11 Sep 19

I was going thru the new to me 1951 Plymouth Cambridge today getting it ready for inspection.

Not gonna happen this week.  Maybe before I go back to work on the 23rd.

I had mentioned I was going to put AC in it as some point which would require a conversion to 12V.

Said conversion is happening now instead.

Someone already put in a universal wiring harness.  Let me categorize it as some one hacked in an aftermarket wiring harness.

What original wiring remains is all cracked and brittle and is being used in some cases.  Wee.

Running lights only come on with the headlights.

Ignition switch has no start mode, they removed the cigar lighter and hacked in a start button in it's place.

Wiper motor is kaput and in a box, wiring is all uninsulated so I'll probaby send it out for rebuild.  The blades are some funky hook type connection to the arm I have never seen.

The new wiring run to the rear is zip tied to the brake line on the outside of the frame rail.

I am sure there is more, I just either don't recall it right now or haven't found it.

So, I bought a new harness, with enough to handle anything I might want to do, ac included, third brake light and even a dome light if I want to get fancy which I probably will since I bought door jamb switches for a 72 Valiant to put in.

I bought a new alternator and VR, 87 Diplomat, as I like Mopar stuff on my mopars.  Though I did decide to run a Ford 12v starter solenoid to replace the original Mopar 6v one.  Bought a roll of green and blue wire and the proper connectors.

All new bulbs, 1157 in the back, 1157NA in the front and I sprung for shiny new LED headlights, GE nighthawks.

I will test the headlight and ignition switch and either use them, fix them or replace them as needed.

13 Sep 19

Patient, 1951 Plymouth Cambridge just about 100% stockish.  I think it's been reupholstered at some point.

Started to fix the stuff needed to get her inspected and registered, but ran into an electrical hack fest so 12v conversion happens now.

Ordered a bunch of parts to convert to 12V and completely rewire the vehicle.  Parts are rolling in for the next week or so.

Got the title transfer done, insurance on the vehicle.  Will register it later once I fix the electrical system and get it inspected.

Well, the alternator (87 M body 78A) showed up, so the swap began.

Pulled the battery and decided that new cables were in order because I need to change the color with the polarity change and the one from the starter solenoid to the starter may be original, it's pretty crusty and large chunks of verdigris colored wire is showing.  The other two had been replaced at some point, with 12V cables which were too small a guage for a 6V setup, the ground cable had our favorite replacement bolt on clamp.  Wee.  Putting on new cables that don't look like a beaver was gnawing on it.

The alternator was almost a direct fit on the generator brackets. the upper one needs spaced away from the water pump 3/4".  Which means a 3/4" longer bolt.  Of course the stock bolt won't come out because the water pump pulley is in the way.  Can't get the fan and pulley off because it's too close to the radiator so I have to pull the radiator.  The drain plug for the radiator is in the front and does not point in a convenient place to neatly drain the coolant, drain pan is large but evidently not large enough so we have coolant on the cardboard under the Plymouth, getting a petcock with a nipple for a hose to fix this issue in the future. Probably should do the block drains too, but that's a mess for another day.  There are 4 bolts holding the radiator in, the bottom two have to come completely out because the flange isn't notched and there isn't a direct angle on those bottom two bolts so I imagine getting those two bottom bolts in by myself will tax even my sailor vocabulary, guess what flange will be getting notched?  lol.  Pulled the hoses off, the heater hoses were particularly brittle feeling and who knows how old the radiator hoses may be.

Made a list of stuff I needed, went to Napa and challenged the guy to fill it.  He did.  They had everything I needed on the shelf. The battery cables, the right belt, the proper molded radiator hoses, the 12V version of the dash light bulbs plus a bunch of ordinary type stuff.  $150+ later I am out the door.

Did find out that a later A body heater blower motor can be made to fit the 51, shaft needs trimmed and it'll work.  Found a good used wiper motor for now, probably will send mine out to get converted, if possible, or restored in any case.

14 Sep 19

I am sure we've all heard about Kroil, how wonderful it is.

Well, I got the chance to try it on a stuck bolt.  When going thru the lights on the Plymouth I went to check the license plate bulb.  The lense is normally held on with two 8-32 screws, in this case one of them was snapped off and whomever messed with it last chewed up the bit stilll sticking out trying to remove it.  I tried to remove it myself with no luck, rather than destroy what little was left sticking out I stepped back to reevaluate.

Some time back I bought a can of Kroil for my things that go boom and a couple of precision oilers.

I got out the Kroil and put some on the stuck bolt.  Ended up pulling the entire housing off to remove the ancient wiring and moved on to the tail lights while I let the Kroil soak.  Ended up getting side tracked with a few other items on the check list and a couple hours later I remembered the broken screw.  I was able to clamp a pair of vice grips on the nub and it worked back and forth with no problem.  I then switched over to regular pliers and out it came. From then on I put a touch of Kroil on all the bolts I was removing from this 68 year old vehicle and I have not had a problem removing any of them, would I have had an issue?  I don't know but I don't want to waste time removing broken bolts if some Kroil and patience will prevent it.

15 Sep 19

Thermometer said it was 91 but you couldn't prove it by the size of the snowball that hit me.

