soth122003

Something

I wouldn't either. BUT I would bet 200 on the engine tranny brakes and other components. Joe Lee

A very nice story and a wonderful insight to let her use her hands to see the car. I am reminded of the movie "Mask" with Eric Stoltz, Cher and Sam Elliott. The scene where Rocky Denise (Stoltz) at a camp for the Blind, helps a young girl feel the colors Red, Pink, Green and Blue, using a hot rock for Red, a warm rock for Pink, a cool rock for Green and a cold rock for Blue. Joe Lee

Agee with what Sam is saying. Sounds like the shaft has a little play. Not enough to hurt the timing, just enough to notice. Something to put on the to-do list of future things to fix. Joe Lee

Time to rag on the new guy. Yinz...Yinz? In the south it's Y'all. In Northeast it's Youse guys. In the central U.S. it's yuins. In the western states Yourn. Then there's Cali. Dude. Some of us (just few of us maybe?) might take exception to the introduction of foreign vernacular here. In my previous life I was a Victorian Librarian vernacular specialist. so there. Raggin dun. Between the characters on this site and the manual for your car there should be the answer for the problems/procedure to take care of most of your needs. Joe Lee

But Keith, You're Canadian right? So shouldn't you be using liters?..... Nice pics and seeing as you had a great trip, what's a little extra for the experience. Most great times are worth it. Joe Lee

Hills and headwinds will kill fuel consumption. That and 15-17 mpg is the norm anyway. Next trip plot out a flat land trip and check the mileage. Check the tire pressure as well. A low tire by a few pounds adds up. Of course the lead foot syndrome might be a culprit as well. LOL Joe Lee

If you are doing it yourself, try the local arts and crafts store. They usually have a plethura of different types of material for lots of different uses. They might sell something to make drapes that can be re-purposed to the door panels. Time to think outside the box, since the original source materials for our old cars no longer exists. Joe Lee

Also agree with Sam on this. Quick check is to pull the horn (top of the carb) and take a look. You said it's been five years since the rebuild? Might be time to pull it and clean it. The new gas used today with ethanol will leave a residue in the bowl (kinda like a dried green algae). I pull my carb about every 2-3 years and clean it, inspect it and look for crud in the bowl and ports. Every time I clean it I never fail to find a greenish brown residue from the gas. It cleans out very easy and once done, reinstall and good to go for another few years. Now that being said my car is not a daily driver so it sits for a few days to a few weeks so this allows the gas to evaporate in the bowl and contribute to the problem. A rebuild kit costs about %50=60 bucks so every few years it is worth it. These carbs are not airtight so the gas will evaporate after a few days to a week. That's also why I put an electric fuel pump in to prime the carb before starting. Makes a big difference, so I don't rrrr rrrrr rrrrrr forever trying to start the car. Joe Lee

A quick check of the motor mounts would be a visual check to see if they are mashed, followed by jacking up the bell housing by about an inch and try shifting the gears. If they shift, bad mounts. If not, bent or misadjusted linkage. Joe Lee

This might be a little off topic but the principle applies. Saw this video last night and the man makes really good points of the changes in oils over time. Worth a watch to get a different view point to an old discussion. Now this video addressed the synthetic engine oil, but the same principals can hold true of the old tranny oils vs the newer tranny oils. Just some food for thought. Joe Lee

I pretty much did the same thing for my brake band. My saving grace was I also did sheet metal work while in the military. Changing the band is easy for almost any one to do. The hardest part for anyone (including me) is to counter sink the rivet heads in the material. That was hard due to the type of material the band is made of (soft vs the harder material like metal). I did not have the depth collar to put on the drill bit so I had to use the Mark 1 eyeball, and I just used the bit by itself (no drill attached, just twist the bit to make the counter sink). It worked out all right though. The drill bit tends to grab the material and try to go further than you want it to, and I only went to far on one hole. Kudos to you for a job well done, and the pics will definitely help out others in the same situation. Joe Lee

Since my P-15 doesn't have a cup holder, I bought one of those plastic cup/tape cassette holders that sit on the trans tunnel hump. It holds my soda when I drive and the other holder holds a blue tooth speaker. The tape area hold an old phone that blue tooths the music to the speaker. The last thing that the tape holder area holds is a points file and a book of matches (this doubles as a fire source and a points cleaner and gap setter if I have to adjust points on the fly). I have used this more than once to get the car started after setting in the Florida humidity for more than a few weeks after not being started. Joe Lee

It's not the dash you have to worry about, it's the sensors that will connect to the engine, the air speed indicator, the altimeter, propeller, and the gyroscope that would worry me. LOL Joe Lee

Thanks for words Los. Something else to think on as well is the planned obsolesence of parts and items made today. Make cheap, make it fast and make it not last as long so people will have to buy another to keep the business growing and the money rolling in. Of course when you really think about it, our cars were built like tanks and made to last. So short of crashing due to a flat or blow out, I don't think our cars will take much damage from the tire itself unless your on the freeway doing 70 plus mph then all bets are off. Joe Lee

I'll buy that for a dollar...with an exception. The use of the tire. If it is used constantly like on the every day driving (big rig or car) then you have the heat cycle and the wear cycle working together to wear the tire down inside and out. Tires that aren't used that often will last a lot longer if kept out of the sun, hence wheel covers for the RV tire or garaging your car. Two keen examples of UV damage is the clear coat on car after a few years and plastic in cars that is exposed to the sun. Didn't think of that when I made the comparison. The crux of my statement was with the tire exposed to the sun. 2 ply 10 ply 1000 ply the result is the same. When a tire sits out in the sun the UV rays basically boil the oil out of the rubber and kill the tire. Just takes a while and the common driver does not inspect the cars very well. That's the one thing about the steel belted radial, pull over quick or else. The ply bias tire usually came apart from the rim riding on it an cutting it to pieces. Of course the way every one drives now just changing lanes is an accident waiting to happen. LOL

