James_Douglas

I went and tried to order several of them on eBay. They would take the order then an hour or two later I would get an email saying that the unit was back ordered and they refunded the sale. Some 90% of the people selling om eBay and Amazon are just fronts. They have zero inventory. They just take the order and have the items drop shipped and taker a cut. The problem is that these same 90% of vendors do not use real time inventory from their suppliers so until they process the order they do not know if the units is really available. A buddy of mine found a place in the SF Bay Area that actually had a couple in stock, albeit at $75 each. The lesson of this particular episode is do not believe what you see until something is actually shipped or you actually talk with a supplier and they have the part in their hand while talking to you. The internet lies....

yes, I mean the levers on the clutch pressure plate...

The boot pump on my 47 died. I went to get a new one and airtex has them on back order (E8902) they also make another one (Airtex E8012S) but Amazon will not ship this unit to California ! What a pain in the ass! Anyone have a good part number for a 6 volt pass through inline fuel pump that is not airtex? Thanks, James

Just send a core to Terrell Machine to rebuild it. Better pump that a new airtex.... James

This is the classic case of the clutch forks being and incorrect height. Adjust the over center spring first. Then try to adjust the clutch rod. If you cannot get the clearance and it bottoms out then the clutch forks are too tall. If you end up with so much clearance that the rod is too shot (as is my case with the '49) then the clutch forks are too short. This is why I said that the actual clutch forks MUST be accurate. If it is not correct then one spends time chasing ghosts. I am glad you figured it out. That said, with everything new...the adjustment on the fork rod "should" fall into the middle of the threaded range IF the height on the clutch plate is correct... James

The "long wheelbase cars" also called the "large wheelbase cars" used a 5x5.5 bolt pattern. The spindles, the uprights and the control arms are all larger than everything else. I had ECI custom make a conversion. He actually did two. One for me and one for a guy in Texas. They did not put it into production as it took too long and they would not make any money on them. It has worked fairly well except for a couple of things. One is that you have to mill a new disc down on one side some to fit. The other is that on one side they were off just a hair on the dimensions and when the disc pad wears the top edge of the pad does not wear and you can get a little ridge. I take new pads now and trim off a 1/16 to 1/8 off the top of the pad. Some pads are glued high, some low and some just right. At some point in the next six months I am going to pull the car apart and at that time if anyone wants a pattern, I can make one. The upright needs the bolt holes to be drilled out a little for the bolts. The car stops fine for a 4500-5000 pound car. James

Costs for parts have become ridiculous. When I did the rebuild of the '47 about 20 years ago that engine got a NOS cam, NOS Head, and NOS crankshaft. The cam and the head were each about $100 delivered. The crankshaft from NJ to CA all in was $225. I hate to think what people would want for those today. James

Do swing back and lets us know what happened....James

Some time in the next year I will be pulling the 251 in the 1947 Desoto. This cam (NOS) and lifters were all brand new when I put them in. I have not used a high zinc oil. I did check the cam and lifters to make sure they passed a rockwell test. This engine is in the 4500-5000 pound Suburban which at 60K miles of San Francisco City Traffic and 70 MPH highway traffic to and from our place out of town will be an excellent test case as to if we need to worry about zinc or not. When I pull this engine apart we will be able to see how much wear this is and answer the zinc question as it applies to these engines. I am curious as to what I find. James

The second thing to be VERY careful about is when replacing a bushing if it is off as little as one rotation you can toss out the Castor Alignment and may not be able to get it back no matter how far you turn the eccentric adjuster. Why? Because the placement of the control arms sets the inclination of the arm that hold the kind pins. If the relative distance between the lower control arm and the upper control arm is moved then that changes the inclination. On my 1949 Desoto, either the factory screwed up and did not get it right (only six months production on those and it was running very late) or I screwed up when I did mine. I have the castor adjusted with the eccentric all the way to the rear and I just get -1%. Technically just within spec but I noticed I really need more for it to be stable. I am going to pull the nuts on the lower at some point and move the lower control arm one turn forward so that I can get more castor and get the eccentric to be in the middle of that rather small adjustment range. You do not want the eccentric rubbing on one side or the other of the control arm. See the manual or the Imperial Club Lit on this subject and you will see what I am talking about. That is why if they are ok it is beast to leave well enough alone. I doubt your mechanic, unless he/she is 70 years old has any idea what they are getting into with this suspension. It takes a lot more detail than a modern rubber bushing suspension to do correctly. James