Now I begin to understand why some are hacks.  It's easier that way.

Today I was sorting out various electric things in my 12v conversion job.

Pulled the aftermarket turn signal switch assembly.  What I wanted to do here was sort out what wire did what and if the switch functioned.  For those that never had the experience of driving an old, old to me not you, MoPar, they came with few frills compared to today.

Compared to my 65 Cuda for that matter.  For example, turn signals were an option.  Anyone else remember the hand signals taught to learning drivers?  So a thriving aftermarket was developed to handle add on stuff like that.

I have no idea when this switch was made, I googled the manufacturer and pn, it came up as still good so I down loaded the wiring diagram.  Other than a laugh, it turned out to be useless. None of the color codes matched.  So I had to take the switch apart, crossing my fingers that some spring loaded whatchamacallit didn't go flying out making me buy a new setup.  To my surprise, nothing flew apart, unlike the ignition lock cylinder when I pulled it out.  I ended up cleaning the old grease out of it, put fresh dialectric grease in it and started ohming things out.  Got the pinout sorted after some pondering how it functioned.  Taped up the wiring, put some loom on it (mesh type not convolute tubing) and once my Molex kit arrives I'll put a connector on it.

Being that I got the turn signals sorted (I think) I moved on to pulling the dash.  In the trunk there is a box with some spare parts in it.  One being a mechanical water temp guage (stock) with the tubing tore off.  Seems someone is a bigger hamfisted goon than yours truly.  Googled around and found someone selling a guage cluster that had taked good pictures, even of the back.  Hmm, each gauge is attached to the back of the bezel by two screws and with the radio delete plate removed it's easy to take them out.  So I unscrewed the bolts holding the water temperature guage, pulled it out of hte cluster and got the cluster pulled.

At this point there are still some pieces of the original wiring still in use and I once again I am glad I decided to completely rewire it.  I don't understand the thinking of whomever "rewired" it before me, must of been Tim Taylor.  They spent decent money on a Painless kit and apparently found it to not be painless enough. When I am done there will be no original wiring being used.

The guage uses a glass cover, real glass, with some sort of rubber mastic or butyl strip that is all dried and falling apart, it you look the the pics on my website of the gauges you will see it. After inspecting the construction of the guage cluster I took it all apart.  Washed everything and went to buy paint to repaint. You can't really see it in the pics but someone painted the entire dash with a brush.  I will probably end up pulling the entire thing out now to repaint.  Going to have to clean up and repaint the horn button and do something about the steering wheel as it is showing it's age.  I also need to replace the wire for the horn button, something tells me it's original.  In these old Mopars the wire runs down the steering column shaft and out the steering gear box.  The steering column and box were one unit back in those days.

Got the metal parts, other than the bezel of the guage cluster painted.  Gloss white for the internal parts where the dash lights are housed, to reflect the light properly.  Smoke gray for the other bits.  I need to repaint the bezel as well.  Probably going to have to sand it smooth first.

16 Sep 19

So, today I carried on with the rewire.  Put in a solid 12 hours on the Cambridge.  Funny thing, when my son first saw it he said "It looks like Doc Hudson", which is exactly what I thought when I first saw it.

I pulled all the old wiring out, not sure why Mopar decided the headlight dimmer switch need to be mounted under the floor with the wiring connections exposed to what ever crud there is on the road.  Found the only rust on the car, a nice hole right next to the switch.

Pulled all the lenses and housings off the car, cleaned them up, painted the insides of the rear housing white as they were covered in black over spray, apparently it's been repainted at least once.  Originally it looks like the housing were just galvanized white metal of some sort.

All the rubber grommets are completely dry rotted and fell apart in chunks as I pulled the old wiring out.  So I have a list of grommets to buy.

Reassembled the gauge cluster as far as I could.  The actual bezel itself is awaiting new switches, not stock replacements as those are available but not cheap.  So I am putting it switches from another source, once I test fit and mod, as needed, I'll paint the bezel.

Pulled the horn button off.  If you look at the as bought pictures on my site, http://pages.suddenlink.net/sniper1/Cambridge/cindex.html you see the horn button looking all rusty.  It's not rust, it's actually Bakelite.  So I cleaned it up, got the remains of the original paint off and repainted it.  That steering wheel is worse than I thought.  Might have to pop for an aftermarket wood rim one.

Tightened up the parking brake as it was only applying at full travel, found the brake light switch.  It's back by the driver's side forward leaf spring mount, ???

Started installing the new wiring harness.  I have it in the car, with most of the wires laid out where they need to go and started taping some of the wiring up, using wire harness tape.  Got the turn signal switch installed and connected up all nice a neat with the wiring harness taped.  No sta-cons allowed.  I did have to splice the flashed input and indicator wire together.  Used an uninsulated butt connector, crimped and soldered with heat shrink.

Got to the point where I need my Molex connector kit to finish up the interior wiring.  Need to extend the brake switch wiring because the kit assumes it's on the pedal assembly not 10 feet aft.

Pulled the blower motor out to compare to the dimensions I have for the A body blower motor.  We'll see if it'll fit and function, which reminds me I have to extend that wire too because the blower motor is located right behind the grill and not on the fire wall or inside the pass compartment.