soth122003

I used to have a 1965 dodge 1/2 ton that I paid $125 for. It was in good shape and over the course of 10-12 years I rebuilt the clutch slave cylinder a few times. I put over 100,000 miles on that truck, and one time the clutch return spring bracket broke. I took one of the hood springs off and finangled it in there and used it for over a year. It worked great except for one small problem. My left leg was like Arnold Swartzenhagers and my right was like Mr, Puniverse. Sold the truck for $100 12 years later. Joe

Don't know what kinda 47 dodge you got, but try amazon.com Joe

Got a question about the actual clock guts/workings. Are they interchangeable? Would the clock innards from a dodge 46-48 work on a Plymouth of the same years? My clock has a cracked minute gear and hangs up. If the chrystler clock mechanisms for these years are interchangeable that could be a money saver for clock repairs. Any thoughts or facts would be appreciated. Joe

My take is to leave it as is. Reason being the spin on oil filters were made to filter 100% of the oil all the time. The normal setup is to pump the oil from the pump to the filter the to the rest of the engine and back to the pan. The by pass oil filter was made to filter about 30% of the oil as it bypassed through the system then be changed at 5000 miles or so, while the oil was changed at 2500-3000 miles. Unless the car is driven on dirt roads a lot then change the oil more frequently. If you change to a spin on filter with out the rest of the mod, you may as well just leave it as is. Joe

WHAT???? Give MY car to those money grubbing turds called family? NEVER I SAY!!! If one of them wants it he or she better start kissing my A$$ now and then wait on me hand and foot until deaths door opens for me..... Wait a minute, I was thinking of the movie Grand Torino. I'll probably will it to my grandson. he's a smart little fella at 4 years old. So by the time I kick it he should be in his late 60's early 70's. Did I mention I plan on living to be 125. If you smiled at this post, I just added some time to your life. Remember whoever lives the longest wins the game and laughter is the best medicine. Joe

Berbaums has blades for 9.50 each and arms for 21.50 each. http://www.wiperman.com/ This guy repaired my trico vacuum motor, and did a fantastic job on it too. He also sells blades and arms, but you'll have to contact him for the prices. I also think the springs are weak, but they don't really need a lot of tension to hold the blade on the glass. Joe

Pull your spark plugs and try to turn the motor with a wrench on the crank pulley. It sounds to me like your starter might have taken a dump. Nice thing about these old girls is the components are easy to pull and check. Starter, maybe 10-15 minutes to pull and check. Joe

If I were you, I would replace those wires. Putting electrical tape on is just a Band-Aid. If the edges of the tape catch against the centrafical advance plate, it could pull the tape off or pull the wire loose. If it started and ran after you taped it, chances are it might be the culprit again. I know how frustrating it can be working a simple problem that isn't, but just relax, take a break, listen to some music and try again later. I work part time at a Polaris dealer as a mechanic on ATV's and UTV's. On Wensday and Thursday I spent several hours trying to fix a unit that wouldn't charge the battery. After replacing the voltage regulator (1 hour), the mag coil (4 hours, had to pull the engine mount bolts and rotate the engine to get the flywheel cover and flywheel off) and the control unit (10 minutes), and ohming out various wiring harnesses (2 hours) plus tracing out the wires on the schematics (1 hour) turns out that the VR has to be grounded to the engine to charge the battery. Talk about felling stupid, but in my defense the manual says nothing on changing the coil. Anyway, just realize that the same stuff happens to all of us at one point or another. Don't believe me just read some of the threads posted here. Joe

It's been almost 20 years, but I had a 66 vette that had the clutch stick. I don't know if the driven plate was stuck to the flywheel or the pressure plate. What I did was put the car in gear and depress the clutch pedal, start the car and pop the clutch a few times. I heard a clunk and the plates freed up and the clutch worked like a champ. That being said, and now that I am older and a little wiser, if I had that problem on my P-15 I would drop the drive shaft and pull the tranny and inspect the discs if I couldn't see any thing through the inspection access plates/panels. It sounds like you have a slight corrosion problem and the disc is stuck. You said it was in a dry garage for storage, but you will still have humidity issues unless you garage is climate controlled. This will cause some light to moderate rust formation on parts. You might be able to free it up by working the clutch in neutral with the engine running. Just go slow and take you time and don't force it. As far as pushing the clutch pedal to far and re-engaging the gears, I don't think that is possible. I just had my tranny out last weekend to replace the throw out bearing and it only took me a couple of hours to do it. The hardest part was me getting up and down to crawl under the car. Getting old sucks. Joe Joe

When I first got my P-15 up and running, it hadn't been run in about 2 years, I added about a pint or so of Seafoam to the crankcase and the rest in the gas tank. After about 300-400 miles I changed the oil. The Seafoam cleaned out the oil system really good and even after 600 miles the oil still looks fresh. The car is running like a champ and no smoke at all. Joe

As far as your starter goes, you might want to check the bearings at the ends. one of mine was worn and caused the armature to drag. As far as starter drop out, if the flywheel turns faster than the starter, like when it tries to fire but doesn't the starter will drop out and whine. My Plymouth does this sometimes. It's normal according to the manual. Joe

Dedicated the brake wire as well. Used an inline 15amp fuse and it's still working great.

