1937 Dodge D-5 4 Door Touring Sedan

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Brakes next. Went lokar front to back for the parking brake. Expensive but all matching maker and should work fine. I'll put it in first then follow with the brake lines. Ordered a coil of 3/16 tubing to plumb it and based on recommendation, all the fittings are for that line, eliminating many additional unions/less leak potential. Getting started on both next week. Antenna is on the way, probably mount up in front of the radiator, hidden. One its in and working, I'll call you from the car!

Last big part is the drive shaft. After that, nothing but driving and tweaking!
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
BigTen,

Thanks. Spent the afternoon following your instructions.

The weeping long bolt on the DS of the water pump did in fact enter the water jacket. Drained, pulled, dried, sealed and back in. Also, the weeping bolt in the PS of the second thermostat housing, blind hole but.....pulled the water neck, sanded the bottom flat. Cleaned it up and back in with the o-ring and sealant on the threads and the mating surfaces. I'll water it back up tomorrow and start her up. I'm figuring no leaks now.

In the big news, ripped out all of the excess parts for the steering shafts, put in three single joints and added the support bearing right where you said to put it. Dayum! All the bonk/clunk/push/pull is gone. Steers great and seemingly so little bind and movement in it that even the tiny #10 self taping screws used to position the bracket for welding don't break! Can't go down the road on those screws but good to know that the steering shafts are now bind free and smooth enough that even baby hands can hold it all together.


 
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bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
BigTen,

Thanks. Spent the afternoon following your instructions.

The weeping long bolt on the DS of the water pump did in fact enter the water jacket. Drained, pulled, dried, sealed and back in. Also, the weeping bolt in the PS of the second thermostat housing, blind hole but.....pulled the water neck, sanded the bottom flat. Cleaned it up and back in with the o-ring and sealant on the threads and the mating surfaces. I'll water it back up tomorrow and start her up. I'm figuring no leaks now.

In the big news, ripped out all of the excess parts for the steering shafts, put in three single joints and added the support bearing right where you said to put it. Dayum! All the bonk/clunk/push/pull is gone. Steers great and seemingly so little bind and movement in it that even the tiny #10 self taping screws used to position the bracket for welding don't break! Can't go down the road on those screws but good to know that the steering shafts are now bind free and smooth enough that even baby hands can hold it all together.



We'll get her welded in place and hopefully all will be good. Things are shaping up.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Up this morning working on the kinks in Ol Bessy, still waiting brake parts.

So, topped off the radiator, probably start it today, hopefully all the leaks/weeps are sealed.

Started filling the power steering pump. Wiggle the wheel, spin the pump with a drill and a belt, add more....got a quart in so far. Who knows what the capacity of a t-bird rack and Saganaw/GM pump is? I have two more quarts. I assume 3 is enough. So far no leaks, just my spills, missing the funnel.

Set the adjustable vacuum advance to mid point, engine revs smooth with the advance disconnected, but connected it idles fine then becomes rather rough off idle to WOT. 10 turns total advance in the can, ran it in to zero and backed up to the mid point, 5 turns out.

Trimmed the PCV hose as it was 3/8 inch too long and kept popping the pcv valve out of the grommet. A ragged edge with those cotton strings sticking out, so in the interest of a neat appearance, I decided to fix the ragged edge problem and learned life lesson 03182020.....

"Never use a lighter to burn off the ragged strings on the PCV hose while said hose is still connected to the engine." Very neatly cleaned up the visible end of the PCV hose and the back fire blew out my lighter for me!

So, taking a break and having coffee and calming my frayed nerves.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

83 years to get power steering. But its up and functional. Very nice. Thunderbird rack and GM Saganaw power steering box working together. Slight weep at the high pressure hose joint at the box but i was able to cinch it up another 3/4 turn and my hoses didn't pop! Closer and Closer!


 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Hydraulic brake lines are 98% installed. Just need to dog down the main line to the rear end and hook it up to the flexible line on the axle. All the line is copper/nickle.....bends easy without kinks, dosn't rust and really takes a nice flare. I used two flare tools, one on the bench and a smaller dedicated 3/16" tool for the tight spots under the car. Kept the system simple, just running a standard GMC Proportioning Valve (PV2) same as the old Blazer. It'll delay the fronts till the rears are engaged. It also provides a warning light in the event one half the system fails. We shouldn't need an adjustable valve for the rear and won't need residual valves as the Master cylinder is above the wheel cylinders. Too easy. Still waiting for the emergency brake pedal and front cable but should be able to put juice in the system this week.

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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Took three days off...from everything, including Ol Bessy....separated a rib in my back laying across the Dodges front seat frame working under the dash, then ripped the muscle the next day and then after recovering a bit, sneezed and ripped the muscle again. Needless to say, it ain't easy getting maturer, used to be able to lay about any ol way wrenching in or under a car, no problem-o. No more.

But, feeling well enough today and prior to getting "sheltered in place", (i reckon its coming in NC sooner than late) I was able to pull Bessy's rear wheels, paint the new drums and install the rear emergency brake cables. I'll finish up the hydraulics tomorrow and then maybe get my Tbird cleaned up.

