New Here......1954 Early Special Questions

[sanford66]

Hello. New here from Kansas. I am curious about this 1954 Kaiser Special that i recently bought. I would like to get it on the road, but i don't know much about it. The research i have done on it on the net tells me its rare, [less than 2000 made],??? I will give you guys the numbers: VIN plate inside of drivers door jamb....K545  021315    BODY # PLATE under hood....5451-1180    TRIM TAG under hood....model-545,body-1,paint-443,trim-5303,i.p.-37. I have excellent pictures of the car and all of the id plates, but i can't upload them to the forum. If anyone is interested in seeing the pictures or can give me any information about my Kaiser, let me know and i will give you my e-mail address so i con send you the pics. I want to try and get this car running, shouldn't take much as the engine turns over easy when you put a battery in it. It's not getting any fire, coil, points & condenser? Anyway, i just want to see this car on the road, [so doe's my 10 year-old son]! I saved this Kaiser from the crusher and want to give it a new life, thank you all in advance for your help, Joseph

[Fid]

Congrats on your purchase.  The 1954 Kaisers are one of the most desirable. There are two versions of the 1954 Kaiser Special. The first version, refered to as the "Early Special" in all KF discussions, were made from 1953 Kaiser Manhattans which had not been sold by the end of the 1953 model year.  To sell the cars, Kaiser, which was now "Kaiser Motors", did a facelift on them by installing the 1954 front clip and tail lights on them. Since they were left over Manhattans, they had the fancy bamboo interior and the wide stainless moulding down the sides and many had Hydramatic transmissions. They had the rear windsheild of a 1951-53 Kaiser. Based on the serial number you posted, it sounds like this is the version you have. There were about 2200 made.
The second version, known as the "Late Special" which is distinguished by having thin stainless moulding around the bottom and the three piece wrap around rear windshield, the same as a 1954 Manhattan. It also had a less fancy upholtstery than the '54 Manhattan. There were less than 1000 Late Specials produced.
Regarding getting it running; the Kaiser 226 CID engine is pretty easy to get running and work on. Some things to know about it:  All Kaiser products were 6 volt, positive ground originally so if you're trying to start it you may want to make sure the positive terminal on the is the grounded terminal, assuming the car is still 6 volts ( many have been converted to 12 volts, neg ground).  New points and condensor are a must and if the car has set for a number of years, the gas in the tank could be sludge so disconnecting the fuel line and running a hose into a gas can may be a good method for getting it started, then drain the tank and fill it with fresh gasoline (it could still be sludge so it may be a good idea to take the tank off and look inside it). 
Make sure all the fluids are full, oil, coolant, transmission (if its a 3 speed it's easy to check, if Hydramatic it's not), rear end and master cylinder. If it hasn't run or been driven in a while, you'll likely have to rebuild the brake cylinders too.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 

[pnw_oldmags]

And flush the coolant and put in new antifreeze. 

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Door jamb serial number shows EARLY special...looks like 1953 Kaiser Manhattan in interior and uses a 1953 Kaiser body (one piece rear window rather than 3 piece like on the 1954 Manhattan) and has 1954 front sheet metal and taillights.

Check list for starting...

1.  With battery hooked up properly (see Jim Betts' comments) and headlight switch pulled out, do you have lights?  If so, turn off lights & go to #2

2.  Turn ignition key.  Do the gages on the instrument panel register?  If so, turn off key and go to #3.

3.  Verify that engine has not siezed or otherwise turns over.  If ok there, go to #4

4.  With condition of battery, ignition switch and engine turns, turn key to start...does the starter crank over?  Does it go "click"?   If it goes click with no other action, clean the battery cables, battery post, tighten cables down and try it again.  If it continues to click only and cables are old, replace cables and ground strap.  and try to start again.

5.  If nothing happens, repeat steps 1 and 2.  If ok there, check fuses and circuit breaker for replacement or reset and then try again to start.

6.  We are looking at this point ONLY for engine to turn over on the starter, not fire up.

7.  If engine turns over, Disconnect ignition coil wire from distributor and tap the contact in the wire end on the block while turning the engine over.  You should get a noticable spark off the coil.  If you do not, check wiring of coil to battery and ground, also check coil to distributor wire.

