Hello Mike. I am not familiar with the 52 cars, but can you remove the inner fenders like on a Series 22 or 23? Gary

Thanks David and Howard. I checked that again, and I have given up smoking. I am pretty sire it was the air filter too full and had a bit of muck in it. Gaery

Thank you David and Howard. I do have an elec fuel pump (for starting) as well as the mech pump. I will check all that again. There was no spring under the vacuum piston, but one that is too stiff would make it run rich, correct? No spring would mean the rods are lifted by throttle only, so it still should work.
I did find a bit of muck in the air filter. Is anyone still using the original oil bath filter, and is there a recommended oil?
Gary

Yes, it is 1949, 23rd series according to the bodyt plate, and built RHD.

Is anyone familiar with Carter WD-0 carbs? Mine is making black smoke, I have adjusted the flaot by the book and then lower, still smoking. Idle mix screws are right in too. Any suggestions?
Gary

Hello Duane. This is what I did with my engine post-rebuild. The first essential is to make sure the oil pump is primed, otherwise you need to buy a boat. You will have a ready made anchor if the engine fires without oil pressure.
1. Remove spark plugs and either the oil pressure sender or the feed line to the oil filter. Crank it and you should see oil, if not it means the pump is dry. Vital that is fixed.
2. If there is oil, then put some oil down the plug holes and replace plugs. Get a 6V battery and hotwire the coil, this eliminates the rest of the electrics.
3. Chuck some petrol down the carb. If possible fill the float chamber.
4. A new engine will be tight. Get a 12V battery, connect one lead to the block and put the other straight on the starter terminal. It should fire, if it does and runs out of fuel it means the next thing is fuel supply.
If it does fire up, it may run hot for a few minutes before settling down.
Hope this is useful
Gary.

Hello 54ocmac. I have been up this path. I have installed rope seals before in various engines including my Packard 8, and all work fine except one, a 351 Cleveland. This has a smaller than usual seal groove and would not fit the rope. About 10 years ago now I got a neoprene seal for it, this was 2 piece, it solved the problem. You should be able to get your old rope seal out without dropping the crank. With a 2 piece seal use some sort of hydraulic sealant on all the seal to groove surfaces. I used some Loctite 515 I think from memory. If there is a spike in the groove in the block (hopefully not) or rear mains cap, this is to stop the rope seal turning, this has to come out. The faces of the seal halves where they meet need sealant, and lastly remember to stagger the seal halves. Not level, but rotated about 30 deg relative to the block/cap surface. Also sealant between the block and rear mains cap.
Hope this helps.
Gary

Hello Bear. When removing the instrument panel from my 49 I found there are 2 x 5/16 bolts going into the back of the cluster at the outside edge, just below halfway down. There might also be 2 more on the lower edge. With my car I also found the wiring connects both from above and below. So you will probably have to get under there and disconnect every wire from the back.
When you put it back together, I suggest you could tru this: omit the lower bolts. Replace the outside ones with studs, it makes life easier.

Hello again everyone. Apologies for the physics lecture. Resistance depends on 3 things, resistivity of the material (hence the popularity of copper), length, and inversely proportional to area. I rebuilt my 288, so it is new and tight, starter motor rebuilt too, it would not crank on a single 6V battery using jumper leads. (It would using 12V). This is due to the length of the leads (9 feet) and the contact resistance of the alligator clips. I got some 1/2 inch cable, and eye terminals which I soldered on, with the battery in its proper place the lead to the starter and earth to the block were about 2 feet long. It cranks and starts fine.
The wire from the starter button (my car is not throttle start) to the starter solenoid does not have to be thick, it only activates the solenoid, it does not carry starting current.
Electrical power is volts x amps. Compared to a 12V system for the same power you will have twice the current. Resistance generates heat, more current means more heat for the same wire. diameter. So any high current device (to the amp gauge, the headlights, ciggy lighter) you can go up in wire size. Everything else can be normal diameter. Howard's suggestion of a headlight relay is a good idea, because the headlight switch to the relay only needs low current.
Here is another suggestion. The factory ran the wiring inside the A pillar, over the doors and down through the C pillar. It is impossible to pull through a new section of wire. I had to replace what was left of my roof lining anyway, so I replaced the wiring using 5 core trailer wire. The back of the car is the same as a trailer anyway, except for the fuel sender unit wire. Now if you have to do this, but don't want to disturb your roof lining, go to the local trailer place and you should be able to get 5 or 7 core wire, and they should have flat section. (The wires side by side, not in a round bundle.) You can then run this under the carpet, and it will not be noticeable.
Gary

Well it looks like there are two options: have deep pockets or dirty hands. The cheapest harness I could find was $800, and that was not an exact match to my 49. The other factor was my car is RHD, a harness from the US won't fit without modification anyway. Also their prices are even higher. Ad to that the unfavourable exchange rate, and freight charges. The wire I bought (9 plain, 10m ea; 11 trace colors 30m ea) cost me less than $200, I got some of that back by trading half with a fellow enthusiast. Box of crimp terminals $15, which I had anyway. A few meters of heat shrink and split tube $20. Tools: crimping pliers and soldering iron, which I had anyway. I also made a few changes such as wiring in an electric fuel pump, if I had a pre-made harness it would not have this feature. Sure it takes time, but not as much as an engine rebuild, or de-rusting. The other advantage is now I know how the car is wired, I can fix any future electrical problem.
Gary