keninman

I should have been working on refinishing an antique dresser but instead Spinyhill got me interested in the speedo again. I though maybe the grease had dried out in the cable housing so I pulled it out of the firewall to put some 80w90 down it, (quite a lot actually) then I lubed the cable with grease on the way back in. I took the car for a drive and it quickly started the noise and bouncing. While still driving I reached down and unscrewed the cable. The noise stopped thought the cable was still spinning in the housing. I returned home and tried to take the speedo out. The top screw was easy the bottom was tough and finally broke off. Undaunted I took the speedo into the house. Using a small screwdriver to spin it I could duplicate the noise. I then took the speedo out of the housing. I discovered the noise was right at the top where the drive comes through the housing to drive the numbers. I tried a little PB Blaster and the noise and roughness stopped. I then used the small screwdriver to apply a little 5w30 since I had no idea what to use. The trip odometer also did not work but I discovered that after setting you need to pull the knob back out. I also found out that it registers to 90 mph. Now that was wishful thinking with 4.75:1 gears in the diff. I used Vice Grips to remove the broken screw and was able to find another old screw with the same thread but was a bit shorter. The originals were way too long anyway. I reinstalled the speedometer and cable then took it for a cruise. I also had a GPS speedometer up on my phone. It performed great. At first it showed a bit faster than the GPS but before long they pretty much agreed. That is better than my 2011 Hyundai which always shows 2-3 mph faster than you are traveling. I may need to take it out again if someone knows a more proper lube but for now it is working fine. I did get the car to 40 mph, downhill but was afraid to push it farther. I don't like reving that high with old cast iron pistons and rods. I wish now thought that I had taken many more pics while it was out of the housing. I guess the most difficult part was keeping fingerprints off of the glass while I put it back together.

I want to thank you both for your responses. Nvonada, I of course had to take the cable back out. It was fine when I first got the car but then the previous owner almost never drove it and it spent most of its life in a garage. The cable has rough spots so I figure it will need replaced. Grimy, the shocks are Delco-Remy Lovejoy shocks. The use canvas straps to attach to the axles. I have had the front one's off of the car and they do offer resistance but I was afraid to fill them up. I noticed one leaked a bit after it was cleaned an painted. Thanks for the info on how to fill, I would have messed that up. I am not sure where to find a speedo cable or rebuild kits for the Lovejoys. As for steering an bounce they are what I would expect. I was just commenting that unless the road was straight and smoothly paved that driving above 40mph would be challenging. I have not trued the tires up or balanced them yet either. Thanks again both of you.

We took the car on a drive to Greenfield today. It's about 12 and a half miles through the country. The car performed well. Using a GPS speedometer I often ran 35 o 40 mph and the engine was smooth. I believe the engine will now go faster but I am afraid of damaging it and we really don't need to go faster on the back roads anyway. It does bounce, especially crossing intersections though it never feels like it is out of control. It doesn't corner well either. A Mitchell would be nice but I could not afford it right now anyway. I had to remove its speedometer cable also. I makes a terrible noise. I tried Vaseline and even regular grease but nothing has worked. Perhaps some graphite but the cable feels rough in a couple of spots to me. Anyone ever experienced this?

I did finally get around to wetting with wd40. It clearly says Limosine Blue, pretty much the color it is now. Blast it I really wanted a Green car.

I have no earthly idea. How did the car come to be missing the rear fenders?

It looks like a normal mechanical diaphragm pump to me. If the tank is less than full and the incline great (such as loading on its trailer) it looses the ability to pump. My solution is to install an electric pump that I can engage when needed via a switch. Perhaps even just wire it to the ignition switch so that it operates any time the car is running. I took a friend for a ride this evening and the car performed great. I think the condenser and timing might have had a lot to do with my problems.

I should say that even with running problems the car won the People's Choice in the antique vehicle category at the Linton Freedom Festival Parade. Mayors Choice went to a 34 Dodge pickup owned by Bender Lumber. The Dodge ran out of gas and a passenger had to run and get 3 gallons in a can to make it through the parade . We were the oldest two vehicles in parade. There was also two 1950 Chevrolet pickups but one, owned by the Bloomfield State Bank lost its fuel pump and never got underway. The Apple Festival Queen was riding in some kind of antique roadster but it was too far away for me to identify it.

Yesterday while trying to load on the trailer mine ran out of gas in the carb because I was taking too long centering up on the ramp. The tank was nearly full. I had roll back off of the trailer and finally prime the carb with gas to get it back going. I think the fuel pump is weak, go figure. At any rate I plan to install an electric and connect it to a switch so I can kick it in if needed. I am pretty sure fuel will flow with it off but I will test first.

I did not find a ballast resistor but I suspected the condenser because my spark was weak with or without it connected. I went to Orielly's for another. I had to tell them it was a 1963 Chevrolet pickup to get one but I worked beautifully with a beautiful blue spark on all six plugs. After overheating on a cruise I found with a timing light borrowed from Jon Sarris that my timing was way fast. He donated the timing light to my cause and Duane Wilkerson donated a dwell tach. It is better but still won't go over 40 mph except down hill.

