Changing the oils(s) [John]

According to our best sources, the engine takes 12 or 13 quarts of SAE 30 oil. Not everyone carries it, but we found some and bought it. The M6 Tip-Toe shift transmission takes SAE 10 (no one has that, almost) or ISO 32 tractor hydraulic fluid, 3 pints. The torque converter, if engine-fed, takes about 7 quarts of the engine's oil. Ours has to be engine-fed because there is no reservoir under the converter housing. Also found an allegedly correct oil filter cartridge. I took the filter, oils and car to a local garage and asked them to change them all. The owner declined. "We don't know how to work on that kind of car. But, tell you what. Come by on Saturday and you can borrow my hoist and do it yourself."

First step was drain the torque converter. I opened the drain plug enough to see a couple drops of fluid, then gave it another turn. Dirty oil, warm, but fortunately not hot, sprayed all over the floor, my shirt, my face, hair, and glasses. After that, it didn't take long to drain it. Looked like almost 2 gallons came out, although we didn't measure it. Noticed right away it smelled like automatic transmission fluid (ATF) and was not viscous at all. According to the shop manual, this car either had an engine-fed or pump-fed torque converter, and this was neither. Maybe it came with the 56 motor? But 56 didn't offer a manual transmission behind the torque converter, and ours has a manual clutch bolted to it. There was a fluid coupling used on some 53s, so maybe that's what this is -- fluid couplings predate torque converters and resemble them: they are torque converters without the stators inside. They don't convert torque though, they just throw it away. My current theory is, that's what this is.

Changing the transmission oil went smoothly enough. We also drained the engine oil and changed the filter cartridge, working under the car. This was a mistake, I learned, when we lowered it and saw the easy access from the top. Adding 5 quarts of engine oil to the crankcase indicated over-full on the dipstick, confirming that this engine does not feed oil to the torque converter.

Next was refilling the converter with ATF. This took hours! Small fill opening, accessed through a removable floor panel. No funnel could reach it, the funnel with attached hose I had bought fit tightly in the fill hole, blocking escaping air and trickling oil slowly in very slowly. What finally worked was a bulb-type turkey baster. Took forever!

Finally we lowered the car and started the engine. Noisy lifters and fast idle. After 30 seconds, Phil yells "Stop! Shut it off!" Oil was spraying out the top of the filter can and hitting the inside of the hood and going over the top of the fender. A quart or two of beautiful clean oil on the floor. Obviously the filter was the wrong one. When we put the old one back in and buttoned it up, no more leaks. Another quart of oil brought the level up to full. Turns out the capacity is 4 quarts, not 5, so we had initially overfilled it.

Cleaned up, paying for supplies with a generous tip, we were ready to go home after only about 5 hours. I congratulated Tony on his wisdom in not taking this job on. Get in the car to drive off and it won't crank. It's done this to me a few times, usually miles from home. Wiggling battery cables, tugging on stuff under the hood eventually makes it go. Did I mention the new Optima battery? Made no difference. We stopped for gas on the way home. I had noticed the ignition switch was loose in the dash and asked Phil to tighten up the lock screw while I filled the tank. He did.

Got back in to drive off, and I couldn't turn the key at all. Maybe that lock screw is too long. Pulled the key out after loosening the screw, but could not turn the key after many attempts. Now what? Only slightly irritated, I remembered some test leads I bought with my new Volt-Ohm meter, just arrived from Amazon. I had tossed them into the parts bucket in the back. I've seen people hot wire cars on TV -- how hard can it be? Found a wire with a splice in it going from the firewall down towards the starter . Unwound the tape, connected the my yellow test lead between the splice and the battery post, and the engine cranked fine. Used the red test lead to connect the battery post to a terminal on the coil (the one I could reach, hoping it was the right one) and tried it again. Started right up.

The new Optima 6V battery is half the size of the battery it replaced. Note the new, red, ignition wire.

The business end of the red test lead puts -6V on the coil BAT terminal. 

My new theory on the starting problem is a defective ignition switch. Or maybe some of those old, bare wires behind the dash really do need to be dealt with. The new switch is on order. Hope it fits.

December 2013 progress

Fuel system
The fuel tank is now boiled out, squeaky clean, and coated inside. A few miles driving at freeway speeds and up hills confirms the fuel starvation problem is gone. The car has decent power and will go 70 with ease, although with a lot of noise through the bare front floor boards. While the tank was out we replaced the fuel level sensor. Phil sorted out the broken tank strap, and the fuel line king turned out not to be too restrictive.

