Pop past away a few years back and his visions of his father told him the car should go to me. Interesting conversations says my Mom in Law.

Anyway, it is a wonderfully beautiful 1941 Dodge D19 Luxury Liner convertible that he first had in high school, and later restored after it was rusted to bits after having been abandoned by the end of a series of owners after he let it go to serve in the Korean war. Yeah, he served in the war, not the car......

Dad was the car guy, I was always more comfortable with motorcycles. I am not used to crawling in and under things to work on them, but I am coming along and enjoying experiencing the many hidden details of work evidence that my Father left for me to find. How he knew the Jaguar motor and Cadillac interior would fit and work so well is still a mystery to me.

Today's adventure is to figure out how to wire up the convertible top motors that I just got un-rusted and working smoothly again. See you in the tech forum.

Enjoy,
Jon

 

Pics, we want PICS!

Welcome to DF!

 

Welcome! Sounds like a fun project.

 

Here's a picture of the Dodge.

Enjoy!
Jon

 

Oh, now that is Pretty. Is it in as good of condition as it looks to be?

 

That all depends on how close you look. And the Jaguar motor running through 6 into 2 exhaust and glass pack exhaust sounds amazingly unique and appropriate. Yes, it is in great shape other than the 20 years of deferred maintenance as Pop wore down, so too did the Dodge. Let's just say that it has enough ongoing issues that it demands as much attention from me as it gets going down the road. They key of course is that it does indeed get down the road. My father was a creative artist and a talented car restorer. He was also in a great hurry to finish this car to make his 50th (?) high school class reunion. Signs of all those things show up deep within every facet of the car. There is much more to say of course. If you want a fun read about the history, check out the book The Dodge, Guts Glory, and Living life at Full Throttle. My step mom and Pop wrote that towards the end of the road.

 

Moved to classics section.

 

Jon--please keep us posted on the 41 DODGE

 

I took apart the rear seat so I could get to the convertible top motors. Each side has an electric motor that works through a gearbox reduction to turn a huge screw that extends the top lifting ram. These motors have three wires going into them, but no matter how I hook anything up to them, they only turn one way. I expect they would be able to get the top up, but how in the world can I get them to go backward to get the top back down..... For $850 I could go full hydraulic, but I do wish I could get the screws to go both ways instead. About 12" of extension these bad boys make. I looked into buying a used hydraulic setup from a Chrysler Sebring, but they only extend 8".

If anybody knows anything about wiring these old motors, I'd love to hear it. I wonder though, if maybe there isn't some sort of automatic reversing thing supposed to be going on in there. There is a superfluous looking long metal spring that looks about like a long coat hanger that might be some sort of triggering mechanism on both of these screw rams. At full extension the bottom pulls up on the body of the gear case. It doesn't look like it moves anything and looks more like it just stops the ram from overextending and falling off the end.

ANyway, I don't know what the heck I am doing here and would love to hear thoughts from others whether you know for sure or are just thinking with the keyboard.


Jon

 

Is this vehicle still 6 volt or was it converted to 12? Can you post a pic of the motor? Any names-info on them would be helpful.