Repairs...

A lot of stuff to report on over the last few months.

I've been traveling out of town quite a bit over the last few months, so work on the Caddy has been in fits and starts.


Fuel System Problems

I was all set to take the family to the DragonCon parade over Labor Day weekend. I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, but the parade is very entertaining and Kyra got a kick out of it last year.

So, I loaded the family into the Caddy. The car started right up, I drive down my very steep driveway, brake at the street to check for traffic, give it some gas and STALL.

No worries. It will start right up, I thought. NOT. Anyway, the car wouldn't start after trying it several times. When I poured a bit of gas into the carb, the engine turned over, but would quit pretty quick.

I live on a busy street and 1/2 the car is in the street. Remember, this is a big car, so we are talking about 9 feet of Eldorado hood blocking the traffic lane. Wife is getting stressed as cars go by. I'm getting stressed as wife and daughter are complaining. Blood pressure goes way up.

So, I figure I can push the car out of the road a bit. And I can! The problem is that besides being steep, our driveway is also very narrow, with concrete walls on each side. So, a bit of steering is needed.

Ever try to turn the steering wheel on a 1970's Cadillac when the engine isn't running? It is hard. My wife is 5'2". Pretty much impossible for her to turn the wheel. My suggestion to her was to 'Stop bitching about how you can't do it and just ******* do it!'.

That went over well.

Anyway, my next idea was for her to drive my truck and use it to push the Eldorado up the driveway while I steer. Wifely veto of that excellent idea, and a wifely storm back up to the house.

So, I called AAA. They were out within a 1/2 hour and I had it towed. The shop that did my brakes is open for a few hours on Saturday, so I had it taken there.

Anyway, the fuel lines were bad. I've known that, but never worried about it too much. Been on my long list of TO-DO items. So, I have the shop replace the fuel lines. No time for me to do it.


NO BRAKES!!!

The shop replaced the fuel lines and gave me a call to let me know the car is ready. The owner mentioned that he had taken it for a good drive and everything seemed to be A-OK.

I tap the brakes as I exit the shop driveway and nothing happens. I push hard on the brakes as the Eldo coasts into the road. Nothing. Luckily, there were no cars coming, or it would have been ugly.

I steer the Caddy into the road, going downhill, locking my knee and throwing my whole body into pressing the brake. I slowed enough to make it into the next empty lot and turned the car around.

There is a reason the brake pedals are so big on these old cars. It is so that you can put both feet on the pedal should the brakes fail. I'll remember that next time.

I gently drive the car back into the shop as the mechanics are getting ready to go home for the day. "I got no brakes", I say. They take a look.

Their best guess is that the replacement boots and straps on the CV axles had worked themselves loose, slapped around and whacked the brake line, causing a brake fluid leak.


New CV Axles

Another thing I've been putting off until I get some time. In this case, like the fuel lines, I was forced to pay for the work. They didn't charge me much more than Rock Auto would have for the parts, though the labor was kind of a killer. They said the old axles came out pretty easily, much to their surprise.


How much money have I spent lately?

Not nearly as much as I have spent on Marcia's New Beetle. That car is 9 years old now, and that check engine light will not stay off.

Besides replacing the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, etc. we've had to replace the catalytic converter (which was still covered under warranty). But in order to replace that, the dealer had to fix all sorts of very expensive stuff to "clear the codes".

Of course, the check engine light lit up within 10 days of their repairs...

The definition of a boat is a 'hole in the water you throw money in'. The Eldorado may be a land yacht, but the Bug has definitely been the boat lately.

The thing that really makes me mad is that even with all the computer diagnostics the VW mechanics are still guessing at what is wrong, and they basically just replace stuff until they get lucky.

The Eldorado's carburetor works great, and probably hasn't been adjusted since it left the factory. No 'mass airflow sensor', etc. Of course, the car gets 12 mpg, but it is an easy-to-diagnose-when-there-is-a-problem 12 mpg.


In Conclusion

Enough ranting. Assuming I haven't jinxed things with my carburetor comment above, the car should be in excellent mechanical shape now - new brakes, new fuel lines, new CV axles. I am keeping my fingers crossed...

The weather has been great lately. Cool and dry, so it has been great to drive around on the weekends. This is the weather that brings out all the cool cars - Kharmann Ghias, El Caminos, 60's era Cadillacs, Chevys, Fords, Dodges and any old convertible. Basically, fun and good-looking cars without working air-conditioning that are too hot to drive in the summer.

4th of July

This evening, the family went out to watch fireworks. We just cruised over to Turner Field and parked on a side street. A bunch of neighbors were out to watch the fireworks as well, and set off fireworks of their own - some of the them were pretty impressive.

