Inliners International Forums General Discussion MOPAR flathead in the rain

my old pastor told me that when he had a flathead mopar way back when, he liked it EXCEPT for the fact that it would not run reliably in rainy weather. said it was a common problem.

any clues?

That was a game we "teens" use to play in the 50's ... catch a Mopar going under the local underpass after a rain and give him a flood of water as we passed him in our flathead Ford, I hope the man upstairs forgives me !!!! SCRAP

awright, i think i should limit this to, "in the driveway, before i left."

at least, that's what i THINK he meant!

Mopars and damp or wet weather often didn't mix very well. I recall the problem continued right up through the early 60s. I really don't know the exact cause but several neighbors with 40s and 50s versions had a heck of a time going off to work in the morning after a rainy night. 6s or 8s it didn't seem to matter.
I had 3 Slant sixes over the years and they weren't any trouble. 2 had points ignition and the last one had electronic. They did however suffer from the occasional blown ballast resistor.

I recall seeing a Dodge military vehicle promo film
in which a 230 L-head with snorkel is driven into the surf and is practically submerged, the M37 makes a round trip with passengers standing and returns to the beach.

Most of that miliary stuff back then was 24 volt and the wiring was shielded and the only gas was avation gas. I had a 1944 jeep that I had to change over to 6 volts,then later to 12 volts when I put in a 283 v/8..My Dad told me at that time after the drove the jeep around the deer lease for a while.."The war would have been over 2 years sooner if they would have put that little v/8 in the jeep" ...SCRAP

I love the way the American Independents are left out of this.. we are our own breed. (That does not mean our family tree doesn't branch!)

EVILDR, is that why Chrysler offered a radio delete option in the 60's?, so the car couldn't hear the weather forcast, and hideaway headlights so it couldn't see what was going on until after you got it running?

Also posted in jest.

EVILDR235
Your right about the cold I had to take The batttery starter Oil even the spark plugs all inside the shop or house when winter hit even left a 150 watt flood light under the hood and still some times it wouldn't start I never own another one after 1 winter. been a chevy man ever since. and two 9volts is all i ever needed for my chevys RoFL

Better to go to 12V.

The 6V system just won't charge an 8V batt.
It will for a while (few days/week) then one or the other (gen-reg) burns up.

The system will eat all the lamps too.

The block heat & dual battery will work okay.

A 12V batt will 'jump' the 6V system via a solenoid and battery in the trunk as a temp fix till you can do the conversion.

Also; 12V positive ground is a little tricky, but not that hard or expensive.

Good luck.

Dear Chuck;

Your right; It's dangerous and you must be carefull.

The one we tried the 6/8 usage on was a a 54 Ford with a (12V) 57 Lincoln engine, in 1960. When we got it to charge the Batt. lamps would blow (not right away). When we set it lower the battery wouldn't crank the engine.

As I recall a 6V system's range is 6.8-7.7 volts which will not maintain a Marine/Tractor battery etc.

Your friend may have used a tractor generator or didn't drive it much.

WOW how time flies. There haven't been 6V autos for 50 years. :p I just bought two 6V batteries too. One for my 52 Chev coupe & one for my 37 Chev P/U which both start right up.

Right again.

Greetings . . .

My little brother had a late 70's Ram Charger 4x4. It was big loud and fast! A real hoot to drive, with a high seating position and huge tires - the original factory monster truck. But the thing hated even a hint of dampness - hell a car wash was an iffy proposition. The ignition also went through ballast resistors like they were going out of style - he'd carry several backups in the glove box.

The two happiest days of his life were the day he bought it and the day he sold it. Both were bright, hot, sunny days

regards,
stock49

I had a 51 Ford flathead 6 when I was in high school. On rainy days, water would pool up in the #1 cylinder spark plug indentation in the head, and the truck wouldnt start, or would run poorly. It seemed that the water was running down the upper radiator hose, and pooling in the plug hole. I was able to solve this by wrapping a rag around the bottom of the hose, where it joined the head outlet.
It evidently absorbed the moisture, as the truck ran fine rain or shine after that. I had heard others at the time complain about flathead sixes that ran carppy in the rain, maybe this was the problem?

Nick

now THAT makes sense! it stands to reason that if damp weather is a problem, it's more likely to be interfering with the spark than with the fuel (not to mention the fact that if it's in the fuel, the problem won't go away when it's dry). i'll bet it was something silly like that, poor shielding of the electrical system from moisture. the 59 flathead is a 12 volt system from the factory, so that will hopefully give some advantage. i've been told i should switch from generator to alternator, but i haven't made up my mind just yet. i'll probably have to, though, if i want to make the fuel injection swap.

In my younger days I was a VW / porsche guy (a new one was $6000 then)and lots of 6volt cars were converted to 12volts. Some people never changed the starter and only changed the bulbs as they burned out. Very bright while they lasted but we are talking double the volts; way more than 6 to 8. I personally lived in Kansas in the 70's and drove an air cooled car with no choke so I know about hard to start. One winter I was trying to get it running and thought I'd change the spark plugs. No garage so I bundeled myself up like an Astronaut and was fishing around and dropped the wrench. I had to take my glove off to get it and then the dam thing froze to my hand. Great fun. Plus the car wouldn't run at low RPMs, even when warm (which it never got). About 2500RPM it would catch and in the summertime it would burn rubber; not the best on a shiny white road covered with ice. I was thinking about mounting headlights on the doors because it was preminately sideways.

A lot of the problems that occured on the Flat Head MoPars had to do with that steel loom that collects the spark plug wires and bundles them all together. Add some rather poor (compared to todays) wire insulation, and there were problems with starting and skipping when running in the rain. Seperate the plug wires and shield the distributor cap and you should be O.K.

I agree, Jim. I grew up in Lake Wales, Florida and folks used to say, "If it rains in Tampa, a MOPAR won't start, here!"

I worked in a garage and my boss loved MOPARS. He didn't want to hear that crap about 'em not starting. He'd remove the original, cotton-covered insulated wires, switch to Packard 440 wires with rubber boots and his MOPARS always seemed to start great.

Contrary to the experiences above, we installed a lot of 8 volt batteries, in 6 v cars, trucks, grove tractors, set the regulators for about 8.9-9.1 volts and I don't remember rashes of electrical failures, (except for light bulbs)

Dear Dennis;

Packard 440 wires were the thing all right.

I'll bet I've gone through 50 or more 100' rolls of that over the years. Remember the Raja clips?? Or was it Rajah?? Can't remember.

I asked someone about it a while back & they thought I was 'NUTS'.

The 'Parts Store' guys are on commission these days & try to sell anyting they can etc.

yep, i remember the raja/rajah ends. you can still find 'em at carlisle and hershey, sometimes. if you need some, let me know and i'll try to pick you up a set.

i'm sure there's better spark plug wire today, but the packard 440 was the cat's meow, in the "old days". sure beat that old cotton/laquer coated factory stuff.