westaus29

As well as arcing the shoes, make yourself one of those fancy tools (or fork out $100 to buy one from a mopar supplier) and adjust the brakes properly. The early Chrysler brakes have fixed pivots and need to be adjusted both at pivot and cam.

sorry my fingers got ahead of my brain .. should have been 11/32" for sure

3/8 pins sound a bit large? I had a similar problem with my 38 Richards body, ended up buying GM door hinge pins 4" x 11/16 and reaming to fit. They are readily available and much cheaper than alternatives. Try Auveco 14559 part number.

Old Era Services in NSW have been very helpful to me with 38 and 55 Plymouths, good website and good to talk to on phone, very knowledgeable

I have a 20 tonne press and the pins come out ok but need plenty of pressure

One advantage of right hand drive I hadn't realised - the starter is easy to get at! Be thankful it's not a Volkswagon Amarok, took us 2 days and just about wore out my hoist motor.

I bought the rebuild kit for my 38 from Roberts, another normally reliable supplier. Half the parts were chinese crap and the end caps were wrong profile and would not slide together. I ended up using keithb7's process with a mix of new and old parts. I woud recommend stripping and cleaning the joint thoroughly first.

A shout out to Sam Buchanan for designing and updating his original brake adjusting tool back in 2019. I have passed his link on to lots of Chrysler fans in recent years. Keith's video uses the same tool and is a good resource.

Sorry if the Aus english does not translate. We call a 6x4 single axle or 8x6 double axle utility trailer a box trailer. The fabrication shop has all the bending and cutting gear needed for simple shapes like car sills.

We sure need to be inventive to operate in Aus - try regional WA for a real challenge. Your grub screws should be plenty strong enough as I am pretty sure they are hi tensile, need to be to withstand allen key tightening.

I live in regional WA Australia and hate paying exorbitant shipping for poor quality parts. I made a sketch of repair panels for my 55 Plymouth rockers and had them fabricated by a local box trailer manufacturer from 1.2 mm (18 gauge). Bought an air operated joggler, made lap joints with mig spot welds. Quick, strong and cheap. 22 is too light in my opinion, walks when you weld it.

Thanks Pete. The 7 pass rear springs are much heavier than the sedan, more leaves and very little flex in them. Time will tell, can always redo them, only takes a day. I recently heard there is a firm in Perth 60 km away that does old cars so may have that as a backup.

Thanks for posting - always something new to be learned!

Thanks Andy. We have just returned from 2.5 weeks in Victoria where we drove our 1929U 4 cylinder Plymouth almost 1800 km in three tours as part of 100 years of Chrysler. Smallest car to participate in all three. Ended up at Chrysler on the Murray - what a blast!

Next cleaned up rear axle, fertanned for rust protection and painted Installed axle Cleaned up drums and backing plates. Assembled brake wheel cylinders using NOS pistons and springs and new modern seals (not bled at this stage). Note the cask of throat lubricant at top left. Wheel cylinders and master cylinder were resleeved in gunmetal years ago. Today I would ask for stainless as the gunmetal reacts with the aluminum pistons Cleaned up and installed tie rod Anti sway bar Wheels on and chassis mobile!

In my last update I told about completing major repairs to the body shell in 2020, but to help the story flow I skipped the years 2015 – 2019 where I gave up on the rear body as too hard. So now I am filling out that gap. The following chassis part may be boring to some. To do the rear body repairs properly I decided the body needed to go back on the chassis which needed to be mobile. The bare chassis had been sitting in etch primer since 2012 and needed to be cleaned up, de-rusted, reprimed and painted black. There were many brackets to be cleaned and painted. Very glad that I took photos before I stripped the chassis so I know where they go. Lots of nuts, bolts and washers to find too. Engine front mount Gearbox and rear engine mount. I ordered new rear mounts from Roberts but they had to be modified to fit. Body mounting hardware had to be sorted and painted. Extra rubber mounts were needed for the 7 passenger body, not cheap! Working out which went where was a major exercise, using photos from disassembly. They are shown here in order, left to front. The second last mounting stud behind the rear seat is inserted from inside the chassis and was quite interesting to install! The front prop shaft and centre bearing and support were restored, with new bearing and seal obtained locally. The support mountings were re-rubbered in Perth WA, very similar to engine front mount. Being close to a major mining industry hub has its benefits. I built a jig to align the centre bearing then injected black roofing silicone, which I have found has many applications. If it does not last I may get it done professionally in Perth WA. The front springs had collapsed and the local spring works didn’t want to repair them so I replaced broken leaves, cold reset them on my 20 tonne press and installed new bushes and hand made leaf clamps, with a thin coat of “never seize” between the leaves.. This shows the reshaping process – used a “good” leaf as a template, done by feel. The finished product. I had collected plenty of new bushes and links over the years. The rear springs were in better shape but I treated them the same way then later found the body was too high and the diff did not line up with the prop shaft so reset them with 75 mm or 3” less set. The upper rear bushes screw into holes in the chassis which were badly worn. I shimmed them with brass and cemented them in with Devcon, same process that I used last time back in the 1980’s which stood the test of time (needed oxy to remove them). The front axle was restored in 1980’s and in good condition, just needed stripping of paint, wire brushing of 95% of rust, treating with dilute phosphoric acid, prepping with Fertan rust preventer and painting. New wheel bearings and seals from Roberts were installed. Drums and linings were as new. Interestingly the axle was stamped “7 PASS” Front springs and axle were installed. I initially put the axle in backwards! Front drums came up well.

