1951 Caddy daily driver

[Mowerhoarder]

David,
I would like to go to fuel injection but I have a few problems with it: One, it runs off 12v and I'm pretty dead set on not dropping $1200 to convert it to 12v. Two, it definitely looks out of place under the hood and with the screen inside and I would like to keep the 50's hot rod look as much as possible. Three, the cost. For a holley sniper which is what I would like to use, it's almost $1400 and I still would have to convert to 12v on top of that and if I'm that deep I might as well upgrade to a 4 barrel and a new distributor. I think I can put together either a 2x2, a 3x2, or a 2x4 for around $1000 all said and done and it would look pretty cool as well. 

[Carfreak]

Bruce.   A retired Police Officer of 33 years, and seen too much of what happens to young and enthusiastic drivers.

I recall the funny story you mentioned many years ago, you couldn't qualify to be a mechanic which you really wanted but instead you qualified to be a police officer. 

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

That is true.   I was a qualified Shipwright, but loved tinkering with cars, but to work in the Police Transport Workshops, one had to have a Mechanical Certificate.

The funniest thing was that during my time as a Police Officer, I became in charge of the whole Statewide Transport Section.

But, my real interest in Cadillacs came from ogling a 1951 Cadillac Coupe that was always parked nearby where I worked in the boatyard.

Gee, funny how this thread is about a 1951 Cadillac.

Bruce.  

[Jay Friedman]

David,
I would like to go to fuel injection but I have a few problems with it: One, it runs off 12v and I'm pretty dead set on not dropping $1200 to convert it to 12v. Two, it definitely looks out of place under the hood and with the screen inside and I would like to keep the 50's hot rod look as much as possible. Three, the cost. For a holley sniper which is what I would like to use, it's almost $1400 and I still would have to convert to 12v on top of that and if I'm that deep I might as well upgrade to a 4 barrel and a new distributor. I think I can put together either a 2x2, a 3x2, or a 2x4 for around $1000 all said and done and it would look pretty cool as well. 

On the other hand, 49-51 Cadillacs run beautifully on their stock single Carter WCD carburetor.  This carb was state of the art at the time.

[badpoints]

You will get more hp gain with headers and a flowing exhaust.

[Mowerhoarder]

Jay,
I have heard that they run well but this one sure didn't ended up being another problem altogether though
Badpoints,
Definitely true with the headers but I have a hatred for them, mostly that they leak like a siv forever and also that they just look ugly to me, I like a good old high flow manifold and it worked on the wagon I had. For sure gonna go with a high flow exhaust but I also have to make it look stock. I'm thinking just run it like a normal dual exhaust but end one pipe slightly before the clamshell looking exhaust tip so it still looks stock but is a dual exhaust with more flow.

Also an update: The thing runs better! Not perfect, but a long way from where it was before. The only reason I found out what the problem was is the car wouldn't start after a car wash and I popped off the distributor cap to clean out the moisture and found some wild looking corrosion on the points and on the terminals in the cap, cleaned it up and it runs way better. Still gotta go through the carb and all that but for now it's not bad. 

[dn010]

https://forums.cadillaclasalle.club/index.php?topic=174152.0

[Jay Friedman]

Concerning fuel injection on your '51, you might want to contact Art Gardner, The Caddy Wizard, whose email address is in the CLC directory. He installed fuel injection on a '49 some years ago.

[Mowerhoarder]

Update: Finally hit 900 miles on it!, going on a 3 hour trip today so wish me luck!

[Joe Jensen]

Good luck and have fun!

Joe

[Mowerhoarder]

I did have plenty of fun! The car did absolutely amazing and there's zero new noises or issues or anything. I also passed 1000 miles on it with nothing breaking! That being said, I found one of the powergen generator looking alternator for $100 on facebook so I snagged it and hopefully gonna put it on today. How would I wire it up? It's just a one wire so I can just run it straight to the battery but I'd assume the charging light would be on. How would I wire it up to bypass the regulator on the firewall and still have the gen light off?

