48Windsor

Thanks Pete, I was nosing around on the cowl seal and found a pic that showed the ridge on the gasket on the top side.

Thanks all. Looks like mmcdowel provided the address. Tom B

I just got a cowl vent gasket from Roberts. A great ordering experience by the way. I mistakenly ordered a part I didn't need. Contacted him and he corrected the order for me without a hitch. No shipping parts back and forth, etc. A rare experience in this day and age. Anyway, the gasket has a ridge on one side of it. The old gasket is gone so I'm trying to figure out if the ridge goes up or down. I assume it goes on the top. Thanks for any insight.

Beautiful car. Where can a person get a roof rack for our rigs?? I think it adds a "Cool Factor" to the car. Tom B

Well I thought I would post and update to my sub zero drive fiasco. Finally got my shop heater going so I threw in some antifreeze in the old whale to see how bad the radiator leaked. Hmmm, no leaks anywhere. My theory is that the antifreeze was good enough to protect it while sitting in the shop but when I pulled it out in the subzero air with the fan pulling all that cold air through the rad, it froze it up. Stopped the flow to the engine which caused it to get hot. Glad I wasn't on the road. Anyway, all is well with protection down to -35. Also, here's a pic of my son and his wife back from Portland Or. for Christmas. He got a real kick out of driving the fluid drive!

Well, I hate to post this but yesterday it was -10 here in sunny Ks. A month ago when it was in the 60's I made an appointment to have some work done on the "beached whale". Rather than cancel I said what the H..... and went out to see if the ole girl would start. The old 6v struggled a bit but on the 3rd try it caught and ran fine. With a spring in my step I went back to the house to let it warm up good before hitting the road. Looked out and saw a lot of steam coming from the front of the car. Yep, rad must have froze up. I'm pretty careful about maintenance on my stuff so this was kind of a puzzle. The only thing I can figure is I used premixed antifreeze this summer when I changed the thermostat. Evidently it didn't give enough protection with what was in the system. Should have tested it. Stupid is is stupid does. Bad end to a good start.

Good to know. Will keep on file for future reference. Thanks

No. Does he have parts or fix vac adv? 1st time I heard his name.

Thought I'd give an update. I sent the vacuum advance off to TerrIll Machine in Texas. Turnaround time is about 3 weeks. In the meantime, my hometown mechanic has gone through the dizzy, cleaned and greased the breaker plate as it was stuck solid. Looks and works good now. Replaced the points and condensor, timed, etc. Will take it back for him to install the vac. adv. and re-time when I get it back. Man does it run a lot better now! Would run down the road at 60-65 with ease but i'd say 55mph is pretty much the sweet spot. I don't like to push it much over that, besides I'm not in that much of a hurry any more. Anyway, ready to start extending the road trips to test dependability. Tom B

Everybody I talked to, Kanter, Roberts, Vintage Power wagons, etc, had none in stock. Some wanted to rebuild mine - 2-4 weeks min. Might be forced to go that route. I don't suppose there are any other alternatives. Reg Evans, thanks, I didn't see that one on Epay. Looks similar, will take pic of it down to shop tomorrow. NOS is a little worrisome since the rubber is so old on the diaphragm.

Took the ol whale (48 Chrysler) in to get normal tuneup stuff done. Well the vacuum advance is shot, breaker plate stuck, etc. I've been all over looking for a vacuum advance, or complete distributor - no luck. Mechanic thought he could free up the breaker plate, but I'm stumped on what to do with the Vac adv. A few places will rebuild mine but thats a min. of 2-4 weeks or more. I guess I'm after instant gratification rather than waiting. Anyone have any other suggestions or have spares to sell??? Tag on it says Part#1121944, IGS4208 A1 9C002897

Great pics. Another Kansan here, 20 min. NW of Topeka.

The thermostat was not set in the indented groove of the thermostat housing. While trying to move the housing around to get the short hose on and line up the bolts to the head, the housing was sitting on top of the thermostat flange. This of course caused a slight leak at the base of the t-stat housing. To hold the t-stat in place, I put 4 very small dabs of rtv under the flange, just enough to make contact between the T-stat and the housing. Let it dry, and no longer had to worry about it not being set in the indent while installing it.

