1937 Dodge D5 Sedan

Dad,


Baring any leaks on the floor tomorrow I'll start her up again and check it over. New 85 Regal front brake hoses with washers and american steel banjo bolts, no leaks for 2 days now. Rear end is shimmed up 3 degrees and trans points down 4 degrees so, we hit the magic "within one degree" rule, drive shaft is on the way. Emergency brake works. New power steering pump is on and I finally found the right fitting for the hi pressure port. So far no leaks. Installed a lower radiator hose for a 65-67 Bel Air/Chevelle/Malibu, good fit with a simple 1 inch trim at the pump end. No strain in the set up that might break the clamps again and put on new clamps. Not leaking yet. Spare tire dogged down, doors adjusted to shut and stay closed, floor is in place, all the wiring connected, door seals installed, enough exhaust pipe available to run out behind the front wheels for a drive. Third brake light installed, right rear light connection repaired, headlights rough aimed, headlight switch replaced. Stereo works. Other than balancing the rear tires, nothing really big left for me to do here. Maybe 2 hours work on my end, one day of welding and a day or three in the exhaust shop.


All we need to do is install the drive shaft and weld up the steering and motor mounts. Then comes exhaust and then.....we can drive it.


2 weeks out on the drive shaft and I have to give the exhaust shop a three week lead before we bring it down. If there are no leaks tomorrow after a run in, I'll start coordinating the final muscle moves to get this girl rollin toward a gas station for the first time since 1991.
 
BigTen


You might just be busier now than before retirement. Thanks for the welding. 2 weeks should see a drive shaft and we'll get her out of the garage!

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Well,

Drive shaft is done and UPS already has it. Quick work. Just waiting for tracking to kick in tonight so I can see when to expect it. My guess is Mon/Tue.

DriveShaft Specialists always seem to provide a great product well ahead of schedule......Other than the mushy brake pedal, I think we beat all the leaks and hopefully, drive her around the block next week or so.
 
Dad,


While waiting UPS to bring the Driveshaft (should arrive Wed, if UPS is on time) I went about doing the initial tune.


Looking at the balancer, 30 degrees advanced and I figured we had either an incorrectly set distributor or a late model balancer. Double checked the specs on the balancer and its correct for the engine so in went the piston stop and sure enough, TDC was exactly zero on the blancer, not 30 where we had to set it to start it. (Seems the dizzy has 13 teeth and thats 28 odd degrees....so, likely one tooth off.)


Bessy would idle fine, she would rev to high rpm with no vacuum advance, but hook up ported vacuum and she stumbled badly at high rpm.


No vacuum leaks noted other than a very slight weep on the passenger side of the primary carbs throttle shaft. On the secondary carb, the throttle shaft is leak free and the throttle plate is vacuum tight till we open it at 60% throttle.


Pulled the piston stop and removed the cap, sure enough the rotor was much closer to wire 8 than wire 1. Out came the dizzy and a qick tweek of the oil pump shaft and back down in when the dizzy. Now the rotor pointed at number one. Back up to the crank and I pulled the motor around to 8 degrees advance. Back to the dizzy and lined up all the little triangles.


Cap and wires back on and she started on about 1/2 revolution of the starter. Warmed her up and she was at 8 degrees advance at 850 rpm. Mechanical advance at about 3000+ rpm added about 20 degrees, pretty much what I expected.


Spend a good bit of time tweaking the idle mix and idle speed until i had no measurable ported vacuum at idle and then got the can adjusted to add about 8 degrees of vacuum advance. So, all in over 3000 rpm I'm seeing about 34 to 36 degrees advance on the balancer. There is room to play with that but she revs smooth, with or without vacuum advance well past 3000 rpm now. Really roars gooder when that second Rochester 2g kicks in!


Settings on the Primary Rochester 2g carb came in at 1.75 turns in on the idle speed screw for 800ish RPM Hot idle speed, 1/2 turn out on each of the idle mixture screws (the main jets might be a bit large, again, room to play with that later.)


