Avanti R2, 1963, refresh

[unimogjohn]

John, that is a good idea, I will do it. That certainly will tell me if I have junk in the tank and keep the little rubber/nitrite flappers that are in the pump free of any debris. Thanks.

[oldcar]

Hi All

I don't envy you guys at all, when/if it snows anywhere near Melbourne, about once in every five years it never stays on the ground for more than a few hours. Our winter months are July/August/October. In suburban Melbourne temperatures rarely get down to freezing but we do have hot weather like we are enjoying right now. Today the forecast is for 37C. That is near enough to 100 of your fahrenheit degrees.

During our summer December/January/February we have quite a few days over 40C (105F). Enjoy your White Christmas and hope that Santa is kind to you all. Lots of magic motoring in the New Year. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia with a population of just over 3 million. Total population of Australia is around 22.5 million.

Bernie J.

1922 Dixie Flyer

1934 Lagonda Rapier

1986 Alfa Romeo 33 (daily driver)

Edited December 22, 2009 by oldcar
correction. (see edit history)

[R W Burgess]

While I was outside Alice put up the Christmas tree that we cut before the big storm.

I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Best to all for 2010.

John, I've been continually telling my wife where Marshall, Virginia is. Started riding through that little town back in 1957 with my Dad heading to Riverton, Virginia for loads of crushed limestone. Miss those days, although I don't miss the AM country music early each morning.

We all appreciate your Avanti buildup and we wish you and yours a Merry Christmas.

Wayne

[Guest mystarcollectorcar.com]

John-this has been a great read so far and anybody that has bought an old car can truly relate to your experience.

Anybody that hasn't yet, but plans to buy an older car, should make this required reading.

thanks

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, December 27th. The big melt is happening, finally. We still have lots of snow on the ground, but it has been above freezing for the last couple of days, and we can actually see the ground now.

So I took the opportunity today to clean up the oil that squirted all over the engine bay from the fuel pump malfunction. And then decided to mount the supercharger. Only three bolts and washers, and she was done. Looks really good. Will not connect everything until the distributor comes back and the engine/transmission are sorted out. It is not in the way, so I doubt that I will have to pull it out. Here are a couple of pics.

No word yet on when the distributor will be done. I did get some new spark plug wires, so I think that I will put them in tomorrow if it does not get too cold. These are the wires from Studebaker International, but got them from a friend as he had a couple of sets.

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, December 30. Sorry, not much to report, just too cold to work at any length outside, it has not been above 25 degrees over the past few days, and that is with the sun shining.

But today I did fill the supercharger with Type F ATF, 8 oz. Used the Castrol brand.

I did hear back from Dave T. on Monday; and he said that he hoped to begin work on the distributor that afternoon. With any luck it should be done today or tomorrow, and maybe back to me by the beginning of next week.

[John Byrd]

Afternoon, John. Glad the weather is all that has slowed down your progress, I and I'll bet lots of others were hoping all was OK. Anything below 70 degrees should be against the law in my book, not as bad here as there, but still miserable. Hope you get some good days soon, I am working on magazine and toy arranging and cataloging in the basement, so at least there's something semi-automotive for me to fool with. Stay warm and think progress! John

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday PM, January 4th. It has been a week since my last post. I thought I better post an update based on all the private mail I have been getting about the work status.

Work? Well no work has been done. It has been just too cold, we have been in the teens during the night and 20s during the day. We still have lots of snow on the ground too.

But today I have received some good news, the distributor will be done on Wednesday, so it should be here on Saturday. Here is what Dave T. wrote me today: "Almost done. Will be away tomorrow but should ship on Wednesday. It was a really bad distributor."

Received another email from Dave. Here is what he said: "It may have still worked. A little. Not well. Really worn out. Had to replace the main shaft and substitute a different cam as yours was not any good. Replaced the weights and the pivot pins. and installed a new vacuum advance unit as yours was not any good. Housing though was in good shape, just had to replace the bushings......"