[Joe Jensen]

I haven't done that conversation.  I would suggest you post your question in the technical section.  You will get a lot more help there. 

You might try searching the forum.  It could have been discussed before.

Good luck!
Joe

[Mowerhoarder]

Update: passed 1200 miles like a week ago and it's still going strong(ish), it re-developed the running like crap issue so I guess I should do a tune up/cap and rotor.

And a question: The transmission has been rebuilt so theoretically everything in there is good so should be good on that front. the problem is the shifting being increasingly weird. I adjusted the kickdown rod thing so that when the throttle is at full, the rod is at the end of it's travel. I assume that's pretty close to how it should be but I'm not sure. If I adjust the rod so that it's shorter, the 1-2 shift is good but the 2-3 revs way out and the 3-4 is a bit late too. All the shifts are rough, jerks the car more forward I mean. When going up a small but pretty steep hill in my neighborhood or turning a corner slow ish and then accelerating, it downshifts from 2-1 or possibly from 3-1 and the engine revs way high then feels like you just dumped the clutch in a manual car and it lurches forward and down to first and then it's revving normally in first. I'm pretty confused at this point and kinda out of options so I might take it to a transmission shop and see if they know anything about it but I really can't foot that bill at the moment so hopefully it's something I can mess up myself.

[dn010]

You have to adjust the TV rod using the method in the manual which sometimes will take some fine tuning afterwards. Start at #3 in the adjustment procedure list and go from there. These can't be adjusted "pretty close", they need to be pretty exact otherwise you'll have the problems you're describing.

[Mowerhoarder]

Dn, Awesome! I will do that hopefully today.

[dn010]

In case you need it, start at #3 on top left:

https://cadillac.oldcarmanualproject.com/manuals/1951/1951%20Supplement/01-%20Supplement/b_P0057.jpg

[Mowerhoarder]

Got it adjusted pretty close to what it should be I think, only had to turn the nuts 1/4-1/8 of a turn to get it good. It shifts when I want it to now but it shifts pretty hard, is there a way to get it to shift softer? Maybe just low/overfilled or a band adjustment?

[dn010]

You should always begin by checking the fluid level at the start of any transmission issue. After that, if you adjusted it by the procedure listed and it's still not perfect, you most likely still need to fine tune the TV rod adjustment. For instance, a hard 2-3 shift means the rod is adjusted too short. Try adjusting it longer by 1/8 turns at a time. If it gets worse, adjust it back using the procedure, then try adjusting the other way 1/8 at a time.

When I installed the Edelbrock 650 carb in my 57 (which ultimately moved the place the TV rod connected thereby throwing it out of adjustment), it literally took an hour of adjusting, going for a drive, adjusting, going for a drive - on and on before I finally got the proper adjustment.

[Mowerhoarder]

Dn,
I guess I should've done that before I started adjusting this lol. I did check it a while ago and it seemed overfull but I'm pretty sure I didn't do the whole procedure right. I really don't understand the procedure on how to do it, I'm for sure a visual learner and I just can't picture it from words most of the time. I do still have to get the 1950 shop manual but maybe the 51' manual has something in it about that? Cadillac seemed pretty proud of their transmission and like half the manual is just about it

And an update, I realized that the rear passenger wheel cylinder is leaking pretty bad so I ordered new wheel cylinders for all 4 corners and I'm just gonna get the shoes re-lined at the same time and have that headache over with sooner rather than later. I also found out the front U-Joint is bad and the rear is original so I'm gonna change them as well. Fun stuff but I guess it has to happen at some point

[dn010]

Checking the fluid level is easy on most vehicles, on your 51 it seems you'll have to pull back the carpet and pry up the access panel. You check the fluid with everything warmed up and with the engine running and transmission in neutral.

For your replacement parts aside from your wheel cylinders that can be honed out and/or rebuilt, I'd suggest you look for NOS parts on eBay. Anything "new" will sure to be chinabombs and probably won't hold up to a harsher style of driving.