Carburetor

Had the original carburetor rebuilt by Scott Kaiser (Ralph's son) at Vintage Vehicle Services. Brought it home, bolted it on, and fired her right up without issue. I made a few quick adjustments, I need to get a better handle on adjusting Carter AFBs, and she runs like a champ. Better than she did with the old, chokeless carb, for sure. I'm very pleased. 

Motor Mounts

Lucille spent the day at Vintage Vehicle Services getting new motor mounts put in. When I went to pick her up, the starter would begin cranking as soon as the key was turned to ON. It did the same in ACC. With the cold weather, we figured the extra cranking I had to do to get her started in the morning caused some breakdown in the ignition switch... and indeed a new replacement switch solved the problem. VVS replaced the switch and only charged me $65 for the part. Motor mount labor was $200, for a total of $265. He takes checks and cash, no plastic.

Bump Steer

Last weekend, when I was driving Lucille before the generator blew, I had her on the freeway and the dips in the road surface would cause her to steer to the right a bit. I got sidetracked with the alternator thing, but later I looked up the symptom and it seems when I changed the steering gear and pitman arm, I altered the angle of the tie rod ends because the drag link is now slightly lower. I had heard about keeping the drag link level, but failed to keep the tie rod ends level with the drag link. Result: Bump Steer (or bumpsteer). There are various kits available, none for Cadillacs, of course, that will help correct this with an adjustable height tie rod end. I did find a place in PA that may be willing to put a kit together for my car. I set them the specs and am waiting to hear back from them.

Continuing with the alternator conversion, I have the 10SI physically mounted (loosely) and am beginning the wiring by removing the brown wire coming from the idiot light and wiring it to the #1 terminal of the 10SI's pigtail. The #2 terminal just jumpers back to the BATT terminal of the 10SI. (I have read that this is optional, but my pigtail came with a ring terminal to attach to the BATT terminal, so might as well.) The ground wire from the old regulator isn't used and I removed it from the harness. I replaced the 14 gauge wire from the positive battery terminal to the BATT stud on the 10SI with a 10 gauge. Ready to tighten up the bracketry I realized I needed to trim the top bracket by an inch and a half. Easy. Then she was finally all bolted down solid, wires routed and wrapped, ready to test. Key on, got my red "GEN" light. Turned to start, light went off and stayed off as the engine caught. I didn't check the voltage but I didn't need to. The windows now zoom up and down like they hadn't before... The juice is in!

Alternator Conversion

Blew the generator or regulator today... not sure which and don't care, as a 10SI Delco alternator is going to go in the car now. Part number I used is the same as for the '76 Electra #7127-12. Started by pulling the old generator off. I then removed the mounting plate from the exhaust manifold and flipped it end for end. This allows the bottom of the new 10SI to bolt up to it with the right spacing on the pulley. However, a few mods were in order. This plate is a solid chunk of steel, instead of the bent dog-eared plate that my '49 had. So the edges where the alternator sits on the plate needed to be rounded and the forward nut that holds the plate to the manifold had to be countersunk. Easy work with a drill bit, Dremel and a file. That concluded today's activities. To be continued...

Got the '59 Cadillac pitman arm from Cooper last week and today installed it. The problem with the center link hitting the gearbox is solved! I only changed the pitman, not the idler, because I think the idler is OK. I have the part from Cooper but haven't yet decided if I will keep it for future use, change it out now, or take it back.

I've found the problem with the center link hitting the gearbox is causing too much restriction on right turns. I tried adjusting the tie rod ends to split the difference, but narrowed the turning radius too much both ways. So, I did some research and found that the '59 and '60 Cadillacs had the longer steering gear of a more modern car, so perhaps the pitman arm from one of those would take care of the trouble. From looking at a '59 at Cooper's, that appears to be true. I will most likely need a '59/60 idler arm as well, so the center link is level. So today I got what was supposed to be a '59 idler arm and it is "S" shaped instead of flat, as the '59 at Cooper's was. I took it home anyway and found the one in my '58 is pretty much flat too (but my pitman is not), so this kind of reinforces my idea that this car had a steering gear replacement with a longer box before. Anyway, the idler I got has to go back. Cooper has some new ones coming next week, along with a '59 pitman arm. These should be FLAT, as all the pictures I've seem of the pitman for '59/60 show them that way. My idler seems to be in good shape anyway, and is definitely not original. A locknut was missing from the top bolt holding the bracket to the frame.