Beemon

Don't buy the NAPA repair kit for these 50's starters, the Bendix is about an inch too short. I got in touch with the local rebuilder today, the one who supplied me with the Bendix on the right from my original rebuild. I'll have a brand new one to pick up tomorrow, which is great because I was planning on re-assembly tomorrow anyways. Also digging through a parts catalog, I found a heavy duty accessory relay that is an exact replacement for the old starter relay, according to part interchange. The only difference is outwards appearance and the battery terminal being fused. My horn relay looks kind of like this, so I'm not too concerned with originality, but the fuse is a definite plus. Next time the points ever arc, it can burn the fuse and not my starter. The part number through NAPA is ECH HR201.

Before I get too far, should these teeth be replaced on the starter? I can pull the thrust collar off no problem, but I'd rather not put a made in Mexico Bendix on there. My other one had to be replaced, it was just too far gone. Everything I've seen online, from NOS Bendix pinion gears to original cores like this one all have similar teeth wear or cut patterns. Also like the one I pulled and the one I linked, it seems the back plate is some type of plating as I believe I stated before. The solenoid spring and lever arm also seem to be cad, as well as the screws, while the solenoid is black. In this case I don't think I'll end up painting the solenoid from my original starter, but I I'll probably clean up the solenoid brackets and paint the hold down screws and back plate the same silver I painted my fan spacer and pulleys.

My starter is the original, the numbers in the casing match the one I pulled. It did happen to be over spray since the Buick green was on the tag after I scrubbed the grime off. I've decided to paint it black so it contrasts the engine like the generator and power steering pump.

What is the consensus on starters? My original one was black with a cast nose and what seemed to be plated end cover with the body painted black. This one I pulled is cast nose but the body and end piece are both painted Buick green. I don't think it's over spray because the whole case is green. I'm going to reuse my old nose and end piece because the bushings are still good but the internals of the core I pulled are in such good shape the plastic on the field pads are still a transparent red.

Always wondered what that screw was for on my 56. It's just always been there with nothing attached to it.

I can't really tell from the pictures but is that an old Carter carburetor?

Not to derail thread, but would this effectively work on the backside of the original ballast and blower resistor if the ceramic is gone?

Depending on how original you want to keep the engine looking, I would suggest Dupli-Color Ford Green (I believe is the correct color). I made the mistake of using Detroit Diesel Alpine Green and it came out too light, but I've heard the Ford Green is a pretty close match to the original engine color. You can also order the correct color from some vendors, but the Dupli-Color is right off the shelf.

Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, the only thing still good in my case is the field windings and two out of the for brush mounts. Monday I have a lead on another starter, so I'll see how that turns out for me before I start ordering parts online.

Check the battery voltage and make sure it's ok with a multimeter. You'll know if it's being charged because the voltage at the battery should rise when the generator kicks in. I'm not familiar with 6V systems, to give any specific information, but that's how I've tested my generator and alternators before.

I hadn't thought about a mini starter, but my experience with this car thus far is "don't buy made in China parts for a car that was not made in China" and "keep it stock". Except, it's really hard to do both of those things when 60 year old NOS parts are pretty rare unless it's generic, covers many years or is a tri-five Chevrolet. As I've found out, Willie's part number is now obsolete (at least I couldn't find it), was the same relay as mine, and was made outside the border. I'm just curious what happens when there's nothing left? Bob's is the same as mine and he's the only supplier that had it. Although unrelated, it just reminds me that I took the alternator I installed off after a few days to put back on the generator, and the "new style" master cylinder I removed in favor of the original unit. This has prompted me to remove the dual quad intake. I'm not sure what really tripped the starter relay but my guess is lower than normal vacuum through the carb throat, causing the check ball to not float into the catch chamber. It could also be because it was made extremely thin as a result of cheap manufacturing in what I can only assume to be Mexico or equivalent. I didn't have this issue before, though. I always never think to just strip the almost complete 56 Buick at the junkyard I frequent. Next time I go I'll be pulling the starter for sure and the relays off the firewall. How often were these units replaced? I wish I had my originals. When I had my starter/generator rebuilt, they didn't touch the armatures because they were still good so hoping for the best. I recently just pulled the distributor out of that Buick because the dizzy rebuilder couldn't tell me if they recurved mine or not, despite no advancement until around 600rpm. Even though the breaker plate was caked in rust, the advance springs and weights were in pristine condition underneath still covered in grease. It's the same Buick I got my NOS power steering pump from. Lol The local NOS shop turned up blank between the relay and the starter, even though their inventory goes back to the teens. My father always told me his family was cursed with the natural born loser curse. Today was going to be my first car show. A local guy at my NAPA encouraged me to stop by an every Friday night cruis in to get to know the local restorers and hot rodders so I can get in the know on shops and people. Oh well, maybe next week! Thanks for the replies!