Gauges
I noted earlier that the speedometer main bearing, at the cable connection was stuck. Freeing that up with a bit of old cable in a drill solved the problem, and we now have a nice, steady read from the speedometer. The fuel gauge gives a credible reading after splicing the float arm to fit the tank in this wagon and replacing the sending unit. I don't think the gauge reading is strictly linear with fuel tank content, but it is adequate to indicate a full tank and a nearly empty tank, all we need really. Oil pressure and ammeter appear to work normally, as they have since we got the car. The engine temperature gauge was harder.

The '53 car uses a vapor-pressure bulb with capillary tube to the gauge in the dash. The '56 motor uses an electric temperature sensor of smaller bore than the '53 bulb. Solutions we have thought of include replacing the existing sensor with a new, after market sensor and separate gauge, or removing the intake manifold and drilling and rethreading the cast iron to fit the '53 bulb. A local shop offered to solve the problem with a new sensor and matching gauge that can be integrated into the original temp gauge in the dash panel.

We confirmed the old sensor and gauge do work using a pot of hot water. After several trips to hardware and auto parts stores we found a set of pipe adapters that would accept the old bulb and fit the tapped hole in the manifold. Unfortunately, this places the bulb outside the water jacket, so even with the pipe insulating tape we added, the gauge reads quite low. But for now, it will probably serve to indicate abnormally high temperature. Normal reading puts the needle in the center of the E in TEMP.

Temperature sender kluge

The conclusion is that all the dash gauges are now working, sort of.

More

Turn signals, which worked once, were very unreliable. We found a compatible flasher and replacement socket on eBay, and corrected some ground faults on the signal lamps. The worst had to do with white paint sprayed inside the lamp sockets. They seem to reliably flash outside the car now, but the dashboard indicator flashes only for left turn. Need a little more troubleshooting here.

Next

Now that the engine runs fairly well and the car can be driven, we can focus on some other issues. The engine and transmission behaviors are of particular concern: 

• I think the engine idles poorly, and it may be missing at some speed-and-load conditions. We've replaced the distributor points and condenser, but we need to install the new cap, plugs, and wires that have been lying around for months. We'll do a compression check on a warm engine at the same time. 
• Transmission control is poor. The '53 engine, according to the service manual, had an electric dashpot and a "smart" kick-down switch that would shift the transmission from 4th to 3rd when the throttle was floored at car speed below 45 mph. Our carburetor has neither of those gadgets. We might need some kind of work-around -- maybe a manual downshift switch. Pictures of the '53 appear to show both devices well integrated into the carburetor, and I doubt they can be added to the '56 motor we have. We also seem to lack an ignition interrupter (cut-off) switch circuit that aids automated shifting. 
• Transmission behavior isn't right. After reading the shop manual description of how the M6 Tip-Toe Shift transmission works, I sort of understand it, I think. It should automatically shift from 4th to 3rd at 10 or 15 mph, so that at a stop sign, the driver doesn't need to use the clutch. The car can be driven in 3rd and 4th alone, all day long under normal conditions. We are finding that driving it in 4th alone isn't really tolerable. Moreover, the idle issues mean sometimes the engine will stall, and sometimes it idles so fast it's hard to hold the car with the brakes. 
• I think the mechanical clutch might be slipping. At speeds that should have the torque converter pretty well locked up, the engine sometimes races slightly and then settles down. Clutch slip seems to be the most obvious cause.
• The driver's side of the car is noticeably lower than the passenger side, most obviously in front. Probable cause is a weak coil spring in front. The rear leaf springs are a bit saggy as well. I had a local shop re-arch springs on a '64 Comet we had once, with great results. But they can't do coils. Guess we need to replace both springs with a matched set, or put a block under the weak one, or shorten the stronger one.
• The heater is bypassed. Fans work, but it's likely the heater core needs to be replaced. Controls need an overhaul too -- very sticky, with limited travel.
• Wipers are missing parts and the motor doesn't run.

When these are sorted out, we can give some attention to appearance and finish details. Missing or damaged trim, interior floors, headliner, seats, window rubber, door rubber, sill plates. The body rust, paint, and chrome. I'm sure there's more. It's still TBD how much of this we want to do. Progress continues to be satisfying; we've met some interesting people and got some sage advice as we learn how this car was supposed to work and how to make it better. The estate wagon body style and the car's age are enough to get noticed.