I have had the tires on my P-15 for about 10 years. When I first got it the tires were crap. Old and cracking on the sides. One night we heard a sound like a shotgun blast. Looked all over, even the neighbors came out looking and we couldn't find any problems. On the way back into the house i saw the car was sitting angled and found the right front tire had blown out at the side. Gaping blow out about 5 inches long. Scared the bejesus out of the neighbors thinking some one was shot. The tires on my RV when I changed them had over 16 years on them. The difference between the 2 was the RV tires had started to develop the sidewall cracking (not big about 1/16 of an inch kinda crackling). That's when you know you have to change the tires. The UV rays from the sun are the biggest killer of tires that don't get much mileage. When I changed the RV tires they only had about 20,000 miles on them. They were the expensive Michellans and had 90 percent of their tread still on them. Hated to change them but a blow out in a front tire of an RV at 60 mph is catastrophic. If you kept your car garaged and out of the sun and there is no sidewall cracking they should be ok. The sidewall is the weakest area of the tire when age is the factor. You can probably pull a tire (suggest the front) and break the bead and inspect the inside for cracking and damage. If none is found reseal and make it a annual inspection. Or you can just change the tires for peace of mind. Just depends on luck, driving skill and pocket book. If you drive interstate a lot change them. Two lane roads and slower speeds your call. Just my 2 cents worth, like most pennies now a days not worth much, but there you go. Joe Lee

For your fuel pump, Rockauto.com has the rebuild kits as well as Summit racing and a few others. Most kits have the ethenal resistant gaskets and seals. As far as the carb, 1. Are the mating surfaces deformed? dinged damaged bent? If yes, then you might try a sanding block on the top part and try to bring it back to flat. Just a little bit at a time and keep trying the fit. There is only so much you can take off. I would not recommend doing the base. And I would not take off more than .010 of material as then you are altering the engineering of the carb and doing more ham than good. 2. If they had heli-coils put in then yes some one put them there and Yes the screws might be to long. You can cut the screws down a bit but not to much. 2 maybe 3 threads at most. and they should work. The screws look original so some one must have overtightened them in the past and stripped out the holes. Steel Screws versus pot metal holes... steel wins every time. As far as the heli-coil about to fall out, Use the right size allen wrench and remove it fully. Clean the hole and coil, use some red lock-tite and re-install the heli-coil. Make sure the heli-coil is not sticking up past the surface. (check the others as well) Let cure and for gods sake don't overtighten the screws when you put it back together. I didn't see any torque setting for installaion, but generally speaking finger tight plus 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn will do. Hope this helps. Joe lee

This might help. Also there is a thread currently on page 1 with the header "tires" that might be of interest. https://tirepressure.com/tire-sizes I checked the P195/75r15 @ 26 psi will support about 1279 lbs. each tire. 32 psi supports 1411 lbs. each Joe Lee

When i first got my P-15 it would over heat. I thoroughly cleaned and flushed the radiator, flushed the block and I only used water for the coolant with anti freeze added in the winter. It has the 160 degree thermostat and sitting idle in the driveway for over an hour it never got above 180. This is in Florida and todays temp is currently 95 at my house. When I flushed the rad I used CLR or Lime Away. The crap that came out of the rad was crusty and brown. did the same for the engine but used 2 gallons of CLR and one gallon of water. Ran for about 30 minutes and flushed until clear. I haven't had an overheating problem for the past 10 years. Recently I changed one of the freeze plugs (lowest and furthest back on the side of the block) and cleaned and flushed the block out. Lot of crud in there as well. Point being if the cooling system if clean, the t-stat is 160 or 180 and in good working order the engine should not over heat. Check the engine temp at various points and the temp gage connection at the side of the block and the radiator temp with a heat gun. The temp gage connection at the block should allow you to measure it against the temp gage in the dash and verify the accuracy. Joe Lee

I been kinda pondering the opposite. My 48 rides like a canoe on a flat lake....until I go over the falls. When the wheels drop (front or back) kachunga. Sounds and feels like the a-arms and axles are hitting metal stops. Normal road conditions are fine but rough roads and dropping of a curb (parked on the side of the house) is rough. Could this be the shocks when they extend topping out? If so I might look into the 50 50 shocks. Joe Lee

While I do not doubt you Sniper, how did you determine the lumens? You are referencing the phillips 81cp right? Joe Lee

Did you put grease in the Diff plug or the plug on the axle (about 2-3 inches from the brake backing plate on the rear axles one per side)? I also know how you feel about the wife's two special days so close together. Our anniversary is on the first and mothers day 2 weeks later, and MOMMA never lets me forget about them. lol Joe Lee

Since you swapped engines, did you change the mounts? Sounds like a small adjustment issue. Engine may be the same type and mounting but when removed and replaced/reinstalled the alignment may just be a tad off. The engine may be a 32nd of an inch of at the mount which can translate into a bigger bit of play at the linkage. Might check that first. Joe Lee

That would be my guess. Several years in a hot cold climate can do wonders on parts and electrical components. Crud on the stator and or brushes. Corrosion on the cable connections. The relay is a fairly sealed unit. the starter and cables and wire connections, not so much. Joe Lee