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Hey everyone. New to the forum. First 1941 rebuild here. Just finished a 1967 Big Block Corvette with my buddies. The Back Story: In the middle of a power-train rebuild on our families 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner. Car has a 3 speed with the fluid drive. We pulled the fluid drive out of the car. We've had the engine rebuilt. Also rebuilt the transmission our self. Everything was running smooth until the fluid drive unit. When we pulled out the fluid drive, it was still full of fluid. No leaks. We drained the old fluid, and used some de-greaser to clean her up. We filled up the fluid drive unit and let it sit ready for install and to test for leaks. So far so good. The Problem: About a week later, we stood up the fluid drive unit as if you would mount it in the car, spun it around by hand to check, and now it leaks like a dripping facet out the bottom. Not sure if we some how manged the seal by lifting it improperly. Hate to think these could be that fragile. I have never pulled one of these apart, but would love if anyone has a guide, advice or a recommended shop who can assist. I am located in southern California. Cant wait to get this baby sealed up and back in the car. If anyone knows a trans shop or some steps. We tried using a combination of bear pullers, you name it. Maybe we're going at it the wrong way and in over our heads. I have on hand a fluid drive seal kit. Brand new that just came in. I can not remember the vendor I ordered it from.

I just wanted to share the latest problem so that others could benefit from my stupidity experience. I had been chasing a performance problem for a couple of months which had prevented me from driving my 1941 Chrysler New Yorker very often. It had a moderately rough idle, difficult hot-starting, a bad stumble when coming off idle once it was warm, and it kept getting worse over time. It had started stalling when coming off idle once in a while. These fluid drive cars with the throttle guard are supposed to be impossible to stall, so that was the final straw. I had been avoiding driving it because of the lack of power when taking off from traffic lights -- couldn't guarantee it would actually go. I tried a lot of different things -- initially I worked on plugs and timing, cleaning plugs which were still relatively low miles, but admittedly 10 years old and had minor fouling. Tweaked the timing to try to advance it to get a little more power -- that just made it tough to start. Cleaned and re-gapped points, which seemed like they should still have plenty of life left in the wear block and the points dressed up nicely. Nope. Checked fuel system to see if was starving for fuel in coming off of idle. Had to run the idle speed a bit high to keep it from stalling, and it required a lot of nursing the throttle while stopped in traffic. I had replaced the fuel tank over the winter, mostly because the drain plug had been frozen in place forever, yet it dripped pretty steadily ... And the tank was not in terrible shape, but I could really never properly drain it easily, and it was pretty nasty on the outside, with some minor dirty stuff on the inside. Replaced scungy fuel line; replaced old fuel filter, realized I was doing the glass bowl fuel filter wrong; re-installed fuel filter; checked the carb, which had only a small amount of sediment in the bowl, but I had thought that a clogged accelerator pump circuit could have been the source of the stumble. Even though I could visually see that the accelerator pump was giving a squirt. Nope, that wasn't it either. Carb is now very nice, but tuning the (2bbl) carb with the idle mix screws was puzzlingly not responsive. Was it fuel flow problem? Did the new gas cap I got (after I left one on the pump last year after a fill-up) vent properly (i.e. prevent a vacuum in the tank from