Now if I can get the power brakes from about mushy to decent we might be able to drive in and out of the garage in a couple days. Also, Looks like the leaks are mostly beat down. Finally!
 
2 days to build it from scratch

1 day to transport halfway across country

4 days in UPS Jail in Greensboro

With luck, tomorrow we drive.

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Dad,
7 months since Ol Bessy came home. Idle is low. She needs a better tune. Brakes need bleeding and adjusted. The loosely installed exhaust pipes clatter and shes growly without mufflers. But....today almost 30 years since she last drove, a 1.5 mile run out and back, all systems function!

 
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Rolling! I know it seems like you been workin' on it a long time, but my motorcycle projects are measured in years not months, and they don't have nearly as many parts! Well done sir. Have a beer, all the rest is just fine tuning.
 
Dad called. Asked about the camera stabilizer and how it works.

I tried not to laugh and told him the phone was duct taped to the windshield and, yes, she rides smoothly on her modern suspension.
 
Dad.

BigTen and I played with the brakes again. Had her out on the road for a 5 mile run. So far so good. Prolly went too fast , 45 or so but even with the tweaks needed she feels good. Silky smooth ride once ya get past all the noise. Waiting to hear on moms stuff, if that's delayed then we'll set up to get her into the exhaust shop....she runs good enough now they wont have to push or pull the car around.

She looks pretty good in the sun!

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Pretty much. Gotta call the insurance company now since I'm doing test runs and planning to move it over the road to exhaust and alignment shops.
 
Dad,

Dodge is insured. Full coverage for now at blue book value. Won't be enough but it gets her some protection as we test drive and get her to and from the final mechanical shops. And, it saved me a 1 hour phone call while standing at the DMV counter. Now I can go stand in line for days and get the title, registration and plate.

Once the paper is done, I'll look into just how much I'll be driving and go back through USAAs antique car insurance for an agreed value policy and hopefully find a policy without night time, interstate or other restrictions on use.
 
BigTen,

Thanks for taking my call today. I think I have the basic tune established. There is a lot (a ton) of advance in the adjustable can on the distributor. Got it backed nearly all the way off, about 3/4 turn from locked out and still pulling about 12 to 14 degrees of additional advance at 3400 rpm. But its much smoother and steadier through out the range.

Set the initial back to 6 degrees as you recommended for this bone stock motor. With the vacuum disconnected I'm seeing 28 to 30 degrees advance at 3400 rpm. Hooking the vacuum advance back up bumps it up to 40-42 degrees at the same rpm level. Good for now, some road time will tell if its too much or not enough.

Idle hovers around 730 to 750 rpm and smooth/quiter out of the short straight pipes. Ported vacuum seems to be under an inch on the gauge at that level. Manifold vacuum at hot idle is a steady 19ish inches.

I'm headed back to the garage to set up the progressive linkage on the second carb. I suspect a couple things will need done after the exhaust is on/front aligned and we can drive it. Most likely pull the carbs as I suspect two issues.

I believe the transition slot is uncovered a bit too much at hot idle on the primary carb. (idle mix screws will barely kill the engine when shut and their best run position is 1/4 to 1/3 turn out from closed, seemingly a bit tight....and though less stinky now, we'll see if she still spit lots of fuel fumes as we go. All the plugs are soot black/may need jetted down some.)

As for the secondary carb, I note the throttle plate has a tiny hitch on closing. (I checked and both idle circuit screws on the secondary carb are fully closed, so no extra fuel flow there on the idle.) May need the butterfly lapped to fit so it closes fully and smoothly. May just need a stiffer return spring and proper adjustment of the throttle rod.

On a side note, i did run it out of gas while tuning......guess we been running it a lot over the last month and used up the first 5 gallons. Added 2 more and she fired right back up.

Cold natured hussy too. I'll be converting that manual choke to automatic.
 
