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Ross

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#81

Home away from home

Soldering the throttle arm onto the shaft is a way to take up play that sometime develops at the joint. The play is what keeps the carb from going to low idle--the arm hits the stop but the butterflies have not closed. That usually works pretty well and I have done it dozens of times in the last 35 years, many times right on the car. I would guess that your solder has jerked loose and you need to resolder or find another shaft and arm. Also good to check that the butterfly screws have not come loose in the last 69 years.

Personally I would just put a single 4 bbl on the car. It is far more enjoyable and and less headache causing. Then you can sell the dual setup to someone who is in need of the testosterone boost.

Posted on: 6/24 6:39

Pgh Ultramatic

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#82

Home away from home

It's worth remembering that the HP on the Caribbeans was only 7% more than the Seniors, and that extra HP only shows up when you are at very high throttle and RPM (unsurprisingly). In other words, the torque curve is virtually the same across normal driving situations.

Sounds like a good winter project to swap the rear carb onto a manifold. Obviously the air cleaner will need swapped as well. You can reuse the entire linkage, though.

Posted on: 6/24 9:13

CarFreak

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#83

Home away from home

Quote:

Ross wrote:
Soldering the throttle arm onto the shaft is a way to take up play that sometime develops at the joint. The play is what keeps the carb from going to low idle--the arm hits the stop but the butterflies have not closed. That usually works pretty well and I have done it dozens of times in the last 35 years, many times right on the car. I would guess that your solder has jerked loose and you need to resolder or find another shaft and arm. Also good to check that the butterfly screws have not come loose in the last 69 years.

Personally I would just put a single 4 bbl on the car. It is far more enjoyable and and less headache causing. Then you can sell the dual setup to someone who is in need of the testosterone boost.

Yea that solder did come lose. So just try to resolder on the car? seems simple enough. Should I rotate the linkage (while looking from the drivers side of the car) counter clock wise and solder (closing direction)? or clockwise rotation (open direction)? in a way to preset it to take up the slack or it doesnt matter?

as I understand where you are coming from when it comes to these twin carbs, and I do love simple, the "its suppose to have dual carbs from the factory" side of me is a little reluctant at this point. But depending on how much trouble these things are that can change.

but going back to the braking issue. I do think that the lining that is on these new shoes are not up to the task of slowing down this over weight car down the hills/mountains of pittsburgh. some hills I have to put the car in neutral and by the time I get to the bottom you can smell the brakes (this is not due to riding the brakes, I have been driving drum brake cars for some time now). So if these brake shoes were on anything but a convertible you may be okay. Ill know more when I get the chance to get the patrician on the road since I recently put the exact same shoes on that.

Posted on: Yesterday 15:55

kevinpackard

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#84

Home away from home

How's the rest of the braking system feel? Like how much pedal travel, how firm does it feel, etc? Have you hooked up a vacuum gauge with the engine running to see if there's some sort of a vacuum leak? I had a leak (that I couldn't hear) at the hose connection to the vacuum tank. The vacuum gauge helped to diagnose that there was a vacuum problem to begin with. From there I was able to go item by item until I had tracked down the source of the problem.

You may have already done all the above. But just in case, it doesn't hurt to double check.

Posted on: Yesterday 16:09

Owen_Dyneto

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#85

Forum Ambassador

Once I got them set up, I had no performance issues with the dual carburetor setup on my '56 Caribbean, it was thoroughly satisfactory. And you should expect the same result.

Posted on: Yesterday 16:13

CarFreak

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#86

Home away from home

Quote:

kevinpackard wrote:
How's the rest of the braking system feel? Like how much pedal travel, how firm does it feel, etc? Have you hooked up a vacuum gauge with the engine running to see if there's some sort of a vacuum leak? I had a leak (that I couldn't hear) at the hose connection to the vacuum tank. The vacuum gauge helped to diagnose that there was a vacuum problem to begin with. From there I was able to go item by item until I had tracked down the source of the problem.

You may have already done all the above. But just in case, it doesn't hurt to double check.

The pedal does not travel far to get resistance. pedal effort really isn't that bad until the brakes start to fade. I am able to pull about 10 inHg at idle. I could pull more, but that involves increasing the idle higher and that is counter productive at the moment.

Posted on: Yesterday 17:05

Pgh Ultramatic

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#87

Home away from home

Quote:

CarFreak wrote:
Yea that solder did come lose. So just try to resolder on the car? seems simple enough. Should I rotate the linkage (while looking from the drivers side of the car) counter clock wise and solder (closing direction)? or clockwise rotation (open direction)? in a way to preset it to take up the slack or it doesnt matter?

It doesn't matter but you can't do it on the car as you need to take a wire gauge and set the throttle screw position. I would run through the adjustments on page 10 and 11 in order just to double check everything while you are at it. I think the 56 R4GC's don't have the atmospheric idle vent adj. so ignore that one.

Posted on: Yesterday 17:08

CarFreak

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#88

Home away from home

Quote:

Pgh Ultramatic wrote:
Quote:

CarFreak wrote:
Yea that solder did come lose. So just try to resolder on the car? seems simple enough. Should I rotate the linkage (while looking from the drivers side of the car) counter clock wise and solder (closing direction)? or clockwise rotation (open direction)? in a way to preset it to take up the slack or it doesnt matter?

It doesn't matter but you can't do it on the car as you need to take a wire gauge and set the throttle screw position. I would run through the adjustments on page 10 and 11 in order just to double check everything while you are at it. I think the 56 R4GC's don't have the atmospheric idle vent adj. so ignore that one.

Are we talking about the same procedure? The service bulletin you turned me onto for the twin carbs does not mention a wire guage. it just mentions to close the throttle blades, adjust the idle screw until it hits the stop, and take it one turn more. Then adjust the idle air and idle screw until you achieve the desired idle speed.

Posted on: Yesterday 17:16

kevinpackard

Re: 56 Caribbean Convertible Rejuvenation

#89

Home away from home

Quote:

CarFreak wrote:
The pedal does not travel far to get resistance. pedal effort really isn't that bad until the brakes start to fade. I am able to pull about 10 inHg at idle. I could pull more, but that involves increasing the idle higher and that is counter productive at the moment.

10 inHg is very low. At idle you should be getting 18-20. If 10 is your actual number, then you have a vacuum problem somewhere.

Check the vacuum connections at the carbs. Not sure how it is on the duel carbs, but on the single carb the connection is at the back. Start with the check valve and make sure it is in good condition and the internals move freely. Then check the large vacuum hose from the check valve to the T fitting, then to the vacuum tank, and down to the brake booster. Replace the hoses if at all suspect. There's a good chance one of those connections is leaking. Also check the lines going up to the wiper motor.

If you get the vacuum up to 18-20 the brakes should work significantly better at that point. And the car will run better too.

In regards to your question about the wire gauge and carbs, the wire gauge is used to set the throttle plates correctly. Carbs have to be off to reach the throttle plates. Other adjustments can be done after the plates are set with the correct gap.

Posted on: Yesterday 17:20