crazycasey

That last one...the google images picture...that's it. Honestly, I think it's almost more of a sand color.

I know this site doesn't deal much with the hemi's, but I figure there may be a mopar guru on this site with the answer... I have a 331 hemi out of a '53 New Yorker, and I would like to find an appropriate color of paint in the sort of gold/sand color that should be on my valve covers. Anybody know of a pain that matches, is close, or at least a direction in which I should look to find my answer. Many thanks!!!

This car never had this problem before. The lights are very bright, which is why I never questioned their wiring, but when this problem started I did look at the wiring, and it looks ok. I have added an electric fuel pump, but it is on a different circuit. Where is the circuit breaker located?

First off, this question is specifically about my '53 Meadowbrook, but I am sure that it pertains to all old Mopars. So while driving home from my favorite watering hole last night, all the lights in the car suddenly turned off (headlights, dash, and taillights). Luckily the moon was pretty bright, so no panic situation. I instantly started jiggling the headlight switch, wires, etc, but to no avail. Then, after I had more or less accepted my fate, everything turned back on just as suddenly as it had turned off. Fast forward another couple of miles down the road, and they did it again, and then back on about 45 seconds later. Do these cars have a circuit breaker instead of a fuse? All my wiring looks ok...old, but ok. I'm not sure where to start, aside from rewiring the entire car, which it probably needs, but I like the 6volt electrics!

You know...I just re-read Tom's bit about vacuum advance over on the stovebolt site. He was talking about how vacuum advance adds timing at idle and light load conditions. That makes sense if you are hooked up to manifold vacuum, which is highest at idle and under light load, but when you're hooked to a ported vacuum source above the throttle blades the vacuum signal is reversed, which would only advance timing at higher engine speeds. I know Tom Langdon is a GM guy mostly, and the GM and Dodge vacuum advance systems are different. Now I'm really confused!

James, that's a good link! I read your post earlier about running a port into the venturi. My carburetors have a port going into the venturi, right below where it is at it's smallest diameter, just as it's starting to increase in size again. I have driven my car with a vacuum gauge hooked up to this port, and I am failing to get a significant signal (I think the most I ever saw was 3" of vacuum. I don't know if it weld help to make the hole bigger or not, but I am leery of screwing up a set of good carburetors. The local Holley 94 guru over on the HAMB site says that for the Dodge's vacuum advance to work properly it needs to be hooked up to a port right above the throttle blades. He informed me that there are bases for the Holley 94 that have a port in them for this purpose...I just have to find two of them, rebuild them, fit them with extended throttle shafts and new butterflies...hence the reason I was looking for an easier option.

grey beard, That is just the info I am looking for. So from what I can tell from your post, just unhooking my vacuum advance will net me the same timing curve as swapping to a non-vacuum distributor? Am I understanding that right? Thanks, Casey

Norm, I just got my copy...will you sign it?

Does anybody know if a distributor from a 1938 Dodge 230 will fit the 1953 motor? I found one of these and am assuming that it would have a more aggressive mechanical advance curve since it doesn't have vacuum advance at all, but would love it if somebody can offer their opinion here. I'm thinking that this might be a good fix, at least temporarily, until I can find, sort out, and rebuild another pair of Holley's that have the proper ported vacuum connection.

Well, if nothing else it would make for a great tech posting.

dezeldoc, That is exactly what I was thinking, but I've never torn apart a distributor before. I couldn't find any tech posts on recurving the distributor. I was hoping that somebody here could give me some more info. Is it just trial and error? Play with spring tension, and fly weight, and check your advance? Can you modify the distributor to give more TOTAL advance, or can you just alter where it comes in? Total vacuum and centrifugal advance at 2500 rpm is supposed to be between 29-37 degrees, but only 12-16 of that is centrifugal, and 2 is supposed to be initial. I'd need to at least double the amount of total centifugal advance at peak to make up for not having vacuum advance, which is why I was thinking that a simple swap to a non-vacuum advance distributor would be a good starting point. I just don't know which ones I could swap between.

Yeah, what Tim said. So Tim, I was rolling around the idea of your manifold vacuum with a switch source for the vacuum advance. So I wouldn't have any vacuum until a preset throttle position when my switch would activate, but then wouldn't the vacuum signal still be backwards of what I wanted? The switch would activate at say, 1/4 thottle opening, but manifold vacuum would still be pretty high, and the distributor would go to near full advance, and then it would gradually fall of as I accelerated, leaving me with 0 advance at WOT, which is where I would want full advance right? I'm just trying to wrap my head around the idea, before I accept/dismiss it.

:confused: :confused: :confused: Actually...I get what you are saying. I was just hoping there was an easier way. I know a couple of guys over on The HAMB say the Mallory Dual Point is the way to go because it does away with the vacuum side of things altogether. They're really hard to find though. Is there another distributor I could use that is mechanical advance only, that won't have the part throttle pinging issues I would get recurving the stock distributor?

Hey Norm...does that mean my brake drums are in a car magazine!?! Woo-Hoo!

Tim, I am running two Holley 94's with the stock Mopar vacuum advance distributor. I made the comparison to the Mopar carb, because I was trying to understand how the stock system worked, before I stuck the two Holley's on it. My distributor was designed to work with the Mopar carb, which pulled vacuum from above the throttle blades, not below, right? If I use manifold vacuum with the new carbs, won't I be sending the distributor a reverse signal? I am actually basing all of this on something that you wrote in another thread back in '07: Finally, if I hook the vacuum advance to manifold vacuum, which pulls 16-19" at idle, that means that I will have my base timing plus 10 degrees vacuum advance timing at idle. I think a lot of GM distributors work that way, but I thought the mopar distributor was set up different.