Beemon

I hooked a battery up to the generator - the field coils still produce a magnetic field, it was almost unturnable by hand going one way. When hooked up to the armature terminal, it didn't motor by itself without a little assistance, then arced when it reached the broken wire strand on both sides. So it looks like if I can get the wire back in, I can get it charging again. As far as bushings go, I'm not sure exactly where to hammer... there isn't a hole on the back side, it would have to be pulled out.

Tomorrow is the big day. I've got everything I've wanted painted up now. Dad is driving up for the install. Maybe this time I'll make sure the torque converter drain plugs are visible from the flywheel... lol. I gotta say, I wasn't sure about the chrome valve covers, but they look pretty nice.

For $20, that 56 Chevy generator is looking pretty good. Second Chance Garage .com has specs for the different generators, and both are 30 amp with 1.48-1.62 current at the field and same brush tension of 28 oz. The 35 amp generator for Chevy either had the power steering pump or an AC pulley on it or both for 1956 according to some Chevy forum... Also doesn't look like a small base generator, looks to be the right size.

Here's some better pics. I know where it goes into the commutator, but it broke off pretty deep in the armature. I don't think I can solder this one. Also I found out what did it in. It wobbled just enough to hit the brush holder. There's shavings all around the edge of the brush holder on the inside. The stator windings, while exposed, look OK. Also here's a pic of the end... how do you pull a bushing?

I can't see the end of the broken piece under the armature to complete the winding, would I just solder in anywhere?

12V negative. On the voltage regulator, there is a Battery, Field and Armature terminal.

There's a 56 Chevy generator near me for sale for $20. What are the differences between part numbers? Just application? Would internals be the same if they were 30 amp?

I've never experienced the sperm whale oil so I was hoping to live through you vicariously like when you ate that spider..

So before I tore my engine apart, the charging system stopped working and I ended up putting an alternator on there. Since I've had the engine apart I checked the voltage regulator and the contact Points seem fine, they all move freely. So the next step was to tear into the generator and I found this. One of the copper strands off of the windings is missing and the other ones are damaged. Likewise the field coil insulation has also been ripped open but they seem to be intact. The bearing has a lot of play in it and the end shaft is pretty scarred up but the bushing looks fine. I'm not sure what they did when they rebuilt it but it doesn't look like a whole lot. So now I think I'm looking for a core and I know where a 55 generator is. Will that work? If the Armature and field coils are still intact it should work just like my starter rebuild.

What'd it smell like?

The oil bath part is like a pre-filter, kind of like ours, where there's a second filter medium above it. The difference between our filters and heavy equipment filters, though is that the air is pulled through the oil on the heavy equipment filters vs our filters where the air goes across the top of the oil. If the oil level rises in our filters, it can potentially be sucked into the intake, carrying all the particles with it. Heavy machinery, to my knowledge, uses pleated paper with the oil bath as a pre-filter to get all the dust out and then using the paper filter to filter out the rest of the air.

When I bought wheel seals from NAPA that were for our range of Buicks, it came with two seals. One was a pressed in seal like on the front, and the other was an o-ring that goes around the wheel bearing. In 56, they just used the o-ring, so I'm guessing the other is probably for you. Edit: I'm wrong on that one. Just looked at the 54 shop manual... all I see online is for the rear outer seal. You might want to measure the OD of the inner seal and the OD of the axle where the seal rides and then take those numbers to a parts store with a book.

When taking vacuum readings, with no cleaner its generally higher than with the oil bath cleaner. My basis of documentation was comparing to manifold vacuum with no cleaner, with oil bath and with paper. The paper decreases manifold vacuum, but not as much as the oil bath, which to me tells me it is less restrictive and filters more efficiently. I was always told the oil bath will flow more and be less restrictive, but my empirical evidence says otherwise. Also on the topic of oil bath cleaners, since it usually pops up in these discussions, but big rig construction machinery have special oil baths with multiple layers of filtration, with the last usually a pleated paper filter. Or as a pre-filter, at least.

Don't get in over your head man, leave it be if it's dry. The gunk on the ball might even be a seal itself! change it when you notice it on the dip stick.

Drive it first and see how much the Dynaflow leaks. Unless it's noticeable, it may be bearable until suitable replacement is found. Likewise, while you're in there it'd probably be best to replace the transmission mounts, too. I don't remember where I bought my seal from, probably Fusick. Shimming it is the hardest part, some resistance, enough to not be able to barely move the output shaft by hand while it's dry. Also if your torque ball has never been serviced before, it will have rubber on the ball that will need to be removed since the rubber is now on the retainer.

