Projects Project 48 desoto...aka: Fernando

Well with the 1/4" (.250") of spline extended past the end it still left 1 3/4" (1.75") of spline in the drive shaft. I was concerned that the travel of the suspension would cause the splines to extended out too far and perhaps fall apart. So I first loaded up the car with as much weight as I could find...about 1000lbs of bricks, sand bags etc. Then jacked the back end way up and let the suspension hang at full extension. The splines only moved less then 1/4" in either direction. So I figured I'd be safe driving it this way.

But now I was faced with a problem. How do I keep the grease in and around the splines when I no longer have the threaded end and seal to do this for me. Man hours of thinking...I'm a trucker so have a bit of spare thinking time on my hands....I came up with an idea of using a replacement CV joint boot. I went down to the local jobber and asked them is I could get one with a 1 1/2" x 2" openings. He looked through the catalogs and could find anything with sizes or measurements. I was about to leave when another idea flashed into my head....how about a shock boot like they use on off road trucks?

So he ran up and got me a shock boot...I checked it out and figured it would do the job.

First I had to clean the two ends of the drives shaft, wanted to get all that old grease out of there.



Shock boot number...



The front part, or top of the boot was a little snug getting over the splines of the front yoke..but eventually with some grease, and a bit of luck, it slipped on and over. Then it was repack everything and slide the front yoke into the drive shaft....make sure to orient it properly before doing this...I didn't. Then I slipped the lower section down and over the cleaned exterior section of the drive shaft...again a little grease helped things.



I found that the boot was a little long. I ended up initially cutting off 5 ribs. and after final assembly...and installation I cut off one more.

 

I also dis-assembled both U-joints. Some of the grease was hard as a rock, but all the needles were in great shape. SO everything just needed a good cleaning, the re-lube and assemble.



Here it is all done...

 

3 speed tranny in...March 28/2012....

I also go the 3 speed installed.



Here is a couple pics of the tranny and drive shaft.





I'm now working on the E-brake and the column shifter and clutch rods and mechanisms.

 

Shifter and linkage.... April 03/2012....

SO been working on things a bit more in the last week or two. I've finally got all the shifter and clutch linkage cleaned, lubed and installed.

Here is what the linkage looked like after removal and dis-assembly....



And since I was going from the old fluid drive, to a standard 3 speed I needed a shorter shifter linkage and adjustable clutch rod. Thankfully I had those piece from that 48 Dodge parts car I picked up a year or two ago.



Now everything cleaned and installed...and mostly adjusted.



And with the clutch pedal and MC assembly installed.

 

E-brake cable...April 03/2012.....

Well I had been trying to come up with a solution to the E-brake cable problem. Since I made the fluid drive E-brake system work on the regular 3 speed transmission, the mounting points for the E-brake cable was in a totally different location from either of the factory set-ups.

So here I was with a fluid drive E-brake cable, mounted in a standard 3 speed mounting location, having to make up about 8" from the end of the cable to the e-brake assembly itself. I tried all kinds of neat and fancy things...even built a few brackets and coupler, but could not get the cable to pull nice and straight. I eventually decided I had to go more cave man.

I finally came up with a piece of chain run from the E-brake cable end to the e-brake assembly. Seems to work great now.

 

Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> Originally Posted by Young Ed
Nice solution but Im a little perplexed about how you shortened your drivetrain and still ended up with a parking brake cable that was too short? Shouldn't the elimination of the fluid drive moved the parking brake closer to the firewall?
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The E-brake system off the fluid drive mounts farther back on the transmission, then on the standard 3 speed. So on a fluid drive it mounts farther back along the drive line, the 3 speed mounts, as you said..."closer to the firewall". The cable itself is made to work with a short distance between the transmission mounting point, and the E-brake mounting pointon the fluid drive.

As well since I had to "adapt" the fluid drive E-brake system to the 3 speed transmission....a combination I don't think was ever offered along the assembly line...I had to combine the fluid drive, and 3 speed, mounting brackets to make things work.

I too had hoped things would have worked out a little better...but it's all working now so I will just go with it. Besides this is only temporary until I get my 8 3/4 shortened and installed in the next couple years....then I will have a rear drum e-brake system.

 

April 06/2012....

