Ulu

I'd think rebar would work well because of all the edges. Well this AM, the tank had slowed from cold and smut. Current had fallen to about 2 amps & the tray looks much cleaner. I rinsed the anodes quickly and stuck them back and current jumped back to almost 4 amps. There's still some paint with rust under it, that is still cooking off. Of course disk grinder would have blasted this stuff off in short order, but at this point the experiment is more important than the speed of my project's progress.

I've just started doing this and discovered a few things. I've been experimenting with this rusty battery tray and a plastic tank with about 15 gallons in it. This was a graduation from just doing small bits in a 5 gal bucket. I'm using 1 to 2 tablespoons of sodium carbonate (washing soda) per gallon. I have a 10 amp charger similar to Don's shown above. The two brass rods carry the sacrificial anodes, and the battery tray is hung from the middle (steel) rod. Here's a night time photo in the tank. It's equipped with an old florescent light, as I use it at night mostly. It's bubbling nicely but has actually slowed down from its peak about 30 mins previous. I was using old bolts and plates and angles of 1/8" to 1/2" thick for anodes, and with 8 anodes in the tank my charger was just barely coming off the peg: maybe 1 amp draw. Then I read about using sheetmetal anodes, and I remembered about the Hall Effect, where charge accumulates on the edges of thin plates. In the photo above I've just tonight removed all the thick anodes and replaced them with 6 of these--these are iron laminations from the core of an old electric motor which I'd stripped for other parts: They are only .025" thick and have a huge perimeter due to the stamped shape. How the Hall Effect works is that like charges repel: so when you charge anything the charges rush away from each other as far as possible and try to jump off at the edges. The more edges, the more charges are exposed to the solution of the tank and this can really speed things up. These things really upped the performance of the tank, and my charger started delivering almost 5 amps to the tank, which is what you'd expect it to do charging a big battery. Circulation in the tank increased about 5x, and voltage in the solution near the anodes went from about 4 volts to over 6 volts. My tank did in 2 hours what was formerly taking over 2 days, due in part to the need for frequent de-crusting of the anodes. When they start to build up big rusty barnacles, their performance falls to crap. I've actually been working on this battery tray for a week, because it has layers of lumpy paint and rust and dirt, partly covered with something hard that might be POR-15 or similar. It was all in poor shape, chipped, scratched, and rusting all over (very heavily on the underside) so I hit it quick with a hand wire brush and stuck it in the tank. Where there is anything painted over rust, the rust is blowing off at the edges of the paint, and it eventually falls off in big wisps.

It should just unscrew. You are probably seeing a buildup of crud that's making the tip look too big. these things are hollow, so you can probably just drive an eazy-out in the top & remove it, but it'll come much easier if you can scrape off that crud & oil it from the cruddy end.

Easy flooding is often dirt, but sometimes points to a heavy float. It'll shut off the float needle, but it comes open too easily. Floats can leak or just pick up crud, making them too heavy. Also sometimes the little hinge on the float gets bent & straightened, changing the leverage ratio. If both of those happen, it can really throw the float off.

Oh, regarding the bulb. If you slam the hood with the bulb on, it'll break the hot filament. The bulb in my ornament was making the plastic yellow hear the bulb, so I tinted the whole inside of the plastic with amber tint and found a somewhat smaller bulb. When I re-wire my car, I'll put a "cold" LED bulb in it. BTW, that's a swell car. I've seen few Desoto models which I liked better.

BTW, why would you want one or the other? Well, my car was light with extra power, as I'd hopped up the engine, and had low gears. (3.90) It just didn't need to shift down in all the circumstances it tried to, but I didn't just want to raise the governor speed either, as it was already set for good fuel economy. The Inhibitor increased economy, because using it the car didn't downshift if I hit the gas a bit going down hill, or just hit it moderately whenever adequate torque meant no shift was necessary. But: If you have a heavier car with less power & higher rear gears, it will sometimes race the engine or buck a bit when you kick it down with the pedal, in situations where more power is needed instantly because the engine is under heavy load or close to lugging. This button then makes the car shift down smoothly & instantly, where mashing the pedal would not.

I don't think it's a kickdown switch. you kick down by stepping on the gas. I think it's a kickdown inhibitor. You can mash the gas and it won't kick down while you hold the switch on. I had one similar (just a button switch from Radio Shack) wired to my overdrive, as it would sometimes kick down when unnecessary, just like flaky modern automatics sometimes do. OOps..no sorry. I just enlarged the photo enough to read the instructions & it is the opposite. When you press this, it interrrupts the solenoid and ignition power for split-second, which allows the trans to slip down without mashing the pedal.

Nice! I got this Milwaukee grinder at auction. I paid $75 (they're $150+ new here) but I also got discs, a cup wheel and a cup stone. the wheel and stone alone are almost $75 so I was real happy. This thing'll put some muscles on ya!