Replaced the front lines on my 48 P-15 with lines bought from CARQUEST along with a tube bender. Pretty cheap and worked great. Joe

The small ball goes under the accelerator pump and the big one goes under the screw cap port next to the pump. Joe

It does look like a wire. I'd follow it all the way back to where it terminates and make sure. If it is a wire, cut it close to the unit and put a bullet connector on it for future maintenance. I would also unwrap that tape and see what is under there as well. Might be a disconnect point. Joe

Looking at the circled port, that is where the accelerator pump dumps gas into the throat for a burst of speed. It will spray into the throat and thru the dividing piece in the middle. That said, if there is supposed to be a plug there, it has to be flush with the surface of the carb or it will definitely leak. I think if you replace the gasket you will probably solve your problem. You old gasket might have a hairline tear or wear area around there that is causing the leak. There should be a plug there on the outside of the body just below that hole, to be removed so you can take the jet (it is the little piece of brass you can see just above your red circle in the square cutout) out to clean it. Also look at the carb cover and see if there is a hole in the corresponding position. If there is spray some carb cleaner thru it and see where it comes out. Those carb's are pretty simple, still you might want to use a magnifying glass and inspect around that hole for a hairline crack or a scratch that might be letting the fuel seep by. Joe

I did my rewire under the hood and the parking/brake lights to the back. While the P-15 wiring diagram did not have the wire sizes, others have posted a generic Chrystler wiring schematic that had the wire sizes and I went by that, mostly. 10 gage for headlights, generator, voltage regulator and 12-14 gage for running lights, instruments and peripherals. A lot of it was matching the old wire sizes. Basically the larger the current load the larger the wire. Joe

I drive my 48 P-15 coupe to work 3 days a week. I usually drive between 55 and 60 for most of the way. I just filled up the tank today and I am getting 16.5 MPG. I have had it up to 75 for a short time just to see if I could and the ride was smooth and steady, no shimmy or shake in the wheel. Joe

The MPG I am getting from my 48 P-15 is between 15.8 and 18 MPG. Like was said here before, driving habits can make or break fuel mileage. I drive rather conservative. 50-55 highway and minimal breaking, and I coast up to the stop lights from a good ways away. Joe

Nice Pics. I am using my 48 P-15 to drive back and forth to work. It's about 60 miles round trip and only three days a week. When it warms up here the Florida panhandle, I'll look into a paint job for the car. Joe

That's what got me about 3-4 weeks ago. I had pulled the filter at the tank because it looked like it was full of Mississippi mud. I was going to replace it the next day, but forgot. Then when I changed my manifolds about a month later, It took almost 3 weeks for parts and time to get the number 6 aft stud removed. (had to step drill it up to the threads then tap it). Anywho, when I put the filter back on between the pump and the carb, it was leaking like a sieve, so I left it off for getting the car back to running condition. At that point some of the gas I put in was bad, it probably ate some of the crap off the tank walls and sent it through the system with no fuel filter and it really did a number on the carb. Since then I reinstalled a filter at the tank and rebuilt the one at the carb. The engine ran good but had a stutter every few minutes. Nothing regular, just a slight miss every now and then. Had the car up to 65mph on the road and under acceleration it was fine, but a maintained speed I would feel the miss or spit or stumble every minute or so. So now the carb is apart on the bench and there is a fine sediment in the float bowl. So it is going to soak tomorrow in a carb cleaner bath and then get blown out with a lot of air and we will see where that leaves me with the motor running smooth or not. Before I changed the manifolds it was purring like a kitten. I put the vacuum tester on it today and was reading 19 with a drop to 18 when the stutter occurred. The timing was dead on the zero mark and using the timing light I checked all the plug wires to make sure they were firing and firing evenly by counting the pulses to a beat, 1234, 1234 1234 and they were solid. So let that be a lesson boys and girls, NEVER EVER RUN THE ENGINE WITH OUT HAVING AT LEAST ONE FUEL FILTER INSTALLED. And Perry, that sediment looked like fine silt, so some of that stuff may have made it to the carb, so it wouldn't hurt to check. Joe

I thought that the front parking lights off when the headlights were on was a power conservation thing. Since the cars were 6v systems and powered by the genny, at night it would reduce the power draw with them off, especially at a stop light or stop and go traffic. Joe

You might try insulating your wire mount bracket with a thin rubber strip and liquid electrical tape at the mount holes. Not a permanent solution, but it may help isolate your horn problems until you get a new part. Joe

While I am not sure this is your problem, I would check the generator. Mine had bad brushes and one of the brushes was not even making contact. When I started and idled the car everything seemed fine, but at higher rpm and speed it would miss and spit. The battery could not keep up with the demand of the electrical system at speed especially when the battery was not being charged and was low. The most I could get out of the car was about 45 mph. After the genny rebuild, I have had it up to 80 mph on a test drive. I also have a pertonix ignition module on my P-15 and it works very well. Joe

If you are worrie about scatching them with the compressor, put a quarter or a half dollar coin over the valve head and press againts that, As was mentioned before use light taps to loosen the valve from the keeprs. you might try using some Seafom cleaner with the oil pan off and flush that crud in the valve area down to a drip pan under the car. When that is all cleaned up, crawl under the car and check the crankshaft, rods and bearing journals for excessive play by turniing the engine by hand a little at a time and feeling for the play. If its there rebuild the engine. Also use some Seafoam cleaner and add it to the oil to flush your engine out. Otherwise go for the rbuild. Also with the head off, turn the engine by hand and when the pistons hit bottom wipe a little oil on the cylinder walls Joe