TodFitch

Oddly, none of the members who report violations of this forum’s rules reported this thread. It does appear to be purely political so I am locking it but leaving it visible.

No lubricant should be used.

The 1933 and up Plymouth 6 engines came from the factory with hardened exhaust valve seat inserts. No lead additives needed. Valve springs aren’t strong enough to require zinc additives. That was a post WW2 thing with push rod overhead valves. Oil weight will depend on engine condition. An engine with good bearing tolerances will do okay with 10w-40. My engine has a few miles on it and I prefer 20w-50. I haven’t had to jump a battery on my 1933 since the wiring harness was replaced and the engine was rebuilt. Worse comes to worse, pop the crank hole cover off and get a young lad the experience of starting a car engine with a hand crank. Actually, I’d probably push start it before resorting to the hand crank.

The typical aftermarket mechanical temperature gauges come with an assortment of fittings for the various common sizes of threaded openings in the block. At least when I have repaired my temperature gauge, one of those fittings was the correct pipe thread for the opening in my engine’s head.

There are shops that can repair your temperature gauge. Or, if you are reasonable handy and comfortable with a soldering iron, you can fix it yourself. See https://www.ply33.com/Repair/tempgauge

From my lookup tool at https://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin Serial Number: 31966879 Found in range: 31867801 to 32038822 Serial: 99079 of 171022 Year: 1952 Make: Dodge Model Name: Meadowbrook or Coronet Model Code: D42 Engine: 6 cylinder 230.2 cu. in. L-head Wheelbase: 123 1/2 inches

The gauge is designed to work over a range of voltages because and automotive electrical system varies a lot, especially one in a 1933 with poor regulation. But doubling the nominal voltage from what the original was designed for could well shorten the life of the dash unit. Personally I’d put a regulator on the power supply to the dash unit to bring it down to around 6v. Even just a reducing resistor would be enough. What I have done on my 33 Plymouth was to hide a 6v+ to 12v- converter under the dash for the couple of 12v modern things I wanted and left everything else, including the fuel gauge, on 6v.

I find that airline travel makes me appreciate driving more. That could be tied to my aversion to paying for business or first class so I am always in the cattle class and that part of the plane has seat spacing designed for people shorter than me. Anyway, any trip shorter than about 1000 miles each way I'd much rather drive than fly.

On my drive cross country I had a pump start to leak just after leaving Tucson on my way to Reno. I’d left my spare parts at my folks in Tucson so had no spare with me. A shot of grease every time I got gas was enough to keep it from leaking on that leg of the trip (Reno, SF Bay Area, San Diego and back to Tucson) roughly 1,000 miles. I went through a lot of water pumps until I got wise. Went through meaning having them rebuilt as the 1933/34 pumps are different on the water inlet to the block and not directly interchangeable with the 1935 and newer ones. I had been setting the belt tension too tight and the plain bearings (bushings) wore out fairly rapidly with all the side loading. Once I figured out that I only needed enough tension to keep the belt from slipping and with that old style wide belt the weight of the generator was enough to tension it sufficiently I stopped needing to rebuild the pumps (I have two one on the car and one rebuilt on the shelf ready to install). I don't know about all the rebuild kits, but for the style with bushings I think they are all the same 1933 and up. Been a while (decades) since I rebuilt one myself, nowadays if/when I need a pump rebuilt I send it off to Gould.

Longest I’ve ever done in my old Plymouth was from Baltimore to LA via Wisconsin, Texas, and Nevada. Longest trip in the old Plymouth in relatively recent years was SF Bay Area to Tucson and back.

My experience decades ago was far easier than that. I purchased my car in Upstate New York and the paperwork used the engine number. In the mid-1970s I moved to Maryland. When I went into the DMV I had the NY paperwork, a second copy of the bill of sale (Maryland like to tax used cars being brought into the state no matter how long you had owned it), and my own hand written notes showing the serial number, engine number and body number. I asked the clerk if the Maryland paperwork could use the serial number instead of the engine number. She disappeared for about half an hour. When she came back she said the numbers I gave matched up and there would be no problem. I assumed she just took a long coffee break, decided what answer she wanted to give and made one up. Later on when I found that Chrysler maintained build card records I wondered if they had actually called Chrysler up to verify the numbers. Anyway, no one from Maryland ever verified the numbers and I was in and out of the DMV with only one visit and with the paperwork that used the serial number. In the late 1970s when I moved to California the DMV had an inspector come out of the building to verify the numbers on the car. And California, at least at that time, did not charge sales tax on the car coming into the state if you had owned it for at least 6 months.

On my '33 Plymouth the on/off knob screws on to a shaft coming off the wiper motor. From the single wiper motors I’ve seen over the years at swap meets I think that is pretty standard. The large hoses inside the kick panels on my car are the drains for the tray/rim around the cowl vent. It would not surprise me if that was the same on most cars and trucks through the forties. Look at your intake manifold for the vacuum wiper hose connection. On my car it is a pipe threaded fitting under the carburetor on the engine side of the intake manifold. Probably with some small diameter metal tubing attached there and transitioning to rubber hose after a bit.

I have had this occur for me a couple of times on the glass tube Buss style fuses. Visual inspection showed it looked good but an ohm meter showed it bad. The solder on one of the end caps was bad and there was no connection between the end cap and the fusible link.

See my VIN page at https://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin

Parts person at that dealer must be a really young whippersnapper if they haven’t seen round headlights.