I have also cleaned up the radiator shroud and the grill for the front of the car. Both were covered in grime and over-spray from the paint job in the mid 70s. I plan to put them back on the car the first day it gets above freezing.

So it looks like I will not post for another week or so, or at least until I get the distributor back. Hope that you all understand that it is just no fun to work in the cold, especially when it is colder than my freezer.

Edited January 5, 2010 by unimogjohn
added more comments from Dave T. re the distributor (see edit history)

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

I understand the cold, John. -3 here this morning. Too cold for this old man! But hey, spring is coming.

Ben

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, January 5th. Almost to freezing, but not quite, 28 degrees and that will be the high for the day.

But the sun is out and warmed up the Avanti garage just a bit. So decided to mount the grill. Well it looks like it is held in place with nuts and bolts so put it up against the opening, and guess what, no holes or studs for mounting in the body. I figured that the nose was replaced at some point, but they never remounted the grill. So will leave the grill for another day.

On to the radiator shroud. It was been in a plastic bag all sealed up. The previous owner said that it was all cleaned and ready to go. So I opened up the bag and guess what, half of the one side is gone, looks like an explosion took place. Oh well, nothing surprises me anymore. So I decided to put it on. Thankfully most of the mounting bolts were still in the radiator. So spent about 30 cold minutes mounting it. At least the hole in the shroud is off to the side and down. Just gives the car a little more character and another story to tell. I took some pics too.

That is it for the day, sun is going down and so is the temp.

PS - Just received a note that said the grill was only on the square headlamp 1964 models. The 63s had just the opening painted flat black.

Edited January 5, 2010 by unimogjohn
no grill was on a 63 (see edit history)

[Guest stude8]

You should plan to repair or better replace (They have been reproduced I think?) that ripped up fan shroud before next June. It is really critical to keeping coolant temperatures in control in warm season. Stude8

[ErnieR]

No flat black on the air intake. Body color on fiberglass, black on metal.

A '63 owner that wanted a grille could have requested an installation through the dealer. I ran without a grille for a few years until something pierced my newly re-cored radiator. Personally, I like the look with the grille.

Your fan shroud is chopped up on the top but at the bottom what looks like a missing piece could be considered normal. It seems there's a high percentage that left the factory with shrouds that were cut on the bottom. We had a nice long discussion on that over at the SDC forum.

BTW, the breakage at the top of the shroud would cause me to inspect the l/s motor mount.

[oldcar]

Hi John

What a crazy world we all live in while you are complaining of the cold, the panel shop helping me with the Dixie Flyer body are telling me that there will be no work done on Monday if the temperature reaches the forecast 40+ degrees C. That is way over the 100 F.

Bernie J.

[Guest Backyardmechanic]

Hello Bernie,

lol just tell the shop to work when the sun goes down it should be cooler by then

Vern

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, January 12th. Progress has been very slow. Temps are still very cold, 2 degrees yesterday, but a warm up is coming so I will be able to get back to the Avanti soon.

Yesterday I got the rebuilt distributor back from Dave T. (Studebaker Parts and Services). Looks great, brand new. Here is what he said was done. "This distributor now has Oillite bronze bushed advance weights and an NOS vacuum advance unit. Replaced the main shaft and the cam". The distributor now has new points, condenser, rotor and cap too. As you might remember the old unit has a non-functional vacuum advance, very dirty, and just worn out. It will be great to get it back in the car and the engine running. The cost for the rebuild was $220 plus my shipping to him. So call it about $235.

I do have new plug wires so will take some time to put them on also. I have new plugs in the engine so will not touch them.

I did not like the two springs that control the throttle, both were rusty and did not seem to give enough pull to fully retract the throttle to idle. So I headed down to the local hardware store and picked up a couple of similar springs. They are a bit larger in diameter, but seems to have a similar pull strength. They are longer so cut one in half, and made new loops for the connection points. I will try them and see if i get better performance.

Here are a couple of pics of the distributor.

