't make that particular sound. Nor does the rod from the accelerator. I don't see any loose washers anyplace, but that's the best description of what it sounds like. (I even made doubly sure it wasn't something really stupid like my keys rattling against the steering column.) Because all this seems to be tied to the clutch, I'm suspicious of the release bearing. It has about 8,000 miles on it since it was installed three years ago, and came from Bernbaum. But before I go and order a new one, does it sound like I'm on the right track here? Thanx for any thoughts!

Speeds right up when I pull the wiper hose off, slows down when I hook up the gague. Very strange. Here's one thing I just noticed -- the choke was hanging up on the screw used to connect the choke control cable. Not completely, just enough to keep it from opening all the way. I tightened this down and filed the screw head enough to give it clearance, and now the choke operates normally. Vacuum has improved a bit from this -- it's now at 19 at 750 rpm, with the needle bipping a little bit but more stable than it was. The idle is smoother, but when I try to slow it down to 550ish with the screw it stumbles and misses. I don't have a compression tester (yet), but the last time it was checked, about 3000 miles ago, everything was normal.

Dwell was right on the button at 38 degrees and absolutely steady.

Idle is rough until the engine warms up, with an occasional miss. Plugs look fine -- no fouling that I can see. No dark exhaust or heavy gas smell, but it spits a little condensation out the tailpipe until the engine is warm. Occasionally I'll get a backfire out the tailpipe when accelerating from a stop -- not a bang, more of a "chuff." I'll check the choke and throttle linkage later today. No Fluid Drive on this car -- it's a Plymouth-bodied Canadian Dodge, so regular transmission is used.

I'm suspicious of the vacuum advance -- it wasn't replaced at the time of the rebuild, and I have an NOS replacement on the way that I'm planning to try. Timing is still where it was when the engine was rebuilt. When I pull the hose from the wipers off to hook up the vacuum gague, the RPM increases -- which would be consistent with a vacuum leak somewhere. right?

Not real happy with my gas mileage (11-12 mpg) these days in my '41 Plodge, so I've been thinking about what might be going on. I thought maybe I might be idling too fast so I hooked up a tachometer and was getting about 750 rpm. Checked the vacuum, and I'm getting a wobbly reading of about 15-16. Tried adjusting the idle screw on the carb, but that's as good as it gets. Engine is a Canadian long-block 218, with about 5000 miles on a full rebuild. What sort of readings *should* I be getting under ideal circs?

Just back from a sixty mile drive, and it ran like a champ up the hills and down again. I did notice, however, when fooling around with it the other day, that the plug wires were looking ratty, and found that the cap terminal for cylinder 6 was quite visibly blued and corroded, like it had been arcing. These were the wires that came with the car when I got it three years ago, modern carbon-fiber ones, and after reading thru some of the archives here I noted that a lot of folks recommend going with copper wire, so I put on a set of those before heading out. It didn't particularly improve things from what they were after the plug replacement, but I could see that terminal going bad fairly soon, so better now than later. I ran into a rainstorm about a quarter of the way along the trip, and discovered that my windshield seal leaks -- as in, my ankles are soaked. Evidently I forgot to finish tightening the garnish molding when that seal got replaced. Oops. I can assume, though, that my vacuum is just fine since the wipers worked as well as can be expected.

Well, I started the day by swapping out the Champions for Autolite 303s. The Champions were a little bit grey brown, but not choked with soot or anything -- however, they were gapped by the engine rebuilder at .030, while the original service standards call for .025. I gapped the Autolites at the latter size, which translated right off the bat into more power. I took the long way around driving to work this morning, and didn't notice any real problems. Took a couple of moderate hills from a stop without incident, but the real test will come on the next long drive, which, weather permitting, may be next Monday. But so good so far.

Simple solutions are always my favorites. That's the first thing I'll try.

Definitely missing and losing power. The first time it happened I thought a wire had fallen out of the distributor cap (happened to me once last summer) but all connections were tight. Plugs are Champions. Definitely not burning oil -- I haven't added any since my last oil change 2000 miles ago. One thing I noticed when I got home from my trip was that the rotor was visibly pitted on one end of the contact -- it was a generic Chinese part installed at the time of the rebuild. I replaced it with a NOS Auto-Lite I had handy and noticed an immediate improvement in overall engine power, but the hesitation when warm wasn't affected. Seemed odd a rotor should wear out so fast. The coil wasn't replaced at the time of the rebuild -- I have no idea how old it is, but I doubt it's original. The car was a daily driver in Nova Scotia for over twenty years, and I imagine it got a replacement coil at least once. All the vacuum hoses were replaced at rebuild, and the guy who did the rebuild (Columbia Classic Cars up here in Maine) said vacuum looked okay at the time, but possibly something might have gone south since then. I was driving home from work this afternoon and it started sputtering up a hill after running for five minutes, so whatever it is seems to be getting worse. Not a bad sputter, but clearly one that shouldn't be there.

I've finally got my brake problems in my '41 Dodge Kingsway D20 (Canadian Plodge) sorted out -- replacing the hard lines did it -- but now the engine's developing an issue. It runs like a champ for about thirty miles or so, and then starts to randomly hesitate going up hills -- but only those hills I start up below about 30mph or so. If I've got a good momentum, 40 or 45mph or so, I can usually make any hill without much trouble. But if there's a stoplight at the bottom of the hill, watch out. This is very new -- I took a 120 mile drive over the weekend, and only really noticed it after about 45 minutes of driving thru hilly country. My engine is entirely stock -- long-block 218 with a D6A2 B&B carburetor and a new rebuilt fuel pump installed last fall. The engine was rebuilt last year, and now has about 2800 miles on it. Starts fine, idles fine, runs fine until it starts in with the sputtering. I thought the problem might be the accelerator pump link being set for the wrong season -- I moved it from the "winter" to the middle hole after the trouble started -- but that doesn't seem to have made a lot of difference. The fuel filter has about 2800 miles on it, but doesn't look especially gloppy. The fuel tank is new, installed at the same time as the engine rebuild. I'm running 87 octane gas from a pump which doesn't have an ethanol sticker on it. Thoughts or theories?

The right rear shoes were dragging before replacement of the brake line, but seem fine now -- I just took a 13-mile drive at 40mph, and the drums are all comfortable to the touch. The right front drum is a bit warmer than the others, but that's usually the case, I'd think, given that the manifold is throwing off heat on that side. There's still more pressure at the pedal than there was when I started, though -- not enough to lock anything up, but it's accumulating. It still feels like if I drive far enough, I'll start locking.