'59 Plymouth Forum

WEll, I made my road trip, longest one for me since 2004. Drove to Portland, OR to get in on some of the activities of the POC's National Meet. Tom Fox was there, with both his Belvedere and Golden Fury. I am very bad with names but there was an older fellow there with a black Fury 2HT which he had personally driven in from Chicago! Don Mack and his wife trailered in their inpeccable Belvedere from Canada, Will Eichelberg was there with his SF cvt, for a total of six '59s!
I was asked to take lots of pictures, which I did, but I am not sure how to upload them here. I may ty to put them in a KodakShare thing and post the address.
My car performed well enough (no disasters). I failed to check the tranny fluid level before starting this trip, and maybe 100 miles down the road, at a certain speed, a wierd, scary noise would begin. If I slowed down, it would go away. It sounded like a water pump, but once they fail, they fail, right? Mine seems okay.
I checked the tranny fluid level before heading back home, and it didnt register on the dipstick. Remembering experiencing the destruction of Dan Morton's tranny on the way home from Carlisle '07, I added a quart, then another, then most of a third before the level was correct. But the strange noise returned on my drive back home, so I am thinking it is time to drop the tranny pan and clean out the screen. All other problems were minor. It runs very rich (used lots of fuel!), I have to stand on the brake pedal just to slow down, and my electric seat will go up, but not back down! Etc etc.
I will attempt to post pictures soon. Tom Fox took some good group photos, which I am sure he will share in due time.
Next weekend is the Ellensburg (Eastern WA) WPC show, hopefully the bright object in the sky will make an appearance...we've had enough of the clouds and rain. And I promise to wear my black 50th anniv T-shirt this time!

Send any pix my way, Roger -- I'll see that they are posted; like these two that you emailed me...

Dan

More pix from Roger...

More photos from Roger... Ouch! It hurts to see that '59 4-door sedan with the crunched side door. Who had that photo, Roger?

Thanks Roger for the photos, you took more than I did. Some of mine would be duplicates so will add these.

Wil Eichelberg, Roger Howard, Tom Fox, Lanny Knutson, Don Mack and Marge Hudak.
We made Roger stand in the back because he forgot his shirt.
Lanny Knutson is the editor of the Plymouth Bulletin.

Thanks for the postings, Tom.
The b/w photo of the Plymouth dealership was spotted in Mark Hash's 1957 Fury, but it was locked in there and Mark was not around.
A full view would have shown that it was a enlargement of a newspaper article of some dealership in Oregon which had suffered a huge explosion back in 1958 or 1959.
Every one of the Plymouths in that photo had some damage, from busted windshields to bashed sheetmetal.
I neglected to ask Mark where he got the photo.

Looks like a good turnout!

Glad you had a safe trip, Roger.

---John

Hello John,
Do you have any ideas on what the noise I experienced might indicate?
And why do I have to stand on my brake pedal to get action? I have adjusted the shoes to "just before dragging".

Hi Roger,

It's doubtful that low transmission fluid would cause noise, although I have heard them make a buzzing noise if quite low. Generally the first symptom will be a slipping engagement. The hard brake pedal may have something to do with the dragging noise you experienced, I would find the brake problem first, and it may solve the other. If recall correctly, you have power brakes on your car, it's possible the unit is not receiving full vacuum due to a collapsed hose, or a leak internally.

Let me know if you find anything, John

when I return from my trip, I will pull the drums and inspect shoe action...maybe things have gotten sticky from lack of use. I need to also check the booster for operation.
Good to know it may not be the tranny making the scraping noise. But what IS the source??

Hi Roger - Looks like you had a great trip. If you don't mind here are some suggestions for your noise and brake problems, If you have a vacumme gauge you should be pulling 16 to 20 lbs. at the carb or manifold, if not you have a leak somewhere. The noise could be coming from the parking brake or regular brakes. If you have the total contact brakes they need to have a little dab of grease on the 3 lands on the backing plate where the shoes ride on the lands, also the brake cylinders get full of crud and will not return to the full neutral position and get stuck. While checing the parking brake its a good time to check the front ball and pinion universl joint, it may have run dry and be worn. If not it's a good idea to add some bearing grease to it.
Dick.

Roger sent me these pics to upload them on the forum. The guy with the black Sport Fury drove it down from Chicago! Hope Roger can tell us more about the 3rd car in this row as I don't know who's car it is, maybe the guy who was tring to sell it on Ebay last year? The other two are both owned by Tom Fox.

Ron

The white Belvedere belongs to Don Mack, Medicine Hat Alberta. He is in the showcase. There were six 59 Plymouths at this National Plymouth meet. Wil Eichelber's and Roger's red SF converts were the other two.

Tom