Cubelodyte

Guess I was just looking for an excuse to bust out with the chemistry.

I've just yanked the master brake cylinder on my 1952 Roadmaster so that I can rebuild it (it's been leaking past the piston). I've been thinking about giving it an electrolytic bath to get all the rust off the outside since it's an irregular surface (the bore still looks great and the reservoir seems free of rust, but I haven't put my bore scope in there yet). It worked great for my water pump. But now I'm wondering if I could somehow screw up the bore... I mean, it's all just steel, right? Just looking for a sanity check.

No, you read it right, but I haven't been able to reproduce that behavior. Or maybe my memory's really slipping and I left the keys in it and the ignition on all night (it was some months ago), but since the keys are on the same ring as my commuting car, it's pretty difficult to forget 'em...

I'll take a look at the distributor, hopefully sometime this evening... but I can report that there is no voltage across the coil terminals with the ignition off.

I have a problem with my 1952 Roadmaster. There doesn't seem to be any spark. Several months ago, I was driving it around the neighborhood just to get it some exercise when the engine quietly died. Luckily I was already headed home and literally only a couple of blocks away. Pushing all that iron those couple of blocks still wasn't any fun, I tell you what. Since it was hot, I thought it might be vapor lock, since it had happened before (though only after I stopped the engine on a hot day, not in the middle of running). I waited a few hours and tried to start it. No love. I tried again the next morning, and still, the engine cranked, but wouldn't start. I verified there was plenty of fuel. Here's what I've done since then: Replaced the (original) coil. Now here's a weird thing about that; the morning after I put the coil in I went to look at the engine and found the coil was hot to the touch, without the ignition having been on. This made me suspect some kind of horrible short somewhere, but I really had no idea where to look. Replaced the (original) voltage regulator. I figured if the regulator was going south, who knows what bizarre behavior could be seen further down the circuit. Replaced the battery. As I was about to polarize the generator after replacing the regulator, I noticed the battery (which always wept for some reason, and I didn't know how old it was) was bulging under the positive post. Yikes. Replaced the coil again. A buddy of mine suggested that possibly the replacement coil was suspect- not a contributor to the original problem, of course, but because it sat and fried for a whole night. Used a spark tester on each of the plug wires- no spark. Tried grounding the wire from the coil to the block as it cranked- no spark. Replaced the wire from the coil to the distributor. Checked the voltage across the new battery terminals: 6.26V Checked the voltage across the new coil terminals: 5.36V (seems like a problem for sure, but I don't know where that points me). My fear is that there's a fault in the wiring harness somewhere, which won't be cheap to fix. Not that I expected this to be an inexpensive hobby, but still. The only thing I haven't examined is the generator, but I am not sure what to look for if that's failed. Any thoughts or advice would be most graciously accepted.

Good luck with that. As I understand it, and like Eric W said, the "mustache bars" are one of the scarcest items for these cars. It'll probably require a lot of time or luck to track one down.

FYI the URL referenced is incorrect (the domain doesn't exist). It's actually http://originalauto.com. At first I thought maybe they'd gone out of business or something.

avgwarhawk, are you suggesting that I might have swapped one (or more) of the cables in the wrong positions on the cap? I could certainly check that. I thought I was being careful... The wire are only two years old or so. I wouldn't think they'd be failing yet, but I suppose I could check.

My '52 has felt like it was randomly missing cylinders for some time now, and on a half-educated guess I decided to look at the distributor. When I opened it up I found the breaker points looked a little the worse for wear (but not obviously destroyed), the cap contacts were slightly blackened, and the rotor contact looked like it had seen better days. So I figured I found my culprit, and ordered a distributor rebuild kit from Bob's. Replacing the parts seemed easy enough, but I ran into trouble when it turned over but wouldn't start. After a little tinkering I realized the breaker arm probably wasn't in the correct position, so I adjusted it until the engine started reliably. Which is great, but... The engine is obviously unhappy. It's got an extremely pronounced rhythmic sound and feel, and the whole car vibrates along with the rhythm of the engine. Here's what I'm talking about: I haven't done anything to any other component of the ignition system. Am I looking at a misfire? Did I somehow create a timing issue? I made sure all the ignition wires seemed securely in their sockets on the distributor cap. I'm learning as I go with this car, so I'm no garage veteran. Google didn't seem much help because all it wants to return is articles about timing chains and OBD II codes. I feel like I just kinda broke my Roadmaster.

Just wanted to chime in to say that my '52 RF brake also jammed up so hard that I didn't dare drive more than 25mph with it, for fear of having to careen wildly to the right and lose control of the car if I really needed to jam on the brakes. I replaced all the hoses and braking has been smooth and even ever since. Just in case you had any lingering doubts...

I've never purchased from Coker, so can't kibitz about that, but early on was steered to Lucas Tires and they've been great. I'm sure Coker is on top of their game but Lucas knows their bias ply tires backwards and forwards as well.

FYI the colors I rejected were: Hirsch's Buick Turquoise (too green, as others have noted) CARS's Buick Turquoise (this was a joke; it was really, really green- it belonged nowhere near a '52 block). Duplicor "Torque n' Turquoise" (Eye-poppingly loud and bright) Duplicolor DE 1610 Pontiac Blue VHT SP122 ...so I guess it was six colors I tried, not seven. But anyway, there you go.