Edited January 12, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

From time to time I have posted on another local Avanti R3 frame-on restoration. I got a report from Greg a couple of days ago so I thought I would give you an update as to his progress.

Painting, buffing and polishing are almost all done. The doors and trunk lid have been hung, aligned, and received new seals/gaskets. Next will be the installation of the rear glass. Greg has received the correct color of vinyl for the interior panels, and it needs to be installed as it folds under the rubber gasket for the rear window. So the rear glass will be installed in a couple of days. Greg hopes to have the car back to his barn in the next week or so, weather permitting.

The engine is done and will be taken this week to the local dyno/speed shop for run-in and performance testing. The 4 speed transmission has also been rebuilt and ready for installation.

He has also been busy restoring small assemblies such as the headlight buckets and other pieces.

Here are a few pictures of his work.

[oldcar]

While definitely not an Avanti thought some of the Studebaker enthusiasts that follow your post may like to see a photo of this one I saw at a country swap meet last weekend. No, it was not in Radiator Springs!

[TexRiv_63]

John,

That is the longest distributor drive shaft I've ever seen! Question, will your carburetor have a box around it for supercharger hookup like the the other fellow's engine? Don't remember seeing it on the pics of your engine.

[unimogjohn]

Don, from what I have read that type of cover was for the R3 engines. I have a bonnet type. Here it is on the engine.

Re the distributor, the long shaft fits into a slot on the oil pump and drives it. So the little gear does double duty, drives the distributor itself and the oil pump.

[Guest Orphanauto]

Love the post, Haven't had a chance to read each post yet, but I will when I get a chance. I would love to get a nice driver 63 auto w/ air for my wife. By the way, although I am a purist, and like to keep my cars as they came out of the factory, with the exception of adding factory or dealer accesories for that car, I do want to give you abit of advice if I may. The mastercylinder on those is a single type, a few people have lost their brakes with including an actor that died in his Avanti due to that. So, for safety, I would change it to a dual mastercylinder. Love the updates, can't wait to have time to read them all...

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, January 14th. Our first day above freezing in over a month, felt like spring. Too much to do on the farm and helping Greg pick up his newly painted 1964 Avanti R3. But I did get a new rear view mirror today, it is a universal type for 60's cars. It also included the glue for the little metal tab, the total cost including shipping was $25.10. Not a bad price.

Suppose to be over 50 degrees tomorrow, so I hope to get the rebuilt distributor in our Avanti.

Attached are pics of the mirror and Greg's Avanti.

[unimogjohn]

It is Saturday, January 16th. Still in the 15 to 18 degree range in the mornings, but it finally hit 35 at noon, so decided I better get to it.

Cleaned up the hole that the distributor fits into, still had pieces of an old gasket on the block. So plugged up the hole, removed the old gasket with a razor blade scraper, and cleaned the block. Removed the old cap and wires, so now there enough room to installed the distributor. Lined up the rotor with the marks I had made, and let the assembly drip down into the hole and was able to guide the oil pump drive into its little hole. Got the rotor to line up correctly with the number 1 plug, and then bumped the starter to get the oil pump drive to engage. Then the entire distributor just dropped into place. Then I ran the new solid copper plug wires and installed the distributor cap and ignition wire to the coil. All done.

So throwing caution to the wind I hit the starter. I could see fuel being delivered by the re-built fuel pump; and a second later she fired right up. Was running a real high idle, but took the opportunity to check the fuel pump. It was leaking. So turned off the engine and tightened the offending fitting.

Restarted the engine and no fuel leaks. Let the engine warm up and adjusted the timing. The book says 4 degrees, but I set it at 5 for now as the vacuum line is hitting the intake to go any lower. RPM is about 600.

Started and stopped the engine several times, fires right up each time. I am a very happy camper. Did not put it in gear or move the car, going to do that tomorrow. Also the engine did not see to smoke at start up like it did before, so will continue to monitor that too.

