Beemon

Well just wanted to give a status update. Turns out the gear set was junk and I never got out to the junkyard. There's one more in Idaho, but I have yet to hear from them and my spring break ends on Sunday. My other leads turned up dry - either pitted or non-existant. The plan is to put it back in the car and see what comes next.

Just wanted to post an update: I got a call today from the junkyard and I might not get out until Wednesday. I want to point out that they made it clear this is not a pick and pull style junkyard and they oversee any parts being removed from the vehicle, hence the one day work advance. About the only thing you can pull are hub caps... I can take a look and see what they have upon request but I won't be able to have them pulled until their employees are free.

Weather is looking good! Unless you mean the gears, then I won't know until I get out there. They're still sealed in the car with the 3.36 gears. I'm taking my original gears to match numbers just in case. I will take some pictures though. If you need anything, here's a full list of what they have - must be a little outdated because they said they had one Century that's not listed on this page, but I found it on another. Bear in mind it takes them one full work day to process orders and most of it is local pick up only, that was the case for the carrier anyways.

Found a salvage yard 2.5 hours away from me that has an unmolested 1956 Buick Century in the yard. I had to pay a deposit for them to pull it so I might get lucky.

Thank you so much this is exactly what I wanted to know. I have a lead on a 3.23 gear set but this will broaden my search.

Okay so am I to assume a 1956 Roadmaster/Super complete rear end will not fit but the carrier assembly will? The ring and pinion are identical but the housing isn't?

Just to be clear, the ring and pinions are interchangeable from 1956 to 1960? Or is it the whole rear end?

Okay I understand now. So would that be a bad thing that it has a smaller spline surface? Doesn't seem like it would affect the 1956 torque tube. Also does this mean that the ring and pinion off a 1957-1960 Buick is the same as a 1956 or are they still different?

Will this bolt up to the original torque tube and mounts? I'm not a fabricator and I hate chopping up the car. The car was in the shop to have all the bearings and seals redone in the rear end anyways. The car can't sit in the shop for long because they have a wait list now and they can't keep the car in the shop if they have nothing to work with. When I was in on Friday, the tech said the gears are in good condition for how old the car is, there is no problem with meshing and none of the teeth are damaged except for the hardening that's been worn off. It's under warranty for one year so they said if I find some gears in the next year they'll open it up for no shop time charge but I'll most likely have to buy a bearing kit again.

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out. Edit: Sent out parts request quote, but neither one had anything listed. Won't hear back until Tuesday...

The guy who runs the local yard does it out of his own pocket in his backyard. Last time I was up there he said he just dealed locally. I already put in a wanted add in Buy/Sell, still no hits. I have until next Friday before they put it back in the car and say come back again soon.

It was loud above 20mph. Shifting into reverse or drive after starting the car always clunked into gear, but after running the gear clunking went away. So far nothing has turned up except for those dirty Ebay listings with the wrong gear set. I would call Wheatbelt, but they aren't around anymore sadly. I'm just in a bind, it can't sit in the shop forever and I have no leads to a good gear set. The cars at the local classic junkyard have the rears torn out already.

I would like to drive the car fairly often. I'm going to be going to a four year institution to finish up my engineering degree soon and it's the only car I own, so it was going to be my daily driver at the campus. I called the shop, going to go in and take a few pictures so you guys can see it.

Title, 1956 Buick Century, and pm please. Thanks.

So just to clarify, there are nothing wrong with the gears, except that the bottom of the pinion gear is rounded at the edges from hitting the spider housing. They are solid, but the hardening has been worn off in places because the pinion was loose (it looks like rubbed through tin foil?). What trouble would I get in to if I kept the gears?

I found this listing. It's the Special 3.23 gear set vs the 3.36. What type of significant difference is this? Lack of power? Better economy? These gears are for the 264 I'm assuming.

The car is in the shop for a scheduled tear down of the rear end to replace all the bearings and seals. I got a call today from the shop that the pinion gear was loose and has been hammering away at the housing and spider gear assembly. Furthermore, it has effectively sanded off the hardening on the surface of the teeth. The gear set is fine but he strongly suggested to track down a replacement. As far as I know, 1956 is a one year wonder with the rear end. The local classic junkyard has no rear ends left in their two 1956 Buicks. How often does this gear set pop up? No one makes this gear and I haven't been able to turn any leads. A little bit of history: My grandfather had the rear end out in the mid 60s and went through and replaced all the bearings and seals himself. He tightened down the pinion nut and then backed it off.

It does both. It's a residual valve and proportioning block. You can still use it if you T your two MC ports into one line, but then you loose the whole point of going to a dual MC: having two separate lines in case of brake failure. Disc/Drum and Disc/Disc also have different proportioning settings for optimal braking conditions that the stock proportioning block is not capable of. I have heard it's okay to use for Disc/Drum conversions, but it might be harder braking.

I see you did a rack/pinion steering conversion. What kit did you use? Was it a bolt on swap or did you need to fab some brackets?

I think the block is 53/47. It should say in the manual, page 9-2 under Approx. % of Total Braking Power on... As for which port is front or back, just follow the front line to the block. I'm pretty sure the front most port is the front. I have my block sitting on a shelf, as I replaced it for disc/disc. It's also not very useful for a dual stage master cylinder since it only has one entry port and not two. If you keep the stock MC in place, then keep the block. Otherwise you'd be better off replacing it.

I had my radiator re-cored and rebuilt by the local salvage yard. The man did an amazing job for $200 and it hasn't failed me in 8 months the car has been running. I also had a core added to the original radiator size. Looks completely stock with the fan shroud. Check locally, there may be something similar.

My mistake, yes I had the gearbox rebuilt by Lares Corp. They tested and guaranteed it was working before I received it. I rebuilt the pump myself following the shop manual. Arrow points clockwise from the pulley, all the round edges are outward for the pump vanes, new bearings and pulley seal, pump moved freely and so did the pressure relief valve. Hook everything up, fill reservoir and let it sit until all bubbles are gone. Bled the system per instructions and no power assist. Dan from Lares said it was the relief valve getting hung up, so I flushed and removed the pump, removed the back and made sure the valve was free to move in the reservoir. Re-assembled and re-bled, still no power assist. I dismantled a second time to be sure I didn't miss anything, everything looked good, put it back together and re-bled a third time. I couldn't get it to stop bubbling on left hand turn but right hand turn had no more bubbles and still no power assist. The shop manual describes a bleed screw on the gearbox but I don't think I have one despite the shop manual saying it exists. I just have the normal side housing bolts on the plate, and this is supposed to be a small screw. At this point I think I'm going to send the pump out to be inspected and rebuilt now, too. I can't figure out whats wrong with it. The pressure valve moved freely in the bore. At one point I had the reservoir off and used a screw driver to make sure the valve moved in the bore. My only guess is that somewhere a chunk of debris might be clogging one of the inlet/outlet cycles since they're only ~.116 inches, but I flushed the fluid and I didn't see any debris. The only thing I didn't do during the rebuild is take off the pressure fitting. The pump worked flawlessly before disassembly and I did a quick search and it looked like Buick5563 had a similar problem in his thread.

Box is in, bled per instructions and there is no power to steering at all. In the shop manual, it says you have to crack open a bleed screw on the gear side cover. Is this any one of the five screws? The pump was working before gear removal and I had power assist before.

Ah okay so you're already running timing through the computer. Pretty interesting setup. Looking forward to seeing the fuel delivery system.