ebruns1

I paid about the same on Amazon 6 weeks ago.

Hey Fellas, You may have seen my initial thread where I mentioned I had some stripped out rear lug studs on the Dodge. Some were even confused by the fact that the Dodge's even HAD lug studs and not lug BOLTS like the Plyms, Desotos and Chryslers! The consensus was that the stripped lug studs can be pressed out and new ones pressed in. Well, it seems like it is harder than it looks! I took my drums to the auto and truck service garage where our Ford V-8 club meets and gave them to the 84 year old owner. He even assured me it would be no problem...until he cracked the drum! I don't know if he didn't support the stud with an old socket or if he just pressed them with the drum laying flat supported by the edge of the drum (what I suspect). Anyway, he cracked one of my drums and now it's useless. He's trying to find a replacement for me and he says he needs to know my model. I told him D-24, but he's confused I guess and doesn't know mopars... Here's the question - Are the 46-48 Dodge rear drums the same as any other years? What about the 49-55's or whatever series followed? And what about the rest of the MOPARS, did the Plyms, Desotos and Chryslers make the switch over to the lug studs after '49 or were they still using bolts? And were they the same size so I could use one of them if I can find one? If it makes any difference they were the 11" x 2" rear drums. Thanks for any help guys! PS - what about a more modern complete rear drum and backing plate swap out? Not looking to spend $500 on a disc brake swap, but any cheaper bolt on options that fit the rear spindle without major modifications as another option??? Any late 60's models that would bolt on with self-adjusting bendix style brakes? I'm swapping the fronts over to discs (IF my Scarebird kit ever ships!) so maybe I should swap out the rears. Unfortunately I just bought new rear brake shoes from VAPco for $89 and new replacement rear brake cylinders for another $65!

Also, in my 46-47-48 Body and Sheet Metal parts catalog under door handle part number it states "Sedan and Coupe, not for convertible" Great, SO WHERE IS THE CONVERTIBLE INFO!!! What are we, the red-headed step-child of MOPARS??? If you publish a parts catalog, be sure to include ALL YOUR MODELS! Is there another parts catalog just for the convertible? Sorry for venting but this is frustrating...

Hey Fellas, Trying to determine if I can use Dodge sedan outer door handles on my 1948 Dodge convertible coupe. My originals are trashed and I see a lot for sale on EPay, but mostly for sedan, or unknown. They look the same, but is there a difference in the escutcheon length where it aligns with the belt stainless trim part? My coupe originals are exactly 3-5/8" wide across the back. Does anyone have a sedan handle off their car they could measure so I know what to look/ask for? Also, I have a stamping on the inside of the original coupe escutcheon "DR" if I remember correctly (Door, Right side I assume). No S for sedan or C for coupe. So, would a sedan door handle work for me? Anyone know for sure??? Tks!

Hey Fellas, A local tire guy has some decent vintage 7" wide mopar rims for sale. They have the 4 nubs for a hubcap and the locating pin hole so they are maybe 50's or 60's, I don't know when they phased out the hubcap nubs (anyone know offhand?). My original rims are shot (badly rusted) so I need replacements, and I will be getting modern radials at some point. Probably 215/75/15's since they are the closest to the original size bias ply (Is this true?). I have heard the 215/75's have fit fine for a few folks here on the forum. But my question is on the rim width itself. Would a 7" rim hit any of the steering components? Tie rods? Sway bar? I think the original rims were only 4.5" wide, so adding 2.5" might be problematic. I remember reading members recommended 5.5 to 6 rims for better fit to the radials. And I do not need the nubs anyway since I'll be using the 15" Dodge full wheel cover from the '49+. Thanks in advance for your input guys! Jim

I ordered 4 new key blanks to make copies of my only set of original keys. When I took them to our building maintenance office to make copies (we have a key machine here in our office) the cutter must not have been set properly and all the new keys must be inserted and then pulled back out slightly in order to turn. Maybe you just need to try jiggling your key if it is a copy of the original master. Sometimes my ignition takes quite a bit of monkeying around with the new copies to get to turn. Good luck.

That would work equally well for kids...they missed an entirely huge market segment, no wonder it never cought on! Poor marketing...

