m-mman

The trailer screams flipper and he likely paid $5000-$7000. The market price. Doubling your investment is the target sales price for these entrepreneurs.

It has a lot going for it. Color, options, etc. However I don’t think the seller appreciates how much time, money and effort a recommissioning takes. After all it WAS 100% functional the last time they saw it so how bad could it be now? A basic full wake up is at least $2000 in parts. At least 80 hours IF nothing is seriously wrong. Fixing all the accessories is many more hours. A new top (the old one has just a few foldings left in it) is at least $1000, probably more like $2000. At $19k I would expect a running sorted car. What’s it worth in this condition? $7k to $10 and I would call. But sellers rarely accept 50% off their initial asking price. Instead they keep listing and hoping for months, sometimes years.

Conservative value type buyers who pay cash and save their possessions for future use. The play the long game. Convertible buyers are status seeking fashion conscious buyers who live for the moment, buy on time (or lease) and plan to dispose of their car even before they buy it. (Every 2 year buyers) Their rapidly depreciating car (who wants a 2 year old red convertible?) hits the used market and is quickly used up and junked.

Ahhh yes those ancient ignition systems aren’t always that easy. Like many multi-cylinder systems the H-V12 uses two six cylinder systems that share a single coil. Yup, one set of points operate 6 of the twelve cylinders and the other set works the other six. The vacuum advance doesn’t pull something to advance the spark, it is a vacuum brake that releases allowing the centrifugal advance to happen. All this in a distributor that is inaccessible when installed. No surprise that Pertronix doesn’t have a drop in “upgrade”. For this car the Lincoln Zephyr Owners Club is your friend. Certainly join it and begin networking, but until then go to their website www.LZOC.org. Then go to the technical and referral page that lists the many suppliers and technical experts. One or two calls will direct you to the person who has the Ford distributor machine and can properly set up your unit.

1. Identification- have you ever tried posting an ancient or orphan car on Facebook? You are forced into selecting the title from the few that are available. You cannot list a car under any title you want. Facebook, Craigslist, etc are not populated by car experts. They are 99% people who have no idea what their car is, or what price it will take to get it sold. I fully expect poor descriptions and high asking prices. If you want a good description and market prices, may I suggest a collector auction company. BTW - they will provide you with a title. 2. while you may see this as a heap, it is actually very restorable. These Hudson trucks are very popular. Being a truck they, are easier to fix than the passenger cars. Sad to say that many are not restored stock, they are very attractive to rodders. AND since the Hudson club has never done judging many are “Hudson rodded” by Hudson people. Later Hornet motors etc. 3. This Not Mine forum IS the place to post cars that are being offered in other sites that someone might not search or review often (or ever). There are no restrictions here as to price or condition. There have been multimillion dollar cars posted and there have been parts cars posted. There have been many cars that I have absolutely no interest in. (For whatever reason). In those cases I either don’t click or move on. I have been surprised at how much I have learned in the discussion that develops after a posting, so sometimes just read the comments from the experts. The searching and reposting takes a lot of time and effort. I have posted a few. I am grateful to the regulars who do find the cars and PROPERLY post the links, the text and the photos. When I have posted an ad takes me about 10 minutes to click, copy, save and format an AACA post. I extend my thanks to those people who make the effort to do this. None of them are profiting from this effort. I will never complain about what they post (again if I don’t like it, I move on) It would be wonderful if every “not mine” listing was for cars that excited me at prices and locations that made me want to investigate and purchase, but this is not realistic. I only follow a few forums on this board and this is one that I look at daily. and Happy New Year to everyone.

Nope, not an easy repair. A speedometer works by spinning magnets around a steel drum. The magnets are spun by the cable, the faster they spin the greater the magnetic field that moves the drum that is attached to the needle. The magnets and the drum never touch. The cable doesn’t make noise. BUT the bearings (aka Jewels) that position the spinning magnets does make noise. (When they are worn out. They aren’t designed to be lubed, they last “the life of the car”). Most likely your spinning magnets touched the drum, slamming it into the stop at 100 mph. Speedometer work is similar to jewelry and watch repair. Unless you have the tools and skill set it is best to let an expert repair it. Look up speedometer repair in your area. Big trucks need this service. Otherwise I recommend Bobs speedometer repair. He does old cars. He is not cheap, but his quality is outstanding.

Oops…….forgot the bier pins! 😁

You DO know your Oldsmobiles.

While the VIN is for a 4bbl engine, there is currently a 2bbl manifold and what looks like a mid-late 60s carburetor on it. was the engine changed or just the manifold? Still a good starting point for a 1960.