When I got to Sandborn and took it off of its trailer it was running so bad I had to do something. I found the points were badly burnt. I filed and no improvement. I ran through all wires and corrected a couple of problems. Still no improvement. I replaced the wire from coil to points no improvement. I looked and the points were already showinf signs of burning. I also noticed that they did not mate flush. While seeing what the problem was I noticed that the spring stratled the washer instead of of between it and the head. I rectified this and I ran like a raped ape. Much smoother but still can't get over 40mph and I would not want to hold it over 35 very long.

Mine stranded us on a county road switching drivers when I was going to teach Chanin to drive it. I checked for fuel at the carb and it was okay. Finally started after tapping on carb with wrench so I assume a sticky float. Never happed before or since.

The spark plugs are brand new Champions, The coil is a brand new Master Craft. The spark is blue every time I have checked. I will get dad's old timing light and dwell meter tomorrow. Dad's been gone since 2011, it was a long time before that any of used either of them. The wires are new, I made them myself from stranded core and soldered the ends. I double checked the gaps yesterday after the compression test and all are at .025. When I reinstalled the points I set them at .020. I pulled the plate out of the distributor and checked the weights and they move freely. One other thing I noticed is that there appears to be an adjustment for the timing chain tension. Could this be an issue?

The wires are new. I used as much original ends as I could, one was missing. The wire I bought is supposed to look like cloth but it is plastic and it is copper stranded. I soldered the ends for best connectivity. I bought new boots but not enough and had to reuse one old one. I have not bought a rotor or cap but they both look pristine. I am including a pic of the distributor. It is a 639J made about 20 miles from my house in Anderson, IN. I do have another carb, a Stromberg SFM-2 brass carb off of a boat. Everything seems good with it except I cannot free up the accelerator pump. I will have to make some modifications and make an adapter plate to mount it.

I had meant to post yesterday but I guess I lost what I had typed. I used a compression tester from Orielly's since mine seems to be on the blink. I had to make an adapter from a new Autolite spark plug. I ran through all of the cylinders first cold then warmed up the engine and repeated using the starter. I seen on another post that Studq had shared a paper that says the compression ratio of the Dictator Six is 4.8:1. Using yesterday's barometric pressure and converting it to PSI I calculated the correct compression should be 70 psi. I am not far off of that and I think acceptable for a nearly 90 year old engine Cold Hot 1 70 70 2 65 69 3 60 65 4 60 65 5 60 67 6 65 69 This makes me think that I probably don't have an issue with valves. It does not smoke or use oil so I imagine that my rings are okay also. This leaves carburation and timing. No matter what I have tried with the ignition timing I get little to no improvement. The only adjustments I see on the carb are idle air adjust which does not seem to change anything and idle speed. I will say that I have the idle set too high but sometimes it will still die at idle. The engine is just not really very smooth at any speed. We drove the car to Falls Park yesterday about 10 miles through the country. I ran most of the trip 30 to 35mph. It is just not very smooth and you could feel it miss sometimes. Any other ideas?

I know I am resurrecting an old thread but considering this problem, has anyone tried lowering the octane of 87 fuel by mixing with diesel? From what I have learned mixing 4 gallons of 87 octane gasoline with 1 gallon of diesel should lower the octane to about 77. The article warns about doing this for modern high compression 120 psi+engines not these old ones with 70 psi of compression. Putting Diesel into Gasoline Now, let's look at the reverse – you’re mixing a higher flash, heavier fuel into a base fuel (gasoline) that’s lighter, more volatile and burns at a much lower flash temperature. Despite these differences, putting diesel into gasoline won’t cause nearly as many problems as the reverse. The biggest concern is the reduction in octane. Thinking about how gasoline burns in an engine, octane rating is the measurement of gasoline’s ability to ignite at the right time – not too early. Gasoline with lower octane rating will ignite too quickly once it is injected into the chamber. The gasoline ignite and explodes, but the piston is still on its way up and the resulting pressure wave collision gives you (at best) a knocking sound and (at worst) damage to the piston and rod. In a sense, octane slows down combustion, it delays it. Gasoline needs to have an octane rating of 87-91 to fit today’s car engines. Diesel fuel has an octane rating of 25-40. Mixing 2% diesel fuel into gasoline will lower the overall octane rating by 1 point. Getting 10% diesel contamination lowers octane by 5 points, which is enough to create problems in most engines. The octane depression rises linearly with increasing percentages of diesel fuel in the gasoline. So higher levels of diesel contamination will damage the engine and give you blown pistons and cracked heads. More moderate diesel contamination will give you dirty combustion and can damage the engine over time if something isn’t done.