Best news about the CoronaVirus is I can drive that new to me retro TBird unmolested.....The virus scare has all the "maturest" ladies staying in now (as you recall, in the first 24 hours of ownership of The Bird, the only girlies that threw themselves at me and The Bird were three Buick Driving Blue Hairs in the 80 year old and up range......seems they grew up in that era and fondly remember the early Birds this one is styled after....."Id sure like ya to ride me in that there Bird Young Man, Tee Hee Hee!"
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
now i need to find a similar brake pedal. I think Harley Davidsons, older models, used an oval brake pedal that bolts on....gotta dig out my old harley google foo and find something in black so it all matches.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
There is a wad of them on fleabay, you may have to sand and ruff up the chrome around the edges and black that out but they have all sizes.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I gotta go back and look, seems I had vintage knock off black oval harley pedals on my knock off indian that had no chrome trim to mess with. I'll find something. For now gotta finish that brake system so i can plug a leak or two on the power steering so I can call BigTen and he can weld while I smoke, drink and generally worry a lot....!!!
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
I found them,,,,,knucklehead (1936 and up) brake/clutch and heel pads. Black and brown. Diamond pattern/oval shape, screw back. Available everywhere. I'll get a set later and at least get the ebrake and power brake looking like the same instead of a cobbled up mess of pedals..
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Ebrake is all in and working. Buttoned up the power steering...the leak was the valve at the pump. Replaced both rubber seals with viton rings. The rubber rings were crimped. Hopefully that takes care of the last of the leaks and I can fill the brake lines tomorrow. I had to make the brass adapter on the left. No combination of fittings would allow more than 3/4 turn on the hose fitting. No strength to seal there either. Made the new brass fitting from an oversize part and lapped it in for fit. After clean up I got 2.5+ turns (3.5 was maximum with no brass insert) in and a good compression fit.

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bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Just let me know when I need to load up more equipment and head that way. Been busy building/rebuilding a deck and adding more. Finished today. Got tools spread over three project areas, but will have them all home soon. Most are winding down to completion. Well, two are done, just gotta help you finish up, but still need to get my things back where they belong.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Week or so. Putting fluid in brakes today by gravity as I rewire parts of the garage. PS pump still leaks, cracked case I believe, so replacement is inbound. Headlight switch shorted out too. I'll get the weld areas cleaned to bare metal and ready to go late this week.
 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Bench blead the master cylinder, 15 minutes off, blead, back on. Opened the front caliper valves and 15 minutes to 4 to 6 inches of air bubble free fluid in the temporarily installed vertical hoses. Another 30 minutes saw similar results on the rear cylinders. So, system has mostly fluid in it now.

Can't pump it yet, as you see in the video, no turbulance in the master cylinder bowls, most like one or both of the brake cylinder rods need adjusting/are too short. Very likely its the rod between the master cylinder and the power booster. I'll check it out later.

But, got the system wetted out and didn't spill any brake fluid on the paint, so, nothing peeling off at this point.



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Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad.

Master cylinder now working. Kit came with miss matched parts. Deep throat piston and a short plunger push rod bolt. Naturally everything is metric inside. I found one metric bolt, don't know why, usually i throw them far out into the woods when I find them....but, made the bolt into a plunger to replace the short one and if you look closely at the video, you see the turbulence in both chambers and can just see the pistons covering and uncovering the ports. I have about 3/4" pedal free play, should be about 1/2" but I'll get back to that. I went ahead and bled the front calipers, no air in the forward system. Now for a celebratory cigar and back under the car to pull up the rear shoes, bleed the rear and adjust the emergency brake.

All that's left is welding, tune and a drive shaft. Too bad yer locked down in VA. Perhaps I'll get "sick"and you and mom will have to come here to care for me.

 

Sharps40

Old Mossy Horns
Dad,

Good progress on the stop portions of the job today.

Got the Lokar Emergency brake cables in place and finally adjusted. Not contained in the instructions is the 3 handed operation necessary to install and adjust: simultaneously hold the clamping block, pull all of the tension out of the rear most cables and then pull harder than you think you need to to lightly compress the return springs, finally, tighten down the cable anchor screws without letting go of the clamping block or rear cables. Well, got it done with two hands but it took all of yesterday and most of this morning. I don't know how, but I do hope and pray it never ever go's out of adjustment. Nice system but a real bastard to get installed and working.

Drivers side rear break drum was dragging, so I fitted the shoes to each drum and tapered the heal and toe of the shoes. It helped but finally figured out that Drivers side rear drum was binding when bolted down......its got a warped mounting plate For now its shimmed out 1/16" to allow for all the adjustments that had to be done before finalizing the emergency brakes but, it will have to be replaced with an new drum.

Chased down two leaks in the breaking system. The main line to the rear was leaking at the master cylinder. This was a good American steel fitting, 1/4 turn more stopped the weeping. As for the other leak, down at the driver front caliper, I neatly solved that problem. Simply twisted the fancy china chrome banjo bolt off in the hole and proceeded to replace it with an American made banjo bolt.

Awaiting the new power steering pump, finally found the leak on it, next to the hi pressure valve is a nice triangular shaped dent filled with solder.......I'll get it swapped out when the pump comes in this week and see if we can get our money back on the current pump. Resevour should never have been soldered.

I have to get BigTen some measurements on the drive shaft, he may have one that'll work. If not, we'll order out of Drive Line Specialists in TX. About the same price as local but I don't have to make a one+ hour run out and then back again to get it done, it'd just come in the mail 4 days after a 5 minute phone call.

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HotSoup

Old Mossy Horns
Finally got to see her in person, great work on the car. I can tell you love this car and you have poured your heart and soul into it. Can't wait to see it on the road!

Thanks again for the shot and hulls!
 
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