Dartgame

Try John R Spring in suburban detroit, or espo springs and things too. I dont think re-arching is a terrible idea, but I'd consider new ones since these are 70 years old.

I dont have the dual heater set up and retrofitted a #53 to my 52 coupe. I know its not stock, but the car wont be used in the winter and it does not have the huge plenum assembly that would have been stock sitting on the fenderwell which I personally don't like. What I found was an in line cable operated valve that was originally used on a dodge pick up or a van from the 80's or 90's. Might have a been a dakota or full size. Anyway, its made from black plastic and has the facility to attach the cable, and was cheap - $20 or so. You could install a pipe nipple or brass barb in the

Good you found the problem, but thats weird. How did the plug get removed without you knowing it ?

Look for the casting number on the side of the center section located near the pinion companion flange. That will tell you what you've got. Another clue are the axle shafts, if they are tapered then they might be oem or as Plymouthy said could be early 8 3/4. The casting number is really what you need to check.

Good idea to take the distributor apart. You may find the vacuum advance has failed or something else is stuck like the advance weights etc. Regarding the coolant question - you don't have to have a cracked block for a leak, could be a head gasket or a head bolt. But I doubt it's the reason for steam (gray/white "smoke") & water dripping from exhaust. 34F is cold enough to show normal steam from the exhaust, and the water is probably normal as well before the pipes etc get hot enough and dried out. It sounded like it was running pretty evenly so I doubt there's much wrong with

Congrats on getting her running !!! Answering your question about the exhaust. With an engine that's been sitting along time, and old exhaust pipes and muffler etc; I'd not be a bit surprised at a lot of moisture being expelled from the engine and so on, it should dissipate as it gets heated up and dries out. Gray smoke ? White smoke is usually an antifreeze leak, blue is usually oil burning, black is an overly rich idle mixture or flooding from a float level that's too high. When I got mine running I was worried the fire department was going to show up, there was such

Check with AAJ brakes. Roger owns the company and makes parts not listed on his website. I bought a MC bracket from him to adapt to a tandem system for my 52. aajbrakes.com

The original rear axles resemble 8 3/4 units. These had drop out center sections too...good luck with the project.

The ford filter Jersey Harold talks about was used on almost all fords (V-8s included) of that era and they work beautifully - they thread right into the side of our mechanical pumps as he noted. I am using one.

I investigated repairing my brass oem radiator when I was getting it running. Local radiator shop wanted a small fortune to recore it. They claimed it could not be repaired without a recore. I found an Aluminum radiator on ebay for dirt cheap and went that way. I could not see spending the money on the oe rad, and still be using a 70 year old part. Paint the tanks black if you dont like the bare AL appearance....my .02

Really Nice Car ! I'll bet that paint cleans up better than you think it might. Nice color combo too. It's gonna be a fun project - guaranteed !

For 833 4 speeds, there were close ratio boxes used in B body applications, perfect spacing - RPM change of 1500 on each gear. I'm not sure if you can adapt that gearing to an overdrive 833. Maybe just the 1-2 gears. If I recall correctly mopar flipped the shifter lever on the 3 -4 gears and made what was 3rd gear (now 4th) into the .7 ratio overdrive, and 3rd gear what was 4th is 1:1. A body/aspen 833's used a steep 1st gear of around 3.09 and b bodies used 2.66 as I recall.

I'd contact the piston manufacturer and ask them what the paint marks are there for - just in case - but it probably makes no difference.

Just an FYI - it appears your pistons skirts might have been knurled, knurling was used in the old days to take up clearance between piston and the cylinder. Its an old procedure that was done to cut costs when rebuilding a motor. It allowed one to reuse their old pistons, hone the cylinder, and use new rings to save money. I've seen this once before in a buddies '65 383 we tore down. So I would say for certain your motor has been apart before. You might consider - if there is a next time - to find a partner/buddy/car guy or someone on this site to walk you through a motor tear dow

Might be a plug wire position issue as well. Try moving the plug wires (keeping the firing order) one position on the dist cap and see if that gets you the adjustment needed.