So will finish the day by putting the wires in the rubber looms and button this up. Tomorrow it is suppose to rain, but hopefully will be able to see if she will go easily into gear. If not, well that will be another adventure.

Here are a couple of pictures.

[John Byrd]

wow !! John, you know it isn't supposed to be that easy. Congratulations, it's a good feeling isn't it? SO nice when something works as it should. The solid copper core wires may give you some music of their own thru the radio, some are more sensitive than others of course, but if you can use the radio as a audible tach, at least you'll know thats all it is. Continue with great success, John

[ErnieR]

On an R2 you want to set timing at 24 deg btdc at 1600 rpm. That will usually correlate to about 4 at idle but the manual does make a point on this so give it achexk while you're playing tomorrow. Vacuum advance disconnected of course.

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, January 17th. Raining cats and dogs, 35 degrees, just plain cold.

Headed out to the Avanti garage about 1 PM. Got all the parts for the supercharger air cleaner system and the drive belts. I figured that I would install the air cleaner, the belts and start her up. Great expectations........dashed.

Got the air cleaner in OK, but then went to install the belts. I had ordered them from a Studebaker vendor several months ago, the same time I got new belts for the alternator and power steering. They were suppose to be a matched set and came together in a single paper sleeve. However, each had a separate part number, ummmmm. I thought that meant that the vendor had "matched" the belts since they were in the same sleeve. Well, one belt was too long, and the other too short. So I am stopped again. Have to wait until tomorrow to call and see what happened. I am going to try to get a part number and try to source the belts locally. At least I will not have to ship stuff back and forth if they are incorrect. Sometime this gets so frustrating especially when you feel that you are making progress.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Here are a couple of pictures of the air cleaner assembly on the car.

[John Byrd]

John, on the Stude forum, a fellow has a post called "exhaust gas question about Avanti" . Roll down a few answers and there is a picture of s'charger fan belts with some numbers showing. Don't know 'em myself, ours was an R1, but perhaps those will help. John

[ErnieR]

Those are my belts but my car has High Output pulleys and the belts won't be the same. BTW, matched set belts won't come in the same sleeve but are often taped together. Even if they aren't you can verify a matched set from matching run numbers. Your parts guy should know how to read the numbers.

[unimogjohn]

I verified with several folks and the interchange section on Bob Johnson's Avanti web site that Gates 7545 is the correct belt. I have one of them. So it is not going to match anything I get locally. So I ordered a matching set from Studebaker International. Thanks all for the help.

It will be a couple of days before they arrive, that is OK as we have received three inches of rain, which has turned the lawn and pastures to muck, with frozen ground under the top inch. I have been told that they are also very tough to get on as you have to really compress the idler pulley. Not a lot of room to do that, but Greg (our local Avanti expert) has a special tool that he built for this purpose so will borrow that from him.

So will put off the final supercharger hookup for a couple of days, and will concentrate on a bunch of little things that need to be done. Tomorrow I want to check the oil in the steering gear/box, I doubt that it has ever been checked.

Oh, one other note. When I got the car home I checked the power steering cannister, it was empty. So I filled it several times, each time it took a little less fluid and dripped less too. Now it has stopped leaking, the seals probably swelled having fluid again. That is good new for now, and one less thing I have to worry about for the time being.

[unimogjohn]

Our local Avanti expert is Greg. He is rebuilding the Maroon R3 that you have seen in this blog. He told me that two more cars hidden away. (He is very secretive and protective of what he has.) He is planning to make one of them into a R5. As a start he has an original 304 block that he might use. Thought you all might have an interest in what he is doing. Here is what he said.

"Trying to save this cylinder block is today's decision. Studebaker guys will at once notice the reliefs on each cylinder bore. That is a clue that it is a Granatelli/Paxton 304.5 product.

It would be much easier to start over with a good 289 Stude block, but this one is worth saving. If I can. Notice that #5 connecting rod went to lunch.

