lincolnmatthews

Thanks Ray500 for a very informed reply! I will have to wait on this repair for awhile. At least I will know how to deal with this at a later date. Thanks all!

Thanks you guys! It's definitely the gear box, sounds like I really need a 4 post lift! There's no way that I want to work under the car 4ft in the air! I don't think fiddling with shims in the car is the way to go, although the service book says to remove shims on the worm gear (attached to the steering shaft). But if that doesn't fix it then they say to pull sector shaft and re-shim at this point it would be to difficult in the car as you guys said. Once disconnecting everything under the car and removing the steering wheel will the shaft just slide out?

Anybody ever remove there gearbox? As I understand (maybe incorrectly) that the shaft from the steering wheel is one piece all the way into the gear box with no connection joint. Is this correct as I see no way to get the car high enough to slide it out of the tube without a car lift?? Seems like a ridiculously stupid design. I found in one of my old Chilton's where you could service the slop by removing shims, therefore not removing the box. I had thought about removing it and maybe sending to Lares in CA for a refurbishment, but not if the whole shaft has to go with it. Anybody ever had there gear box rebuilt by them? I have an awful lot slop in my gear box and need to do something. I may have just resign to the fact that I may just try going the Chilton's route and try removing shims while in the car! Why I didn't do this a year ago when I had the engine out! Thanks for any help

Thanks Abe, actually started a new topic on this "it's all in the carburetor" Just quickly I rebuilt the carbs myself changed out the p/valves from 7.5 to 4.5's and put in the adjustable jets. All purchased from Vintage Speed, all is now. So smooth and runs like a dream! I learned a lot about dual carbs and this issue. Just goes to show that once again you really have to do things yourself and do the research. Thank everyone for your help!

I started a couple of threads regarding my V-12 not running good after fresh engine & getting 2 rblt carbs off eBay for my dual carb Edelbrock. Couldn't get it jetted right no matter what combinations of jets. I must say everyone on this site was helpful & patient! The carbs just didn't sound right the air just wasn't smooth & quite if that makes sense. After much research I decided to pull them off again & go thru them myself. I read where I needed a 3.5 or 4.5 power valve I saw where the rebuilder had put in 8.5's! He said he put in 6.5's & knew it was for dual set up. I noticed on the tear down there was crap in one of the Holley idle tubes, so this explained why no matter how I adjusted the mixture screw it made no diff. I'm running a filter before my electric fuel pump & one before my sediment bowl, do I have clean fuel. Anyway I ordered 2- 4.5 power valves & 2 sets of the adjustable jets for the 94 Holley from Vintage Speed, not cheep but IMHO it's the only way to go on multiple carbs! Instructions say 1 turn out initially & it started right up & purred like a kitten! It fell flat on its face on acceleration but backed the jet adjustments out in 1/4 increments (richer) it ran very very good! Very smooth transition from idle to cruising. So much smoother, car has never run this good in the 30+ years! I know this is a long thread, but maybe it may help someone out there. I sure do recommend the adjustable jets kits that they sell, so easy to fine tune the carbs? Thanks again all for your help,(it's been a long struggle)

On going saga! I realized I had an old actual Zephyr carburetor it was jetted with # 55 jets! So I again rejetted to 55 no difference. So today I re-torqued the intake to 28#'s & re- jetted to 57@ the front & 54 on the rear carb. Not bad but still not where it should be! I think I've got carb issues, you can tell by the sound there just not smooth! I swapped out the coil & distributor & that made no diff! On one carb screwing the mix screw in made no diff but when I screwed the other one in, it killed the engine! So something is going on with these carbs! I guess a crappy rebuild? If it wasn't a grand for strombergs & all the Hassel fuel & linkage's this might be the way to go?

I mistakenly let the carbs go back to a "rebuilder" & didn't get same ones back. So don't know how it was jetted. I have a dual Edelbrock manifold where all ports are connected I believe. The carb guy jetted both carbs with #52's, the car wouldn't get out of its own tracks. I talked to an old guy back East who rebuilds distributors, pumps etc. He said to put 57's up front & 54's on the rear carb (he swears by this). Well I had #55 jets & put them in the back, car accelerates ok & seems to be good on the road (although hasn't been above 40 mph yet). Just is very difficult to get a very smooth idle & is rough idling till it is completely warmed up. Changed the tests out to 57 & can't say it's any better. I should mention this a newly installed rebuilt engine. Anybody running a dual carb set up (with Holley carbs), if so what jets are you running? Appreciate any help & suggestions. I really don't at this point want to spend more money for say Stromberg's? Thanks One last thing one of the mixture screws is kind of sloppy in the threads could I be sucking air here? Haven't tried any WD40 yet for leaks.

Noticed I was in the buy/sell wrong spot, sorry.

