1956 Cadillac review

[Glen]

My brother sent me this link about a Popular Mechanic review of the 1956 Cadillac.  Scroll down to page 104 of the magazine. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=SeEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA104&dq=true#v=onepage&q=true&f=true

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Boy, the number of complaints was huge.   Assembly appeared to have been pretty poor back then.

Bruce.

[Jeff Maltby 4194]

One work order from fathers new 56.

[Doug Houston]

I have my second '56 Cadillac. It, and the first one are convertibles. Some people just never know when they're well off.

But seriously, I loved the first one, so I bought the second one. It's in storage with a friend, sitting alongside my '70 convertible, and I haven't seen them for around 6 or 7 years.

Anyhoo, the '56 transmission  was a disaster. It might have been better, had more proving ground testing been done before it was released. The '56 and '57 models were the worst, but all of the bugs were worked out of it by the 1958 models. From there to the last year, they were OK.

Check the '61 Cadillac parts book. They had listed, a replacement transmission for the 56 and 57 models. That was one solution for the transmission mess.

OK, here was the way it began. This trans. was totally new. They wanted to smooth out the shifts, and they did it, except for the 2-3 upshift. Big deal!!  It was the first transmission to use sprag clutches, and Hydra-Matic was having terrible trouble holding tolerances on the inner and outer races of those clutches. On some jobs, the sprags would flip over, and you had a real mess. Hydra-Matic had gotten production up to where they had enough jobs to supply Cadillac, and that was all.

So everything was copacetic until Oldsmobile came along and bellowed: How come we're not getting the new transmission? Oldsmobile MEANS Hydra-Matic!!! Big guns said "of course, Olds will have it. Then, the same with Pontiac. H-M was then in deep doo-doo.

In many cases, Cadillacs were delivered to dealers, and put right into the transmission bay. The cars couldn't be driven.  That was the beginning.

I joined the Cad-Las club in 1959, and was driving the first '56. Everyone I talked to from Cadillac, asked if I'd had transmission trouble. It was a bit later, that the transmission began to erupt. It was out of the car three times, and by the last time, the big internal upgrades were incorporated in it.   It had become a '58 transmission, and troubles had gone away.

So, I didn't have enough grief, but I bought another '56 convertible. I love the thing, and hope to once again enjoy driving it. Will I upgrade the transmission? H--l, yes. I have a fine transmission guy, who works for Hydra-Mtic at the proving ground. I plan on having him get me a '58 transmision, and put a '56 tail assembly on it. THAT will make it an ideal '56 transmission.

[Jeff Maltby 4194]

!959___? I was only 7 years old Doug and what does H..L mean ~:<)

[Doug Houston]

JEFF: H--l is a bad place to end up.

[CEC #20099]

Doug: You didn`t mention the cracked cylinder heads, that 56`s were famous for. GM had 2 versions of heads for 56, & I`m not sure when they really solved the problem. I had a 56 overhauled engine in my 55, and never had head problems, but that was 1970. See P. 6 of the July Self Starter for a picture.

Clarence Chleboun #20099

[Doug Houston]

Howdy, Clarence! Well, you just answered a question that's been stuck in my mind, thought never having caused lost sleep.

Over the years I'd owned the car (1958-1966), I had a valve job done on the engine. Turned out that the heads were '57 heads, and it didn't make sense, but so wot?  I had heard along the way that there had been improvements in the '57 heads, and now, I have an idea why!

The car had belonged to Cadillac Motor Car Division initially. I bought it from the second owner. You never saw it, but I was nutz over it, and it seems that whatever went wrong with it, I still loved it. The body color was Alpine white, with white top. Interior was red, with white seat inserts and white inserts in the door panels. I was happy with it. Alpine white was  special color on a 62 series car, 'cause it was an Eldorado color.

One day, I called my friend, Tom Bucklen at Cadillac parts, and the keeper of the archives. I asked him if the invoice for the car was still on record, and it was (he later mailed a copy). All tallied, until the interior. GREEN and white...??!! Nope, red and white. Tom reiterated that it was green. Sumpin' was out of kilter here. A couple years, I had the dash pad off, for installation of an Autronic Eyeball. Now, one could see down in the dash, where the windlace was installed. THERE WAS GREEN PAINT on the welt strips where they didn't show. Well, I'll be double dipped...whoever had that car as a factory pool car, had the interior changed!!