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You should have a vacuum port on your intake manifold to go to the vacuum pump- I would put a fitting there. Of note, when I got my car out of the barn this summer after sitting for most of three years, that hole was open. It ran like crap until I found the leak- once I plugged it, it ran great. Apparently I had put a temp plug in previously, and it had fallen out.

Thanks Ken,

I'm sorry I must be really dense. I cannot get to the car, but I was looking through pics of the '51 manifold. This is the only port I can see. Is this the one you are talking about? It would be below the carb facing the firewall.

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Earlier manifolds had a large vacuum port in the middle under carb as you have indicated and smaller ones at each end of the intake runners --front one was used for wipers & was on top almost directly above the fuel pump. Rear one was usually plugged but could be used for a vacuum antenna or other option if desired.

Later manifolds starting in 51 or 52 eliminated the end ports and just used the large one in the middle for wipers. If equipped, they added a tee fitting to supply the power brakes also.

If your fuel pump is one with rubber hoses connecting metal tubes to the vacuum pump section you can attach the vacuum gauge to the line coming from that port. If yours is the solid metal connection then you will have to get some kind of adapter fittings to plumb the gauge into the port but in either case that is the correct place on the manifold to measure.

Some carbs have a removable plug on the base as a spare port that could be another vacuum source. If using that you have to make sure it is the one connected to manifold vacuum from below the throttle plate and not the port used for vacuum advance.

Thanks for confirming that is the correct location. The wipers were disconnected on the car when I got it. On the '51 I had hard line vacuum lines. I think the ones on the '52 have a rubber hose that probably goes to a hard line. The '52 fuel pump had the barbs on it for rubber lines. Right now, the '51 pump is in the '52. Maybe I will put a Tee on that port with a plug so I can attach the vacuum gauge to it for testing without disturbing the wiper line, but then again, I bet the line should be disconnected and capped for an accurate vacuum reading so I guess I will have to disconnect the wipers every time I want to tune the engine.

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With winter here I am getting bored and need a project. I decided to try to tackle the radio. The furthest I got with the radio in the '51 was to lube/free up the station preset buttons. You can view this on the '51 blog here.

I pulled the '51 radio out and tried it on my 6v battery. The dial lights up, two tubes have a dim glow on top and I hear a humming noise. Nothing changes with the volume or station selector.

Before the snow hit, I pulled the '52 radio from the car. It did not function but it turns out it was not connected. I hooked it to the 6v battery. The dial would light but that was it.

I opened both radios up and removed the vibrator from the '51 and put it in the '52. Now I had a hum, but no changes with volume or station selector. Looks like the vibrator in the '52 is toast.

I have spent a lot of time on old radio websites looking for help as to what could be wrong. Seems like the capacitors dry out and stop functioning after all of these years. They recommend you replace all of the capacitors. They make it sound easy, but having extremely limited soldering experience and zero knowledge about electronics, I'm sure it is harder than they say.

Between the two radios, I decided to try to get the '51 going first since it made a static noise when I first got the car before quitting.

I removed the guts from the housing. The things I think are capacitors look gross! Melted wax look. Now I need to buy the right ones. The radio diagram on this site looks helpful. I also found the attached PDF on nostalgiaair.org as a free download. It was hidden under United Motors Service - Delco as the manufacturer. The PDF link is right below the third picture.

After exposing the top of the radio, I can see there is not a lot of room for swapping out the capacitors. Makes me a little nervous, but then again, I have a spare radio I can send out for repair if all of this goes south. So far, I have noticed a capacitor with a broken connection which could be the whole problem, but I need to replace them anyway.

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If you didn't connect it you will probably need to plug in the antenna to have a decent signal. The hum is a good sign. Mine won't even do that. Broken wires are unusual and not good so you may have found a problem.

No I didn't connect the antenna. I figure I should at least hear the volume change or the static change even without the antenna. Heck I was happy to see the dial light up. Originally I was going to be happy with just that!

You'll definitely need an antenna connected for any output and you might be surprised that either or both radios could work OK after the new caps are soldered in. Both of the radios that I have worked ok after caps replaced, and the vibrator in one worked as well.

I bought a complete set of valves (tubes) thinking I would need some but it turned out that I didn't need to replace any of them! And although I bought solid state vibrators, one of the original vibrators still works, humming away quite happily but noisily.

BTW, if you find that the original speaker still works and is fairly OK, take care of it because I doubt that you will find a replacement for it anywhere!! And I couldn't find a company that would re-core them either. So I have still got the original speaker in mine, and it works after a fashion. Very disappointing that no-one can supply a similar 6 X 9 that will fit. Magnets these days are much larger than back then. Alternative is to use a rear parcel shelf speaker. These were an optional extra in '51 cars.

You will need some kind of antenna to get anything.

If the Vibrator is a 4 pin style (can looking thing that plugs in) you will want to replace it with a new solid state unit for the proper poliarity (+ ground). (Antique Electronic Supply in Tempe AZ). If there is an 0Z4 rectifier tube in this radio replace that as well.

Radios of this era will generally need the small paper capacitors replaced and often the Electrolytics. As the hard part is getting the radio out of the dash I do everything while it is out.

I have found the rubber clutch that allows the tuner to skip ahead when youi push a button can become dry and gummy. Most parts of the tuner run without lube to keep from collecting dust. Don't use WD-40 on anything...

I spent some time restoring the wondrebar tuned radio in my 54 and now there is no listenable AM in Phoenix AZ.

Jim

be careful with the fine wires coming from the tuning coils, hard to fix.

Jim