Los_Control

Sadly not sure there is anything we can do about the time we get poor shipping, while usually it works pretty well considering how complicated some routes can be, millions of packages per day ... how many stops and people handle the package ... the one day Joe was sick and had a replacement worker for his usual station. I have watched a package come close to my location, then get sent on the wrong truck and delayed 3 more days getting back on track. I have seen packages delivered to usps 3.5 hours away, then sit there for 4 weeks before moving again. We all have had bad shipping experiences. Gets pretty frustrating also. Was my spark plug wires sitting 3.5 hours away and stopping me from my first start on my 49 dodge. I was trying to contact someone to see if could just stop by and pick them up ... no luck. Yesterday Friday while drinking my coffee at 6:00 am, I ordered some struts for a ot vehicle from rockauto. 11:30 Saturday FEDEX dropped them off to my door ... I used standard shipping no special overnight etc... I love fedex over ups. They show up in the early part of day ... ups never shows before 3:00 pm sometimes after 6:00 pm. I feel your frustration @LorenThey are all pretty good in my book .... sometimes I sure have a few choice words for them

I agree @keithb7the tools are nice to have. When I picked up a spare engine to mess with, They loaded it in the back of my truck with a fork lift. I had no way to remove it myself. So it sat in the back of my truck for a few days until I figured out a plan to unload it. In other words, I had a good deal on a engine I wanted, so I picked it up and figured out the details later I did have a chain hoist I bought used for $50, but no place to hang it. I have a plan for a permanent place to install it in my work space on a rail so can move it as needed. The shop cranes are a better deal if you have space for them .... My space is preciously small and the crane is not used enough to warrant storage space. Although I did build the lil barn this year to store garden tools and garage overflow, I may get a crane later ... store out back and drive to it and load up then haul around to front of house ... a pain but doable when needed. @ChrisMinelliIf it is a good deal for old iron, sometimes you just have to jump on it when the opportunity arises. Figure out the details later. Someone here will have a idea how to unload it .... you have a tree in the back yard Maybe hire a tow truck to go pick it up and deliver it? There are many ways to do something.

Without knowing what you have to work with ... does your garage have exposed trusses? You can use a come along to lift the engine from your truck. You would not want to attach it to one truss, but if you lay a 8' 4"x4" in the rafters and spread across 4 trusses to spread out the weight. You can lift the engine from your truck & mount it to your stand. In my case, I drilled a 1.25" hole above the header in my garage door. I open the door and run a chain through the siding then hook my chain pull off of it. Then lifted my engine out of the truck and connected it to the stand and rolled it in ... actually I set it on a piece of plywood sitting on 3 pieces of pipe and rolled it to a corner. When I bought the stand I hooked the chain back up and connected them... My house is built in 1948 and already has a few holes in it, My garage trusses are stick built and do not work for this. 2 Hillbilly ways to lift the motor out of your truck when you get home. If you have a finished garage with sheet rock, If you can get the 4"x4" up in the attic & where you need it. You could just poke a hole through the sheet rock and leave a short permanent chain hanging to lift from. Looks like crap? Install a leather shift boot to the ceiling with the chain coming through to trim it off. You have options, need more info for others to supply the best option. I want to add before I get beat up .... using trusses to pull with is never recommended nor considered safe. You Truss builders will cancel your warranty blah blah blah. Trusses are built to support weight on top ... snow load. They are not designed to hang weight from .... but we have done exactly that for years. As a retired remodel carpenter, I have seen 200 pound men hang from a single truss while we are building the roof. We have built plywood floors in attics for storage .... we install hvac furnaces in attics, Now I see advertisements for elevators to be installed to haul your storage items to the attic. We already do it all the time, I think this engine weighs between 500-600 pounds, divided across 4 trusses will be fine. I would not recommend anything heavier then a dodge flathead 6 lifted. Many times you will find the lifting point useful while working in the garage.

Going to go out on a limb here, I may be wrong others will say so if I am. I would not suggest transporting it standing up in the trailer. Of course that defeats your purpose of rolling it off the trailer. Maybe if you have 2 big guys one on each side to support it you may keep it upright coming down the ramps .... sketchy at best. There is a lot of weight there and the engine stand will be top heavy and want to tip over. They roll fine on a flat cement floor. The other issue is the weight on the cast iron ears. While driving down the road will be bouncing and a good chance will break the cast iron block and ruin it. while falling off the stand at the same time. While a different engine, is a 1951 Ford engine. You can see how I prop it up while sitting in the shop to take the stress off of the cast iron block. You could do the same while transporting yours, take the bounce out while keeping everything tied down tight. Going down the ramp is going to be a ride My harbor freight engine stand you see I have 3" bolts outside the block ... I bought bolts too long it seems and made 1/2" spacers. So 2.5" outside and 1" inside so 3.5" bolts? I imagine I bought 4" and too long so made the spacers.

