Projects Mild custom '51 Pontiac Chieftain

Oil change, grease, rear end topped up, vacuumed, washed, polished and waxed.



Ready to be looked at. From 50 feet away.

Phil

 

Shifter light was shining through all weird through the green filters.

So, I fitted a green bulb to it. Now it looks like a pinball machine.

Phil

 

Car looks pretty good from my couch, 1,000 miles away!

 

Yup, the shine hides multitudinous sins. Once I have OT car running (visible behind it in one photo above), this will likely begin surgery because it'll definitely be off the road for the duration.

Phil

 

Yeah, it would be nice to take care of the rust. Our situation is different up here in New England, we can practically hear it munching on the metal.

 

Made it.

Weather's good also.

 

Today I made a hole in my dashboard.

I lubricated the speedometer cable, then took the gauges apart, lubricated then and adjusted the hairspring tension.

Put it all back together; that's now 60 by my GPS so I'm going to call that close enough. Previously 60 was the needle pointing at the right hand side of the 0 of 70.
Doesn't wobble any more, should last. I didn't realize the speedometer barrel has a lubricated felt pad inside. Popped the little freeze plug looking piece and oiled it up with medium weight machine oil.

Phil

 

Finally fixed all the light bulbs. Bought a new gauge and the bulb was wrong and a couple had burned out.

That'll work.

Phil

 

Looks great Phil. I have a speedometer in my '51 Ford that gets noisy when the temperature outside drops below 40. At my age, I can't get under the dash to fix it anymore, so I solve the problem by going to Florida in the winter.

Luckily, I replaced the bulbs when I was young enough to do so

 

I had another gearbox thought tonight; this morning was real cool and the gears changed ratio beautifully.
Tonight the weather is warm and it's acting the fool. Occasionally shifts perfectly, sometimes not. Same pattern as before (1-3 then delayed 3-4) so I decided to rule out the TV sticking. I set the throttle linkage to gearbox tighter so the TV would never bottom out.
No joy, but the up changes were later, as expected.
So I revisited the diagnosis portion of the manual again, reread.
I read a paragraph I had previously skipped over, for reasons unknown.

I think the "low oil pressure" part made me ignore it, my line pressure is excellent.
The governor plug may be leaking though. I did replace the rings on the governor shaft, and the governor itself, the valve block but never the parking blocker assembly.

I'm going to pull it apart and check that little 1/4" bung isn't leaking or missing.

Phil

 

I love old repair manuals that actually explain how to fix things and the reason behind them. Glad to see you're still fiddling with it.

Devin

 

Went digging through old photos to see if the plugs look intact.

Best picture I have and it looks inconclusive.
Disassembly to follow.

 

I don't like this getting older lark.

I can't remember the exact tools I need to pull the side pan off the transmission...

 

I checked the plugs, and they're both good.

The governor transfer sleeve less so.

So I got happy with my hones.

It's it better? Uh. Kinda? Not really? Hard to tell.

I might not have it completely central either. It's not binding though, that I checked.

Reverse lockout doesn't work. That's a clue though. The thing might just be leaking, it's hard to tell because there's a double crimped pin holding it in which I cannot remove.

Phil

 

Cooler day today (74°), went for a drive this morning and it changed smooth like butter until the oil warmed up and then it went back to normal.

So it's definitely a control system leak down problem. Just a case of where from.
Pretty sure the reverse lockout on this not working has something to do with it.

 

Rear axle pinion seal arrived in the mail, along with some other rubber parts, the gas pedal boot and heater control bellows.


That should reduce the amount of engine smell coming in the cabin. Also got a few feet of heater duct for the defroster on the passenger side, the pipe had fallen to pieces with age.

Phil

 

I just spent the last few days going through this thread. Very cool work and photos. Thanks for bringing us along!

 

Thank you! Hope you enjoyed the read.


Yesterday was cool and the windshield was fogging up so I pulled the old defrost air tube out, which had seen better days, and replaced it with new.
Defrost works again.
Coupled with the cooler weather came perfect transmission operation. Go figure.

 

Watched the solar eclipse this morning,

in the middle of working on the car.

Replaced the pinion oil seal. Really the rear end needs a rebuild but this should make it a little less Exxon Valdez.

Phil

 

Thinking about gearboxes ehh? Sounds shifty to me. He he.

 

Did about 60 miles.

Dirty but dry.
I'll buy that for a dollar.

 

Dammit Phil, I have the same problem with my Ford. Now, I guess, I'll have to fix it.

Good job.

 

I think I'll have to bust out the pressure washer now and make an unholy mess on the driveway.

I opted for a more modern type of seal. It was cheaper also. Someone had slathered the old seal in RTV- the same blue stuff I found inside the gearbox, so probably the same "engineer" who worked on it...

 

That's a bit cleaner now.

Need to wipe that down tomorrow and put some paint on it.

 

That's going to be a little easier to see if it's leaking now.

Underseal to go over the sheet metal this afternoon.

 

I wonder if a trans fluid cooler would help keep the shifting in the sweet spot. A temporary temp gauge might inform you of any "too hot" issues. One of those handheld, laser, temperature readers might tell the tale also if you don't mind laying in the gravel on the shoulder of the road.
I had an OT vehicle that couldn't cruise at 70mph on a 90-plus-degree day. The trans would get hot and the ECM (computer module) would put the car into a 60mph "limp mode" until it cooled off.

I really like your photo by the shore. I did some amateur cleanup to give you an idea of what it could become if one of those Pros on the Photoshop thread, who actually have some skills, worked it over...........

 

Is your propshaft hitting the floor?

 

It probably would, but there's very little external provision for adding one in that wouldn't drop the oil pressure significantly.
I have a spare governor sleeve/reverse lockout now from our very own @bchctybob which is currently sitting in a can of Berryman Chem-Dip, to see if that'll resolve or help the warm shifting issues.

Funnily, I had done the same to remove the SUV from that photo too..

 

Not any more. That was caused by the old shocks having collapsed and our lovely smooth highways that we have around here.

 

Manifold was leaking.

Old donut, new donut.

Seals better now.