Tweet
My Bird is about to come out of the shop after some extensive work on it. Fixed or added to it, were an electric fuel pump (added-fuel pressure is now 4+psi) complete front end re-do, new steel brake line (old one was leaking in two places), re-built power steering pump and new power steering lines, replaced the power steering pulley. It was warped, rebuilt starter, (spring broke), distributer was off one notch and put back in place. It was determined that the rubber between the two pieces of the harmonic balancer has dried and allowed the two sections to slip some. Therefore, my timing marks are off. It was re-timed with a vacuum meter and new timing marks made. Timing is now said to be spot on.
My mechanic is not happy with the slow get up and go when taking off from a dead start, though it runs like a jack rabbit once you get up and running. Even when you go to drive it up onto the ramp on the lift, it will die on you due to lack of power. We can get around that by increasing the idle, but then you have to get it to high to stop this. It has been recommended that the nut on the back side of the vacuum advance where the hose goes on, be taken off and one of the washers inside with that spring be removed. This might cause the vacuum advance to kick in faster and stop this.
I am also being told that this Bird starts out in second gear when in D1 most every time you put it in gear into D1. He says this is not right, and is not good. Bart tells me it should be starting in first, (I knew that, of course) shifting to 2nd around 14-20pmh, and into 3rd about 40mph. Mine starts in 2nd instead of 1st in D1 and lacks the power that one should have in 1st. Only occasionally has he been able to get it to slip into 1st gear when starting up. He is going to see if it is a matter of an external adjustment on the throttle hardware at the carb, or the transmission. His concern is that it might be an internal problem in the COM.
He told me if it is, he can do a rebuild on it for about $1,000 including parts and labor, but parts might be hard to come by. I then asked him about putting a C6 in and if they were readily available around here. He said they are, and that would be a much better tranny to put in rather than doing the rebuild on the COM. He also said since it was made up into the mid to late 90's, that parts are not a problem. And it is only a few hundred bucks more and will last forever.
He also mentioned a number of things that would have to be fixed or adjusted underneath to make a C6 fit onto this '59 352 engine. He gave me a quote of about $1,300 for a C6, labor included. To me, if I should end up having to redo the tranny, it makes sense to put a C6 in because it is a much better tranny from what ya'll and everyone I talk to have to say about a C6. The shop I am having my work done at is a transmission specialty shop that also does general repair work.
I am going to take my Bird to another shop run by a man who is also very good at working on old cars like mine and knows his trannys inside and out. Bart recommends him, and I certainly trust Barts input. I am going to see what he has to say about this problem before I throw any money into a tranny. I would appreciate your comments. I want to get this slow take off problem fixed once and for all. It has been like this since I have had the car. We got the rough idle problem fixed (new spark plug wires) the cutting out and lack of get up and go at higher speeds (the distributer being off a notch caused that). Once it was put back in place, it runs well at high speeds. Now we have this lack of power at low speed problem to fix.
If it were determined that my tranny is at fault, which C6 model should I get? I did some searching on our forums and though C6's have been talked about a lot, I dont find much there. I googled it and found quite a lot of information. If I understand it, I need a Stage or Level III, which amongst other engines, is for a 352. What else will have to be done underneath to mate a C6 to my 352? I would like to have the steps that one will have to go through to do this, (should I have to), so that I know my tranny guy (whoever it turns out to be) will know what needs to be fixed, replaced or adjusted underneath..
Sorry for the long post. I know a lot of you have excellent experiences with C6's.
My mechanic is not happy with the slow get up and go when taking off from a dead start, though it runs like a jack rabbit once you get up and running. Even when you go to drive it up onto the ramp on the lift, it will die on you due to lack of power. We can get around that by increasing the idle, but then you have to get it to high to stop this. It has been recommended that the nut on the back side of the vacuum advance where the hose goes on, be taken off and one of the washers inside with that spring be removed. This might cause the vacuum advance to kick in faster and stop this.
I am also being told that this Bird starts out in second gear when in D1 most every time you put it in gear into D1. He says this is not right, and is not good. Bart tells me it should be starting in first, (I knew that, of course) shifting to 2nd around 14-20pmh, and into 3rd about 40mph. Mine starts in 2nd instead of 1st in D1 and lacks the power that one should have in 1st. Only occasionally has he been able to get it to slip into 1st gear when starting up. He is going to see if it is a matter of an external adjustment on the throttle hardware at the carb, or the transmission. His concern is that it might be an internal problem in the COM.
He told me if it is, he can do a rebuild on it for about $1,000 including parts and labor, but parts might be hard to come by. I then asked him about putting a C6 in and if they were readily available around here. He said they are, and that would be a much better tranny to put in rather than doing the rebuild on the COM. He also said since it was made up into the mid to late 90's, that parts are not a problem. And it is only a few hundred bucks more and will last forever.
He also mentioned a number of things that would have to be fixed or adjusted underneath to make a C6 fit onto this '59 352 engine. He gave me a quote of about $1,300 for a C6, labor included. To me, if I should end up having to redo the tranny, it makes sense to put a C6 in because it is a much better tranny from what ya'll and everyone I talk to have to say about a C6. The shop I am having my work done at is a transmission specialty shop that also does general repair work.
I am going to take my Bird to another shop run by a man who is also very good at working on old cars like mine and knows his trannys inside and out. Bart recommends him, and I certainly trust Barts input. I am going to see what he has to say about this problem before I throw any money into a tranny. I would appreciate your comments. I want to get this slow take off problem fixed once and for all. It has been like this since I have had the car. We got the rough idle problem fixed (new spark plug wires) the cutting out and lack of get up and go at higher speeds (the distributer being off a notch caused that). Once it was put back in place, it runs well at high speeds. Now we have this lack of power at low speed problem to fix.
If it were determined that my tranny is at fault, which C6 model should I get? I did some searching on our forums and though C6's have been talked about a lot, I dont find much there. I googled it and found quite a lot of information. If I understand it, I need a Stage or Level III, which amongst other engines, is for a 352. What else will have to be done underneath to mate a C6 to my 352? I would like to have the steps that one will have to go through to do this, (should I have to), so that I know my tranny guy (whoever it turns out to be) will know what needs to be fixed, replaced or adjusted underneath..
Sorry for the long post. I know a lot of you have excellent experiences with C6's.
My Bird is back home. This whole thing about whether or not COM's have a first gear in D1 has been confusing. There is one old time tranny man here who told me most emphatically that the COM, Merc-O-Matic and Ford-O-Matic's only had a second gear in D1 and D2. That there was no first gear in D1.. It looks like he is wrong...
Comment