Redmond49

I pulled the horn button wire, disassembled the horn ring bits, taped a few cracked wires and put it back together and it works fine now. I guess it just needed a little love.

The wire from the steering is plugged into the round connector at the bottom of the horn relay; the wire to the ignition coil is on the other connector at the bottom that has a nut that screws down on a threaded post. I have the wire to the solenoid and battery connected to the B terminal, and the wire to the horns is connected to the H terminal.

I've been trying to get the horns to work on my P15 - they did not work at all. So I ran all the procedures in the service manual for diagnosing a horn that won't sound. At each diagnosis step, the horn sounded or the lights on the tester lit up; in this case, the manual says to replace the horn relay. So, I've replaced the horn relay with a NOS one just like the one that was in the car. Now, when I turn the ignition on, the horn sounds continuously and stops when I press the horn ring down on the steering wheel. So, I guess it did need a new horn relay! The wiring diagram shows 4 lines into or out of the horn relay: - Wire to the horns - Wire to the negative ignition coil terminal - Wire to the horn button - Wire to....I'm not sure how to read this last one. In the diagram, the last wire goes across the big black cable that goes from the battery to the solenoid switch; the wire line passes very close to the solenoid switch and then goes on to the ammeter. On my car, this last wire is connected from the B terminal on the horn relay directly to a post on the solenoid switch, and the big battery cable is connected to the same post. And, I have a fifth wire connected to the same post as the negative ignition coil wire. This fifth wire joins a bundle of thick green and red wires that run back through the firewall. I tried disconnecting this fifth wire just to see what happens, but then the horn doesn't work at all. And, the hood ornament light no longer comes on when I turn on the ignition. Thoughts? Is the extra wire the positive ground perhaps? I'm wondering if the extra wire is some hack to get around the old broken relay so that the car would start. But it doesn't look like a hack wire since it seems to be the end of a legit wire that runs back with other legit wires back through the firewall.

That one is awesome.

My '49 has a single interior light, at the rear above the rear seat/rear window. The metal trim ring doesn't appear to have any visible screws holding it in place, and neither did the glass. I just wanted to check the light bulb to see if it's burnt out or not. It appears to have a manual switch on the inside of the B-pillar. How do you get in there to check the bulb?

Faxon Auto Literature also has a huge selection of original and repro manuals. I bought a reprint of the original owners manual for my Plymouth from them - it was actually very informative. I bought the shop manual from Bernbaum's, and it has also proved invaluable. Here's a link to the Faxon stuff for your car: http://www.faxonautoliterature.com/Search.aspx?c=6030

Thanks for the additional explanation. This should get me going

The single middle brake light works perfectly, and the rear running lights also work just fine. It's just the blinkers. From the looks of the blinker unit and the research I did, the allstate unit is probably as old as the car. So in terms of the front, I don't really know if they typically hooked up the front lights as blinkers or not then. I do know that when the front headlights are on, the parking lights up front don't work, and I understand that is per factory specs. Not sure I understand some of the terms - - Are the 'pigtails' the light sockets? - No idea what you mean by "are the bulbs indexed correctly"

At my company car show this fall, there was a Dodge sedan with an accessory on the hood I had never seen. What was this thing designed to do? We were guessing it blocks the sun glare from the hood ornament, but that was just a wild guess.

My '49 has an Allstate aftermarket blinker unit clamped onto the steering column. The blinkers do (barely) work at the rear, but they are very, very weak and they flash very rapidly. In contrast, the tail lights are very bright (as is the center brake light). Any thoughts on why the blinkers flash so weakly and rapidly, compared to how bright the tail lights are? Based on some of the other threads I've read, it sounds like they probably never hooked up the front parking lights as blinkers - is that a valid assumption?

Good to know!

Back in the car. And it works. Hooray! Still have to hook up the defroster part and am waiting for new defroster hoses to come from http://classicmotorworld.com/, but that should be pretty easy.

