Alright guys, I drive my 1950 Ford four door sedan every day now that I sold my 1969 Buick. My concern is that when I drive it, it leaves my stranded on the side of the road more often then I like. Where should I start working on the car to help make it more reliable? I'm running what I think is the origional flathead 8BA 239 v8, electric ignition and three speed colum shift transmission. I'm keeping the engine and trans! Anything else I'm willing to modify.
The brakes are a good place to start make sure everything is working right and it cheap to replace that stuff.Then mabey the fuel system.Check the fuel lines and pump, filters, tank for rust.And do a good tune up.Hope this helps.
Could you be more specific? What's keeps breaking down? In general I would insure the electrical system (ignition) and fuel delivery (up to and including carb) are properly maintained first. You can limp home with a broken shock but you'll need a tow with a bad coil and no replacement.
kinda need to start off with resons for getting stranded. fuel, electric??? everyone is here to help. getting stranded sucks. i know
Well, you left the door wide open..... You have an old car, and old cars have problems.... Narrow it down a little and you can get help here. Fuel systems and todays gas dont seem to get along....make sure you are getting, clean. ample fuel to the carb and go from there. Good luck!
Call your auto insurance I have nationwide and its was 18 a year for a lot better towing. Like everyone else is saying what is leaving you on the side of the road? Have you do any general maintenance like fluid changes, adjust brakes, clean battery cables?
Patch your tires...make sure they do not leak down...there that's one problem fixed. Fill up your gas tank... Check your oil... Keep good battery... keep tools in the trunk...and spare parts. Tighten your lug nuts. Glad I could help.
I had an old car once that wasn't very reliable but it was wore slap out. So in order for it to become reliable it needed to be overhauled. I finally fixed it by lifting the radiator cap and putting a different car under it, then all I had to do was replace the cap.
Yeah walking home was expected in 1951. We've gotten so soft over the years. It's called maintenance. Don't wait until it breaks before you fix a problem. Take a Saturday to check it over and fix anything that doesn't look good. This is a lost art from back in the day. Now we just drive 'em til they quit and then call it a POS. Contrary to popular belief they DID drive across the country before 1955 when the SBC came out.
My grandad had an old depression era caddy that he drove from waumic oregon to the LA basin every year. He had family in the basin. Me and a buddy had an early '54 merc with a flatty that we drove all over the place up and down the west coast, over to idaho and on to montanna. It broke down sometimes but we had a tool box. I remember once in eastern oregon rolling a tire up the road to the next town to get it fixed because when we had a flat we failed to fix the tire that became the spare. That was just part of life. As I recall life was fun.
When I bought a new Nova back in the 70s, my father in law (Ford guy) said he had a damn chevy once and everytime it rained it wouldn't start. I asked when that was, he said 1936!!! I gave up argueing.
Before anything runs, it's GOTTA stop and steer. Make certain those are bullet proof first. Then, Pertronix and cooling system...you oughta be fairly reliable after that.
Keep the flathead if you want. Find a nice spot for it under your bench . Install a dependable SBC with a 700R4 transmission and an 8 or 9 inch Ford rear end. Carefree driving will be had.
50 Ford, The first thing, check the bolts that hold the steering box to the frame. Good pair of shoes, rain coat, hand torch.
Keep the flathead! I drive a 54 Ford most every day especially lately and the car is pretty damn reliable. Stuff does break, but the car is 58 years old and largely unrestored. Ya gotta remember 2 things, these things required lots more maintenance than a modern car does, they needed it more frequently and they broke down more often. And this is when they were new. Seems like maybe you didn't do what I like to do when I put an old car I to regular service... Ignition: Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, condenser, points, ballast resistor. Check distributor carefully. Fuel: check lines, replace hoses, get carb rebuild kit, replace filters and pump. Use modern fuel injection line. Put bores cope in tank, assume tank needs at least major cleaning. Brakes and suspension: rebuild/replace Master and wheel cylinders. Replace lines and noses and all hardware at a minimum. Repack wheel bearings, check axle seals. Adjust brakes, lube everything you can. Check ball joints, king pins, bushings, etc. Engine: change oil, remove valve covers check for sludge and oil flow in heads and check valve lash. Replace or rebuild water pump. Replace all coolant hoses. All of them. Replace all vacuum hoses. Lube and adjust linkage for throttle/trans/etc. pressure test and check radiator, budget it's gonna need a Recore. Ditto the heater core. These last 2 are old and designed to hold water.... replace belts. While doing so check bearings in generator, ps pump, etc. Tires: unless known to be recent replace em along with valve stems. Steering: lube/adjust/inspect per factory manual. Flush ps fluid and change filter, plan on rebuilding ps pump or at least re sealing. If ps lines are original it's not a matter off but when. Budget for new ones. Electrical system: battery, it likely needs one. Clean and check battery cables, check contacts on voltage regulator, check generator brushes. Assume generator and starter don't have lots of life left. Consider Rebuilding starter especially if it's a 6v starter on a 12v conversion. Body: check all bulbs, lube all hinges, grease window regulators, inspect wiring very carefully for chafing and loss of insulation, budget for $200 wiring harness and plan on possibly re wiring car. Make sure body drains are clear, lube all locks. Trans/driveshaft: Lube axles, replace diff fluid, replace trans fluid and filter if applicable. Assume an old automatic trans probably has dried up internal seals and may die soon after you put the car back on the road. It's a shitload of work, and you may not need to do all of this and it may be overkill, but every time I have neglected this list something on it has bitten me in the ass. Every damn time. Go through the car, and start working on it, start budgeting to fix stuff and go through it one system at a time.
Some of these posts are really helpfull. Others are freaking hilarious! But to answer the common question, I have petronix ignission, cleaned and rodded radiator and new theromstats. Breaks are getting an overhaul, getting funds for the scarebird conversion. But for now, my drums work well enough. Oh and new carburator. I just dropped the tank today, blew out my fuel line with compressed air and got a LOT of junk out of it. Tommmorow I'm taking the tank to a shop that'll tear it apart clean and coat it and weld it back up. The latest issue that left me stranded was a fuel shortage with abple fuel in the tank. I was at a stop light, got moving the shifted into second gear, it started bogging down so I let off and tried for third. I got third and more bogging. After three or four seconds of bogging in third it died. After a while I killed the battery tryin to get it running again. think this answers the thread questions. Oh yeah, replaced wheel cylinders in the front along with front shoes. New fuel lines with added fuel filter. Plugs and wires are new too. See if I remember anything else... rld14: I've apparently done a lot more of your list then I listed here. Weird that I haven made a nice long list of what I have done.
Oh shit, thermostat.. Knew I forgot something. If you just blew a to of crap out of your fuel line I'd bet a case of good beer that crap/rust/shit in the tank has clogged you filter/pump/carb.
Probably did clog something up. What beer do you drink, I'm not gonna try to argue against that. Glad I could help someone remember something.
I'd check the carb, if the tank is rusty lots of evil rusty crap can get in there, ditto the fuel pump.
I will check those two tomorrow. But I did add an inline filter before the fuel pump, think that may have caught a lot of that rusty evil crap?
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