working against the fuel pump)? Nope, gas cap is properly vented for vacuum. Gas caps taste pretty nasty, too. Fuel bowl level? Nope. Checked distributor some more. Free play acceptable. Cleaned vacuum advance, it was basically working, if dirty, and the diaphragm was sound and the spring good. Mechanical advance was basically within spec using a timing light. Distributor slightly dirty inside. Condenser checked out okay with a multimeter. It's about 300 nF, for those who want to know. Finally went to poke around more with timing and I said to myself, "You know, self, what do you really know about that ignition coil? How long's that been in there?" and I figured I didn't have much to lose checking that out. It does require crawling under the dash to get the coil out, because it's got one of those coils through the firewall with the ignition lead to the coil primary on the back side of the coil inside the car. So I pulled that out, and put the coil on the bench with the voltmeter, and it looked "funny". The primary read unsteadily at between 0.3 and 1.3 ohms, rather than a steady value somewhere around 1.5 ohms. The primary-to-secondary resistance was not the expected 7000 - 10,000 ohms, either. It was mega-ohms or open-circuit. It wasn't really a definitive answer that the coil was bad -- I mean I had checked spark previously, and while it might have been intermittent or missing a bit, it still put out a basically good spark, I thought. One of those cheap spark-gap checkers is a nice tool instead of zapping yourself by holding the lead near the engine block. But the local auto parts joint had a 6 volt coil in stock for only $20, so I figured I may as well just check that out, for all the time I'd been dumping into this. It required a little gimcrackery to get the ignition lead to the front of the coil in the engine bay. But it just fired right up and I could not believe how smooth the idle sounded. Quick check to tweak the timing back to TDC. I let it warm up for several minutes, come off the fast idle cam on the choke, and it runs much nicer now. Drove it for a half-hour on a warm day, and it just pounces off the idle now. Whole different car, seriously. Drove it straight up the hill that has the stop sign in the middle of it and no hesitation or stumble now. Where did all this power come from? It's still a heavy car and underpowered by modern standards, but it drove like I remember it running. Practically leaps off the line. Finally. Now re-check the carb tune, and it is very much more responsive to carb adjustment, and the idle speed can be adjusted all the way down to the 500 rpm given in the manual without any trouble. What's the moral of the story? Well, "99% of carburetor problems are electrical," that's for sure. And the coil check was simple, but the annoying firewall installation of the coil discouraged me from checking it earlier. Have to stop getting suckered into checking and fixing things just because they're easy and accessible. I think I'd do almost anything to avoid crawling under the dash. And I also should have trusted my ear when it was telling me that it was missing intermittently (and not on any one cylinder). Smooth running is a good thing to pay attention to. But also, I want to thank the forum for being here and full of questions and for the people who have the good sense to answer "Just keep at it, you'll figure it out. Track it down, these cars aren't rocket science." Of course, I went down some blind alleys based on irrelevant questions... Now I have to make the coil install look a little prettier. There are a few people on the web who have the original style 6 volt coils with the primary lead on the back, but boy, do they want serious money for them. Cheapest I saw was $140, and it's NOS, so who knows how sound it is and how long it'll last? Others want $200. I'm gonna stay with the off-the-rack coil, I reckon.

