Calling all 55-56 Pontiac owners, and anyone else helpful!

How do your brakes work better if your not moving?


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

I felt a HUGE increase in pressure. Compared to having to floor the brake pedal to keep the car stand still when shifting into neutral or something.
How freaking weird is that...

 

Sounds like the brake booster lost pressure, so now it's harder to press the brake pedal.


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Doesn't sound right, they are separate unrelated systems. Only would matter if you had power brakes and a running engine... Guessing you have manual brakes, maybe not???


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

I had no brakes at all. My new brakes failed, so I put in some new fluid and pushed up my hardware, that gave me a little braking power, but I had to floor the brakes which isn't normal. Now I can have enough braking pressure to only press a normal amount to keep the car still. This is good, not bad!
Manual brakes by the way.

 

If the system wasn't bled, it might have just worked the bubbles to the MC after pushing the pedal so many times. Seems unlikely, but it could happen.


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Manual is better I ditched my booster and went to manual system.


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

Whole brake system is rebuilt and or new. brake lines, MC, etc. Was bled as well

 

??


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

Lets focus on sparkkkk


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

how did you clean the points and how did you check that they are working?

 

I cleaned with fine sand paper, they aren't nor were they welded together. Blew out the inside of the cap, i fine sanded the metal parts from the spark plugs inside the dizzy cap, blew that out, then put it back on. In record time too...took me less than ten minutes this time, proud of myself.

 

Take a picture of the points, test for power at the coil??


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

I owned a 59 Pontiac and had it off quite a few times. I doubt there is a big difference. My HS buddy had a 56 and I'm sure we had it off a time or two also. Mechanics worked on them, for a living, in the 50s and 60s and I know book time for a points job on a 56 Pontiac can't be more than one hour. I wish I was close by. I would give you one thousand dollars if I couldn't put that cap back on in less than one minute.
Now for some constructive advise. Is there a chapter of the Pontiac club, the ACCA or some old car group near you? Are there cruises nearby. You need to find a geezer to give you some tips and maybe a hand. You're in way over your head

 

Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

I disagree ^


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

Follow the advise you have here, and keep with it. When I was 17 I got a 85 trans am in pieces and put it back together with a mechanic teaching me over the phone. I had a husky mechanic socket set and that's it... Everything else I got as needed. You can do it, trace your ignition with the multi meter. Find where you lose power, if you build radios this should be a easy task. I always like to understand how a mechanism or system works as a whole as well as its individual components. Do some research then you can trace and fix it. There's not a whole lot to the system... Don't get me wrong there's a lot to get a engine running but not to generate spark.


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92

 

Don't have it towed to get it checked out by a mechanic unless you can pay $98 an hour for their labor rates. As it sounds like your short on cash you could use the experience . I'm not knocking you , I remember when I was in your shoes and that know how has served me well over the years.

 

This is why I asked if it was actually turning over. I also mentioned fuses because I wasn't sure if it actually was turning over. I don't know if you'd have any on the ignition of a 56 Pontiac.

People are trying to guess what you're trying to describe with little to no experience - not knocking you for that. Maybe you're talking about a starter not engaging with the above statement. Can you go take a video, with decent audio, and post it up just so we can hear the sound.

 

In fact, since it's dark, this is the perfect time to try a few more tests. If I can convince my sister to come help me, I'm going to try some more things. Hopefully the bugs don't eat us alive, I think it's too cold for them to bother us anymore
I'll upload a video when the sun rises. Bad camera only works good in sunlight.

 

Tested my wire going from the distributor cap to the coil, got shocked and saw a spark so that's working! So that means it's either my distributor cap, plugs, or the wires going to the plugs, according to d2_willys
Ay cabron that spark hurt haha

 

OK,

So you have spark at the coil and no spark at the plugs. I would think that it's down to...

Bad plug wires. IMO this is highly unlikely for them to ALL go bad ALL at once. Unless they're the carbon core type and you manhandled them somehow.

Cap or rotor. I would be looking at the cap and rotor carefully... methinks that ya don't have contact between the two. How is the rotor button that contacts the cap? I'll bet that's your problem.

Wish I were closer... My dad grew up near to you.. in Rotterdam.

 

The rotor, I removed, I cleaned it up good, the button isn't dirty or anything. I also cleaned inside the dizzy cap itself and it's dry, so there should be good contact between the two.

 

Somebody else ought to chime in.

I am a bit drunk and just ended things with this girl with extreme prejudice but that ought to be the issue.. ifn ya got spark comin out of the coil you oughta be gettin it to the plugs.

 

Women. I may be young but I know they are evil....EVILLLLLLLL!
Went through a bad break up last year as well...whole thing was a train wreck to be honest. But things got better and now we are good friends.
Don't let that gal make you kill your liver, it all gon be k friend. Anyways, I would guess my spark plugs are dirty, my plug wires are all no more than a year old...I would imagine I need to clean the pugs and gap them again... or Maybe even just remove all the wires one by one and make sure they are all clean and dry at the contacts?
Also, someone said something about timing. But I also had someone else tell me no, it's not the timing. Any info on that?

 

I'll bet you fouled the plugs by flooding the piss out of it. You'll probably need a new set of plugs. By the way there are two different size sockets for spark plugs. 5/8 and 11/16

 

I'll bet his plugs are 13/16.

So good, you got spark eh?

Speaking of flooding, have you verified that you are getting fuel to the carb? Choke working?

You haven't moved (twisted) the distributor, right? That would change your timing. As someone mentioned above, it would be great to have a video of this thing cranking over. It might tell us a thing or two.

Damn, it's really a shame that there are no HAMBers near you willing to give you a hand. I have a feeling that one of us "old car guys" could have that thing diagnosed and running in a matter of minutes.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xcxt6opetU&feature=youtu.be Here you go, for anyone who requested, this is a video of the car so you can hear what the engine sounds like.

 

try holding a plug wire when you roll the engine over, if you get shocked again then you will know the cap and plug wires are ok, you will not die, another point is in your video if you engine was flooded then you would need to keep it rolling over for a much longer time with the pedal to the floor.

 

^ sometimes you gotta go for it!


Draining the brains of good
mechanics since '92