(51295 mi) Another tool in the battle against time and age...

"WITHOUT special service tools, many of today's commonplace service operations would not be practical to perform economically in most dealer service shops. Such tools are of low cost practical designs that allow a semi-skilled mechanic to accurately duplicate original manufacturing and assembly methods. These tools are developed in co-operation with the vehicle manufacturer's design and service engineers as an important aid for the dealer who must render dependable service for every unit of the car or truck. Thus, special service tools help .the dealer's shop turn out first quality service work at a fair price to his customers and earn the shop a satisfactory profit as well. Such special tools are usually provided by the dealership to supplement each mechanic's personal hand tools. These tools are effectively used by car dealers-fleet owners-independent service shops-mechanics-parts jobbers and
even some car or truck owners."

I have two of many special shop tools produced for Chrysler Motors by the Miller Manufacturing Company of the long-deceased Detroit, Michigan.  I received my second tool today!  It is gauge C-853!

Seen on the right, it gauges the positioning of the spring for the proper return of the clutch pedal.  My pedal has been misbehaving for about 15 years.  This gauge will put it BACK in line. :)

(42002 mi) Seat Covers to cover the Seats.

 Re-Upholster OR Cover it Over?  If you are short on cash and can patiently examine eBay week after week, you can buy an original MoPAR Seat Cover.  As it so happens, that is what I did.

On May 2nd, 1951, Donald Motors of Tryon, North Carolina ordered my Seat Covers (Part No. 1315 347).  Obviously, they never reached the intended automobile, because 60 years later they covered the seats in my 1951 Chrysler.  Unfortunately, these seat covers are not actually designed for my particular car, but (without changing them a stitch) I have made good use of them.  The original upholstery is sadly advanced in its deterioration.  I have one last recourse in getting the right upholstery for the car.  I will have the fabric re-made... in the future.  When I have the money... maybe.

(00000 mi) All in the Family

Here's a partial view of my Chrysler's Family Tree in 1951.

(00000 mi) Birth of my Car...

Using Fedco Numbering System for Chrysler cars in 1951 and my Vehicle Number, I have deduced that my car was born in September 1951.  Unfortunately, I cannot find more detailed information because it was generally not kept.  Let's see what was happening in 1951...shall we?

(51295 mi) The Parts Department - my closet.

A well-stocked parts department (known as my closet) is absolutely essential in maintaining your Chrysler.  Before the Internet, parts were found in the junkyard, really old parts stores with old stock, and the specialty  expensive purveyors of old and reproduction parts.  Ebay seems to have changed it all.  Combined with the closing of dealerships throughout America, NOS (New Old Stock) parts have flooded the market.  My collection looks like a 1950's parts department, and this pleases me to no end.  In fact, I have scanned the boxes and have printed stickers for those parts which do not have their original boxes.

(51295 mi) Disaster! Well...irritation...

Remember the post "The Car Won't Start! Auuuuughh!"?  Haha!  It happened again and under the same circumstances.  Darkness prevailed over the land, and the evil gremlin (shown on the right) decided to wreak havoc on my electrical system.  The naughty clue, which should have exposed the gremlin, (had I been aware) was the new headlamp's condition - burned out!  Why in the devil (or gremlin) would a brand new headlamp be burned out?  Voltage surge.  How would a gremlin create a voltage surge?  Voltage-Regulator!  So we consult the Chrysler Shop Manual and the Master Technician Service Conference booklet entitled "Special Reference to The Generator Regulator" (Special thanks to the Imperial Club, who's hallowed halls of knowledge have offered many an insight.)

    WHAT THE GENERATOR REGULATOR DOES

    The generator regulator has the job of controlling the flow (amperes) and pressure (volts) of the current put out by the generator, according to the needs of the electrical system of the car, and up to the rated capacity of the generator. It keeps the generator from putting out more current than is needed, which would overcharge the battery and shorten the life of distributor contact points, lights and other electrical units.

"Voltage regulator points which open at too high a voltage cause high voltage in the circuit. This may burn out the light bulbs and shorten the life of the ignition coil, distributor contact points and other electrical units. It burns up the guy who drives the car, too."

I'm especially feeling that last italicised and underlined statement.

Next step, test all the regulators according to the book to prove my hypothesis, i.e. gremlins and voltage regulators.

(51275 mi) Car Won't START! AUUGGGH!

After driving to the local Smart and Final, I went out to the car to drive home and nothing!  The car would do nothing.  The power worked, and the ammeter showed some huge draw on the battery.  When I turned the key, nothing happened.

There was absolutely no indication what was going wrong.  It was dark, and my passenger was Johnny-on-the-spot with a light produced from his phone.  We started disconnecting electrical parts.  Once we disconnected the generator, the power drain was gone.  Thankfully, I bought a replacement generator in expectation of this event.

But it wasn't generator after all!

(49122 mi) Gee whiz! The car body is part of the Circuit!

   Way back in November 2012, I decided to tackle the immense job of re-wiring the Chrysler.  All the original cloth-covered wiring was disintegrating with the renewed usage, and the Los Angeles ozone probably didn't help either.  In any case, the wacky gas gauge convinced me that a re-wire was absolutely necessary to improve battery and sensory behavior.  I learned many new things about electrical systems on a car - the biggest revelation being the frame/boy is part of the circuit.  If any wire was exposed to the body without insulation, that wire was short-circuiting the system, and all hell could break loose.  

  The biggest problem was ensuring that only desired grounding occurred.  Surprisingly, grounding some parts of the car was harder than it should have been.   The positive cable off the battery leads to the engine block, which means that the car is a positive-ground system.  The 6-volt system also makes it a bit more twitchy than 12 volt cars, or so I've been told.   

   The illustration below shows the original schematic adjusted through Photoshop, and I included changes to the colour of the wire and its gauge.  Frequently, the gauge of the wire as appearing in the original manual was different than the wire gauge in the car.  I updated the information for my own purposes.  

A Close Look at 1951's

For those of you who doubt the quality and supreme vision of 1951, please examine this video and wish you were there.

(41900-51180 mi) Darn you! Automatic Choke!

The Automatic Choke... It has been my irritation and horror for many miles.  Right at the beginning of the trip to L.A., Jesse and I stopped for breakfast at Dixon, IL.  We tried to leave, but the car just wouldn't start.  At that point, I was so exhausted and coming down with a cold that I broke down and cried out, "I give up!"
  Shortly after, an older man showed up noticing the engine hood open and offered his assistance, which was gladly accepted.  In short order, he pointed out the problems and taught me a few common sense tips about engine diagnostics.  Then a quick turn of the key and VROOM! The engine came back to life.
  We tried to offer him breakfast, even some coffee for his assistance.  He would have none of it and disappeared as mysteriously as he showed up.  Later, Jesse and I decided that he was a guardian angel of the road (perhaps St. Christopher or so I think).
    Recently, the choke valve sneaks into a cold weather choke position and prevents ignition when the engine is cold but the weather is warm.  I have to loosen the choke housing and turn it back until the choke valve is vertical. Then the car starts immediately.

(41912 mi) Re-PAINT!

Before leaving Illinois, my car needed a re-paint.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the $4000+ to have it properly stripped and re-painted, so Jesse and I bought a bunch of Rust-o-leum Gloss Hunter Green.
A few days before on a warm November and December day, I applied fresh paint with brush.  Succeeding days, I sanded and re-sanded the car surface.
For the final coat, we bought spray cans and tried to create a nice smooth surface for the final shine.  Overall, it wasn't a bad solution since the original paint had failed to cover the metal and protect it from oxygen.  Since that time, there have been no appearances of rust or any other failure.  Thankfully, Los Angeles cars live a long life on poor paint jobs, and my car doesn't stick out as much as I feared.   Still, the car needs a total strip and new paint job.  There's no city in the U.S. that could have a better opportunity for a new, quality, and cheap paint job.  Let's just say that immigrant labour is not too pricey.  :)
   I did a bit of a search to find the right colour for the car.  For instance, I have the color codes for lacquer and enamel specifically for the 1951 Chrysler (as shown below).  I even found out the Dulco (202-55818) and Dulux (181-10482) for the Continental Green Metallic, but not even that information was useful to find the right color in modern paint.

In the end, I just went to a automotive paint shop and examined the available colours and ended up with the code below.

(46115 mi) Blow-out on Interstate-5!

SKU:		62800
Tread Width:		5.63
Section Width:		8.05
Overall Diameter:		27.68
Construction:		4 PLY POLY
Max Load Capacity:		1620@32PSI
Recommended Rim Width:		5.00 - 7.00
Tube Type or Tubeless:		Tubeless

On my way south on the I-5, my car developed a weird bouncy wump-wump.  I slowed down and pulled to the shoulder to determine the source of the strange behavior.  Then suddenly at 20 mph, WUMP!  Blowout...

   I'm certainly glad that I noticed the odd behavior and slowed.  A blowout at 55 mph may have been a messy matter.  As it happened, it was a matter of 20 minutes of using the broken jack and jack stands to remove the blowout, replacing with the original 1951 Goodyear spare tire.  Obviously I did not choose to go very fast or very far on my antique spare tire.  Fortunately, Los Angeles County is a wonderland of Detroit diaspora.  In a short distance and with Jesse's help, we were able to find a Performance Plus Tire & Automotive Superstore.
   Not only was Luis Sierra and Performance Plus able to help us with replacing all the tires, but they had them in stock!  In a few short hours and a greasy-spoon luncheon, we were back on the road with brand new and economically priced tires.  The car never drove better!  We replaced the B.F. Goodrich tires, which took us across the country and were purchased in 2001.  Since the car originally came with the black wall tires like the original spare, I had the tire guys turn the black-side outward.  The car looks hella-cool!

(51180 mi) Distributor or Vacuum Advance Unit???

Since I had been playing with my carburetor, pulling it off and the on again, I had the opportunity to loosen a lot of tubes running to and from the carburetor.  As I started playing with the distributor, I noticed that the tube from the vacuum control unit to the carburetor was really very loose.  Could the strange acceleration behavior have been caused by poor vacuum advancing on the distributor?  Let's find out what the "Vacuum Control Unit" does! Shall we?

"Under normal road load or part throttle operation, the spark is advanced by the governor in proportion to speed. In addition, sufficient vacuum is created at the vacuum control unit to move the diaphragm and compress the spring in the unit. The arm of the vacuum unit is connected to the breaker point plate which rotates, causing additional spark advance for efficient fuel economy. " (p.225, 1951-52 CHRYSLER SHOP MANUAL)  So, it is entirely possible that part throttle or normal road loads required the vacuum control unit to engage and advance the timing appropriately.  If, however, I were always to put the pedal to the metal after each stop, the car would not have gasped and gurgled on acceleration, since the vacuum advance was not working properly.

In any case, it was a nice thing to clean everything out after the long trip from Illinois and learn a few new things about how my car works.