Originally Posted by: admin on 30 April 23 @ 09:51 PM EST
The CarCynic Rescued this beautiful 1946 Cadillac Twice in Two Days. The owner, Who’s name is also John, drove the car to our Friendly’s Restaurant Car Show, which is one of the events where CarCynic Sound provides Professional Audio and DJ services. With John as the chauffeur of this elegant car, members of a local dance group arrived at our event in style. Later in the evening, with the Friendly’s event dying down, we discovered that the Cadillac wouldn’t start.
Read on to see how the CarCynic was able to get it running, and why the owner placed an urgent call to the CarCynic the very next day:
Photo Credit: The CarCynic — The 1946 Cadillac at the Friendlies Car Show. Barnie, the CarCynic’s Big Purple Dinosaur can be seen in the background.
In order to conserve “1”‘s and “0”‘s, I’ll skip most of the troubleshooting and cut to the chase: This 1946 Cadillac is remarkably original. It retains it’s original glass bowl fuel pump. From this, the CarCynic could clearly see that the vehicle had a case of fuel starvation. Someone had installed a plastic inline fuel filter before the mechanical fuel pump. Also, this filter looked quite dirty. I simply removed the fuel filter (a metal filter was correctly in place between the fuel pump and the carburetor). After removing the filter from the fuel supply path, and with a little cranking to refill both the pump bowl and the carburetor, this magnificent vehicle came back to life. Installing a fuel filter like this on the suction side of the fuel pump is “No-No”. Any restriction in the suction side (even from a brand new filter) can cause the fuel to vaporize, thus starving the fuel pump. With the “repair” complete, the Cadillac drove home with no further problems. I did suggest that the metal filter be replaced, too.
…But this story isn’t over. The next morning, the car became stuck in 2nd gear. Now I have to interrupt this story for a bit of honesty… I’m very comfortable with vintage GM products like my 1965 Chevrolet Panel Van, but 1946 is well before this old Cynic’s time, and I am not familiar with these cars. So before I even told the owner of the Cadillac that I may be able to help, I hopped into the driver’s seat of another of my refurbished classics — in this case a surplus Dell PC — and I did a little research. These cars can suffer from a condition where the transmission shift linkage gets bound up. In the owner’s driveway, I slid under the car, and grabbed hold of the shift levers. With John simultaneously wiggling the column shifter, the transmission easily popped out of it’s stuck condition. I suggested that to keep it from happening again, that the driver shift carefully and deliberately. Only if it continues to happen, is shift linkage adjustment indicated. The car has been running fine, and attending other car shows, ever since.
I didn’t charge the owner anything for my time or for the house call. I appreciate him bringing his car to our car shows, and it was a reward in and of itself getting a little “hands-on experience” with a car like this.
…And if you happen to be in the Indiatlantic Florida area, stop by the Friendly’s Restaurant, and tell them that the CarCynic (Their Car Show DJ) made the recommendation.
Originally Posted by: admin on 30 April 23 @ 09:51 PM EST