I think you are all correct ... possibly I knew the answer myself why brought up the worn struts. The tire wear is even with no cupping to suggest suspension problems. And it drives/steers good. There is a intersection near the house with a double whoopty dip, timing is just right as you pass over 1 & hit 2nd, the struts bottom out. BAM! Then also need to slow down on rough roads and cornering is lost and slow down etc... I do not mind driving slow like a old fart But now I believe is wearing the tires out prematurely and hitting my pocket book .... Does my best Fred Sanford impression! Along with tire rotation hopefully will get more then 25k miles out of a tire rated for 70k miles. I ordered the struts this morning. Cheaper then I thought .... seems I looked up a few years ago and thought they were $150 each ... no clue what I was looking at now. Sheesh they had some for $11. Better ones kyb gas were $40. I found some that were in the middle discounted to a lower price of $15 each Just seems silly to not change them while I am at this point.

Thanks Merle ... sounds like auto school 101, To be honest I really have not had any fwd vehicles for any length of time. Always trucks or rear wheel drive. My first thoughts when I noticed them a few months ago was the mechanic did a poor job at the alignment. Was going to travel to a different shop and have a new alignment done with new tires. Then yesterday with them off and looking at them ... I thought it was more likely my fault for not rotating .... Seems I have heard this advice somewhere in the past but forgot it. .

I have no personal experience with cars .... I like trucks. Have you checked https://www.moparpro.com/product/1940-1948-plymouth-dodge-desoto-chrysler-brand-new-fuel-tank/

Well she finally made it into the lineup. Got it on blocks and a little cleaning before I work on it. The fuel pump quit working ... Lady Belle kinda forced her way to the front of the line While finally searching for electrical diagrams for this minivan ... I have a book but does not cover the vans, only the cars. I want to know where the fuel pump relay is. I know for a fact the fuel pump was changed 5 years ago and has about 30k miles on it. My troubleshooting went as far as finding out the relay controls both spark & fuel, is called a ASD, (automatic shutdown device) Shuts both fuel & spark off at same time. Ether in the TBI, fires right up, I know electrical is good. Unless a bad wire to fuel pump. I look on rockauto for a fuel pump .... they sell one for $33 <---- I know that is the one the father inlaw bought & installed I have the one for $92 on the way and they claim tested to last 150K miles. While searching I find out I have a A604 transmission. With a little more searching I found a pdf to download to explain troubleshooting ... how correct it is I have no idea. I think it is possible I have a bad electrical pig tail with the description. They claim I need a 5/32" drill bit in the female plug. Should be a bit of drag when sliding it in or out. If it is loose it will send a erratic signal to the computer .... It will cause exactly what it is doing ... The plug really locks in good and is a wiggle, pull pry to get it to loosen. I really can imagine the plug being bad and causing the issues ... the pdf also supplies the part # for a replacement pig tail. Just in case it is not the plug, The troubleshooting guide gives step by step instructions using a multimeter to test all electrical components ... I at least feel I have a fighting chance to find & fix the issue. Curios what others think about my tire wear. We bought these tires about 4 years ago, maybe 25k miles on them. We bought all 4 as a set and had the front end aligned same time. My first thought is they messed up the alignment. On closer inspection, they are worn on both sides and right down to the wear bars in the middle. Both left & right front tires are the same wear pattern. Wondering if this is a characteristic of a front wheel drive car? Lack of rotating the tires, wrong air pressure? Could weak front struts cause this? Van will bottom out on bumps if you do not slow down. Car drives very well on the freeway at 80mph no pulling or vibration.

if you open the camera and then go to the settings there should be a option to adjust the size of the photos you take. Wont change the existing photos you have only new photos.

