Stude Light

While Executive Director at the RE Olds Transportation Museum, I had an original hanging in my office. I never got tired of seeing it. This gives an idea of the size of the Limited With the "limited" sales (pun intended) of "cars for the rich", it's no wonder the Smiths ran Olds Motor Works to the brink of insolvency and were happy to sell out to Billy Durant and get out of the auto manufacturing business. I'm sure Ransom Olds took some pleasure in seeing Olds Motor Works struggle to survive while he was pumping out his REOs on the other side of the Grand River in Lansing.

The Baby REO is on display at the RE Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing. It runs and drives along with its Mama.

Original photo of a new 1922 Special Six engine. Definitely lighter in color than black.

I volunteer at the RE Olds Transportation Museum so I grabbed some info for you today while I was there. Photos of the engine in 1926 roadster in the museum And some information on the ignition system

Ahh. Okay that makes more sense, however….the inner tank is suspended within the outer tank so the fuel is supposed to drain from the inner tank to the outer until the two fuel levels equal. It is not designed as a check valve to prevent fuel entering from the outer tank as fuel level in the outer will never be higher than the level in the inner. The only thing the flapper valve is designed to do is to flap shut when a vacuum is pulled on the inner tank and it is submerged in fuel when that happens. With a 5-15 in Hg vacuum applied to the inner tank that flapper valve will suck shut and seal a lot better and the small amount of fuel drawn past is insignificant compared to what flows from the tank. It will be fine.

Wait! What??! If you are getting water in, you have some other problems. All my tanks, and others I've rebuilt, use a micarta flapper valve. Whether micarta or brass, they aren't expected to make a perfect seal but just enough to allow the engine vacuum to draw fuel from the tank.

I agree with what Tom said - they can get a bit expensive to put back in order. Once done they are a great driving car and I don't mind driving mine in modern traffic. I'm pretty sure the 1937 and 1939 (like mine) have the vehicle serial numbers in the same location. Yes, they originally matched and are used for the vehicle VIN. I'll add a few comments....chassis and engine parts are very available. You can find body and interior parts but it takes some searching (eBay, AACA members, etc.) depending what it is. You can get most all the rubber seals, mounts, etc. from Steele Rubber but again, not cheap. There are a few crazy expensive parts if you need them - like the distributor drive idler gear or the sylphon thermostat that drives the radiator shutters. You'll pay a lot to get a radiator re-cored. Chrome work is crazy expensive especially for any re-plating of the zinc cast grills/trim so pay attention to the condition of the chrome. Don't forget about the cost of tires these days (~$275/tire). These have knee action shocks which typically need rebuilt. My local body shop would have no problem repairing that fender but they'll have some time into it (it's just $$). Make sure you look under the bottom side for rot of the main body - the panel behind the gas tank is a good indicator. So, you can have a really nice car but like Tom said, "Don't overpay". Good luck with the purchase if you decide to move forward and we are here to help you out, The Cadillac LaSalle Forum is also full of really smart folks too. Scott

This is what Roger is looking for....late 1923 or 1924 Light Six engine with the cast iron head. It is also on the later engines found on the 1925-1927 Standard Six and maybe on the Dictators too. It's called a Yoke (P/N 120452).

You will need to retime the distributor. Remove number one spark plug and put your thumb over the hole. Hand rotate the engine in direction of rotation until you are on the compression stroke (pressure under your thumb). Continue to slowly rotate until that piston comes up to top dead center. I'm pretty sure the spark plug is over the bore/piston so you can just use a wooden dowel down the hole and rotate until it comes all the way up and just stops moving. Now reinstall the distributor until the rotor is pointing at number one spark plug wire on the cap. Assuming nothing else moved this should get you on the right gear tooth alignment. The rest of the timing you can do with a continuity tester, by ear or a timing light. Good luck.

This is for the RE Olds Transportation Museum. Wanted to get the 1926 Olds Roadster out to the Old Car Festival this September and am looking for a new rotor. The one in the car is broken.

I use Diamondback Auburn radials on my 1939 LaSalle and love them. Much better ride and wet road traction. They are hard to distinguish from bias ply tires as they have the distinctive pie crust edge and don’t have a radial bulge at the tire patch. Plus no tube to deal with.

The last thing I would do to any of my pre-war cars is to fit an electronic ignition system. The points and condenser system is much simpler to diagnose and will not leave you stranded without options. Most piston engine aircraft are still using magneto, points and condensers for their predictive reliability.

Just a side note… the original oil pumps used helical pump gears and most new/rebuilt units use straight cut pump gears. My understanding is that it is cheaper to make straight cut gears but they are also a bit less efficient (require more torque for same flow and pressure output). It just adds a bit more stress to the bronze idler gear that drives the pump and distributor. Scott

