Hello John.
A few years ago I changed the spring bushings on my 49. I found bushings for a Mazda utility are perfect, the part number was SPF0543K, can't remember the brand but I can find out if you want.

Gary

Thanks everyone. I think the bearing is out of place. the meantime I have removed the hard spring, and the wheel will still not go fully home on the shaft, the splines are still only half engaged. I have looked for burrs on the splines and the unsplined part of the hub, as I said it goes part way and stops.
Gary

Greetings all. I removed the steering wheel from the project car (23rd series) and the parts car, but for some reason either wheel won't go on. It seems to stop about 3/8" short, the pins under the wheel do not engage the indicator cancel mechanism. I have tried cranking the nut as hard as I dare, tried the persuader, it won't move. Is there a trick to installing a wheel? Advice appreciated. Gary.

Hi there. A few years ago I put a new pinion seal in my old thing. They are available. The trick is to mark the nut before you remove it, and count the turns. Also mark the yoke to the shaft (so it goes back on the same spline). When you do it up, make sure your nut ends up back at its original starting position to get the preload right. To undo the nut you will need a 3/4 drive socket, and to hold the yoke the biggest shifter or pipe wrench you can find.
Gary

I have seen that on a lot of American cars, front coil springs slightly different heights. It compensates for the road camber. When the car arrives in Australia and gets converted to RHD, swapping springs is usually one thing forgotten. Some owners find they get an alignment and the car still pulls left or scrubs tyres. My Packard was a RHD export car, shipped in crates and someone had to put the pieces together. Often the people doing this assume front springs must be the same. Your car might have had rubber spacers on top of the (front) springs, these can fail (or just disappear) over time.
If you find the rear of the car causes the lean, check the shackle bushing rubbers. There might be nothing wrong with the springs, but flogged-out bushings can affect ride height.
Gary

My 1949 had a lean to the left. Before you spend money on springs, try this:
Put a jack under the center of the front crossmember until the front wheels are off the ground. If it is level that eliminates the rear springs. If in doubt remove the rear springs and sit them on the ground. You will soon see if the curvature or height is different.
Lift the rear wheels with a jack under the diff center.
If it leans the problem is the front, as was my car.
I fixed mine by swapping the front springs left to right, it sits level now. Comparing the front springs out of the car, there was about half an inch height difference. Depending on which side of the road you drive on, the short spring goes on the drivers side. Hope this is useful.
If you plan on removing front springs, I can give you some tips.
Gary

Hello all. A word of warning: NEVER put new lifters on a used cam, or old lifters on a new cam. Cam lobe surfaces and the base of lifters are hardened (usually induction), and have to be run in together. That means moly grease on the surfaces, and follow the cam maker's run-in recommendations. With new parts, what looks smooth to us, on a micro scale is rough. New lifters alone will rapidly wear through the hard layer on the cam lobe and result in serious cam wear. One advantage of these low revving flatheads is they only need soft valvesprings, which means reduced cam wear. If removing a cam with the intention of reusing it, the lifters should be kept in order ans go back in their original bores.
Lifter bases are radiused so they rotate, this evens wear. If the cam and lifters are working, don't fix it. Re-radiusing the lifter base, that is removing the run-in surface on the lifter. I wouldn't recommend it.
Gary

Thank you Howard and Owen. I fired up the car for a few minutes and the gauge woke up, and went down to about 1/4 way between C and H. So it looks like my gauge and sender work, not that I can see a white needle against a silver backing anyway... Who designed these things? Did he ever get caught and sent back to the asylum? Gary

I am in the process of rewiring my 49 eight sedan. Before I connected anything the fuel gauge reads E, the oil pressure 0, which sounds normal, but the temp gauge needle is to the right, reading H. (A spare instrument panel I have also reads the same, temp on H.) With the temp gauge connected to the sender unit and power on, it is still on H. Any ideas? Gauge faulty or sender faulty?
Gary