James_Douglas

I am still leerly as to what caused the orginal SOL to fry the points in it. Once I use the car for a couple of months, I wil then rest easy. Best, James

An update on the ongoing OD drama... As you may remember, I replaced al the wiring wit the best stuff made. I also put in a NOS relay ($125). I tried the car with second solenoid George sent me and a 20 AMP fuse. The fuse blew. My last 20 AMP one I had on hand. I then removed the solenoid and put in the NOS Solenoid I purchased ($200) and a 30 AMP fuse. The car has been working on the last 4 rides. Today I stopped at an auto parts store and picked up some 20 AMP fuses. Tod sent me some documentation that shows that Plymouth specified a 20 AMP fuse. I figured I would try one with the NOS Solenoid and see if it would blow. It did not. So the second solenoid George sent me will not work on a 20 AMP fuse. It did not work on a 30 AMP fuse either with my old wiring. It does engage when tested from a battery. The lesson learned is that unless you follow the factory instructions to test one of these solenoids, just because it will work when powered, does not mean it is correctly functional. The books state that you are to use a spring scale and an AMP meter to test the unit. It specifies the pounds pull (or push depending on the year of the unit) and the AMPS drawn for that pull. I have not run any of these tests, but it is clear that the 2ns solenoid George sent does not meet factory (MOPAR or BW) specifications. It powers, but blows fuses. George said when I talked with him that "sometimes I need to put in a 30 AMP fuse as the 20 AMP blows". This statement always bothered me as being dubious from an electrical engineering point of view. I now understand what I think is going on and what the issues are. I am going to compile a big bunch of littrature on the subject over the nex month and I will post it on my web site. I will make them PDF's so anyone can get a copy. I plan on driving the car deep into the California Central Valley over the weekend and i will see how things are working. Best, James

I am looking at a novel idea... I have the 6Volt fan that I took off the front of the radiator. I also noted that Pera-Cool has some small 1.5"x10"x14" engine oil coolers. I took a look at the front of my car and I have a lot of space between the inside of the grill and the radiator. I was thinking of cutting a 15" round hole in the lower splash pan. Mount the cooler in the hole with the fan on top. Build a little sheet metal housing with a 2" x 16" opening facing the bottom of the grill. I have all the wiring and relays in place from before. When prolonged idling I can kick on the fan. When rolling down the highway or pulling up big hills the ram air will cool the oil. With a smooth top, it will not disturb the air flow to the radiator. It may be over the top but, I could make the sheet metal top a little pan say 2" deep. In very hot weather, I could drop some ice in it (with some screen on it so a hunk does not fly into the radiator) and it would cool the radiator and the oil cooler below. ...thoughts, James

Don, I appreciate your point of view. However, I DID want this thread to be a technical one and not a philosophical one. In my case I want to have my cake and eat it as well. So, back to the issue. What technical things can we do, within the confines of not tossing the entire power plant , to improve the cooling capability of these cars ? James

Norm, In my case, block acid dipped, new core, new everything inside the engine. On the freeway it is fine unless I am pulling up a big long hill. A little bit of a problem in 15 MPH stop and go. I think the stop and go will be fixed with a shroud and sealing up the area around the radiator. The up hill thing has me worried though. James

Eric, How long after the tank was treated did it sit open to the air ? The tank sealants are notorious for not sticking if the tank is not neutralized after it is boiled out and also not allowing it to air dry after the application for several days. If I do a tank with any of the sealants, after getting it back from the shop, I wash the thing out with a water and baking soda solution several times, then rinse several times with tap water. I then put it into a 250 degree oven for 3 hours to dry it well. If it will not fit then I air compressor it dry and then run a blow dryer for 30 minutes through it. When out of the over/dryer and at room temp I treat the inside. Then I let it sit for a week. I will bet that your sealant is not sticking and clogging up your feed. James

Dave, Check the fluid coupling. Take up the mat on the passenger side floor board and take the access plate out. There will be a big plug in the bell housing about 2" in diameter. Remove the plug. Have someone turn the engine over with a wrench on the crankshaft (take the plugs out it will turn easier) and watch the hole for the fill plug in the fluid coupling. Take the coupling plug out and see if the thing is full. You must check it with the hole in the bell housing at about 2 o'clock as that is the correct fill hight. If it is full then the clutch is slipping. If it is not full, fill it with tractor fluid as Frank said and try it again. If it is the clutch, then you need a clutch. Best, James

