Well after a brief few days where the car was actually driving, we now have a growing problem on the 30U. After the oil pump siezed and sheared off some teeth on the cam timing gear, we took the front cover off to see if we could replace the gear. So far, so good.

Everything in front of the actual gear itself came off no problem, but the gear itself was STUCK. We tried using several different pullers, and the thing would not budge. Tom Hannaford, who we bought the replacement gear from, told me that over time the timing gear can torque itself into the aligning key and create a bind, so we tried tapping the gear backwards to release the tension but still nothing. So, we decided to just pull the whole camshaft out and have a machine shop do it with an arbor press.

Took off the head, fuel pump, oil pump, intake, exhaust, and valve cover. Turned the engine over and wedged the valves open with wooden wedges, and held the lifters up with clothespins. Undid the two bolts on the flange behind the gear. Took off the little copper oil line in there as well. I was under the impression that the cam should be relatively loose in there now and, with some careful fiddling, would just pull out. But this thing WILL NOT move. It turns, but won't go forward or back. I even tried tapping a wedge between the block and the flange and it moved it maybe 2mm forward, then broke off the top bolt hole of the cast iron flange.

Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on?? How do I get this dang thing out??

I have the 196ci. The keyway is on the underside of the shaft, can't see it in the picture I took. The oil pump siezed up and locked everything up, and the weakest part was the teeth on that fiber cog.

Hey everyone- the other day when trying to start the car I found the distributor rotor would not turn. I removed the timing cover and sure enough, the cam gear had stripped off some teeth. I've gotten everything in front of the gear off, but for some reason when I tried to pull the cam gear off with a gear puller it didn't budge. I took a propane torch to it and still wouldn't budge. Is there some secret to getting this thing off, or do I need to just buckle down and yank the thing off?

No questions or anything in this post for the moment... just had to let you all know that tonight, for the first time since 1972, our 30-U drove around the block under its own power! It was an amazing feeling and made all those days where you didn’t feel like you are actually accomplishing anything totally worth it. Today I managed to put in a new rebuild kit for the master cylinder, cut a temporary plywood floorboard, mount and wire the dash, and take it for a (short) drive. Obviously still miles and miles to go with the interior, body fitment, paint, door/window actuators, wipers, etc... But it’s a  huge milestone to know that this car’s got its groove back. Y’all have helped me a ton with it too, so thank y’all so much! I’ve really grown to like the community here and how helpful everyone is. Anyway, it’s now beer o’clock.

Happy Friday Y’all

-Roper from TX

It's possible that's what happened, that it got on the wrong side of the cam- unfortunately now the pump cracked at both bolt holes on the flange so it's totally unusable now, probably couldn't even use it as a core. Ah well, live and learn. At least I got a working electric one now!

Hey all, interesting to see everyone else’s oil pump setups- I have one of the later 30-Us built, and it has a mechanical pump with no vacuum port at all, and does have the i let line routed underneath the pump rather than over it. Attached a pic so you can see what I’m talking about.

Chet, as for the strainer idea you mentioned,  it could be that it inhibits the oil from rising more than normal due to surface tension against the mesh. I imagine if you’re trying to suck air out with a fluid pump to get oil up to the pickup, every little bit of resistance would count pretty big against it. I think the hole helps because it allows the oil to rise up to the level of the pickup on its own rather than relying on a pump to displace the air first.

Also sorry the pic is 90° sideways, that always happens when I upload from my phone.

Mine has the gear-style oil pump with no vacuum port. The only vacuum line on the whole car I can see is one coming off of the intake manifold which I suspect goes to the wiper motor? Not sure though.

I’d been having a bear of a time getting any oil pressure in this thing. Have a new OreillyZone gauge cluster that came with a thin plastic line for oil pressure, hooked it up to the outlet in the block above the starter motor. Did everything I could think of and then everything I found online to get pressure, but could never get more than a very slow push through the clear plastic line, and the gauge never moved off the peg.

Blew out the inlet/outlet line to the pump with compressed air to make sure no plugs.

