Sam Buchanan

My wife would consider that to be very appropriate........... ?

All this dwelling on tach talk prompted to me to find my old dwell-tach from the VW days in the 70's. Here it is....bet I bought it from JC Whitney....isn't that where we got everything back then? ?) It still works to some degree...hooked the red lead to the positive battery post and the black one to the wire going to the distributor. I'm wondering if the tach is reading a bit high....dwell indicated 40* and that is probably pretty close.

My favorite jack stands:

There is only one MTL, it is 75W80.

The auto parts store oil is almost certainly GL4 or GL5. Both can be too slippery for smooth shifting a cold transmission.

The RedLine MTL should fix your problem and protect the syncros.

I can't recall if the the seal has a spring but if it does the spring "goes toward the oil", in other words, toward the chain.

You will get various opinions about this (try asking what kind of motor oil to use.....) but the closest thing we have now to what was used back in the day is GL-1 lubricant. The more modern GL-4 and GL-5 have components that can lead to deterioration of the brass synchronizers in our old trannys. I started out with a GL-4 in the '48 P15 but had issues with the 1st-to-2nd shift being crunchy until the transmission got hot. I changed to Red Line MTL which eliminated the crunchiness and is also formulated to play nice with the brass synchronizers. It is a little pricey but should last a very long time in our cars.

Wow......that brings back a flood of memories. My dad bought a new '56 Savoy 4-door and it was the same color as your Suburban. I recall seeing Hy-Fire V8 on the valve covers or air cleaner and it had the overdrive. My dad was very particular about maintenance and drove the car with longevity in mind. As a kid I would sit in the front seat and the radio speaker was my 'steering wheel' as we drove down the road. I recall falling asleep on the back seat as a youngster listening to the soothing whine of the diff while on trips to the grandparents in Arkansas. I learned to drive in that car and took my driving test in it...had to demonstrate stopping and starting on a hill (how many teenagers could do that with a three-on-the-tree now??). My brother and I discovered the OD could be engaged in 1st gear if you wound it out tight enough. ? The overdrive was great and no doubt was a reason why the car had 143K miles on it when the odometer quit working. We sold the car a few years later (1979) after my dad's passing and it still ran great, the only work it ever needed was tune-ups and brakes and I recall replacing front wheel bearings once.. Thanks for indulging me for a trip down memory lane.....it was a great car. ?

So is your engine number P15617172?

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So.......are you using fresh fuel? The shelf life of ethanol-contaminated gasoline can be pretty short and stale gas can definitely result in start-up difficulty. The ethanol can also absorb water.

I wouldn't worry about your car laying down while you work on the transmission. I assume the floorboards come out of your car and that greatly reduces the aggravation of pulling the tranny. Most of the work can be done inside the car instead of below it. Work methodically and you'll have the clutch exposed in no time. These are very simple cars. Best wishes! ?

Do you still have free-play in the clutch pedal? Anything restricting the pedal preventing it from returning all the way?

It would upset my father as well (but not severely)........but his son prefers to have a $2.79 tested new spare plug in the kit rather than a bag-full of 40,000 mile-old plugs. But to each his own. ?

Why not buy seven new plugs and throw the old ones in the trash can............. ?

Not wiser.......

Wiser.........

You might want to soak it in gasoline overnight to make sure the resin doesn't deteriorate or swell.

I’ve used Heacock Classic agency for many years. My policy is carried by American Modern. Allowed 3000 miles per year, no other restrictions as long as the car is just used for pleasure. I gain pleasure every time I drive it. ?

Keith, my car (and it sounds like this is common due to carb percolation) is also hesitant to start after it has heat-soaked for 15 minutes, but it always fires up after cranking a few seconds. But even in the hottest temps, and we had some scorchers in Alabama last summer, the car never failed to run properly in stop and go or highway traffic (after going to an electric pump). That is why I think you are dealing with more than just vapor lock...most likely faulty fuel flow. Mechanical fuel pumps can do devious things and fail intermittently, sometimes after they get hot (suction leak...weak check valve?). My original mechanical pump would work for a time then with no warning lose prime, I never could figure out how to predict when this would happen (I was awarded a flatbed tow one time....). That pump is now in a land fill...... I had no emotional ties to it. ? I suspect our ethanol-contaminated gas aggravates any weakness in the fuel system due to vapor pressures the old pumps were never designed to handle. A strong pump is fine as evidenced by many forum members, but I wonder if a weak pump might flake out when faced with low pressure adversity. Stay with it.....but try to avoid tunnel vision, don't discount the most obvious possibility.

I don't think you are dealing with vapor lock when the car struggles up a hill, that sounds more like a fuel delivery problem. When the car is underway under full throttle cool fuel from the tank is being pumped at relatively high volume to the carb.....if the pump is healthy. The fact the electric pump "fixes" the problem would convince me even more that there are issues with the mechanical pump. If the check valves in the pump are weak there will be all sorts of delivery problems, sometimes intermittent. A minute leak on the suction side can allow air to be sucked into the pump and reduce fuel flow. I've chased these problems with aircraft pumps (same design) and the fix is a new pump. I think you are chasing the wrong problem until you put a good pump on your engine.

https://p15-d24.com/files/file/5-overspring_toolpdf/?do=download&csrfKey=f68aca7dbfa54c0a9df9f6c6ec2241bb

Heat shields in my P15 for the carb and metal filter...note the carb shield doesn't touch the carb: