Introducing myself and the PB

[pb rookie]

I removed the head over the holidays and it didn't take much to get the couple valves to co operate,

BTW.. it took less tapping to get the valve that had been soaking with 50-50 Acetone and trans fluid
then it did for the valve that had been soaking in a 50-50 mixture of kerosene and trans fluid.

I'm sure glad that went the route of head removal as a mouse had taken up residence
some years ago and had left number one cylinder two thirds full of several years supply of food.

I did discover something else when I removed the head and I'll be starting a new post in the tech
section regarding that.

Cheers,

[pb rookie]

Well, it's been a few weeks of soaking and my two exhaust valves are still hung up, so I think
it's time to dive in and take the head off to see if a light tap will be enough to close them up.

Is there any special sequence in the removal of the head, it does look straight forward.

Merry Christmas to all,

[Soup]

Acetone and ATF mixed 50/50 works great.  I freed up the stuck valves in an engine that had not run in 57 years in less than two days of repeated applications.

[pb rookie]

We use WD 40 hoping it will penetrate after acouple of days annd applications.
If the sludge is too heavy and sticking at the stems, resist to apply
bare force: the smallest misalignment will leave the valves useless.
Than You will have to disassemble until getting straight access to the valves.

And yes, it is a pity that this once very effective and active beautiful forum could not get all the
valuable traffic back from the old patronage until today, even though technically restored now.
Good Luck!
Greetings from Düsseldorf!
Go

Thanks for the advise Go, I found your post elsewhere, I assume it was intended for here?

I did spray the WD40 to it for numerous days before I started soaking it in the mixture of trans fluid & Kerosene.
Someone suggested to me to try a mixture of acetone and trans fluid, anyone had any luck with that?
I think I'll try one cylinder with acetone & trans and leave the other as is to see if one is better than the other?

Cheers,

Dave

[pb rookie]

Thanks for those recommendations, I located a hand crank in a farm machinery grave yard a couple weeks back. Once I got it home I discovered that the shaft was 15/16" in diameter, the pilot hole in the front pulley is 13/16" so a few minutes on the grinder and I was able to get it in deep enough for the pins to catch the slots on the pulley and was able to roll the engine over.

Not all good news though, two exhaust valves don't want to close.

I've been soaking them in mixture of Auto trans fluid and Kerosene for several weeks but not much headway...perhaps I'm being a bit impatient....  Any suggestions?

[36splodge]

Hey Dave, there is a couple ways to turn the engine over if you can't do it by pulling on the fan blades in neutral. One is to put it into gear with the rear wheels off the floor and have a helper turn a wheel forward. I have a 36 coupe and work on it alone most of the time so I made a crank for it. It is a 3 ft length of 1/2 inch steel water pipe that I drilled a hole in the end and put a bolt thru. The pipe fits the center hole and the bolt ends catch the teeth and I turn it with a pipe wrench. An easy home remedy! I'll see if I can find it or a picture of it.

I pop in here once in a while to see if things are picking up. I was hoping the remodeling they are doing to this site would improve the traffic flow but it seems not so much.

[pb rookie]

Thanks, As I mentioned the exhaust manifold had been broken. Is this typical for early fours?
[attachment id=0 msg=19085]

Now that I have the old manifold off I can see some rust in a couple of the exhaust ports and before I go ahead and install the replacement manifold I would like to roll the engine over with a hand crank and with the side cover off, so I can ensure that all the valves are doing what they should be. I checked with the locals and no one had a "hand crank". Would anyone know the diameter of the hand crank?

Cheers,

[Wm Steed]

Welcome to the club Dave.. Your PB looks to be quite complete, should be an easy restoration. I had a '31 PA for several years, the car is shown in my avatar. The '31 was quite complete mechanically, the body had been removed from the cowl back. After much searching I found a nice 2 dr sdn body for the car. I sold the '31 to a man that had more time than me.
As I recall the PA and PB's can be very similar. Reviewing your pix I noted that the car has a rumble seat, I think that would mean that the car is model RS, (2+2 per) in lieu of being BR (2 per). Also noted that the car does not have a fender mounted spare (s) ,unusual for pre '37 open car.
I still have some PA parts that the man that bought my PA did not want.  Wm.

[Gary Vickery]

Welcome back Dave!  Even if there isn't a lot of current traffic on the forum anymore, the search function reveals a wealth of knowledge.  I dig around in it before I do anything on my PJ.  Your car has a great story - keep  us posted on how it's going.
Gary

[pb rookie]

Thanks Go, I see my picture did attach. I'd heard that term before but it was in the boating world, there are a few classic boats over here and they have a "mother in law seat" up front, it's a solo seat and this was to ensure that the mother in law wasn't able to watch what was going on behind her as they cruised the lake. On this side of the pond I believe the common term for this type of seat on my car is a rumble seat.



We're not FB'rs fans either, neither of us are registered, as you say too much chaos.

Cheers,

Dave

[Go Fleiter]

Welcome, Dave!

  what a beauty of a project;
Seems to have the steps to reach the extra seets in the back!
We call these "mother-in-Law-Seats" in Germany.

I blame that patronage in this beautiful forum has become rare
because of having been extremely slow a couple of years ago.

The remaining members seem to look in here only every couple of weeks.

If You need advice, You may look on Facebook too - I don´t like to look there.
To much chaos for me.
Good luck!
Greetings from Düsseldorf!
Go

[pb rookie]

Hello all fellow car enthusiast and Plymouth owners, Greetings from Canada.

My name is Dave Fowler, I've been a member of the POC a couple times over the past ten years but work and or life always seemed to get in the way and I'd let my membership lapse. I recently retired from the 5AM to 9PM job as a truck driver allowing a bit more time to tinker on the PB, so this summer my wife (Shelley) and I went over to the National meet in Michigan and rejoined. We met a few local members which welcomed us like we were old family. I consider myself a rookie because I've never owned, let alone brought a 85 year old car back to life. Enough about me, let me tell you a bit about my project and how I inherited it.

In 1958 when I was four years old my father towed this car home with a rope, he put it in the shed with the intentions of getting back to it soon. Well, after that he built a cottage, several boats and a Tailwind airplane all along feeding a family of four and running his auto repair shop which he shut down in 1967 and then went into teaching. He was taken by a stroke much to early in 1999.

The family story on how the PB came to us goes like this, the car was located in a barn (of all places) and it appears that when the exhaust manifold broke, it had been parked. I've tried to attach a picture but I can't seem to get that to happen in the preview, so I guess this can be my first inquire, How does one upload a picture to attach to a post?

[attachment id=0 msg=19077] 

I look forward to chatting with members on various topics.

Cheers,

Dave Fowler