Time for a quick update on the Cadillac. Last time you read about the caddy, I shared my discovery that it had the rather desirable “Switch Pitch” variation of the Turbo 400 transmission. As such, I decided it was best to have it examined before I put the car back together. I took it over to Alphonso’s Transmission in Goleta, hoping that it just needed to be cleaned up, and perhaps have a few smaller parts repaired or replaced. Unfortunately, this was not to be. As he started dismantling the transmission he very quickly discovered that the main forward band was broken, the forward drum was burnt, and the 2/3 clutch pack was nearly worn down to the steel. So, the only real choice at that point was to go ahead and rebuild the transmission completely.

Now, I’m totally stoked that the trans was rebuilt, and Alphonso has been building these things for longer than I’ve been alive, and did a spectacular job. I also have a brand new variable pitch torque converter. All for the (quite reasonable) price of $1100. Problem is, I only had $600 to spend, which I was hoping would be enough to get the trans repaired, and buy a few small parts I needed to get the car back together. Instead, I had to borrow the rest of the money from our savings. This means for the next 3 months I’ll be paying our savings back from the caddy’s fund, at which point we’re expecting our new son Tate! So as you can imagine I’m not going to have the time, nor the presence of mind to be working on the caddy for a while after that, and I won’t have any money to spend on it until then.

As a result, I’m trying to do little things on the caddy until Tate is born that don’t cost me anything. So I’m tearing the motor down a bit further, and trying to clean it up. I popped the timing cover off to check the timing chain/gears. Turns out this is yet another part which is going to need replaced! The chain is SUPER loose, like enough that I almost feel like I could cause it to skip a tooth with the slack. Also, apparently in the late 60′s it was all the rage to install and market “silent” timing gears. I had the same get-up on my 1967 Ford Thunderbird. It’s essentially a hard plastic cam gear for the timing set, which is supposed to reduce the normal timing set noise. I seriously don’t get this, since the other noises that these machines make more than drown out any noise that the timing set might make. But, I digress.. The point is that the hard plastic cam gear is also showing signs of stress, with hairline cracks forming down the middle of each tooth. It’ll definitely have to be replaced.

I had hoped that I could just throw the engine back together without buying a whole lot more parts for it, and as such had sorta planned not to inspect it too thoroughly. With events unfolding as they have, I think I am going to go ahead and check all the rest of the clearances and see what else (if anything) may need replaced. Depending on how things turn out, I may or may not stick with this motor. As I’ve stated before, the 429 is a low production motor and the parts are surprisingly hard to find, as well as expensive. If I find that it needs more than bearings (a cam, or some machine work for instance) I may simply sell this motor to someone who’s working on a numbers matching restoration and buy a 472/500 to put in it’s place. The good news is that my 429 is in generally good shape, and certainly does not need a lot of work, so it should have some reasonable value to someone who’s looking for original parts.

So that’s where we stand. I had hoped to have her all back together and be driving ‘er by now, but it looks like I’m going to be taking my time even a bit more, and being even a bit more methodical. I can’t wait to experience that finely crafted and tuned transmission!

It's been a while since I've provided an update about the progress of on the Caddy.  Mostly because things have been slow due to a busy work and family schedule.  Here's the rundown of what I have gotten done though.

I have rebuilt the carb, and realized that a broken vacuum pot on the carb was actually only used to crack the throttle open a bit and increase the idle RPM when the A/C was running.  Since the A/C system is not holding pressure, and looks like it hasn't in many many years, I went ahead and removed this "extra" part.  Hopefully this'll fix the hesitation problem that I detected on the few short drives I took.  

Now, when I first got the car, I immediately noticed that there wasn't any sort of linkage that I could see for the tranny kickdown.  So while I've been staring at the service manual to get my carb back together properly, I've also been trying to figure out how the heck this thing is supposed to get a kickdown signal from the throttle.  Turns out there is a switch which is supposed to be mounted on the intake manifold, near the carb which actually sends a +12v signal to the transmission for kickdown!

