"New" 26 Motor Has Arrived But . . .

Unknown

This last October the time had come at long last to go and claim the new

motor for the '26 Hudson Coupe project that I had been

searching/negotiating/making payments on for something like four years. This

is the right motor for the project (from a late '26 hearse) for my car and it

was to be rebuilt as new by Jack Smith, the well known Hudson Guru some 2000

miles distant in Manitoba Canada.

We further negotiated for an 8' utility trailer to which is bolted a

Super Six test stand and all accessories required to run a motor; radiator,

exhaust system, gas tank, etc. The meeting point we agreed on was Salt Lake

City where Jack had some business with Chris & Kelly Purdum of '28 and '29

Hudson fame.

My father and I turned the trip into a mini vacation and stopped to see

some of the sights along the way. When we pulled into Custom and Classics,

the Purdam's high quality restoration shop, Jack was already there with his

sweetie and the Purdums produced some cold beer and a very pleasant tire

kicking session resulted. After a brew or three, we hooked up the trailer to

the pickup and sorted out the inevitable wiring problems and went out to a

chew on a steak. For whatever reason, cocktails are rare in Salt Lake but we

lucked into one of the few places that served them. I'm OK with beer once in

a while, but good cocktails are the true mark of a civilization.

The trip home went uneventfully and the trailer (which has no suspension)

pulled straight and true. I did see some daylight under those trailer tires

on big bumps, however! As you might guess, I was very keen to run the motor

at home just to make sure that all was well, and accordingly fired it up

shortly after arriving.

It ran for 15 minutes or so and then quit dead. A quick restart resulted

in another sudden stop. Darkness and the press of urgently postponed business

prevented further investigation, but the next day resulted in a brief run

then nothing. The motor cranked but had no spark.

It turned out to be a couple of weeks before I could get back to the proje

ct, but the problem seems to be in two areas. First, the secondary coil wire

running to the distributor had VERY cheesy ends and had ceased making any

contact whatever. New Beldon ends remedied this. The second quandary is still

unresolved. With a fresh charge on the battery, the motor fires and runs, but

when the battery drops a volt or two, the ignition will not fire. This seems

paradoxical, but with a partially depleted battery, the starter motor spins

the engine fine, but the ignition fails to produce a good fat spark.

From my experience with these old Hudsons, if there is a ghost of a volt

left in the battery, the motor WILL start. Starting cranks were provided

partly for the occasions when the battery was a trifle too flat to spin the

starter motor, but up enough to fire the coil. Heck, I've parked on hills

lots of times when I knew the battery was too old to start the car later on.

Has anybody got any ideas about this?

While looking into the ignition problem, I noticed that this "new" motor

has an Autolight distributor with centrifical advance off a '29 Hudson. The

'26 should have an American Bosch with mechanical advance. Somebody switched

them! I will be looking for the correct unit.

Just last Sunday, after getting the motor running again at long last,

another more serious problem arose. THE HEAD GASKET IS LEAKING! On the left

side back near cylinders 5 and 6 the gap between the block and the head has a

portion a couple of inches long that is black, very slightly wet and if you

look closely even bubbles once in a while.

A few questions: Is this something that can be completely cured with

another head torqing or does it need to come apart? Should I reuse the same

gasket with Copper Coat or some similar gasket compound on it or just replace

it? This motor has never run under load, and it is even still in it's test

stand. How could this gasket leak anyway?

This long delayed project will be delayed again, but maybe it can still

be finished for Spring tours. I would like to hear your opinions.







Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com

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