History 1956 Ford Thunderbird find, eventually buy, and get most of way home!!

Outstanding!

 

Perfection cannot be rushed !

 

Hambtown Al just purchases a 65 year old car and you ask who put a part that doesn’t belong on it. WTF you’ve got to be kidding. What an insult.
How com you didn’t comment after the first post that shows the emblem under the car cover....

 

^^^I'll have to check but I think that emblem on the grille comes with membership in one of the Thunderbird clubs.
Many car clubs have an emblem that you can mount on your grille... or elsewhere... can you say HAMB license plate topper?!

I'm pleased to report that Bert and my daughter have taken the top off (as suggested!!) and have been driving the car and giving several folks, including my granddaughter!, a ride most of the day! They are very happy and I'm happy for them.
Thanks again for the interest and encouragement.
Now I'm gonna see about relocating that battery to the trunk... so changing the spark plugs will be much easier in the future!!

 

How long before your grandaughter wants to borrow the car wow they are cool cars I'd have one if I could afford one

 

'56 was a great year for T-Birds, wine, and births but a bad one for the Suez Canal!

 

I love a happy ending...

 

Yep, International Classic Thunderbird Club... but not as cool as HAMB!

 

Al,
ctci.org lots of information there.
Ernie

 

Sure enough, I took it apart and dialed in the setting such that choke was off after warming up and it starts fine!
View attachment 5064670

Thanks for all the help and encouragement and remember to check the dang automatic choke on your carb!!
Boy I'm glad we figured this one out.
Thanks again,
Happy Al[/QUOTE]
Is the choke tube getting hot? In order for the choke to work properly you really need the exhaust flapper valve working and the tube in the intake functional. You have a little filter on the left hand side of the intake that draws air in the tube and it gets heated with exhaust as it is drawn into the choke housing via a small vacuum port inside the choke housing. When the engine is warmed up, the tube going to the choke should be very hot. If it doesn't get hot you will never get the choke to work correctly.

If the flapper works, and the tube isn't plugged or burned in two inside the intake, the correct way to set the choke is with the engine cold. On a cold engine you turn the choke adjustment until the choke plates just barely close. That is a base starting point. From there one or two marks lean or rich is about all you should need to dial it in. With a good heat stove (the tube in the manifold) the choke should be fully open with the engine at operating temperature.

If the flapper isn't working and/or the tube is broken or plugged, an alternative is an electric choke cover. Wire it to an ignition circuit and set the choke as I described above. The electric covers work well. That's what I have on my 57.

 

^^^Thanks greatly for the added education and insight. Thunderbird club link, too.
We still need all we can get!
We were looking at an overly bent short tube going to the carburetor when the light came on in my pea brain to check the automatic choke!
We will follow up on the added tips.
Thanks.
Al

 

The emblem signifies membership in Classic Thunderbirds Club International.

 

YUP that choke tube is the first thing I spotted . Find a NOS or a Repro. one. It looks like somebody tried to make one. JHMO

 

An update:
Ordered a new distributor that has mechanical tach drive and electronic ignition.
Had a pal really come through to help by finding an old, pretty much thought of as unobtainable, adaptor to mate a new Edelbrock to the stock 56 intake manifold!! Hope to have all the pieces(I know about!) next week.
I've still got much to learn about how the current system is supposed to work and what will happen when I start tossing and disconnecting the various hoses and lines!
Opportunities!!

 

Pure unobtainium!!


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

It is a 57 or newer distributor, right?

 

Supposedly all brand new parts.
CRT Performance if I remember correctly.


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I'm not positive but I think this is the adapter you need. --1351935b --The one you show has straight bores- this one has tapered bores. Speedway has them.

 

I didn’t know that...I have 3 .. 1 straight and 2 tapered. 2 came on a dual quad manifold I bought. I think Speedway sells them to fit large base 4 barrels on the flathead 4barrel manifold they sell. So does Clifford Performance for their inline 4 barrel Manifolds..

 

Great story! I tell people that our old cars help keep us off the streets.

 

^^^Fantastic!! Obviously I didn't know about Speedway making them... hopefully somebody would have found it for me or I'd have stumbled onto it by myself.
Thanks, greatly for finding them and sharing the news that they are readily available.
Teapot owners rejoice! Keep them if you love them but at least there is a relatively inexpensive way to go to alternative carburetion. Another option I found was a brand new intake made just for Thunderbirds that cost $485 as I recall. This is good news for all Y Block owners as to options in building and maintaining their vehicles.
Another "opportunity to succeed" accomplished... with help from my pals... and the HAMB!!
Thanks to all,
Happy Al
PS Now if I can make it all work properly when I start disconnecting vacuum lines and hoses.
The "opportunities" keep a coming!!
I'll keep ya posted.

 

The vacumn lines will be easy if you keep them separate. The ones to the loadomatic go away. If it’s a 140x Edelbrock, it will have a port on the back for the brake booster, and the junction block may be reusable for the wiper circuit. The wiper vacuum hose also T’s off under the dash to the heater temp control, so you’ll want to maintain all that (there’s a heat sensing device on the heater box that actually controls the vacuum to the heater valve in the hose on the intake manifold).

If the new distributor has a vacuum advance, you can choose either full or ported vacuum at the front of the Edelbrock.

Last item on the throttle linkage. If it’s an o/d car, WOT needs to be set to still activate the kick down switch under the throttle pedal. No o/d, no problem.

I don’t remember any of this being a problem when I pulled the Tpot on my 55, just things to be aware of.

 

Great story thanks for sharing! Enjoy!

 

Great story! It brought back quite a few memories from when I lived in Portsmouth back in the '80s. A buddy bought a '54 Ford Country Squire that was sitting in a field (out near Windsor I think), we got it running and drove to Portsmouth. After doing the normal stuff it became his daily driver but soon developed issues; it would shut off just driving down the road, let it set a few and sometimes it would re-start.
We did the same stuff, electrical, carb, fuel pump etc but the problem persisted. One day Keith smelled gas, come to find out the fuel tank rusted through on the top. We actually found another tank at the old Matthews junkyard near the Portsmouth/Chesapeake airport and while swapping tanks we drained the last bit of fuel and what came out of the tank? About a dozen mummified bee bodies! We figured they got in there somehow while the car was sitting in the field, ended up dieing in there and would move around in the tank and eventually get pulled up to the fuel suction, cutting off the fuel. After installing the replacement tank he never had the problem again. Still makes me laugh.

 

^^^Thanks greatly for the guidance on vacuum hoses, etc. and what impacts what.
The story about Portsmouth, Windsor, and Matthews Junkyard all bring back memories for me as well. There was a 46 or so Hudson pickup in Matthews for years and years.
I hope to get all the pieces this coming week... stay tuned... and thanks again for the help and encouragement!

 

I've never been a huge fan of black cars, but that color is perfect on that '56!
I've never been a fan of white cars either (like mine) but that's gonna be changed to "seafoam green" before next spring...

 

I'm not gonna be able to sleep until I know what happened to the tires. Come on, you set up the suspense...

 

^^^Okay, I'll contact the lady we got it from. I was gonna wait until I had the car revamped such that I was pretty sure we could go see her in the car and still get home!! I was gonna ask her then but I'll give her a call... I agree it is a mystery.. and one WE didn't catch at first!!
Thanks for the continued interest.
Distributor arrives tomorrow... I hope!

 

Glad to see you are making the most of your "opportunities", Al!

 

For information on Y-Blocks try these:
http://www.ford-y-block.com/
http://yblockguy.com/

I have some extra parts for 55 T-Bird with 12 volt.
[email protected]