Even more interesting than that, the transmission in this thing is at least as rare as the engine.  I've got a THM400 with "Switch Pitch", which was only offered in the Caddy for like 3 years.  Basically the torque converter has two stall settings, one around 1000RPM and another around 3200RPM.  It switches between the two with another +12v signal (also sent by the switch which I don't have) which causes the angle of the blades in the converter to change.  So, that means two things.

First, instead of just throwing everything back together and hoping the trans "just works" I'm actually going to take the time to yank it out and have it gone over to make sure it'll work well for me.  No sense it blowing this thing up since it's a stout and apparently rather desirable piece!  I'm hoping to have it yanked out this weekend, and over to Alphonso's Transmission by Monday.

Second, because I don't have the original switch to operate the "Switch Pitch" mode and kickdown I've got to either find one (fat chance) or devise my own.  Currently, my plan is to mount up a TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) to the carb and feed that signal to an Arduino Microprocessor which will send the +12v signals to the trans for both the switch pitch, and trans kickdown.  There is actually a guy who built a controller for the switch pitch part of the trans back in the mid 80's, and I've actually been in touch with him.  His solution uses vacuum, the brake light, and timers to operate just the pitch change of the torque converter.  Then a mechanical switch for the transmission kickdown.  His name is Bruce Roe (bcroe@juno.com) and I've been in touch with him to get some feedback on how his device works.  He's been very helpful and encouraging, I can only hope my device is as effective as his.

So, with that I've decided I'm going to nickname my Caddy "Bionic Caddy" in honor of the fact that "we have the technology, we can make it better".  It's especially fitting since I'm going to put a CarPC in it, and hopefully put a Megasquirt EFI on it one day.  Also, it abbreviates nicely to a personalized license plate *BIONCAD*.  Should be good fun.

While my simple project of identifying (and fixing) a mysterious "clunk" has sorta exploded into a much bigger project of getting the engine back together and building a controller for the transmission, I still hope to get it done reasonably soon and keep the complexity to a minimum.  Stay tuned for updates!

Well there she is, the source of my clunk! And, the way it’s sitting in there explains why the engine wouldn’t turn past TDC as well since that thing woulda been right in the way. So far as I can tell it’s a small(ish) washer that got folded in half. You can see a few more shots of it over in my Flickr set. What remains a bit of a mystery is how it got there. I’m guessing it entered through the intake, and it’s possible it was sitting on top of the throttle blades of the carb. Tough to say if it was there when I got it, or if I managed to drop it there while I was working.

All in all, there doesn’t seem to be much (maybe any?) damage from the whole debacle. The you can see both the cylinder wall and the combustion chamber for that cylinder, and they both appear unharmed! Remember back when I described that one of the cylinders had a spark plug that had 0 gap and appeared damaged? Yup, you guessed it, that plug came from this cylinder. Makes sense, all of the steel for the cylinder wall, piston, and head are harder than the washer would have been, and the spark plug would have been a softer metal as well. Soft enough to sustain some damage from that thing flinging around in the cylinder. This also explains why it seemed fairly inconsistent, when that cylinder was not on it’s power stroke the washer would have happily just moved up and down the cylinder wall in place. Then when there was ignition in that cylinder, the pressure probably sent it flying around!

I also made another discovery while I was working. The bolt on the front of the crank that I’d been using to turn the motor over, doesn’t actually belong there! The balancer is simply pressed onto the crank with no big bolt to hold it on like you find on many other motors. It’s becoming more and more apparent to me that one or more people who’ve worked on this thing haven’t been terribly methodical, and clearly didn’t have a service manual to reference. In spite of that, the motor appears to be fairly low mileage and it quite good condition.

The plan now is to do some more inspection and measure things to see if they match the tolerances set out in the service manual. If everything checks out, I think I may just put her all back together and run her. Going to keep my fingers crossed that everything is as tight as it appears to be so I can get some miles outta this thing!

I got the engine out of the Caddy this weekend! The first lesson I learned is that I should have either removed all of the pulleys and water pump, or removed the front clip of the car. I had a TON of trouble getting the motor out past the radiator core support! In fact, I wound up yanking the water pump off while the motor was in limbo just to buy myself a few more inches of clearance.

