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1952B3b23

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Everything posted by 1952B3b23

  1. I've been cruising for the past couple weeks basically without any issues. My temp. gauge did stop working the other day though. The original gauge hasn't worked in who knows how long and someone cut the end off it. So the aftermarket replacement the previous owner installed finally quit two weeks ago. I went to Pepboys and picked up a Bosch gauge. It was only $20, who knows how long this one will last. I can see the engine temp. again which makes me much happier cruising around. I am running into a funny issue. Ever since i've installed my rebuilt vacuum advance i seem to get a popping sound out of the exhaust at idle. Its not a random pop, it seems to happen pretty consistently. The car cruises fine, plenty of power, and starts right up (cold or hot). This wasn't an issue before with my non-functioning vacuum advance. I did notice that when i used the timing light on the car, vacuum advance disconnected and the line plugged, there is no pop at all. I have it timed at 2 degree before TDC. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? Thanks, -Chris
  2. Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you guys and the car are okay. I had a similar experience with my '39 Plymouth when i first bought it. The girlfriend and I went out for a spin around the block which ended with sparks and smoke under the hood. A bare wire had touched a hot wire making the sparks, and melting some rubber grommets in the firewall. No where near as bad as you but it did scare the crap out of us both. I had the car probably a month and i thought i was about to watch it burn up down the street from my place. As far as a wiring harness goes you can re-create your own, thats what i did. You'll need to have a service manual to access the cars wiring diagram. Just be sure to use the right gauge wire as "Plymouthy" suggested. Good Luck, Chris
  3. Whelp i kind of feel like a knucklehead.... it wasn't the screw grounding to the body after all. Something much more simple, somehow my points gap had opened up to .035" when they should be .020"! I know for certain i had them set at the right gap when i installed the new ones. I have no idea how they would of opened up on there own, the hold down screw was nice and tight. After pulling the distributor i checked out all the wires and made sure none where rubbing, reset the points gap, put the distributor back in and static timed it to 2 degree before TDC. In a couple hours i was cruising around the block again. Tonight i'll put the timing light on her to get it dialed in. I did learn a lot about how the whole ignition system functions so that's a plus. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, -Chris
  4. Thanks for the posts Don and Silverdome. I was able to confirm last night that the screw is grounding out to the body. I will hopefully have some time to pull the distributor out this weekend and fix the problem. I'll be sure to take pictures and report back with what i find. -Chris
  5. These guys can probably rebuild your pump if you want: http://www.classiccadillacwaterpumpsforsale.com/ I just had them do a vacuum advance for me. The guys name is Carl, nice guy.
  6. That's what i thought, thanks for confirming. That could very well be my problem. I'll be pulling the distributor out and looking at this very closely. I found a good thread on the truck side which talks about this:
  7. So I'm having engine troubles again, before the car wouldn't start when hot. Changed out my points and the issue was resolved. Now it just wont start at all! I'm getting very weak spark. When i pull the coil wire out of the distributor cap and hold it over the head, the end needs to be practically touching the head to get a spark. With the ignition key on and manually pulling the points apart i see a very tinny spark. I almost couldn't see it until i had my face right up against it. The last time i did this test when the car was running alright it was quite easy to see the spark jump the points gap. I have tried a different ignition coil that i know is good. The points and condenser are brand new, they have about 2 hours of total run time on them. When i go through the trouble shooting steps in the manual everything checks out. Except of course the weak spark at the points and coil wire. I'm wondering if i don't have a bad ground between the distributor and engine block. That might explain why i have very weak spark. The screw that sticks out the side of the distributor and gets connected to the coil via a wire, is that supposed to be electrically isolated from the distributor body? I'm thinking it is. Last night i connected my ohm meter to the screw and put the other lead on the body and i was reading zero resistance. I also remember that the last time i was adjusting the timing with the engine at idle i got a slight shock when rotating the distributor body. Any help is much appreciated, -Chris
  8. My rebuilt vacuum advance came in today. I sent my old one out to a company in NJ called My Classic Car Trader, LLC. They happened to have a rebuilt unit on the shelf so they sent me that one and kept mine as a core. I'd recommend using them as the service was good and fast. They also rebuild carbs, fuel pumps, starters, etc., check out the web site: http://www.classiccadillacwaterpumpsforsale.com/ Hopefully i'll have some time on Sunday to install it. I've also attached a couple pictures of the business card they sent me. Sorry about the pictures, i dont know why they are rotated. -Chris
  9. I was having some hot start issues as well. At first I thought it might of been excessive heating of the fuel that was the problem. Turned out my points where bad. For some reason I still had spark at all plugs when hot. It must have been to weak though. Just some food for thought if you start having trouble again. -Chris
