James_Douglas

A couple of people talk about finding reproduction serial number plates. That would be the black paint with gray (metal) with a cars serial number that is riveted onto the drivers side door pillar between the hinges. Mine is seeing corrosion. I would like to take the original off and put one one that can be read. Where did folks get that reproduction plate? James

I purchased a set of mounts from one of the usual suspects when I put in my rebuilt engine. I ended up with a bad vibration at idle. Don C. has felt this first hand. When I had the car down a few months back to replace the transmission, I sent an old set of front and rear mounts to Steele Rubber. They re-vulcanized them. I put that set in and the idle vibration went away and the running engine sounds/vibrations all dampened out in a major way. I suspect that many of the mounts are NORS and the rubber has gotten stiff with age. If you purchase a set, ask when they were made. If they cannot give you an answer, get a used set and send them in for rebuilding. James

Last year very warm, this year very cold. At least the wind was down... Next year people should get there early. We arrive at 6:30 AM and set up camp. That way we only get our friends with classic cars around us on the top of the hill. Jimmy and his workers don't let in anything after 1972. What does happen down the hill is that those folks drive over the curb and onto the field. They also don't pay their money which the net proceeds go to the Parks Developmentally Disabled Programs. Shame on them! That is a photo of the '47 Desoto Interior. For me Jimmy's wraps up the car dhow season. James

Tod, It is to bad you are not going to make it. Sondra actually has the day off this year as she plugged in a vacation day in January for it. We have the grills going for breakfast and lunch. Next Year ! I hope this is a freak early storm...however, my gut is telling me that we are in for an early winter this year. Best, James

If you get there early, we cook breakfast...look us up. James

Hi Guys, Carb is brand new out of the box Holley 2-bbl (350 CFM) electric choke. All the upper lines are new and I plan on blowing the lines back when he gets the car over to my place. Turns out the fuel pump is for just that year (56) Dodge on the 315 V8 and no one has one handy so it is mail order or Terrill. I am going to the speed shot in 5 minutes to get an electric and a ballast resistor. Best, James Thanks for the PM....

Hi All, Helping a friend with his '58 Dodge (315). The car runs fine then for no apparent reason will start to run rough and then die when at idle. This engine is very tired. We have put on a new Holley 2-BBL (it fit like it was made for the car). We took out the distributor and cleaned everything, however the vacuum can is shot so it is off to Terrill Machine and I tied the plate down so it does not move until we get it back. All new plugs wires cap, rotor and the like. New fuel filter. New coil. Old ballast resistor and fuel pump on car. The only few things I can think of left are: 1. Fuel Pump 2. Tank junk plugging line intermittently. 3. Ballast resistor failing intermittently. 4. Wire in ignition circuit is grounding out intermittently. I had him hot wire it the last time it stalled and it started went two blocks and stalled again so it is not an open 12v problem. Anyone have any thoughts please chime in. James

This Sunday is the Jimmy's Old Car Picnic in Golden Gate Park at Speedway Meadow. http://www.jimmyspicnic.com/ Generally a great day. Last year, about 1000 cars. If you are attending let me know and we will try to save you a space near us. I show up at 6:00 AM and set up. Best, James

Jim, The link below shows my setup for a disk front-drum rear. I did it by the book. 1. Removed internal residual valve from stock MC. 2. Route the separate front brake line from the MC to a "metering valve" then to the 2 pound residual valve then the front disks. 3. Route the separate rear line from the MC to a proportioning valve then to a 10 pound residual vale then to the rear drums. See my Disk-Drum set up here:http://www.dacoglu.com/desotocd/17_Photos_Not_Catergorized/IMG_0022.JPG John at ECI has a very good description of both Disk-Disk and Disk-Drum plumbing here: http://ecihotrodbrakes.com/brake_facts.html One last thought. I have had and I have talked to a couple of people that have had NEW rubber brake lines bubble and burst over the last two years. Because of this on a single MC system I recommend that people consider getting the Pipe-to-AN adapters and use a high quality racing braided hose in place of the normal auto part replacement brake hoses. They also swell much less and you get a firmer brake pedal. Best, Jame