DonaldSmith posted a good summary above of what would interchange with the standard bodies, including front doors from coupes. Things that I have found different are heavier door hinges, front and rear suspension heavier, drive shaft in 2 parts, larger wheel rims and brakes, lower ratio diff with different axles, but standard will fit with change of bearing sizes. I ended up buying a cheap Harbor Freight bead roller and upgrading it for making repair panels, eg around rear windows. The Plymouth Doctor used to be a good source of repair panels if you were lucky enough to live in USA, but I believe it has closed due to death of owner. SRPM Street Rods makes repair panels, may help. There may be others. I ended up making a lot of my own due to being isolated in Western Australia. Had to learn oxy, then mig welding skills, thinking about tig for next project as mig welds are HARD.

That is a great project, lots of panel repairs needed. I am still working on mine in 2024 tho the body is done, see my post

Great info on this thread! I never thought these parts might be available and was lucky enough to find enough s/h bits for my 38 from my parts collection. Now I know better. Thanks all.

The large left terminal is connected to the starter coils and is insulated from the starter body by insulating washers. The other end of the starter coils is connected to earth inside the starter body, and this completes the starter circuit.

John, I didn't take a photo of the starter wiring before I removed it but I labelled the old wiring and kept it. I now have a new loom to install and thought I should double check things. I have a spare starter so took the solenoid front cover off to see how it works. The two top terminals are fully insulated and connect to a relay which switches power to the solenoid. I checked my old wiring, There is a long wire labelled starter which goes to switch on dash, and a short wire labelled earth. It doesn't matter which terminal goes to battery positive, the relay still works. I suggest the right terminal should go to battery, the left to earth. It doesn't matter whether the battery is set to positive or negative earth, it still works as intended. I also checked that the solenoid worked ok no matter whether positive or negative earth. I would just say again that your setup is standard for RHD cars because driver on right could not reach a manual switch on floor like LHD cars have, so we got an upgrade to button on dash, one up on our American friends! To test, first disconnect heavy cable to starter from battery. Earth left top terminal then touch power to top right. You should hear a soft click from the relay. Now connect the battery cable and try again. You should get a loud thump from the solenoid which has two functions. It operates a heavy duty switch for power to the starter, and at same time pulls starter pinion into mesh with ring gear. If it doesn't work as intended try touching battery cable direct to left hand lower terminal to see if starter runs, if yes you have a relay or solenoid problem. If not, a starter problem.

My Aussie 38 Plymouth is rhd and has the same starter and solenoid as yours. Mine worked fine in an earlier life but is currently going back together after major restoration. I haven't wired mine up yet but tested fine by connecting earth to left terminal. Connect right to battery and you should hear a loud click as solenoid activates. This then connects the heavy battery lead to the starter and it should turn over. I just checked the Aussie workshop manual elec diagram and lo it doesn't show the solenoid at all! Mine is positive to earth by the way.

I had bad scrubbing of a front tyre and it turned out to be too much play in the tie rod joints. Read the manual and tightened them up then backed off a whisker, solved the problem.

Another good facebook group to ask for parts is https://www.facebook.com/groups/POCNational, the Plymouth Owners Club. You don't have to be a club member, just join the group. For members there is access to a bulletin which has lots of parts ads. I also belong to an active Aussie site which has some international members, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435811830045161 1930-1950 Dodge/Plymouth in Australia (Early Mopar Only)

I have a couple of probably irrelevant comments. Firstly, your Rhino Ramp problem. That was caused by the right ramp sliding forward as you drove onto them, while the left stayed put. The left wheel went up and over. I have had that almost happen to me, heard the screech of the sliding ramp and stopped in time. Second, the wheel nuts. Many years ago my daughter rang up saying "dad the front left wheel is making funny noises". I was busy so told her to bring it home so I could check. She drove 80 km home, arrived saying " over 100 km/h the noise stops". Checked front left wheel, only one nut remaining, holes in rim badly chewed. A lesson for us both!