Once it was finally out, and safely on an engine stand, I started my investigation and search for the source of my “clunk” sound. First, I yanked the intake manifold and the cover for the lifter valley. I found nothing particularly interesting there, certainly no obvious foreign object which would account for the noise I’ve been hearing. So, I tipped the thing over and started pulling out oil pan bolts and upon removing the pan I was greeted with what you see on the left. Now I expected to find chunks of oil dipstick in the engine, since I’d previously reported that the dipstick appeared broken. What I did not expect though was that the dipstick would be so completely mismatched! The photo on the right shows the engraving of “Ford” on the dipstick. Apparently the previous owner just decided to toss whatever dipstick he had handy into the tube, and call it a day.

Not knowing what the original design of the Cadillac dipstick is, I can’t be sure, but it feels like this is a bit of a poor design. If the dipstick is straight, and goes down the dipstick tube straight, it appears as though it’ll run right smack dab into the rotating assembly as you can see on the left.

As satisfied as I was with my discovery, I realized pretty quickly that this couldn’t be the source of the “clunk” I was chasing down. The bits of dipstick were simply too small and light weight to account for the sound I was experiencing. Plus, when I pulled the oil pan off, all of the bits were sitting right inside the oil pickup which means they were likely “stuck” there by suction from the oil pump any time the engine was running. So I kept inspecting, looking for any other foreign object big enough to account for what I’d heard.

After several minutes of looking around with a flashlight, I figured I’d start turning the motor and seeing if anything seemed out of place. I pulled all the plugs so that compression wasn’t an issue, and started turning the motor over. It turned nice and easy until it neared top dead center (TDC), where it halted and I couldn’t seem to continue turning it no matter how much (reasonable) force I applied. Perplexed, I went ahead and turned the engine the opposite direction. Again it turned smoothly until I had reached a full rotation in the opposite direction and it again stopped dead in it’s tracks. Hrrmnnn..

So that’s the current mystery, the engine doesn’t seem to turn over freely any more now that I’ve pulled it out, and turned it upside down! I knew it couldn’t be piston to valve contact, since it’s a hydraulic lifter motor and almost all of the lifters had lost pressure allowing all the valves to stay closed. So, more likely it’s piston to head contact. I didn’t notice any obvious signs of bent connecting rods or loose connecting rod caps so the cause isn’t readily apparent. Next step will be to yank the heads off and see if there is any obvious damage which might indicate which cylinder is causing the problem. The title to this post may be a bit premature, but I don’t suspect I’m going to find anything minor. Stay tuned as I continue to tear it down to find the problem!

Having discovered that both of the motor mount nuts were missing the Cadillac had earned a stay of execution. Early last week I purchased a new set of fasteners for only a dollar! After installing them I had expected to just start the car up and see if the “clunk” sound had gone away. Imagine my surprise when it cranked over and over and over, and over again without starting up!

I’ll spare you all of the details of troubleshooting the no start issue, but suffice to say I replaced my ignition coil, and second guessed myself countless times on the proper firing order and timing for this engine. At the end of the day, (I think) the timing was retarded by nearly a whole cylinder and one of the terminals of the coil wire was smashed.

My victory over the timing, and getting the car running was short lived though. It ran for only a few seconds before I heard the “clunk” noise I had been diagnosing, and it occurred a couple more times before I shut it down.

A new mystery has surfaced as well. I may not have already mentioned that my oil dipstick seems to be a replacement from some other vehicle, and that it seems like it was actually broken off near the end, so it doesn’t reach the oil in the crankcase. Well, in addition to that mismatch I discovered something else quite interesting while troubleshooting my timing issue. I had the motor near TDC for cylinder 1, but had gotten a bit past it, so I started to turn the engine “backward” to get it back to TDC. As I did so, I noticed that the oil dipstick seemed to be moving! Curious, I continued to turn the motor backward, and the dipstick continued to be forced out of the dipstick tube!

I’ve put off removing the motor long enough, it’s going to come out, and I’m going to do a very thorough tear down and inspection of motor. Hopefully, I’ll find the answers to all of these mysteries, and hopefully I’ll find that the motor is in good enough condition to use for a while.

With things starting to slow down with my work schedule, I was actually able to take this weekend off! I got to relax quite a lot, spend some time with the family, and spend a little time in the garage with the Caddy.

