1mortician

by her I mean the wife ha!

I do have the manual Jay, and I am reading it now religiously. I will readily admit I am afraid of tearing something up, haha! I dont want to blow up my 20K investment (which by the way never escapes her memory)

Well, it looks like I am the worlds worst mechanic. HA! Today, I decided I would just play around and see if my new "mechanic" had correct advice. I took the air cleaner off, checked the Choke setting, noticed it had been turned all the way around once, so when I put it back to the proper setting the choke closed appropriately. Next I thought, well if this was that simple lets see how badly the carb needs rebuilt? Fired up the engine four shots of carb cleaner the roughness settled completely down. You could "balance a quarter" on it now. So yes, I totally need to put in a set of new plugs and wires, but? A rebuilt carb maybe can wait, and I am happy not to be jumping around at stop lights now! Thank you all so very much for all your tips! this is one of the most valuable resources for my car. You are all very kind, and not demeaning while I am trying to learn my way around this old girl. Thank you again! Eric

Yeah, it wont start even with a few pumps at all. who knows? I am going to start with the plugs and wires get that done at least. It is running really rough, and I think it has to be ignition. Just keep plugging away at it.

Well thats the problem, the Choke is not closing at all, its just hanging there wide open. I can manually prop the choke closed to start the car under the hood, but it will not activate at all. I dont know enough to get this fixed, I am going to probably take this somewhere. It is a pain trying to find a good mechanic. The last guy I took the car to, pretty much screwed the car up.

Looking for a good Mechanic for my 1955 Buick Roadmaster in Indianapolis, Carmel, Westfield, or Noblesville Indiana areas. Thank you for any leads. Eric

Did you ever find a good Buick Mechanic in Indiana? Thank you, Eric

Got the new plug wires ordered, Im going to give the whole timing thing a try. The separators on the car are old and rotted so I have ordered a new set too. Anyone know anything about these carbs? The automatic choke is not working. When I start the car, which has to be done by the pedal, as you know, it allows the choke to slide back, I can hold the choke in place and start the car under the hood. Fixes for this? Thank you! Eric

Thanks everybody for all the tech tips, I am firmly convinced this is in the ignition. I am going to put new plugs and wires on in the next couple of days and route them according to the manual. i will see how that shakes out. Thanks again for all the help, gotta keep this old girl running!

Thats an excellent Idea, It does still have the covers on the engine. I kind of popped a wire or two off of the dist cap last night, and one gave me a big shock, which I know is not right. The car did not idle quite this rough prior to taking it in for service, I do know he took a look in the carb so he may have dislodged some crud or something as well. I have also thought about running some seafoam through the car to see if I have any carbon sticking in anything. Thanks for your tip, and I will do that this weekend!

Just Got my car back from the shop, where I asked them to do Brakes, a minor tune up, and change all fluids. Thank goodness the Brakes are so much better, but the idle of the car is now quite rough. I was told that the Carb desperately needs rebuilt. I trust this mechanic, and I think he is probably right, but I still want to make sure I am not missing anything small on the rough idle. I have checked the vacuum lines they all seem fine. How do you visually identify the type of carb this is, I always thought it was a Carter, and I dont see that physically stamped on the Carb anywhere. Has anyone had any luck with doing a core exchange from Kanter? I am no expert mechanic by a long shot, I just want to get her running smoothly. Thank you for all your help!

I guess this is silly but do I have a Rochester or Carter Carb? on the 55 76R I guess I just assumed this is a carter carb, but how does one tell? Sorry again for dumb questions

Also, I got all the Brakes done finally, so it is stopping like a dream.

Looking for some help on getting my Buick to Idle better. Just got my Buick back from the mechanic, and he recommends a Carb rebuild. I had him set the timing, but it does seem to be idling rougher than it was. Has anyone had any luck doing a carb core switch with Kanter? I think I need to check all the vacum lines. It runs fine at speed, but the idle is just rough. Thoughts? Thank you !

Beautiful 55

Well, got the wheel off last night, and the wheel cylinder was leaking, and the actuator pin was lying on the bottom drum, so basically this wheel has just been a drain on the system for quite some time. Should be a very simple system, and my best guess is this car will stop a lot better with 4 brakes and a system with fluid! Ha!

Hey Dave, yeah there were only a few made, in my opinion this has always been one of the prettiest cars GM ever made. This one has factory A/C too, I wish there was a way to tell how many coupes had that. Thanks! Eric

Thanks John, I keep telling myself it is going to take me a while to re-learn working on cars. I had to sell my 1965 olds convertible to pay for college about 10 years ago, and all this seems so foreign to me, it is kind of embarrassing, considering I rebuilt that entire car. My dad keeps telling me I just need to remember it takes a while to learn a car, and I just knew everything about the last one. I need to remember tinkering with them is half the fun. I greatly appreciate all your help! EB

The 55 manual says to remove the carb to clean this switch? is that really necessary? is this switch on the right side of the carb? it says that it is built into the carb i want make sure im after the right thing. Im going to tackle my brakes today.

Yeah the 55 manual is pretty much the same. im going to get on that today! thanks for your very helpful picture.

yep thats what I was afraid of, and this should be about full right? I have externally inspected all the brakes and it just looks like it is leaking out of the right rear adjuster, I guess it could be a line or a wheel cylinder, fortunately neither are expensive parts!

Wow thanks for all the help! I will try to get my starter switch back in shape. So to be really dumb, my last classic car was a 1965 oldsmobile which made a lot more sense to me. I am trying to locate the Master Cylinder, I guess it is under the car? and the Brake fill resiviour is this the long tube sticking up beside the steering column, the original shop manual is a little vague as to where this is. If so I hope not it is bone dry and it calls for it to be 1/2" to the top. Where is the Brake fill place? THanks, and sorry to ask so many dumb questions. Eric

Thanks for all the good advice, I do indeed have a shop manual and have been referring to it. The brakes really do stop fine, they are just not really very grabby, it is taking as the gentlemen referred " a lot of extra leg" This is really a very nice car, a few little things here and there and I should have it up and going well. The hood is out of alignment and I have been fighting that all night, I may just break down and take it to a good local body shop and let them fight it. I have got the hood latch stuck 3 times and I dont feel like messing with it any more. I noticed I do have a slight fluid leak out of the right rear drum, so maybe I need to check the brake reservoir. There is a good chance they need to be bled. I really appreciate all the advice, it is going to make owning this car a lot more fun. Where is it that I need to spray to clean the starter on the carb? Thank you so much again!

Hi there, I was fortunate enough to fulfill my many year dream of purchasing a 55 buick roadmaster. I do have some minor concerns with the car I am hoping people can help me out on. the brakes seem very poor on this car, I have to really push the pedal down to get them to work? I would not think this is how they are originally intended to be. Does anyone have knowledge of how the brakes are supposed to be on this car? it seems like the brake booster is not doing a whole lot. Also, the automatic gas pedal starter works off an on. Does anyone know exactly how this system works? What happens about 40% of the time as soon as I turn the key to on the car will start without even pressing the gas pedal. I am sure there is some adjustment that will help. Many thanks, I am ready to get this baby in great shape!