It lives!! ‘73 Coupe finally running!!

[cadillac73]

Hello all, I have good news this time. I bought an electronic distributor to see if that would solve my firing issue, and it did! My metal baby is running again! All it needs now is the proper plug wires and she’ll be back on the road.

Does anyone need the old (which is basically brand new) distributor, points, cap, rotor, or wires?

One question: Did the ‘73 originally have the “Cadillac 472” decal on the air cleaner snorkel?

Thank you all for your help and encouragement through this rebuild process.

Catherine

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

YAY! Good for you and Solid Gold! 

\m/
Laurie

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Catherine,
I have a hard time believing there was anything wrong with your points set up that could not be easily fixes.  If you want to send me the old stuff I will be glad to check it all out and let you know what if anything needed to be fixed.  Regardless I'm glad you have "got the show on the road"
Greg Surfas

[35-709]

I too am very glad to hear of your success, Catherine.  But I also agree 100% with Greg Surfas that there is absolutely no reason that car should not run just fine with the stock distributor setup (as they did then and still do now) --- those people dropped the ball big time somewhere (and cost you money), a bad condenser would be a strong suspect or even the coil.  But, the main part is it is running again.  Yayyyy!
Geoff N.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

And as far as the 472 Decal, hopefully someone will chime in with a photo.

Bruce.

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

Cat, as an administrator, I get copied on all the new members of the Forum, and had noticed that we had a new lady member, but had not run across your posts. Now I know where to look and will go back and read them.

While Goeff and Greg are 100% correct in that the original set up should have worked, you got the car running again, even if you may not have done all the work. (If you did, that's better yet.) My wife of nearly sixty years has always been supportive of my hobby, but never done anything but ride in the cars. To her, under the hood are "black, greasy, round things."

I join with the "other guys" in applauding your interest and efforts. Welcome!

P.S. I really enjoyed that GMC commercial this Christmas where the guy got "his and hers" vehicles. And didn't run fast enough to lead his cute wife to the red one he'd picked out for her. She got to the sexy black one first, and from the way her hands splayed out on the doors, (as in, "Guy, this is MINE!"), he'll approach "her" truck in the future only in fear of his life.

[cadillac73]

Hello all and thank you for your input. I agree with all of you, and had decided against HEI when I had it rebuilt. But at this point, I was getting desperate. I didn’t think the new distributor would magically fix anything, and I still don’t understand how it could. I suspect it was a wiring issue that they just happened to figure out at the same time they put the new distributor in. But what do I know? I might keep my old distributor, etc, and maybe change it back one day if I’m feeling adventurous.

Barry: while I did not have a hand in this rebuild process (way over my head), I have done a lot of work to this car over the 31 years that I have owned her (tune ups, oil changes, installed rebuilt carb, replaced coil, distributor, starter, alternator, among other things). No one taught me, I just dove in with the help of a Chilton and a shop manual. More complicated stuff I leave to the experts, but I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and losing some skin off my knuckles. It’s a labor of love for my eight cylinder soulmate.

Greg: The points, condenser, and distributor are fairly new. But I’d be thrilled if you’d check them out because as I said, I might switch it back just to see what happens. 

Again, thank you all for everything.

C

[35-709]

Forgot to put in my post --- the '73 did not have the 472 decal on the air cleaner snorkel.  Earlier years did but I cannot tell you what years.

[TJ Hopland]

Seems to me the 68 69's had the decal, and maybe 70's too?  I don't remember seeing them on 71-74's.

[Cape Cod Fleetwood]

Seems to me the 68 69's had the decal, and maybe 70's too?  I don't remember seeing them on 71-74's.

70 has them

\m/
Laurie

[76eldo]

None of my 70's have the decal.  Two of them are 100 percent original.

[Jeff Rosansky CLC #28373]

Glad you got her running again. And you did it without losing your sanity.
As someone who has had issues with a rebuild (where I thought I was doing the right thing and didn't cheapen out on anything-or so I thought), I can attest that we both had/have situations that can really get you down in the dumps.
Good for you and post a pix when you finally get her on the hiway.
Jeff

[cadillac73]

My girl’s heart beats again!!  I just went by the garage to hear her run, and was so happy I had to bite my lip to keep from crying. I stood behind her sucking that exhaust in like a friggin crack head. Just a few more electrical and vacuum lines to connect, a new set of rear brake shoes, and she’s back on the road and ready for shows in the summer. Unfortunately I can’t post the videos because they’re not the right file type, but believe me when I tell you, she sounded beautiful.