This probably should have been posted under the date category above, however it covers too many areas.
Some time ago while performing maintenance on my 1941 Master Deluxe Coupe (yes, occasionally I take time to work on my own stuff) I discovered the fitting at the manifold to the "J" pipe down to the vacuum unit was loose. After tightening it I decided to also clip off a small portion of each end of the rubber tube from the "J" pipe to the vacuum unit. Just wanted fresh rubber at the connection to prevent leaks.
Some time after that I noticed I could not keep the car in reverse gear. It would go into gear and as I watched, it would fall out and into neutral. I just assumed that by adjusting the fitting and new rubber at each joint it affected the activation of the vacuum assist.
Yesterday, while checking the car over for today's 100-mile tour I decided I would correct the activation link. Taking the two-piece cover off the mechanism is a chore in itself. I disconnected the linkage and with my trusty special gage dutifully adjusted the linkage by the book. Before I buttoned the unit up, and as the car was already in the air, I decided to check the operation. EXACTLY THE SAME RESULTS. TAKE HAND OFF SHIFT LEVER AND INTO NEUTRAL IT WOULD GO.
After disassembling the unit and readjusting for the umptheenth time I finally decided to fall back and regroup. If I took the linkage completely off and operated the activation lever by hand I discovered it would extend the unit forward as required, but when I turned loose it would retract.
After spending some two hours on this project I was about to give up when I noticed that when the activator unit was moved the VACUUM HOSE ALSO MOVED. AH! HA! When I cut the small portion off each end of the hose it was so short that the HOSE activated the unit and would pull it out of reverse. I replace the complete hose (and used a very flexible one) and it works as designed.
Was a pleasure to have the unit operate as designed for the entire tour today. A working vacuum assist system is an absolute pleasure to operate.