The issue on the starter Bendix.. The Bendix has a little friction device that is supposed to keep the gear from walking around on the course acme threads. It has to have enough friction to keep it from walking, but not too much, otherwise the speed/torque of the motor won't throw it into the flywheel to start the engine. This Delco starter design has the Bendix pulling into the flywheel - the Bendix gear rests in front of the flywheel and then is thrown rearward into the flywheel ring gear when the starter is engaged. The Bendix assembly has to be removed to remove the starter from the car. You can remove the gear from the acme threads by removing the left hand threaded nut which is staked to the end of the hollow Bendix shaft. Here is the friction pin and spring in the assembly. There is a little hump in the shaft just to the left of the spring. It normally rests on the other side of that hump and the spring pressure is supposed to keep it there until the starter motor spins up and slings it over the hump. Once the engine starts, the Bendix is thrown out of engagement rotating on those acme threads and the friction pin/spring ends up on the other side of the hump again. It turns out that my spring was really weak so I went over to Advanced Electrical Rebuilders (https://www.facebook.com/AERrebuild/) and Jason Smith hooked me up with a good spring. When I reinstalled the gear on the Bendix shaft, I just used some Loctite on the left hand threaded retaining nut instead of trying to re-peen it in place. I reinstalled the starter and the car was ready for a test drive. Recall the whole reason I reworked the transmission this winter was to try and reduce the 1st and 2nd gear noise. After a test drive on a 65 degree February day in Michigan I found that replacing the transmission bearings with new ones, adding the missing thrust washer and installing the best looking gears from three different transmissions made about a 50% improvement, which isn't saying a lot. Actually, most of the noise is gone on the drive side (when accelerating) but as soon as you float the throttle or drop throttle it is still pretty loud. With the rather crude straight cut transmission gear design and lack of any clutch damper (which is found on more modern cars to eliminate gear rattle) it isn't too surprising. The good news is that my starter Bendix no longer walks into the flywheel. That was my biggest issue while driving last summer as I would start hearing that little gear clash and would have to pull over, shut off the engine and restart to throw the Bendix back into place. The trans noise was just a nuisance during launch from a stop as you drive this car in 3rd gear from 5 mph to max speed and it is really quiet in 3rd. At least I know everything is right inside the trans now.

I left off on assembling the trans. Time to install it but first I had disassembled the throwout bearing and built up the "support ears" with a little weld where they were worn from the fork and reassembled it. I packed it with the stickiest grease I could find which was wheel bearing lube. The bearing mounts to the cone clutch and pulls it out from the potted flywheel. It slips over the end of the cone clutch. It is held in place by a special tapered nut. Here is a side view shot of the nut installed without the throwout bearing in place. Bearing installed on the clutch. Then the tapered nut installed and cotter pinned in place. I decided to reset the four clutch cushion buttons which helps with modulation on a cone clutch by having the fours spring loaded buttons start engagement. You set them to have about 1/32" - 1/16" of spring movement (or clearance between the stop nut and housing with the clutch engaged as shown below). Now it was time to put the trans in. It was just me and my jack. I just positioned the jack under the car and pumped it into position. After a little jockeying in place, I slid it home and bolted it in. After installing the driveshaft, speedometer cable and linkages, it was time to reinstall the starter. Up in the post somewhere I was mentioning that the starter Bendix would gradually walk into the ring gear while driving and you could hear it bouncing off the gear so I needed to fix that first.

Since they don't have seals, per se, and always leak, I use the Penrite 1200W. I found that using a syringe you find at the farm stores works best to transfer it from the bottle to the gear box fill hole

It originally mounted on the right side engine closeout next to the oil pump and is a Sparton Model AJ. They were never engine mounted on the Light Six Models. Examples on the early 1923 cars and later 1923 cars.

My 1939 LaSalle has the same bubbles when the engine compartment gets hot. It’s the fuel boiling. The only solution is to reduce the temperature or increase the fuel pressure. Simple thermodynamics and phase change that can be shown with the Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT). Insulating parts helps to reduce the operational temperature of the fuel. The electric booster pump increases the pressure of the fuel. The inlet side of the pump and internal check valve assembly is the biggest problem as the pressure in that area is reduced so the gasoline will boil at a reduced temperature. I typically run my boost pump (which is located near the tank where it is coolest) during hot starts to increase the fuel pressure in the system which will force the fuel vapor, which is causing the vapor lock, back to into a liquid. I have also added a duct that gathers cooler air from in front of the radiator and directs it right over the fuel pump while driving which also helps. I do not run my boost pump full time, usually just for starts.

Numbers should match if the engine is original Scott

It’ll go in the ultrasonic cleaner before assembly. I use the purple Simple Green with water at about 200 deg F so when you pull it out and rinse it is still hot enough to quickly evaporate any residual water.

After cleaning up the bore of the master cylinder with some brakleen it turns out that it has a brass bore. That’s why there is no rust nor pitting. It is in very nice shape. Now I’m thinking a little 000 steel wool just to clean up any oxidation.

I’m replacing the brake system on my 1962 Olds F-85. The master cylinder had some crude in it so I disassembled it and bought a rebuild kit. The master cylinder worked fine and didn’t leak before I disassembled and cleaned it out. The bore is not rusty nor pitted. Normally I would just buy a new one but the original housings are no longer available and I like originality. My question: Do I lightly run a wheel cylinder hone down the bore of the master or just leave it as is?

These were made for many different car manufacturers by a couple of different companies. I would look for a 156R. The taller ones are a lot harder to find. It took me two consecutive years of Hershey to put a pair together for my 7 passenger Olds. Keep watching eBay and maybe you'll get lucky.

I did a lot of oil research when I worked at GM and am 100% with @Grimy on this. The word “detergent” conjures up a vision of some heavy duty cleaning compound that makes your engine sparkle inside and is really a poor descriptive word. The additives in “detergent” oils help neutralize the acids formed from combustion byproducts and keep the new combustion contaminants (mostly carbon and carbon containing compounds) dispersed and in suspension of the oil so they don’t precipitate out. The ability to clean out deposits already formed is almost nil. I would never run a non-detergent oil in any of my engines and most of them don’t have oil filters.

My LaSalle uses the same pickup. I did bend the tabs and pulled off the cover to clean out the screen better.