Hey guys, I started pulling apart my parts front end and am just wondering if there is a place to buy specific bushings or if im going to have to mix and match them. Im just finishing up removing all the parts to sandblast, powder coat and reinstall. Seeing as how i have it apart im going to add a scarebird disc brake kit to them and new tie rod ends. Also wondering if i can get new coil springs or if something else will work. Thanks.

Hey all, New to the group here but I just picked up this 1941 dodge Kingsway and am looking for some more information on it. It runs and drives and has the original engine in it. I'm new to mopar vehicles but couldn't pass up the opportunity to have it. I've gone through the threads regarding brake drum removal but am looking for additional information on wiring diagrams and component names for under the hood. Appreciate any and all help.

I am attempting to identify a correct Auto-Lite generator for my 1941 Plymouth Special Deluxe (P-12). As I do not have the old one (it's a long story), I researched the specs and determined that it should be an Auto-Lite GDZ-4801-B. I have been unable to find this model but have found several with the GDZ-4801-A part number and other letters. Does anyone have a reference explaining what the letter means at the end of the Auto-Lite part number? Or, even more specifically, the difference between the A and B versions of this generator and whether the A version can be used in this vehicle? I reviewed several Auto-Lite references posted on this forum but none seem to explain the foregoing. Thanks!

I have a 1941 Dodge 3 window coupe, 2 passenger. Does anyone know how many were produced in 1941

With my chrysler i have a couple small complaints in terms of its looks. I feel the rear tail lights are too small for how big thr back is (any suggestions on bigger lights will be nice) bumpers stick too far out but my biggest beef is the grill. The whole car is curves and i love it. To me it screams aerodynamic (might not actually be the case but the body lines makes sense to me) what doesnt make sense to me is the rectangular grill. Everything is curves then boom lets make a straight grill. What i love to know is, can a 1941 plymouth grill/front face be switched out? I love the look of the 41 plymouth I go for a 1939 plymouth but those square lights....

I have been making good progress on the P10 wagon since summer. As Don indicated, it doesn't rain anymore here in Fresno, so we can work on our cars 24hrs/day, 12 months /year. Here are a few progress pics. I put 10 coats of varnish on it last summer, and then fit the wood to the chassis this spring. Most of the metal pieces inside the car are powdercoated -there is a shop in Clovis - Kip's Powder Coating) that not only does great work, but is very reasonable too. I find myself powder coating parts that I hadn't thought of powder coating, like the piano hinges for the doors and tailgate, just because they make it so easy! I installed a split intake and exhaust manifold from George Asche, with two rebuilt Carters and had a local radiator shop make up a split exhaust that blends back into the single exhaust pipe. These are old time muffler guys and assured me that I didn't need dual exhausts, because of the size of the single pipe and the output of the 218 that I'm using. Good thing, because the placement of the gas tank, off to the drivers side, makes it pretty tough to route a second exhaust there. I also installed a George Asche OD that I bought from him 10 years ago and with the dual carbs and split exhaust, I can easily get it up to 65mph. Not sure how fast I want to go in a car made out of toothpicks, but it's nice to know that I will be able to keep up with traffic anyway. Next challenge : the seats.

I've been making good progress in the last month on what started out to be my 1940 Plymouth wagon project and now has turned into a '40-'41 wagon hybrid. A year ago January I found a '41 with great wood, but on a chassis that would need a ton of work.I wondered if it would fit the 1940 chassis/cowl that I had been working on since 2003. The differences between '40 and '41 wooden bodies (made by US Body and Forging Company) were minimal, so I did the frame measurements between the 2 years and asked around (thanks Jim Benjaminson!) and decided that the swap would work. I pulled the wood off the '41 and spent the summer applying 10 coats of varnish, hand sanding etc, between coats. I think it's looking pretty good. Right now I'm sorting out the mechanical and electrical systems, and the George Asche OD. I've upgraded some components - front disk brakes, dual master cylinder, OD, turn signals, Coker WW radials and halogen dash and headlights. I got the P20 engine from a guy in N. CA that runs his own auto repair shop and used to race the Mopar flathead 6s, so this one purrs like a kitten. I kept it 6 volt and as stock looking much as I could. I hope to put the wood to the metal in the spring. The hardest thing was choosing the color. They only came in Hampton Beige, with yellow brackets and trim - which I didn't care for. The color is the same green that Chevrolet used in the 1941-46 pickups and if you didn't specify a color- you got this green. It's all about the wood, and I think the green will enhance the look. I will be powder-coating the brackets and trim a dark bronze with just a hint of metal flake in it. The top will be black vinyl, the seats leather. I'll post more pictures as I go Bob Riding

I have been working on my 1941 P12 for the past several years. I always looked at the restoration process as my hobby, not having the car finished or driving it. However, I want to have it completed for the summer meet in California. The restoration itself is about 85% complete. I mainly need to get everything assembled again. I am going to post a weekly update on my progress on my YouTube channel. Take a look if you are interested. If you subscribe to the channel, you will get a notice when a new video is posted. Please comment on the video and let me know what part of the project you want me to talk about or ask questions. I will give answers in my videos. Here is a link to the first video. I have been a member of the Plymouth fourm for a number of years. I am new to the p15-d24 forum. Looks like a good place for information. Mark