They made a different one specifically for that. They used to have little fluorescent bulbs, but may be LEDs nowadays. But it's easy to check for a spark just with a lose plug wire. Don't hold it in your bare hand. Use insulated pliers or something wood or rubber to hold it. That 15,000 volt spark tickles when it's working. Just get that float leveled first. Normally you take the carb off, take the bowl cover off, & flip the carb over, then use a little cardboard gage they supply with the overhaul kit. Otherwise the factory manual tells how to just measure the float adjustment. I have the Holly model 1920 with the Vis-A-Flow glass float bowl cover (I don't run the Carter carb) and you can just see if the fuel level is OK. (I only used that glass bowl for setup. I don't think they're really safe myself. On the street I run the Holly aluminum bowl cover.

DON'T crank the engine with a wire off to test the spark while the carb is flooding gas out the vent hole! We had a mechanic do this, and set a $50,000 road roller on fire. Scared the pi$$ outta him too. He shoveled enough dirt over the engine to quash the fire, with the air cleaner off of course

Oh, I missed this totally... Charger au Go Go!

That reminds me of the time I cut a microbus in half with a Skilsaw. LOL ................ I once locked my Edsel keys in the trunk & had to crawl through behind the seat into the trunk to get the keys back. It would have been a big PITA to take that lock apart from inside the trunk. Much easier to pick the lock. BTW, once you've successfully picked a lock, you'll have a much different view of your own security. I sure did.

I don't see any lateral bracing, so it probably was a bit wobbly around corners too. I'll have to post this up on our office PC

I always wanted a Wiener Whistle. I just noticed the 1995 model has the same headlights as my old Pontiac Bonneville. I wonder if they used the Bonnie taillights too?

If you don't want to remove the interior panel, you need a long sharp needle to guide the post (tail) of the lock unto place. You just poke the needle through the panel and cloth as you insert the lock then pull the needle through. This is shown in the 1947 manual, which had cloth upholstery in that area. This won't work if you have leather or vinyl, unless you like holes in the upholstery. They don't show with the cloth, IF (BIG IF) you keep the needle and lock clean. If there's grease on the needle there'll be a grease spot on the upholstery.

If they're not too worn they can be re-keyed all the same & fix the bad pin at the same time. New keys & cylinders are available too.

Good point. My 3800cc Pontiac starts instantly. Click-boom! it's running. My 4000cc Toyota cranks a couple times, then the computer starts it. Not before. It has to kick up the pressure or something to trigger the computer.

I managed to pick a door lock on my first attempt. I'd never ever picked a lock in my life. Just read the instructions. These locks are easy to pick and being worn makes it that much easier.

WAY OT, but in case any of you guys are familiar or old enough to know, it wasn't called the Pinetree Line anymore when we were there. Radar was a couple generations along at that point and Baudette AFS was a "mobile" part of the SAGE air defense system. Their mission was directing interceptors to find unidentified targets. They got a unit commendation for performance while my dad was there, and I have his commendation from Congress ...for superior computer programming. (No commendation for the 3 wars where he was getting shot at, mortared, or targeted by missiles. ) In the old Pinetree days, Dad was on one of the off-shore radar platforms commonly called The Texas Towers. They were off the coast of New England, not Texas, but they looked like gulf coast oil-rig platforms. They were sitting ducks, and everyone hated serving on them.

Not surprising. I've converted a couple old tractors to 8 volts. It makes up for lots of aging parts & a boon in cold weather.

I think I'll build mine to run on eight volts, just to start trouble.... HehHehHeh... I ran my Plymouth as 6 volt for several years, but when it's rebuilt it will be at least 12 volts.

Nice old Plymouth Chris.

I well remember "plugging in the cars" at night when we lived on the bases of NORAD's Pinetree Line. This line of radar sites ran along the US/Canadian border. In the middle of the cold War, we were stationed at a cold radar base, 60 miles up the road past Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. (I went to Lake of the Woods H.S.in Baudette & we were never required to attend school on days colder than 30 below zero. The school couldn't get the buses going then & couldn't afford to run them all night either.) Dad was on call at the radar base most nights. His car HAD to start even when it was -40 or worse. You never knew when the Russian missiles would show up on the radar, but unidentified stuff was always showing up. The place went on alert status frequently. We had heater hose "tank" heaters on all the cars, plus electric heaters inside the car to pre-warm the interior: Especially important when you have a Scout with no insulation in the body at all. Dad's Scout got parked outside 24/7/365, as did Mom's Mercury, because there was always a project car in the garage. That Scout also had an electric blanket around the battery and a heat lamp under the steering gear. Dad parked on top of the snowbank that was our front yard, and he kept the transfer case in neutral so he could get the trans oil moving & warmer, before trying to shift the gears. This is the Arctic Jeep heater we were fitting when the USAF decided to send us somewhere warmer. I still have most of the kit. It runs on gasoline, has a sparkplug to light it off, and a blower motor for a 24 volt system. Not shown are the various hoses, duct & heat deflectors for the Jeep, which were pirated for other purposes over the years.

I've done it both ways, depending on what part I'm replacing. It's not that hard on the P-15's

That big hub puller is the one for my Scout. I have one I built for the Plymouth, but it's not in sight presently. I'll dig it up sometime.