Mark Haymond

I have front disks on my 47 Plymouth project car and plan to keep drums on the rear. Most of the stopping power is done on the front tires and much smaller brake forces are needed at the rear tires. For this reason a lot of modern cars are designed with disks on the front and pretty small drums (or smaller disks) on the rear. You probably would not get any stopping improvement with rear disks, though you would have the advantage of ease of maintenance.

The horn relay in the engine compartment seems to be telling the horns to blow. And it gets its signal from the wire that runs from the horn relay, enters the bottom of the steering column and runs up to the horn ring parts. The first time it happened was when you turned the steering wheel, twisting the wire inside the column. I don't know if that is a hot wire or ground wire but it could be rubbed bare somewhere along its length. I would inspect it right where it comes out of the bottom of the column. If you don't see anything you could pull the wire out of the column. If it is bad you could replace the wire. Of course it has that special funny looking terminal at the the horn ring. Save that last six inches with the funny looking terminal and solder a length of new wire to it. You can do the same thing at the horn relay end so you can use the bullit that pushes into the horn relay. Before you pull out the wire, make it easy on yourself and tie a string to one end of the wire so it gets pulled through the column. That will make it easy to pull a new wire back the other way, and get through the tube inside the steering box successfully.

Here is another approach that has worked for me. I cut a clean straight screwdriver slot on the threaded end of the brake adjusting bolts. This way I can do the major adjustment with the drum on. I adjust the bolt from behind the backing plate until I can feel a slight dragging as I turn the drum and then I back off until there is no dragging. I don't have to take the drum off again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenscaptain/2913585826/

Don, You asked for an update. My street rod project has been untouched for at least three years. But now I am getting my interest back. Frst I want to take care of some minor work on my fully restored 50 Plymouth so I am not working on two cars at once. My wife wants me to finish the 47 so SHE can drive it. To this end I have installed a good Dodge 318 with a two barrel and automatic transmission with a charger rear axle. I had a driveline made and have installed it and set the universal joint angles. I used fatman 3" dropped spindles for the front and lowering blocks for the rear. The car was quite high in stock form so three inches of drop still leaves the car quite road worthy. It does not really look lowered. Disks up front and a power steering unit is in it as well as a power brake master cylinder. This is to make it all wife worthy. I have yet to install air conditioning but that is a must for us in this Fresno climate. My plan is to make it mechanically solid and reliable so we can take trips in it. We will leave the interior, redone 20 years ago, as is. The paint is showing a lot of age and that stays for now. I am keeping the stock steering wheel and I won't restore the dash. The idea is to have a fun car that can go anywhere, yet look like a "survivor" rather than a street rod. Here is a link to a photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenscaptain/

You may be encouraged by the services available and the prices you find. A lot of trucking, construction equipment, and agricultural equipment business is handled by driveline shops and custom work is not a problem for them. I got a drive line for a 47 Plymouth rod done for a price similar to what the others on the forum experienced.

Today I could not get the R10 overdrive solenoid to pull in by hooking it up to a 6 volt battery from the car. Upon further inspection I found a broken plate that used to be spot welded to the top of the solenoid plunger, so perhaps the circuit was not being completed. I do not have a welder. What would be the best fix for this? Brazing? Take it to someone who can touch it with a welder? The two sheet metal plates are steel, not stainless. I will attempt my first photo insert on this forum to display it. Mark

Thanks James, I'll call. I was not worried about finding bearings, I but was worried about locating any needed gears. Mark

In July 1993 I started the restoration of my 1950 Plymouth. I took a working overdrive transmission to a transmission shop to have them disassemble it and repair as needed. They said the cluster gear had some chipped teeth and they couldn't get the part anymore, the transmission was not repairable. They charged me $84 and gave it back to me in pieces in two cardboard boxes. I stuck it on the back shelf and used another transmission to get the car on the road. Today I started the project of putting the R10 back together. The 3 speed I am using whines a lot in first and second gear and leaks a lot so I'm looking forward to quieter running and that overdrive for the highways. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had cleaned up the parts before putting them in a plastic storage tub. I had forgotten that. This little project is going to take a little time because I've never done a transmission before. So I may call for backup from the P15-D24 troops if I get stumped on a step. Here's a pic of the parts mystery I am starting with. Mark

I did not secure my brass screws enough. After a while they let go and the plate fell down and was partially blocking the exhaust pipe gases. So right now I am running with no plate. When I make the repair I will dimple the threads heavily or groove and spread the screw ends to insure they never loosen. I can always grind or file the distorted threads away in the future and the little screws are cheap. The factory method lasted 50 years, right?

Hullo Don, I see you are still being referred to by undercoatney. Cracked me up. I had not driven the Plymouth for a long stretch of months, so long that when I got in it the brake pedal went to the floor. So this week I got all new wheel cylinders from Napa and spent a few days doing a brake job. It was a sweet feeling to go to a local eatery in the evening with my wife. I started remembering the charm of driving the car. While my wife was getting money at the ATM two women appeared suddenly from different vehicles to look at it and share old car memories. Yes sir, it is a Chick Magnet. In this case the chicks were in their 60's and 70's and my lady did not mind. Usually all I get is Old Man Magnet attention at the gas station. I retired since my last post and now I have time to fuss over my retirement car. I'll be participating in this forum again too. Mark

The horn ring on his Dodge looks just like the one in my 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe. I'll bet the parts are interchangeable.