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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Forum Ambassador
 
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Next time you are under verify nothing electrical happened to cause the compensator to drive so long as to change the transverse bar positions far enough to become reversed. If that happens, assuming nothing got damaged in the process, everything will be out of sync mechanically. What the control switch might want as a very slight level change in one direction will become a big movement the opposite way because the correction direction called for is mechanically wrong and instead of correcting the slight out of level condition it keeps making it worse. This can happen if something shorts or more often, when someone manually tries to move the suspension either without watching the compensator if jumping terminals or when the limit switches were bypassed because of an incorrect installation of a manual switch.
This is a birds eye view from above. Verify the short transverse bar going to the drivers side is at the front of the compensator and the long bar to the passenger side is at the rear. The slight open angle of the V shape at the compensator drive link should point to the passenger side. If bars are reversed you will need to CAREFULLY manually control things while you watch and drive them back around to normal. 
Posted on: 4/5 20:15
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Howard
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
 
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Howard, all good under the car. The bars are fine and the TL works as normal when stopped. It was just odd how it immediately raised the rear up when driving when I flipped the switch. Not sure if anyone else has had this happen with worn bushings or not.
Posted on: 4/5 23:28
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Kevin
1954 Clipper Super Panama | Registry | Project Blog 1938 Super 8 1605 | Registry | Project Blog 1953 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan | Registry | Project Blog |
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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Take 2 seconds and remove the generator belt from the generator. Then take an alligator clip jumper and connect
Posted on: Yesterday 0:01
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1955 400 | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Deluxe | Registry | Project Blog 1955 Clipper Super Panama | Registry Email (Parts/service inquiries only, please. Post all questions on the forum.) service@ultramatic.info |
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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Quote:
This did not appear to be the case in your 2/8 video. Since then you have accessed all of the brakes. Are the front wheel bearings properly set? Are the lug nuts properly tightened? Earlier you said "1.) Power steering looks to be the source of most of the drips on the ground. The cylinder was rebuilt and it looks like some hoses were replaced. Not sure which are new and which are not. But it seems like it's leaking from most, if not all, of the line connections. I went through and tightened all of them up, cleaned off the drips, and will see if that does anything. But some hose replacements might be in my future." Did you check the fluid level? Several tests: 1. Driving down a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? 2. Driving down a crowned road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? 3. Driving down a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel then apply the brakes. What happens? 4. Driving in reverse on a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? Quote:
So now the levelizer is raising the rear of the car. If So: 1. Does it raise to the upper limit? 2. Is the delay approximately zero? 3. Does it go back to level when in N and P? It may be time to retest the control box.
Posted on: Yesterday 20:29
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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Bob, here's the info I have:
1. Driving down a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? - Random movement left to right. Not drastic. Feels like wind pushing from both directions. 2. Driving down a crowned road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? - Similar to above. Uncontrolled feeling, no telling which way the car will move. 3. Driving down a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel then apply the brakes. What happens? - Definite pull the right on medium braking. Probably from an issue in the front. This will likely be resolved when I replace the hoses and cylinders, and bleed the system. 4. Driving in reverse on a flat level road, let go of the steering wheel. What happens? - have not tested yet. I have checked the fluid level and it looks fine. Although it appears to be power steering fluid, instead of transmission fluid. Not sure if that's due to the rebuild on the cylinder or what. The leaks are still there from multiple locations. I can overlook that for now. I'm thinking the poor steering is from a few things. The steering gear needs to be adjusted for sure....I have at least 2-3 inches of play in the steering wheel either direction before anything happens. The tie rod ends may be worn out. The kingpins may be worn out. I will check those next time the car is in the air. Bearings probably need to be repacked, but I reinstalled them as the manual states. Interestingly enough though, my last two test drives had the bearing dust cap on the front passenger side come off and roll around inside the hubcap. No idea why. Maybe a problem with the bearing? Now to the TL: 1. Does it raise to the upper limit? - Not totally sure how high it goes while driving, but it's definitely noticeable. 2. Is the delay approximately zero? - Pretty close to instant. It's not the normal 5-7 second delay. 3. Does it go back to level when in N and P? - Yes, works totally normal any other time. Next time the car is up in the air I will run through the control box again. But no idea what could've changed in that. I do still need to remove the insulation on the down limit switch to check the wiring though.
Posted on: Yesterday 23:14
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Kevin
1954 Clipper Super Panama | Registry | Project Blog 1938 Super 8 1605 | Registry | Project Blog 1953 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan | Registry | Project Blog |
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I'm thinking the poor steering is from a few things. The steering gear needs to be adjusted for sure....I have at least 2-3 inches of play in the steering wheel either direction before anything happens. The tie rod ends may be worn out. The kingpins may be worn out. I will check those next time the car is in the air. Bearings probably need to be repacked, but I reinstalled them as the manual states. Interestingly enough though, my last two test drives had the bearing dust cap on the front passenger side come off and roll around inside the hubcap. No idea why. Maybe a problem with the bearing? Before you start to throw parts at it, be sure to check the system's pressure as low pressure can have the same effect.
Posted on: Today 1:37
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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Quote:
But the wandering stops and it just pulls to the right. Quote:
With the car on the ground, in P, and level, switch on the TL and sit on the rear bumper. How long before the levelizer turns on? Since the levelizer only runs with the switch on, control is still with the control box. Look at the mechanical inputs to the control box.
Posted on: Today 3:59
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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An easy check/adjustment for your Bendix power steering:
On the end of the power steering valve there is a little metal cap held on with two screws. You can easily reach it from under the driver's fender even without jacking up the car. Take that cap off. Underneath is a nut that connects the spool valve to the linkage. Tighten that nut nice and snug, then back it off just enough that you can shake it side to side a bit. I often get cars in with that adjusted wrong and it adds a lot of slop. Otherwise adjust your steering gear as per normal with the front wheels off the ground so you can feel just a tiny bit of drag in the center position. It rare for the cars with PS to have seriously worn boxes as they see so little stress. About tires: I was entranced with my new 55 Constellation when I got it back in '78(!) The thing cornered like a fox. Then I fixed it up and put new wide whitewalls on it and never enjoyed driving it after. Those big fat letter-series bias ply tires led it all over the road.
Posted on: Today 6:56
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Home away from home
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What Ross is describing is shown on figure 70 of the shop manual.
Nice tip Ross, I didn't know that. Side note, regarding gearbox wear, I wouldn't be surprised if it would get a little loose after 80k miles even with power steering. Perhaps irrelevant, but I have a particular memory of renting a U-Haul truck with like 130k miles on it and the steering being so loose that I couldn't go more than 5 seconds without correcting it unless I wanted to drift across a lane line... But if you are actually fighting the wheel, I would think that this adjustment would fix that, as power steering will naturally help compensate for road shock and the like, so the problem is more likely to be in the system itself. As mentioned, the gearbox adjustment can easily be checked with a hook scale as shown in figure 102 after disconnecting the arm.
Posted on: Today 8:02
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1955 400 | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Deluxe | Registry | Project Blog 1955 Clipper Super Panama | Registry Email (Parts/service inquiries only, please. Post all questions on the forum.) service@ultramatic.info |
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