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Thanks Howard...I believe you are right. When I touch the radio it gets MUCH louder. The antenna will probably make a difference. For the life of me, I can't find my OEM antenna, just the electric motor. The weather is supposed to be decent this weekend. Maybe I will reinstall the radio and see how it sounds.

On a separate note, I started to check out the '52 radio. Remember, someone has been in here before because some of the capacitors have been replaced. I quickly noticed that there was only 1 wire going to the speaker. I reviewed my pics of the '51 radio and soldered in a new wire to the speaker. I put the vibrator from the '51 in the '52 radio. I asked my wife "can you hold this for me" and handed her the antenna lead. Tuned to a known strong signal, turned it on and viola! It worked! The station sounded clearer than the '51 radio, but much lower in volume. I bet the capacitors in the '52 are still marginal and need to be replaced. In any case, I have 2 functioning radios!!

1-24-15

Today I put the recapped radio in the car. The antenna wire inside the car was broken. I tried to use it, but it would not do anything. The adapter that goes into the radio was pulled off the cable and was hanging by a thin wire.

The construction of the cable seems to be the outside, under the outer rubber is a woven metal sheath that acts as a ground. Inside that is a plastic tube with the thin wire running through.

I peeled the adapter apart and carefully shoved the thin wire back into the plastic tube. When I got it in and isolated from the ground, I crimped the sides of the adapter back down. Two of the sides were soldered to the woven metal sheath. This proved to be extremely difficult. I even used a 75 watt soldering iron, but it still did not work well. Anyway, I got enough on to hold it together.

After reinstalling the adapter in the radio and turning it on, it still was not working. I carefully moved the adapter in and out a little and twisted some. All of a sudden the radio was booming out a station!

The radio sounds pretty good and is very loud. Howard was right that you need the antenna to really hear the radio.

While in there, I removed my clock because it is not working anymore. I had fixed this a couple years ago, but it has failed again.

3-12-15

Over the last couple of weeks I recapped my now "spare" radio (the original one in the '52). All went smoothly and now I have two working radios, provided I put a different vibrator in it.

I took the original vibrator apart and attempted to fix it by filing the contacts, but it did not work. I didn't put a whole lot of time in it though. Pics of what they look like below.

I also attached pics of the can capacitor insides. This one I was able to open properly so I took some pics of the inside, because I found it interesting.

This week has been beautiful weather so I moved the cars around so I can get at the '51 better for more cutting. The '52 started after a couple of crank attempts. I assume because the fuel had to make its way up to the carb.

After running for 2 minutes, I drove it up and down the driveway. Of course I stalled it and when I tried to restart, no dice. I had to spray carb cleaner in the carb to get it to fire again. Not sure what is causing that. I even have the gas cap cracked because the tank is a modern one and I thought it wasn't working because it is not vented.

After refiring I "accidently" left a 4 foot patch of rubber as I did a burn out in reverse! That was kind of satisfying!

Also tried to use the radio, but it didn't produce any stations. I guess my cable repair was subpar.

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5-31-15

Actually worked on the car today! Finished rewiring the trunk section. For the trunk light I tied it into the dome light. Turns out it doesn't matter because the trunk light doesn't work! I guess I'll be trying to restore it.

Took inventory of everything electrical. It all works except the passenger side turn signal up front. I see the filament in the bulb start to glow but that's it. The high beam indicator and turn signal indicator on the dash also do not work. Guess I have some wire tracing to do!

6-2-15

With most of the lights working on the outside, the car is almost "road ready". As I run it, it seems like revving the engine puts it back in "high idle". I can "goose" the engine and kick the idle down, but trying to rev back up it hesitates a lot. I'm sure the issue is in the carb settings somewhere, just not sure. I rebuilt the carb on my other car and have all kinds of issues with that as well. I guess the "finesse" of adjusting these things is lost with me.

What do you do when you don't make progress on the drivability of your car? At least make it look better! I put the bird ornament back on the hood and added a new trunk "handle" ornament I bought over the winter. It's not perfect, but better than the broken, painted one that was on the car.

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Rebuilding a carburetor is a lot more than changing gaskets and setting the float level and adjusting the idle mixture. If you're not skilled at it and still have carburetor problems, my suggestion is to let a professional do the rebuild or buy a rebuilt on an exchange basis.

You are absolutely right! I'm going to keep practicing on the various settings and see if where I went wrong pops up. If no luck it will be time for professional help.

I believe your car has the 2 barrel WGD? If so it appears the fast idle is rather simple. Assume you checked for the .023 throttle plate clearance using the instructions in SM. You won't have the gauge but some .023 steel wire or .023 is right between a #73 & #74 drill so a #73 would work. If that is good then I would look for a mechanical binding in the linkage. It would seem that if the throttle is not reliably closing and staying on fast idle when the choke is fully open then either the choke part of the mechanism is binding or else something in the main linkage is preventing the throttle from reliably closing.

Another poster had a problem with his car returning to slow idle and it appeared it was due to mixing linkages from different models. Somehow it had cocked the piece across the top of engine. Could that be a possibility. How about that bracket piece on the firewall with the disappearing rubber that Ross has mentioned a couple of times. Also the spring on the main linkage -- is it positioned properly and of the correct tension to bring the rest of the linkage and throttle plate to the closed position.

Yes I have the 2 barrel and thought it was simple enough to rebuild. I'll double check the settings you mentioned. I already tried the rubber per Ross. Also have a questionable helper spring. Hopefully I can check tomorrow.

Took longer than I thought but I finally got around to taking the carb off. Checked and the fast idle adjustment and the pull off are right in spec. One thing I did notice I'd if I pull the throttle all the way open it gets stuck. Shouldn't it snap back somewhat like the choke plate does? When I assembled the carb I put some grease on the linkages. I know you are not supposed to but I thought it would give better performance. Could the grease be a problem?

The throttle linkage to the pedal moves freely with the carb off. I added another helper spring to see if that helps.

Anything else I should do/check before reinstalling the carb?