[TXSTARFIRE]

I also remember the collar being at the speedo head end. I have removed the core and used solvent on a rag to remove old hard lube from the core. I have a tube of AC Delco speedo cable lube, it is a thin grease of some type. Not sure what would be best to use if you dont have it.

[Sirrotica]

For years I've used Lubriplate white lithium grease to lube speedometer cables, and yes you need to remove the cable from the speedometer end because there is a shoulder on the top of the cable that prohibits it coming out the bottom (transmission end).

Unless the car has tons of miles on it the housings usually stand up fairly well, 9 out of 10 times all they need is cleaned up, and re-lubricated to return to like new operation.

I used to have a tool that allowed you to lube them from the bottom end. basically a transmission drive adapter with a grease fitting that allowed you to inject fresh grease from a manual grease gun into the cable. I tried it a couple times, but got less than stellar results with it and deferred to the conventional removal from the top end, clean the cable and reinstall it with Lubriplate grease.

[Parkman51]

Today I disconnected both ends of the speedometer cable and twisted, and it spun fine. This may mean that there's something wrong with the speedometer itself (unfortunately).

I also did two other things: I began work on rewiring the trunk light (but I can't find a non-online source for the correct gauge of orange wire) so that'll have to wait for the next Amazon order. And I removed the weatherstripping from the rear passenger door and acid-prepped it to neutralize the rust - I think I'll give it another brushing and wire prep just to be safe.

Today's question:
1) What to do about the speedometer? Tests and recommendations?

[Bill Hanlon]

Don't know where you are located. When I lived in Houston I took my '57 GMC speedometer to http://www.usande.com/
They did a good job for not a lot of money. They are still there.

[Safari Larry]

What I would do... Remove the speedometer and take it apart and see what you can find. It may only need cleaning. Gears in it turn the odometer and may be gunked up a bit. Here's a link to some photos of my 56 speedometer (I expect 55 would be the same).

https://1drv.ms/f/c/dd6d72779f5026a2...O-dwQ?e=Xg9dx9

[Parkman51]

Great advice, as usual. After all, if all the clock needed was a bit of attention and a dash of lubricant, maybe the speedometer is the same! So today I pulled it out and started cleaning and looking - though I didn't have enough time to get all the way into the mechanism, I've got a pretty good idea of how it all goes together thanks to Larry's photos and my investigations.

I think I'll replace all the lightbulbs while I've got it out, too.

And guess what? The original owner's meticulous records come in handy here! One of the business cards she had - one of the few shops that's still around - is a speedometer/gauge repair shop, that specializes in classic mechanical gauges. So if I do need to take it in somewhere, I know just where to go.

[Parkman51]

Yesterday I did the speedometer, disassembling it to its basic parts and giving a thorough cleaning. And yes, it was chock-full of nasty old grease. I probably spent an hour feeling like a dentist, using tiny tools to scrape gunk out of odd corners, but a combination of acetone, WD-40, and white lithium grease brought it to a state in which I felt I could reassemble it with a fair degree of confidence.

Then to help matters along, I pulled the speedometer cable again (it's SO MUCH easier when there's a hole where the speedometer usually is), re-cleaned and re-lubed it with more lithium grease, and replaced it. I was going to get new light bulbs, but they're more than five bucks apiece, so I was struck with an attack of the deadly "If-It-Ain't-Broke-Don't-Fix-It" disease, and decided to call that particular replacement off. The only thing that remains is to put the speedometer back in the car and test it.

Today, instead of doing that, I replaced the front passenger wheel cylinder. If you recall, when I was bleeding the brakes, this one didn't bleed whatsoever. The new cylinder and a new brake hose came in yesterday, and so I tucked straight in. Removing the tire and brake drum was trivial, but during the course of the removal I discovered that my lug nuts had started working loose, so I went around the whole car and re-tightened them. Sure is convenient that I didn't remount the hubcaps yet!

With the brake drum removed, I tried to use my brake tool kit to remove the primary and secondary return springs, only to find that my brake spring pliers wasn't going to work like I thought it would. So I used a channel-lock pliers to firmly grip the springs, and leaned, using my body weight to help overcome the spring resistance. This worked, and off came the return springs. Next, using the same pliers, I eased out the push rods (don't you love perfectly descriptive names).

At this point, removing the wheel cylinder would've been straightforward if I knew what I was doing, but I didn't, so of course I went the long way around. I removed the two attachment bolts behind the backing plate, and very awkwardly unscrewed the wheel cylinder from the brake hose, which was barely long enough to give me the necessary clearance in front of the backing plate. The brake hose, in turn, was very stuck at its attachment point to the hard line, so I sprayed it with WD-40 and left it until this evening.