So I found out why the starter wouldn't engage: It just killed the armature. I'm trying the local yards, but all the cars are grounded, making removal difficult. I'm going to be looking for any 322 starter, correct? Will other GM starters work? So far what I have is 1954-56 Buick and 1956-59 Chevy truck with 322.

Willie, I found several threads with that part number. Unfortunately CarQuest is now Advance Auto and that part number is obsolete. I'll contact Bob's after the NOS shop here locally turns up negative. I took the black wire and touched it to the battery junction block on the firewall and it just made one click so I think the solenoid is still ok. I'm in the process of removing now. The starter was stuck to the flywheel. I put a socket on the balancer and gave it a shove and the starter disengaged. I jumped the 12V+ terminal on the bendix to the armature terminal and it did not spin up so I'm positive something is now fried in the armature... battery checks out ok, 12.6V.

I was leaving my neighborhood today and the car suddenly died on me. It was hot, so I thought it was a fuel thing and immediately started it back up. The starter did not disengage after I turned off the ignition switch and I didn't have a wrench on me to disconnect the battery. I tried to get it to stop but it shut the engine down itself. I ended up having to tow the car home. When I got home, I tried to jump the black wire from the starter with 12v+, but nothing engaged the starter. It clicked once but that was it. I opened the starter relay and saw this: The points were welded together and when I tried the separate them, the metal tab flaked apart. So now I'm on the hunt for a new relay, but is my starter solenoid fried, too? I should be able to engage the starter by connecting the 12v+ connector from the relay to the connector on the black starter wire, correct?

If his are like mine, they say OIL on both sides and not AC OIL. Might just be enough to keep them, but in case Wooly didn't know, here's a link to the repros: http://www.oldbuickparts.com/cart/oil-filler-cap-1939-60-show-quality-ac-p-4758.html

You could probably take a die grinder and remove the metal tabs on the bottom and pull the old mesh out with a hook. It would be a matter of re-inserting new mesh and tacking the tab back on to the bottom. My father and I were going to do this because my caps were also dropping sediment whenever they were set down with some moderate force, but I just opted to buy new Stant caps from the local NAPA. I wouldn't know where to get the mesh, but I can't imagine it being any different from stainless steel wool.

So I had my steering box rebuilt around the same time as my power steering pump. The pump turned out to be a disaster, and now the gear box looks to be the same way. I guess I never really noticed anything because the rebuilt pump pulley was going out, I assumed the jerking was from it. I recently had the rag joint replaced since the old one was torn and the dead zone in the steering box became more severe. I can grab the rag joint and rotate the steering wheel by hand almost 45 degrees with no movement in the pitman arm.. What causes this type of play/looseness? I tightened the adjusting nut but all it did was make turning tighter and did nothing to the dead spot in the gear box, so I loosened it back to where it was. How would I go about fixing this issue or is it something that's not worth fixing? I would figure paying $400+ and waiting a month would solve this type of issue, especially when guaranteed and "bench tested" to work by professionals in the industry, but considering what happened to the steering pump, I guess I can't put my faith in others. I'm uploading a video now. I know most of the experts are on their pilgrimage but hoping for some insight here.

Lares Corporation rebuilt both my PS pump and gear box. The gearbox was flawless but my pump was re-assembled incorrectly and I found out too late about it. Just make sure to take before and after pictures just in case anything was put back together differently; IE: a washer in front of the shaft bearing instead of behind it.

Out of curiosity, which vendors offer these? I was unaware they existed.

The reason my unit failed was because my piston in the master cylinder had corroded. When you overhaul the master cylinder, you need the leather piston cup for the vacuum booster, the complete gasket and rubber cup kit, a new power piston and a stop light switch. It's not hard to do, mine has been leak free all summer. What ever you do, do not use gasket sealer. You should never use gasket sealer on anything vacuum related. While you're in there, it's a good idea to replace the rubber vacuum line in the booster section as well, with normal vacuum tubing that can be sourced from NAPA or similar. I sourced my brake hardware at my local NAPA. I'll have to dig out the boxes, but I can find you the numbers for the adjuster, hold down springs and the actually shoe springs themselves. Plus, if your pushrod arms are rusty or corroded, they have those as well. If you want it all in one, and to avoid shipping charges, it's a good idea to also buy the springs when you buy the master cylinder rebuild kit from CARS (if you go that route). As others said, wheel cylinders are also available at the local NAPA. While you're in doing the brakes, NAPA also has both front rubber lines and the rear rubber line. You should replace those if they haven't been already. Better to be safe than sorry. Lastly, if you don't feel like rebuilding your master cylinder yourself and you end up paying someone else to do it, DO NOT let them re-sleeve your master cylinder. The power piston on the power brake master cylinder does not ride on anything other than the rubber cup seals that come with the rebuild kit. It is a displacement reservoir, meaning the piston is pushed into a reservoir of brake fluid that is larger than the piston, meaning it does not contact the side walls. Re-sleeving the master cylinder does nothing more than put money in the rebuilder's pocket.