Be very careful. You may need to "educate" the inspector. Odds are her or she has no idea of that they are looking at. Let me explain. The 1930 to early 1950's MOPAR's used a "nut and bolt" bearing design. There are no rubber bushings and there are no smooth wall bearings-bushings. The center block of the control arms pivots are in essence a threaded rod. The "nuts" which go into the control arms are threaded on the inside to thread onto those threaded rods and the outside is designed to cut into the control arm like a self tapping bolt. When UNLOADED there is a LOT of play in these type of designs. It was engineered that way. Time and time again I see people pulling the front end apart thinking they have "worn" control arm bushing. When in fact they did not. The bushings are "out of specification" when they have more than 20 thousands of clearance. That is a lot. See the attached PDF and the attached image. Check them yourself and if they are equal to or less than 20 Thousands then educate the inspector. James Control_arm_bushing_clearnace.pdf

The first thing I would do is pull the oil pan and clean all the junk out. While doing that, pull the side covers and clean the junk out of the little oil "pools" that feed the lifters. Junk gets into those pools and can starve oil from the holes feeding the lifters. Then button up the engine and add oil. If you really want to clean the thing out, add oil after the above and add some Amsoil engine flush, a couple of times if the engine is really dirty. I have had good luck with it in cars that have sticky hydraulic lifters and rings that are not moving due to junk in the lands. In fact Amsoil instructs you to use it if switching to synthetic oil. James

I have gotten to the point when I buy parts like master or wheel cylinders, oil pumps and the like that I take them apart and check everything. I have had bad seals, machine swarf, and parts that had hairline cracks in them. Do not trust any part assembly any more. James

As small point but one that is worth mentioning... The Fluid Drive power transmission has nothing to do with the fluids viscosity. It has to do with the fluid velocity. I was corrected in this idea by the VP of Engineering at the corporate successor of Gyrol. He told me that water would be the best fluid in a fluid coupling as long as one had sealed bearings. But since out units need oil... The base viscosity best for a fluid coupling is ISO-10 if the bearings are in very good shape, else use something a little bit thicker like the ISO-32. What is critically important is the Viscosity Index which is the stability of the fluid to stay at its base viscosity when it heats up. James

So, here is an interesting little bit... I noticed on the Master Power brake website that they are selling what they call an improved conversion kit for GM A, F and X bodies. What I noted was in the video. Their new bracket only has a caliper rotational stop on the steel plate at the inboard edge like most of our conversion kits. If you look at the factory stamped bracket they they show next to their new one one can note that the stop sits almost to the center-line of the caliper. You may be on to something Sniper, in fact on to something that a lot of people including myself, may have never given much thought to. Is it just the actual clearance distance and/or is it the clearance distance AND the Moment Arm of where the caliper push's on the stop? https://techtalk.mpbrakes.com/new-products/new-caliper-mounting-bracket-design James ************* The more I think about this, the more I see it in my head. The video showing the stock versus retrofit bracket has helped me to see it in 3D. When the stop is at the inner side of the mount AND it has too much clearance the caliper will cock a little under the braking load. If the outboard end cocks a little it will try to bend the sliding pin. Since my pin cracked right at the last thread on the caliper side of the bracket...that is the exact spot where the flex would take place. A repeated bend and return - bend and return - bend and return would cause the the type of failure I have seen. Ummmmm...

This is something I want to look into. In my case with a steel plate, there is no stop further out on the caliper. In this photo it shows the stop as being at the center of the caliper. Now, is it possible that if the stop is just near the inboard side (steel plate) AND the clearance is too much that the caliper will cock slightly at the top? If that is the case then the upper pin will get loaded and the rotor will see a side load pushing out at the top which would induce more camber which would account for the tire shaving. With a cracked pin, that would induce even more camber...even 1 degree would cause my tire shaving.... Hummm.....