After a good scrubbing, it will find it's way to friend Lee's shot peen cabinet, maybe next week. Once cleaned, hard to tell what carnage we'll find."

Here are pictures of the block. It is going to take a good welder to patch it up.

[Guest stude8]

John

I just browsed my files about belt interchanges that I wrote up about 1974 for AOAI newsletter. The following list is aftermarket supplier numbers for 1555319 set use on R2-R3 standard pulley sizes (55-1/8" x 15/32width x 38 degrees)

Dayco 689 or W701

Ford D2TE-8620-DA

Gates 8301

GM 3926189

3986189

Goodyear 3122H

Miller W123

Modac (NAPA) 114

Mopar B15553A

Motorcraft JB552 / JB552

ServiceKing 187D

*also used on 1971-72 Chevrolet 307;350;400 V8 with A/C

About Greg's R3 cylinder block, what is serial number? Looks like a sleeve job coming up, welding cast iron is a magic exercise, usually cosmetic, with R3 compression under full blower thrust I would be driving with fingers crossed.

Stude8

Edited January 18, 2010 by stude8 (see edit history)

[Guest Larry de Andrade]

John, Great work! This thing reads like a good novel I read the whole thing last night and this morning, just could not put it down. Look forward to seeing how the car sorts itself and the Paxton installation and drive. I can relate to the steps forward, halts in progress, steps back and the drain on the wallet!

Nice job, nice thread and looking forward to the ongoing trevails.

Regards, Larry

[unimogjohn]

Larry, glad that you enjoying the blog of sorts. Ernie, John and John, thanks for the comments and suggestions.

It is Monday, January 18th. Finally, a nice day, over 50 degrees and the sun is shining. Time to get to work.

Decided I better check the steering box. There are two square head bolts that you have to remove. The top one is the filler, and the side one is the fill until the gear oil runs out. I probably put in a pint or so of gear oil, so I am glad that I checked. I will continue to check it over the next couple of months to make sure that it is not leaking out. Finally, a success story.

So I decided to see if I could get a belt on the supercharger. I tried with two matching number belts, but they were too short with the idler arm spring fully depressed. So grabbed the Gates 7545, compressed the spring and got the belt to slip on easily. So this is the right belt. I have ordered two new matched belts from Studebaker International and they will be here by the end of the week. I will put them on when they arrive.

I then decided to start the engine with the single belt. I figured that it would not hurt anything if I was just running at high idle. So fired her up, ran great, but have a squeek. I do not know if it is supercharger or just air moving, or maybe even the single belt. I checked the oil in the supercharger and it is at the full mark.

I thought about dropping it into gear, but did not do it. Everything is mud so would not take it out of the Avanti garage anyway. Besides, I am on a high and did not want to spoil it. So tomorrow we will see if she goes into gear easily.

I also plan to put the timing light on and make sure that I have the timing set correctly for the supercharger. That is very easy to do and should only take a few minutes.

We made two short videos of the engine running. Hope that you enjoy them. They are at:

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, January 19th. Sunny and warm today, 63 sweltering degrees. Just love it.

Pulled, no DROVE, the Avanti from the garage and onto the gravel roadway to the house. It is as far as I can go without miring it in mud, ice and snow. That is OK.

It did bang into Reverse, but the engine kept running, and put it into N. Then dropped her into Drive, she wanted to stall, but did not. I just let her sit there in drive with my foot on the brake. Probably the first time in 15 years that fluid was being pushed through the throttle body. After running for about five minutes at idle, I put it back into N, and then back into Drive. Well, it was almost smooth, not the big bang as before. So I slowly drove it out of the garage and onto the gravel. As the roadway is flat, I decided to check the transmission fluid with the car in Drive and at idle. I did make sure the emergency brake was on full, and had both front wheels chocked. The dip stick say that I was 1 and 1/2 pints low so filled it to full. I am going to wait until the ground dries out a bit before we take her around the driveway.

