William Davey

My opinion - worth every penny. Noises like this do not get better with time and use. If it was mine, I'd tear the engine down now and fix everything before something catastrophic happens. An overhaul is much cheaper when cylinders have not been scored, rods/wrist pins have not broken etc. Also know that if my predicted failure occurs it will happen at the worst possible time and place. JMHO.

Not exactly on-topic, but this site http://www.transmissioncenter.net/ has some very interesting info on how to make a 518 OD with lock up transmission work with simple pressure/vacuum switches. Their mission is to make the 518 as common as the GM transmission conversions.

I "fat fingered something so this may be a duplicate post. Try Northwest Transmission in Winchester Ohio. They overhauled the 3 speed in my 1955 C-3-B8 quickly and reasonably. Their Hemmings ad claims they have 14 tons of parts. Worth a try.

Since this is already and OT thread, I'll digress a little. My dad made our first camper in the back seat of his 51 DeSoto 4-door. He cut out the braces for the rear window shelf and built a plywood bed from the back of the front seat about half way into the trunk. The bed was up on legs in the front with plenty of storage below and also storage in the trunk at the foot of the bed. He wrapped window screen around the rear window inside trim (valence?) and screwed them back in place. Gave us ventilation with the windows down and bug protection too. We went camping several times in this rig and i'll never forget the good times.

I know the 87-91 Dakota differentials have the same 5 X4.5 bolt pattern as the stock wheels. After 91 they went to 6 bolt wheels. The v-6 Sport and all v-8 models had a stronger 8.25 ring gear in a lot of different ratios. The one I found measures 62.5 inches from wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface, I don't know if that width would work for you especially after you convert to front disc brakes. I had excellent results using the Rustyhope disc kit that is built by forum member Oldaddy. He was very helpful with service after the sale.

My recent experience at our local Mopar Madness car show was that there are lots of young people that are customizing the cars of their generation, but there are a few that are interested in the more vintage machines. One young fellow drove a 48 Plymouth ( I think) 4 door from Albany to Syracuse (about 90 miles). The car used to belong to his grandpa - he had quite a chat with Greg g and seemed very happy to have the car and eager to learn all he could from Greg. At the same show I stumbled upon my uncles 1950 Desoto 2 door hardtop. Young fellow bought it from my brother a few years ago, painted it flat black, and installed a 318/torqurflite. When I approached him to verify the cars orgin he was very apologetic to have removed the stock power train. I assured him that I was just happy to see the car out of the barn and away from the crusher.

I'm betting that in 1955, nobody ever thought of putting demineralized water, rain water, or any kind of "special" water in my old truck. I'm pretty sure they just used what ever they had available (well or tap water) and called it good. The truck came from Oklahoma but had a good mix of antifreeze when I got it. No overheating problems, no radiator problems, why mess with it if it's working?

I had good luck with Northwest Transmission in Winchester Ohio. They advertise in Hemmings ( I no longer have the number or the exact address). I sent the trans mission to them, they fixed it and returned it in a timely fashion. They claim to have 14 Tons of transmission parts and focus on older vehicles.

My List: 1948 Dodge Club coupe - Granpa said if I could get it running I could have it! 1950 DeSoto - 4 door - used more oil than gas, clunk-o-matic which I swapped to a 3 speed 1957 DeSoto - 4 door with a 3 speed standard trans which I destroyed. Replaced with a 3 speed out of a Dodge P/u 1960 Plymouth - 318/ Power flite, would still be running today if my brother in law hadn't wrecked it. 1963 Ford - POS - blame the ex wife 1970 Duster 340 - YAHOO! got submerged in a flood in South Carolina while I was underwater on a sub 1973 Dodge Van - 360/ torqueflite - with the full hippie/sin bin treatment 1975 International P/u - couldn't plow snow with the van 1980 Ford P/u 1985 Ford P/u 1997 Dodge P/u 2005 Ford P/U - Power Joke diesel 1955 Dodge P/u 2012 Ram 3500 dually - Cummins.

I can't help with the rears, but I and many others have had great luck with the front kit provided by member Charlie Akers. He uses the web rustyhope.com and sometimes olddaddy. I used his kit on my Dodge P/u and had a few minor issues that Charlie worked with me to correct. He even gave me his personal phone number so we could talk through the problem. In short, he has a very simple kit that works very well (in my case with the original non-power master cylinder) and he has great service after the sale.

I have to ask what are all the switches for? Between the toggles on the panel left of the wheel to the double row in the center of the dash, it looks like you've got a switch for every light, each spark plug, both speeds of the wipers, and all three speeds on the heater fan with about 6 spare switches left over. I like the look, but curiosity is killing me.

