rb1949

Well, car was all working fine for 2 days after re-wire and reassembly. Took it for a ride, and 4 hr later the battery was dead. Suggestions pointed to checking the regulator. Not sure what was going on there, a post on regulator testing didn't help. There was a drain on the battery, from somewhere. Pulled cluster back out. Got lucky fiddling with wires to the amp gauge, had mis-wired one. What I have doesn't match the wiring diagram. Did repair and let it set 2 days, no battery drain, ample starting power. Reassembled, and hopefully back in business. Now can tidy up things and put rest of dash back in. Finished installing my custom aluminum sill plates. Did you see them in the other post? Classy! Too nice to work, time for a beach break.

Sharp looking truck in and out.

Glad one of these windows went OK.

Got out there this morning. No smoke, no melted wires from sitting overnite. The beast started right up with plenty of cranking power. Happy days. Putting things back together got delayed til noon. I'm getting pretty good at re-installing gauges and gauge wires. All hooked up and back in place. Check battery, no drain. Car starts. Can now finish putting all dash back in place, and hide wires underneath. Then move on to new projects. Questions will be coming for the '49. edit: put the grill behind the car. Pork, corn, chicken & taters made a tasty bbq. Happy Holiday.

Pyro. Try rotating the vent rod 180° and see if it opens further. Mine was backwards, not fully opening either cause it was hitting the frame. Cowl vent screws also stuck, had to drill out all 4 to remove. New screws. 4 screws stay attached to the hinge for assembly. You'll see how the flap slips over them. Remove interior windshield trim and defroster vents. Now you'll be able to see the rubber gasket, and hopefully spot area of leak. A little silicone/RTV to seal. Water COULD be entering from the top of the windshield, running down the edges, and leaking out at the bottom. Good luck.

Since some of the electrics are used as auxiliary pumps and not always on, how do you determine if it will allow the mechanical to pull fuel thru it? It was mentioned some do not do this.

Yes, did do some re-wire. The statement of everything working was AFTER the rewire. Had no problems for 2 days, battery fine. Drove it Monday, and 4 hr later the battery was dead. That seemed to indicate something new had happened, and the regulator became suspect. Easy to get to, but test results were confusing, thus this post asking for help on the regulator. Getting back up inside to investigate, finally got the cluster out. It could have meant having to remove the housing again to get to items. But got lucky on first choice, identifying mis-wire on the easily accessible amp gauge wires. If wired wrong, why didn't it cause the quick battery drain the first 2 days? That will remain a mystery. Wish I were smart enough to design a PC circuit board to put back there instead of Chrysler's spaghetti bowl. More hindsight thinking, maybe it would be clever to install a fuse block for each circuit? Would that be easier to have one location to check each one? If doing a complete rewire I would do it.

Hate when projects get delayed. Paper/fiber? Too complex to make? I had to make one for my instrument cluster.

Break time....or party time. Got it. Gave up on regulator and followed instincts back inside. Got the instrument cluster out, which was good as I wanted to recheck the speedometer. Started playing with the amp meter wires, disconnecting, connecting, jumping back and forth and testing voltage leak at the battery each step. Up popped the one with the drain, I had mis-connected. Only 4 wires there, and mine don't match the wiring diagram. One way, everything works, but car won't start. Change wire, everything works and car starts. Goofy. Obviously leave things connected, that works. The process also had a bonus. Got the correct wire for power to the cigar lighter, and that now works. And got the ignition wire to power the fuel gauge, which did not work before. So far things are looking good after an afternoon project. Started to rain so put it back in the garage. Jumper cables still attached for the connections. Gave the battery a charge, and left cables attached. Will find out in the morning if it's still holding a charge to crank over. Fingers are crossed pretty tight. About as close as you can get. Did I make my goal to use the beast as a beach cruiser this holiday weekend? Weather is questionable with possible rain. Either way the food and beer will make it enjoyable. Hope yours is the same.

Disconnecting ammeter stops the drain, because that breaks the circuit to everything else. Bypassed meter to see if that was the culprit. No clock or radio to worry about, interior lites all OK. The regulator 'circuit breaker' coil is supposed to open the points to stop backward voltage.Still not understanding what is going on in there. Replacing stuff is tough when the part cost $90. No voltage from anything that should NOT have voltage when all is off. Getting ready to pull instrument cluster (again) and start rechecking everything behind there. Hoping to find a cause.

