The wires were originally black laquered cloth with rubber insides and braided "solid" wire. The sparkplug connectors were 90 degree open with no boots. I use the better modern ozone proof neoprene braided wire type. I use a screw type in-line resistor on the coil wire. This cuts down on "motorboating" in your radio and any around you. "Popping" in your radio and transmitting it about a square block around your car was quite common with these old cars. I don't recommend cutting up up-market modern silicone wires ,to make your own,as it's also most impossible to make a good connection. I know this doesn't help with where you would buy them as I make my own from stuff bought at fleamarkets.  

Silver Wheels ,one of the biggest outfits, has started not wanting an appraisal anymore. They only ask for 5 color photos taken from different angles. You set an "agreed value" on it and that's it. The other companies are following suit. If you want to put $100K on a $20K Plymouth then they have to have an appraisal. I have a truck coming out of restoration shortly and I will just send in the photos and set the agreed value most likely around the $20K point. In my experience accidents are very rare with these old vehicles,I've only known one in 35 years, and I've always assumed it would be a fender bender in any case. In which case it would not take $18K to repair it and this of course is only if it's my fault. And I can't see me hitting anything as I'm yet to do that in some 54 years. The only problem would be outright theft of the vehicle but that's getting also rare now because the young crowd can't drive sticks anymore let alone start the thing. And anyways the vehicles are never really out of sight and under lock and key at home. (That one accident I did hear about concerned a 1932 De Soto convertible that stuck it's nose out in traffic ,from a stop sign, in Toronto to see better and had it removed by oncoming traffic. This was many moons ago.)         

I wasn't going to chime in at first but I couldn't resist as the declared value in the previous post,$18000, is the same as mine. I have the same restrictions,no driving to work,no after dark driving,no paid weddings or funerals,only car club/shows/cruises and related outings. I pay $106 Cdn. to Zehr Insurance and the underwriter is Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance of Canada. The Pl/PD is $2,000,000 and the collision and comprehensible deductible is $500. They will cover towing costs to $1000 per occurrence and spare parts that I own for said automobile up to $7000 (because of theft/fire? Not sure.). I've never had a claim,I'm 70 years old,married, home owner and I've been a licenced driver since 1960 (No accidents,of mine, and no tickets). Category is 01 -Pleasure. All this from the policy.  (It also shows I had a Defensive Driving Course with the Canadian Military when I was 28.)

Yes that's correct as I remember it. A one or 2 piece gasket was eventually available to do either both sides by themselves or it went right across the block face to do them all. I think a person could make up their own since it's not a critical part. I know several of my car parts stores sell sheets and rolls of raw material to make your own gaskets both for the water jacket and the exhaust system. Cutting a circular piece from flat material,even 2 or 3 pieces, and layering them up would seal the gap.     

Not to step on anybody's toes here, but the industry would not have installed,1st, a voltage regulator atop the generator in about 1934 ,and then a current regulator relay in the same box a year or so later, if the 3rd brush was already regulating the charge. The 3rd brush remained but only to set the highest current the generator could provide if it ran across a "dead" battery. Otherwise it would just put out 40 or 50 amps,I guess, and rupture the battery case in a little while. Yes you're correct in having to move the 3rd brush to give an average 3-4 amps during most driving. I knew nothing about the practical application and use of electricity in automobiles when I got my antiques but had a background in electronics. I thought I would set the ammeter to "0" ,or very close to it, while driving by using the 3rd brush. Wrong. After an hour's drive the engine started to buck and jump. Long story short, because the car had been running on it's battery all this time,the battery voltage had started to drop below the point where the ignition system would provide a good steady spark. This is the "balance" I've talked about. So I did indeed end up setting the 3rd brush to provide a small "charge" position on the ammeter and that solved the problem. (This really isn't a charge. The battery finally attains a full charge at some point and the current showing on the ammeter is the current the ignition system and the lights etc. are using. The ammeter actually shows the combination of the 2 currents. You have to divine which one you're looking at. In other words, the first current after starting is the charge current and running current and then at some point the remaining current is the car's "running" current. The battery has been charged and only a trickle current will now flow into the battery to keep the charge up. This for the most part is "invisible".)Today I drive with my lights on for safety and the system is set to provide a "charge" of 3-4 amps with the lights on. I live out in the country and if I think I cranked longer than I usually do to get the engine running, I turn off my lights until I get on the main roads and the charge goes up by several amps as the system is unloaded by removing the lights. These settings also give me lights at night,with a positive "charge", if I stay out late. What I'm doing is what the industry designed into their voltage and current regulators. They alternately jump from a full on generator to putting a resistor in the field winding to cut down the charge current. I just do it manually. The problem with our regulatorless cars is the battery is the regulator,brute force regulator. Technically speaking it is the internal impedance of the battery that regulates the whole system. They eventually installed regulators because it was too "hard" on the battery and cars were being used more at night.                   