Ok Fellas, We just ran a pressure test in my 1958 D-24 project. Not looking good. Got about 30 psi in each cylinder (6 x 30 = 180 right?). The car sat at least 20 yrs. but the engine did spin when I got it home. My buddy pulled the head and found one or 2 valves stuck that he got loose. New battery, points, condenser, head gasket, fuel and water pump, etc. installed. Have spark. Tried to start with some ether (gas tank not installed yet) and could not get any "pop". Do you think the rings are stuck or is there any way to loosen them in the hope that I can start and run it as is? I'd love to get this baby running and on the road any way possible! Otherwise, I guess I'm looking at new rings at best, or a complete re-build at worst. The car says 95K on the odometer and it looks like it! Lots of floor pan and trunk rust through. The PO just covered over them with sheet metal. I'm not doing a frame off concourse resto...just looking to get back in running shape so I can drive while I slowly work on the sheet metal and other odds and ends. Any thoughts on loosening up the rings? PS - The cylinders were not scored when we had the head off, just a slight ridge at the top. Any suggestions much appreciated!

Niel - That's genius! It's so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it from the beginning. That's why I love this forum! You guys usually have a better way to do almost anything. Thanks again!

We are re-using the original pins. The new cylinders did not come with pins. One thing crossed my mind...would the front cylinder pins be any different length than the rear pins? I can't be sure we didn't just grab the first 4 pins we had and installed them. Since there are 2 cylinders ea. for the front hubs vs. one for the rear there is a 66% chance that we used front pins by accident. I did hold the one pin next to another (that we didn't use) and they were the same length, so who knows??? I guess I could file down the ends of the pins as opposed to sanding down the brake linings. I mean, I'm only talking about sanding 1/16" from each shoe. I think there would still be plenty left for years of use correct?

Hello again Fellas! Ran into yet another problem on my '48. Got in all new brake parts from VAP co. on Long Island. Originals not worth saving, were pretty trashed from 20 yrs. sitting in a bay front garage and the salt air had it's way with the car. So anyway, installed all new everything. Had drums turned (didn't need much) and arced the shoes to fit by lining the drums with sandpaper and smoothing down. They did not need much sanding as right out of the box seemed to fit almost exactly! Installed new cylinders too. Here is the problem. One drum barely fit over the new shoes, and we can't even get the other one to go on at all. I have the bottom adjuster arrows pointing at each other, and the top adjusters both set so the flat spot contacts the shoe (seems the least amount, although I could rotate to the start of the curve and it looks the same). The drum we did get installed drags but is turnable. The other drum will not fit no matter how we fiddle with it. It looks like I need to remove about 1/16" from both brake linings to clear the drum. Should I go back to the sandpaper and keep working? Am I doing something wrong? Does the wheel that drags need to spin freely, or will it wear in as is? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or tips!

raylloyd - I sent you a PM. Thank you for checking your stash! 49 wind - I think my mechanic buddy got a little overzealous trying to remove the nut. He applied heat and then a LOT of torque! 61spit - interesting repair kit. If I can't locate a replacement mount I will check into that. My buddy parting the Plymouth so far has not had luck removing the mount, although he is cutting up most of the car and is going to try and cut the frame at the bolt to remove it. Hopefully the threads are still ok and not rusted beyond re-using. It has coil-over shocks on it for some reason and it looks pretty rusty... Jim

OK, in my earlier query you fellas were very instructive as to how to press out and replace my damaged lug stud. It got me to thinking...I'm going to wind up having 3 standard righty wheels (fronts in process of converting to discs) and one rear left with opposite threads. So in order to eliminate any future confusion I should probably just convert all the studs to standard righty...right? Can I just go to an auto parts store and buy press-in studs that will fit my old drum? Anybody know what size they used on the 48 Dodge drums? Thanks again for the input!