With everything apparently working, there was an unexpected dead battery. After a recharge, it was identified there is a drain on the battery, from somewhere. Suggestions, including posts here, mentioned the regulator. I even copied instructions on how to test it. So far I getting nowhere and confused. With the car running there is a voltage across 'A' and 'B' terminals. With the car not running, there is also a voltage across these 2 terminals. Doesn't seem right. Removing the cover, I put a piece of cardboard between the points on 'A'. Not running, there was still a voltage. There is also voltage from 'B' to 'F'. What am I doing wrong in trying to determine if it is the regulator? All other electrical stuff is working as should. I'm baffled trying to find what is draining the battery on the '49 Chrysler.

Thanks again. Don't MILL after MILLer Lite. Main use was a 105 and 107 engraving bit. Took longer than expected to get the depth I wanted. Tried a few different Diamond Bits but wasn't happy with the progress. Can't say whether the aluminum was soft or hard grade. 3/4" is a pretty small area to be working in. I nixed the idea of using a 3" wide piece of material for the plate, that would get scuffed up more than rubber.

Yup, one slip and your work is kaput. I didn't care for the Diamond Bits for this purpose.

Emptying the container before proceeding was also a necessity.

Thanks a bunch. Doing that permits more work room, not having the instrument cluster in the way. Just be sure they don't touch ground!

My '49 Chrysler has the 2 speed electric. Just removed, re-greased, and replaced wires. Had the cowl vent out to replace gasket and vent drain tube. Saw easy access to the wiper motor. 2 mounting nuts, and the arms held to the motor with push on clips. Don't drop them! Not familiar with vacuum and what may be bad , but get it out and play/test/lubricate. Lots of rebuilding options. Or replace. For a good chunk of change, you could get a bolt-in 2 speed electric. They are 12V, so you would also need a converter to get down to 6V. Have fun and good luck.

Learning as I go, related to the instrument cluster post and a partial rewire project. With wiring complete, and the instruments still removed, it would be good to perform some electrical tests to check your work prior to reassembly. Battery was connected, no sparks or smoke. But zero electrical activity. Ack, what have I done now? Thinking, the only thing missing that could be part of the circuit was the Amp Gauge. Brought out gauge and hooked it up. Tah Dah, everything worked, and was able to test all new wire connections. Which brings up the above question. The Amp Gauge wires are a necessary part of the circuit. Thru the gauge. For testing, can you just connect the amp gauge wires together, bypassing the gauge? I didn't want to create a short circuit and melt all the wires. Silly question, but I don't know. Thanks.

Thanks for the all around compliments on my burst of ambitious creativity for a sill plate upgrade. Far from original, and guaranteed nobody else has them. When forced to do a non-stock replacement, get creative. In case some of you were not watching my Instrument Cluster post, that project got out of hand, resulting in re-painting the dash components. Here's that result with Metallic Charcoal and Satin Nickel finish. Gotta love trivial projects.

