thebelvedereman

Okay so now I'm even more confused, I just looked up the spark plugs again, and the one for the 57 is an 841, it says the heat index is 8 of 15, and the 511 for the 1948 says it's 11 of 15, so that means the earlier plug is hotter

Okay thanks, so I guess I should go with the one for the 57

It's a 23 inch block

Okay here's the question, I have a 1948 Dodge d24, but it has a 1957 DeSoto 230 in it, last time I ordered spark plugs, I got champions from RockAuto and just ordered them for a 48 Dodge, I was going to go to the auto parts store and pick up some new plugs today along with a few other things, and just out of curiosity I looked up spark plugs for 1948 Dodge, and for 1957 DeSoto both with the 230, and they show two completely different Champion plugs, one says it takes a 511 and the other one says it takes an 841, I always thought flatheads took the same plug, I'm trying to figure out the difference, wondering if anyone has dealt with this before

On a side note I also noticed that my temperature gauge sending unit isn't hooked up to anything, and the bulb is missing off the end, so I've got that going for me LOL

For those of you who played along, busycoupe you were the grand prize winner, I feel pretty stupid right now, I should have investigated further before posting, it is just a pull cable sitting on top of the bellhousing, only God knows what it was originally for, it could have been an after-market heater or something else ?

as soon as I get home from work I'm going to check it out, and I will update everyone

It already has an original throttle cable, an original temperature control, and an original choke cable, but you are definitely right it could be just about anything, I'm going to have to get a better look at it today, I just thought maybe it was something special that I didn't know about and somebody else might have known offhand

1957 DeSoto 230 Flathead

I'll have to double-check that today, I just gave it a quick look, but the car has a factory manual choke mounted by the headlight, throttle/cruise control, and ignition switches, so I doubt that

I will get a picture as soon as I can, but the cable goes directly into the top of the bellhousing where it curves up to meet the engine

Yep, so did my last one, this one also has 3 speed column shift manual fluid Drive, I haven't had the car long, and it was a pretty big project when I got it, I never even noticed the knob until today when I was painting the bottom of the dashboard, but the engine is out of a 1957 DeSoto, so I'm wondering if the transmission is too, like I said I'm mainly a Plymouth guy, and they never had the fluid drive, only the 3-speed manual until 1954, so this is throwing me off a little bit

So I've got a question, I have had many 30s – 50s Mopars, mainly Plymouth's, this is my second 1948 Dodge, it has a 3-speed manual/fluid Drive, not the high low, semi-automatic, and it has what appears to be an Overdrive cable, it's on the bottom of the dashboard, basically looks like a manual choke cable, but it goes into the top of the transmission bellhousing right at the back of the engine, I've heard a few of you guys talking about the "Freewheel Overdrive" and I was wondering if that's what this is, haven't had it over 20 miles an hour, and the cable feels like it's frozen solid, I cannot pull it out no matter how much pressure I put on it

Yup, I live on a completely flat Road in the middle of absolutely nowhere, My Town population is 507, I'm just going to putt down the street at around 10 mph, I've had over 400 classic Mopars already including many from the 30s – 50s, so I'm used to having no brakes LOL

It definitely stands out from the crowd LOL, I love it too, it would be different if I was doing a Concours restoration, but this is just going to be a fun cruising car, eventually I might get around to having it professionally done, tomorrow comes the big test, taking it out on the road for the first time since I got it , the rear brakes are sticking a little bit , but I think that's just because it sat for 40+ years

On a side note, it's really hard to install hog rings with channel locks instead of hog ring pliers, I shot several of them completely across the room, I still have to do the two rear benches, and I think I'm going to get some hog ring pliers first LOL

Okay LOL I told you they were going to be wild, this was Plan D, or maybe E, I can't remember, I originally got some vintage one-size-fits-all Gray Custom Upholstery, one-size-fits-all my ass, they weren't even close to fitting, so then I found some Gray Tweed that I really liked , and I couldn't get it, they were out of stock, then I got some gray leather Chrysler Town & Country seats and after installing them I absolutely hated the way they looked, they just looked way too modern, then I found some really cool gray diamond pleat tuck and roll type upholstery and I ordered it, 2 weeks later on the day it was supposed to arrive, I got a notice instead saying it was out of stock LOL, and then I just happened to be scrolling through a Facebook page of rat rods and came across one with Mexican blankets for seat covers, and I went online and looked and actually found some Mexican blanket type material , and this is how it turned out, I think it looks absolutely awesome ????

Wait till you see it this week after I get the cushion upholstery, it's going to look even crazier

One of my favorite body styles, this is my second 48 Dodge, and I've had 7 1946 – 1948 Plymouth's and most of them were daily drivers, at least while I owned them

I'm hoping the material for the cushions comes in on Monday, I also ended up putting some home carpet in the car because the carpet I ordered 3 months ago never came so I cancelled the order this weekend and went to Home Depot and just got some basic grey carpet

She's come a long way over the past few months, 15 or 20 minutes a day in my spare time , not the most professional job, but she's meant to be a cruiser not a museum car

I should just stop bitching and take it out and fix it LOL I just wish I would have thought about checking it all out when I had the distributor out when I did the points and stuff, it's just getting down to the wire for my car club's first car show of the season on May 14th, and I wish I could just drop something in there instead of messing around with stuff, it runs great until you open it up, I did notice when I had it apart that the shaft was a little wobbly, basically what I'm trying to say is that it's just old LOL it's probably been rebuilt 500 times just like the carburetor and the generator and the starter motor

I actually love points myself, and would keep my original distributor, I like 12 V better but my car is 6 V and I just paid almost $200 for a new 6 volt battery, if I could find another original distributor in very good shape, that would be the best of all worlds, but they're hard to come by these days, because like I said my vacuum advance is all messed up, and I'm really not good at taking stuff like this apart and making it go back together correctly again LOL it would be very happy if I could find something that I could just drop in, and it would be ready to run, but that I didn't have to convert everything to 12 volt, sorry just frustrated and venting ?

I've got a dumb question Tim, this slant 6 distributor swap won't work with the standard 6 volt system correct?? I'm trying to find a distributor I can just drop in and be done with it, I thought about buying one from langdon's, but I really don't want to convert to 12 volt, and then I thought about just putting in a pertronix igniter in my original distributor, but I'm pretty sure my vacuum advance is shot, it seems to be frozen

And yes I know that I could just cut the tube off and stick the hose right on it, but I really didn't want to do that