Frank DuVal

Allan, stick around. AACA likes Oldsmobiles. And several people post on Buick forums that own them, like Rockettrader and Joe Padavano. Trying to teach my daughter not to turn the steering wheel until the car was moving was difficult, as all we had at the time were cars with power steering or Corvairs to drive (or projects...🤣). Those can be steered lock to lock while sitting still.❗

In the mid 60s most gray wires in the dash area were the dash lights, that come on with the parking or headlamps, and is dimmable by the headlamp switch. Does this answer your question? ❓

RIGHT! 👍 Unless this Buick Rivera is wildly different from GM cars of the electric wiper era, (yes, that's a LOT of years!), you put the hot to the hot lead of the wiper motor and a ground to the lead (or leads) to the dash switch! The grounding of the motor to the cowl is to make the PARK function work!🛠️☃️🚋 Also grounding the lead to the WASH switch makes the WASH solenoid pull in while the motor is turning, which it does due to the PARK switch now calling to wash the window. 😉 And I hope your battery charger can supply at least 15 amps.

That's what I have used, some solid copper or steel wire. Or even welding/brazing/tig wire (of some solderable alloy). No, not MIG wire, those straight lengths. Soldering is better than tape, as the hole is usually small. Well, on second thought, a length of .030 or .035 MIG wire might do the trick too, since it should be a straight piece of pipe from top to bottom of column. That you might also be able to loop at an end and crimp onto the new horn wire.

You must be up north. I have never seen sheet metal for sale in auto parts stores, much less specifically aluminum killed sheets. I used to buy 4 x 10 sheets from the HVAC suppliers. They also had non galvanized.

That was just a 1/8" "Allen" head screw. aka Socket Head Screw. Very common. Also come in Button head and Flat head designs. You could use the "L" shaped 1/8" "Allen" wrench (aka Hex Key) just fine on most GM cars. Well, they made the tools the appliance manufacturers bought to assemble them in the first place.😉 No use making a fastener that has no tool to install it. Need more "weird" head screws, look at this page from McMaster-Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/screws/ Oh yes, the 12 point screws found in engines these days....😮 🛠️🏎️🚗🚋☃️

NEITHER! So the answer is Hot Water! SO hot it is called steam cleaner. THAT gets the job done! I have a small Alkota like the current model 122 I bought used 35 years ago from the local Alkota dealer. I had borrowed a locomotive looking unit and it did the job of cleaning used cars of the detailing products they did to try and avoid needing a body shop, but didn't succeed, so now we had to fix it. Washing just wouldn't get the Silicone compounds off the car and under the hood. So off to buy one and the dealer had this "little" model used. Yes, there was a learning curve to not hurt the underhood electronics, but even the Nissan Q45 recovered....😮 This unit will strip grease off of parts so nice! Pressure is lower than the cold water units, so not so much worry about forcing water into crevices. BUT! Read all the instructions of how not to burn yourself. The big unit I borrowed was used to clean restaurant hoods of grease, and the workers in short sleeves wore red arm tattoos because they would contact the wand metal parts trying to get up into the ducts. 😉 🚋🎠🚗🏎️

I don't follow what you are saying. Flipped what? The image you posted is the exact same as the one in the first post. Same parts in the same relation with the same labels and the parking brake lever is to the rear of the assembly (mounted to Secondary Shoe). Right rear brake assembly.

Utter nonsense! They could not have sold a Buick with such a limitation. Especially a Roadmaster or Skylark! Well, it was still a guy with a hacksaw and welder. He just probably kept the hacksaw in the tool box and used the plasma cutter. What is the fascination with disc brakes? First you get ideas from people that a Dynaflow won't get to 60 MPH, then you suddenly need to stop in 50 feet? Millions of miles were put on these cars with stock drum brakes. And I wonder what the shop was thinking when they put a subframe in a Buick? It seems to solve NO problem, yet makes more problems. Power brake and power steering options would have made a much nicer driving Buick. You know, king pins are not that hard to replace. I drove a '56 Special for years and never thought it was slow. If I needed more power, I simply pressed the go pedal to switch pitch the turbine. The switch pitch Dynaflows also had a very unique feature. They switch pitch in any gear set. Drive, Low and ........... REVERSE! What other transmissions have a passing gear in Reverse? ❓ The 53 is not switch pitch, so it is slower off the line. Makes up for it soon, though.