Woo Hoo! Bessy gets her custom exhaust on 6 July! Now off to the garage to tweak breaks, accelerator and springs, center the rack, get some positive cam-aster or what ever they call that Toppy Tire Outty - Bottom Tire Innie position, recenter the steering wheel, and drive it around the neighborhood enough to program the speedometer and drive the mosquitoes outta the yard with the open exhaust. FUN!!!!!
 
About have the alignment of the front end done. Digital angle gauge arrived today, much easier to read than a pointer gauge.

Settings should be close enough to ride well and not scrub up the tread too much untill I get it to a shop for more accurate settings/double check. Per the FatMan, I put in about +1/2 degree camber both sides, +3 1/2 to 4 degree caster both sides and I'll check/set toe when I get the wheels on after brunch.

I did all the work wheels off and the lower control arms on jack stands set to ride height, should be close enough. Certainly, the Passenger side front is no longer pointing out for a hard right turn! Hard to find equal reference points on an 83 year old frame but with the fenders off, that one didn't even need a stretched string to see!

Should have some photos up later tonight.
 
Alignment is done, finished up with 3/16" toe. Frame rails are pretty straight, was helpful to use them to get both wheels pointing forward/parallel to each other. Double checked with tape on front and back of rotors and tires. Good enough, except I stripped 3 of 5 lug nuts on the drivers side at 40 ft lbs. Lugs look okay, nuts are boogered. Off to the auto parts store to get 10 new ones.
 
Centered the rack by driving back and forth.

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Check wheels with string, lots of toe, not parallel.
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Measure and set ride height, lower control arms on jack stands.

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Put in .5 degree positive camber.

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Put in 3.5 to 4 degrees positive caster.

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It's coming. Battery is covered. Broken terminal on the battery is fixed. brake return spring installed. test ride as soon as the rain clear . Gotta mark off a mile so I can program the speedometer. Ordering the floor rubber and insulation and heat valve tonight.
 
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20200619_160432.jpg 20200619_160415.jpg 20200619_160355.jpg 40 mile run today...


Got the speedometer programmed after about 6 tries. It kept shutting down about half way through the set up. Figgured it out. Every time it blinked off was when the electric fan spun up. Must have a heavy initial draw. I'll have to put it on a relay to keep if from spinning when I shut the motor off, should keep it from eating up the battery.


Anyway, got it out on the road. 55 mph out bound. Max speed per the speedometer log was 63 mph on the way back. Rides great, loud as hell with 6 ft straight pipes coming out right by my ear at the B pillar. Ah well, ol man quite exhaust gets fabbed up on 6 July.


The rough home alignment is much better and she tracks straight. On our rough country roads there is no noticeable bump steer. But, i think she's going to need a sway bar fabricated. I'll have to call the mfgr and see what they have.


For now, I gotta go buy a new grease gun and get the front and rear suspension fully greased.


Next week some time I should have the flooring and insulation for the floor. That'll start to help with the heat and noise.


Coming together.

I believe I'm going to have to ditch the Thunderbird and get either a real coupe or truck to keep Ol Bessy company.
 
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Floaty. These rough ass country roads are no match for her suspension. But a bit of roll in the fast turns. That could be alignment or it could need a sway bar. If a bar I'll drive to fatman in Charlotte and see what they recommend and get her measurements and fitted.
 
Floor is insulated. Doubled up on the trans hump to stop some heat. Had enough to get the rear wheel arches at the rear seat and in the trunk as well. Ribbed black flooring is on the way, that'll keep the flooring very close to original.

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Dad,
Rear seat belts installed. Prolly should have removed the new spare tire first....earned myself tire patch today.

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And this is why my projects take twice as long as they oughta: first, find the tools; then repair the tools; do the job; then repair what you screwed up in the course of doing the job. We do it nice coz we do it twice!
 
Double plug leaked down but I got the jack and flat spare secured.

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