I also have the Westach for 6 volt-positive ground systems. After installing the tach, I converted from standard points to Pertronix solid state ignition and the tack still worked! The Westach tech-rep wasn't sure if it would work, but assured me that no damage would occur so I tried it.

My father used to drive Wonder Bread trucks on an overnight run of about 200 miles back in the early 1940's before he entered WW2. Often he would tire on the return trip after topping a very long hill in a very low gear (the trucks were 6 cylinder gas Brockways). To re-energize himself, he would open the hood, reach in and grab 2 spark plugs! Said he had no trouble staying awake for the rest of the run.

The deflector ring is a snug slip fit on the yoke. As others have already posted, as long as you have properly torqued the yoke to the pinion shaft it should function properly. Your picture shows the ring slightly out of parallel to the face of the differential. You should be able to lightly tap the deflector toward the differential at the base on the yoke. This should "true up" the ring and move it closer to the differential thus improving its ability to keep dirt away from the seal.

My dad had a 58 Plymouth ex NY State Police car. As a police special, it had a Desoto 361 with a 4 barrel and dual exhaust. Since I was still in my teens, I wasn't allowed to drive it often, but boy would that S_O_B go! Pushbutton torqueflite went to 55mph in 1st gear with a nice tire squawk going into 2nd. 2nd was good for about 90, and I never did find the top end. This was with the timing retarded so it wouldn't ping on regular gas! The closest MOPAR I ever owned performance wise was a 70 Duster 340 (wish I still had that one)

If you have access to a woodworkers lathe, you can take measurements from your transmission input shaft including the area where the throwout bearing rides and make your own alignment tool. Not fancy, but it did work. I haven't figured out how to add pictures to the new forum, or I'd show mine.

I had a similar problem pulling wires on my RV. Could not get the wires pulled UP through a small channel even though my electrical "snake" went through easily. After hours of trying and some colorful language i tried pulling the wires DOWN through the same opening. Went the first time. Worth a try.

I'm a retired project manager from the Nuclear Power industry.

Plymothy is correct that the frame is a different width, and so is the wheel track. I got a differential out of an 89 dakota that is 62 inches between wheel mounting surfaces which is perfect for my '55 C-3-B8. I don't know the correct width for the earlier Pilot House trucks. This will affect how the tires fit in the fender openings. The 87-91 had 5 bolt on 4.5 inch lug pattern so that's one less thing to deal with. The early V-8 and all 4X4's had larger ring and pinions, but I forget how much bigger.

Don, I'm guessing that when you got the Spitfire head, you thought it would really look cool on your engine, and I agree. I say go ahead and install the head. Even if it doesn't affect performance at all, it'll really look cool with the 2 carbs and dual exhaust. Just imagine how much fun it'll be to open the hood! If it all goes to h*ll, it's an easy swap back to the known condition. One memory from my youth was my home town volunteer fire department racing team (called "firematics" here in New York). In the 60's when all the other departments has SBC or better engines, all we could afford was a stripped 48 Plymouth with a transplanted Chrysler Spitfire 6. We had the most unique truck, and were actually quite competitive on the shorter races!

Try a pipe wrench on the yoke - block up the end of the wrench on wood or a jack stand so it can't move. Then put a long breaker bar on the pinion nut and use the floor jack under the end of the breaker bar. You'll need to position the pipe wrench on the passenger side and the breaker bar on the driver's side, and you may need to hold the pipe wrench in place with duct tape until you put load on it. It's crude, but it worked for me.

Oswego, New York on the south-east shore of Lake Ontario - 50 miles NW of Syracuse.

I also used Juliano's kit. Very complete and good instructions available on line. Took about half a day.

One small clarification about the Pertronics system. I've installed their setup twice and did not have to modify the breaker plate in either case. First time was my boat (350 Cheby) and second was my 55 Dodge C-3-B8 with the 259 cu.in. Red Ram V-8. Their website has specific listings for an amazing variety of engines with lots of different part numbers, so I assume that each sensor is specific to the vehicle, not a universal fit-all. I keep the points I removed in the glove box in case the pickup ever fails. Boat has been in seasonal use with this setup since 1999 with no issues. Just did the truck last summer.

The fuel tank sender is not accessible without dropping the tank. Fortunately, there's a drain plug in the bottom so at least you can empty the tank before dropping. I also had to cut the fuel line on mine, but it looked like a PO cob job so maybe you can find a hose to remove. The job sounds worse than it really is.