I still have an issue with it stalling and idle speed, but I think it is a throttle adjustment issue rather than a major problem. I also think that exercising the transmission shifting will make it better also. So stay tuned, for the next adventure.

We had animal activities to take care of so had to stop with my fun. So had to spend a couple of hours catching llamas and giving them shots. They know when we are going to give shots and head for the hills. Only three out of nineteen managed to elude capture.

Here are current pics of the Green Hornet.

[unimogjohn]

More on the Greg's 304 cubic inch R4 engine.

I find it very interesting in what he is doing, and hope you do also. He does a post to small bunch of folks every day or so on what he is doing. It is varied and ranges from the Avanti stuff, to rebuilding Wright Brothers engines, and other historic automobile and aircraft engines from the teens and twenties.

Here is what he said today about the 304. Lee is his speed shop machinist with all the automotive equipment that Greg does not have.

"So traveled to Lee's after work. We wrestled the cylinder block into his shot peen cabinet. Turned it on for five minutes, then stop it, turn the block end for end and another five.

Then out and to the floor. He was in a hurry to run me out, so I had him take just a minute to inspect the damage now that we could see it. He sticks his finger in the water jacket to pinch the wall for thickness. "So you want to bore this .090". No it's ALREADY bored .090. Made a face at me and said "There's more metal left here than I usually have to START with. Some Ford Cobra Jet (something or others) walls have thicknesses around .045".....

In other words, there's plenty of wall so we need to determine if I we are just going to overbore it to clean up the rust pitted cylinders (I think it is the first Paxton block that didn't blow because a wrist pin came loose and gouge the cylinder), or if we'll bore it and sleeve it back to the standard bore for the 304 engine. Piston choice will help determine that.

He'll give me the name of his hot shot welder tomorrow and I'll look into closing that picture window.

Looks like the patient may recover, maybe."

Here are a couple of pics of the cleaned/peened block. What a difference from the rusted hulk that I posted a couple of days ago. You can clearly see the damage to the block now.

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday PM, about 10 PM, January 19th. Pondering what to do next...........

Well, I had a struggle getting the car back into the Avanti garage even at 50 feet. I would put it into reverse, and it would die. I finally fiddled with the throttle adjusting rod and increase the idle speed to 2k before she would keep running while going into reverse. So it went into reverse with a clunk, but with the high engine speed and traction control the wheels started spinning on the wet and frozen ground and into the garage we went at a pretty good clip. It was not fun. So I really have to figure out what is happening to cause all of this. I have done a lot of reading and have not figured out the cause yet.

But, remember when I bought the car? It had another carb on it and the linkage was all mis-adjusted as a result. Well, I am thinking that in addition to the top linkage, they may have adjusted the linkage at the transmission. So that is what I am going to check next. There is also a pressure access port there also, so am going to get a pressure gauge to see if it is within spec. The pressure is adjustable with the throttle linkages.

In addition, my reading indicates that the clutch packs may be dried out from just sitting for 15 years. Numerous folks recommend "Lube Guard" as an additive to help this problem. So will try that also. I can also adjust the bands, but prefer to leave them for the next step if I am not successful.

While the engine was purring away today, I noticed that the amp meter showed a discharge at all speeds. Whaaaaat, I just had it rebuilt! So off I go to take a look at the alternator. The two bolt connections were tight, but the spade connection pulled off easily, too easy. So I bent in the tabs of the female end, put it back on the spade, and started her up again and looked at the amp gauge. Success, it was showing a 35 amp charge. Thank goodness it was a simple fix. From what I have read, the spade connector is the exciter circuit and tells the regulator to start accepting power from the alternator.

Well, that is is all for the day. Our warm days are over, the cold is coming back with a roar. Snow is expected for the next three days. Probably the only thing I will get done is putting on the two new supercharger belts when they arrive from SI in a couple of days. And I guess I can take an hour our so to center the car in the garage and put it back on jack stands so I can check the transmission. Here I thought I was through crawling under the car for awhile. At least my work list is getting shorter.