Today I had buyer's remorse... lol I phoned my mother and grandmother and told them the news. My grandfather always wanted to hotrod his old Buick Century, but his idea of hot rodding it was dropping a Buick 455 in it and calling it good. He had a 1941 Buick Century with the compound carburetion manifold and he told me my attempts were foolhardy and to enjoy the moment while it last. He assured me when the time came to retune it after everything settles in and summer vanishes, that I'll want to throw it all away. Harsh words from the foreman... Can't say my mother was all too happy for me either. About the only one in the family that was excited was the pops, but he loves this kind of stuff anyways. So we'll see. I'm happy with it, car runs extremely well for an amateur like me. My only regret is the air cleaners... they're spaced too far apart and the element is too tall so it exposes too much. They looked good on the desk, but I'm highly conservative and somewhat shy, the flashiness of the chrome is a bit too much. Might go back to the CAD software and make a new air cleaner that looks like a traditional oil bath setup, kind of like how this guy did his: Though I think it's funny that they have the tightening knob on there where it's clearly a 4-barrel but I digress, probably the coolest air cleaner I've seen.

Sorry for the first picture, it was the only one I had of the tach. A steady 600 RPM, no roughness to the idle at all. I was actually impressed with myself that I was even able to accomplish all this. I still need to add the choke tubes, but no drips or anything off the fuel rails. Took it for a spin, the driveability of the car has dramatically improved. My dad kept telling me my gas mileage will suffer now, even after I explained to him that the two carbs run off the same principle of one carb as long as you don't dip into the secondaries and drive it like normal, but alas... Still was fun to take it on it's maiden voyage. https://www.facebook.com/Benjammin1991/videos/10154992363360830/ A quick video of the drive. My next investment is a tachometer. Pay no attention to my noisy rear end... that was a different subject all in its own.

Quite a bit of a delay today. The girlfriend and I have the same days off, so if I don't treat her out, there's hell to pay... lol Could have swapped manifolds tonight, but it was dark and I didn't want to fudge anything. The linkage is a generic Mr. Gasket and it's setup ready to go. I had to source new vacuum fittings for the intake and a plug for the front vacuum advance fitting. The carb up front is the carb I recieved from Mr. Earl, vs the one behind it being my original. Kind of a nice contrast of "kept dry in the basement" vs. "from the field" or wherever it came from. I painted my custom air cleaners, though I wish I had used a filler primer first, they didn't fill as much as I thought they would. I also bought that fancy Niccop stuff from NAPA to do the fuel lines with. I didn't want to do rubber lines because to me that didn't feel right. You look at all the old multi-carb vehicles from the 50s and they all have steel lines. From that fitting to the pump will be a rubber line with a plastic in-line filter for now. I'm waiting on a glass bowl filter to mount at the end and then it's just a matter of bending the last bit of tubing to the pump. Depending on how well the filter holds up with the metal lines, I may have to fashion a hangar for it off the front carb. Getting pretty excited now. I ran both carbs by themselves to get their optimal idle mixture, it was somewhere between 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 turns. About all I should need to do is bend a vacuum wiper line and a power brake line and we're golden. I'm still debating how I'm going to do the ignition coil, but most likely it will hang off the back of the manifold standing up off one of the manifold to head bolts. I'm also worried about the road draft tube, but the back of the manifold looks like it has a cut out for it. Tomorrow's the day! You know, I just realized you never see too many custom dual quads that utilize Rochester carbs unless it's an OEM thing.

CARS has one offered. I used it and it works as intended, though upon closer inspection it was almost an exact match to this Dorman product you could get at the "HELP" station in any O'Reilly/Autozone...

Like Fr.Buick said. Mine has one, too. I believe it's also a .20 uF condenser like the ignition condenser and the condenser that goes on the ignition coil. There should also be one on the ground terminal of the generator, but that one is. 30 uF and I haven't found a replacement for that one yet.