dpollo

Caster can be changed slightly by inserting a horse shoe shim under the lower control arm pivot. There is no "adjustment" But caster could and can be altered when new inner pivots are installed top and bottom, especially if this is done without an assembly jig. Camber is adjusted by a cam on the upper-outer pivot . '

If the serial number starts with a 9, it is Canadian. differences from a US model include engine, radiator, universal joints, side glass (tempered)possible steering box location and length of column ..... not sure for P15 but certainly true for 49 to 52 Firewall tags, paint codes and colours. Try Dodge City Truck Parts in Ontario Norm Pennie in Vancouver Ron Whiting in Coquitlam BC

I have owned two Hydrive vehicles and have some technical info should you want it. The M6 semi automatics also used the engine fed torque converters in 53. A bit of a mechanical boggle but they worked well enough and certainly worked better than Fluid drive. The engine blocks for HyDrive needed two machined bosses to mate with the bell housing adapter plate. One at the oil gallery and the other for the drain-back into the pan which had a tube to put the returning oil to the bottom. Wish I had all this stuff now. Hydrive with Overdrive . Possible but I have never seen or heard of one.

HYDrive cars use the same pan as any other, the extra oil is contained in the Torque Converter which must be drained separately. A bit of a chore but with the extra volume, oil needed to be changed less often. Better performance than the Fluid Drive for sure !

Looks like your engine encountered a porcupine ! The oil pickup is just a screen. Two different designs were used. One is about the size of a spin on filter, it does not come apart. The earlier design is larger and does come apart. In any case, it takes patience and strong solvents to clean them. If you are going to install a full flow filter, the block can be drilled on the pressure side of the oil pump and the filtered oil delivered to the other side of the block. Some blocks, but not the 201 have raised casting bosses just behind the generator to make this easier. Although a FF filter is a good thing, I have never felt that the extra external plumbing was worth the risk.

Is that nice braided fuel hose as good as it looks ? I recently had one which was collapsing internally . A lean mixture will cause backfiring too. The IAT distributor is a good choice in my opinion, but it does not always have a grounding jumper wire to the points plate as the IGS does. There is also the flexible lead from the points to the distributor terminal but this would cause trouble hot or cold.

All of the above offer good advice. Coil or condenser would be my first culprits to check followed by the flexible fuel hose to the pump.

If you have not already done so, run a tap down every bolt hole. That will allow every bolt to go down to its full extent without interference. None of these are blind holes, they all go into the water jacket except for three which go into the intake ports. Once upon a time I drilled and removed two broken head studs quite successfully only to discover the block was hopelessly cracked along the deck line on the distributor side. Junk ! but good practice. I think we have all felt your pain with this adventure.

You will find that the engine mellows out after about 1500 miles. The process is so gradual you hardly notice it until you recall your first drive. You are making a lot more heat until the rings are fully seated . That uses more fuel. Maybe a minor timing adjustment will restore your mileage.

The measurement at the crown is smaller than the skirt because expansion is greater there. Also the skirt area is cam ground so measurements will vary around the skirt circumference.

The springy thing is a piston skirt expander which was used to make the piston run quietly in a worn cylinder. Still, in all, more positive than negative.

just from the pictures, it looks like that engine is in decent shape. No broken rings, no scored journals babbitt looks good and the head gasket certainly shows no sign of leakage. Not all older engines had a seal in the back but instead relied on the slinger which is a good size on your crankshaft. Sometimes there were grooves in the babbitt to help excess oil drain back. The valve seat can have an insert put in it which is not a bad idea in any case. Good luck with it.

Not sure what the material was but it was tough. I used a Suburban seat in my P23 Convertible and everything fit just fine. Needless to say, I had it recovered as the restoration progressed.

I have never before seen the plate that goes under the intake manifold but I do have 2 sets of Fenton Headers like yours. The outlet of the front header is smaller than the back one presumably to move exhaust gasses through the carburetor heat stove. A great find !

Yes it will, although the Suburban had a canvas-like covering. Very durable, very plain ....not at all pleasing by modern standards.

Good luck with your repairs, automotive and personal. I remember when a Plymouth block wasn't so heavy, I have hay to bring in next week and even the 50 lb "grampa bales" are heavy now ! Average age of the hay crew....... 70 !

There was usually a Standard and a Deluxe line, sometimes differentiated by the model number for example 1940 P9 and P10 or 1942 P14 S and P14 C sometimes it is pretty hard to tell as Deluxe items could be obtained as options on the low liners. I can recommend Don Butler's book Plymouth and Desoto Crestline publishing. He does a Good job.

Congratulations. One of my grandsons helped me grind , reinstall and set the valves in a 251 I had on the bench. A good day. But remember : Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill, (almost) every time.

Busy coupe has it right. The tail light inner housing relies on bolts from the back to hold it in place and provide a ground. A quick fix is to remove the lens and drill a small hole through the back and insert a self tapping screw which will bite into the metal of the fender. A better fix is to run a ground wire and secure a ground in the trunk compartment where moisture should not be a problem.

Over thirty years ago I assembled an engine for someone who had all the machine work done already. On final assembly I noticed the relief valve was stuck in place and had been there all through the cleaning and machining . As I was not being paid for this work I found the quick fix was to install the oil pump from a 53 Chrysler which had the oil pressure relief valve in the cover. It worked just fine but the oil filter had to be hooked up differently. It is still running and I am certain the plunger is still stuck. Glad persistance paid off for you. I never did collect money or favors for this job but can chalk it up to experience..

Glad you could be with us and hope ,as do the others, that you will drop by occasionally. No need to be a stranger on this forum.

Good advice above. A digital thermometer aimed at hot spots on the radiator of my P23 confirmed the dashboard instrument is an alarmist. I have always preferred the Fahrenheit scale because it divides "living temperature" into 100 parts.Seldom do we experience temperatures lower than zero F or (at least where I live) over 100 F. Since Canada went Metric, I have stubbornly refused to embrace Celsius (centigrade when I went to school) and buy my thermometers and thermostats in the USA.

Your poor performance is likely to be a result of this distributor problem bad ground to the loose plate and don't overlook the condenser. My newly restored Fargo came home on a roll back due to a faulty $3 part which will mimic fuel problems and behave just as you described. If you think the bearing is too loose in the plate, a little Loc tite will keep it in place. I seem to recall that some IGS distributors had two little tabs to hold the bearing down. The newer IAT is a different design and actually gives better performance. ( mid 50 to 59) smaller cap and no counterweight on the rotor.

I think you are more likely to find the problem at the lower end of the steering column where the insulation on the wire has deteriorated.

During the late 40s and early 50s the Chrysler paint code was 4 digits which then could be crossed with a paint supplier's code. The vehicle body tag would be .... say 4154... you would then go to a colour book and cross that number to a Dulux Number, in this case DU-4 Opal Grey . ( DU was Dupont . Duco was the trade name for lacquers. Dulux was enamel ) U S codes were different for example 321 which was stenciled on the firewall and could be translated into RM # 49D32G Andante Green ( RM would have been the paint supplier ) Other 4 digit codes would translate into two tone combinations. and that is about all I know other than the same colour could be known by a different name the next year or even from make to make. I found it fascinating that any number of names were given to the same formulation of Black and some would argue that one was a better black than the others.