I absolutely love these cars! This one's coming up on the May Raleigh auction. I figure it will bring at least in the upper 40's what do you guys think? I could swing it but would take "a chunk" out of my retirement cash. Although I'm not making any int in the bank, but just recently dropped 12k rebuilding a V12 (other brand). Sure would love to own her, someday I would like to own a Packard. Must be very nice out on the hwy? What's my point of this post? I would kind of like to know what you guys think it will bring on auction day? I'm sure there's better auto investments other than an old Clipper, some cars of the 50's or of course muscle cars. But there so beautiful! Sorry I can't provide a link to this car. Thanks.

Well an update: my jet kit came in so I decided to mess around and re-jet the carbs. So the forward carb had 51's in it so I put the 57's in. Took it for a drive wow what a difference! Drove 90@ better smoother with only a slight hesitant on acceleration. But totally acceptable after what I'd delt with. So decided to pull the rear carb off and it had 51 jets! So I put the 54's in it. I couldn't really tell much difference although I think it was better. So obviously I had to small of jets in my carbs. The carb guy is sending me two newly reblt carbs jetted 57 and 54's. So I will keep the two best ones. As it was explained to me the Eldelbrock ports are all tied together (unlike an Edmunds manifold) so in my simple mind I really can't see what difference it makes having one carb richer and one leaner as there all tied together. Although the leaner rear carb might possibly be more apt to feed the rear cyls more because it's closer. At this point anyway I would have to say the 83 year old guy seems to know what he's talking about. I am going to continue to mess around with the jets in the rear carb. Going with 57 jets all the way around probably would be to rich. Only doing a plug check (several) will tell the story. Thanks for all your help and ideas!

Well thanks again both you guys! Your a wealth of experience! I was going to you Carbking but looked like I could only call you on Monday or Tues. At this point I'm going to have to deal with the guy I originally bought the Holley's from. He admits he hasn't much experience with a dual setup. Some guy Grant out of FL very nice & accommodating on the phone. I've already paid for these carbs and he's willing to send out 2 more free of chg. I will of course send the other 2 back. I've talking to John Richman from Mass. Who supplied my water pumps & going to do my distributor. He says he's done a lot of dual carb setups. He said to go with the 6.5 power valve & 57 jets (std on the AA-1 at least what I can tell) & 54's on the rear. So this is what I'm going to tell the guy in FL to do to the replacement. I know a lot more now than I did a month ago! Thanks again I will let you know how it turns out down the road.

Well Tom thank you for your time. You have given much to go on with all your experience. This fellow Charles Schwendler he's not associated with Vintage Speed shop is he?

A question for any of you dual carb guys: With direct linkage on my Edelbrock do you run the same jetting in both carbs? Currently #52 jets or run different jets on the back carb? One guy told me to run #57 on the front carb & #54's on the rear. ( This is older fellow who claims he has set up a lot of these, so he should know what he's talking about). But the carb guy says maybe this other guy thinks I'm running progressive linkage because he did say the front one is doing the most work. Haven't been able to confirm this with him yet. It would seem to me that with direct linkage both carbs would be doing equal work and therefore should be jetted the same or I would some cylinders running a different mixture. I can't remember the difference between an Edelbrock versus say an Offenhouser (sorry for the spelling). Most people say the Edelbrock is a better setup but can't remember if one carb feeds a certain set of cylinders or everything is combined. If one carb feeds 6 cylinders then I would think you would them jetted the same??? Thanks again for any help.

Thanks Tom, it's acts more like carburetion as it has tends to lope & has dead spots if I modulate the throttle. I moved the accelerator pump linkage to the Winter position seemed to be better. I probably didn't describe the symtoms accurately. It wasn't exactly like ignition miss. But I will what you said when I get a chance As I recall I do have some rotational play on my rotor (actually quite abit). Will this mess up my timing? This distributor hasn't been worked on for a long time. I think I'm going to pull it & send 2 back Jerry Richman to get reworked. Thanks again

Thanks Carbking for the link to the Carburetors Shop, very good reading sounds like Stromberg's are the way to go. I'll have to run the Holley's now for a while (tax time coming)! Thanks all you guys for your help.

Thanks Carbking, I'll re-synch my carbs in the closed mode. Do you believe there's that much of an advantage of the Stromberg's over the Holley's? I'm feel like I'm kinda tapped out now, can't justify spending a grand on Stromberg's at this point. I did talk to H&H Flatheads in CA on another matter a while back & he did recommend Stromberg's & wouldn't even rebuild Holley's. So maybe this may be my only way out. I've had the car over 30 years & it did run ok years ago with the Holley's, but replaced the carbs I had with these new rebuilt ones because I couldn't stop them from bleeding down after I shut off the engine.

