raystewart

Yeah, I've seen the posts and pics of the various shifters but nothing works quite like having a box to work with out of the car. I have a line on a 39 Dodge trans with a floor shifter that was also on the back of a 218 flathead, anybody have any idea if it is the same length as the 50 trans or would work (other than the obvious need to cut a hole in the floor)? I have some Motors manuals that go back to 40 but there isn't much in them on the trans.

That is where I started but this vintage 3 speed is a bit of a freak, it is a "selector" type where one lever controls what gear you are in and the other controls if you are choosing between R&1 or 2&3. Seems none of the shifter manufacturers have made anything since the 60's for this type of trans. At one time a company called Foxcraft made them 50 miles from here, problem is that was 50 years ago... I was hopeful to stumble on to one at Carlisle. There are several guys here on the board that have fabricated one and I was thinking of doing the same and a spare trans sitting on the bench would be essential. I'm too old to be crawling in and out from under the car doing the engineering!

Hi Guys, I spent the day Saturday wandering around Carlisle in search of a floor shifter to fit our 50 Suburban Deluxe; after much research I know this is a tough item to find. I got lots of sympathy for this search and a few suggestions, i.e. try a truck trans that came with a floor shift, a more modern running gear, etc. I've done searches here and have seen a number about fabricating your own shifter and what I would like to do is find a spare transmission to use to fab one. Anybody in the Eastern PA/NJ/NY area happen to have one laying around? I'm not looking for one that is necessarily "good', just something to be able to throw up on the bench to experiment with. Why floor shift you ask? Wife can't master the 3 on the tree and a desire to add one of those in column power steering units. We really want to keep the Flathead and don't feel the need to get involved in the $ to add a T-5 along with the E brake and driveshaft mods needed. Our vision for this car is just a nice, presentable driver. She is pretty much rust free, about 95% straight and runs like a watch. I think with a touch of bodywork, a quick respray and some fresh wiring we will be set. Any help or suggestions appreciated, Thanks!

In another car we had recently purchased a few years ago I had a non-functioning speedo that drove me nuts. I could jack up a wheel and watch the cable spin when unhooked from the speedo, hook a cable to the speedo cable and driver it with a drill and the speedo would register. After repeated attempts I pulled the gear from the trans and found that a previous cable had snapped off in the square drove hole so when you hooked the cable up to the trans it would still spin from friction, but with the speedo hooked up there was too much drag and the cable wouldn't spin. One of the more maddening things I have run across over the years!

On our 50 the speedo didn't work when we bought it, I found it was frozen up and replaced it with a used one. Once I got it out I found a screw that covered a port to lube it, soaked it in PB Blaster for a couple of days and it freed up. Now I have the original and a spare.

Those are likely DCOE's, which are a side draft carb. If you can mount them you can make them work but even the smallest ones would likely be a bit much for a flathead. They made 38mm, 40mm, 42mm, 45mm and 48mm versions, even with small throats installed that would be a lot of carb for something like a flathead. They have value to many import guys, you could probably sell them pretty easy and buy something a bit more appropriate.

Well howdy sorta neighbor, I'm just below Stroudsburg. The Harry's in Hazleton is huge and with those type of carbs used on so many cars you see them there at times. You'll find them on a bunch of FWD cars from the 70's and 80's, perhaps even the early 90's. A day at Harry's have never failed me, I always find something interesting, not always what I went for, but always something. Good luck!

Yes, all of the calibrated components are interchangeable among those carbs. Check out the weber carb website, you'll see the "base" part number for each jet along with the sizes that are offered and carb types to which they apply. Weber's are really good carbs and infinitely tune-able. I've installed them on countless domestics with good results as well as on the various imports I have owned through the years. What part of PA are you in? If in eastern PA are you aware of Harry's U-Pull-It? I have harvested some jets from carbs there in the past for next to nothing.

