Re: Randy Berger's 1956 Caribbean

Posted by Randy Berger On 2007/6/27 21:46:55

Really confusing problem today and I hope nothing is damaged. I installed a new TL control unit today, but nothing worked right. The TL would only go one way. I ran a jumper from the NEG terminal of the battery to the small terminal on top of the upper solenoid. The rear end of the car should have risen. It did not, it went down! I checked and rechecked all the wiring and it passed muster. After lifting the car on the grease rack, I did notice the drivers side aux link was very close to its max travel as it was up against the housing. I wanted to be very careful here not wanting to cause any damage. I came home and verified the upper solenoid does indeed raise the rear end. I drilled out the brass rivets on the control box and returned to the garage where I reinstalled it minus the cover. I didn't mount it on the frame but wanted to verify the action on the contacts. Just hanging there it suddenly kicked on and the hub started rotating. By the time I reached the unit and moved the arm slightly I noticed that the short link was now in front of the hub?? I manually pushed in the "UP" contacts with no effect. I dressed those contacts with a point file and they are working better but not 100 percent. By this time it was 5:20 and the garage was shutting down for the night. As I drove home, I was still confused when all of a sudden I realized the short link should not have been behind the hub but in front of it all the time! I opened my shop manual and there is a very good overhead picture of the TL gearbox and the links. The short one goes in front of the hub and the long link goes behind. The fact that someone had previously bypassed the limit switches and had wound the link clear around to the back. Therefore when the motor would turn the hub counter-clockwise it would pull on the short link rather than pushing it and making the rear go down instead of up. Tomorrow's close exam will tell if any damage was done and verify the upper solenoid does indeed raise the rear of the car. A further cleaning of the control box contacts should make that unit dependable.
Wotta day