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Thanks Kev, if there are still some small leaks then I'm not opposed to doing the tablets. Thanks for the recommendation.


I got the radiator installed back in the car tonight and filled it back up with coolant. The car has been dormant for a while so it took a minute to start. Once started and running I let it warm up for a bit with the cap off to let out bubbles. I didn't see any leaks at all from the radiator, at least not yet. So it appears that my repairs were a successful bombing campaign.

I ran the car up and down the long driveway for a bit to test things out. It was very dark, so lights were turned on. Some observations:

1.) The car sits tail in the air when driving. When at rest with brake off the TL turns on and pulls the rear down. But no matter what, when driving the front is pointing down. Makes it impossible to see when the headlights only illuminate 15 feet in front of the car.
2.) The brakes are MUCH improved after replacing the leaking rear wheel cylinder and adjusting the rear brakes properly. The BTV is touchy to mild pressure now, and moderate-heavy pressure locked up the passenger rear on my asphalt. The car felt much more in control with stopping.
3.) I don't think my charging system is working. I'm going to do more digging on that.
4.) I found what I believe is the source for my coolant leak into the cabin. After running the car for a bit, I pulled it back into the shop and heard hissing/dripping. It wasn't the radiator, but instead the hose connections under the car for the under seat heater. One of them was spraying coolant at the bottom of the floor, which was then getting into the car from the hole through the floor pan. Thankfully a small section of jute soaked most of it up. I pulled that piece out and dried everything else the best I could. I really don't want to have to remove the front seat again. Done it twice and that's enough. Looks like the hoses and clamps and no good. I could replace them all, but I may just follow Ross's advice and remove the heater from the circuit. So far it has been nothing but problems with it.


So some problems solved, and some progress in the right direction. This weekend I'm hoping to get some time on the road to do more testing.

Yup I would just bypass it at this point. You can always come back to it later. Next time you are at the auto parts store grab a few feet of hose.

The hose 13643 is 5/8" ID, 1" OD heater hose, and there are (6) "Corbin style" clamps (group 50.675) in total. Though of course, you can just use the clamp that was for the underseat circuit, on both sides.

For the TL, how is the car stanced? With the skirts on it, the bottom middle of the skirt should line up exactly center with the rear wheels. But also, the TL shouldn't be activating at every stop. Could be a bushing issue.

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1. How does the tail get "in the air"? Does the leveler run when the car is moving? Does it happen in H, D, L, and R? Does it happen if the parking brake is used to keep the car from moving? Is the tail raised to the limit? What constitutes "at rest"? Is that only P and N?

2. If "moderate-heavy pressure locked up the passenger rear on my asphalt" and the only brake cylinder you replaced was the passenger rear, your test would tend to suggest that the other three wheel cylinders should be replaced.

4. How old are the hose and clamp attached to the under seat heater? The hose in your video shows imprints for multiple clamp positions and it doesn't look very new. How many other old hoses are still on the car?

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What happens if you switch off the TL before yo go for your test drive?

Thanks for chiming in, both of you. Answers to the questions:

1.) At rest the stance of the car is level. The lower edge of the fender skirts lines up with the center of the hex on the rear.

2.) The rear of the car seems to raise slightly when brakes are applied, probably the natural movement/momentum from braking. It is not raised to the limit, maybe only an inch or so up, but enough to point the headlights towards the ground. After that it does not level itself even with the brake off. When put in P or N the TL kicks in like normal and lowers the rear.

3.) I have replacement cylinders for all the other wheels but I didn't end up replacing because the ones on the car were dry and clean. I did not bleed all four corners when I replaced the other cylinder. Just the rears. Do you think it would make that much of a difference if I replaced all the cylinders?

4.) The hose and clamps are very old. The ones in the engine bay appear to have been replaced at some point. But the under seat heater hoses are a different story. Judging by the white overspray on them, I'm going to say the hoses were on the car when it received it's repaint, which was probably in the 70's or 80's. So yeah, probably time to replace everything. Now I'm wondering if the heater switch on the firewall is actually good after all....haven't tested it yet, just removed it from the circuit. All my previous problems with coolant on the floor could have been from the under seat heater hoses. I'll go ahead and replace everything and see how that does.

5.) I did not switch the TL off on my quick test drive last night. Once I sort the heater hoses I'll drive it again and report back. I'm hoping it's not a bushing issue because I'm really not excited about tackling that.

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Unfortunately it does sound like that, but in the meantime you can just switch it off once the car levels for the first time on a drive. Also I will be happy to loan you my unloading tool, just 2 USPS flat rate boxes to get it back and forth. You have a lift, so it won't be too bad. It will also be the perfect time to replace control arm bushings which is another "not too bad" job once the bar is unloaded, and with these fixes the car will truly drive like new (assuming the shocks have been done). It's sort of unavoidable on a higher mileage TL car, and there are MANY others that are really getting to that point after 70 years and more mileage, compared to just a couple of decades ago.

Put another way, this is one of those things that on a $1500 car that barely runs, you wouldn't worry about, but on a $75000 restoration it's the least of your worries, so it's really only the nice driver car owners that you really hear discussing this sort of repair.

The other TL system hardware components as elucidated in the service manual seem to be good for the life of the vehicle, and no other operations involving the other special tools are necessary except in extremely unusual circumstances, like very heavy rust causing fatigue failures (maybe one instance of this ever in the past half century). Just lube it as instructed when convenient.

Kevin.

My 400 raises. I know that my upper A arm bushings move.

But also. I'm looking at rear torque arm front bushings.
Never replaced them. Think that's my squeak.

My dad's 56 Patrician push down on rear and it springs back.

Where mine. Push down and it stays.

Thanks for the advice both of you. I've never done anything like bushing replacement on an old car, so that's my hesitation. Reading the manual it talks about special tools to hold the arms and prevent them from bending, and it makes it seem like a pretty involved procedure. My hope is that it's not that big of a deal. I really just need someone to show me how to get the old ones out and the new ones in. Once I see it, I can do it.

Riki, I can push down on the front or rear of my car and it stays. Takes very little force to move, but it doesn't come back up on its own. It needs the TL to level it out.

So it sounds like I need to replace the upper A arm bushings at the very least. But for best performance I should also change the lower A arm and rear bushings.

Kevin.

Lowers. Yep. Especially if the tires are wearing on the inside.

Upper A arm not that bad.

You need to hold the load arm up. The rest is easy. Pressing out and in bushings you need a press.

And some things to hold Arm. And bushings

My does the same.

Push down and the tl will kick in.

Also down hill and a curve the rear will rise..

Coming back from a car show my friend took a few pictures.

You can see my rear is up. I'm at a stoplight.

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