Brill_C-37M_Bus

Thank you Paul, I’ll look for a tool for measuring fuel line pressure. My bus’s lines are mostly 3/8 tube, so probably larger than most car fuel line. I wonder if the new, lower-volume pump, plus the resistance of the 20 feet of fuel line, might get me the lower pressure I need.

Excessive fuel pressure due to previous owner installing an incorrect aftermarket pump. This thread has the details.

Thanks to several of you, I’m preparing a fuel pressure regulator to install on my vintage bus. The question that remains is, does it hurt to install the regulator right after the fuel pump? Searching online didn’t get me a clear and relevant answer. The Holley instructions from the regulator say to put it as close to the carburetor as possible, but there is nowhere convenient to mount it in the engine bay of the bus. I’d rather bolt it to the fuel pump mounting rack on the side of the tank. But that leaves about 20 feet of fuel line between the regulator and the carb. Would that cause any problems?

I agree with the idea that fewer aftermarket parts are better. But getting 6v DC on an exclusively 12v vehicle will involve another aftermarket part, so I’m going to go for the pressure regulator. My hope is to someday tear out the modern pump and regulator and put a 2PSI Autopulse in... once I save enough to not be afraid of their ridiculous price tag!

Thanks guys. I’ll admit, changing the carb float setting is totally foreign to me, I’ve never done any work like it. I know my manual goes into extreme detail on carb work, so I suspect I could learn float adjustment when I rebuild the carb. Or do you think it’s worth it for me to look up how to adjust the float and just try that by itself, rather than wait and do a full rebuild? I’ll look for the Holley pressure regulator. So I should set that to the 2PSI that the system was originally set up for? Edit: I think I found a regulator that might work. I wonder if this first one is an actual Holley part. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173723755033 The second one clearly isn’t. Anyone have any experience with this QFT brand? https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F202605124354

Well, model railroader numbers are declining, but hardly in crisis. Same as any hobby, really. I wrote for the youth section in a model train review magazine during college, so it was a topic of great interest. I’m glad to hear from so many other model railroaders, especially since model trains can be a heck of a good start for future car restorers! After installing teeny little sound computer chips in 1:160 trains as a teen, nothing electrical on my bus scares or confuses me.

I agree with a lot of the comments here. As a twentysomething with a ‘51 bus and no mechanical background, I’m grateful to a lot of older hobbyists. My experiences with older generations are mostly positive, but I have encountered and avoided stick-in-the-mud types who fit every stereotype mentioned in this thread! I think the key to “saving” the antique car hobby is to accept that there is not one all-encompassing body of “car people,” but a massive imaginary Venn Diagram of overlapping special interests. I’m not here for the cars, I’m a bus and trolley car guy. But the folks here care about originality, history, and making carbureted gas engines run right, which is what I care about too. You’d think I’d fit in better on a bus or truck forum, but my interests don’t intersect with the masses of diesel powered camper conversions that dominate the “old bus hobby.” So I keep coming back here, and I love it. Accepting that people who share one of our interests don’t have to share ALL of our interests will help retain new blood. Like me. Also, we can’t act like one hobby is better, or “the original,” when compared to other interests. Even the guy who has tons of the earliest mass-produced cars ever can get out-original’ed sometimes. Just ask any electric trolley car operator... from a certain comical point of view, this entire car hobby is a bunch of 1900s young whippersnappers with their newfangled horseless carriages!

Hello everyone, I have a question before I replace my fuel pump. My bus has a Holley 852-FFG 2-barrel carburetor, which has a problem with its needle valve sometimes not closing, flooding the cylinders and vapor-locking the engine. I know my fuel pump is not original, so I’m wondering if a fuel pump with too high a shutoff PSI could be making this problem worse. I do plan to rebuild the carb, but want to get some road testing done before then, and I need to replace the fuel pump anyway. The factory manual from ACF-Brill Motors lists my original fuel pumps as Autopulse parts, 12v, 2 PSI pressure, 10-15 gallons/Hour. My current fuel pump (from previous owner) is a Facet Posi-Flo 60106, which is also 12v, but 4-7 PSI and 32 gallons/hour. Does that seem excessive? I can get a similar model Facet pump with 1.5-4 PSI shutoff pressure and up to 25 GPH flow. I’ve looked for lower-rated pumps, but I don’t see any that I trust yet. I’ve looked into the original pumps, but the sports car and super car market has driven the prices for Autopulse pumps through the roof, and I’m uncertain about their longevity with ethanol fuels. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! -Steven

I owe a big thank you to 64avanti, his suggestion was exactly correct! I got the replacement horn tested and working this past holiday weekend. Turning the adjusting nut about a quarter turn, test, and turn again finally got me results. Here’s the completed horn installed, just awaiting troubleshooting the horn relay and it’s circuit.

I did try the horn by jumper cables straight from the huge bus battery, so lack of amperage isn’t a problem. The horn didn’t sound, but there was minor sparking when I touched the leads to the ground side of the horn, so it was completing a circuit. I’ll pop off the cover and try moving the adjustment nut. And I’ll check the ohm reading function on the volt meter. Now I’m second-guessing if the coil really is a dead short, or if it’s actually providing some resistance.

I’m trying to replace the Sparton “LO” note horn that came on my ‘51 bus. I got an identical replacement, but I think the coil may be bad on it. It doesn’t sound when tested with the battery charger in 12v supply mode. When I touch a continuity tester to the negative screw terminal, I can get a tone indicating conductivity by touching the other contact to all the metal parts of the horn. Am I right in assuming his means bad insulation on the magnet coil, or is that normal? Short of replacing the coil, does anyone know how to troubleshoot or repair this issue? For comparison, here’s someone who took their horn apart more than me. Mine is similar, but not identical.

Thanks in part to advice from some of you, I got the gauges for my 1951 ACF-Brill Motors bus cleaned up and reinstalled. The dash of the bus is pretty plain, aside from the gauge cluster. The only other features are the switch panel to the driver’s left. There’s a lot of restoration left to do before this will look as good as the other photos in this thread, but it’s coming along nicely.

Thanks everyone, those are a lot of good suggestions. I think I’ll try the theater lighting “gel” idea (it’s actually a thin sheet of colored film, not sure why it’s called gel). I remember working with that stuff in high school. Thanks again for the ideas, and have a great day!

Hello everyone, I’m still working on the gauges for my old bus, and I’m wondering about the plastic-like colored film that lets light in from the sides of some Stewart-Warner gauges. Does anyone know a name for this material, or where to get it? Or any suggestions for replacing it? My bus came with a mix of non-original gauges, probably from an Army rebuild. I bought more accurate 1950s gauges off eBay, but they all had different colors of this plastic film, and different overall condition. So I’ve removed all the colored film, and want to start from scratch with something that matches on all the gauges. I do want to drive this bus at night, so good backlight for the gauges is a must. If possible, I’d prefer to imitate the function of this material, but avoid opening up the gauges to replace it directly. I considered sandwiching blue seran wrap behind an acetate-like plastic sheet, but I’m wondering if that might melt from the nearby 12V light bulbs. I’d welcome any suggestions!

Thanks for the NAPA tip, there still is an old-school downtown location near me. I’ll see if they can cross-reference these numbers. I don’t think these would be specifically bus parts, especially the speedometer sender and temperature parts. But I am a member of the bus museum in Hershey, so if there’s evidence that these aren’t regular auto parts, I can try various bus connections. Can anyone suggest any good introductions to the different types of temp sender units? Even Stewart-Warner alone made so many different kinds, let alone everyone else, so I’m not sure what will work.