Great tips guys! I"m sure I'll be able to salvage my rear drum now. I'll do it properly and find someone with a press. Good to know I'll have plenty of spare studs since I'm replacing the front drums with discs! I guess that $500 I spent on the Scarebird disc kit and NAPA parts saved me $2.50 for the new stud! Jim

Hey Fellas, Here we have my 48 Dodge rear drum. As you can see in the photos, one of the studs has hardly any threads left. There was a lug nut on it so I guess it still has some "bite" but the threads look pretty worn. Is there a way to press out the one stud and install a new one? Would you just drive with it as is? The other 4 lug nuts should hold the wheel on, correct? I'm swapping the front over to discs, so I could always re-use one of the studs from the front drums, assuming you can remove them. Or, do I just need to find a new hub from another car? Unfortunately I just had these drums turned and I sanded the new rear brakes to fit this drum. What would you suggest?

Here's a pic of the broken rear upper shock mount minus the threads on the shock side that snapped off when we tried to remove it. Would a Grade 5 bolt work or would it snap off from the stress after awhile? I know of a local guy parting out a 47 Plymouth, maybe they share the same mounts and I can grab one from him.

OK, went to the garage and pickup up the remains of the upper shock mount and it is NOT the same as the one on the DCM site for a pickup truck. Any leads on sourcing a replacement rear upper shock mount appreciated. Any suggestions for other options? Bolt and sleeve maybe? What else can I do? As long as it works it doesn't have to be stock oem, this in not a show car. Thanks

Final results, lockset is held tight in place by O ring. No slop. Only thing I could not do was figure out a way to tighten up the dust cover. Unless they came from the factory fairly loose like most of the ones I've seen.

Sorry, here's the photos

Fellas, Here's how I swapped out my old trunk lockset into my shiny new swap meet trunk housing! Hope you find it useful. I bought a very nice Plymouth trunk latch housing to replace my pitted up trash one that came on my 48 Dodge convert. The new Plymouth one had a lockset in it with no key. I had the key for my Dodge so I removed the lockset by pushing in the little spring loaded keeper in the back (you can find other posts on how to do this on the forum if you don't know). My buddy picked the lock on the new Plym housing, and we could turn the cylinder but could not find the sweet spot to depress the keeper. After 5-6 attempts here's what we did: just to the inside of where the keeper pin sits is a flat spot you can drill out. We put the housing in the drill press and drilled all the metal away and were able to pry the keeper out. Then the lockset mechanism just slid out. I didn't have the correct washer to install the new one so we used the correct size O ring and some plumbers grease and now the new lockset fits perfectly with no slop!

Fellas, Following up on my post about if the '49 Ford Shoebox rims would fit on our mopar hubs...it was mentioned that the 46-48 mopars only came with lug bolts and not studs. Here's a photo of the drums I just had resurfaced (minimal) that were on the car. Do these look like an aftermarket drum, a later year drum scavenged for my car (if that's even possible), or pressed in studs on original drums to make it easier to change tires? I took this quick photo before work this morning and I did not have time to look for a locating pin to see if it had been knocked out or cut off. From what I remember I didn't think I saw any evidence of the pin...but when I get home I will wire brush them and clean them up a bit so I get a better idea. These are both front and rear like this...so I doubt the rear was swapped. What do you guys think? PS - After dealing with the pins on my 1937 International PU, unless it was a show car I would never leave the pins in and would convert all my drums to studs. Jim

Robin - very interesting on the Canadian Dodge D25! Mine is definitely a D24 as it has the extended fender flair that runs half way back of the doors. Busycoupe and BobT - Thank you for that info. I will search for the serial numbers next time I'm at my friends garage where the car currently sits on his lift while he installs the new brakes. Jim

Thanks Dodgeb4ya and Branded! The Raybestos MC says "made in USA" and I got a great deal on a new one for only $59 including shipping. We shall see if it fits correctly!

OK, thanks Mark. I have a Chrysler Shop Manual not a Dodge and it has C28, C30 ,C33, C34, C36, C37, C38, C39 and C40 so I assumed my convertible would be one of the other numbers. So then, is mine the Custom or Deluxe? When looking for parts most web sites ask which one, what determines that? Fluid Drive or 3-speed?

A few parts suppliers say the Raybestos MC3241 will fit my 48 dodge convertible, yet others say it will not. Anyone have one of these or a manual that could point me in the right direction? I don't see the part conversion in my manual. thanks, Jim