John, I had a discussion with a man, and several other people, at a recent car show on this subject. A cotter pin disappeared and the nut came loose on a tie rod on his car. He noticed the odd steering and checked it before the nut came off. There was commentary to the effect that most of the cotter pins at the retail auto parts stores are cheep stuff that has replaced the higher quality standard stuff of the last 50 years. I did some Internet searching on this topic and have found that others have had issues of late with retail cotter pins. I have decided to order a complete set of cotter pins from a known manufacturer with pins that meet some kind of quality specification. The other alternative is to order an aircraft safety wire plier and a spool of safety wire. I am glad everyone is fine. James

I have a guy who builds AM modulators that will work on whatever voltage and polarity needed. Using an old style Motorola antenna "Y" this unit has a dozen or so frequencies on the AM dial that you can use. The unit has an RCA plug and what ever you play into that plug comes over your AM radio. This is a high end unit with lots of controls on it to match it to your radio. I use an XM satellite receiver as many of the early Delphi units run on 6V and are not ground sensitive. They have a 12V to 6V cigarette lighter plug we just toss out. I also use my iPod and have my collection of WII Victory Disks loaded on it. It is not a cheep solution but it works very well. If interested, contact me offline. James

Tim, I finished by two page sheet on fluid drive fluid. If you send me a PM with an email address, i will send you a copy and you can post it over there for the folks. James

You will be fine. Sondra and I purchased our '47 Desoto with 4.11 gears, spent 3 hours with a shop checking it over then drive it more than a 1000 miles home. Have a great trip. James

The viscosity of the same weight rating engine oil and gear oil are not the same. Don't mix the two up. I have just about every MOPAR and BW reference book there is on the three speeds and BW overdrives. There are inconsistencies as to oil viscosity in the recommendations as I read through them all. The one thing that does stand out in BOLD print in all of them state to not use a Hypoid oil. Hypoid oils are also called Extreme Pressure oils. They are used on gears with beveled (hypoid) teeth. The additives eat brass parts like syncro rings and fine needle bearings like the ones on the inside of the BW overdrive. I use a straight 30W oil in my engine and straight 30W oil in my transmission. Makes it easy to stock at home and easy come oil change time. Some of the books state to use 40w engine oil and some say to use 10w engine oil. Anything between 10w and 40w engine oil is probably just fine. James

They happen to be a standard size available at any bearing house. I have the part numbers someplace. Frank will charge you a lot for them I bet! James

Tony, If it is frozen it will usually work. If it is rusted, then all you end up with is a mess as you said. If you can heat the oil, it helps. James

Thanks Bob, I remember hearing your description of the problem many years ago when someone else had this issue. But my memory is playing tricks on my these days...hence my question. We did not run the car's RPM's up while in high range. I did not want to hurt anything as this drive was a a test drive prior to purchase. It was a odd feeling to run the RPM up in 2nd gear (low range after the up-shift) and just at that point where you would shift to high range the thing goes into freewheel. Someone that was not paying attention could kill an engine when that happened. Thanks again, James

Get a big drum. Put the engine in. Go to the local oil stop and barrow some used oil for a week. Fill it up and let it soak. Take it out and try it. James

Hi All, A friend just purchased a '46 Chrysler. When taking off in low range and accelerating fast it shifts into 2nd gear as it is supposed to. However, if I go right back into the throttle hard and run it up into the higher RPM band it slips out of gear. I have to back out of the throttle immediately. The body feels like the car is free wheeling. Once the RPM's come down it drops back into gear. Has anyone experienced this and know what the problem is? Thanks, James

We used to take a razor blade and cut through the sticker (union jack style cuts) and that was if they try to peel it off they only get a part. James