This evening, it did eventually yield, either to my prayers or mechanical persuasion, I'm not sure which. But I was totally unable to remove the clip holding the hose to the mount, so I solved the problem by removing the mount and attacking the clip with the aid of a bench vise. With the clip removed, I gave the mount a light cleaning and brushing, then remounted it, and installed the wheel cylinder and brake hose. I connected the hose in the wrong order at first, but the next time I do this I'll remember that you tighten the cylinder side first, then the hard line side. The only things left to do for tomorrow are pressure-testing, bleeding, reinstalling the clip, replacing the drum and bearing hardware, and finally remounting the tire. Easy!

Then I get to do it all over again with the rear passenger wheel. Should've timed myself and see how much quicker it goes! Photos below, pre-disassembly, mid-disassembly, and current state.

[Parkman51]

I finished up the wheel cylinder and did all the necessary bits, and also did some cleaning, painting and lubrication on the rear passenger door. It'll be ready to get its new weatherstrip by tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the other front wheel cylinder decided to start leaking, so that's another project.

Today's two questions:
1) I had the very devil of a time installing the weatherstrip on the inner edge of the driver's door, just because there's not a lot of space available in which to work. Is it a good idea to take the passenger door off to install the weatherstrip, and if so, what's the best way to do it so that, when remounted, it still closes with all the proper tolerances?
2) Below you can see pictures of the old wheel cylinder, which I've disassembled and cleaned up a bit. If this is original to the car, I'll keep it and maybe rebuild it another time, but if it's a later replacement I'll throw it out. What does it look like to you?

[Bill Hanlon]

Caveat: I'm no body man. The 2 times I've removed a door I've used this procedure.

BEFORE loosening any hinge bolts decide if you want to leave the hinges on the body or on the door. I've done it both ways.

Get two 3/16" roll pins.

Drill a 3/16" hole through the part of each hinge that you plan to unbolt and through the hinge mount behind it.

Unbolt the hinges from the hinge mounting points that have the new holes.

Do whatever work you need to do on the door.

When it is time to remount the door tap a roll pin into the 3/16" hole in each hinge, pushing it through the hinge so about 1/8" is protruding through the hinge.

Next step is AT LEAST a 2 person job.

Hold the door up close enough to start the bolts through both hinges and get enough turns on the bolts to get the hinge/roll pin close the hinge mounting surface.

Start the roll pin into the hole drilled in the hinge mounting surface. Once started push the pin in at least 1/4". Do the same with the other roll pin.

Tighten the hinge bolts.

I cut off the protruding part of the pin, leaving the pins in the hinges for next time.

[Parkman51]

Over the past few days, I removed the rear passenger wheel cylinder - it's in worse shape than the front one. My replacement cylinder has gotten lost in the post twice, so it looks like a bit of a wait before I get to put all that back together - plus an odd-shaped spring jumped loose from the works while I was disassembling everything, and I'm not sure whether it has a purpose, or was just hanging out in there for fun. It looks like a shorter version of the spring on the parking brake lever.



Then today I got a package! It's big, it's rusty, it's...the air cleaner silencer from ebay (thanks for the tip, Larry!) I started derusting it this evening and I've got some good paint to put on top, once that process is done.



Today's question:
1) The silencer didn't come with a bracket or a mount, but I recall that it should have one. Does anyone have measurements/a pattern that I can use to fabricate my own, or is there a simpler solution?

[Parkman51]

Amazon lost my replacement wheel cylinder twice, so that whole project has been pushed back. That's the bad news.

The good news is that I fixed the trunk light - hopefully all the way this time. I reran a new line of orange wire from the old disconnected trunk wire through the lid, and joined it at both ends with insulated butt splices. I was well on my way to an easy solution, when the light wire suddenly broke off at the most inconvenient point - just as it went into the light housing. There was no easy way to fix this, so I thought for a bit and came up with a plan.

I bought some 12-gauge female disconnect terminals, and some 16-gauge male disconnect terminals. I put a male terminal on the broken wire end, and took the trunk light housing over to the workbench. Then I pushed one of the 12-gauge terminals over the top of the protruding connector stub on the trunk light - the 12-gauge was large enough to go snugly over it. Then I bent the terminal slightly and dropped a bead of solder down the center hole to make all fast.

After a few more minor hiccups, everything was reinstalled and functioning properly! I tore out the remnants of the old wire, removed the Terrible Horrible Connector, and wrapped the damaged taillight wire with electrical tape. Fortunately, it was only the insulation that was damaged, it looked like the actual wire strands were in fine shape.



Today I also finished painting the silencer, and gave it a test fit to see how it looked.