You may remember from my last last update about the Cadillac, that I had a few outstanding mysteries to try to resolve.

First, let’s talk about the “easy” one, the Harmonic Balancer/Dampener. You see, it seemed have been bent or damaged at some point, since one side of it was closer to the engine than the other. This created a situation where it would “wobble” on the crank as the engine was running not cool! As was preparing to remove it, I pulled some of the bolts which hold the crank pulley onto the dampener. What I noticed is that when I removed the first bolt, which happened to be in the spot on the dampener where it was “pushed out”, that the dampener seemed to start returning to it’s original shape. After completely removing the bolts, and using a pry bar the dampener was back to it’s original shape! Turns out that someone before me replaced one of the pulley bolts with a bolt that was nearly twice as long, and it was pushing on the dampener causing the problem I observed!

Now, for the more onerous “clunking” noise. When I first heard it, I thought for sure that it was an issue with the valvetrain, so sure was I in fact that I pulled the passenger side valve cover off expecting to see a bent push-rod, or a broken rocker arm, or some other catastrophic failure. Imagine my surprise when I looked under the valvecover and found no problem what-so-ever! I even pulled the drivers side, thinking I’d misjudged the origin of the noise, no luck there either. At that point I had pretty much decided that the engine was going to come out, and I needed to do a complete inspection to find the source of the issue. I put my tools away and put the project on hold for awhile.

Now, as it just so happens in the meantime I read this little gem, which described another symptom which I’d just sorta ignored. I read down to the 6th post in that thread, and I had a light bulb moment. If my valves were sticking open, it’s possible that the “clunk” I heard was the rocker arm smacking the stem of a still open valve. This would explain why it wasn’t a consistent sound which increased with RPM, since the valve(s) may not stick on ever revolution and increasing RPM probably got the valves moving enough that they did not stick. So, the valve covers came off again, and all the spark plugs came out, and I began turning the engine over by hand, fully anticipating that I’d see one or more valves on the passenger side staying open. Sadly, I was disappointed once again as everything worked exactly as it ought to.

At this point, I was again convinced that the only solution was to yank the engine entirely and do a thorough teardown and inspection. I did a quick compression test which I’d been intending to do for some time. All of the cylinders were within a few PSI of 150, except for the # 5 & 6 cylinders, which were both just north of 170PSI. That’s a fairly good sign that the shortblock is probably in decent shape, and I’ll probably be able to run this thing once I solve the mystery of the “clunk”. So I proceeded to yank the wiring, and everything else I needed to on the top of the motor, then jacked the car up and headed underneath to disconnect everything down there. Once down there, I took a quick peek to see how hard it was going to be to access the engine mount fasteners. Imagine my surprise when I realized that BOTH of the engine mount nuts were missing!

It occurred to me pretty quickly that this could just as easily be the source of my “clunk” sound, the engine slapping against the crossmember when it skips a beat. And even makes more sense that it would be the passenger side since the engine rotates in the opposite direction! At that point I put the car back on the ground, put my tools away, and called a day. Today I am going to go buy some replacement nuts for the motor mounts, and hopefully install them soon to see if that solves the “clunk” mystery. If it doesn’t this time (for sure) I’ll be pulling the motor out to tear it down and inspect it.

The next mystery for me to solve is that the spark plug in the #8 cylinder had absolutely 0 gap! I’m hoping that it was just a mistake while installing it, and not a piston which reached up and slapped it silly (that could cause a clunking noise too), we’ll see soon enough!

So when I bought the Caddy, I knew it had a cooling system issue. The previous owner had diagnosed it as a leaking water pump, so that’s where I started. Little did I know what lay in store for me!

First, the 429 Cadillac motor which is in the 67′ Deville was only made for about two years, and in very low volume. As such, there is hardly any aftermarket parts available for it. I spent about two weeks trying to track down a water pump before finally finding one on eBay. One of the biggest issues was that I could not tell if the pump was a one, or two inlet pump. None of the illustrations showed any difference between the two. I finally was able to track down a Cardone part number, and find actual photographs of the parts. Turns out I had a one inlet pump.

