BIGBAND39

After just buying a '49 Dodge Wayfarer, I have run into a problem with the Fluid Drive. After turning the vehicle on, I can hear a mechanical sound as if the transmission is in between gears. When I go to shift into any gear, I just get grinding. If I turn the vehicle off, sometimes it allows me to shift and other times the noise comes back. This happens only periodically and the transmission shifts as normal others. Any words of wisdom from the Fluid Drive experts out there?

Thanks, Moose! After seeing some of your manifold work, it would definitely be interesting to meet up.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll have to wait until it warms up a bit in order to spot some classics, but that's the route I will take. I'll also call a few local shops and see if they can point me in the right direction. All good ideas.

Thank you for the advice! I haven't found any Mopar clubs locally for this vintage, but I will keep looking. One of the big reasons that I'd like to find someone to do it on the side is that I'd like to learn to weld. It would be great to pay someone to do it and teach me along the way. We'll see how much I luck out on this one.

After doing some searching on here, I have seen a lot of useful information on rocker and floor repair. From the looks of it, with my not having any experience in this area, it seems like a job that would be better suited for a professional. Does anyone know someone in the New England area that does a good job with rust repair? I know about Auto Rust Technicians in Cranston, RI, but I have heard mixed things about their work and they are pretty expensive from my previous experience with them. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any idea how much a few floor patches and some inner and outer rocker repair should cost? I know this thread is kind of useless without pictures, so I'll try to supply some tomorrow.

After crawling under my '53 Meadowbrook, I find myself concerned with the frame even before I get to my inner and outer rockers (even though I can't find inners anywhere). Along the entire length of the frame on both sides, should the underside have a seam that almost seems to be spot welded? If I jack the car up with the jack putting pressure on the seam, it almost seems to give a little. I know this is difficult to envision without pics, but I figured I would start by asking. Thanks for the info!

Well, $12.95 later I purchased a PDF version of the manual. That sure was painless. If only the brake repair job was that easy.

That's an excellent point, Don. I guess I have just been spoiled in the past working on cars that are from the following decade with information readily available online. I did quite a bit of work on some of my old Fords without ever needing to by the manual. Especially with brakes, it's no time to be cheap. Thanks for the help everyone!

"Lockheed" was just the term I needed to get more information after a good search. Unfortunately, most of my searching came up with information on rear brakes. I can't find a picture of a front brake set up with dual wheel cylinders. Short of purchasing a shop manual just yet, came someone give me the basics of how these are adjusted? Would I simply need to adjust them out so I can just get the drum on and then use a caliper to measure the distance from the hub to the brake shoe throughout the length of the shoe? Thanks again.

I just purchased a '53 Dodge Meadowbrook and the brakes decided to give up before I even got her home. Luckily, it was at a low speed and I had no damage as a resuilt. Although I have not actually popped off the wheel yet, I discovered that I am losing fluid from the driver's side front wheel. Not thinking much of it, I went online last night to order a replacement only to find that there is an "upper" and "lower" option. Do the front wheels have two wheel cylinders? Thanks for any help you can offer!