New Owner Questions `32 Coupe

[Tom Beggan]

Hi All,

I just bought a `32 five window coupe and I'm trying to figure out what this "ride control" knob on the dash is supposed to do. It will slide in or pull out and it's mechanically connected to the shocks. Any idea what it does? What is pushing it in and/or pulling it out supposed to do?

Also, there are two dashboard knobs with "L" written on them. The leftmost one turns on the marker lights and the headlights, but the right one does nothing. Is it supposed to turn on the little light in the center of the dashboard? I'd like to fix it, but I'd like to know what it's supposed to do before I begin the effort.

thanks!

Tom Beggan
`32 Coupe
New Hampshire

[Pete Woodruff]

Hi Tom,

Ride control adjusts the shock absorbers. According to the '32 owner's manual, the knob should be set to "O" (open valve) when driving on smooth roads at moderate speeds. It should be set to "C" (closed valve) when traveling on rough roads or at high speeds. When driving of rough roads at very low speeds, set the control to "O".

The "L" knob on the right controls the instrument panel lamps.

The upcoming issue of ETCetera, the newsletter of the Early Times Chapter of POCI will be featuring the '32 model year. www.earlytimeschapter.org

Pete

[Tom Beggan]

Pete,

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll be topping off the hydraulic fluid in the shocks and I'll see if the settings make any difference. Right now the car is a little darty on the road. (It has no natural desire to track on-center and it darts left/right on its own) I'm going to try to reset the steering geometry, like toe-in/out, castor, etc.. but I'll have to do it by feel. I'm hoping the ride control will help this as well.

Tom

[Tom Beggan]

Pete, it just occurred to me.... do you know which ride control settings "open" and "closed" correspond to the knob being pushed in verses pulled out?

[Pete Woodruff]

Tom, I went back and looked at the owner's manual, it doesn't say anything about the position of the ride control knob. I even scanned the page and blew up the drawing of the controls, but I can't make out what the markings are.

[Tom Beggan]

Pete, that's more than I have a right to ask for. Thanks very much for the extra effort! I'll find out eventually and follow up here with the news. Once I have a chance to drive it a bit, it should become fairly obvious with a little experimentation. Take care! Tom

[Tinindian]

You don't have to adjust your front end by feel. All you need is a carpenters square, a level, a protractor and a ball of string and you can align your Pontiac as well as any shop could have done. All the fancy equipment does is make it easier (sometimes). The only thing you can't do is bend the front axle by yourself. I would suggest that you probably need a little more toe-in by the way you say it behaves.

[Tom Beggan]

Thanks Reid. I'll post back and let you know how the new settings work. It'll be a little trial and error up front, but I'm looking forward to the results.