So secure in knowing that I’d ordered the right water pump, and a number of other supporting parts (thermostat, hoses, belts, gaskets, etc), I started tearing things down. The first thing I noticed is that the apparent leak in the cooling system probably wasn’t originating from the water pump, but looked like it was likely coming from the lower radiator hose which was bulged and clearly distressed. This is interesting, since the pump that was installed was aluminum just like the original, and could possibly be the stock water pump!

I also took this opportunity to remove some other ancillary bits which weren’t needed or functional. Someone before me had already disabled the “smog pump” system by removing the hoses from the air pump to the inlets on the exhaust manifold, but they had left the smog pump and brackets in place, so I finished the job of removing those. I also removed the A/C compressor since that system had long since lost pressure and was not operational. Interestingly, the compressor was only held on by a single bolt!!

I noticed also that the mechanical fan attached to the water pump did not have a clutch, which is normally installed on the A/C equipped cars. I decided that rather than trying to reuse that fan, I’d go ahead and install an electric fan, we’ll elaborate more on that in a later post though. The radiator also seemed fairly new. Nicely painted, no bent fins and no obvious rust inside like there obviously was in the block.

One other thing I noted was that the harmonic balancer on the crank appears damaged. It kinda looks like someone took a big hammer and hit it, causing it to bend into a sort of taco shape. Going to need to probably pull that off and see what’s what.

So, having completed the water pump R&R and getting it all back together, I started the car up to pull it into the driveway and let it warm up before topping off the cooling system. I cleaned up a bit as it idled in the driveway, then went to “tap” the throttle to bring it off of high idle. Of course, the throttle stuck! After getting the pedal to come back up, the engine was still running, and all seemed well aside from a little smoke. Then, I started to notice a “clunking” sound that was coming from the passenger side of the engine compartment. Not really consistent, and didn’t increase or decrease with engine speed. Not knowing what it was, I quickly pulled the car back into the garage, and called it quits.

And that is how it has sat for several days since then. I haven’t had a chance to look into the mystery clunking noise, and the balancer is still misshapen. I had hoped to get some miles out of the stock 429 before doing an engine swap (which was always my plan), but it’s starting to look less promising that I’ll be able to do that. A shame too since I wanted to try to get a chassis dyno run or two in order to see the “actual” stock horsepower/torque numbers of the 429.

I’ll do a bit more diagnosis of the “clunking” noise, and see if I can repair the balancer without too much cost. Stay tuned here for more!

I’ve owned quite a number of cars in my relatively short driving history thus-far. And a lot of them have been what I consider a “Project Car”. Now to me, that always meant a car which is pretty much your daily driver, but which gets lots of attention on evenings and weekends to either upgrade or (more commonly) repair it. These wrenching sessions were ALWAYS labored and rushed because, well, I had to drive the car to work the next day, or the coming Monday morning. This made working on the cars stressful, and burdensome, like a chore rather than a past time or enjoyable hobby.

Now that I’m a little more grown up, and have a family, our primary car (2006 Honda Odyssey) is quite new and is well maintained and needs very little (if any) attention. We also have my wifes car which is the second she’s ever owned, and is a little bit older (1992 Lexus ES300) but is also in quite good condition and is reliable. So that leaves my ’67 Caddy, which is in need of a lot of TLC so I wrench on it, but the experience is different from that of a “project car”.

I had never realized it before, but working on a car can actually be fun! Don’t get me wrong, it’s always been rewarding, to see the results of your hard work. But when you have to rush to get done so that you have the utility of the vehicle when you’re done, it detracts some from the experience. I think I’ve stepped into a zone of having a “Hobby Car”, which to me means a car that I get to wrench on, rather than have to wrench on. A subtle difference to be sure, but very significant when it comes to the experience.

