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chrysleritis

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chrysleritis last won the day on March 14 2022

chrysleritis had the most liked content!

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Oakland, California
  • My Project Cars
    1941 Chrysler New Yorker
    1950 Studebaker Champion

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  • Location
    Oakland, California
  • Interests
    Bicycling, science, cars

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  • Occupation
    physicist

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  1. Often on these things, the starter will spin no matter what position the switch is in, but the ignition switch switches on the ignition. So unless the ignition switch is in the "ignition" or "run" position (clockwise, right), there's no current flowing through the ignition coil to make spark, so it will not fire up. Little toggle switch under the dashboard there should control the brightness of the instrument panel lights when the headlights are on. It's usually 3 positions: off, dim, and dimmer. Assuming the instrument panel bulbs and the wiring are still good...
  2. Andy Bernbaum has started carrying reproduction, original style rubber floor mats which aren't original looking for the trunk, but they do have the right era look, in my opinion, and you might be happy. Not cheap for a trunk mat, but your other choices are pretty clear. Lots of places to get ridged rubber matting by the yard that are close to the 1941 pattern. https://www.oldmoparts.com/parts/c-interior-rubber/reproduction-floor-mat/ Restoration Specialties has a pattern which is pretty similar-looking and not too expensive https://www.restorationspecialties.com/MAT017-WS-Sold-By-The-Foot_p_36898.html
  3. Just giving a heads-up that someone is selling a lot of seven door rotor repair kits over on the ebay. They do give new life to old door latches. https://www.ebay.com/itm/204584409457
  4. Yeah, I've read through your reaming and bushing schemes! It does sound like you might have to back up a bit and re-think. There was some failing paint and surface rust on the back side of the hinge frames, so I cleaned and re-shot, since I hope to not have to get back in there for a while.
  5. Ditto for Restoration Specialties. They have them. They have lots of weird fasteners.
  6. I thought I'd share the experience with my front driver's side door alignment issue on my 1941 Chrysler New Yorker (C30). It had been one of those doors where it hadn't closed right in years, you had to slam it just so, and it would latch only every once in a while. It was to the point where to save trouble, I usually climbed in the passenger side and slid across. Not a good look. So for this winter's rainy season project (but then it didn't rain for the last couple months anyway, but that's a different issue...), I thought I'd tear into it. I last had it apart a couple years ago while putting in new door panels and windlace and window channel, and I improved things a bit by adjusting the door position at the hinge straps and the striker plate on the B pillar, but it didn't really last. I figured it was either: worn latch mechanism (most likely, very common), "frame sag" at the pillar (not likely on a 4 door with minimal rust issues) or something else. I did not suspect the hinges, because the door, when opened, did not wobble or rock on the hinge pins -- it seemed snug, but the door would just not swing closed into the B pillar. You really had to push on it or slam hard and it wanted to spring back open. I figured I would just tear down the whole thing and start from the frame. The car has the pocket hinges with the pins recessed into the pillar, shown in the Master Technician booklet at https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Repair/Lit/Master/025/page15.htm Very helpful booklet. I also read through all the posts I could find on the forums about doors and latches and hinges. Also helpful. I lurked on eBay to find Roto Lokit kits or latch mechanisms. Remove garnish molding, window crank, handle, armrest, door panel, lower window channel, window glass. Remove door check by drilling out 1/4" rivet at door pillar, then remove check from inside door. Remove door by removing hinge plates from door. Set aside door. Remove hinges from pillar -- these required phillips head impact driver and penetrating oil. The floating nut plates in the pillar were all stuck in place -- no adjustment had been possible, but those worked loose with penetrating oil. These adjusters had not been moved in many decades. The hinges moved freely out of the car, but I thought they bore investigation. I had a tough time trying to drive the hinge pins out and finally had success with an impact wrench turning the screw on a hinge pin removal tool and mangling through a couple of dowel pins to drive out the hinge pins. Both upper and lower hinge pins were really bent, but not particularly rusty, which explains why the door just did not want to swing fully closed. It's tough to see how they still functioned, and I'm not sure how they got that way unless someone really swung on the door or wrenched it badly. Clean and repaint hinge parts. I had trouble finding suitable replacement pins. They are nominally 11/32" diameter and 2 1/4" long. They measured 0.341" actual diameter (on a straight section). There are lots of pins out there in Dorman land which are nominally 11/32", but most of those come in at 0.337", which was too loose. A couple of old Mopar places have things which claim to be 0.340". I ordered three different Dorman hinge and bushing kits at $4 a pop, and one of them had good steel pins that were 0.3425", which was what was needed after driving out the old pins and reaming the hinges. I had to cut the pins to length and grind a bevel on the ends. They pressed in just fine. Plenty grease. The latch mechanism, which I suspected was trouble from the beginning, just needed a little cleaning and fresh grease. I used a dremel tool to smooth off the worst of the ridges on the star wheel. The door is now amazing and swings perfectly closed and will latch with the slightest push after adjusting the striker plate, and finally is aligned in the opening and with the rear door and the belt line molding pieces. The takeaway here is that it was the hinge pins which were badly abused, and not the latch mechanism, which is still fine, but which is often the center of attention on these old doors. The other moral of the story is that the pins were terrible to drive out, but they did yield and the other hinge parts came through just fine. Other moral is that you may wind up hand-selecting pins of correct diameter or else re-drilling and reaming to a new diameter. Now just have to put the rest back together.