And as of right now I'm working on the exhaust system. I will post up pics and info when that is done....hope you won't be too shocked and appalled by what I end up doing....

 

Will make sure I update this thread on a regular basis now that I'm mostly caught up...Cheers!

 

Well been busy working on the car the last couple weeks...but haven't taken the time to update regularly.

So I was working on the exhaust after my last update. I originally was going to try and run a true dual exhaust system. I had an old system from an 87 Dodge ram V8 truck. But after getting parts and pieces in under the car I decided it was not going to work. The stock panhard bar was going to mess up the drivers side pipe.



I then decided that I would go with a bigger single exhaust...so I bought an exhaust system from a 90's? Chevy diesel truck for $40. A little over kill at 2.75" but hey the price was right.

Compared to the original 1.75" pipe.

 

Now the fun began. I started with the tailpipe. Got it up and in position as best I could...but that spare tire well made it hard to get it up too high though.





Once in place I had to find a way to mount it. Found that it was really close to the rear bumper bracket bolts...so I made up a nut and stud to thread onto the exposed threads of one of the bumper bracket bolts.





Then I could use a universal mount to run from the stud down to the pipe.

 

Now I was trying to make the dual outlet manifold that was on my new motor work with this new bigger single exhaust...but it was turning into a night mare and I was loosing patience really fast. So I ditched the dual outlet manifold for a stock single exhaust manifold I had as a spare.



Things progressed much quicker then. Managed to re-use the original? head pipe...quite thin but still sound enough.



Made up a homemade adapter from pieces of scrap pipe to go from the small 1.75" to 2.75". Ran out of wire before I finished it though...good enough for now.



And exhaust is in and done. Not bad for about $50.

 

I then had to re-assemble some of the front end. Hammer and dollied out a whack load of dents in the pass. side fender, from old previous damage. Looks much better now. Then it was radiator time.

I had purchased an all aluminum unit for a 49-52 Passenger car from Champion radiators in Cali...CC52PLY. Not the direct replacement unit I could have ordered, but will work better for later upgrades I have planned.

Discovered I needed to remove the cross bar from the rad support so I could slip the rad in from the front. Had to grind off the factory rivets and pound it out.



Once that was out of the way I could slip the rad down and in. Needed to trim the top mounting flange on the rad to clear the cross bar.



Then bolted the cross bar back in.

 

I had a bunch of old radiator hose from ??? and managed to make a couple work. Here it is all bolted in and ready to go.



Had one issue though. The water pump and pulley set-up was too long. Was dangerously close the rad. So I pulled it and installed the original water pump and lower pulley from the 251. Gave me a bit more clearance.

Here you can see the difference. Not a lot but enough to cause me grief.

 

Now came the fun part...electronic ignition, starter relay, starter solenoid, and voltage regulator...and wiring. Used the holes that already existed on the inner fender to mount everything.



Then I made a run out to the pick-a-part for some needed wiring. 84 dodge ram pick-up donated most of the wiring.....$25...Thank you very much!



Couple hours later I had a crude, dirty and ugly wiring system good enough to get the engine to fire.

 

I have no gas tank in the car, so I ran a piece of rubber fuel line from the fuel line at the back of the car, up into a can of gas secured in the trunk. I had some issues with fuel leaking, and not getting to the fuel pump. But after a couple hours working on that I finally had fuel making it to the carb. Motor was cranking fine and much to my surprise it fired right up!!

I figured I would have a battle on my hands...especially since I built that hybrid distributor. But guess Ol' Fernando was eager to get back to life after 20+ years of abandonment and neglect.

Only problem I had was the wide 5/8 pulley I had on the alternator popped off almost immediately after the initial fire. So I had to remove it...grind a slot on each side of the shaft for the set screws to sit in....lock tight everything, and re-install. I then popped the floor back into the car and took it around the block...a few times.













What a great feeling to actually drive the car. Now I have to finish getting the front end back together so I can put the car into storage for the summer, and get the wagon home.

 

Sweet 2-dr "Fernando," bro. Hats off!

 

Thank you....yes they are a rare beast...but love the look!!

 

This car and thread kicks ass.. suck your putting it in storage.