You are a bit ahead of me with weather ... I picked my first ripe tomato this year today. Going to go great with my green salad and bbq pork steaks I have on the grill. Important milestone for me, never got 1 fresh tomato last year I have some tomatila plants in one box, they are going crazy and taking over... The green bean bushes died ... not sure if heat and time related, or just the huge tomatilo sucking all the water out .... having issues keeping that box watered. Still happy the garden is doing as well as it is .... early on I predicted it would suck while still building boxes and late planting& a new location in yard. actually doing much better then predicted. The green beans were sure good, the beets are awesome, cant wait to taste the tomato

Great description. That really hits home. remember I was born in 1962 ... so 67 or 69? I remember going to the local store where they had two gas pumps outside. They no longer sold gas, the pumps had the glass upper portion and too old to operate back then. The store had the old wooden floors that was worn uneven from traffic. I remember the penny candy we could get. Yes also the screen door and signs in front of the store. I remember the trips to the garbage dump on Saturdays and me running around looking for things to haul home while dad empty the old 40's international truck out. Stopping by the store on the way home for penny candy. Sunday we went to the church behind the store. A few blocks down was the school. I actually met my wife there in 2nd grade. We never married til later ... just funny we went to school together.

Really none of my business @DonaldSmithWe sound like we have same symptoms. The mandatory sit down after 10 min is a killer and something I have to deal with. Just curious what you have tried to help improve it. What I have found helpful is spine decompression. Going to a physical therapist they simply grabbed my ankles and leaned back and stretched out my spine. I was able to be more active and stand longer and get things done. But not really cost effective for the cost of pt. and it only last for a week or so. Then I went to a chiropractor here in town who has a decompression table. I went on Thursday & my back felt better. I felt bad. Sunday I was throwing up blood ... he ripped my guts out. First & last visit to a chiropractor . Now I am thinking about buying a inversion table and try it. Have you ever tried one? Last thing I want is unused exercise equipment in the office. Last visit to the DR I went to Lubbock spine institute and got a cortisone shot, they said would last 6 months ... lasted 4 weeks. I have 2 issues with my back ... 1 I ruined it lifting weight, 2, it is filled with arthritis... they call it sciatica or something and #2 is why I was disabled. I think if #1 was fixed with surgery, I could live with #2 Doctors will not do #1 because of #2. For different reasons our tail bone will change position. and it actually closes the pathway for our nerves to our legs, pinches them off and causes numbness in the legs. This numbness gets worse with more activity. This is symptoms from a bad spine. And with arthritis it actually builds around the nerves and pinches the nerves tighter ... This is very painful. When I mowed my lawn with a push mower. First night my legs would throb with pain so bad, there was no sleep, another day to recover, and 3 days I was fine. And mow the lawn every 7 days. I went through a bad car accident with cracked ribs, broken pelvic, broken collar bone one side & cracked other, punctured lung and a month in the hospital. 4 months using a walker. @DonaldSmithI say I feel your pain, I do get it. That numbness in the legs can be the worse pain I ever felt ... We are intelligent people. We know if we touch the fire we get burned. So we just do not touch it. We cant give up, we just have to keep pushing ourselves with some sort of exercise. Keeping the mind active is important as long as pushing our bodies to its limits.

That is a different approach that would work also and maybe a better approach. My thoughts are the A pillar is structural and better off to not mess with it .... while cutting the side of the cowl open while still invasive I do not feel it is as structural. Since I would try to just stay in the flat areas and leave the bends & corners intact. Also it would be covered by the fender when finished. After proof reading what I just wrote, I think it just shows my lack of faith in my welding Welded properly it will be fine. I have no problems welding up the deck on my lawn tractor, or a new tongue on the trailer for the lawn tractor. Structural I want to steer clear for now. Just the dang sheet metal that gets me. I am such a tight wad, I do not want to use my precious 16 & 18 gauge metal for practice I was working on the tractor last winter while in the shop and doors closed and heat on. I cut the new hood to length ... probably just fine at that length .... Just welding it back together for practice and then cut it again .... too many projects not enough time.

Yes SIR! thats exactly the type of repair I am talking about ... except I need to cut the cowl open. Another difference, if you are going to use that door, you have no choice you have to fix it. My case I have a choice. I can fix it or I can do nothing ... I can still use the door with no ill effects. Also, if things go well. I will have it road worthy this time next year, drive it for a year, work out the bugs & or locate them. Then pull the front end back off and go through the engine. The rear main seal will dictate when I pull the engine. So 2 years from now I will be a better welder, while waiting on parts for the engine I may just cut it open and fix it proper. Right now I am just going to move on and leave it alone. Next time front end is off, decide then.