  10. I just installed one on my '53 Plymouth 218 ci flathead, stock intake manifold. I'm still running the original Carter Ball and Ball carb as well. It fit right on without a problem. You will need to file a little bit of material off the spacer in order to allow the vacuum hole in the base of the carb to pick up manifold vacuum. Also, longer mounting studs will need to be installed in the intake manifold. I went to ACE hardware and bought 2" long automotive studs, 3/8-16 x 3/8-24 thread pitch. They where about $2.50/ea. -Chris
  11. Something else that might help with the percolation is installing a phenolic spacer under the base of the carb. It will help insulate the carb from all the manifold heat. I just installed mine, it's 5/8" thick. I called Tom Langdon and ordered from him: http://www.langdonsstovebolt.com/ -Chris
  12. Well i think i finally solved my hot starting problem. I tried a new distributor cap and rotor and that didn't do it. At that point i was getting so frustrated that i decided to remove the distributor so i could look at the points a lot more closely. I'm glad i did. When i was slumped over the fender of the car trying to look closely at them they looked to be in good shape. Once i looked at them on the bench it was easy to see little pits in the surface. I swapped them out and got the engine started back up. Then i put my timing light on it and got it timed. Went for a few spins around the block to get the engine up to operating temp (180*) came back and shut off the car. Immediately tried starting it back up and she fired!! Less than a few revolutions of the starter and it was running. So then i took it out for a little bit longer of a drive, came back and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, tried again and she started right up. I was pretty excited since i've been fighting this for awhile now. On Sunday i installed a 5/8" phenolic spacer under the carb to help with heat soak. I got the spacer from Tom Langdon. I figured it cant hurt to isolate the carb from all that manifold heat. -Chris
  13. I want to swap out the plug wires cause i have no idea how old they are. I spoke with the folks at Pertronix last night about the Ignitor module that i may buy in the future. One of the things they did say was to switch to either carbon core or suppression core wires. I'm just wondering if i switch now will that give me troubles with my regular points/condenser distributor set up. Any thoughts? Thanks, -Chris
  14. I don't think they rub but i'll have to double check. Its possible that i caused them to rub when i reached over to grab the throttle linkage.
  15. I've been having some weird problems with the car for about a week and a half now. Once the engine is up to temp (about 180) if i shut off the car it will not start again until its cooled off. It simply cranks and cranks and will not fire. When the engine is cold the car starts with ease. A couple revolutions and it's up and running. It idles fine and doesn't sound like its missing or anything. When driving the car it feels like it has real good power, it actually surprised me when i was cruising around at 50 comfortably. It accelerates well and the engine has no funny noises. Here's the stuff i've tried so far: 1. My first suspicion was vapor lock so i took the air cleaner off the carb, looked down the throat, and gave the throttle a few quick blips. The accelerator pump is working like it should and giving good squirts of fuel. The carb was also recently rebuilt. 2. Tried using starting fluid to get it going, again it just cranks, doesn't even make sounds like it wants to fire. 3. Removed each spark plug wire and held it about 1/4" from the cylinder head. Crank the engine over and see a good blue spark jump the air gap to the head. 4. Then check each spark plug gap and make sure each one is firing. All seems well there. 5. Removed the distributor cap and inspected for cracks. Cleaned the metal contacts on the inside of the cap and cleaned the contact points on the rotor. 6. Inspected the breaker points and they look to be a dull gray color, no pitting or burning. The rubbing block does look a little worn though. I also set the point gap to .020". 7. I've inspected the plug wires and they all still look decent. While the car was running i reached over to work the throttle linkage which passes under the plug wires and i got a little bit of a shock. I had some rubber work gloves on and im pretty certain i didn't touch any of the metal parts of the spark plug or plug wire. So maybe the insulation has degraded and im losing voltage to my plugs, especially as the resistance of the wire goes up with the added heat from the engine. 8. I replaced the distributor condenser. That didnt fix anything. 9. I tried a different ignition coil, no luck. 10. I reset the static ignition timing to 2 degrees before TDC. I thought maybe the timing was to advanced and causing it to not start when hot. I ordered a timing light so i should be able to double check the setting sometime this week. This didn't do anything to fix the issue. 11. Found out my vacuum advance isn't working. It's an issue but shouldn't prevent the car from starting when hot. Since i just finished putting the car together i had replaced all the wiring and new battery cables (2 aught welding cable). I also have a 6 volt battery charger so i make sure to keep the battery up to snuff at all times when trying this. The starter seems to crank the engine fine when hot so i don't think its a slow crank issue. I have no idea how old the plug wires, cap, rotor, and points are. So i think my next job is going to be to replace those items and see what happens. At this point im stumped and since that stuff really isn't all that expensive it's worth a shot. I also ordered a 5/8" phenolic carb spacer from Tom Langdon. I still need to install that, but i really don't think fuel delivery is my issue. It can't hurt to insulate the carb from all that heat though. Whatever it is it affects all cylinders at the same time once the engine is up to operating temp. If i run the engine for two minutes, shut it off and try again it will fire right up with ease. I apologize for the really long post but i've tried to be as thorough as possible with this and give you guys as much background as i can. Does any one have any other ideas? Thanks in advance, -Chris