 

Those Chrycos from those years were solid as bank vaults. When you closed those doors they were what doors were meant to close like. The old fluid drive was super smooth. They rode great, brakes were not so hot as that car was so heavy. Still a class car for the time and so well made. Traditional drivetrains leave a lot to be desired. A 500 Cadillac with a good o.d. automatic would be a great start.

 

Tis the price I have to pay for only having a single car garage, and more then one car. This one is not road worthy yet, and my old long roof is...so they play switch-aroo about every 6 months.

Once Ol' Fernando is up and running though I might have more of a problem on my hands......

 

Damn nice progress....love 40s DeSotos.

Whats next on the list ?

Rat

 

Thank you for the kind words!

....Next winter will be a whole re-wire of the car from scratch. Then maybe get all the new glass in. So much to do....

 

Well I recieved a used Vintage air system from a fellow on one of the other forums I'm on. He had it in a polara and it just wasn't doing a good job. It's a few years old, has some issues...broken plastic, missing mounting areas etc...but I plan on converting it to manual cable controls and standard motor wiring. Pretty happy about it since he basicly gave it to me.

So I'll be ditching the factory dual heaters in the Desoto and going with just this one little unit. Should work well.

 

I just read all 6 pages super cool build. I like the way your solved all the little problems along the way gives some motivation to get going on my project.

 

Everything you've done is exactly how I would have if it was my car. Great job, Cant wait to see some more progress.

 

Thank you for the kind words guys.

Just trying to come up with simple solutions to my problems. I don't have a machine shop, or special schooling...just basic know how and the ability to think outside the box. But then most Hot rodders posses this.

 

Well I swapped around my cars a few weeks ago...Wagon going into storage...Fernando coming home to be worked on this winter.

Was all excited that this year I could actually start, and then drive the car up on the trailer. Put a battery in it, hooked up the gas can, primmed the carb...AND...nothing. Car would run on the gas dumped down the carb, but it seemed like the fuel pump is not priming. Carb is also leaking badly across the mainshaft.

So I removed the line from the gas can, blew down the fuel line and primed the fuel pump, and filter. Tried it again and still nothing. Drained my battery repeatedly trying to start the car.

The car ran fine this spring when I moved it into storage. Same fuel pump, fuel was treated with stabilizer. This fuel pump is of unknown age and condition...but like I said it was working fine earlier this year when I first fired the car.

Guess I'll pull it and see what's going on. I dug through the archives and have seen a few posts on fuel pumps coming loose from the diaphragm, or pin on the arm coming loose.
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All right...finally got 2% smarter then that darn glass fuel bowl on the fuel pump. I first pulled the fuel pump off, and apart. What an absolulety brilliant design in simplicity. The check valves within the pump can not be affect by fuel types since they are pieces of fiber board? type material, with light springs on top. The only thing in the system that could fail is the diaphram. I also rotated the top assenbly of the pump so it would give me more room to put my in-line fuel filter before the pump. I also then had to bend up another new fuel line from the pump, to carb.

So first off to try and beat the leak I tried cutting my own gaskets, from some regular gasket material I had. Cut a couple and tried them together...still leaked. Then I did some searching over on the P15-D24 site and found some gasket numbers....troied my local shop and they could only get me one filter kit, which the fitler didn't work in my gklass bowl...BUT it did come with two different size rubber gaskets.

I first tried the larger of the two, since it seemed to fit best within the fuel pump housing, and against the glass bowl. Installed it and it leaked worse then ever. So then I was looking at the smaller of the two...but it just didn't seem like it would sit right by itself. SO I decided to sandwich it between the two gaskets I cut myself. Installed the glass bowl, primed the system and fired it up....NO MORE LEAKS!!!
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I'm still running the car off a fuel gan in the trunk...but I did just recieve my new gas tank. It's the steel replacement from Tank Inc for the 46-48 Dodge and Plymouth, but should work well in my Desoto... and it's a very nice unit!! Wasn't sure if it would have the fuel outlet in the left front lower corner of the tank, so I didn't order a new fuel sending unit. It does BTW...and now I have to get a new universal tank sending unit.

Very complete kit though...came with everything, less sending unit. Even has universal tank straps. Got it through E-bay.

Couple pics....






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And finally a video of the car running...with sound this time. Sorry about the darkness...have the back drums apart trying to fix some problems, so can't back the car outside.

http://s697.beta.photobucket.com/use...892b9.mp4.html
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