The blower motor fan continued to melt the in-line fuse. After doing some research and talking to a couple guys that used to work in the dealerships when these were new I found that this was a known problem for some of these cars, but not all of them. There were even some service bulletins from General Motors about the issue. Several solutions were offered. So far, my first alternative seems to be working, but I'm not yet convinced it will be a permanent fix. I installed a blade style fuse. According to some opinions, the spring loaded, glass style fuse holders did not give enough contact area to deliver the full 12 volts of the battery which caused resistance, which caused heat, which caused melting. A blade style fuse is supposed to give an adequate connection. So far, there don't seem to be any problems. If this does not work the other option recommended and what some of the guys said they used to do back in the day is to put a breaker in the system. If my first solution fails that is the direction I will go next.
Here is the style fuse I soldered into place. This style is called an ATC fuse, or blade fuse. The glass style fuse that was originally in place is called an AGC fuse.
Before next summer, I am going to need to install an electric fan in front of the condenser. The car never overheats except for very hot and humid days while it is sitting still in traffic with the air conditioner on. This could very likely be caused by having a 455 bored .60 over. Wiring the fan to the fan clutch so that it turns on whenever the clutch is engaged should remedy the problem.
It took a very long time to get The Caprice into the body shop. It also took a very long time and a lot of effort to find a passenger side taillight and trim. I finally found one online in a junkyard, but I couldn't tell you where. I looked at so many and called so many junkyards to find one that was in useable condition my head was swimming with taillights.
The engine also had a vibration at a certain RPM. I found that it was the harmonic balancer. General Motors still makes the part number so dad helped me replace it. These balancers are a cone shaped fit, which means they do not require a puller to remove or install and I was able to leave the radiator in the car to remove this. Once the pulleys and belts were out of the way it came off with a few gentle taps from the hammer. It actually took longer to get the belts and accessories loosened than to replace the part.
Several years ago I met a man named Jerry on an internet forum about stovebolt GM 6 cylinder engines. He has a vast amount of knowledge about these old machines and also used to teach a shop class at a high school in Nashville. He now lives about 5 miles from Alabama. Several years ago I replaced the original transmission in my '57 with an original 1957 overdrive. Shortly after I installed it, the overdrive transmission began slipping out of 3rd gear. In this particular type of transmission, 3rd gear and the 3rd gear synchros are made together and are not reproduced which means I would need to find an original in good shape.
Borg Warner made overdrive transmissions for all major automobile companies in the 50s and 60s. Essentially they would take a stock transmission and mount a planetary overdrive system in place of the tailshaft. The non-overdrive transmission for the '57 was a Muncie SM-318. They used this same transmission from about 1955 to 1968, give or take a few years. The only difference between the overdrive and non-overdrive transmission is one hold drilled in the case for the reverse lockout for the overdrive. Jerry happened to have a non-overdrive SM-318 attached to an old 283 he had that had sitting for a long time so he sold it to me and we took the internals out of it and used them to fix mine, along with the small parts kit I was able to purchase on the internet. His transmission also had the beefier input shaft, so we used that since it was already apart and in good condition.
Dad and I took a Saturday and drove down to Jerry's house where we spent all day working on the transmission in Jerry's very crowded shop.
We recently went to eat at a restaurant about an hour away for Mom and Jacob's birthdays. There were 9 people total and we were going to have to take two vehicles, except that The Clam holds exactly 9 people, so we all loaded up and went together. People on the interstate were actually taking pictures of us.