Took out the flathead plug above the oil pressure regulator, fed 1/2 qt of oil into it and blew compressed air into it, could hear the oil in the pan bubbling like blowing into a soda straw, so no blockages there.

Replaced the pump itself with a backup I had, and packed it full of vaseline to try to prime it. Took spark plugs out and cranked for 60 seconds at a time, twice. Nothing.

Finally, decided to take the oil pan off to see if the pickup was blocked, bent, whatever. Looked fine to me. But I noticed... The oil pickup screen is surrounded by an upside down cup looking thing. I got to thinking... when you fill the crankcase up with oil, wouldn’t this upside down cup trap air, like putting a cup facedown into a bathtub? The pickup holes are up inside the cup itself, so theoretically it would be in the air pocket.

So I took a drill, put a small hole in the side of the cup toward the top, thinking this would allow the oil to rise up into the cup and thus to the pickup holes. Sure enough, I reassembled, cranked it over, and...

Boom. 25 pounds at idle, 40 lbs on rev.

Now, I’m sure this isn’t the approved way to do things... Perhaps the pump is supposed to suck the air out of the pocket and allow the oil to rise up to the pickup holes? But our pump is pretty worn, so maybe it’s not able to do that the way the manufacturer’s intended. Anyway, this worked like a charm for me, and I’ll proudly file it into the ledger of redneck fixes this car has seen over its lifetime. 

Hope this can help somebody!

Just went and checked my 30-U, they are hexagonal, looks to me like 1/2”? Included a pic of the cab side of the generator.

Well it seems the manufacturer we were getting from was just no good- got a 6V fuel pump off the shelf from our local vintage parts store and it works like a charm. Go figure!

Hi guys! Thanks again for all the help with the accelerator linkage a while back, I think we’ve got something approaching workable going on that front!

Well, after a rebuild of the mechanical fuel pump, it started vibrating really strongly and visibly when the car was running and eventually broke off at the flange on the engine. Still not sure what that was all about, whether it was seated incorrectly on the cam or the rubber diaphragm was too stiff or what, but in the meantime we’ve decided to run a little 6V fuel pump instead, similar to one of those little canister-shaped AirTex models.

Problem is, when we hook it up near the tank and turn on the switch, the pump jumps once, then sits and does nothing but get hot. Turn it off and on, and it will jump again, then stay still. You can actually see the fuel moving in the clear plastic fuel filter we have, but only when it first gets power, then nothing.

So I took it off and made a bench set up consisting of: Lawnmower gas tank > pump > catch can. I primed the pump, and same deal: the pump will move gas, but only when it first comes on. So if I take the ground and put it on a battery on the bench and take the tan wire and stick it on and remove it, stick it on and remove it, etc. from the positive battery post... it will move fuel.

So what’s the deal? This is the second pump we’ve gotten from the manufacturer, thinking the first one may be defective, but no dice. I also thought maybe it wasn’t working because of the length of wire required to get all the way from the battery to the fuel tank where we put the pump made resistance too high, but the bench test disproved that.

Any advice?

Wow, thanks for all the great info everyone! This definitely gives me a lot to work off of. I'll keep y'all updated on how everything is going and see if I can get some more pics up later.

Hey Tom, thanks for the replies! I've included some pics of both sides of the engine and the carburetor (currently off for a rebuild). Seems like I need at least two helical springs, one on the driver side and one on the carb side. I've also seen some other pics where there seems to be some kind of rod going from the driver's side of the engine linkage down toward the frame, but can't figure out what that's for.

Hi everyone, new to the forums, been looking around a bit and already have learned a lot.

I have a 1930 Plymouth 30U that is in the process of coming back together after nearly two decades of sitting in pieces. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to get the engine started and running reliably, and one of the things I'm looking at is how to put the accelerator linkage to the carburetor back together. I'm sure I'm missing a number of pieces (I have no springs at all, for one thing) but I'm not sure how it all is supposed to fit together to work properly. Does anyone have any pictures of a complete one that I could work off of in order to improvise something that would come close to factory original? Also, not sure how this will affect things, but I don't believe I have the original carburetor, what came on the car when I got it was a Zenith Model 68 which as I understand was not original.