I have zero experience on jetting these for that application, but tons working with Weber's. Number one problem is typically too much fuel pressure, they like no more than 2 1/2 to 3 psi. The float can only overcome the 3 psi, any more and you tend to go rich at odd times. Number two problem is incorrect float level, they are very sensitive to float level. Fuel has to cover all of the holes in the emulsion tube, otherwise you get weird troubles that act like a small air jet will help. We use to always start out with something in the area of 200 for air jets and 120 for mains and work from there. Primary idle jet should run well with the mixture screw at 1 1/2 turns, if you need more turns out you should try a bigger jet, less turns, smaller. Secondary idle jet is just about transition from primary to secondary, just about anything should work and some Weber's don't even have one. You can usually make any emulsion tube work with the right combination of air and main jets. http://www.webercarbsdirect.com usually has all the jets and are good folks, local VW shops can often help too. I can't imagine why you would want different jetting between front and rear carbs. Best books ever on Weber's are " Weber carburetors by John Passini - Theory, Tuning and Maintenance ", hard to read, very "English", but the best info I have ever seen. Some carbs have brass floats, some foam, watch out for a heavy float with foam ones, that can lead to hard to find troubles. Do the two carbs have the same internal venturi diameters? This is usually cast into the body on the outside of the throats, you should see something like 23 on the primary and 27 on the secondary, that is the internal diameter in millimeters. If they don't match, I doubt you'll ever get it to run correctly. Also make sure they have the same auxiliary venturi sizes, that is the bar that runs across the throat with the tube in it. They should be marked 3.5, 4 or 4.5, that is the minimum cross-section of the passage in the arm. If they don't match you will be transitioning from the idle circuit to the main circuit at different times. You will likely find more info on the DAT, DATR, DMTR series carbs which are very similar. Hope this helps!

Oh, I know Lake Hotpatcong, lived in Randolph and Hackettstown for a while, worked in Ledgewood. I'm just across the border on the Portland Bridge on 611. I'm covered up this week and the coming weekend, but if you're not in a hurry maybe we could get together the following week sometime?

My thought as well, but he says NJ area, perhaps he, like myself, made a move north from the Peach state?

What part of NJ are you in? I could use the horns if you are not too far away, Thanks

My 50 Plymouth came with a non-functioning fuel gauge so I grounded the wire and suddenly a full tank! Wonderful, the wiring is OK, so I move on to the sender, pull it out, hook it up and ground it and I can make the gauge move, another victory. Clearly the cork float is saturated and not floating anymore so a quick trip to the hardware store and I'm back with 3 corks.I drill a hole in them, slip them on the shaft and am able to verify that everything in fact works but I know the bare corks will sink quickly, so I move on to try to find a float. I saw quite a few people using a Ford float that requires that you bend a curl into the arm, I have several FIAT senders with a similar float but I don't really want to start doing a bunch of bending so next stop EBAY. I found item 111991366217, SCOOTER FUEL GAS FLOAT TANK SENSOR SENDING UNIT ROKETA SUNL JONWAY LONGBO SHENKE for sale by a number of sellers, cheapest one was $8 shipped so I ordered one. It arrived yesterday, I clipped the end of the arm off, slid the float off, slid it on to the Plymouth's sender and it works perfect! It is your typical modern foam float, so I know it will eventually sink, but I expect it will take years. Overall a great substitution for a minimal price and virtually no fab work, just bend the very end of the Plymouth senders arm, slip off the old float, slip on the new and bend the end back up 90 degrees. I don't know how many years this would cover but I expect it would be useful for just about any of the Mopars that this forum deals with. Hope this will help somebody else out there, I'm sure there are a number of saturated corks within the membership.

I was in the import auto parts business for 20+ years and sold a bunch of carpet sets. For the price, I always found Newark Auto Products to be a great value. They did quite a number of carpet kits for us and made every change we ever requested. I haven't ordered a set for my 50 yet, but will from Newark once I'm to that point. Also, Ben is a super nice guy and his people were always great to deal with. Based on the listings I see all over the internet, I suspect they supply many companies carpets. I found them in the late 70's when ordering seat covers from the JC Penney catalog and later talked my boss into branching out from hard parts with their stuff.