Guys, I think it would be a good use of forum time for us to start a technical thread here about ideas and thoughts about the things we can do to put a stake in the heart of over-heating issues. I have had issues in slow traffic and when climbing long grades. I am in Northern California and it is not terribly hot or humid. I am worried when I take my car through the edge of Death Valley to the Grand Canyon this September that I could have problems. I have out on a flex-a-lite series 400 fan at their recommendation as this fan pulls more air at low idle than anything else they make including their fancy stainless fans. I use Red Line Water Wetter, as it has helped in tow vehicles in the past, so I figure it can not hurt. I need to get the rubber part atop the radiator which seals the radiator to the hood fixed. I need to seal the sides and bottom of the radiator so all air goes through the radiator and not around it. I am planning on pulling off my cool looking oil filter, the one I dot from Don C, and replacing it with a spin on filter AND putting an oil cooler out in front of the radiator. The only other things I was thinking about was perhaps using Evans Coolant and perhaps adding a water injection kit that I could turn on to cool the air/fuel charge when in bad traffic on a hot day or when going up long grades. My engine block was ACID dipped so it is as clean as they get and I had a new radiator built with a high performance core. Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject? Best, James

Tod, I loaded Fedora 7 onto an older Fedora Core 4 box I have. It ate the Fedora 4 install. So I flattened it and installed a clean Fedora 7. That worked except httpd (Apache) would not run not matter what I did. So I flattened it for a 3rd time and it works. I am using it to run TNG Genealogy software (Web Based). However, I may move some more of my stuff from Windows to Fedora 7 as I like what the "gang" has done with it. James

Tod, Got it, Thanks! From Cars to Unix... The last 2 weeks have been very unkind to me technology wise.... James

Don, I have a 12" Number 8 wire going from the battery directly to the Relay. I have a #8 wire going directly to the number 4 post on the SOL. See the wiring diagram in my first post. Glade you had a good trip. I have photos and specs on the fan. I am looking around my desk as I write this for my notes and will post it shortly. James

Tod, Thanks for the info. I am using that very good #8 wire. However, I don't know about the 20 AMP thing. I will get some more 20 AMP fuses on Monday and see if the thing works. The other SOL, the 2nd one from George, did not work yesterday with a 20 AMP fuse. I will try it with the NOS SOL I have installed now. The odd thing is that ALL the book sources state that testing the SOL with the plunger up against something hard to simulate the Pawl pushing against the control ring prior to dropping in , should see 28 to 34 AMP's. If that is correct then how can the circuit work with a 20 AMP fuse ? Also, that does not account for the current rush-in. That is the odd duck issue. I guess I will know more in the AM when I try a 20 AMP fuse with the NOS SOL. BTW, The kick down in 2nd is working. I was coming up the hill past "The Cliff House" in 2nd gear OD and hit the button on the shifter and the thing dropped into 2nd without any hesitation what so ever. I guess it need to be under a load. When I tried it yesterday on relatively flat ground it did not want to shift down in 2nd. Tod, one last thing. If you get a chance, would you take a photo/scan that page from your book. I am putting together a definitive collection of documentation on the BW-OD in one big PDF file. I would like to include it. Best, James

Randy, Thank you for your kind offer. I have all 3 of the Chrysler books on the BW overdrive in PDF format and I have printed them. I also have the BW version which is about 20 pages. I also have a very unique auto electric book from a correspondence school from 1946 and it has several pages on the BW overdrive. The SOL shaft engagement is fine or it would not work at all. The problem now seems to be the size of the fuse. Do you have anything which definitively list the fuse size for the relay ? Best, James

