Racer-X-

I take care of two of these cars. They're drivers (with Chevrolet drive trains), not museum pieces. We're doing a suspension rebuild/renewal and our rubber bushings are dry rotted, cracked and falling apart (already mostly fallen apart for some of them). The metal flanges do have some information stamped on them. The lower wishbone bushings (8 per car) are marked "Metalastik 13/775" and also show a patent number 622514. The upper fulcrum pin bushings at the outer end of the damper lever/upper wishbone are marked "Metalastik 13/781" and show a patent number (possibly the same patent?) that's unreadable on the ones I have here now. I have a company that can "recoat" these with new rubber after cleaning up our metal cores. I'm not sure if that's the best solution, unless it's the only solution. I'm concerned with getting the dimensions right, and ours are in such poor shape that it's going to be very difficult Here's a pic of one example of each.

@Joe Cocuzza, I'm definitely interested. I've replied to your DM.

It's a Custom Sedan, if that matters (I don't think it should). The current headlight buckets and seats are put together with drywall screws and sheet metal screws. Even the adjuster screws are lost and replaced with drywall screws, so getting them adjusted is basically impossible and entirely hit or miss. Also, the little machine screws that hold the trim ring/bulb and optics retaining ring are missing and have been replaced with sheet metal screws. I have good headlight doors (the outer trim ring), but the buckets that mount to the body work are hacked and the adjustable seats are trashed. We eed both sides.

And an accomplished impact wrench operator/parts swapper can still be neither a technician nor a mechanic.

LS Swaps, or any other engine swap does require some forethought and planning. I've done about a half dozen Chevy V8 swaps (4 were LS based swaps, 2 were earlier Vortec 5.7L truck engines swapped into other vehicles). Every one I've ever done started the first time I turned the key and cranked the starter. There were a couple times I stopped short of turning the key when I remembered leaving something important disconnected. And my habit is to have the OBD-II Scanner hooked up and check everything when the key hits the "on" position, before turning it to the start position and cranking it. But when I hit the starter, they start. To me, "build" isn't such a derogatory term. But I do think it's more a resto-mod or hot rod term than a serious "all original restoration." There's something to be proud of pointing at a hot rod or a resto-mod with a drive train swap and customized suspension and the whole nine yards and being able to say, "I built that one, and that's the only one like it."

Answering my own question with some additional data points. https://www.automobile-catalog.com/tire/1947/2062490/desoto_custom_4-door_sedan_tip-toe_shift.html That site shows the original tire size to be 7.60x15, which seems large to me. It's suggesting a 215/80R15 for a replacement, or a 205R15, or for wider, 225/75R15. From what I can see, none of those will fit without clearance issues on this particular instance of the vehicle. Coker tires shows 670R15 and 205/75R15 sizes when I select this vehicle on their "Shop by vehicle" selections at the top of the page. That actually seems to be more reasonable. I think I'm going to have to look more closely at the exact wheels I have, and also look at the rear axle to see if perhaps it's been replaced with something wider than the original. This car has a bit of a sketchy history. It lived in Cuba for much of its life, and underwent some heavy modifications when it returned to the USA a few years ago.

The car is a resto-mod, not original at all. It spent most of its life in Cuba, and when it returned to the states, a shop in Miami did an awesome job on a custom interior and also rewired the entire car for 12V and installed a LS1/4L60E drive train. It's currently running on some Chrome Smoothie wheels which seem to have too much backspacking (offset too high). There's a stack (more than one) of thin wheel spacers behind the wheels and the ends of the lug studs are recessed in the lug nuts by 3 to 4 threads. Plus, one front wheel is now bent, so it needs replacement anyways. It's on 215/75R15 tires which barely clear the fenders at the rear, and rub on the brake line brackets where the flex hoses join to the hard lines at the front. It's had a disk brake "upgrade" (from "Brakes by Bubba") which I'm currently going over and redoing many parts of. I do plan to relocate the hard line and that bracket. The bracket is bolted/screwed on, and it looks like there are already holes in the frame inboard from the shock absorbers that are made for that bracket. If I relocate the lines there, I get more clearance for the front of the tires, and I can use a shorter, more direct flexible brake hose to connect the caliper to the hard line, so that's a win-win all over. All that said, I'd really like to have wheels/tires that I can rotate front to rear, with all 4 tires the same size. If I have to use wheel spacers to get the needed clearance at the front, I'd rather run the bolt on "adapter" style spacers, which start at 3/4" thick and are more common and fit better with 1" of spacer thickness. I was thinking 205/70R15 or maybe 195/75R15 might be a better choice than the 215/75R15 we have now. But I haven't weighed the car yet to see what the load is going to be like. It does seem to be a heavy car, and will need a tire adequate for that load. The one requirement on this is that whatever size I put on, it has to be available with white walls. Either wide "gum wall" (preferred), or at least a solid white stripe on the sidewall.

