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1923 Dort with Falls 6cyl engine - help needed

We have recently purchased a partially restored 1923 Dort with a Falls 6cyl engine. It is our first vintage car and it has been very rewarding, and even more intriguing, doing research and learning about the history of Dort and the car we purchased.

Our car was imported to Australia we believe as a 'flat-pack' and then a local carriage builder in Adelaide manufactured the body. It has been modified for Australian right hand drive and from looking at a few (rare) photo's of this engine we have found on the internet we have been able to determine that there are some differences around the manual throttle, accelerator and advance/retard linkages. One other intriguing difference is our engine is magneto where every other one we have researched is distributor.

We have a problem with the acceleration of the engine. When you depress the accelerator it takes quite a while for the engine to rev up. We feel that it should be better. We have done all of the usual things like checking timing, inspecting and adjusting the magneto, dismantle and clean the carby, compression check which led us to disassemble the head and do a valve grind. All of these things have only slightly improved the situation.

We have one question that we are hoping someone can answer. There is an arm/lever on the front right hand side of the engine (red circle in pictures) which is connected via a brass rod to the carby and throttle linkages. We are not really sure what the function of this arm/lever is. We notice in a service manual the arm is at 6 o'clock. However on ours it is at 1 o'clock. We have tried to orient ours to 6 o'clock but the two brass linkages behind the carby can’t be orientated in a manner which would allow the operation of the carby. Other Falls 6cyl engines that we have been able to view on the internet appear to show the arm/lever at 6 o'clock. We were thinking that maybe the modification to right hand drive could be one possible reason for our arm/lever orientation.

Can anyone shed some light on what is the function of the arm/lever circled in red?



Where Are You From? South Australia

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1923 Dort Six

Re: 1923 Dort with Falls 6cyl engine - help needed

Perhaps I can. If anyone can help you its Stan Uher the worlds expert on anything Dort or Gray Dort. Just put his name in search for lots of hits and a UTube video of his 1915 oldest Gray Dort.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojWHL9IDQGQ

Stan Uher
125 Talbot W
Blenheim ON N0P1A0 (Canada)

(519) 676-2391

stanuher@hotmail.com

I would send same mail and photos to him.

Dort 1915 - 1924
Gray Dort 1915 - 1925

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Re: 1923 Dort with Falls 6cyl engine - help needed

Paul- From your picture I'll bet you are right in thinking it is an adaptation for right hand drive cars. Since the standard at the time was rods and levers to control devices and not so much cables, rods had to be in straight lines. I would set the rods to just crack open just off idle and then reach full open carb butterfly at pedal to the floor. Is the carb in reasonable shape as far as lack of slop in the controls? Probably doesn't have an accelerator pump which may account for the lazy acceleration? Ross

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1930 6-14

 

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