Generator wire, makes sense. I was wondering why you would need 14 AWG for a points wire. Points wire needs to be flexible since something moves on vacuum advance action, that moves the wire. I use Test Lead wire for that, 16 or 17 AWG.

Two people have said how to do this with no disassembly. Water or GM top engine cleaner WORK! With the caution to not hydrolock, of course.😉

Fuel pump mounts on engine, like all 430s.

The one on my '56 Buick Special came off easy. There was a "wing" bolt that tightened the clamp, so unscrew a turn or two and lift off. Yours has the added silencer section, so it is longer. Oops, didn't see the to '52 comment......

There is a reason car manufacturers started using steel instead of copper. Copper work hardens as it flexes, then cracks, more than steel lines. I use Cunifer (NiCop, NiCu, NiCuFe). Looks good, stays good, does not rust.😉

Very flexible wire is commonly called Test Lead wire. However, 14 AWG is rare. Usually 18 AWG neighborhood. Of course, it does not come with a fabric cover, that is what the OP is looking for. I know Brillerman has the machines (or did) to braid modern wire. Whether they can be talked into braiding your wire is the question. https://brillman.com/wire-harnesses/

Don't smoke while doing that!😮

I was responding to 8E45E who said "the 1965 models..." Those are pictures of earlies, which are all sedans, except the convertibles.😉

Batteries going dead so fast means a short circuit, or extremely low resistance circuit. Look at the harness for a burned spot.

Oh, I remember the Electrovair II very well. We had it in the Richmond, Va Corvair Museum for several years in the late 90s. GM loaned us several cars. Most unusual was the Sterling engined early model!😮 Glen, it needs an inverter, not a rectifier to make three phase AC from a battery. 🏎️😉 And the late models are quite stiff enough for autocrossing without the B pilar.... Just look at all of them still on autocross tracks. Modifications are beefier sway bars, etc. but no one adds longitudinal chassis supports.

NO!!!!! If there is no connection from the negative battery terminal to the chassis, negative ground car, how in the world is a short in the wiring harness going to pass current? Draw the diagram.❗

The loose resistors control the "lamps" that show temperature and button lettering. I've fixed several "dark" heater control panels by resoldering those resistors. Following the trouble tree in the shop manual might be faster than waiting for a general purpose AC shop to read the book (or Alldata, Mitchels, etc) and follow it.😉

So it is HOT all the time? Doesn't the box need to be powered down when the engine is not running? And if you did buy a one wire alternator, the idiot light no longer works, so you will know the fan belt snapped when the car over heats.... Why do people buy one wire alternators except for tractors?

And percentagewise, way more Corvairs survived than "normal" cars! Maybe Ralph, maybe low price, maybe people just knew that were superior engineering!😉 With a known flaw that was overcome by Viton o-rings, not typically available during the production run.

Then you should know the tire has to have the correct "patch" on the ground. Just ;look at autocrossers and chalking the tires to make sure the patch is correct. The only thing with weight on the front wheels of a Corvair is the little suspension crossmember, which you can pick up and carry around (well, when I was younger) with all parts attached, a little sheet metal and half the weight of the front seat passengers. The rear tires have several hundred pounds of cast iron transmission and differential assembly and then an engine! If you run 35 psi in the fronts, the patch is really tiny.😮 10 psi differential is what most Corvair people like to run. Evening Orchid is only on Pontiacs (Iris Mist) and Chevrolet. Not Buick, Olds or Cadillac. Corvairs came with WIDER wheels than most of the other GM cars. OK, wider than ANY 13" GM car! The Chevy II and Buick Special with 13s were narrower. We got Ralph to sit in an early convertible for a photo shoot at the 1991 Corvair convention in DC. Ralph bought a Corvair to display in his Tort Museum. Least expensive hardtops on the market was an advertising statement from Chevrolet. Even the lowly stripper 500 models were only hardtops.

Yes, but amp draw will vary some depending on speaker volume.😉 That being said, back when I worked in an electronics store/shop in the early 70s they still had in stock some wire wound resistors mounted in a box that were just for that purpose! 🛠️ For use in the convert your 6 volt car to 12 volts and keep the same radio/heater.