Quoting someone from redit (I don't remember who, and I can't find it now): Most Cavaliers will run like crap longer than other cars will run, period. I used to love to take things with really weird shifters to restaurants and other places with valet parking. Usually, the car doesn't move until I get back. In the mid 1980's, I had a neighbor with a Hurst Olds with the lightning rod shifters in it. See the video. We'd go out for dinner every few weeks to someplace in Buckhead (Atlanta) with valet parking. The valet attendants would take one look inside and just walk away. That one was "normal" if you ignored the extra rods and knobs, but the valet guys rarely made it that far. Later, around 1990, I had a 1975 Cutlass Salon with a Lenco transmission and shift levers in it. That was even wierder, with 3 levers that you pulled back for the forward gears, another lever for reverse that you pushed forward for reverse, but was locked out unless the 3 forward gear levers were pushed forward (which was neutral), and a separate knob you pulled for the mechanical parking/trans brake. I've never driven a Ford Model T or any other pre WWI cars, but I've been told that if you take those to the valet parking, they'll always be right where you leave them.

Generally, I also recommend replacing any seals that are exposed while you have the flywheel off (rear main seal on the crankshaft for example), and any transmission input shaft seal(s) that are exposed and easily replaced while it's apart. It really sucks to get it put back together and have an old seal leak oil or gear lube all over your brand new clutch and shiny new flywheel.

I use parking lights a whole lot. They aren't for when the car is parked. That would be "parked lights," which is what the Germans do with the one side only lighting. I use parking lights while I'm parking, IE, driving around a parking lot or driveway at night, when I don't want to be shining headlights in the direction of pedestrians or into peoples windows. When I pull off the street or road into the parking lot, I'll tun off the headlights and put it in the parking lights position. When I'm pulling out, I'll drive to the street or road with the parking lights on, then when I'm about to pull out onto the street or road (or rural highway), I'll hit the headlights.

Humor, and no, I didn't originally post that, I'm just pointing it out.

Your question is like asking the difference between a "hood" and a "bonnet" on a car. To an American, they are tail lights, and they operate from the "running lights" circuit/fuse. To an English person (from England), they are position lights. Also, English have "indicators" where Americans have "turn signals." Adding to the confusion, to a German, "parking lights" are the position lights on the traffic side of the car (and it must only be that side) that must be left illuminated when the car is parked on a public street or road. Unfortunately, in European countries where amber turn signals are required, and the inspectors check that, reverse lights are also required, and the inspectors check those as well. However, I do like your solution even if it requires adding one or two clear/white "reverse lights." I think add-on afterthought "reverse lights" would be less ugly than added amber turn signal lamp assemblies. An amber bulb may be enough, or the clear (stock) reverse light lens might have to be covered/wrapped with the appropriate amber color. No offense to the OP, but the French (especially the inspectors) are very persnickety about the lights on their cars. Almost as bad as the German inspectors at the TUV. But the French do make the absolute best headlights available, so there's a positive side to that.

Anything older than 1980, and anything from the 1980s up with flat tappets ( "slider" cam(s) ) gets Brad Penn. There's not enough ZDP (Zinc) in modern oils to protect older engine parts from wear. This is especially a problem for older camshafts and valve train components.

RockAuto.com has Genuine GM (may come in a "AC/Delco Original Equipment" box) D1456C for $45.xx plus shipping. With a few other choices for a bit less money. Any GM $tealership should have it as GM part # 26033390, list price is $102.08. They come with a lock cylinder and a new matching key installed. Usually, Step 1 of installation is to take that lock cylinder with the new key that fits and the old key that matches the car to a locksmith and have the lock re-keyed for your current key. It's not uncommon for those assemblies to trigger the anti-theft system because the slug in the new key that comes with the lock either doesn't have the anti-theft resistor in it, or if it does, it doesn't match the key(s) the car is paired to.