Edited January 20, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[ErnieR]

Is it just reverse? Or does it stall in drive also?

[unimogjohn]

Ernie, yes and no. It lugs down the engine, it will stumble, and then the revs will kick back up. The first time I did it, it banged into gear, the second time it actually was better and kinda slid in normally. I am just going to start it tomorrow, put it in drive and let it sit in Drive and come up to temp for a few minutes. I will try it again and come up with a better description of what is happening and when.

[ErnieR]

You may have a band that's not releasing but I'm not a trans guy by any means. If it was a fuel or ignition issue you would think it would be the same for reverse and drive not more evident in reverse and less prevalent in drive.

I wonder if you put the rear wheels in the air and let it actually run in drive and reverse for awhile you might not unstick a few things. At least you can run through all 3 gears that way and get things spinning in reverse also without frightening the llamas!

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, January 20th. Overcast and cold, 35 degrees, a little sleet last night.

But hope "springs" eternal. Took my trusty lawn chair out to the garage, sat down, looking things over in the engine bay and started thinking what could be the issue with the very rough transmission engagement. It just had to be something in the throttle linkage adjustment to the transmission. So got off my butt and started her up, and just by chance I pulled up a bit on the accelerator petal. All of a sudden the engine settled down to a nice idle at 650 rpm. I put it in Drive, and the engagement was smooth so just let it idle out to the top of the driveway. Then put it in N and the engine immediately went to 1600 rpm, so I pulled up the accelerator pedal again and she settled right down to 650 rpm. So put her in Reverse, she lugged just a bit, but went in smoothly. So it looks like the linkage is the problem.

I then decided to replace the two springs or new, heavier pull ones that I had. So did some measuring and cutting and made new springs with more tension than the ones I had on. That seemed to help a lot, but still you need to pull up just a bit on the accelerator pedal to get the idle to come back down.

So while I think now I have identified the problem. My plan is to get the car on jack stands and check the linkage from the top of the engine bay to the transmission. It must be dirty and sticking, which is causing the problem. I have no doubt that I could put it in Drive and go around the property, but the mud and muck is everywhere, and I do not trust it yet to go out on the street even though we live in the country. I would at least like to make a couple of loops around the driveway before I dare adventure down the road. Will wait for a nicer day.

So it looks like I have made some headway, I am not there yet, but getting closer. Maybe next I will report that we actually drove on the road.

I do have a used radiator shroud coming to replace the one that is broken; and I did buy a new transmission pressure tester on Ebay. So I will have a few things to do over the next couple of days.

Here are a couple of pics of the new springs and the ones that were replaced.

[Guest pfloro]

Hello John:

I may have a possible reason why the engine stalls when shifting into reverse and not into drive. Automatics from the mid 50s on (?) boosted the line pressure to the hydraulic components which create reverse movement. I suspect this was done to prevent the clutch packs and/or bands from slipping. The increased pressure puts extra load on the transmission pump which in turn loads the engine a bit more. Since your engine is presently prone to stalling, this extra load in reverse may explain the stalling. Just a thought...

The jolt when shifting into reverse may also be caused by this pressure boost. If the transmission linkage is out of adjustment, line pressure may be higher @ idle. Shifting into gear will certainly cause a jolt not to mention the stress which is placed on the entire driveline. Ouch...!

As to the stalling situation: It seems as though the mixture is too lean. The idle speed is important but perhaps the idle mixture screws are set too lean. You might wish to turn them out 1/4 to 1/2 turn to enrichen the idle mixture. It's a quick & simple test. You may also have a vacuum leak which is causing or aggravating the problem. I've read that a quick way to check is to use a unlit propane torch. With the engine idling, open the valve & move the nozzle close to the intake to head interface as well as the carb to intake mount. If the engine speeds up, you have found a vacuum leak. The propane acts as to enrichen the mixture causing the speed up. In all honesty, I've never done this test because it worries me a little but I do think it's a safe test.

Your work is exciting to follow...

Paul