If you put oil on a chain link fence, things will still get through. If you can't find an air cleaner lid that's the same size as the original filter, the only thing you can do is cut the top off the filter and use a suitable paper element under it. 14"x3" is the ideal filter for little to no restriction according to Edelbrock. Take it with a grain of salt, but when sizing a suitable replacement, find something that had close to the same surface area. The 4 barrel cleaners are easier to adapt. You can hide another lid in there or use a filter that fills the entire housing. Measure the top of your current cleaner and see what fits. The aftermarket is limited to 14 and 10, but you could have something made. For what it's worth, people have told me a paper filter is more restrictive than the oil bath but I actually gained vacuum with the paper filter, which tells me the paper breathed better. Again, it's all about surface area.

Painted the engine today. We're set for clear skies so install is looking to be Wednesday. I'm keeping the chrome valve covers, that's why the junkyard valve covers are on there. Also I figured out the flapper valve, the spring was off 180, like someone had been playing with it. It holds closed now and when heated, opens. It gets cold up here, much different from good old Texas, so I think I'll keep it for now. I'm not of any shortage of exhaust manifolds, that's for sure. Also for the record, this is DupliColor Ford Green. When painting over the original green, it was pretty darn close - a lot closer than Detroit Diesel (Alpine) Green. I had pressure washed the block to get most of the crud off, but in the end just ended up painting over it on the oil pan and below the manifolds where you can't really see anyways...

So I guess I ruined someone's Father's Day. I just got confirmation that the papers were served yesterday, oops! July 24th is set in stone we'll see what happens.

So swap in my driver single exhaust manifold, got it!

My original manifold was stuck shut so I had just ripped it out and could never get the choke to work properly, so I would like to keep it operational. I always used an electric choke because it would take ten minutes for the heat stove to warm up otherwise. Plus, it's worth more that way. The reason I asked, though, is that there isn't a stopper in there for fully open or fully closed, I can just rotate it freely against the spring. I would like to get this figured before I drop it in the car. Also, are the exhaust bolts unique? I'm missing one. Before I had just used hardware store bolts, will they work fine with the French locks?

Check your primary and secondary coil resistance and see if it's within spec as well, you may be getting too much juice to the points and condenser.

Also, do you have a ballast resistor?

What brand condenser do you buy? I have never had an issue with the NAPA Echlin brand. I've heard others having issue with the cheaper stuff, something about the ground coming loose in the can and causing a short. If you have a multimeter, you can check to see if the capacitor is within the mF range specified by your shop manual. To check for leak down, switch to voltage and if it's steady, it's good - if it leaks down, it's bad.

The bolts for the thermostat housing are 1 inch long.

I found this video of a fire truck 322. It's really interesting how it has a 53/55 valley cover with 56 valve covers, but the oil cap hole isn't stamped out. Anyways, since this is my rescue motor, and the valve covers are chromed, I think I'll paint it the same orange/red color with the spark plug covers the aluminum silver to accent the valve covers. Still throwing ideas around... Today I took a bunch of bolts off my salvage engine and swapped them onto the running engine. A lot of stuff was kind of out of place. They broke off an edge of the motor mount to weld on an alternator bracket, but they spaced it wrong so I removed it and swapped in the generator mount from the salvage engine. When I pulled one of the mounting screws out, I didn't realize it was in the water jacket and green antifreeze came out. No brown, unlike my rebuilt engine, so I'm going to say the water jackets are fine... for now. Pulled the valve covers, valves look nice and clean and I cleaned some sludge out of the top of the heads. I pulled the rocker arms, they had a replacement pushrod that was thicker so I swapped it for a good used pushrod. I may have swapped 401 rockers in place of the old original ones... Checked the oil, a quart low but not milky. Swapped the distributor for my old original one since I won't be using a PCV system. Pulled the road draft tube and looked inside - nothing to warrant panic. I put the air compressor on it and it pushed air through the crankcase, so it should breath well. The fan is OK, but I was going to put my 6 blade clutch fan on it anyways. It had a fuel pump block off plate. To get it running, I'm going to use my old pump obviously, but I'm looking to switch to the truck pump if I can nab it next paycheck. The biggest thing about this find though, is the exhaust manifolds. The flapper valve still works and I was able to pull the hot air choke tube out of the manifold. So now I can use climatic control properly! Now I just need to transport it over to my grandpa's and separate the Dynaflow from the engine. Looks like I'll be able to make it to the BCA All Buick car show in Puyallup this year! PS: Does anyone know how to set the exhaust valve flapper? Right now it's resting in an open position, I think the counterweight has been moved.