68 Cadillac MM Combo (Restore thread)

Well on the way to the car show today my front left wheel started clicking while moving. Speeds up as i speed up. When i brake it veers right. Googles suggest a collapsed hose, but going to look under what i can access and see what i can find
 
1... stone in the tread of the tire
2... frozen brake caliper or wheel cylinder
3... bad front wheel bearing
4... bad brake hose
5... tire inflation not equal on both front tires

I could go on with a number of additional items, but until you jack up the car, and with the assistance of a helper, and start checking under the car, it is all going go be a guessing game.
 
Bill Marcy said:
Is the clicking noise possible coming from your hubcap? I have a noisy hubcap on my 68, right now.
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Probably not, the clicking seems to have started with the brakes pulling to the right. I'm going to get it in to a place to be looked at this week hopefully since I dont have the means to lift it currently. Until I get it figured out though i will hold off on any car shows, and will keep my weekly maintenance drives isolated to my neighborhood.
 
Co-worker suggested its possible its a bad CV joint. The symptoms do line up, but not sure that would affect brakes. In any case I have a shop I am going to have specifically check the brakes and CV this saturday. Not going to mess around with something like that.
 
If the noise started the same time as the pull its a damaged left brake. The number of things it could be as Paul said are endless. But most likely the brakes warn down enough that the cylinder pushed the plungers out to were the rust grabbed the piston sticking it so that the left brake has one shoe just touching the drum.
 
We will see, I told me wife I wont drag her to any more car shows until I have had it checked.

in other news though, at this last car show over the weekend I met a guy who offered to give me an old casket. He told me the previous person who lived in his apartment left it and he wants to get rid of it.

Strange story and I havent seen what it looks like, so for all I know it reeks of cigarettes, but I may look into it. Although I prefer going to shows with the coach empty because I'd rather focus on the car at the show, not the casket.

Although I find it a bit odd that someone just left a casket when they moved out of an apartment.
 
A bad universal joint in the driveshaft will give you a clicking sound also. Your car doesn't have a CV joint in the front wheels, however, it does have a type of a CV joint that joins the 2 halves of the driveshaft together, however, I doubt that you are getting any noise from it.
 
Paul Steinberg said:
A bad universal joint in the driveshaft will give you a clicking sound also. Your car doesn't have a CV joint in the front wheels, however, it does have a type of a CV joint that joins the 2 halves of the driveshaft together, however, I doubt that you are getting any noise from it.
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Thanks, assumed I had them on all 4. I will let you all know what it turns out to be.
 
Blake... You really need to get a 1968 Factory Service Manual and start learning more about your car, if you are to become educated in its repair. Otherwise, you are going to be at the mercy of whomever you take the car to for service, and without having more knowledge, you are bound to be taken advantage of. Having the knowledge that the FSM can give you will more than likely save you the cost of the FSM on your very first repair.
 
Paul Steinberg said:
Blake... You really need to get a 1968 Factory Service Manual and start learning more about your car, if you are to become educated in its repair. Otherwise, you are going to be at the mercy of whomever you take the car to for service, and without having more knowledge, you are bound to be taken advantage of. Having the knowledge that the FSM can give you will more than likely save you the cost of the FSM on your very first repair.
Click to expand...

I do have a shop manual now, I just dont have a means to lift the car, nor do I have an available flat surface to do this safely on. Anything requiring this I have to have done elsewhere for the time being. At least until I have a location and equipment available to me.
 
Good news! Took the hearse into a local shop to look into the clicking and brake pulling. They told me the clicking was actually the hub cap, and the brake pulling was an alignment issue. Of course the car was too long for their alignment rack but i am relieved that there was no actual brake problem.

Didnt cost me anything. Didnt try to sell me anything either.
 
Well went out today and the battery was dead. Connected my charger and it read 6v and 95% charged, which i thought was odd. To be sure i removed the terminals and re-seated them, made sure they were tight. Same result.

Opened and close all doors. Still same. Seeing as the only change has been the new beacon ray i removed thw wire nut connecting the wires for the light. Removed the charger, plugged it back in and it read 7.4v and 1%.

Its been at one percent over an hour. Im goimg to give it a few hours and if it still hasnt moved i will take it to oreillys for a full charge.

If i wired my beacon ray incorrectly is it possible it was pulling a constant draw? Trying to figure out what happened here.
 
the switch is worn out. when you at the o'rielly boys pick you up one of the cheap test lights. they will save you a lot of headaches. but most likely you didn't get a door closed.
 
Just went to check on it and it was 75% so i started it up and watched the level climb on the battery gauge the previous owner installed. Got up to 13 or 14v. Shut it off and it slowly discharged to about 11 as i sat in the car with all lights off. Just to test i disconnected the beacon again to rule that out, same result. So leaving it disconnected overnight and will check in the morning to see how low it gets. If it doesnt hold a charge i will talk to oreillys. I already traded in for warranty once before for it no longer holding charge.

I did notice that even with the car idling the beacon ray drains the battery pretty rapidly, but im assuming thats normal and they just use alot of juice.
 
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In theory, there is nothing in the Beacon Ray that can cause you to have a draw that will kill the battery, without your seeing light or movement in the Beacon Ray. It is simply a motor and some bulbs. It sounds more like a bad diode in your new alternator. One way to find a current draw is to remove the connection to the suspected offending part. In this case, unplug the 2 wire connection at the back of the alternator, and see if there is a change. When you installed the new alternator, did you also replace the regulator? It is possible that the regulator is also the culprit. Being a automotive electrician is more than just replacing parts. You need to learn how to systematically check the components to find where the fault lies.
 
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