Another car added to the collection!

bogdonj

bogdonj

Well-known member
Almost finished our 1931 Tudor and we heard someone in our town was wanting to sell their 1930 Model A Roadster. We went to take a look at it and were amazed on the condition it was in. It had been sitting for 6 years inside a heated garage with no gas in the tank. Tonight we are going back over to try and get it going. The engine turns over nicely with the hand crank so we know it was stored properly. The engine number is CAT6803 with 2 stars on the outside????? We plan on putting in new spark plugs, fresh gas and making sure we got spark everywhere... is there anything else you guys would recommended before starting it up. Checked the oil and it still looks fresh. (Will change it after we get it running right). The car I guess was restored well over 40 years ago and the body, fenders, paint and top all are in amazing shape. We don't know if the engine was restored back 30+ years ago or its original but should we be using lead additive in it when running it? I know our new rebuilt motor we don't need too. My final question is if you look at the engine picture you see a red wiring coming from out of the distributor and is attached to the bolt holding the distributor from the outside???? Anyone ever see this? Purpose?

comments and thoughts are welcome.


Justin
 

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Congrats and good for you!!

(The red wire is likely a ground for the ignition points due to a loose rivet. Just regular unleaded will be fine.)
 
Beautiful car!!!! I would not worry about the lead additive. The red wire looks like a ground wire. Is it possible that the bottom plate/condensor is not grounding well?

Mike
 
The red wire is probably a ground wire, which shouldn't be needed unless there is too much rust in the dist. mounting hole, or the original well grounded popout isn't used.

Why new plugs?

I'd just bring new gas, a good battery, a piece of fine sandpaper or points file, in case you need to clean the points, and bring the new plugs but only change them if the others don't fire (not likely).
 
If I were doing the job I would take along my spare Zenith, distributor, and spark plugs. In about 30 minutes you can have all three replaced and the timing re-set. With a good battery it should fire right up.

The red wire is an attempt to improve a poor ground. (You might also bring along a spare coil).

Looks like a great car. Good luck with the project.

Tom Endy
 
Nice find, Canadian May 1930. Don't forget to check that fan for cracks, looks
like an original.

Bob
 
It looks to me like it will be way too much work for you! I would take it off your hands before all those "vultures" get it from you! :D It would be very happy in this dry climate!
 
UPDATE::::: we went to work on it...cleaned the plugs,hooked the battery up after cleaning all the posts (which was a long process)...cleaned the sediment bowl but noticed that the cork gasket was almost gone.. put some gas in the car and all the gas came out the bowl and couldn't get it to seal. We didn't want to wreck the owners drive way and didn't have any extra parts for that. During all of this we had about 15 ppl come by and look and take pictures while we were working as the sun was going down.... We have decided to get it trailered to my house which will be a lot better to work on.

more updates to come.
 
Looks GREAT!!!

I do not think there will be much required to get it to run. There may be a few things you need to do but should make a nice summer car with very little work.

It would look good sitting in my garage!!!

Enjoy!

Chris
 
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UPDATE- called my friend and we went to pick it up at the owners house... it's currently in my garage making friends with the 1931 Tudor.... can't wait to work on it this weekend and get it running.:)


Justin
 

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Great find. Colour combination looks good too. Ethanol gas will clean all the crap out of the fuel lines and try to deposit it in the carb. Have a spare carb ready to go.
 
UPDATE 06/14/2011

Fixed the sediment bowl leak and noticed that the belt wasn't turning around when trying to turn it over.. got the bolt that holds the generator free and adjusted the generator and now that belt spins. Then noticed the gas coming from the carb.... took it apart and everything was seized... After working on that we took it apart and noticed the venturi broken in 2 inside the carb.....slowing getting to the bottom of it..

Note- it seems that the starter is turning the motor over very slowly... it's not the battery because when we put it in the 31 it has tones of cranking power.... we cleaned up all the posts and +/- wires and even cleaned the contact that grounds to the frame to make sure there is bare metal. Could this be a bad starter or one that will need to be rebuilt?


Justin
 
If you decide to pull the starter for testing, make sure that the interface between it and the flywheel housing have bare metal to metal contact, the all important ground factor again. Good luck, great find.
 
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