Today's two questions:
1) I'm still looking for any information you have on the bracket/mount for the silencer. It looks like I'll probably have to fabricate my own, but to do that I need to know how and where it attaches.
2) While I wait for the wheel cylinders, I'm contemplating digging out the radio to see about replacing any bad tubes. Advice on testing the radio for functionality? I've never worked with vacuum tubes before.

[Bill Hanlon]

Just a hint, and it may not apply in your latest wiring repair:

You have never mentioned using heat shrink tubing in any of you wiring repairs. It can provide much easier, cleaner and more substantial repair of wiring connections than electrical tape.

[Jack Gifford]

Have you tested the radio by connecting a speaker (any 4-8 ohm) to it, along with ground and fused 6v, and an antenna?

Have you located a person or business that can test the radio's tubes? If none of the tubes' filaments glow after the radio has been turned on for 10-20 seconds, don't bother testing the tubes yet- the lack of power to the filaments needs to be troubleshot first.

Probably more suspect than tubes is the vibrator (a plug-in round metal cylinder) which is needed to create the high DC voltage for the anodes of all the tubes. A working vibrator can be heard and felt. They are easily available from online antique radio firms. Such firms can many times also supply schematics.

[Parkman51]

Jack, this is excellent advice. I haven't removed it from the car yet, because I wondered if there was testing I should do while it was in there, but it sounds like this is going to be a lot of bench work. (Better lighting that way).

Is there a specific power adapter or something I should get to convert house-power to 6v? I have never worked with radios before, but I suppose there's no substitute for just digging it out and seeing what there is to see.

Bill, heat-shrink is a great product. For the trunk light, I found some butt splices with integrated heat shrink, which made the joints delightfully easy. Great tip!

[Bill Hanlon]

Your 55 radio should be a 12 volt device, not 6.

[Safari Larry]

Originally Posted by Parkman51

I'm still looking for any information you have on the bracket/mount for the silencer. It looks like I'll probably have to fabricate my own, but to do that I need to know how and where it attaches.

For photos of the support, see https://1drv.ms/f/c/dd6d72779f5026a2/IgDeWsxURlrgQb0Bu1hfZ5NdAbXwyzlG70A0Gu745rpUGwQ?e= taOWWt"].

That shows what it looks like. The end with slot attaches to outer end of air cleaner silencer. The end with hole attaches to a head bolt with stud on top.

You can get by without the support. I drove mine for a couple of years without one.

[Parkman51]

Today, after days of pointless waiting and days of productive work, all 4 wheel cylinders are replaced. I took the car out for another short neighborhood jaunt, and the speedometer now works correctly also - hurrah! So I'll let it sit overnight and see if any of the cylinders or connection points are leaking. Even if so, mostly-working brakes are far better than mostly-not-working brakes. We'll solve additional problems as they arise.

While working on the back brakes, I discovered that both parking brake link springs were broken. I didn't see this specific part at either CPR or Ames, so I took my problem into the local NAPA store and explained what I needed - they came back with something off-the-shelf that looked almost identical, so I tried it and it fit perfectly. Part number UP 80597, if anyone is interested.

One question today:
1. Any time I've driven the car, I've noticed that the brake pedal does not return to a fully-up position when I take my foot off - I have to tuck my toe underneath it and pull for it to fully come back up. What could be causing this? A leak/air in the brake lines? Maybe something with the vacuum system?

[Parkman51]

Got the radio out and cleaned it up a little bit, and found a schematic online. Now to find something that can provide 12v for further testing.

Also found a minor problem with the courtesy lights - the snap connector on the driver's light has one or two of its tabs broken off, so it can slip out of its plate and short the bulb to ground. Fortunately it stays where it belongs fairly well, so as long as I don't bump it it should hold pending a more permanent solution.

[Parkman51]

Several smaller things were attended to today: first, there's a slow brake fluid leak at the left front wheel, so I removed that wheel and tightened the hose a little bit, we'll see if that fixes it. Second, I finally got around to installing the right rear door weatherstripping, and the trunk weatherstrip. That leaves only the passenger door to do.

And last, I removed the license plate light, which has a broken wire. It should be dead simple to rewire, but I'm not sure how I'm going to prevent it shorting out to the housing. I'm not sure how it didn't short out to the housing in the first place, actually. But that's a problem for tomorrow, I bet I'll figure something out.

[Parkman51]

License plate light done! I stripped about an inch of wire, tied a knot so that it wouldn't slip out of the holder, and with a few more minor tweaks, all was in order!

(The image shown of the stripped wire was attempt #1, but I wasn't happy with how much stripped wire was exposed, so I redid it with tighter tolerances. Then I forgot to take a picture of it. But this shows the general approach)