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Jak,

We can’t expand the picture enough to see your mug or your garb, but you look quite distinguished. By the way, I have never seen a Pierce with such a large barrel installed on it. It is a testament to the quality of the suspension components provided by our favorite Buffalo car manufacturer. How does your generator handle the number of lights on the front of your car?

Great to hear from you again!

Bob

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It is funny you bring up Roger Smith from GM. He was a central figure in one of the exam questions in the Marketing class for my MBA some 35 years ago. I remember seeing him quoted as saying that GM didn’t need to do marketing studies to determine what the American consumer wanted in a car. On the contrary, GM would produce what the American public needed. This the era of the Vega, remember? As I said in my answer, clearly, his statement was not a highlight for GM. Guess I was right, GM has been losing market share since then.

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It has been 3 1/2 years, thank you. As I tell my kids, the truth is WAY better than fiction. The good thing is, this guy is a true master, he simply dances to a different drummer, shall we say…

I have tried to use the “excuse” that I need the car for various weddings and other DC related political events. Guess I will have to drive the ’56 Bird again for the inaugural parade. During Reagan’s second inaugural, the secret service wanted to keep the car at Andrews Air Force Base the day before so they could take it apart to ensure it didn’t contain an incendiary device. It is an original, 33k mile car with original paint, upholstery, and engine. If the parade hadn’t been cancelled for the weather (6 degrees F), I was ready to politely decline to participate. Welcome to Washington!

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Sounds Great, Rick! Make sure you do a video of the inaugural start. Hope it happens before your first blizzard of the season!

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No problem. It is nice to have friends who work there.

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Jim,

If one of the members isn’t interested, you may want to try the White House Historical Foundation or the FDR library. The White House foundation’s number is (202) 737-8292.

Bob

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FDR was a Packard guy, as I was told. Isn’t that a Packard the robe is sitting on?

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Great concept. This likely would not work for a Pierce engine, as they (especially the eights) are much longer than this stand can accommodate. Years ago, my father-in-law built a body rotator that is capable of adjusting the body length using box channel and a size larger channel as a sleeve so we could adjust the length to accommodate between a tri-five chevy, little Tbird and a Mustang all using the same basic stand. It still works well today. I am sure we could build an engine stand using the same concept with one fixed end (with the crank) and the other with sleeves over bottom rails to handle whatever size engine came along. I do agree this dual support type stand is critical for larger engines. We were told someone put a Ford 312 Tbird engine on a standard type stand, and left it for a couple of months. It actually deformed the number 4 and 8 cylinders. What a waste of an engine.

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I do hate smart people . Robert is right, it was invented earlier, but not widely used until the war. Good catch, doc!

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Philips screws were developed/invented to speed the construction process for the war effort during World War II. If you see a Philips screw on anything prior to that time, it is not accurate. Nowadays, they change the heads periodically to (supposedly) improve the grip for power installation. In reality, it is so mechanics and construction folks have to go out and buy new tools and bits…

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I agree with Greg. One BIG concern with using a charger is that the output of the charger is not true DC voltage, but rather some modified form of AC. If you use anything other than pure DC on a 6 or 12 volt radio with a vibrator, you will likely burn up the vibrator or the rectifiers. Best way to deal with this is to put a battery across the charger to help provide acceptable DC voltage and current.

Greg’s comments about the voltage loss is spot on, and was discussed in other recent threads. If you have or suspect this as a problem in your car, run a copper wire between the positive side of the battery (which is ground) and the closest frame to the light, horn,whatever device seems to be at issue. Clean the frame to ensure a good solid connection, and try again. If you find what we used to call a “cold” joint, either clean it, add a copper jumper across it, or, if it is not a show car, run the copper line permanently to the load side of the cold joint. You may be able to see at night without a white cane in the front of the car…

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Alan,

Contact info would be great. We ought to put this in the parts and services directory.

Bob

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Also let us know if your battery is 6 or 8 volts. The charging system will not charge until the regulator calls for a charge. If you use an 8 volt battery, you need to adjust the cutout, or more appropriately, the cut IN voltage on the regulator.

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Robert,

That is certainly the best “first” approach. It all involves starting by doing the initial research to make sure whatever is being replaced, rebuilt, and/or reworked is done commensurate with what Pierce did initially, considering any other modifications such as fuel (ethanol, octane rating, etc.). I certainly yield to others, like Greg Long, who have way more knowledge than I do on these older cars.

Hope you are enjoying that beautiful car of yours!

Bob

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Sounds like the replacement carb was too lean. That can be caused either by an adjustment, the installation of the wrong jets, or perhaps a poor install that caused a blockage of air somewhere else. It would be interesting to see which piston went south, and whether it is generally lean due to the intake design.

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Dave,

Are they the large or small caps?

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Greg,

Can you take a wider shot of that picture to show the entire interior of the timing cover?

Do you have a source for new chains or gears other than Egge’s? I was able to find a place in New York City that does the original silent chains, but they don’t seem to want to play with guys who restore their own stuff, even with an ASE Master certification…

Bob

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Sounds like somebody was thinking negative ground… “Sparky” Karl to the rescue!

By the way, Karl, have you gotten any further on your experiment on rebuilding the water pumps through a local source?

Bob

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You might also want to solder a wire to the chicken wire and run it down the windshield pillar somewhere inconspicuously if you ever want to install a radio in the car. Radios were not installed in cars that early, but you will (hopefully) only do the top once, and you never know if you will want to add some music to your ride…

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Also check Bing. I built a house in 2008 on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and the satellite images for Google still show an open lot, Bing has been updated. The more dense areas are updated more often than the rural areas.

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