Jump to content

GLong

Members
  • Posts

    426
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About GLong

  • Birthday 12/07/1952

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

GLong's Achievements

1,000+ Points

1,000+ Points (3/7)

  • Dedicated
  • Collaborator

Recent Badges

31

Reputation

  1. With a sound engine, the '32 Model 54 'Club Brougham' car is a very handsome car, and a great performer. The '32 Pierce has a Ross steering gear box, providing wonderful light steering forces, and longevity. The transmission has synromesh on 2nd and 3rd gears. There also is freewheeling if you like that feature. The Club Brougham as well as coupes, Convertible Coupe-Roadsters had factory 'high speed' gearing: 4.08:1 ratio, the heavier cars had 4.42:1 With great styling, wonderful driving characteristics and with fresh babbitt and a good valve job , these are great touring cars. GLong
  2. Your Model 54 in 'great shape, unrestored' condition can be anywhere from $20K to maybe $60K. Most likely $35K-$45K. What makes a huge difference is actual mechanical and actual cosmetic condition. What one person describes as 'Great Condition' is another person's 'OK but needs paint and interior.. AND the huge issue: actual engine condition: I have inspected many engines, this requires dropping the oil pan, and removing each connecting rod cap. Then measuring the rod journal and ID of the reassembled rod bearing. The old poured babbitt has at best a 30% chance of being 'ok'. MOST connecting rod bearing babbitt has cracks. missing pieces.. AND the engine sounds and runs ok.. But won't survive an hour long drive at 50mph. GLong
  3. Edinmass: with the lousy, lousy tubes available today, I will always patch a tube. I've never had a patch fail in 50+ years. Why do you not like patching tubes? GregL
  4. I have a couple of those coil testers. The vibrator's points often get corrosion on them, and do not make a good electric connection. Use an ohmmeter to test to see if the points in the vibrator are making a good contact with each other. I found I had to clean the contacts of NOS vibrator points in order to get the vibrator to energize the coil tester. I found that the coil tester works well, the wider the gap, the better the coil. Greg
  5. These trailers were built with many items and materials that are either very rare or unavailable now. Such as: the interior walls were covered in thin, Red Gum plywood. It was molded to fit the contours of the interior, when it was laminated or glued into sheets. The kitchen hardware is very different than a home kitchen of the era: The faucet has a built in air pump. to pressurize the water tank. The stove was an alcohol fuel unit, like used in marine applications. As mentioned several times, value is mostly based on condition an originality. An extensively modified Travelodge is pretty much a used travel trailer. The only collector value is in the exterior appearance. Sort of like any Classic Era car that has a modern drivetrain and suspension: it's just exterior appearance that has any collector value. An original Travelodge with all or most of the original hardware, the doors and paneling in good condition, and sporting the original Coal/Wood cast iron miniature Pot-Belly heating stove, well get two or more interested, knowledgeable bidders, and I think a Model A might be bid to over $40K-$50K. Post some photos of the interior and exterior, and underside of your Travelodge, and we can help you much better. GLong
  6. Having only a strap type ground from the battery to the chassis is not enough. Make a dedicated ground CABLE from 1/0 or 2/0 welding cable. Solder the loop ends on the cable. Put one end on the pinch bolt of the grounding battery clamp, and put the other end under the head of one of the starter-mounting bolts. Use a star washer between the cable end and the starter-body or mounting ear. When you are experiencing a humidity-related no start, you said you can just barely hear the solenoid clicking. I'll suggest that the solenoid has some dry dust from the starter brushes or road dirt on the moving parts: the piston moving inside the electromagnet of the solenoid. When damp, the dust is more like mud, and is causing the solenoid to move slow, with low energy, and it can't close the contacts. I'd take the solenoid off, and apart and make sure it is perfectly clean inside. The Tractor supply solenoid is a great idea. GLong
  7. Tom, there recently was a correct Stromberg O-3 on Ebay, with a buy-it-now of $999.00 . It did sell. The Pierce-made carburetors were actually very, very good carbs. My 1919 has it's original carb and it is an amazing piece of engineering and quality construction. The Series 80 carbs work well. But they must be set up right, and the rest of the car be set up right. My extensive experience with Series 80 carbs shows that most of the problems blamed on the carburetor are either points and condense problems, or old gasoline, and problems from lack of use. I was at a friend's collection in early June, he had called said he had major carburetor problems with his Series 80. When I took a look, the needle was stuck [ more like GLUED ] in full up/open position. GLUED? yep, by the varnish and residue from old gasoline around the float bowl top where the needle rides up and down under the domed acorn-shaped nut [if the nut is still there, most are missing]. Some carburetor cleaner and some manual moving of the needle soon had the carb working correctly. The problem is we have with cars that sit for a year or two, with gasoline evaporating in them, leaving behind all sorts of goo and gunk is not the fault of the carburetor, it is just what is. The standard series 80 carburetor is simpler than the carburetor on your Briggs and Stratton lawn mower's engine. It just needs to be kept clean, and be understood. The needle and float assembly and the two 'teeter-totter' arms that move the needle in the opposite