n1gzd_plymouth

I would pull the plugs to make it easier. I would like to get a crank so I will start looking for one starting with the link above. Thanks. Rebecca

Thanks. I needed to know that. Rebecca

yes.that is correct. The access is below the radiator. The larger than 2 inch nut on the crank pulley also has some sort of teeth that appear to be designed to engage with the hand crank tool which I don't have. It seems like that would be a convenient way to turn the engine during maintenance but i don't have one. my other choice is to get a huge socket and turn it with a wrench. However, I think that to do that I might have to jack up the engine a half inch if the socket is too deep. Rebecca

Do you have a picture of this instalation (showing the stuff that might be for sale)? I am interested. Rebecca

Thanks for the info. Such good information. Thanks a lot. Rebecca

Does anyone know where I can find a crank handle? I just want it to use for manually turning the engine for maintenance. It seems to be a handy way to do it rather than get a socket that is larger than 2 inches. Thanks, Rebecca

That must be the reason. Thanks. Rebecca

geeze. what a terrible disappointment. I am sorry to hear about your bad luck. Rebecca

hence L-Head. This is my first flathead and I guess I never thought about this before (piston not under spark plug hole). Why did they not put this hole for detecting top dead center over the cylinder 1 piston? Rebecca

That is exactly what i was wondering about. I sure appreciate this forum. What an excellent resource. You are right, I have a different throttle linkage. Question: Why can't top dead center just be found by removing the plug? Is the hole for the plug not quite aligned with the best place to measure from? Rebecca

Actually I don't even have petcocks yet (just plugs). I will install them. I just need to figure out where the second one is. I only know about one that is just to the left of the distributor. On a slightly related note, I am going to have to knock out the freeze plugs on my buick straight 8 because I have decided that the water jacket might be a bit clogged towards the back of the engine. I hope that I don't have the same problem with the dodge engine. Rebecca

I do have a 1952 engine but my accessories appear to be from the 36 car. I wonder if I would benefit from finding a newer distributor. I was going to remove mine anyway to refurbish it. I would rather have a newer one if it is a better design. When I do I can look at the part number on it to id it. Thanks for pointing that out. the distributors on my other cars have the oil wick like Ed's photo. Rebecca

Also here is a dumb question, on my distributor (at least you can see it in my picture) what is that knob that is visible at about 11:00? Rebecca

Ok. Thanks. I have identified that on my engine but now I am confused. Where is the second one? I can see the one that you just pointed out on my engine: http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/PlymouthGallery/imgpages/image032.html Is the other one to the right or left of that? Rebecca

I had this happen with my buick. I ended up blowing some compressed air into the petcock and it cleared out the blockage. unfortunately with that car I still have a cooling problem which I am now convinced is a blocked water jacket. I am going to knock out the freeze plugs this winter (at least the rear one). Retarding our engines, does someone have a picture of the second petcock (near the distributor). I am having trouble finding my second one (there are some plugs but none of them has a petcock (except for the one closer to the front of the engine on the same side). I want to pull out the correct plug and replace it with a petcock but I don't know which one it is (some of them must be oil). Rebecca

yeah, in MA you have to register it first and then you spiff it up (paint it or whatever). Rebecca

I really hate that rubber undercoating. Several of my cars have it and it is a pain in the neckto remove if you need to. Not only that but it catches on fire easily. I would just stick with a good paint and touch (extreme chassis black, por15, rustoleum or whatever) it up if you need to. Rebecca

http://www.thompsonspeedway.com/schedules/flea-market.htm I have never been to this one but my friends tell me it is a good one. Rebecca

I did briefly look at mine and they did not look like I expected so I think that I need to spend more time under there investigating. I was expecting to find one mount point that had an upper and lower cone. What I saw when I looked under there was a right and a left mount (about 45 deg to each other). I need to look again incase this was actually something else (I was focusing on the front one at the time). Hopefully this weekend I can get a chance to take some pictures. I need to get the car higher up first. It is a little hard to see under there but if I wear reading classes and a head lamp it is not too bad. If I get off the creeper I will have more room too. We have a big auto fleamarket up our way this weekend and I might get side tracked. Rebecca

I assumed that this is why the original mount had no top studs (put bolts in after you slide it in place). I found out the hard way that the newer mount with the top studs would not fit. I did consider shortening them but I decided that drilling different holes on the chassis side and using an NOS 36 mount was better. In retrospect, it might have been better to try what you did. I how have holes for either mount. Regarding the crank. I did notice that if I wanted to remove the crank pulley I would need to jack up the engine a little to get on the nut. Gaining access with the hand crank did not occur to me. I am not sure if mine lines up well enough. I suspect that I would have the same problem as well. I don't anticipate using the hand crank but eventually I will want to try it or at least try and remove the crank pulley. How thick are your shims, about 1/2 inch? Rebecca

I don't know. It was a little discolored from the rust colored coolant. However, if I wiped that off the color of it was more like steel. You can't really tell from the pictures, but the wiped off parts are good clean steel colored metal. It did not look like brass to me but I could have been deceived by the stains. Rebecca

I did this work in conjunction with replacing the front motor mount (see the other thread about that problem). Rebecca

I did this work in conjunction with replacing the front motor mount (see the other thread about that problem). Rebecca