Sorry thought my last post went thru, so I just resent it. Yes I have gaskets on both sides of both spacers. Good quality thick gaskets, but haven't tried spraying around the bases. Did fix 1 small vacuum leak on the intake threads where the 3/16" metal line goes to the distributor. Talked to the carb guy earlier he said most guys synchronize there carbs in the wide open pos which I did. But now it won't idle down, (one carb doesn't close off enough. So as I can tell there's no way around this. As there is some mechanical slop on the throttle shaft. He's going to send me 2 different carbs to try. I'm about to the point to pull off the dual manifold and go back to the original, might make things a heck of a lot easier! There maybe a highly polished Edelbrock manifold come up for sale!

Yes running straight linkage. I checked the firing order at the caps several times with a DOL (continuity tester). I have not synchronized the carbs other than adjust the linkage the best I can. Thought about swapping the carbs, although can't see what good this would do. Does anybody re-use there base gaskets? If I remove a carb I replace my gaskets but am running out of them. It sounds like it's carburetion issues to me. I wish I had 2 other carbs to try, if it duplicated it would be something else. I'm just done now for throwing more money at this time. I think your right carblink they must be Holley 94's. (I was going from memory).

Just recently installed a rebuilt engine (2nd time). Starts awesome, idles ok & seems to run ok in the shop. But out on the road it SUCKS big time! It seems to pull pretty good under acceleration but at a steady speed it misses & seems to have severe dead spots. If I push down on the throttle it seems ok. I have an Edelbrock dual manifold, & put on 2 rebuilt Holley 97 carbs from Carbmeister out of FL off eBay, they seem ok but who knows. I'm pulling only about 17 in of vacuum & the guage says "late ignition timing" I would like to see 20 in of vacuum. Can't see how it would be my distributor (it is old) if it is not missing under heavy acceleration. The front carb has a thick fiber spacer under the carb (with all new gaskets of course everywhere) where as the rear carb only has the 1/4" aluminum spacer with the vacuum port & hose going to the oil filler area for sucking out the fumes. Have plugged this off & still ran like crap. Sorry for the long post, I just have given up on ideas. Do you guys think it's carburetion versus electric? One last thing I didn't use any gasket compound on the intake or carb gaskets as I had a hell of a time removing the intake manifold when I did the 1st time when I had to pull the engine the 2nd time ( for an unrelated issue). If I had a spare set of carbs I would try swapping . Thanks for any help at all, I'm at my wit's end with this car!

Hi Tom, I did not see one listed on his add. Probably not, I think he said he just turned 83. He didn't want me to put the phone on "speaker" as he didn't think he would be able to hear as well. Also be conscious of the Massachusetts time zone!

As an alternative you might want to try Jerry Richman @774-218-1200 mass time. I just installed his rebuilt updated water pumps (bigger impellers) at $200 ea. They are working great. He told me he's doing the coils now. I think he said he learned from Skip on how to do them. I also installed two of his reworked condensers, they work great. I'm thinking about trying out one of his coils & also let him rework my spare distributor. Need to get this stuff while we can! So far been happy with Jerry's rebuilds. Todd Calder recommended him to me. All being LZOC members (I just recently re-joined after a long absence). Not trying to take anything away from Skip only trying to list an alternative, we all can use these with these old cars! Good luck!

Hi an update, took it back to them & they installed another. Pulled the closest main brg cap it looked good. I ended up buying a Snapon spring loaded punch kit & additionally staked all but one plug as much as I could. These punches worked pretty good, beat trying to do it with a punch & hammer. Finally got back in the car & started late Jan sounded ok other than a collapsed lifter (thought it might have been a bearing) it finally quieted down. Oil press was 50 & 20 at an idle. Took it for some test drives after 10 miles or so the oil press dropped to around 10+ or so at an idle & somewhere around 25 to 30 (as I recall haven't driven for about a month, gas tank is out of the car & new electric backup fuel pump.) Anyway would have liked to have seen more oil pressure when hot, found out they did not install the high volume oil pump, they put the std one. Oh well lots of places to loose oil press with hyd lifters etc. From what I have read on forums I guess my oil press is adequate. After cleaning the fuel tank the best t could got it installed yesterday hope to put some gas in it today & drain it out to help flush. Anyway that's the latest "time will tell" thanks for all your responses.

Ok thanks Larry.

Silly question I imagine but i have 42 block that the homebuilder said they installed 2 sleeves, which they probably did. My question is with the water jackets so close is it possible to sleeve these engines? The heads were installed when I picked it up, I recently pulled the pan and couldn't tell from the bottom end. Maybe the liners don't extend all the way down? I just honesty don't know, I'm sure there honest ( I did have to pull the pan and then the engine due to there screw up though) Thanks

No I didn't put the deflectors in Larry. I just got 2 rebuilt pumps from Jerry Richman, he kind of figured I didn't need them. Also had a new 5 row radiator built locally for whopping sum of $ 1800 which should keep the engine from over heating.