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Hey all, I've got an issue I can't seem to figure out. Seems pretty odd to me and I can't even make sense of why it would happen. Motor is a 218CI Flathead six out of a '49 plymouth. It's installed in a '57 Dodge D100 pickup. The engine started running a bit rough, a bit of a sputter, when accelerating. Also, it did not want to start hot, wait 15-20 minutes and starts. The ammeter was broken and the battery died so I went ahead and replaced the ammeter, battery, generator (yes, I polarized it) , voltage regulator, coil, fuel pump, added a couple ground straps, reset the breaker points. I fired it up and it ran fine for about two miles, then almost instantly it started sputtering. When it was running fine it did not show a charge so I thought maybe I received a bunk ammeter. When it started sputtering, simultaneously it also started showing a nice charge. I thought it was a coincidence. I took it back to the shop and checked all the grounds, wiring resistance and connections and routing. All looked good. I took it out again and seemed to be running fine so I drove for about 20 minutes putting it through the paces, with no issues, EXCEPT, it's not showing a charge now, showing a slight draw. Finally got on the highway and at top end picked up a slight sputter. While limping back home the sputter got a bit worse. Also, need to mention simultaneously with the sputter returning, the ammeter now shows a charge. I can't place the relationship, anyone have any thoughts? Could it be the distributor? Points? I'm fairly certain it's an electrical issue due to the simultaneous misfires/sputtering aligned with the charge showing on the ammeter. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and respond. Located in North San Diego if anyone nearby wants to check it out.

I came across these two short tutorials on how a mechanical voltage regulator functions in detail. Apparently there are two basic types depending on how the generator field winding is wired, type A and type B. Other than that, the two types are identical. I'm guessing Pilothouse Dodge trucks use something closer to type A. They explain how the three parts of a voltage regulator control charging the battery, how it prevents the battery from draining back to ground through the generator when generator voltage is low or zero, and how it prevents overcurrent and over overvoltage conditions from happening. Just good stuff to know. Type A Type B

So i have a 50 wayfarer. I did some motor work to the car. Im putting the car back together and re wiring the car back to original. Its hard to see the wire colors compared to the book, since its so faded. It also doesnt help that the previous owner mustve wanted to get the car running with home theater speaker wire. Anyways i have the distributor and coil in it. No spark. The coil is wired into the horn relay such as the book says. I would appreciate it if someone can give me some guidance since im 21 and this is my first full blown project car. The old girl is all stock and has the 6 volt positive ground on it.

I replaced the front coil springs on my 1947 Plymouth Club Coupe. After installing a Mopar 318 V8 engine the extra weight on the 65 year old stock coils pushed the car down near the bottom control arm bumpers. The car would bottom out alarmingly on moderate road undulations and potholes. An friend of a friend gave me some mystery coils he was never going to use. I have no idea what car they were used in but they were NOS, in the box, and the numbers on the Mopar labels were 71765 and 52039056. The price was right so I tried them out. To my surprise they were the same diameter and height as the stock ones, but seemed stiffer that the old ones. After installing the new springs the car sits at least two inches higher and the ride is much improved. I lost the low stance that I liked. I may go do some follow up work and cut a coil off both springs to get a little lower. I think the stiffness of the springs will prevent bottoming out even if I lower it a bit. I'll try posting photos.

So i have a 50 wayfarer. I did some motor work to the car. Im putting the car back together and re wiring the car back to original. Its hard to see the wire colors compared to the book, since its so faded. It also doesnt help that the previous owner mustve wanted to get the car running with home theater speaker wire. Anyways i have the distributor and coil in it. No spark. The coil is wired into the horn relay such as the book says. I would appreciate it if someone can give me some guidance since im 21 and this is my first full blown project car. The old girl is all stock and has the 6 volt positive ground on it.