I have a 1950 Dodge Special DeLuxe. It's a Plymouth, basically, but it's made in Canada. About 2 weeks ago a problem started occurring. This coincided with some wet weather we were having. The symptoms are these: when driving along, suddenly, instead of accelerating when I press the gas pedal, it stutters and delivers no power. Soon after, the car cuts out completely and won't start. When I say "won't start" what I mean is, the battery acts as though it's dead. It's a 6 volt car. Not 12 volt. It has a generator not an alternator.
I went to an auto electrician and he jumped started the car then removed the jumper cables. The car started and continued to run fine. When he took a reading across the battery terminals, it read just over 7 volts, which is normal for a 6 volt system. We then turned the car off and tried starting it again. It worked without the jump start several times, then died again on about the 5th attempt at starting. A jump start got it going again. He checked the generator, the regulator and the starter and said they were fine. He said the battery was at fault. So I went and bought a new battery. The car worked fine for a week and during the next bout of inclement weather, the same thing occurred.
Further things to note - I had a compression test done on the cylinders and one (the fourth) cylinder shows 60psi and the other 5 cylinders show 110. My mechanic says it's a sticky valve. This hasn't been fixed.
In addition, I checked the distributor cap and it's not cracked or worn and it's dry.
Any advice is appreciated.[img:ab140955d1]http://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/576852_dodge_1.jpg[/img:ab140955d1]
I went to an auto electrician and he jumped started the car then removed the jumper cables. The car started and continued to run fine. When he took a reading across the battery terminals, it read just over 7 volts, which is normal for a 6 volt system. We then turned the car off and tried starting it again. It worked without the jump start several times, then died again on about the 5th attempt at starting. A jump start got it going again. He checked the generator, the regulator and the starter and said they were fine. He said the battery was at fault. So I went and bought a new battery. The car worked fine for a week and during the next bout of inclement weather, the same thing occurred.
Further things to note - I had a compression test done on the cylinders and one (the fourth) cylinder shows 60psi and the other 5 cylinders show 110. My mechanic says it's a sticky valve. This hasn't been fixed.
In addition, I checked the distributor cap and it's not cracked or worn and it's dry.
Any advice is appreciated.[img:ab140955d1]http://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/576852_dodge_1.jpg[/img:ab140955d1]
Sep 26, 2010 at 2:47 AM