Thanks all.

Hey guys, how the heck do you keep the t-stat centered in the housing when you installing it back on the engine. Trying to keep it centered while installing the short hose is by guess and by golly. The rad. hose is easy to bend around to install after its tightened down. Do you all have a trick to keep it in place so it doesn't get under housing? I noticed a seep around the housing to head so I assume its not sitting right. Tom B

Lots of great information here. Thanks everyone. Looking forward to driving this thing without having to worry about a tire going south! Tom B

I've had one in my 63 cadillac for going on 4 years. No problems what so ever. The mechanic did have to do something on one of the lower mounts if I remember correctly, but nothing major. Tom B

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I've ran into it a couple times, not only with my Chrysler, but also with my 63 Cadillac. Mechanics, even ones that work on old stuff, seem to seem to ignore comments from customers. I have some basic mechanical skills, but I know my limitations. I do try to do a fair amount of research the problems I encounter. On a recent trip to my, what I would call a good "old school" mechanic to have my Chrysler's brakes adjusted, I told him about what I had learned on this forum about adjusting the toe, heal, etc. After a week, out of frustration he finally read the manual and I now have a decent brake pedal. It seems they all think its just nuts and bolts, and I continue to tell them these cars are different. It seems to fall on deaf ears until they see defeat. Had the same problem with alignment on my Caddie. Gave the guy alignment specs for radial tires which is different than the factory specs for bias. He ignored my info, car drove like crap. Took it to one of my local guys and told him what happened so he used the specs I had. He tweaked them a little and it drives great. It took and act of God to get my money refunded from the 1st shop. Ok, entertainment is over and I'm done with my rant! Good luck to all when taking your cars to the shop. Tom B

As always,thanks all for the comments Tom B

Very nice! Have fun with it. Lots of good people here with a wealth of experience.

I'm finally getting around to putting tires on my 48 Windsor. As much as I hate to spend the $, I'm about to break for Coker wide white radials. One of the tire guys said I should put tubes in the new tires. I'm running stock rims. The 40 year old tires are 710 x 15 Allstate Sears . I believe it came out with 760 x 15. Do I need to put tubes in radials.?? Thought I read somewhere that isn't recommended. I'm looking 225 75 25 according to the conversion charts. I know theres a lot of different opinions on width, sizes, brands. Just wondering about the tube thing. Thanks Tom B

Thanks all.

I had the same problem on my 48 Chrysler. There is a spring on the glove box hing that pops the door open. If its like mine, its probably missing or broke.

Thanks plymouthcranbrook. Guess I'm gonna have to pull the drums off and see whats up. I've never bled a master cylinder. Is there a bleed port on is also???

Its been a while since I've posted anything even though I read the forum daily with my morning coffee. Just after I posted my brake question, I found what looks like my answer in a topic a couple posts down. Guess I should have read the new posts before posting. I got the intake/exhaust manifold replaced finally. I got rid of the heat riser rather than rebuild it. Be it right or wrong, I cut a slot in the plate I installed between the manifolds. Figured since the heat riser always allowed some heat to the bottom of the intake, I would do the same. Re-tightened the nuts down after running it a while. I was surprised at how lose they were. Rebuilt the carb and used a vacuum gauge to adjust it. It runs much better than before. The only complaint is the new accelerator pump plunger seemed very lose in the chamber. I still have a little hesitation at times. Anyway, I've got a spongy brake pedal. Today I bled the brakes hoping to get a firmer pedal. When I went to bleed both lower cylinders on the front drums, neither one would run any brake fluid out the bleed port when the brake pedal was depressed.The top worked as it should but not the bottom. Since I've never been into the brakes on an old Mopar I wasn't sure how the bottom cylinder is fed. According to the manual the bottom cylinder should be bled first then the top. Can anyone offer a reason whats up?? I still have a spongy pedal. Thanks for any help. Always enjoy reading about everyone's projects. Tom B