Take my latest project for instance. I had to replace the water pump since it (apparently) had a leak. Normally I would have run to a parts store, perhaps Friday afternoon or evening to get all the parts that I thought I would need. Saturday morning would come, and I’d remove the necessary parts to replace it. I’d discover that I forgot a replacement part, go to pick it up from the parts store then make some progress, and realize I needed another part I hadn’t picked up. Rinse and repeat the drive to the parts store a few times. Then upon reassembly I’d hit some snag where I either broke something, or lost a part, or was otherwise discouraged. This usually happens late on Saturday night, when I was starting to think I’d wrap the project up. I’d admit defeat, frustrated, and go to bed. Wake up late Sunday since I didn’t go to sleep til late the night before. Drag myself out to finish the job, usually repeating some of the frustration and parts runs and finally wrapping everything up late Sunday. Then, drive the car to work on Monday.

Now, however I get to really take my time. Identify the issues, order all of the right parts in advance, and even pick and choose the superior brands and have them mail ordered. I have time while the parts are in transit to clean everything up that I’m working on, removing rust, dirt, and old gasket material. Maybe even do some cosmetic things like painting. No hurry, I don’t “need” the car to be running to get me to work or take care of my family. I get to work on it at my own pace. I find that it’s actually relaxing, rather than stressful. How novel!

No doubt, the fact that I’m also able to work in a garage contributes to the overall satisfaction, but I think a lot of the enjoyment comes from being able to take my time and do the job right, with no looming deadline.

So for all you guys out there with project cars, consider buying a reliable daily driver, and make your project car a hobby car. This is advice that older, wiser gearheads have given me in the past, and I never quite understood it, until now!

So, one of the first purchases I made for the Cadillac was a set of new wheels. I knew the Cadillac needed tires, since the rears were showing obvious sings of dryness and cracking. I also knew I didn’t want to “waste” money on buying tires for the stock wheel size when I knew I wanted to replace the wheels. Well, the passenger rear tire gave out after less than a week parked in the cul-de-sac. I saved my pennies and ordered up the tires at the beginning of the week, and they arrived at Big Brand Tire late Thursday night.

The wheel is a Forte F36 that’s 20×8.5 with a +15mm Offset and the 5×5 bolt pattern of the caddy purchased from Gear Works on eBay. The tires are Kumho Ecsta SPT 245/40R20 front and rear, purchased from Tire Rack. I had wanted to keep the wheel size down and keep some sidewall on the tire. Lots of people are installing 22″ and 24″ wheels on these cars, and I think it’s a little excessive. In fact, even the 20″ installed leaves a little less sidewall than I’d ideally prefer, but it’s too late now!

I’ve generally had excellent service from Big Brand Tire, but they were having a rough day when they were installing my tires it seems. First, when I went to pick up the wheels with the tires mounted on them, they had neglected to gather together the Tire Rack invoice, Kumho warranty documentation, and the plastic center caps for the wheels. Then, only moments after getting them home I get a call. Turns out they’d accidentally installed the wrong tires on the car! They’d put someone elses Michelin 255/35R20′s on my wheels. I hadn’t noticed because the tread pattern and size were VERY close to the tire I had ordered, and as I said I’ve always had good service and expected that they’d done it right. Ahh well, I’ll still be using them, but it was a bit of a comedy of errors. (Mental note 255/35R20′s are a decent fit!)

Installing this wheel/tire combination was fairly difficult, especially in the rear. I had to jack the car WAY up and let the rear axle droop completely in order to slide the old wheel/tire combo out and the new ones back in. The deep wheel wells are a great design feature of the Cadillac but makes it tough to wrestle a tire up into them. The other surprise came when I was putting on the very first wheel on the rear. I put the new wheel on, and it didn’t seem to ever sit flush against the brake drum. I forged ahead with putting the nuts on the studs, hoping that the weight of the wheel was what was preventing me from pressing it up flush against the brake drum. After snugging all the lugs it didn’t seem to rock anymore, but I still wasn’t confident. It wasn’t until I got to the other side that I realized the problem. There is a small bolt that bolts into the hub through the brake drum. The back of the wheel is machined flat, where as the stock wheel has a relief in it allowing for this bolt to be installed. I simply removed this bolt on both sides. Not sure if it’s “necessary” but I doubt that the added strength of a 1/4″ bolt on a surface held together by all 5 wheel lugs is going to make a difference.

