Wow, what a nice-looking A! Sounds like a car that has achieved the well-deserved ‘family heirloom’ status.

Bob J
Looks like a very clean ‘30, or early ‘31 Murray. The holes for the cowl lights suggest a deluxe model, but the window garnish moldings would be a better tell to determine standard v. deluxe. Much like the Packard offerings the majority of the differences between the two models were in upgraded interior finishes that may not have stood the test of time. If the body is still ‘off’ you may want to document the stampings on the upper surface of the frame which are hidden when the body is installed.

For those unfamiliar with Model A’s the photo showing the body on the way to the body shop has the fuel tank installed, while the photo taken after the body was painted has the tank removed. The village wisdom has it that the Attorney Generals of the north eastern states were none too pleased with fuel tank mounting location and began actions that would inhibit sales of automobiles that retained that design feature. Note in ‘32 the Model B’s fuel tank was in the back of the car, and the engine block had a provision to mount a fuel pump, which is the same design concept as the Model 18 V-8 cars produced first in ‘32.

My experience with the adjustable wheel dollies started with moving a trike around the garage (it’s much easier to drive a trike forward versus backing up). After following this thread for a while, I tried a dolly to help reinstalling a tire on my Suburban. I’ll never do that job the old way again.

dp

Mopar_Earl if you do proceed with both the TV replacement and the front disk brakes would you consider the power brake swap first? I’m thinking there are a lot of forum members that would like to know if the power brake swap is acceptable with a drum / drum equipped car. I’m just thinking off the top of my head, but for a driveway stop or two wouldn’t a robust adjustment of the brake drag negate the need of a residual pressure valve for the front circuit? IIRC there was a poster that put together a front disk set-up from Ford pick-up parts that had the same wheel lug geometry.
dp

Moodydavied16

The ‘flat disk’ valve is known as a ‘Daytona design’. The only downside of this design is the use of ‘extra’ seat gaskets to set the float level. While float level setting is covered in the Daytona directions, and millions of Zenith carburetors use ‘extra’ gaskets to set the float level, on occasion the tab on the float will not be set to touch the center of the Daytona valve. Excessive side force will result in a leaking valve, and engine flooding will likely follow. Since the valve is free of rotate the depression in the seat may appear to be the same all the way around, but that pesky side force may still be the culprit. IMO the flooding and idle problem are likely related.

In your second picture the valve in the lower right looks a lot like the accelerator pump check valve.

dp

HHP
I would think Evapo-Rust would remove the 'red rust' and then allow a much better visual inspection. If what remains is a bunch of pits located where the rubbing block doesn't touch the cam then that's OK
DP

I’m thinking the rubbing block may not mind a few pits along the way, especially when the block is off of the cam.

Don
Would you consider dunking it in Evapo-rust and report back if the surface finish of the cam is acceptable?
Dp

Appears to be the known file name corruption during server migration. Seems some/many/all files with the extension ‘PDF’ were renamed to ‘dl_attachment.php’. You can download the PHP file and rename the extension to PDF. I think the original file name is lost.

dp

53 Cavalier

The spare tire is held by a threaded arm that pivots from the right side of the well. I’m not sure if the stud is intended to pass through one of the five lug holes or the central hole which would require a plate/large washer . . . my car has a plate much like the 22nd / 23rd series. A wing nut draws the spare essentially to the right side of the well. I know it’s the wrong model, but if you look at plate #152 in the parts book you will see a photo of the arm, group number 31.195. IIRC the threaded arm slips into a bracket welded to the truck floor pan, and a split pin keeps it in place. That design also ensures the thread arm will part company with the car at some point in time.

As Kev said the jack/lug wrench (perhaps including a wrench for the wheel shield/fender skirt and another for the spark plugs) was shipped with the car in a cardboard box. In the same era the GM products had a bracket that cradled the jack post, sans the base. The spare pinched the post from moving. Again in the GM world the jack base played the role of the plate/large washer.

I’m not sure why the wheel has a drain hole, but I envision if any water collected in the well and the temperature dropped below freezing the spare would be unavailable if needed. I don’t think dust ingress was considered as a key design consideration.

I carry the Packard bumper jack for display purposes only . . . at least that’s my fondest hope. In the event of the need to R&R a wheel/tire on the road I carry a bottle jack, actual two bottle jacks, including a few aluminum hockey pucks to help spread the point load on the car’s frame. Back to the bumper jack, I suspect there would be a situation where there will be insufficient clearance between the road and the frame to locate the bottle jack, so the bumper jack may be needed to provide said clearance, but under no circumstances would I lift the car with only the bumper jack. I also carry a wheel chock and a threaded stud to assist aligning the wheel to the brake drum.

dp

Mike;

Assuming you have already gone through the 4 engine tune-up items suggested by Carter, and you have the correct ‘tag number’ carburetor, then the hole in acceleration could be (emphasis on could) the follow two items.

Anti-percolator valve: There is an adjustment to coordinate throttle position to valve closure position. If the AP valve is adjusted such that the AP valve remains open at higher throttle positions the transition from the low speed to the high speed circuits will be leaner than expected. It’s a matter of degree in that if the AP valve is grossly open during transition the engine cannot accelerate above the low speed circuit (about 25 mph in 3rd gear). Much lower openings, including AP valve leakage, will produce a local lean condition that may be detectable. As a ‘war story’, I had an AP valve that seemed to have lost the closing spring tension. Destructive disassembly revealed a corroded spring that had failed. I took apart the other valve and it too had a corroded and failed spring, but that spring had ‘nested’ together and still closed the valve at a lower seat pressure. Note that the 111-19S anti-percolator arm will open/close the AP valve together, but each individual valve is adjustable. With one valve open/leaking and the other closed during transition may result in a minor lean condition limited to 4 cylinders. I currently have a set of sealed AP valves installed as a test, so far I haven’t been let down by the sealed valves, but then again I don’t have a lot of experience in hot restarts. Standard tooling may be used to make this adjustment.

Coordination between throttle position and the minimum metering rod position. This adjustment is conducted with a ‘special’ Carter tool’. The intent of this adjustment is to ‘override’ the stroke of the vacumeter piston as a function of throttle position, and avoid a lean condition. I’ve intentionally adjusted this feature to allow the aforementioned lean condition. What I found is the transition between the low and high speed circuits became compromised . . . stumbled through the range with roughness. From this experience I’ve concluded that the Carter design makes the flow area of the main jet significantly small during idle operation, and then increases the main jet flow area just before main jet flow is required for the transition to the high speed circuit. Depressing the throttle will normally overcome most adjustment errors in this area. I’ve also richened the transition zone with the addition of a shim washer in the vacumeter piston, with would take effect when the minimum metering rod position is not in play.

I’ve not included the accelerator pump in this discussion because you indicated the hole was in the middle of accelerating. Please give us a better idea of when the difficulty is occurring and remember the difficultly may not be carburetor related.

dp