I'm not sure what year Riviera you have. Most GM cars from the late 1950's through the 1970's had a long single row connection for the turn signal switch on the column. The traditional (usual) wire colors are white, green, yellow, purple, brown, dark blue, light blue. The brake signal to the turn signal switch is the white wire from the brake light switch. You'll want to cut that wire and feed that as the power to the brake light filaments. If you're installing separate amber signal lights on the back for turn signals, you'll route the wiring from the 1157 bulbs in the red stop/tail/turn lamps for the turn signal to your amber signal lights. Use a wire from the white wire from the turn signal switch to power the brake light filaments in the 1157 bulbs directly from the the white wire from the brake light switch. It sounds like you're trying to just join the amber signal lamps to the brighter filaments for the 1157 bulbs. That won't quite work the way you want. This document is from a universal kit that uses the GM column switch and mostly follows the GM wire colors. It also shows how it's wired for stop/turn signal on the same bulb, and how to change it for separate amber turn signal lamps. https://smhttp-ssl-87263.nexcesscdn.net/media/productattachments/files/92972292_510489_IN_0.0_1.pdf I hope that helps.

I order lots of stuff from RockAuto. With one very visible and notable type of exception (see below), everything I've received from them has been accurately described, and I have never had an issue with counterfeit stuff from them. I can't say that for Amazon. They do make mistakes, but they've always owned up and done the right thing by me. If they ship the wrong part, and I go through their online process with pictures to show what I got wasn't what I ordered, they issue the refund. They either send a return shipping label if they want the wrong stuff back, or they tell me to keep it (generally I throw it away if it's wrong). The exception to watch out for is anything described as "private label packaging," especially in the "closeout deals." With that, it's a crap shoot. It's about 50/50 whether they describe it correctly. And if it's incorrectly described, it's also up in the air if it's junk or if it's something much better than what they presented. In the closeout deals, I sometime take a gamble. I once bought a small block Chevy timing chain set on there that was described as "Cloyes (private label packaging)." I paid $12.xx plus shipping, about $17 total. I got an American made set with a really high quality chain with a crank sprocket with an adjustable billet aluminum hub and heat treated (hardened) outer sprocket on the crank and a heat treated cam sprocket (for an application where the factory/AC Delco set cam sprocket wasn't heat treated). Sometimes stuff gets delayed in shipping. That's part of doing business with any online vendor. What I've found, is if it's way late and I've had to go to a backup source, I refuse the shipment with the shipper and it'll get returned to the warehouse. I've always been refunded that way when the warehouse receives it. Sometimes the refund includes the shipping charges, sometimes not. If you accept a late shipment, expect to pay return shipping and have to fight for a refund. Especially if it's over 30 days late.

Learned on a Ford F-100 pickup truck with a 390 V8 that was far from stock. It belonged to a friend of my dad's (who was also a teacher at my high school). I didn't stall it much, but with all the torque and no weight on the rear wheels, I made a lot of tire smoke when I "goofed." The first manual transmission car I owned was a VW Rabbit with a 47hp? 1.5L diesel and a "3+E" overdrive transaxle. Stalled that one a lot re-learning, and never made any tire smoke with it. Lucky to go zero to 60mph in the same day.

I would love to see some pix. I'm also going to be doing some damage repair from a failed "upgrade" to the master cylinder area and pedal areas. Any pix of the brake system would be awesome. I'll be posting more from this car that's been hacked up in the next day or two.

Thanks @joe_padavano !!! Those are excellent links. On my own research, I also found this page which covers the adjustment of the carb after it's installed. https://itstillruns.com/adjust-monojet-carb-air-fuel-8061119.html I'm probably going to start with idle adjustments first and see if that clears things up. I went to work on these cars (this one and the other late 40's Mopar I posted about the brakes) this afternoon. Unfortunately, "Bubba's Brakes and Mufflers" has also done some brake work on this one. He made some "custom brake caliper adapters" for it and mounted some kind of Chevy truck brakes on it (6 lug rotors, ). Unfortunately, he drilled the holes so close to the edges of the adapter plates that the edges of the holes cracked and broke. One caliper pin is missing, and that caliper randomly flops around and sometimes catches the inside of the wheel and locks that wheel. On the other side, the hole for one of the center bolts that holds it to the suspension upright broke on the other plate, and it's flopping around loose with the caliper, but the movement is much more restricted. It's mainly an annoying noise issue with some weird shakes from that side. Now I have to find a caliper pin, which means I need to identify the mystery calipers. It's always something.

Valid points. Ordinarily I'd be in complete agreement with you. Let me address this particular case. First, it's not my car. I didn't buy the carb. This carb was handed to me and I was told to install it on the engine in this car. I was also told that the carb that was on the car now came from the same place (Amazon, I reasonably believe the same listing) and lasted only a year or so before it started leaking badly. If we can't get it running smoothly and reliably with this carb, I will definitely recommend getting a genuine original Rochester Monojet for this engine. I'm not entirely sure where to source one that's serviceable, or at least a good rebuildable core. Also something I generally agree with. However, in this particular case, I'll need to "start with a factory Chassis Service Manual" for what exactly? Honestly, the current owner of the car doesn't even know what this particular engine came from originally. The engine swap was done before he bought the car. I'm told (by the current car owner) that the engine is a Chevrolet 250CID Straight Six. It's definitely a Chevrolet Straight Six. I haven't really looked closely at it to determine for certain that it's a 250. They made those in other displacements. The intake manifold is definitely for a one barrel carb, not a two barrel. The "Chassis Service Manual" for the Rolls Royce/Austin Princess that it's installed in won't help at all for this particular part.

