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11/23/20: after getting the engine running, I still needed to road test it and lug it down a bit to seat the rings. The engine had a bit of a bog which I attributed to timing so I started the engine to warm her up and it was smoking a bit more that expected. The hose fittings going to the bypass filter were both leaking at the swivel. I tried tightening but to no avail. I removed the hoses and plugged the oil inlet and outlet at the block. After restarting and warming her up I used a timing light to get her close. I’ll finish the timing with a vacuum gauge.

On to the road test. I backed her out and started in first, when I shifted to second on the column mounted gear shift was way too high. So back to the house to readjust the shift linkage. Readjusted and second was still not right and I couldn’t get her into third.

When I disassembled the shift linkage, I took pictures but I apparently it focused on something else so the bell crank was a bit fuzzy. So, when I reassembled the linkage, I looked at my pictures and the assembly manual which is for a ‘54 and not a ‘52 and it was a bit different. I made what I thought was a educated guess but I was wrong as I had the bell crank in the wrong position. I removed the second/third linkage and noticed that the bell crank had two different lengths from the pivot point to where the linkage rods attached. I had the shifter attached to the longer side which shortened the travel to the tranny. By reversing the rods, I shortened the shifter travel and lengthened the travel going the shift arm on the tranny and now have third gear and the shifter position in second is where it should be.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally get that road test!