Jeff Trahan

I restored my 1955 Roadmaster a few years ago and it has been quite reliable. I had to completely rebuild the engine but I never did any work on the transmission, just changed the fluid and some seals. It has almost 100K miles on it (almost all before the restoration). In the past year or so, I have noticed that when starting from a stop in Drive, the transmission sometimes seems to "slip", causing the engine to rev but resulting in only slow forward progress. It seems to happen most when warm and when trying to start off fairly quickly. Any advice on what might be wrong? I changed the transmission fluid (again) but it didn't help. If I start off in Low instead of Drive, it seems fine then I just shift to Drive after reaching about 5-10 MPH then it goes along fine in Drive after that. Thanks. Jeff

I'm pretty confident I figured it out. The point gap was practically zero. That's why four consecutive cylinders in the firing order were getting no spark when it entered sputtering mode. I should have thought of that earlier but I had the distributor professionally rebuilt less than ~250 miles ago and I just assumed it was still in top condition. I was wrong. After adjusting the gap and confirming the dwell at ~26 degrees, I took it for a ride and it was fine.

I didn't get the spark testers yet but couldn't wait to try it out so I pulled plug wires one at a time when my car entered sputtering mode. By the way, if anyone knows how to do this without getting zapped dozens of times, let me know. If I needed a pacemaker, I don't need one anymore with all the electricity coursing through my body. Anyway, it turns out that only four cylinders are sparking during sputtering mode. So I think we isolated this to an electrical issue, which my son suggested a few weeks ago. I thought it was a fuel issue. Damn kids know more than I do about these old cars. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, which means I am prohibited from working on cars. Any additional suggestions you have would be appreciated. I can try again next weekend. Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them out. The carburetor is a two-barrel and the distributor has only one set of points. I ordered some inline spark testers to see which ones may be dropping. If it is a fuel issue, it could be a problem with one side of the carburetor that feeds half the cylinders.

My '47 Cadillac flathead spontaneously enters sputtering mode. As you can see/hear in the attached video, it idles fine at startup on the fast idle cam but then after several seconds it starts missing badly. After it starts sputtering, I manually rev it up a little and it's still at the same point of the fast idle cam, runs fine again for several seconds, then enters sputtering mode again. Any ideas what is going on? It also does the same thing when driving hot or cold. When it's hot, it sits and idles great at about 400 RPM without entering sputtering mode. Jeff https://youtu.be/wWFP92yaSgc

I took a Carter fuel filter off a '38 Cadillac (assume it's not OEM standard equipment) that has a glass bowl and what appears to be a ceramic filter. I can't get the ceramic filter element off and I'm wondering if it isn't meant to be replaced. Would you advise just cleaning it (Chem-Dip, Brakleen?) and not worry about trying to change the element or convert it to a "modern" paper-type filter? Thanks. Jeff

What is the ritual for revive an engine? Should I go through that now or try the additive?

I recently bought a 1963 Riviera from my uncle. His father purchased it new but drove it sparingly for about 10 years. It was in storage for over 40 years until about two years ago when we got it running again. We ran it for a few minutes and everything seemed fine. Then several months later we tried to start it again and there is a clicking noise that sounds like it's coming from the valve train every time the front-most valve on the right cylinder bank opens. What could be causing that? After we heard the noise we didn't try to start it again. Thanks for the help. Jeff

I'm restoring a 1931 model 96 and would like advice on body color. I understand that there was not a color code on the build tag in 1931 but my car appears to have been the color that is shown in the original brochure: black fenders and lower body, brown mid-body, and black upper body (see attached photo). Does anyone have a matching modern paint code? From some other sources, it appears I will also need to find the code for the "vermillion" stripes. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. Jeff

I'm attaching a picture of my car's starter/solenoid. When I got it, I was told to press down on the top piece (above the spool of wire) to crank the engine. But now all the wires have been disconnected. How do I re-wire it to crank with the dash-mounted starter button? Jeff

That makes sense. He has a '31 Buick 96 that needs a major restoration. Thanks for identifying the parts! Jeff

I got the pictured bumperettes from my uncle but don't know what car they're for. Can anyone help? Thanks. Jeff

I received my Marvel carburetor back from Classic late last week. Thanks to everyone for the help.

I received my Schebler SX carburetor back from Classic Carburetors (just returned, not rebuilt) but they still have my Marvel TD. I hope they're still working on returning carbs to everyone but it's strange that they didn't send both of mine back at the same time. Jeff Trahan

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I don't know why it was partially torn down. My grandfather bought the car about 40 years ago and I think he never worked on it. It's just been sitting there. One post above mentioned pistons, valves, and timing gears are available. How about connecting rods, push rods, valve springs, rocker arms, cam shafts, hardware, etc.? Is it only the block, crank shaft, head, and manifolds I need to worry about? Thanks.