I would have to dig to figure out where I purchased them. It was either Wilwood or Jegs or Summit. Keep in mind that I do not put them in to tight as I do not want to take a change that the threaded holes in the mounting plate get messed up. I also use a lot of anti-sieze on them all the time. The pins do wear from the sliding on them. They can pick up a groove. I have been using this setup since about 2006 or so. I replaced the factory style with the sleeve with the "hardened" version to help with the sliding wear. A close look at the pin shows a narrow band of rust about a 1/16 of an inch below the bolt outer circumference. Like drawing a line from 10 o'clock to 2 'o'clock. That rust band is about 3/32 wide. What that tells me is that the thing cracked at the thread line but not all the way. Then it rusted for some long period of time, then it fractured and failed completely. It could be just a bad bolt. I replaced it a cheap auto parts unit. I am going to replace the other side just for grins. I will keep and eye on it. I will also carry a spare just in case there is something wrong. James

FYI. I do not know off hand if the regular desoto sedans and coupes use the same joints as the Suburban with its larger chassis components... But if it does, there is nothing out there but junk replacements. I had to use three of them in the Suburban. I kept all the old ones as the blocks on the new ones are just not well done. They do not fit the mating side at all well. I ran across a Chrysler Service bulletin from about 1953 where some were shipped that did not fit well and they talk about checking cars as they came in for service and how to ID the ill fitting ones and what to do about it. So the index on those "Detroit" bearing housings are important. I plan on taking the blocks I have collected up and having them machines out or sleeved to fit a modern off the shelf universal. Then I can just swap out the round blocks for the Detroit Blocks. The junk ones were $100 each for a $20 joint with standard round blocks...I think I did a posting on it... James

Wheel bearings are fine. Nothing looks out of place. What I am trying to picture in my mind is the loads, when the brake is applied, if the disc caliper is only being held on by the bottom bolt... James

I use Denatured alcohol. Although many years ago I was with some guys in Lake Tahoe in the fall. We got a very early cold spell and a couple of the classic cars did not have any anti freeze. We went and got couple of bottles of every-clear at a liqueur store as it was late at night. We poured that in. It got down to like 25F that night. The car was in an open air parking lot. Next morning it was fine. James

It has been some years, but I think these were high performance picked up from Jegs or Summit. The stock type uses a sleeve on the HP units the sleeve is machines into the bolt-pin. The type that broke looked like : https://www.wilwood.com/Hardware/BoltKitProd?itemno=230-0619 The stock ones use a sleeve like: https://www.jegs.com/i/Wilwood/950/230-11529/10002/-1 Very odd.... James

The Set Up: For the last year or so I have had a slight clunk in the front right of the '47 Desoto. Usually I only hear it when I am just starting backing out of the garage. I have inspected the suspension and could not come up with a thing. Now, I did not take any of the suspension apart. The second odd thing is that I have been getting a fairly good outer Camber wear on the that same front right side. A lot of camber wear. Today: I pulled off the right front tire today to swap on a better used tire. I am looking into having wire wheels made for the car. Read my wheel hell thread about why. So, since I have the wheel off I decided to pull the caliper slider-mounting bolts and have a good look at the rotor and the pads. I stick in the allen wrench and give it a light tap with a hammer. I use a lot of anti-size compound to make sure those bolts come out nice. As I turn the wrench I notice that the end of the bolt is not moving. Oh Crap! Turns out that the bolt sheared on the last thread. Wow, I have never seen that. No other marks. Nothing looks bent on the threaded plate. It just failed. Standard GM D52 single piston caliper with HP slider bolts with the built in bushing. Wondering: I am now wondering if that top bolt (at about 11 O'Clock) failed, could the caliper cause the brake disk and hub assembly to move enough to cause a camber change when braking and that is what is causing the outboard saving of the tire? I have not wanted to do a alignment check until i get new wheels and tires... This is a new on one me I can tell you. I am going to have to have a drink or two and see if I can get this into my head in 3-D and "see" the load path. If it has done so, I also wonder if it moved the spindle over time (bent it) and that is causing the camber shaving. See something new every day when working on the old cars. James

I have been using Prestone Anti-Rust (Soluble oil) and Water Wetter with nothing else for 20 straight years in the '47 Desoto. If I am going into the mountains in the winter, I add a quart or so of Alcohol for anti-freeze. The Alcohol lasts for a few months. This way, I can dump the water on the sidewalk here in San Fransisco, or anyplace else, and not worry about the pollution police giving me a hard time. My block and radiator look just fine inside, by bore scope inspection last year. Now all that said, 99% of the water I have used in it is San Francisco tap water. This water is one of the most pure municipal water sources in the world with almost no minerals in it. Thank you Hetch-Hechy snow melt. Snake oil or not, this combination works well for me with both factory bushing water pumps and sealed ones. James

On the Desoto, the '49, it was on the top of the frame mid-way down the frame rail on the drivers side. I have never had the '47 Desoto's body off to take a look. James

Tom, Is your car a three speed or an M6? I am assuming a 3 speeds as the weber would not work with the carb wiring with the M6... James