@Veemoney thanks for the advise I can use all I can get @TooljunkieI have been using 24 or 32 grit paper with a hard plastic backing, works pretty good so far. Will grind down welds fine and be careful cleaning rust & paint as it will remove metal also. I have a paint stripper pad for my random orbital sander ... just the wrong tool I guess, it polishes rust. Been watching fitzee fabrications for tips on youtube. He uses a grinding disk that cuts down welds in seconds. Been wanting to order some and try them out .... cant think of the name right now. @ggdad1951 you are correct counter intuitive. I have been starting off with the machines recommended settings. But after some experience. I think for sheet metal anyways, I want to start just a little hotter then suggested and try that. On thicker steel am doing ok. Sometimes just jump in, make mistakes, laugh and learn from them, get better next time.

This would be the surface area I would have to work with for a plug weld. just not a lot there without opening a large hole in the center which would weaken the door jamb imho. Or try to drill in at a angle ... maybe a slot with a cutoff wheel and weld it closed? Can not go straight in from the side, the plate does not reach the edge. Getting one plug weld on the side may help but probably not enough. Almost impossible to get a tack weld inside on the top .... not even sure if the head of the welder will fit in and reach where it needs to be. As far as cleaning, I might be able to get my hand with a piece of sand paper and rub it a bit, no tools will go in there. Again 1 weld on top might be enough with 1 spot on the side but still doubtful. Be a weak attempt at best. I think a real fix, I would go in from here, cut a access hole using a real thin blade, get in and weld the plate on all 4 corners, then weld the access panel back in. I would need to get more comfortable with my welding but it will come. The area is all covered when fenders are installed, bodywork not need be perfect. I am still not convinced I need to weld the plate as long as it is bolted. I need new rubber, felt, glass ... I have a few small holes from old mirrors to weld up ... Everything can be done with the doors on. And if I needed to take it off, I would not hesitate because of the hinge plate ... is pretty easy to get it back in place. I was worried about it at first because did not understand it ... now after looking at it from all angles, I feel I understand it. I know what I think would be the correct fix. I just need to weigh the pro's & cons. If it was a safety issue, absolutely cut open the access and weld it. For the convenience of not having to use a magnet to retrieve the hinge plate and spend 5 min fussing with it ... I may never take the door off again anyways? If I did maybe once in my lifetime? Just seems like a lot of effort for little gain, now the front fenders are back on. Specially since I am repairing a driver and not restoring.

I feel your pain, back injuries are as non descriptive as bad English. I was disabled at age 48 with a back injury ... I just turned 58 June 14th. I am very slow to get anything done on my truck. I actually use it as physical therapy ... push, pull lift, bend & mentally I enjoy the few wins I get. Some people would be better off going to physical therapy, I just prefer getting dirty and working on my truck. I have to admit I get discouraged often. As a retired carpenter, I built a garden shed this year, should have taken less then 4 days and took me 6 weeks. Same with my truck, just takes longer. Would be same on your Desoto. We all get frustrated and pissed off. Be sure you really want to sell it. If so I I say go for it. Something you will not regret later.

While not red or blue, I think it is a good machine. Originally $1200+ but a floor model and on sale I told the wife $700 and the check book said almost $800. @ggdad1951 I agree with you. You can see where I started, then was burning through and I turned the heat down ... you show that in the red. And the welds got worse. More reading and I now think what I should have done is raise the heat, not lower ... then adjust the wire speed up if still burning through. I am just a old dumb carpenter teaching myself welding from the internet and practice. I need more practice. When I feel comfortable I will do the patch panels on the fenders. We all learn by doing.

forgot to add photos, just saying my welding sucks now but getting better ... and reason why I pushed the pilothouse to the side is I need to work on my wife car and then my truck. I am disabled and takes me 2 weeks to do what others do in 3 days. But I get er did ... eventually. Will be a few months before I get to play with the pilothouse again.

Thats fair question. Lets give a honest answer. I will show you a photo of my last welding practice. 18 gauge sitting on the bench ... I keep burning through. I know now I keep turning down the heat because sheet metal ... what I need to do is turn up the heat and if I burn through I need to turn up my wire speed. I am learning. I wont actually weld anything on my truck others can see. When I improve I will. That includes the spot weld ... possible to get 1 or 2 ... how strong will they be? The weld would have to be filed off flush with the sheet metal as the hinge slides in and out for adjustment. Main thing I am concerned with, what will I gain welding it? Will the hinge plate really be more stronger if welded? Or if pinched down tight with bolts will it be the same ... or almost the same? Will need to evaluate that. If I get in a high speed crash with a old dodge truck (40 mph ) I will get ejected from the cab and truck roll over on me ... the doors will get jammed and will have the steering column pierce my head. The truck will catch on fire and I will be cremated. I just cant think of any situation where welding that hinge plate will save a life. Just a matter of convenience. I fight attention deficit disorder all the time ... why have been working on this project for 2 years now ... not restoring, just a driver for me that will never be for sale.