Hi, I'm in NE PA, if you go thru with the 340 conversion and want to get the flathead out of your way let me know. I have a 50 Plymouth and love having spares around just in case. Nothing makes things work well like having a replacement on hand!

Have you checked to see what temp the stat actually opens at by putting it in a pot of water on the stove? If you have an extra old stat you can "gut" it by taking the valve out so it acts as a restriction plate and try that in place of the stat. If you do that you know the system is open and circulating and the plate will provide enough restriction for the rad to be able to draw off heat. I've had thermostats that didn't open at the correct temp before.

I just got a Fram C134PL for $9.45 from Rockauto, arrived yesterday and is very new looking, not a NOS part.

Alas, I figured it out! There is a small tang broken off the round disc that rotates under the tombstone shaped cover. Got the radio out and can see the mounts and cable so I think I'm on the way to getting them to a basic function. Now, hopefully I can find a motor for parts or drill a hole in that disc and drive a roll pin in to function as the tang. Heading to the car show in the morning, wish me luck! Thanks to all who viewed or made a suggestion, I hope to be of service to others some day as I learn more about our flathead Mopar.

Hmmm, after a day of soaking I now get it to cycle on way with the lever in one position, the other way with it in the other position like if there were a rod or cable hooked to one of the wipers it would cycle it. There is one of the bigger car shows this weekend here, so Saturday morning is booked, but I hope to get the radio out Saturday afternoon and maybe I can see more that will lead me in the right direction. Maybe one of the literature vendors will have something on this system. I'm stunned at how little documentation there seems to be on these vacuum systems and disappointed that the factory manual doesn't have anything in it either. Oh well, if it was easy to do old cars, everybody would be doing it! Thanks to all and any further info appreciated.

Hi guys, thanks for your kind and quick replies! I'm aware of the limitations of vacuum wipers and my only hope here is to make an emergency functional wiper for the time being. The conversion to 12V neg ground is in the future but stabilizing the body and getting some paint on her is the next step after just getting everything functional. I'm even considering pulling the right wiper blade just to relieve the pressure on the motor since the only time I expect to use the wipers would be a pop up storm. Anyway, back to the motor, I've pumped penetrating oil into it and it seems to be quite a bit stiffer with your finger over the hose barb so I assume I am rejuvenating the internal seal pretty well. My next question might be a stupid one, but here goes; what is the lever on top of the motor for? I can see a small rod or cable attaches to it, is this the on/off or is this what causes it to change direction? I've looked around under the dash for whatever attaches to it but don't see anything yet. Pulling the radio is clearly the answer to many of my problems but I'd like to know what I am looking for. From reading the owners manual it acts like the knob on the top of the dash will "adjust" the speed, so I've been operating under the assumption it controls the flow of vacuum to the motor, but could be wrong. I've pulled the tombstone shaped cover off of the side of the motor and the round thing underneath does turn back and forth, I can see something under it that appears to be a seal perhaps, and it looks intact. Again, thanks for any info or tips. I hope to be back out on it tomorrow night or Saturday when I will pull the radio, I've also got to get some lights back to working and replace the speedo, so that big foot square hole in the dash will certainly help!

Hi, new to the forum and flathead Mopar world, just bought a 1950 Special Deluxe and searching for info on the vacuum wipers. I have looked all over the web and searched forums but can't seem to find much info on the wipers. Bought a reprint of the factory manual 1946-54 version but there is nothing in there about the vacuum wipers. Previous owner said the wiper motor was bad and there was a spare in the trunk, turns out the motor is out and in the truck, no spare. So I have 2 problems, one, wiper motor does not reverse, you apply vacuum and it sweeps on way and doesn't toggle back. If you shift the lever it returns. I'm not quite sure what is not functioning, but it seems pretty strong in the one direction it moves. Problem #2, I don't have a clue how it mounts once I get it to work, does anyone have an exploded view out there or an idea where I might find one? Thanks in advance for any info or suggestion!