That's all great information. It's a good blueprint for me, I just drove mine home a month or so ago and am sorting out how far I want to go with fixes, what I'll fix myself, and what I'll have pros do. For the time being I'm just fixing small, easy projects that don't have long time lines.

That was fun reading, and the pictures of the old Dodge in the snow are great. I grew up in southeast Alaska and went to college in Fairbanks - I've driven the AK highway many times between Skagway, Whitehorse, and Fairbanks. Very cool, you don't often see folks using their old cars for more than a cruise. Inspiring!

Is this car your everyday car?

I'm such an instruction follower. Ugh. Thank you for the great picture. I don't suppose you would have a shot of that transmission from the rear? I suspect I am missing a bolt on the lower left hand side at the back of the transmission. A visual would be nice if it's available. Thanks again.

What sort of shape was your car in when you started? It's really beautiful now.

The owners manual says that the filler plug hole for the transmission is on the left side of the transmission. I can't really tell which one it is. Any advice?

This week I took the heater core to a radiator shop and they cleaned it up and made sure it's got no leaks. The bits are all sanded and cleaned up. And the painting has started. I won't let myself start any other projects until this is done, so I'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

That's how mine work - the parking lights go out when the headlights are on.

Thanks for the paint recommendations and the great idea to use a bike inner tube to do a light pressure test on the core. I was thinking of taking it to a radiator shop and then you magically answered the question I hadn't even asked. I love this forum!

Even with the poor exchange rate on our side, it seems to be going both ways. I'm guessing the Panhard PL17 that I saw at the grocery store two weeks ago wasn't sold new in the states!

Yes...here's some pictures of the unit and the motor. I pulled the switch from the car and connected the negative jumper from the battery to the ignition post on the heater switch, and connected the motor to the motor post, and then connected the ground to the positive battery post. The switch works perfectly, both speeds. So I'm thinking the problem is (or was): - The wire from the ignition to the switch is bad. - The engine was just gummed up and required some turning to get it going again. - Installed, the ground wire was screwed to the external metal case of the heater, metal to metal (no paint in that little spot). Is this perhaps not correct? The whole car is ground, but the heater might be insulated from ground due to how it's mounted. Maybe you guys can help me evaluate this one.

Very nice! More questions now that I've had some time to ponder what's next: 1. I was just going to connect the longer hose from the front of the motor to the valve at the back of the motor for now so the coolant will still circulate. Do you guys see any problem with that, or should I cap the two coolant sources at the fittings? 2. Does the motor housing come apart? Greg mentioned he soldered new wires to the motor, but that connection is inside. I can see to get any movement when I try to twist or pull the motor housing. But it does look like there's a seam. Tyson

Last night, I tested the heater by connecting the jumper cables directly to the wires for the heater motor to see if it would run, and it did not, so I read through all your replies and decided to go ahead and pull the heater. The water valve at the top rear of the block is stuck and I didn't want to torque really hard on it today for fear of breaking it - I'll save that for another day. So, I pulled the first hose off and as the coolant poured out I realized (too late) the radiator has quite a lot of capacity higher than the level of the hose, and it became clear very quickly that the valve was stuck OPEN. So I managed to shut the flow off pretty quickly by reattaching the hose. Happily, the drain cock on the front of the radiator was not frozen, so I drained the radiator and then was able to easily remove the heater without any water getting spilled inside the passenger compartment or under the car. So, now the heater is all in bits. It's a model 36, now that it's in the daylight I can actually read the model number. It looks like when the car was repainted with sparkly maroon paint, they did not pull the heater as it's back quarters seem to be wearing it's original beige paint. Once I got it all apart and was able to spin the motor shaft by hand, I decided to try connecting it again to the battery. It runs perfectly fine! I don't think the core has any leaks, but when I was messing with it some liquid seeped out from somewhere other than the two tubes, so I guess I'll take it to a radiator shop to have it tested and cleaned up. @ gregg g: when you mentioned putting "penetrating oil" on the motor shaft, are you talking about WD-40? Thanks, guys, for the info on this thread.