I decided to start a new thread as the last one was getting to long. I also have hit a milestone of sorts so... Today I testing the car with the updated wiring, the new NOS relay, and the 2nd SOL that George had sent. When I tried it, it blew the 20 AMP fuse as soon as the Governor hit 27 MPH. Just like it did ever since he sent me the replacement SOL. Well, I had run out of 20 AMP fuses, so I stuck a 30 AMP in AND changed to my NOS SOL. This combination worked. Note that a 30 AMP fuse blew with the old relay and the second SOL, it was not just fuse issue. I have a pile of blown 20 and 30 AMP fuses from last week. Now do keep in mind that all the wire is new and better than you get in just about anything. I mechanically crimped and soldered all connections. I check every wire for resistance and all wires are below 0.3 ohms. I also used #8 wire for the SOL power circuit. Nothing smaller than # 12 was used anyplace. The modern relay replacement for the mechanical kickdown switch works. Although it does not seem to want to work in 2nd over to 2nd normal. I think that the engine is not releasing enough torque to allow the pawl to back out. However, it seems to work in 3rd over to 3rd normal. It also worked, using Pete's trick, of running up in 2nd OD and then as I shift into 3rd press the momentary push button on the end of the shifter. It drops into 3rd normal as I let the clutch out. I am going to stick Georges second SOL in the car in the AM with the 30 AMP fuse and see if it works or not. The books talk about the SOL using between 28 and 34 AMPs when bench testing them. However, I can not find anything definitive on what the factory said was the correct fuse size. I have seen a 1948 Studebaker factory wiring diagram that showed a 14 AMP fuse to the main relay. If anyone has an original MOPAR manual that has an OD in it, can you check to see what fuse the relay takes ? Thanks, James

Here is thew wiring as of Friday Night. Note use of 2 relays to replace the kickdown switch. James

David, If you get a GOOD selection of 6 volt condenser's and play with then until you get it correct the points will last a good 15K miles. The problem is finding just that perfect condenser that is matched to the distributor, wire resistance, and coil. James

Anyone, other than Pete, running and OD with the kickdown switch removed in favor of one of the shifter mounted push button's ? I need to finish the wiring this afternoon as the NOS parts are do in tomorrow. James

ibid to that ! James

Everything you folks have suggested I have done/tried. It is down to two things that may be wrong: 1. I used the shaft from the old SOL to move the Pawl in and out of the control ring. It does not slip in nice like I would expect as each one of the six cutouts on the ring goes by. I turned it by hand turning the crankshaft while pushing in on the pawl. I also had to run back and forth the lockout lever several times before I could get the pawl to engage. 2. The SOL seems to be very sensitive to voltage/current. (E=I/R) When I press the SOL case directly onto the positive side of the battery and use a 10" length of #10 wire to complete the circuit it works fine. I hold it down and the wire does not get hot. SO...I am going to call "The Great George" and ask him if he can turn the output shaft on one of his transmission on the bench while trying to pucs the pawl in and see if he gets his to engage on each step on the control ring. I need a qualitative answer to how that pawl goes in to know if I do or do not have a problem. As to the second issue. I have a NOS SOL, NOS Auto-lite Replay, and a NOS kick down switch on my desk or incoming. I also ordered 200 feet of Cross-Linked Polyethylene SXL automotive wire. I got 30 Feet of # 8 for the power feed. This stuff is the best of the best of auto wire. Much better than the PVC in the Q&A of the copper as well as able to take 2 time the heat. I am pulling out the wiring harness and going to rebuild it again with the new wire. I will run resistance checks and log them of each wire when finished. I also found a set of specifications for the SOL. I will run the test on both the 2nd SOL George sent as well as the NOS one. I will then put it all back in and see what happens. Look for another update around Friday. James

I had them (ECI) build a disk conversion for my Desoto. I use the stock MC. I just removed the valve inside the back of the MC. One BIG socket and an impact wrench and off she comes. I then use a 2 Pound for the front and a 10 for the back. Works like a charm. The proportioning valve works well as well. I can make the car pitch over in hard braking or not just by adjusting it. I have it so it brakes with just a very slight forward pitch over. Nice and even. James

Pipe wrench, carefully...James

Pete, I am sorry to head you are having troubles. I know how much work you have put in and I can only guess how much you and your son want to make the trip in the car. A quote from my car alignment book: " Likewise, two misalignment factors, each of which alone would create instability, may cancel out each other, with the result that the vehicle has stability when in motion. In such a case, the correction of only one factor might remove the counteracting force with the result that the vehicle would loose its stability." Sounds like your part replacement may have triggered the above phenomenon. Even though there is nothing the alignment shop can do about bent parts, make sure they do the "steering axis inclination" and "toe-out on turns" checks so you can know if anything is bent. Best, James

Look here: http://www.dacoglu.com/Rebuilt_Throttle_linkage.jpg No issues...James

There is an article in the Sunday NY times on the Plymouth on Tulsa. Page 18.

Norm, My Desoto was priced at $2283 in October 1947. The gurus of inflation say that the inflation rate from 10-1947 to 1-2007 is 780.7% So, my Desoto in today s dollars would cost $20,106.38. Makes you wonder.... James