I'm probably going to be crucified for this, but it isn't a GM color. It's a Mopar enamel, P4120752AB. I purchased a total of seven turquoise rattle-can colors and the Mopar was unquestionably the closest to the extant color on the valve cover, crankcase, and my oil pan (question: were those normally painted the same color as the engine?). By itself or with Krylon Crystal Clear, it's a tiny bit lighter and bluer than my original paint but I found that the application of a clear engine enamel that dried a little darker than "clear" (I'm pretty sure I used Rust-Oleum 248944, but a nagging little voice in the back of my head is telling me I used Duplicolor DE1636). It's hard to tell in the picture I attached, but the oil filler cap has been given the clear enamel treatment- the valve and plug covers just have Krylon on 'em. If you saw it in person you'd be able to see that the filler cap is a better match to the color on the crankcase.

It's not stuck, per se; it just seems to always want to spring open as soon as the accelerator is pressed. Maybe I managed to screw up/misconfigure the linkage somehow (though I didn't disassemble the carburetor at any point).

Well, I may have run across a new problem. It doesn't want to start unless I prime the secondary carb barrels. The carb is certainly getting fuel; when the accelerator is depressed to start the engine fuel squirts out through the pump jets above the primary barrels but the engine doesn't catch. When I prime the secondary barrels, it does. I fiddled with the choke valve and found that when it's closed the engine does want to start, but not when it's open. I seem to recall that when I'd inspected the engine some time ago the choke valve was closed by default when the engine was off, but now it's always open. Though perhaps I'm misremembering things. I've skimmed the shop manual but don't see anything explicit with regards to troubleshooting this. The end of section 3-46 might hold some clues but it'll have to wait until the morning.

I got an to me again last night.The weird relay chatter aside, I started thinking about the observed results when jumping from the battery to the solenoid and starter motor, respectively. When I ran the jumper to the solenoid, it engaged but the motor did not spin. When I ran the jumper to the motor, it spun. So clearly (in hindsight) the motor was okay, but the solenoid wasn't completing the circuit for some reason. I disassembled the solenoid and cleaned it up. The steel disc inside had a nice coating of copper on it and the bottom of the negative/ground terminal looked kind of misshapen, bearing the impression of the disc. I reassembled it and put it and the starter back in. I also took advantage of the "slots" in the solenoid base to move the solenoid closer to the motor arm linkage. Now it cranks just fine. I'm thinking that perhaps the ground terminal's erosion was the cause of the problem, and by shoving the solenoid housing closer to the linkage, the piston can mash the button further, making a solid connection with the terminal again. Thanks so much for all the advice. You guys are the best.

No, I'd jumpered the solenoid previously before any disassembly and the solenoid clanked right into place but that was it. No cranking occurred, so the engine doesn't start. When I pulled the starter I disassembled the solenoid- the copper post on the inside looked a little burnt. I've got a picture around here somewhere... I put the starter back on tonight without the solenoid just to see if the motor itself was okay, which it seems to be. Spins just fine when jumpered.

Yep, they're supposed to be painted in the colors you've noted.

Also: get the engine-appropriate laser-cut vinyl decals from Bob's- you'll be happy you did. The other decals floating around out there don't look nearly as good (they're just stickers silkscreened on a clear label).

Here's mine. The original color can be seen on the crankcase below. I didn't take any samples to get a custom-mixed match, but I found a color that was pretty darn close. I'd also like to reiterate what others have said- the Hirsch color is really too green. Hirsch is supposed to be the end-all of engine paint colors but it doesn't match my original paint at all. And stay away from the CARS paint- that's an even darker green and it looks like it belongs on the V8s, even though they'll tell you it's for a straight eight.

Finally found the time to get back into the garage. Solenoid still does its thing. Put the starter motor back in and ran a jumper from the battery. The motor spun just fine. On to the plugs and the cranking... UPDATE: Pulled the plugs, I can crank it. Even though the relay looks fine, perhaps it's in need of a rebuild, or the batter just isn't up to the task after all.

I certainly hope it's the former as well. I finally got around to pulling the starter motor yesterday, but perhaps I should get a fresh battery and try that? I can't imagine why it would have seized; can an engine seize from a cold crank? I suppose I can pull the plugs again and attempt to rotate the shaft just to make sure that's not the case. Man, that would really suck, to say nothing of draining what remains of my budget, if it's seized.

I rigged a wire to the small terminal on the end of the solenoid. I turned the ignition to on and touched the other end of the wire to the positive battery terminal. The solenoid engaged quite vigorously but nothing else happened. I wasn't pushing the carb switch button at the same time, though; should I have been?

No, that's something I hadn't tried yet. I'll give that a spin tomorrow. But offhand, I can't imagine that the relay was wired incorrectly, because I hadn't touched it since I got the car a bit over a year ago- also, it did crank until I threw gas down the carburetor barrels (not that I think the two are related at this point). I'll try your suggestion and see what happens. One thought I just had was that the wiring harness seems to be original... no telling what might have decided to start shorting out.

Well, I finally got back to the jalopy to switch out the switch. It certainly works as advertised but even after charging the battery for a good six hours or so the relay still buzzes/chatters. I'm thinking perhaps the solenoid decided to die?