  16. That part was annoying. I should of replaced the thermostat at the same time cause just last night i made it half way down my street and the temp gauge was soaring. Luckily i noticed and turned around right away. I shutoff the car and let momentum carry me back into the driveway. So now i have something else to fix. -Chris
  17. Here's a few pictures of the car broken down on the side of the road. The thermostat housing gasket sprung a leak! I was about 5 miles from home, not bad. Luckily my brother was able to come pick me up with a trailer, so the tow was free lol. -Chris
  18. Hey Guys, I've been thrashing away on the car for the past two months and i got a ton of work done. What i didn't do was a good job of updating this thread and taking pictures of my progress. The last time i was updating this i rebuilt the rear suspension, new leaf springs and shackles, plus 2" lowering blocks. After doing that i moved onto patching up the lower rear quarters behind the passenger and drivers sides. At that point i had a car with no gaping holes in the sides, and it was looking much better. I then tackled re-assembling the front sheet metal. That was a bit of a PIA because i had to relocate the mounting holes for the front fenders on the cowl. All of that had rotted away over the years so i had to patch both sides. Once that was done i finished up connecting the last bits of wiring and making new battery cables. I also got my gas tank repaired as well as the original radiator. Then came the fun part, i got to fire up the engine for the first time with it sitting between the frame rails. At this point i had a car that could move under its own power. So i took it for a couple of spins around the block, boy was i happy. Until i realized both of the front brake wheel cylinders where leaking, i had just rebuilt them two years prior. So i sourced some new ones and re-bled/ adjusted them. I was back to cruising around the block. With all the mechanical stuff basically sorted out, I got this crazy idea that i was tired of looking at the previous owners ugly two tone black and battleship grey paint job. So here i go walking next door to the neighbor who just so happens to own a body shop. I start talking with him about how i want to paint my car and it doesn't need to be fancy or pristine since the car at this point still needs lots of body work. He looks at me and says, "Why don't you try painting it?". Ughhhh, okay what the hell i'll give it a shot. I had never painted anything before other than small stuff with a rattle can. So he ordered me some hot rod satin black paint and told me what to do to prep the car. So i literally spent from 9 am Friday morning till 2 am Saturday morning preparing. I scuffed the old paint with 400 grit paper then back over it all with red scotch-brite pads. That was the easy part, the taping of everything took FOREVER! Once that was done i wiped the car down with paint prep and then a tack rag to pick up any little debris. The neighbor came over Saturday morning and showed me how to mix the paint and how to use my new harbor freight HVLP spray gun. After 5 mins of showing me how to use the gun i half ass got it and set off painting the car.The paint job is far from perfect and still has tons of imperfections simply because the car still needs lots of body work. For my first time it came out decent and it was overall an enjoyable experience. Before painting the car i put a set of lester whitewalls and got a front end alignment. During the alignment i learned i need to either adjust or rebuild my steering box. Thats something i'll have to tackle this winter. For now it drives pretty decent and ive done some cruising, even had her up to 55 mph which was a little sketchy with the loose steering box. Sorry for the really long post but i've been busy these couple months. If theres any questions feel free to ask. -Chris
  19. Looks great! Good job on the exhaust too. Did you buy two exhaust kits, one for each leg? -Chris
  20. I do believe the number of the springs is CC850, manufactured by Moog. -Chris
  21. Since you have an old shock you can bring it with you to napa. they have a service where they can call up and give the dimensions of your shock and the service will give them a part number. I've done this for my 39 Plymouth. So I know it's possible. -Chris
  22. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of us on here from the north east. I'm in western MA, there's probably some clubs around here. Google might know. I haven't ever looked into it. Where are you located ? Chris
  23. Welcome and nice save. It wasnt uncommon for the original truck engines to get swapped for one from a car. When i bought my '52 B3b it had a 1953 Plymouth 218 in it. That motor is now in my '39 Plymouth Coupe. -Chris
  24. That's a good idea. I might end up making another set of blocks that are 3". The 2" didn't lower the rear as much as i wanted especially since i have brand new leaf spring packs now. I'm looking for the slight custom rake (lower in the rear than the front). Right now I've got the hot rod rake going on, higher in the rear. I'm going to drive it first though and see how it settles out. -Chris
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