Mine now works fine. However, I purchased a "rebuilt" unit outright from George Asche for more than $1500 and ended up having to tear the thing apart myself and replace the many parts that were NOT within specifications of the factory service manual. I also had to pull case gallery plugs that were not removed and clean galleries for the shifter rail interlock plug among other things. I would recommend that you find a core and rebuild the transmission and overdrive yourself or act as "general contractor" and look over the shoulder of a willing local shop. Once in the car it makes it very drivable as evidenced by the long trips people on this forum have taken with this set up. Best, James

Mike, Rebuilding the trans is no big deal. Just pay attention to the clearances in the shop manual. I would still try the thin oil first...if it has very low miles the syncro's just may be stuck. James

Hi Guys, My mistake. When I saw the subject of "fluid drive gears" I assumed he had a Fluid Coupling and an M6 in the car. A M6 uses 10W. A 3-speed uses ..... Well that is an interesting question. I have a 2' think binder for the overhaul of my 3-speed and BW overdrive I put together over the course of a year. In it, it has the Chrysler, Desoto, and Plymouth 3-speed rebuilt pages from various years between 1946 and 1958. Funny thing is that I found several DIFFERENT references as to what oil to put into a 3-speed. The BW books say that the 3-speed with BW overdrive should use a 40W engine oil or a SAE transmission (gear) oil of 80W. It also warns against using a Hypoid lubricant in big bold letters. ATF should not be used for the same reasons. My Desoto shop manual shows SAE 10W engine. My Chrysler manual shows SAE 10W engine. May Dodge manual shows 80W gear oil. Now SAE gear oil is not the same thing as SAE crankcase (engine) oil. An 80W gear oil is about the same viscosity as a 28W engine oil. A 10W engine oil is about the same viscosity as a 74W gear oil. Just remember that gear oil viscosity and engine oil viscosity are not the same thing. Unfortunately in our manuals they tended to use one scale or the other over the years and that can be confusing. I run 30W engine oil in mine. I know people that use 10W engine oil in their three speeds for easier shifting. I would run 10W in an old three speed for a few weeks to loosen things up then switch to 30W engine. The real reason I use 30W engine is that I can get one kind of oil for both the engine and transmission and I don't have to think about it. Best, James

Greg, You are a little bit off when you say: "Fluid drive is the intermediary impeller driving stator which drives transmission, no torque multiplication until 52/3 it is the same unit with what ever transmission is bolted behind it." Fluid Drive was Chrysler's name for a "Fluid Coupling". The company that licensed it to Chrysler was called Glypol. A Fluid Coupling does NOT have a stator. It has a driver member and driven member. Fluid couplings are still used in industrial applications. Submarines during the WWII period used them also. In the early 1950's Chrysler came out with something they called "Fluid-Torque" drive. This was Chrysler's version of a modern torque converter. The early units were sealed, but soon had heating issues. Then they used oil common with the engine and transmission. The last incarnation just shared the transmission oil like a modern automatic. Remember that the fluid coupling's and the transmission's are separate things and have separate names in these years. I run a fluid coupling with a 3-speed and a BW overdrive. I used to run a fluid coupling and and M-6 transmission. Looking back on my change from the M-6, if I was to do it again, I would have kept the M-6 and installed a Gear Vendors OD. Expensive yes, but with the time and money I spent on the 3-speed due to vendor issues I would have been better off. Both the M-6 and 3-speed properly rebuilt are fine units and they will last a very long time. I happen to like the Fluid Couplings as they are 98% effective and in city traffic they save a lot of shifting and problems on the large hills here in San Francisco. Also, that 98% came in handy to compression stop the car on mountain roads around Yosemite last week. By the way a modern automatic if it is not a "lock-up" style is only about 93% effective. Best, James PS. I have a bunch of stuff at the link below you can read up on this subject: http://www.dacoglu.com/desotocd/4_Clutch_Fluid_Drive/

Hi Guys, I have been in and out as it is Sondra's Vacation. We have been a day at home then a few days away for three weeks. I will be back in to a normal pattern soon. I will contact those of you that have spares in a few days. The smaller pulley must spin the pump faster. The one one mine is the larger 6.x" version and I am hoping that the 5.x inch version will help with the low rpm cooling. Talk in a few days... James