1955 Customline Revival 223ci

Hi Bubba, thanks for the tips ! I was thinking of doing the conversion to electric wipers but it seems quite pricey. The vacuum booster part of the pump still works so I was thinking to still use that for the wipers and just bypass the fuel pump. Kind of a redneck solution but the most affordable one until I can get some money together and do it properly.
 
Yes and many will convert the whole electrical system over to 12 volt which opens up many other parts sources and choices since the 1956 cars and trucks were the first Fords and Mercury's to go 12 volt. I had a 1954 Customline and was quite happy how it worked on its orginal 6 volt system as long as you have the engine tuned good, with all the proper sized wiring (needs to use a much larger gauge than 12 volt systems) and all the wire termanials are clean and tight they can work great. But mine wasn't a car that I drove that much but if it's something you plan on driving a lot than some up grades are nice to have. Note that lots of cars & truck with the vacuum wipers only used the engine vacuum for the wipers so they will work without the vacuum booster pump too, just not as well.

One other thing you might try is putting an add in out the sires For Sale, Wanted, & Trade section of the forum all the way at the bottom. Maybe someone has a good used fuel pump core they took off that you can get for the Diafram out of it, this same fuel pump with the vacuum booster design was also used on severial other Ford & Mercury cars and truck engines both six and V8's of around that same era, as well as for some other car and truck brands too. IE would use the same Fuel Pump Body and all the internal parts are mostly identical with the exception of their useIng a different lever shape or lenght to fit into the different engines. Do they have any reasonable universal 6 volt electric fuel pumps in your erea? If not your right it puts you in a tough spot to be able to do it on the cheap for now. Best of luck

Edited One other thing if you wanted to try and could find the proper type rubber material you could even make a ne diafram too with some simple hand tools like leather punches.
 
G. Anastopoulos said:
Thanks for the link ! I gave it a look and it looks like he doesn't sell just the diaphragm.
The main body of the pump is in excellent condition so I'm not too keen on buying a whole new pump.
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Give them a call. I'm pretty sure I bought parts from them for a y block fuel pump.
 
I had the same idea, just ordered some ethanol resistant rubber to try and make a new diaphragm. If that doesn't work I'll give them a call and see if they can sell me a new one. Thanks a lot for your help guys !

Here are some short videos of the car running.

 
I'm glad to see that it is willing to run.
That's great but don't get too over confident and try driving it around just yet.
The rubber parts in the brake system can be dried out and dangerous.
Later cars have dual systems to give you a backup if half of it leaks.
That one does not!
 
Yes new rubber break hoses are definitely on the list. I don't know why I didn't order them earlier since they are so cheap. The breaks seem to work quite well but those break hoses are 40+ years old so you never know when they're gonna break.
Luckily I'm moving to Italy very soon so it'll be way easier to get parts from the US. My goal is to have the car road worthy by next summer, the last thing I need to clarify are the conditions needed to pass the inspection and get it insured. The bureaucracy tends to be terrible over here..
 
G. Anastopoulos said:
Yes new rubber break hoses are definitely on the list. I don't know why I didn't order them earlier since they are so cheap. The breaks seem to work quite well but those break hoses are 40+ years old so you never know when they're gonna break.
Luckily I'm moving to Italy very soon so it'll be way easier to get parts from the US. My goal is to have the car road worthy by next summer, the last thing I need to clarify are the conditions needed to pass the inspection and get it insured. The bureaucracy tends to be terrible over here..
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Yes I can believe that! I once lived in Germany during my time in the Amry back in the early 1970's I had a couple cars that I went through the inspections than made nessisary repairs to get a license and insurance it was quite a lot of work, I imagine it could be even more now days for some of thses older vintage cars. Best of luck
 
Also I forgot to mention that the heater core leaks pretty bad, I'll have to get it out and see if it's fixable. Anyone got some experience working on those ?
 
Did many of them it usally comes down to getting a compleate new one or removing the top and bottom tanks and installing a new core. The reasons for this is that the major part of the time it's the core that is leaking atleast in all of them that I ever did and the cores being so thin do to use and old age arn't fixable at least so that will last very long. The second method used to be the best if you wanted the heater to produce the most heat as the cores had thicker metal (they also would last longer) cost was about the same back then and radator shops were still around in most areas. Best of luck Edited
 
Thanks, I might buy a new one, it seems simpler. I won't drive the car in winter anyway (salt and snow won't do it any good) so I don't know that I really need the heater. It'll be a minor inconvenient when it's a bit colder but I can just leave my jacket on.

On another note I just realized that the guide for the rod going to the fuel pump diaphragm is busted. I looked around but I don't think it's available anywhere. That only leaves me with two options, either buying a new fuel pump/vacuum booster or going to an electric fuel pump. I'm leaning more towards an electric fuel pump at the moment but the replacement mechanical pump costs less than I expected so I might go with that. It'll depend on how much I managed to save by the time I order parts.
 
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Here's some pictures. It's cracked in a few places. I think I broke it removing the fuel pump diaphragm and rod.
I removed the diaphragm and reassembled the whole thing without it, mainly to see how to do it because it's quite tricky getting everything in the right spot. I realized something wasn't quite right because while actuating the pump by hand the guide came up crooked.
Since I already ordered the rubber sheet to make the diaphragm I might give it a go anyway and see how it looks.
 
I don't think i can, the small part in the middle is rubber with metal around it.. It looks like the metal part is press fitted into the fuel pump housing. Looks a bit too complicated to fix. The rubber sheet just got here, I'll pick it up at the post office tomorrow but won't have time to mess around with it too much until Monday afternoon. I'll see if adding the diaphragm does anything as far as the rod not getting crooked.
 
If it's rubber you might be able to use some liquid rubber to repair it or some rubber glue to bond it back together again. Good luck on the Diafram repair.
 
Alright I got the rubber material and made a new diaphragm, looks like the pump might work right now.
I'll see it that guide is a problem, I managed to get rod in with the rubber part in place. The only problem I can see is that, as I see it, that rubber part also prevents engine oil from getting it the lower part of the fuel pump and leaking out through the vent holes that are drilled in it.
What I'll probably do is mount it and run the engine for a bit while looking for oil leaks. Not a perfect solution and I think I'll eventually order a new fuel pump/vacuum booster combo given the price.
 
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