8.  If you have spark, re-connect the coil wire to distributor and dump a bit of fresh gas into the carb.  Turn the key.  Engine may attempt to start and/or sputter a bit as fresh gas is burned up.  If nothing happens, pull plug wires at plug and do the kind of test as in #7, to see if all plug wires are sparking.  General practice would be to pull the plugs and replace them with AC 45 or equivilent heat range from another brand plug.

9.  If you do not see a spark at each plug, you may want to replace the plug wires on general principles.  Also, take off the cap and turn the engine over.  Does the distributor shaft turn the rotor and do the points open and close as the distributor cam rotates.  If the shaft does not turn, at least part of the problem is that the drive gears inside the engine are not right.  If shaft turns, replace rotor and contacts then repeat check, adjusting new contacts as needed.  Also, check the little cotton-wrapped piece of wire in the distributor.  This can break inside the insulation...it can look OK outside but not work internally.  Also check vacuum line from distributor to carb to see if you get suction.

Check these things out and see if you can get it at least to sputter.  You may have to remove the gas tank and have it cleaned and checked, blow out the fuel line, clean it and blow it out a couple more times, rebuild/replace the fuel pump and see if it will run on its own.

[Kenn Evans II]

Also make sure of your polarity on the battery these older cars are a positive ground. 

[pnw_oldmags]

Jack new I should have as the 53K I am working on had the battery hooked up as a negative ground ... it still ran but poorly.
Also I would be cautious with trying the headlights right away. 

The cloth wiring leading to the junction strip infront of the radiator has been an issue. The wires coming from the parking lights and headlights all have lost there insulation coverings back to harness covering.  Thus 2 inches of bare wires overlapping each other.  I am shortening these wires back to the good insulation point before turning on the headlights.

The old cloth wire is also bad running to the license plate light probably as well.

[sanford66]

I hope this is the pics of my Kaiser! Dang!! I can't figure out how to upload the pics!! If anyone can help me out please? Anyway, i got the engine to turn over by the starter by hooking up jumper cables from a twelve- volt 78 chevy truck. I connected the positive to the positive and the negative to negative from the truck to the kaiser battery cables. I got the engine to turn over, but i still have no spark?? Doe's there need to be negative ground for there to be spark?? These old cars are a mystrey to me, but i'm 29. I forgot to metion my car is a 4-door, are the production numbers different?? Anyway please help me with the pics! This car means a lot to me and i want to share the pictures with you so you can see what i'm working with! Please! Thank You, Joseph

[Fid]

In order to post pics on here they first must be uploaded to or hosted at site.  Since I have Comcast, they provide 10 gig of online storage so I upload my photos to Comcast.net.  After that, use the URL that opens the photo in your browser.  Shutterfly.com is  a good site if your internet provider does not provide online storage.  Create an account and upload the photos to www.shutterfly.com  Then when you view the photo at shutterfly.com, right click your mouse over it and choose "Properties."  The properties window will display the URL (link) for that photo. Highlight that URL with your mouse and choose "Copy."  When you want to post it on here, there's an icon you choose which says "Insert Image" (hover your cursor over the icons and it will display what they do) - select it and paste the URL between the two [img] tags and  the photo will display when you click "Post"

Regarding the positive ground and turning the engine over, it really doesn't matter, it should start either way but it's best to keep it positive ground.  Turning the starter with 12volts works... for while... untill the starter burns up eventually.  If the car has no spark, first, is the ignition switch in the "on" position?  If so, check for voltage at the small wire on the coil which is not connected to the distributor (one is, one isn't). If you have voltage there (a test light lighting works well for this) with the switch on, then the issue has to be points, condensor and or plugs or possibly the coil itself.  The breaker points do tarnish if the car hasn't run in a long time so filing them may be the answer to see but replacing them is probably best. They're still available at NAPA. A 1954 Special would have a Delco distributor I believe. The point set for that one is Echlin C5777A, condensor Echlin RR174, rotor Echlin RR83 all available at NAPA. A six volt coil is also available from NAPA but the problem is most likely the points so try that first.