I bought this '27 Star M from a yokel up in Maine. He said it was running and they have been driving it in Parades and such.
#1, it would not start to drive off the delivery trailer. I decided to do a comprehensive survey to see what I got myself into.
Starting at the rear end, pulled the wheels and hubs off. New tires and brakes. The lever that operates the parking brake was frozen solid. Got that fixed and installed modern axel seals. It has an electric fuel pump mounted near the gas tank on the frame side rail. It was operated by a toggle switch mounted under the dash but the pump wasn't attached to any fuel lines. Took that off,(made in China) and scraped it. Opened the Stewart fuel pump and found dust and trash. Otherwise, it was in good shape, just haven't been operated in 7 blue moons. I think I'll replace the fuel line from the tank to vacuum pump also. The electrical system and wiring was atrocious so I eliminated a lot of it. The ignition was operated by another toggle switch mounted under the dash. Removed that and made a jumper from the battery to coil. The engine sputtered to life and ran momentarily on the fuel in the carb. Showing 30 lbs. oil pressure, at least that was a good sign! Put a Mountain Dew bottle of fuel in in the pump and started the engine. It started right up and ran, sort of, albeit ragged. The distributor looked odd and turned out to be a Chevy unit, Remy 350A. It seemed to be stuck in the adapter when I tried to remove it. Yeah, it was stuck real tight. Had to drain the water and remove the water pump to get access to the distributor and adapter. Short story, I demolished the pot metal distributor getting it out of the housing, it was that tight! At least the cooling system doesn't leak but the radiator has been replaced with a vertical tube style and the front has a nice grill panel to conceal the radiator.
I'll get it worked out before too long but this just illustrates why it's a good idea to find someone that can inspect a car before you purchase. I've still got to install a new vinyl top and headliner.

Where Are You From? Texarkana, TX

Do You own a car built by Durant? Several