You may recall from Day 1 Triage that the brakes seem to have failed on the Caddy. So while installing the wheels and tires, I also attempted to bleed the brake system. This too, was a bit of a comedy of errors. I have the correct tools for loosening the bleed screws, however even these don’t have the clearance necessary to really get a good “bite” on them. I managed to open them up, and do some bleeding, but my bleeding tool also wasn’t great. If anything I think I may have introduced more air into the system. I’ll have to re-try again later, probably with a custom built tool to loosen the bleed screws and a better bleeding tool.

After bleeding the brakes, and getting the new wheel/tire combo on I wanted to see if I had any brake left at all. I was convinced that the brake system had a serious failure because the cadillac has an automatic system for releasing the emergency/parking brake when the car is put into gear. This mechanism depends upon the brake being depressed, and uses a pressure sensor in the system to determine if it is “safe” to release the parking brake. After the car was delivered, the parking brake was never released when the car was put into gear. After my botched bleeding attempt, there was some trepidation, but I manually released the parking brake with a small lever under the dash. The brakes held! I then took it for a brief victory drive.

Of course, to get the car started in the first place, I had to grab the battery from the X. Seems there is a draw in the caddy which slowly drains the battery when it is not driven. Worse still, in swapping the battery in, I noticed that the positive (+) cable is routed through the radiator support, and is likely to get worn through and short to ground. Going to have to re-route that post haste! Mark up two more things for the todo list.

The drive was good, it is missing a bit at full throttle. Also when you floor it there is a hesitation before the engine responds. Some carburetor and timing attention is in order. Taking it out for a spin also reminded me that I still need to replace the water pump and get the cooling system working. But, progress none-the-less!

Ohh and, if there was any doubt that this is a big car, here’s the proof. 4 fullsize tires in the trunk!

As you can see, when I bought the Deville it lacked a lock cylinder for opening the trunk!  Yesterday I set out to try to get it open, and possibly rig something up to be able to continue to do so until I can do a proper repair.

Though I do now have a factory service manual, I couldn’t find any detail on the trunk latch anywhere.  I’m sure it’s in there, but I was too impatient to keep leafing through the PDF, and just went to work at it.

In my ignorance to the operation of the latch, I assumed I would have to remove the rear seat and either crawl through the space into the trunk, or poke at the mechanism with a stick.  After getting the rear seat out, I discovered a few interesting things.

First, there is a bit of a dried puddle of rusty water on the passenger side.  I didn’t shoot a picture of it, but I’ll be sure to capture it next time.  The rust doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me as I was aware of some small holes around the bottom of the rear window where rust has completely consumed the metal.  However, I didn’t expect the volume of water that has apparently entered the vehicle.  I suspect there is a good chance that there is more serious damage to the roof, and window opening in the back.  We’ll discover more as we go along.

The next realization was that there is NO WAY I was going to crawl into the trunk from the back seat.  In fact, I’m not sure any adult, or even a child old enough to understand the task could fit.  Worse still, my assumption that there would be some failsafe lever or latch in the trunk was faulty.  I know in more modern vehicles this was added due to some legislation or similar relating to people being locked in trunks.

So, I got my flashlight, and started peering into the keyhole to see if I could figure it out.  Lo and behold!  It appears as though I can just stick a nice flat head screwdriver in there to open it up.

I had hoped to find something interesting in the trunk, but it was the usual.  Some “spare” parts for the car and a cardboard box, probably used to lay on while working on the car.  Pretty typical, nothing really exciting that might give some hint of the glamorous history of the car.

What I did find however is something that surprised me.  I knew that Cadillac has had a mechanism for their trunks which gracefully pull it closed, so you aren’t required to slam the hood, but had no idea that this was standard or optional equipment on a car this old!  I noticed that the latch was kinda strange, and seemed to “float”, and had a small contact for a switch.  Further investigation showed some sort of hydraulic cylinder which probably does most of the work, which is pictured below.  I’ll have to do some research on this to see if it was standard or optional.  The best part, it even still works!

More interestingly still, there appeared to be some sort of solenoid attached to the latch, which you can sorta see on the right in the picture above where the screwdriver is in the lock.  It has wires going to it and everything.  This leads me to believe that there may be some electronic release for the trunk, but I have no clue where the switch for it is!

All in all, a successful hunting expedition, and rather informative, and my helper seemed to approve!