Thanks Steve. The 3rd brush sets the "roof" of the current that the generator can deliver on a "flat" battery. This is to keep from overheating the windings in the generator. Most think the 3rd brush regulates the charging. It does not. If set to 20 amps on a flat battery,I recommend 15 amps, the generator can, and will, put out 20 amps IF the battery post voltage remains below the armature output voltage of the generator. The post voltage is really the controlling factor in all this. Once the battery's post voltage rises ABOVE the generator's, current stops flowing. This is the "set point" of the cutout. The system considers the battery to be charged. But you must have your cutout cycling or you will never know if you're overcharging your battery. Which is what I believe this gentleman is doing with his 8 volt setup. If I was there I could,and would, fix it very quickly but this "long distance" troubleshooting is difficult. The cutout needs to be put on a bench and connected to a varible power supply,which I have, and the point cycling set to the correct voltage by varying the voltage and adjusting the spring perch.                        

There needs to be a "balance" between the generator output and the batteries' needs. Something is wrong here and my guess is the generator is overcharging the battery. If the cutout points never open then the generator/cutout combination is sensing that the battery always needs a charge i.e. current flowing "downhill" onto the car's buss and into the battery. My take on this is the battery is going to be "boiled" dry. There should be some give and take. There should be a point, at low revs, where the points open and the generator is released from the battery. The generator is always trying to pump up the battery to some "high" voltage that the battery posts can never reach. Otherwise equilibrium would be reached and the cutout would release the generator from the battery. I believe you're trying to overcharge your battery and this can bend plates and all sorts of ugly things. Don't forget the only reason the system stays at a nominal 6 or 12 volts is because of the battery itself. One of these old generators is quite capable of putting out 25 volts. Unload the generator by disconnecting the battery while the engine is running and you will blow every lightbulb that is turned "on" at that moment. And start to cook the ignition coil as well. A friend asked me to troubleshoot his motorcyle last Summer because he had no lights,directional signals the lot. I scratched my head for a few minutes and then after discovering there was no resistance coming back from any wire going to a light,I started pulling out bulbs. EVERYONE of the bike's bulbs were blown as he had switched on them all one after another to see if any of the lights worked. His battery was "open circuit" and with no regulator on this little 250 cc bike the bike's buss rose to 20 volts or so and blew every bulb. He had gotten the bike going with the kick starter. (The headlight alone cost him $75.)This will not happen with a vehicle that has a voltage regulator on it. But on our old stuff the "regulator" is the battery. Be careful out there.        

"selling stuff on e-bay for next years gas money"! By the look of the infrastructure at chezchet you are yanking our chain? lolo

They are made the same way head gaskets are made, thin copper sheeting rolled over an asbestos inner. They were about a 1/4" "square" and slid into the block cavity with the "shoulder" of each manifold branch doing the crushing.(If I remember correctly.) As Tinkeys said they crush to fill the void the same as a head gasket. I'm not sure how one would repro them in a shop.   