Remember the quiz is to reinforce Mopar design features and concepts to Mopar mechanics working solely on Chrysler vehicles…….

Please explain further. 1. the speedometer was working fine? 2. You removed the cable from the back, because? 3. You wanted to lube the cable? 4. You reinserted the cable into the housing (outer cable)? 5. You insured that the cable was fully seated into the outer “cable” and transmission? 6. You reconnected the cable to the speedometer? 7. The needle immediately moved to the 100+ mark when connecting the cable? 8. The needle immediately moved to below zero when connecting the cable? 9. You connected the cable to the speedometer, drove as fast as possible and the needle is stuck at 100+? 10. You reconnected the cable to the speedometer drove at a slow speed and the needle was bouncing radically eventually becoming stuck at either zero or 100+? Details are critical to offer troubleshooting advice.

Unsure about the size, but in the late 50s-60s Ford used a similar cam type bolt that connected the brake pedal to the master cylinder rod. It could make small adjustments to the brake pedal height. I think the idea was to match the brake and clutch pedals.

Not sure what the license plate hobby would call it, but it’s use (if the Pasadena is in California) was to show that landscape and construction companies had paid the necessary fees to work within the city limits. So it would only have been attached to trucks.

Oh, just discovered in rereading. The meter I am using is 2 wire. One to coil and one to ground.

Just to add to the discussion. Connected to positive ground. Point(s) closed Point(s) open

When cold the choke is “closed”. (Blocking incoming air to make a rich mixture that the cold engine needs) After warm up the choke plate falls away allows more air which returns the mixture to normal. Black smoke is classic rich mixture. The choke plate has thermostatic springs and linkages to make it work. It’s very easy to have it stick and not open when it is warm. Also the choke sets when it’s cold but really doesn’t open much/well just idling. It needs the throttle to open up and then the plates and linkages fall away. And if they are sticky? or bent? Or just out of adjustment? There will be issues.

If the carburetor provided a good consistent mixture I’m sure that it would be a wonderful driving experience.

Tachometer settings Slow idle 500-600 RPM shown.

More images. connected as if negative ground. wires reversed (positive ground) dwell setting. 15(?) double for a four cylinder(?) is 30 degrees for an 8 cylinder??

Photo to add to the this informative discussion.

Absolutely not! I’m not interested in messing with the inside of the distributor after a knowledgeable person has set it up. My original question was about evaluating the engine with a tachometer. Yeah that’s pretty much any old car part. The hurdle is getting it into that factory correct condition. ☹️ Technical information on Johnsons is not “abundant” even about the theory of operation. Ed says that he has spent up to 80 hours fixing a Johnson , including machining. That is beyond my resources. And when Jon doesn’t express confidence in being able to make one function I know that I am not going to tinker my way into a solution.

Thanks everyone. Yes it is a four lobe cam. Ed set up the distributor on his machine so I know that it is correct for gap, dwell(?) advance, etc. there are marks on the flywheel and the distributor rotates (can adjust the timing from the dashboard) I used a timing light to adjust the timing for both sets of points/cylinders so they are correct. The car still runs poorly but that’s because of the original Johnson carb that both Jon and Ed condemn highly. (both have no ready suggestions for a replacement). But my concern was evaluating the RPMs. At some moments it accelerates great and the next moment it “hits the wall” and revs only slightly above idle. Then it may/may not run well for the next shift. I’m confident that it’s all carb, but I was going to try to track how much it revs and if it hits the wall at a consistent top RPM. Other Cadillac folks have custom built a downdraft manifold and use a modern carburetor. I don’t know, I like original, but this thing is almost as frustrating as Matt’s Lincoln. I work on it, get frustrated, put it away for months then drag it out and tinker with it some more. I drug it out now to see if I can get it usable for our “Holiday Motor Excursion” tour, but maybe it still ain’t ready enough.

The car is a 1929 Cadillac. Single distributor, single coil but dual points. One set fires 4 cylinders the other points fire the other 4 cylinders. Connect a tach dwell meter. Connect it “backwards” because it’s positive ground. 6/12 volt? Not sure that it matters with this tester. Dwell reads 15(?). The distributor has been professionally set up so I know that the points are correct. Is the dwell doubled? Hummmmm…. I Know the points are correct, reading is academic and not critical. BUT what about the tachometer? Wide open it reads 2000 RPM. Hard to estimate if that’s correct. Do you double the tach reading also?

The death, the grief and the seller’s eyes are covered by the welding glasses of sentimentality. Eventually the grief will fade, reality will shine through and they will be able (be forced?) to make a deal.

Actually Ford used a snap in cover, Mercury had a zip in cover. 😉