the "Gus Stories" and old cars

[austinsailor]

From 1925 until 1970 there was a regular column in Popular Science Magazine about a mechanic named Gus and his visits from customers and their problems. I might have originally gotten the link from a post here, I don't recall, but here it is:

http://www.gus-stories.org/The_Stories.htm

I used to read it in the '50's and '60's when I was young, and occasionally older ones when we found a few in a box we'd get at an auction

Lately I read a few now and then and it's quite entertaining and enlightening.

Reading just a few will point out how much less maintenance is needed even compared to our 40's cars. Valve jobs every year? Checking and adding to your alcohol antifreeze each week? Tune ups every thousand miles or so? Removing carbon from the cylinders maybe yearly? And the new method, instead of removing the head, toss a lit match in the open spark plug hole, then put an oxygen hose in to burn it out??!!

I'm still trying to figure out what a vacuum tank is for in the fuel line. It's obvious that it can cause a lot of problems if it isn't functioning correctly or the vent is stopped up, but how the heck does that work.

I need to start on 1932 now.

Edited December 16, 2011 by austinsailor

[TodFitch]

... I'm still trying to figure out what a vacuum tank is for in the fuel line. It's obvious that it can cause a lot of problems if it isn't functioning correctly or the vent is stopped up, but how the heck does that work.

Prior to the days of mechanical fuel pumps (1930 for Plymouth an many other cars) fuel was delivered from the tank to the carburetor either by gravity (Ford Model T and Model A for example) or by a vacuum powered "pump".

Most cars used manifold vacuum for the vacuum source but Plymouth (and maybe other Chrysler products) used suction from the input of the oil pump.

Regardless of the source of vacuum the fuel pump worked the same way: The tank has an upper and lower chamber and a float. When the upper chamber is empty the float opened a valve that allowed vacuum to pull gas from the tank to the upper chamber. When the upper chamber was full, the float then changed the valves to dump the gas into the lower chamber. The carburetor was fed by gravity from the lower chamber.

Because of the gravity flow of the fuel from the vacuum tank to the carburetor, this type of setup can only really be used on vehicles with updraft carburetors.

[Young Ed]

The older cars used vacuum tanks instead of fuel pumps.

[austinsailor]

I didn't even have a good guess on that one, but I'd have had to use a lot of imagination to come up with that Rube Goldberg arrangement!

[greg g]

The reprints of the Gus articles are available on the popular sience website. they are all archived buy month and year.

I had an oportunity last summer to help a fellow from teh Studebaker truck board who was fiddling with a 1921 Dodge Brother's Touring car. He put in a new battery, yes ti was electric start, and cleaned out the carburetor, and got it running. It would not however stay running for much more that a drive around the circular drive way a the Estate where it was garaged. We got it started and I heard a slight hissing. It was coming from the area near the vacuum chamber fuel pump.

Upon investigation we found a small split in the copper line running from the oil pump to the the upper vaccum chamber. It was leaking enough to keep the pump from supplying engough gas for sustained running above idle. A replacement line was prepared, ad my reward was the first road drive of the car since 1967.

That old 4 cylinder had buckets of torque and got the car up to speed quite nicely enough to stay with traffic in and around the village of Pawling,NY. Brakes were a bit behind the engines performance curve. But a great experience non the less.

http://www.gus-stories.org/ Lots of good stuff here for the younger crowd.

The car was being put back on the road to transport the matriarch of the family's ashes from temporary memorial to the cemetary after a memorial service. One of her last requests was to have a last ride in what was her and her husbands first new car.

Edited December 16, 2011 by greg g

[austinsailor]

In reading more articles, I learned that in 1932 a car's lifespan was expected to be about 50,000 miles. If it made 60,000 it was unusual. In those 50,000 miles it could expect many valve jobs, an overhaul ( or two) and be on it's 4th set of tires.

Cars and tires were many times more expensive in relation to income than now.

Also, insurance was different. $50 deductable was standard, but wages were a fraction of what they are now, so it was like being maybe $1000 today. However, liability limits were in the same range as today, so a $100,000 liability limit was like $1.5 to $2 million today.

Also, there was a movement to ban any vehicles over 5 years old (the expected lifespan) from the road.

Pretty interesting history.

[plymouthcranbrook]

God, it's been years since I read any Gus and the Model Garage stories. I am going to look into this.. Thanks for bringing back this memory.

[BobT-47P15]

If you've ever noticed, you find a lot of the 40s and 50s cars in the

junkyard showing 50 to 70- some thousand miles on the odometer.

Because--as stated above--they were kinda worn out by then, at least

mechanically. It probably took the average guy quite a while, back then,

to run up that many miles since they didn't drive as much as today. So

the car was old, needed work, but only had 50 or 60,000 miles on it.

So, off it went to the junk dealer.

[Young Ed]

The guy I bought my P15 from bought it out of a junkyard in Wyoming with 76K miles on it. Think how pissed someone would be if they only got 76K miles out of a car today?

[Plymouthy Adams]

Ed..75,000 miles of rough and dusty roads with pot holes and often ruts deeper than the average chassis sat high..and given that most of these did not see actual highway use like today..the older cars saw a much rougher life..many never got to operating temps in the short stints to town and then back again hours later..the short cold cycles wreak havoc on the internals of the engine..the rough roads beat the dog soup out of the chassis and bodies...the Dakota I just bought for a power transfer..well it has less than 75000 on it and not any dirt, oil or grease...we hav come a long way in technology and found many uses for silcone along the way..

[greg g]

Economics probably played a large part in the mileage seen on junkyard cars. I remember looking at new cars in about 1970 or 71. Looked at ford mavericks, dodge darts, Gremlins and hornets, chevy novas, and even a mustang or 2. Most of them were in the 1600 to 2400 bucks. Almost pulled the trigger on a Hornet, it came in at 1895.00 I had 500 bucks in cash for a down payment. So the deal would have ended up with about 1600.00 balance with tax and fees financed. The payment would have worked out to about 65.00, monthly payment for 30 months. So about 1 week of my monthly income at the time, and as I just graduated college and gotten a new job my salary was about to double in two weeks time.

So go back to 1950, a fellow with a 4 year old car, looking at rings and a valve job, myabe some front end work, new tires and brakes, was probably looking at a 300 to 500 dollar repair bill, trading in his 49 Dodge on a new 54 would end up looking pretty good, with his 500 dollar repair, and 100 trade in on a 1200 new car. He would probably be looking at a 25 or 30 dollar payment per month.

Im my cas I passed on the hornet, used my $500.00 to buy a 63 Farilaine 500 with 32000 on the ODO. I drove it for two years put about 25K on it, then traded it for a 66 Mustang GT. The mustang had 22K on it, was on the lot for 1295.00. I made a deal at 1125, and got 800 bucks for the farilane on trade in With taxes with taxes and fees I ended up getting a 500 (banks minimum) loan for 20 months tat ran me 32.00 a month.

As a contrast, on of my friend's father bought a brand new 71 Buick Wildcat Convertible with the 425 and just about every option on the list for 3995.00

I remember my dad buying a new car in 1960. He ended up with a 34 dollars a month payment which with his bring home pay ot 150 bucks a week represented about 6% of his monthly salary.

I think todays typical car payment is over 10% of a typical earners salary, assuming one is lucky enough to have retained a good paying job.

[austinsailor]

I was reading Plymouth's history last night on Alpar (however it's spelled) and they mentioned that in 1930 Plymouth went to fuel pumps instead of vacuum tanks. If it hadn't been for the answers I got here I wouldn't have had a clue what they were talking about!