Great looking car and crew! I wish I still had my Tudor. What is that wired in from the hot side of the solenoid and the alternator feed? Circuit breaker? Maybe I missed it in an earlier post. Need it for my coupe. Thanks, and keep up any updates.
This is the main fuse for the system. Battery is connected to one side and the other is the alternator and power feed for the main car harness. It came in the Painless kit and protects the system from a dead short.
A bit of an update on the 40. So far it’s been a good around town cruiser. Out of curiosity I put an oil pressure gauge into the car to see what the oil pressure was on this old flathead. Turns out I have next to no oil pressure. When hot it would be 1-2PSI at idle and 10-15PSI at cruise speed. Swapped out the 10-40 for some 20-50 and Lucas engine hunny with our any change. When cold it goes to 60PSI but once it’s warm I’m back down to the 2-15PSI range. Engine seems to run okay without any knocking or banging and dose not seem to burn any oil. At this point I think I know it’s an old worn out Flathead and we are just going to see if I can get the summer out of it. This morning we just did a 30 mile trip to take the family out for breakfast and again no pressure but it ran fine. Wipers even work on the car Seems like a good time to start checking over the 283 though to have it ready to swap in. Looks to have been rebuilt at done time with .030” pistons and standard mains and crank. Came out of a running car but unfortunately was left outside in the rain for a day or two and got water inside. Hopefully I’ll just clean it up and go back together.
I have had the 40 on the road now for just over six weeks and 400 miles. So far it’s been a very enjoyable ride doing thing the car was built for. Sunday drives to Dairy Queen, dropping kids off at school, picking up groceries, any possible excuse to drive it even checking out a few local shows including a 80 mile round trip on Saturday. a few observations about driving a 84 year old car 1)The old flathead has maybe 80HP and you use it all getting this thing moving. You are not getting anywhere fast. 55MPH is a happy cruising speed. This engine just keeps on ticking runs nice and cool doesn’t burn any oil. Realistically who really needs more the 10 PSI oil pressure cruising @55MPH. You start to understand the legends of Flatheads that seem to run forever 2 Three on the tree transmission. - Once you get the hang of it it’s very enjoyable to drive. Something about shifting it just feels right. Unfortunately mines not shifting so nicely. New synchros are on the work bench but why pull apart a running car in summer when you can just double clutch and Granny shift the thing to prevent grinding. 3 cowl vents - one automotive design feature that needs to make a come back. Nothing nicer than opening it up for a breeze blowing in all the right places. 4 Enjoy it - We spend thousands of hours and dollars to put these car together. Get the car out of the garage and just drive it. I suspect I have put more miles on the car in the last month then probably car has seen for a few decades.
Is that oil pressure gauge mechanical or electric? If it’s electric you could have a sender issue, or wrong voltage. Just trying to think about possible issues because it’s quiet with no pressure that’s weird. Great looking 40 sedan. I’ve had two now and look forward to the next one. Both of them had Chevys hooked to the original trans and rear end. It’s an easy, time tested swap.
it’s a mechanical gauge I have tested it with 2 Gauges with the same results. I’m putting together a 283 and the plan is to swap it in this winter to the original transmission. Until then I’ll just keep driving it with the flathead
I know this is a song I sing a lot, but with the new miles, lube that thing! It's going to enjoy the return to the road, but you need to climb under it, grease it all and do the visual. Things that were tight a year ago in the garage may now be working loose with regular driving. BTW, looks beautiful!
I was out the other and my worn out throttle linkage finally pulled apart. It was a quick roadside fix to get me home. I figured if I have to fix the linkage it seemed like a good idea to swap the intake. The PO put a brand new Slingshot intake in the car. I started off with the single intake for the initial shake down. Pulled off the original and swapped on the dual. In stalled the 94’s off my Roadster and made up a new throttle linkage. Car still runs nicely you can definitely feel a bit more power(and thirsty on fuel). Did a 100 mile round trip last weekend to a show out of town. Car held together and killed a few hundred bugs
Honest honey... the best way to fix this is to add another carb! You can kill more bugs per gallon, too... so it's a "Win-Win"!
Thanks my relationship with this car started off pretty rocky but it’s turning around now. Drove it in into the city today. It just chugs along in the slow lane and doesn’t seem to miss a beat.
So did you Actually notice any performance by adding the dual carburetors. Just wondering, as I basically have a stock Mercury Flathead in my car with the single 94 and was thinking about running dual.
I have no hard data to back it up but the car seems to pull a lot better on a few hills around my place. Before I would have to hold the thro wide open now I’m about %75. Again this a worn out old 221” flathead I’m sure a fresher engine might even respond better.
I personally like a “Y” adapter atop a stock intake running a progressive setup w/94s. For me it’s easier to maintain/service. My avatar ran this for 4 years plus before I had to do anything to it. It was only after I ran into a tumbleweed that I had problems ! Lol!
Had some pinstripes put on the car this week. By Gary at Gamboogie Kustom painting in Calgary. New stripes called for a family cruise through town for a treat.
Good looking car, I have owned several 1940 Fords including 2 extremely nice sedans, I should have had better sense to sell them both, my first sedan should still be in the garage. my girls grew up traveling around the country in that car. HRP
Car is still ticking away it’s been a reliable cruiser around town. Started to put the 283 back together. I don’t want to call it a rebuild as it probably should have gone to the machine shop. I’m not sure if it helps but I figured I would make the Flathead watch me build a SBC just to make sure it knows its replaceable if it gives me any trouble. Cleaned the crank with the sandpaper and shoestring trick. Dingle ball honed the worst of the cylinder walls New set up bearings, rings, gaskets, and a paint job to make it look fresh.
The oldest was my WD40 spray guy and the littlest one didn’t quite understand how far he needed to stand back when the spinning hone comes out of the bore. Needless to say we all ended up covered in little black spots due to the oil flying off the hone. It was my turn for bath time that night
A winter update for my sedan. The 283 swap is under way more details on that latter. I pulled apart the transmission and discovered it was pretty trashed. The only thing I could salvage was case, cross shafts, and the input shaft. The 1st/R gears were trashed no broken teeth but grinding themselves apart. This would explain why the car was so noisy in first. I was given another transmission and I had a few old cores so about 3 transmissions were used to build one good one. I sourced some new gears and parts from Vanpelts and put it back together. When I had the car apart last rear I noticed the rear wheel bearing race was starting to pit and flake away. I pulled out the differential and split the bells of so I could install wear sleeves. Unfortunately water mast have sat in the diff at some point and rusted the bearings and ring gear with deep pits. It ran nice and quiet but since it’s apart I will rebuild it. I’m thinking of swapping out the 3-78 with some 3-54 gears. Need to order parts and send out the bells next week. I plan on lowering the front end a bit more and wanted to get ahead of the diff oil transfer problem that occurs when you get the diff higher than the transmission. I have seen a few other guys come up with a seal. I started with a chunk of 6” aluminum round bar I had left over from building my air cleaners. I machined it down to slip just inside the torque tube. I created a bore for a SKF 14214 shaft seal that will ride on the coupler sealing the oil into the diff. I left a .075” flange that will get sandwich between the diff and tube. Hopefully this keeps the oil in the diff and not running down the torque tube
I like that seal carrier, I guess there's enough room for it & won't be loading any bearings up... Nice work, love the car
Thanks. The seal carrier acts just like the torque tube I made sure it clears the bearing cage. Only thing it should do is push the rear axle .075” further back.
Rob28, Great job on the car! In the pictures I noticed you had one heater hose running to the right side head. Where did you route the second hose to. I ask because I'm not really fond of routing it back to the lower radiator hose. Thanks Dan
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