The engine is a 197_ (ish) Chevy Straight 6, 250 cubic inches (4.1L). The carburetor is an Amazon Chineseum special. Here's a few pix from the listing on Amazon: The full listing is here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B3PMJ45 First, the disclaimer, I'm mainly a fuel injection guy. I haven't owned anything with a carb in decades, and before this one, I hadn't touched a carb in about 30 years. So I'm basically clueless about this thing. I took this one out of the box and installed it. It came with a thicker gasket than the one I was replacing, so I had to replace the carb mounting studs with longer ones. Also, the throttle linkages from the pedal were hanging the throttle plate open a bit and causing it to idle at around 1500 RPMs. This was because of the thicker gasket. So I made some throttle linkage adjustments. Now, it seems to be idling a bit low, especially when cold. But once it warms up, the idle gets higher than optimal. It's also surging a bit, both at idle and at constant throttle cruising. It doesn't hold a constant engine speed or power output. It varies up and down some. The only adjustments I see are on the second picture. There are two big silver colored straight slot screws that are under he choke actuator shown in the firs pic. You can just see the knurled screw under that choke actuator in the first pic. There's also a small brass straight slot screw right at the base of the carb. I'm open to any suggestions for setting this thing up and getting it to run better. YouTube links would be awesome. A "how to" page that covers this particular carb would be good as well. I know enough to know that I don't know how to tune this thing, or which screw adjusts what. But I think I'm probably smart enough to learn. And if it matters, there's what looks like a PowerGlide automatic behind it. The vehicle is a 1961 Rolls Royce (Austin) Princess. I'm told the Chevy 250 straight six was a common swap for these when the Austin inline six wore out, died, or suffered from typical British reliability issues. We're already discussing and exploring possible updated engine swaps for this one (Possibly a LV3 4.3L V6, or maybe a Gen IV or Gen V 5.3L V8). But until that happens, this one has to drive reliably every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I'll show you mine first, along with some questions. This car made a trip to "Bubba's Brakes and Exhaust" before it was brought to me. I'm not going for a 100% original restoration, but rather a reliable, safe resto-mod. The master cylinder has been updated to a 1980's truck unit, 1-1/8" bore, dual circuit. The front brakes were also "upgraded" by Bubba to some unknown calipers and rotors (disc brakes to replace the original drum brakes). I'll have more questions on that later, perhaps in just a day or two. Here are my pix: My first concern is with the tee fitting. I'm pretty sure that the factory didn't hang it on the vent tube outlet of the rear axle. I'm also pretty sure Bubba used a M10x1.0 bubble flare tee and just tightened the coupling nuts on the inverted flare at the end of the copper/nickle brake line until it sealed. That's a pattern I've seen in other parts of the brake system on this one. My biggest question is, Where was the tee fitting originally mounted, and how was it secured? I'm leaning toward a male on one end tee fitting screwed into the driver's side wheel cylinder, with the rubber brake hose coming out the side and the line to the passenger side coming out the other end. If there's a better way to secure things, I'm open to some suggestions here. More of Bubba's creative "custom" brake lines. I think the electrical tape was there to secure the line, or to secure something to the line. It wasn't to plug a leak, as this was one of the few places that wasn't seeping a little bit of brake fluid. This is along the frame just in front of the rear wheel, where there's a cross member between the two frame rails. Bubba put a big loop under the cross member here, and it doesn't look good to me. I think it belongs up above the frame pieces in that space where the fuel lines and wiring conduit are. Bubba also didn't believe in any kind of brake line clips or retainers, so all this stuff is just hanging loose, and if you pull on it, it moves several inches in any direction you pull it. My plan is to put a few 1/4-20 riv nuts into the inside face of the frame rail and use some rubber coated metal retaining clips to hold things in place. I might also put a few nylon retaining straps on the fuel lines to keep them in place. Oh, and I was going to use those retainer clamps on the diff cover bolts at 11:00 and 1:00. If I have hex center section studs in the right size, I'll use those. Otherwise it'll be slightly longer bolts with a washer or spacer behind the clamp/clip to clear the lip on the edge of the diff cover. My phone crapped out on the pic of that and the passenger side where Bubba actually hit the stock retaining piece for the line.