Daves1940Buick56S

Matt: I have been delinquent in getting to this but should start on it soon. My apologies. Cheers, Dave

No pics, but this is from the parts manual. Springs are item D. Don't worry about the cups, I found 4 NOS ones on fleaBay. Cheers, Dave

Title says it. Also would like to find bearing cups 1305264. Also, does anybody have the dimensions on this spring? Would like to compare to spring 1310219 which fits 1939/1940. Cheers, Dave

Neil: I went thru this as well as few years ago. I did manage to get the plug out without removing the manifolds (not at all a pleasant job), and used the expanding rubber replacement. It is still on there several years later. In the end I did have to take off the manifold and head for a valve and ring job, but that was almost a year later. Cheers, Dave

114 First St Havre MT today. There is also another old dealer across the street. Automobile row!

That same location today in Nesquehoning

I looked at their website and some other sites. Just be aware that their marketing specs are extremely optimistic IMO. At this point they have yet to build a prototype. Production target for 2020 is 10 vehicles and for 2021 is 100 vehicles. According to their own info, they want to set up their own proprietary charging stations to achieve the 15 min rate. To achieve that rate on the 300 mi battery (125 kWh per their spec) requires almost a half megawatt input rate for an almost depleted battery, excluding inefficiencies. No specs on energy storage for the larger 400 and 500 mile batteries, but assuming straight scaling the rate would be almost a megawatt for the largest battery. This is a lot, pretty much requiring its own substation. An expensive approach to say the least, and not even considering if they can develop a battery to sustain that input rate. I would think that they will stick with the standard available 160 kW rate for quite a while, assuming they stay around. I imagine all of their near-term focus will be just on getting the first trucks built, let alone proprietary charging stations.

I hesitate to weigh in here, but I will add one thing. The inductive charging for a moving vehicle that was mentioned above is going to be extremely lossy due to the laws of physics. You're going to have ohmic, reactive, and coupling losses all simultaneously. I've seen videos of small models on tracks but it doesn't scale up. It could be done, of course, but you would be negating all of your increased efficiency by using electric over IC. I looked into this a couple of years ago on a project I was advising on. For a moving vehicle, the only thing that would work well would be some kind of third rail arrangement with a direct pickup. Cheers, Dave

I still am using the McMaster-Carr ones. No problems. Put 185 miles on it today! Cheers, Dave

Another thing, if you are worried about the starting fluid getting to the cylinders try taking out the plugs and shooting some (not a lot!) in there and replacing. It should at least fire. Cheers, Dave

John, Most auto parts stores sell a neat gadget that enables you to get a rough idea of the spark voltage. It goes between the plug wire and ground (or the coil HV output and ground). You can quickly see what the spark quality is. Not as good as an oscope but much cheaper. Advice - adjust the screw when not cranking (or running) the engine or you will get gigged. https://www.amazon.com/OriGlam-Adjustable-Ignition-Circuit-Diagnostic/dp/B06X9RC3PF?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffhp-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B06X9RC3PF Cheers, Dave

Do I see a rubber fuel line over the stove tube? Is that the way it was originally? Cheers, Dave

Although this may not be the problem, to test the vac advance pick up one of the MityVac kits and do the following: 1. Disconnect the vac advance line at the distributor and remove the dist cap 2. The kit should have several tapered adapters. Find the one that fits tightly into the advance unit and hook it up to the pump, with the pump set to VAC 3. Holding the adapter into the advance unit with one hand, pump with the other and watch the vac gauge on the pump 4. The breaker plate should start to move when the vac reaches about 6 or 7 inches Hg. Maximum movement occurs at about 14 inches. 5. Check that the advance can hold vacuum without any or minimal leakdown. 6. If no plate movement occurs but vacuum can be obtained and held, unhook advance arm from plate and check for free breaker plate movement. If plate does not move freely solve the issue and retest. If vacuum cannot be obtained and/or held, unit is bad. If vacuum is good but arm does not move properly according to the above or sticks or is sluggish, unit is bad. There are still enough of these units floating around and vendors willing to rebuild that it's not worth it to put up with a bad one. Cheers, Dave

Tried to fix it up, not easy due to crossed curves on the faded image

Daytona! North turn going off the beach and onto the road portion. 1 lap was about 4 miles. Lots of wrecks at this location. My grandfather assisted Bill France cosponsoring a couple of the pre-war races there. I have a 16mm color film of the 1940 race.

Peter you won 3rd prize in our group! I took 2nd and Bill (next to me) took 1st.

Also I was researching the '38 dash to try to see if/how I can safely clean up the woodgraining. Like Matt said, the manual clearly states the dash woodgraining is a transfer decal that is put on before the dash is stamped with clear lacquer sprayed on after. I am wondering how the stamping did not stretch the decal in a way that would be visible but that is what they stated. If that is so, if decals were used on the 40/41 instrument and glovebox panels I would bet it would be done in the same manner, i.e. put on before stamping. Cheers, Dave

Just to muddy things up more....on my 1940 56S the panel is definitely DyNoc. It has started to peel down on the bottom edge and you can clearly see that where it has peeled off it is just smooth metal. Bits of plastic are still hanging at the edges of the peeled area so it easy to see it's DyNoc or some other type of decal. Fortunately it cannot be easily seen by the driver or those outside the car! This is not to say anything about other cars but this is what mine has. Eventually I will send the panel and glovebox door to Doug.... Cheers, Dave

And you could take it one step further by hooking the parking light switch output to the 2 front signal light normally closed terminals. Cheers, Dave

Matt, you gave me an idea. I have an old aftermarket turn signal apparatus on the steering column left side. I could attach a pushbutton switch on the underside where it cannot be seen. This would lead to a small box behind the dash with a 555 timer and relay to the backup light. And I set the 555 so when you push the button the light stays on for 15 secs or so and goes out. No more forgetting to turn it off! Cheers, Dave

I am getting all of the old stuff from Matt as well as the Torque Tubes. I am going to host on the buickprewar.org site, probably get it on there after OKC. Hopefully I can get Peter to relist the site on a sticky. Cheers, Dave

I have an accessory back up light on my '38 66S that looks exactly like the one in Matt's post. When I first saw it I thought "50s junk" but on closer inspection discovered it is a Guide. Matt do you know the provenance on these - what years they were available? Cheers, Dave

You going to OKC? We can talk there.

Matt, I can host the other docs on the Buick PreWar website. At this time I am paying the yearly charge and we have lots of space. Cheers, Dave

There was a lot of other stuff on there as well such as copies of the Radio manuals and lots of other documentation. Did you bring that over as well? And is the Index for the Torque Tube there also? Cheers, Dave