Ply33, that is a fantastic article you posted the link to. I enjoyed it very much. I have learned a lot since becoming the owner of a classic car. This one was already 36 when I was born. Two years younger than dad and 4 years older than mom. The only relative I have older than this car is uncle Glenn and he was only 3 when the car was new so I can't really ask him because he would not remember how people were driving in 29. I imagine he is familiar with this type of car since they would have still been plentiful when he began driving. He is the one on the far right of the picture. He and uncle Jimmy (the small boy) are the only two still living in that pic. My 29 Dictator is very low geared. Growing up, its first gear is what we would have called "granny low". It has a lot of torque, perhaps the high torque and low gearing was to reduce wear on the clutch. From what I have read, it does have cast iron pistons which would make me very hesitant to rev it very hard since metal fatigue might cause a rod to fail. It also has poured rod and main bearings which will be a real bugger to learn to replace. I guess one thing in its favor is that Studebaker engines were renowned for their endurance. I am just surmising and I am getting ready to test but my gut, and granted I have never really worked on any engine older than the early 1960s before, that I have valve problems. I would pull this head in a minute once I know I can get a replacement head gasket at a reasonable price if I cannot reuse this one. Dad taught me years ago how to reseal one with aluminum paint. It hasn't failed me yet even on modern cars. From what I can see on my inspection cam, and mind you I cannot see the seats or faces, the tops of the valves as well as the block have a lot of corrosion damage. I cannot image that the faces and seats are not suffering as well. Best guess is that even though the car seems to have been stored indoors most of it's life, the engine, not being ran often was condensing moisture and that was corroding the cylinders, valves and such that were not covered in oil. When I started working on it, I had to clean the brake, dash / map light and dome light switches because of corrosion. The last owner pretty much only drove it in a parade once a year. He bought it because they were both 29 models I know I am long but I do want to take the time to thank you and everyone who has responded. You all have helped. I am learning and I know I will have to bother everyone here much more before I even begin to become competent. Thanks all.

I did find this on Cleveland.com about historical speed limits. The article was discussing changing the modern speed limit to 70mph in 2012. These numbers lend a lot of credence to what Grimy said. From 1926 until 1940 it was only 35mph then reduced again back to 35mph for the war. History of Ohio speed limit, and top speed limits by state: Statistical Snapshot 1926 - 35 mph 1940 - 45 mph 1941 - 50 mph 1942 - 35 mph (x) 1945 - 50 mph 1958 - 60 mph 1963 - 70 mph 1974 - 55 mph (y) 1987 - 65 mph 2011 - 70 mph (z) x - Reduced for fuel savings during World War II. y - Reduced for fuel savings during energy crisis. z - Change for the Ohio Turnpike only. Source: Ohio Insurance Institute

So I guess tbis engine might be tooping out around 40mph. I will being back a tach to check the rpm with. Last night we went for a night cruise. With both headlights on bright I still did not feel safe driving much above 20mph. Ibwas also glad I already new the roads well or we would have been doing 10mph. 20mph is a speed too fast for 2nd and a bit low for 3rd. The engine seemed to give a uh uh uh sensation when cruising about 20mph that you don't feel at 30mph. I will say it is much improved from that very first test cruise when it backfired, carried on, would die at idle and refused once to restart and had to be pushed out of the road. I have also learned that it is a gas hog and I need to check the fuel level before cruising. I have not checked the distributor for weights yet. It is still my feeling that it should not cut out when reaching a certain rpm even if it becomes dangerous for the engine. The good news is that I never bought it for cruising at highway speeds only tooling the back roads though I would really like to go 45mph. Our back roads here are pretty nice.

I was lucky to find the Jack, handle, lug wrench and tire pump under the seat of our 29 Dictator. I am missing the crank and tool kit. I did put together a modern tool kit though.

I am using a gps speedometer to check speed. The one in the car is pretty accurate but bounces sometimes. The engine case is clean because I have been cleaning and painting it as I go. All wires, points, condenser and coil are new however i have not replaced the rotor and cap. I will hunt again for my dwell tach and timing light on the 4th.

Grimy, did you happen to listen to the engine at idle, especially the part at the exhaust. I also cannot get the vacuum up regardless of where I set the timing. To my ear it says valve problem. I ran the through them to make sure they gapped correctly. Unfortunately to me it seems one is not sealing. I hate to destroy one of my original plugs so I might buy another new plug and tap it so I can pressure test since the hole is much larger than any fitting I have. Perhaps I could tell if a valve was really leaky, what do you think?

There are distributor weights? I have not had it apart and have no idea how this one works. It is pretty small to be able to advance by itself.

So far I still have not found why this thing won't go above 40mph. I need a tach to tell at exactly what RPM it starts cutting out bad but there is a clue when it is idling. I have posted three videos to YouTube. The first of it idling, the second is with me driving, Chanin recording and trying to rev up but the sound did not come out well. Third is Chanin driving and just tooling along. It does real good at tooling along as long as you stay at or below 35mph or so. You cannot trust the idle and better be quick with the steering accelerator or it might die, or idle way too fast. Also by the sound in the first video my read is that one of the exhaust valves is not seating. I only checked #1 when I timed back after replacing the rag joints but feeling with my finger I could tell that the exhaust valve head was not flush when the cylinder came up for compression but I did have compression. 1929 Studebaker Dictator at idle Cutting out at higher RPMs Just tooling along through the county roads.

Dumb newbie question. My speedometer, oil pressure, ammeter and temp gauges seem to work well but the fuel gauge has issues. Can I repair this, are there instructions?

How did you get the edges of your discs so smooth?