It's a very rare 1928 or '29 DeLuxe coupe. ""The rumble seat was a standard feature of the DeLuxe coupe, which carried 4 passengers. Although looking like a convertible the top was not of the folding type. " The Plymouth And DeSoto Story

Chet, Mine has only the one scale on it for vacuum in psi. But that guage will do fine for setting the carb and dist. It has the psi  scale on it with 15 psi being about center. (It has something to do with atmospheric pressure being a nominal 14.7 psi. Any higher than 15 psi and you would be working on a boosted or supercharged engine with the supercharger engaged. The stuff I worked on in the RCAF had a single stage blower on it and would put this reading of 15 psi up to 29 psi at full throttle or as we used to say "29 inches".) You just need a 1/4" (internal hole size) rubber hose,the same size used on wiper motor hook up, and put it on the wiper port at the carb/manifold and hang it from the rad stay facing out. That's for the carb setting and then you have to face it to the left for the dist. setting. Mine came with the hook built in but a piece of coat hanger wire taped to the guage would do.     

I start with carb but it's really a matter of tweaking. Once you set the distributor, I assume the burning of the mixture is better than it was before. Then going back to the carb you can tweak it for even better burning again. I have also done this on old motorcycles and made an amazing difference in performance. With an engine so young as yours I suppose this method won't give much in return. I don't know. It was designed more for older engines that had strayed from their original condition. Sort of making the most out of what you have left. The lash and backlash in the distributor system and the abrasive wear in the carb internal ports would make the original book values not match your engine. By 'tuning' this way you match the timing and mixture to your engine's present condition. Just turning the carb air bleed screw will make an immediate difference in vacuum and speed up the engine requiring you to turn down the idle screw. Happens every time. I don't know how to put it any other way. The original settings are only good for a few thousand miles and then you will find a difference in the way the engine starts,runs and gas mileage. I believe,but I'm not sure, it makes up for slight vacuum leaks in the system. In other words if there are minute leaks in the intake manifold,carb mounting etc., tuning the carb and distributor this way would set the air bleed and timing to 'that' air/fuel mixture and that's why I believe there is an increase in rpm. You can't be sure that the old gaskets on every surface are air tight. Makes sense? There are no timing marks on a '28,'29 or '30 Plymouth that I know of. In fact I don't think timing marks showed up until 1933. (They are hidden behind a cover on the bell housing and are painted in red on the edge of the flywheel.) Most flat head CPDD engines however had a removable machine threaded screw,slot headed drive, above the #4 or #6 position on the cylinder head and you could drop a long piece of coat hanger wire down the hole and watch the wire move up and down as the engine was turned over by hand sans spark plugs. Generally the point break was set at some point before the wire reached TDC. It varied with engines. However this again is setting your engine to the book settings and your engine may be miles off those. (pun intended.)                       

I think basically we forget that the engine wears in all it's parts and the setting in the book is for a brand new tight engine. Many years ago I came across a Mechanics Illustrated  where Tom McCahill said he used a vacuum gauge to set his engines because of the wear factor. Rather than turning the carb air bleed screw to the book setting he hooked up a vacuum gauge to the wiper hose port and, with the idle set slightly above idle, he turned the screw for the highest vacuum reading. Usually on a "good" engine you will get close to 15 psi. (If you have a firing problem or a valve problem,it will show up as a 'jumping' of the needle.) He also went on to say that he sets his timing that way as well. Again because of the wear in the distributor,drive, etc. He turns the distributor while again watching for the highest vacuum reading. (On later engines you have to disconnect the vacuum advance.) He then goes back to the carb and resets the air bleed screw again etc. This he said was the only way to actually "tune up" an engine to it's present condition. Otherwise you are just setting it to the factory settings,an engine you no longer have. Works for me.   

Yes Kim I meant the actual structure of the roof at the sides. This eventually became a steel overlap in later Plymouths. (The roof became a "drop-in" square with the steel sides painted body color.) The photos bring back memories. Some of that "rain gutter" strip is called "Hidem" and is still available on pages 188/189  of Mac's AutoParts of Buffalo. Also all the end tips. Hidem was apparently a brand name and was used by all the manufacturers at the time. And just point it out again,use black RTV under everything to seal the edges of the material. Test screw all your trim in place and them remove it and place a line of RTV along the mating surface and final screw the trim in place. Any that squeezes out can be wiped away with paper towels and you will never see it later. Been there,done that. And keep the roofing material well covered with your choice of spray on water proofing over the years. Just about all of them come with a built in sun block now and the top looks nicer too. 

My 2 cents: I remember the '28s and '29s had a wood chine all the way around the roof and it rotted from water ingress and I filled it out with body fill. I remember the rain gutter was the last thing tacked  on the sides. The front roofing cloth was tacked up to the wood overhang and the metal cadet visor was then screwed in place. I put lots of black RTV silicone rubber in at the last edge of the roof cloth all around to stop water getting in now. Especially under the visor as the rain would be driven into the cracks when driving down the road. (Just wiping off the excess will make the RTV disappear.)I don't believe any caulking was put in any place by Chrysler. That and the sun killing the top material was the reason for the water ingress.   