Yes you're correct except your 2nd "open" in your post should be "closed",I think. You're correct in that the generator will try to "motor" except it's held tight by the fan belt and engine. This is the "reverse current" that's talked about. It's unusual for the cutout to close it's points immediately and not open them again until shutdown. Normally,on a correctly setup car, the generator needs some revs to produce enough current to close the cutout's points and be connected over onto the battery and onto the car's buss. If the revs drop below this point,even at idle, the points open,as the generator is not producing enough current to keep them closed, and the car runs on it's battery. Which as I mentioned will about 2 volts less than the generator output at speed. This causes the lights at night to dim slightly and then brighten up again as the revs come back ,say, as the car moves away from a stop. Even allowing the revs to drop to idle during a "slow" shift will cause the cutout points to cycle. Basically the generator becomes a chunk of copper wire connected to the battery at idle or at rest. This is why it must be disconnected to prevent the battery from just discharging through this "chunk of wire" to ground and flattening itself. You're right in your comment about the generator must having a voltage greater than the battery before the cutout will close,except it's really current that does it. As my professor used to tell us "Remember everything works because of "current injection" in electrical or electronics engineering and for no other reason."        

A 6 volt system runs at 7.5 to 8.0 volts normally and always has. A 12 volt system runs at 14.8 volts. 6 and 12 volts are the nominal volts as the industry assumes 2 volts per cell on a sulphuric acid/water/lead plate battery. (Dry cells are less,1.5 volts, and nickel cadmium are more,2.25 per cell.) After one of our old cars has been running for a few minutes you can put a voltmeter on the 6 volt battery cable and it will read 7.5 to 8. on a good battery and a good generator at a fast idle. (You need a fast idle to close the reverse current cutout points and put the generator on the battery.) As the battery nears it's end of life, it will cease to take a full charge and start lingering around 6.5 volts or so. To test our old 6 volt systems you have to have a "fresh" battery that is known to charge to 8.O volts or so. Substituting a known good battery out of another antique is usually the quickest and cheapest way. A modern 12 volt battery also dies the same route and can be troubleshot the same way.
 Putting an 8 volt golf cart battery in is a common thing I understand,I've seen it before,but not neccessary. A good 6 volt battery that will allow the system to rise to it's correct 8.0 volts or so and a generator that will put it there, is all that's required. 6 and 12 volts are the nominal "shelf" terminal volts of a lead acid battery.For a 6 volt battery 4.0 volts or so is either a discharged battery or one that needs replacing. It should sit pretty well in the high 5.0s,even over 6.0, over a couple of weeks of storage after the last run. 12 volters should sit in the high 11.0s or even low 12.0s. I find too many 6 volt cars and trucks are haphazardly changed to 8.0 or even 12.0 volts when the problem is almost certainly a wiring problem. And an electrical fire is a possiblity. Or burned connections because of a voltage drop induced by corroded connections. This servicing system has worked for me for more that 30 years with no problems and I get an average of 10 years on my 6 volters,12 years on one of them.              

Ditto from the Dominion of Canada and the Great White North eh.

10 is a little low. They are all crappy through the 20s and 30s,compared to even the 50s, but I'd expect more around 15 mpg. Possibly even a bit more. Make sure the plugs are staying clean/light brown and not sooty. That's the only practical way of determining if one of these old engines is running approx. between lean and rich.   

I was going to say that I seem to remember my '29 had a door pocket on the rear left and the front passenger but wasn't  sure. In the for what it's worth department, I agree with frankp.

The pouch did have elastic in the opening. This died with age and the pouch sagged open eventually. The pouch was not "pleated" per se but it had to have extra material to allow the pouch to open up with the elastic. In other words the elastic was tacked at each end and the pouch was free to slide open because it had extra material forming a "tube" over the elastic. Am I making sense? (Had 2 of them redone many moons ago.)