Sounds like the internals of your trunk hinges are broken. I'm not sure what's holding your trunk lid up, but it should come down easy if the torsion springs are engaging on anything. A kit using aluminum blocks as replacements for the original cheaply-cast original pot-metal hinge eccentrics inside...

Per your request, 59lincolnrag, here is my Bendix #73554 power brake tester set up with a 1958 Oldsmobile "O-8" Hydraulic Reaction Treadle-Vac under test. I got the Treadle-Vac a few years ago from a collection of rebuilt units that had been purchased from a rebuilt auto parts supplier. NEW-3.jpg NE...

Hydraulic Reaction and Disc Reaction Treadle-Vacs are distinct beasts. They use many of the same rebuild parts, though, so the common T-V kit can be used for both. Disc Reaction uses a pliable rubber or plastic pad in the vacuum cylinder displacement rod port where you put the daub of grease. What i...

The steel plunger has a chamfer so as not to cut the seal. Wipe a small amount of Neatsfoot oil on the end of plunger and carefully place the seal over the end with a twist That's not what I've seen on a real 1957/58 Hydraulic Reaction Treadle Vac. The groove near the aft end of the displacement pl...

It appears that the change from solid to hydraulic tappets may have been totally disconnected from the change from machined to as-cast combustion chambers on the FE engine. I just got word and photos from a 1958 Edsel Roundup owner that he has in his possession a December 16, 1957-cast cylinder head...

The Treadle-Vac used two different sizes of vacuum cylinders, as noted in the article: their sizes were 5-1/4" i.d. and 6" i.d. The 6" i.d. units were only made in the slide valve and poppet valve T-V's, and used in the following vehicles: Slide Valve T-V: 1953-55 Lincoln, 1953-55 Mercury Poppet Val...

Bendix Power Assist Units Bendix Treadle-Vac Poppet-Valve Type ( I will cover this model in a future publication. Parts are not available for the booster ) Lincoln 1956-1958 Continental Mark II 1956-1957 Mercury 1956 Bendix Treadle-Vac Hydraulic- Reaction Type Lincoln 1959-1960 Mercury 1956-1958 Be...

What happened to the second link? Doesn't work on my end.

The server for that link must have gone down. I've uploaded both graphics as in-line attachments. Go back to my first post, and they'll both be there for comparison.

gauss

There is also a stamped number on a lip at the front driver's side of the block. It says "4-83LC". I read this also to be a date code, i.e. 21st of March 1958. . . Just wondering if anyone could help me decipher more of these numbers and also which one uniquely identifies the engine. John, there ar...

To be a bit more precise, the MEL division was announced on January 15, 1958 according to C. Gayle Warnock in "The Edsel Affair" page 222. The first Edsel technical bulletin issued with "MEL Division" in the header was January 23, 1958, but I have a sales report dated February 10 from the Edsel Divi...