We also took the dog. Max was kind of freaking out at home with all the explosions outside, so we decided to pack him up as well. He was well behaved, more interested in other dogs and people milling around than the show.

Kyra got to stand up in the back seat to see the fireworks, and Marcia kind of curled up in the passenger seat. It was a nice summer evening and we had a good time.

It was even Marcia's idea to take the convertible! What a surprise! A couple of weekends ago, just the two of us were going out for a quick bite and a beer and she pitched a fit about having to ride in the Eldorado. It took a 1/2 hour of cajoling to get her into the car to drive about 2 miles.

Here is a cellphone photo of Kyra, Marcia and Max going to see the fireworks.

Brakes...

After I put in the new brake caliper, I still had the same problem with the brake sticking.

So, last Friday I finally got around to taking it into a shop. I hadn't been too happy with the shop I had used previously. While they are close to work and very friendly, they hadn't done the best job of diagnosing problems (with either the Caddy or my truck).

There was a new shop about 2 miles from home that opened about a year ago. I noticed they had a big old early 70's Fleetwood 75 for sale one weekend. They also seemed to be doing a good business lately.

I decided to try them out. It turns out they hadn't worked on that Fleetwood - just a friend of the shop owner's was selling it. I told them about the issue I was having with the Eldorado's brakes. The mechanic said it was probably the brake lines: they apparently can collapse with age, creating a sort of one-way valve that puts the brakes on, but doesn't let them release.

He suggested that I could probably just replace the brake hoses myself. But, since I have been sitting on this for four months now, and I don't feel so comfortable working on brakes, I decided to let them do the work.

Picked up the car today. Seemed to drive fine on the way home. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the brakes are fixed and I've found a decent mechanic.

For a photo, a few months ago I happened upon a '78 Eldorado. It was in kind of rough shape, but the owner was a nice guy. Claimed to have bought it used in 1980 and had it ever since.



Oh yeah, the High Museum is having a special exhibit, "The Allure of the Automobile". I checked it out and the cars were beautiful and immaculate.

This weekend, they are having a special "hoods-up" showing, so I am planning on taking my daughter there for Father's Day. One of the cars is a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham with a stainless steel roof.

Brake Caliper

Finally got some decent weather this weekend, so I got working on replacing the seized brake caliper. What took a bunch of time was putting yet another boot on the CV joint. I've really got to get around to putting in new axles...

Anyway, I got a late start and quit early because I was getting hungry and tired. So, though the caliper is in place, I've still got to bleed the brakes. I'll do that next weekend, as well as patch the flat tire.

Replacing the caliper hasn't been hard - we'll see what happens when I actually get to driving (and more importantly, stopping).

The above photo is Kyra directing me from the service manual.

The photo below is an original Mini, fortuitously parked next to a new mini, I saw while I was running errands yesterday. Not an Eldorado, but a pretty nice car. It was in great shape and a whole lot of people were looking at it.

Library, Part II

The second automotive book I got from the libray is "Classic American Cars" by Quentin Willson (1997, Dorling Kindersley Ltd.).

The above scans are from that book. This book has great photographs! Coincidentally, the calendar I bought this year is excerpted from this book. I didn't realize that 'til I flipped through the book at the library.

I know this is a '76, not a '71. But as I wrote previously, my fascination for these cars started when I was a kid and a neighbor bought one of these beautiful 76's (just like the one in the scan - white with red interior). The 71's and 76's are my favorite years for these Eldorados.

Maintenance...

Just an update: I've had the new brake caliper for a few weeks now, but haven't gotten around to putting it on yet. The major reason is that it has been so very cold - snow and very windy. Hope to get to it soon as the weather looks to be warming over the weekend.

No worries, though. It has been too cold to drive a convertible, so I haven't been in a rush to get this done.

Library

Went to the library today and happened to wander over to the automotive section and found a couple of neat books.

The first is "The Cadillac Story - The Postwar Years" by Thomas E. Bonsall (2004, Stanford University Press). At a glance, it looks to be a bit dry, but informative. It has some great photos, unfortunately they are all black & white.

This image is from that book - it is an advertisement from 1973 espousing the great gas mileage of Cadillacs (especially the Eldorado).

When I looked at this at first, I was happy that my mileage is inline with the EPA estimates in the add. I find it curious, though, that they used other GM vehicles in the comparison. It seems like they wouldn't want to trash their parent company.

Also, I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that the Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado shared a lot of components (both being front-wheel drive, though the Toronado used a smaller 425 ci engine). So, I'm very surprised that the Toronado only gets 6.8 mpg, significantly lower than the Eldorado.