Those infamous rubber sill plates, one of the first things you notice getting in the car. What condition were yours in? Mine were old, dry, hard, brittle, worn, cracked and just plain nasty. And that one piece construction with the rubber molded directly to that metal strip creates rust underneath. With those pins on the metal going into the rubber grommets in the rocker, it was a handy way to attach them. Being SOOOO ugly, those were one of the first things I removed on the 4 door. Each one also had 2 screws, lucky to get those out without drilling. And the rubber grommets came out. Next to attack the rust, then prime and paint. It's not visible, slop on any color you got. I had Rustoleum Black. Now you've got a 'clean' rocker panel with big holes in it. Better than looking at broken pieces of rubber and a rusty plate. While searching for other parts, original replacement sill plates popped up. And the price. WHOA. These were definately NOT going to be a part of my budget for parts, to put my feet on. Time to be clever for some kind of non-Chrysler replacement that would look nice and serve the purpose. Going non original is no problem. After much debate, I settled on using rubber floor mat material, which comes in an array of patterns. Frowned on the 'ribbed' design, which would be hard to clean, and catching lots of beach sand. A smooth surface would be more suitable, and a Diamond Plate design caught my eye. Searching got lucky, spotting this pattern in the necessary 36" width, 1/8" thick, and it was 40% off. Only needed a foot long (4 pc X 3" each). One piece was carefully cut straight, and put in place using a good adhesive, no screws. So far so good, it looked nice. Quite functional, but also quite plain. Something was missing. Ah, it was the boring match of the rubber to the carpet, which could be improved with a piece of trim, similar to the carpet-to-tile stuff. Had the right idea, but shopping wasn't finding anything 'exciting' to cover this seam. Finally settled that 3/4" width would be the best. Picked up a piece of aluminum, 36" X 1/8" X 3/4", cut to 32". Buffed that sucker out to a glossy shine. Now we're getting somewhere. Not done yet. How could I add some class to this stick of metal? A perfect idea came to mind, producing the intended touch of class. Take a look at the result of my effort with this piece of aluminum. The first of two finished pieces. It was difficult to get a good photo with the reflections. CHRYSLER is centered, and I wanted the raised (shiny) letters with an engraved background. This was done freehand using a Dremmel. Needed some practice first with various bits to obtain the result. Grinding is tricky. And a steady hand. Here it is installed, using stainless oval head screws. Perfect for the intended purpose. Do you like it? I think it's a classy addition to the '49.

Great car and great progress. It's a classy ride. Always happy to meet another '49'er, we are in the minority. Noticed your narrow whites, which look good. Are they 205 radials on stock rims? I'm considering the change. Keep sharing your adventures.

The ol' buggy is out of the garage for the first time in quite a while, under it's own power. We both enjoyed the bright sunshine and warm air. Adding that extra bit of wire mentioned above really helped increase the working room behind the cluster. Even enough to attach the speedo cable. Lucky the oil & temp gauge needles were not damaged hanging in the mess. With everything in place, the cluster was gently shoved back into position. All that stuff is jammed back in there somewhere. Time to test the (new) ignition, and she fired up. Quite a relief after such a tedious project to find things working. A smile feels good. Now I can continue to hide all those wires hanging around yet. Pictures as promised. Replacing a few wires turned into a multitude of projects. One of which was the decision to repaint the dash. Only 1 piece was actually removed, the rest was done inside the car. Here's the dash masked off and primer coated. There is not a lot of metal 'dash' in this car, the biggest part, besides the cluster housing, is the steering column. I opted for 2 tone. The small parts of the dash & steering column are Metallic Charcoal. The cluster housing is a Satin Nickel finish. I like it with the abundance of chrome in there. Those re-painted gauge needles really made a difference too. I hope your project brings a smile today. Let's go for a ride.

Two Indiana boys in one place could mean mischief. Glad the time was right for a face to face meeting. I might get to see Mr. Niel down by the beach sometime this summer. Add in some luck and we'll both be driving old buggies.

Cool. Slowly getting an idea of what these strange pieces are for. The wiring diagram gives connections to components, but that doesn't tell you where they are located or what they look like. Everyone's wise wisdom has again provided the info to accomplish a task. My novice skills Thank You. Not everything is an "exact" match, but many times close enough to figure it out. This Instrument Cluster blossomed into a multitude of additional unexpected projects. Although adding extra time, I think if you're working in an area, try to check/fix while you're in there, rather than adding work by going back later. Gives you more experience learning to be a contortionist like the circus rubber man. I'm slow anyhow. The new cylinder/tumbler is in, and ignition switch screwed back in place. Just glad it fit. Shoved all wires/components back in the 'hole' to put the cluster housing back in place, 3 switches attach to the housing. Proceeding with tedious caution reattaching the instrument cluster.......the part with no room to get behind it. Just now thought, there are 2 wires to the Amp gauge (short) which limit the room to work. Think I'll go back and splice in 2-3" per wire. That would allow the cluster to slide forward much more, providing ample room to work behind there. Another detour. Why didn't I think of that sooner? Wish me luck getting it back together. Might get that picture too.

Give them a number to call when they decide to scrap it.

Nice wheels. (that means everything else too) Ready to roll and have fun.