The name of the "plastic" die material was Kirksite OR some reasonable phonetic speeling of the name.

But Kirkcite was strictly for short runs. It would not hold up to hi production of say over 1000 units and stamping was very slow compared to steel dies..

Kirksite did not come into exisitence until about 1965 or thereabouts. Usual, Kirksite was used to make a 'mold' from and original part and not hand crafted to some new design.

Maybe someone can google Kirkcite or some close spelling to that name and find out more.

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Kev, My 51 does have the padding between the cross brace and the hood skin.

If you want a fluid with a little more "anti slip" properties, just add a 3oz bottle of friction modifier for limited slip differentials. It's used to keep the clutches from burning up in the differentials, and will work on a slightly worn Ultramatic as well.

And some people probably thought that I'd just been ignoring them all this time - LOL!

Seriously, I'm glad to hear that people find this feature useful. I had hoped to have this latest installment in BigKev's hands a couple months ago, but it was a long hard winter here (and we're still cleaning up the yard), my dad had some health matters that again required my involvement, and working in a GM dealership has been no fun these many months.

Yet, don't be surprised in the weeks ahead, if you see the wording for some topics changed and their order resorted (the latter, automatically, thanks to BigKev's programming) as I continue to refine and coordinate things within and between both the 55-56 and 51-54 indices.

The good news is that plenty of the topics published from 1951 through 1962 also apply to earlier postwar cars and my previous work will trickle down to help fill in the 48-50 Index. Still, there will be a lot of work to do with entering topics published from 1948-50, annotating the entries and clearing up many gray areas that pop-up. I probably won't be able to get to that until after summer has come and gone.

Mal,

Yes. I did not explain it very well, but those are what I was talking about.

Tom

PV8 Thanks for confirming the memory re whale oil. I didn't recall Type A as being only straight mineral oil. There was another product that might have been mineral oil. Believe I read Hudsonite, the fluid used in their cork clutch setup, might have been--but can't recall if that is fact or speculation.

HH56. I'm glad u brought up the whale oil. Whale oil is what i assumed the Green Hornet meant by "Dragon Juice". Whale oil content is exactly what i was advised of during the early 70's. But i think by that time the whale oil had already been eliminated. According to at least 3 Chev Engineers, the whale oil was eleminated due to cost.

I've found that the Dexron II,III or IV or Dexron-Mercon works best in my 56 T'Ultra. The direct drive clutch groan occurs only on very rare occasions, usually when cold but even then rare.

I thought type A fluid also had some component of whale oil and when because of restrictions, that became NLA it caused the shift to more modern formulations starting in 60's.

No, I didn't know there were 2 types, how do you tell the dinasour juice from the synthetic? Labels different?

Tuesday 12th May 2009

When I arrived at the workshop Wade was trying to press the new modern oil seal into the timing cover housing, but without success. There are three little "pimples" around the edge of the recess into which the seal fits and for old style seals this isn't a problem while for the modern seals they present an obstacle which leaves the seal sitting crookedly. Not preferred, so the seal was taken out, to be thought over and returned to another day.

Next, turned to the loose "washers" issue. Wade decided to look at the cam follower setup but that was on the side of the engine lying on the worktable, so first the engine had to be set upright again. After putting the sump back on, but only held by a few nuts this was accomplished together with more oil spillage, it must be running low now! The rocker covers were then removed and the rockers removed and there they were! Or rather there they weren't! A number of the roller cam followers were missing the collar from the outside ends of the shaft they rotate on. And that wasn't all, two of the rollers were stuck or frozen and one was pitted. Breakdown of the roller misfortunes - #1 Intake, missing collar, #1 Exhaust, missing collar, #3 Intake, roller pitted, #4 Exhaust, roller frozen, #5 Intake, roller frozen, #7 Intake, missing collar, #8 Exhaust, missing collar #8 Intake, missing collar. Found another loose collar but that only accounts for 3 of the 5, so what about the other 2? Probably drained out during an oil change at some stage is the most likely answer. Altogether what Wade didn't want to find but much better now rather than have a catastrophic failure at a later date. And now more parts are needed to wing their way across the Pacific to assist in Big Red's rehabilitation. Tom, are these what you were talking about in your post?
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Next, an easier task, re-mounting the rear housing on the trans. Walked around to see Ivan and Sam and the rear housing was ready after being machined to slightly re-size to fit the new seal. Back at the workshop a new gasket was made, the new rear seal pressed into the housing, liberal amounts of gasket sealer applied, the universal yoke inserted and all bolted back together. Then the bell-housing breather was re-installed, this is a small vented plate on the bottom of the bell-housing. And although not a big achievement I'm quite proud of what I achieved in bringing it back from it's former bedraggled state. After cleaning it by soaking it the mesh holding the metal gauze in place had to be refastened under the retaining edge for this on the breather. So armed with a small screwdriver and a hammer pushed the gauze back in. Then pressing in the mesh and holding the vent with one hand hammered the rim back into shape with the other. Unfortunately didn't take any before or after pic's, or maybe it is fortunate otherwise they'd figure very prominently below. While doing that Wade was digging out a couple of flat headed screws with vee'd shoulders to replace the missing two. The 2 replacements both proved a little long so after some hacksaw and bench grinder treatment were then "fit for purpose".

Next was the diff housing or correctly the bearing cones still in the housing needing to be removed. Wade fired up the oxy and heated up the outside of the housing around where the cones was located. Not too hot but hopefully hot enough to permit the cones to be removed. No luck with this, still wouldn't budge. So turned to plan B, welding bars but in this case cut-off bolts to the cones and using those to pull them out. Round to see Ivan and Sam again, this time in Wade's Ute as it's a long way to carry a diff housing. Sam, being the man, dropped everything, welded in the cut-off bolts and to top it off knocked out the cones and also tagged the shims from each side.John, I think this answers your query.
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Back at the workshop we next turned to the right front lower suspension arm assembly which still needed the pin assembly to be pressed out. Although Wade has done this a number of times previously including the '41's last year he couldn't remember what he'd used to push them out and couldn't find something to suit. There was a failed attempt which resulted in the eye and one end of the pin being crushed and bent in the hydraulic press. So that left one end available to work on. After a false start using a large rattle gun socket of John's which started to move the pin but bound up a "tool" was found by John. Although some would call them, because there were 3 of them, Mazda parts John assured us they were a "Special Packard Tool" and who were we to argue especially since they did the job so well. They have now been assigned a special place in Wade's tool chest awaiting their next "Special Packard Tool" assignment.

That's where we left things for the day. Tomorrow there won't be any workshop activity but Wade in his travels will 1) pick up his rebuilt shocks from Tony "Shocks", 2) drop in Big Red's radiator to Dennis at JJ Smith's for another clean and check, 3) pick up the '34 grill and other parts from All Metal Bumpers and 4) visit David at Antique Tyre Supplies for some cowl beading to replace that taken off when the holes were filled. I'll find out all about it on Thursday when I'm down there again.

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