direction of the float are subject to being gummed up from evaporating gasoline, and get wear on them from vibration. The pivot pins often get notches worn in them causing erratic action of the float and needle, and the pivot holes sometimes wear oblong.. Treat these pivot pins and holes like the parts of a clock, replace the worn pins, and rebush the oblong holes. The carb's main-jet needs to be understood and used, that is drive the car often. My 1926 Series 80 Town Car, Durham Bodied, is kept on display in the Pierce Arrow Museum at the Gilmore CCCA Museum in Hickory Corners Michigan. Each year when the Pierce Arrow Society has their 'Gathering at The Gilmore' late-August meet, I open the fuel shut off under the vacuum tank on the firewall, I watch the needle in the carburetor drop as the float bowl fills, then I start the engine with a short squirt of primer from the driver's seat. Shutting off the fuel and running the carburetor dry is critical to have this reliable start up each August.. Do not leave the gravity-pressure from the Stewart Warner vacuum tank on, to slowly leak past the brass needle/brass seat. Gravity will win, the carb will have more evaporation residue. Take care, GLong
  8. And a great time was had by all !! GLong
  9. Please joint the Pierce-Arrow Society as Dale had. There is a North East Region that has a get-together each year. The Pierce Arrow Society has an annual meet each year in various parts of the country. This year, 2018, the meet was in Grimy's back yard: North of San Francisco in Sonoma Wine Country. It was a wonderful meet. Several PAS members from New England arrived and had a great time. Next year, June 10-June 16, 2019, the PAS Annual Meet will be in NE Indiana, in the Pokagon Indiana State Park. We will have 3 days of touring and a great car show/judging show on the grounds of the host Inn within the State Park. If you can come, we'd sure like to see you and your wonderful car at this meet. Look on the Pierce-Arrow.org website for more information, or in the PAS publications. GLong
  10. The Pierce Arrow Society Annual Meet is always a great event. We are a DRIVING car club. Each day we departed Rohnert Park [5 miles south of Santa Rosa] and immediately were on country roads heading to the Redwoods, the Pacific coast, a Winery Tour or one of several spectacular car collections. Here are a few pics I took. My '32 Convertible Coupe/Roadster In front of the School House from the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'The Birds'. A warning sign we ignored. My '32 CCoupe/Roadster and my '25 Touring at the top of the climb. Next year the Annual Meet will be in NE Indiana June 11-16th GLong
  11. Hi FourSpeed, I just sent you a message. Greg L
  12. To free up the steering, jack up the front axle take the car's weight off of the kingpins and thrust bearings.. Pump 'special compound' through the kingpin zerks while moving the steering from lock to lock.. keep pushing 600w or even 140 weight through the kingpins until the steering does not improve any more.. Working on the steering gear box is a similar process. What happens way too often is that the zerk fitting on the top of the steering gear box as an indication to put chassis grease in the steering box. Since chassis grease does not 'flow', when chassis grease is put in a steering gear box, the upper and lower shaft bushings don't get lubrication, nor does the pitman shaft get any new lubrication once the old 'special compound' weeps out. The steering gear box, inspite of being full of 'a' lubricant, it will not get to the areas that need lubrication.. If can, remove the steering box's inner cover and scoop, then wash out the chassis grease.. Then reinstall the cover, and fill with a light gear oil, like 80-90wt. Keep working the steering wheel from lock to lock, The lighter weight gear lube will work it's way into the bearings and bushings. Once the lubricant has made it's way into all the dry bearings and bushings,, you will start to see the thin gear lubricant will start leaking out the pitman arm and the bottom of the gear box's seal around the throttle and timing rods. You can remove the steering box cover and let the light lubricant drain, or you might be able to use a suction gun with a thin suction tube. Replace with 600w or thicker gear lubricant. With the very extensive and well done restoration on this car, i doubt that the steering box was ignored. So the stiffness in the steering system seems most likely to be lubrication-related.. Greg Long
  13. Hey RustyJazz, I have a few rough-castings of water pump impellers, that could be machined to work in your pump. If you are at all interested, please email me, and we can get together and see if any of them will work for you. Email: DualValve@gmail.com I'm in SE Michigan, so the logistics should be easy. Greg
  14. Hello Rusty. I have several water pumps that are NOT Studebaker, but I might be able to salvage an impeller that might fit in your pump housing. I'd need to see more of your pump housing to see the design of the pump. I also have two or three different new repro castings of water pump impellers that might be workable. I'm in SE Michigan as well, about 18 miles south of Flint. Send me an email message to: DualValve@gmail.com and we can see if we can get pump housings and impellers together. GL.
  15. I usually have good luck with Amazon. The US Postal flat rate box shipping is brutal though. I've had lightweight boxes shredded, and have had a heavy box show up with a side ripped open and half the parts missing. And it's not just the cardboard boxes that are brutalized. I carefully packed a freshly babbited connecting rod, and shipped it to myself from the west coast. When it arrived the big end of the rod was hanging out of the box, and half the babbitt had been knocked off the rod cap, that takes some serious impact and force. Thankfully I had insured it well. GregL
×
×
  • Create New...