There is no non destructive way to deal with carriage bolts that turn in position when you try to undo them. I keep a Dremel tool around with lots of cutoff discs handy for this job. I side cut the nuts at a 45 degree angle then take a cold chisel and split the nut from the side. You may have to do this on 2 sides but this is the only way I've found to remove the nut without damaging the bolt head. Tape the bolt head tight with Duct tape or such to keep it from rotating while you cut the nut apart.  Obviously you do not want to cut the nut so deep as to cut into the threads. However a slight nick in the threads is not a disaster.   

The oil is coming up from the transmission via capillary action. It seems to me that any I worked on had a flat felt washer in the tranny end which I replaced with an O ring. But,yes, it's not normal. The inside of the cable normally runs dry after a while, if anything. It has to be coated with some kind of grease and I use modern silicone grease. Seems to me the tranny end should be "tight" to put on and that means it's crushing the washer/O ring. The center moving part fits up tight against the face of the tranny and very little lubricant gets by. It sounds like the cavity/space around the center and the sheath is being litterally filled to capacity with oil which walks up the cable to leak out at the dash. 

Test Test 1,2,3    FIXED!!      Thanks Chet.

Good morning Chet    F5 refresh doesn't change anything. Doing a "Disk Cleanup" also didn't change anything. Deleted your site from my "Favorites" and added your "new" site and that didn't change anything. Rebooted my computer after doing those things and that didn't change anything. Your avatar and the test photo show right away. No other person's avatar ,including my own, shows. Just a box with a red X. However as you can see posting works fine and I can see any other photos if I want by clicking on the photo's blue title. Don't go out of your way to fix this. I can use the site OK and may stumble on the problem in the next few days.     

Hi Chet I see you've changed the "look" of the site. Everything is OK except for photos and I think my avatar. Beside my name at the top of the page I think my avatar should appear but I only see a box with a red X in it. On the post about the vacuum tanks I only got the 1st photo. The rest are all boxes with red X's in them. I notice if I click on the "title" of the photo I get a dialog box up that asks me if I want to open this file. I click again and the photo downloads. No problem really just the site didn't use to do it. Any ideas?  (I see my avatar is missing from this post)     

This is my '31 PA 30 years ago the day I received an award from the Ministry of Agriculture of Ontario. This photo ended up in the newspapers and in the Ministry archives. I'm the guy with the moustache. (Was I ever that young!) You can see the chrome headlight bar and the correct crankhole cover. The flying lady isn't very clear here either but she is the correct "low" bodied one. And these are the correct headlights. The car had been untouched in a barn north of Oshawa Ont. since about the end of WWII. It's last active owner I was told was a Toronto police detective,Albert John. The car was prestine and like a piece right out of a sales brochure.     

OK one last kick at the can. An 8 volt battery is meant to be charged to 10.5 volts,may be 11.0. The internal impedance of these batteries are not reaching their maximum of several megohms because it never reaches a full charge. The electrolyte never reaches 1.250 specific gravity which would equal an internal resistance of several megohms. At this point current stops flowing,drops to a trickle, and the remaining current showing on the ammeter is the current being used by the car's buss (coil,lights,radio etc.) and that's of course coming from the generator. To reach this point with an 8 volt battery would require the reverse current cutout to be set to 10 or 11 volts. This would also then start the cut-out to cycle as it's supposed to. However this high of a voltage would blow all the lights etc. So I think that these 8 volt batteries are being undercharged and will sulphate themselves into a very short life. And I think since the cut-out never cycles ,as it never sees a battery in high impedance, the generator is in full on high current charge all the time and will see a very short life as it burns up. Just my opinion.        

Since you've done such a nice job of bringing it back from the dead, I thought I would play devil's advocate to take it back 100%. I apologize if you consider this straight criticism, it is not. I owned a barn fresh '31 PA 6 wire wheel DeLuxe sedan for many years and I'm quite familiar with them in their untouched condition. =The headlight bar should be chromed.=The headlights do not appear to be the large originals.The '28/'29/'30 and '31 all had basically the same headlights. (Anybody else agree?)=The rad cap appears to be '33 PD. The '31 PA/'32 PB were lower bodied than the '33PD.Could you give us a closer photo of it?= The front right hubcap appears to be '31 PA but the rear one appears to be fatter/thicker and could be '33. Closer photo?= That carb is a '32 PB BB-1. The '31 PA had a straight mouth on it. The '32 had the mouth pointing up like yours. And the '32 PB had the accelerator pump on the outside where yours is.= The sparkplug wiring was correct on the engine in it's original condition. Push the wire loom a little more to the right and put the caps on the plugs directly out of the loom not wound over the top. 

Silver Wheels must be offered in the northern States because I read a friend's Hemmings mag last year that had a photo of the Silver Wheels black awning/tent and the girls at a show in Ohio ?