  7. I've played with LED bulbs a lot for fun. I'm stock, 6 V positive ground, generator with the old-style voltage regulator. In general, the products are good for 12 V applications, not so much for 6 V. They would work much better if you are running an alternator as opposed to a stock generator. With a generator and old-fashioned voltage regulator, they flicker annoyingly. It's true what they say about turn signal flasher bulbs. You'll never get the LED's to work with the old mechanical (bimetallic) flasher. They don't draw enough current. Your problem with the bulbs sort of working depending on how they are installed in the socket may also be related to how the wiring is in your car at this point. Lots of times, people get the two-filament bulb sockets wired up wrong in re-wiring work. I do have LED bulbs in the dashboard and indicator lights, where they work very well and really brighten up the dash after dark and save a couple of amps of current. Stuff like the high beam indicator, turn signal tell-tale bulbs, radio, they're great and colorful. The third brake light add-ons are good. But the main exterior lights on the car -- not so much. Not enough of a market for 6 volt, positive ground LED bulbs for the products to really be good.
  8. I just replaced the 6 volt coil in my 1941 8 cylinder Chrysler. It took me a stupidly long time to diagnose the bad coil, because in my mind it was a relatively new replacement coil -- I put it in in fall 2019, and have only driven it maybe 1000 miles since then. Anyone have an opinion as to why a relatively low-miles coil would fail? It was a new 6 volt coil from the local auto parts store, not old stock. Junky part? Bad condenser overtaxing the coil? I replaced the condenser while I was at it, and disassembled, checked, and cleaned the distributor -- the breaker plate was really sticky on its bearing anyway. But I'm curious as to why the coil failed so soon.
  9. The fluid drive temp should be no problem. The radiator and cooling system, if in good condition, should also be no problem. I have had problems with fuel flow/vapor lock/heat soak in stop and go, parade type traffic. Many of our cars are now missing the heat shields that kept the fuel pump, filter, and carb base cool, and over the years, owners may have gotten a little sloppy with fuel line routing in the engine compartment. Depending on your setup, you might consider worrying about this issue. Of course, the real problem in heavy traffic is that someone will dent your big fenders. Driving would be a lot more fun without all these other knuckleheads on the road.
  10. Check your ignition coil. I'm glad I did. It's cheap and easy to replace. Mine performed about like your problem sounds. Started with effort, idle a little rough-ish, but the main problem was stumble coming off idle once it was warm.
  11. Check the generator output. If the brushes haven't been service in some time, they may be worn out. Could be all filthy inside. May be putting out no current. Check the "Batt" terminal of the regulator to see what the regulator is putting out to the battery. Would bet one of the two is in need of attention.You can get new regulators pretty easily. I'd be pretty suspicious of the change over to negative ground. Could be full of gremlins now.
  12. Groan. That's a bad deal they've done to the bottom of that manifold. I just removed my heat riser valve as it was rusted open in the "preheat" position, blasting the carb base for the last dozen or more years. I didn't weld anything in to the manifold to blank it off, I just got a piece of 18 gauge steel and cut and bent a piece that would mostly block the direct exhaust path to the intake "stove". If it rusts in there, it will be easy to replace in a few years. Doesn't seem to hurt anything at all without it, but I live in a very easy climate. Your welded solution will be tidy.
  13. Second the comment about the link pins from the cylinders to the shoes. There is a lot of variation in what you get with the new cylinders and kits. Save your old pins. Also, go through the major adjustment and alignment procedure for the shoes mounted with the eccentric bolts. It may be that you don't have the shoes' "heels" or "toes" close enough to the drums. Also, you can set stuff up with the drums mounted not gorilla tight on the axles to make sure that you have the brake shoes set up right, removing the drums as you need to, and putting them back on, and then finalizing the castle nuts down when you've got it close to right. The first time doing this is always confusing, for sure.
  14. That switch is supposed to be wired so that you can dim or turn off the instrument panel lights. In one position, the instrument panel lights are off, in another position, they're dim, and in another position, they're bright. The instrument panel lights come on when you turn on headlights. Those courtesy lights under the dash there may be wired so that the left side is a flasher warning light that the parking brake has been left on, and the right side one should perhaps be connected in the circuit with the dome light. It may also be the case that those wires are not yellow with black trace, (which is more typically a fuel gauge or starter circuit color) but might have originally been red. Have you got the wiring diagram and manual?
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