@GMAS54 Let me be the first to apologize. While I was just guessing at what you wanted ... I also thought your post was not very descriptive. I gave it a effort to make sense of what you wanted ... often that way a person has a chance to come back and be a bit more descriptive, add more info ... like you did. I assure you nobody here was trolling you or trying to be a smart ass ... Many of us have been here for years, I am a noob at 5 or 6 years. We are kinda like family & friends ... We rib each other and poke fun ... everyone here wants to help. Sometimes we just need more info. Starting a conversation actually keeps your post up to the top and lets you reply. Trolls would not last long on this forum. Funny side note, I was banned from a popular forum last week. Wont name names. In a post the trolls started to come out and I laughed and joked with them ... then they started talking about my wife. I take that straight to pm. I guarantee you I am not a easy victim to trolls. So I was banned and the trolls are still there ... I am happy because trolls make me miserable. There is no trolls here, and if they show up they will not last long.

Thanks for the vote of confidence & photos. I also thought they would be fine just bolting into place. Your photos are very clear whats going on .... this prompted me to take my own photo . I take the photo by sitting on the running board and reaching around with the camera ... I cant actually get my head in position to see. There is the kick panel we see the top of, goes all the way to the floor. There is a 2" stiffener that is welded in place higher then the hinge in my case. In your photo it was lower and could see the top of hinge? There is 2 white spots, the one above is daylight shining through for the door stop. The lower white spot is lithium grease that squeezed out when tightening the hinge. That is the top of the hinge. So to actually weld this, again will be sitting on the running board, I am right handed, will have to use my left, will be reaching around blind just poking and feeling my way with the head of the welder .... "poke & hope" I just picture myself making a mess out of it, burning through the sheet metal 1/4" above the hinge and making it worse. If it was critical and about safety, I would figure it out .... I see it as convenience and just a pia the next time I pull the door, but is not that bad to use a magnet and get it back in position. Just was my thinking on deciding to do nothing.

Yeah will be fine for sure .... While my xp machine is probably from the beginnings of xp's life cycle and very ancient. XP did have a long life cycle. The Geforce will be fine. Linux has opensource nouveau drivers that are quite mature and work well. While the Nvidia drivers are also available. Usually opensource drivers are installed, if you want nvidia then you will need to check a box accepting the License agreement then those drivers will become available. I doubt you will have any issues with drivers for sound & if you install a gpu the onboard gpu/vga will be ignored. Also modern desktop environments like kde or gnome, multiple monitors is dead simple. I use 3, 24" monitors on this machine ... fits my desk ... the shop I run dual monitors. Only driver issues I find anymore, sometimes wireless can be a issue. While most are plug & play, some you need to jump through hoops to get them to work. Like install wired to the router, then accept the license agreement for closed source drivers, then install the drivers and wireless will now work.

Made perfect sense to me .... now I question my mind going Original steering box is wore out, the original column is a spear to penetrate your chest in a crash. So for safety we need to install a new box while cutting/welding a modern tilt column to the box. easy peasy .... maybe I should go sit in my corner now.

He is a clown, says exactly what he thinks IMHO, all my machines are old. This current machine posting from is a I3 with 8 gigs ram. I bought it from a auction for $10 with no hard drive & 2 gigs ram. I bought a hard drive from ebay and 8 gigs ram ... I have less then $100 in it ... just never paid attention. I bought a Dell xp machine from a yardsale for $10 a few years ago ... Very happy it came with some great powered speakers, keyboard/mouse ... I got my $10 from it. While I really needed a new shop pc, I chose to not even bother installing Linux on it. I looked for 6 more months to buy a auction pc. You can install linux on it. If you can imagine, A 10 year old pc a I3, !5, I7, My office pc is a xeon. with 16 gigs ram and have 32 gigs to install in it. My point is, I run linux on my best hardware ... it is bleeding edge and steps ahead of windows or macs. Most linux at this point, are 64 bit architecture ... all the big ones dropped 32 bit architecture. I would almost bet the xp machine is a 32 bit. This just limits you to the distributions that will work on your machine ... Long story short, a newer pc will work out of the box with linux. A older pc will work, but you need a fair amount of knowledge to make it work ... you will get frustrated. Just a heads up, your machine will work, some late xp machines were 64 bit capable. Still the ram limitations do not match what we want today, the power supply does not match what we want today ... Getting linux to work on a old xp machine is more like a novelty and for fun or show, not for use.