Re: Randy Berger's 1956 Caribbean

Posted by Randy Berger On 2008/9/17 17:20:18

A minor success today vs yesterday. I installed a NOS distributor yesterday with points, rotor,cap and condenser already mounted. I've had this for some years just sitting on the shelf. The engine had a minor cough just once and we determined it had no spark. I pulled the dist and checked the points and regapped them to a snug .016. Using an ohmeter I checked that I was breaking/making continuity. When on the cam lobe it read infinity. When on the flat it read about .114? It should have read .000. I took a point file and gave it about a dozen good swipes. Now it reads .000. The points had oxidized. No shame for fifty plus year old points.
Just to make sure, I pulled the plugs and cranked it over to bring #1 up on compression. The shop manual says to bring pointer to about 6 degrees before TDC and install dist. This is the 55 portion of the shop manual. Should I have pointer on 10 degrees before TDC? Hmm? I dropped the dist in and double checked the one o'clock position. Installed the plugs and wires - made sure the oil pressure wire and temp wire were connected and went home for dinner.
Today with mechanic Barry's help I turned the key and pumped the accelerator. The engine cranked over and "Houston, we have ignition"!! I had the carbs set up as high as the screw would permit and it ran up to 2 grand on the tach. We backed it down to about 1700 and ran it in for a little over 20 minutes. It sounds good. I shut it down and checked the oil. It is right on the full mark. The tranny showed low so I added two quarts to it making a total of 11. The temp gauge never reached the halfway mark with an old rad in place. The four-core rad has a leak and I will take it up to the rad shop tomorrow. I can run through the gears tomorrow and verify the tranny engages. Then I can remove my faux left fender and mount the real one in place. Aah, I love it when a plan comes together.