SQ4MN

This was a most enjoyable thread, I just read every page.

I was one who never learned either, but I did learn this little trick which gave me some sort of twisted satisfaction. These types of tickets were called fix it tickets, we viewed them as harrasment tickets. It was bad enough that you would have to go to court and pay fines for this, but even worse was the requirement to fix the loud pipes or whatever the violation was and then find a cop who would sign it off. There was a special line already printed on the ticket for just that purpose. Any way we were teen agers with little to no money and viewed this as a terrible miss justice just to ruin our lives. I was 18 years old , just old enough to go to jail if I didn't take care of this. I always knew someone else that also had one of these tickets so what I did rather than fix the violation which in my eyes would ruin my bike or car was this. I would take my friends ticket and place it on a window that the sun was shining thru. I would do this so that the little special line that was used for an officer to sign off a violation was directly above the officers name who wrote him his violation and trace the name and badge number onto mine, "Viola" my violation was now fixed. I would go into court and proudly show the judge that I had corrected the violation and would pay the fine and leave. In those days the police had tube radios and they couldn't just punch in your name and know your life history in a few seconds like today. We would take advantage of this. When I got stopped I would tell the cop "please don't write me a ticket, I have a suspended license and I'm going to get it back in only three days" The cop would sometimes say 'listen I'm going to give you a break and not write you for "Speeding" and instead just write you for driving on a suspended license. I would pretend that he would be much nicer if he would just forget about the suspended license and only write me for speeding. He would always tell me that I should be THANKFUL because he is giving me a break and always write me for the suspended license. I would go to court and show the judge my license which never was suspended and the judge would dismiss the ticket.

Everything doesn't have to SERVE a purpose, but most things HAVE a purpose. The purpose of high bars and low cars is actually very simple. The purpose is to PLEASE their owners. What purpose do two carbs or two pipes have on a flathead six? Surely it cant just be because of the meager power increase. My answer to that would be because it pleases the owner, it sounds great to him. Its the same answer I have for many things in my life. By the way I have had many bikes with low bars, most were also very fast, some were touted as the best handling. I raced bikes back in the fifties and sixties in the desert. I also raced many bikes to the beach over Malibu Canyon back then. I had hi bars on a Knucklehead Chopper and beat many low bar Triumphs etc. thru the turns. Point is the bars don't make bikes handle bad, riders do. Also I don't see the connection between the legalization of pot and hi bars.

Here in the Philippines they take a regular pencil and rub it on the area where the numbers are, being careful not to get the lead coating into the numbers themselves. Then they take a piece of clear tape and put it over that area, when they peel the tape up and the lead other than in the grooves of the numbers is on the tape. Then they stick it on a piece of paper and you can see the numbers clearly, they leave the tape attached to the original title.

I never wanted one on my bikes as it made it worth less and was ugly. I don't want one on my Plymouth either for the same reasons. If the car is not stolen but has only had a different motor put in after more than 60 years I don't see why I need one other than government foolishness. There is always a way to get around everything so I'm not worried. In fact it may be registered by the door pillar number if I'm lucky. My car supposedly was bought new in California and there was another fellow that replied to this post that said his California 48 Plymouth was not registered by the engine number. On our old bikes we only had engine numbers, no frame numbers at all but that all changed eventually.

LOW CARS AND HI BARS. When I was growing up in SoCal in the fifties and sixties that was the look. We just heated the front springs and called it DUMMPED, DAGOED, or RAKED. Some did only the front as it only required a torch. Some made lowering blocks or got them from some catalog to get the whole car down. Naturally it got more and more extreme. The cars rode terrible but we thought it was cool bouncing our way from one hangout to the next. I still like the look of lowered cars, mild or extreme, they all look cool to me. Today with all the aftermarket stuff available including airbags you can get the cars extremely low and still have a good ride. Since crime wasn't all that bad back then, drugs were still a minor problem in the fifties, cops would spend a good portion of their day writing tickets for your car being to low or your pipes to loud or your bars to high etc. I bet they wish they still only had such minor problems today.

Nevada and California both will issue blue tags. They rivet the new blue tag to a pillar and that becomes your new number. This happens if they know the car isn't stolen but the paperwork is somehow not to their liking. I am currently waiting for the 48 Plymouth I bought in California to arrive in Las Vegas. Hopefully the paperwork is OK but I know the engine has been changed so if its registered by an engine number I will have some problems. On the other hand if they can see the old engine number on the rear left frame rail I think I can convince them that everything is fine, Can that number be seen with the body on the car? My other choice would be to leave it registered to me in California as I have an address there too.

Thanks for the replies. I never remember my old Plymouth as being fast. I remember it as being reliable and I thought it looked cool, even with its primer spots. I also thought it sounded good. This was about 1960 so the car really wasn't all that old. You have to realize that at the time the overhead valve V8 cars were in their full glory, there were many factory hot rods.

WONDERFUL

I think the fellow said he does not have access to a garage or tools, nor does he have any previous experience with working on cars. My suggestion would be to spend as much time as necessary before going any further trying to locate someone with the time, ability, and desire to help him with this. I don't think it would be a good idea to raise the hood and start removing and replacing parts without help at the side of the road if this is his first time. Odds are that the car will spend to much time at said location in a "not running" condition until the authorities tow it away. Whenever I hear of someone that does not own tools or a garage or at least a covered spot in a yard I think it best and cheaper to PAY someone reputable to fix the problem. I am afraid the guy may end up with an album full of photos of parts he removed from a car he used to own and an oil spot on a piece of roadway where it used to sit.

I had a 48 Plymouth as a kid, it had a stock 217 cu inch six in it. I bought another six from an engine rebuilder back in those days that as I remember was bigger. Maybe it was the 230 cu inch motor. As I remember it just bolted in with no modifications. This is all by memory and I could be wrong. Was there any HP difference between the 217 and the 230 and if so how much? What year did the 230 come out? I think my new motor might have been a 1954, could that have been a 230? Just curious about this and I figure some of you guys know the answers. One more question, what is the biggest MOPAR flathead six that can be bolted in these cars? Thanks,Dave

I see that the guy asking these questions has the car for sale on EBAY right now.

Maybe they wouldn't fit in the trunk!

From everything you've said my guess is its a rod knock. Knock increases as oil gets warm, increases or decreases depending on rpm's, can hear it loudest thru breather tube. These are all things rod knocks do but the really strange thing you describe is the noise that started all this, that makes me think it might be something else all together as that noise would not precede a rod bearing going bad.

Stock cams are the best for a DRIVER not a racer. They provide decent torque over a wide rpm range. Once the cam is ground it will provide more horsepower or torque but in a much narrower rpm range.