70sWagoneers

It isnt labeled as the "s" terminal but i was searching for common terminalogy. The s-terminal small lead on the positive side of the solenoid relay that gets power from start button or switch. For a while, before this rebuild, when you hit the start button (yes ive got a start button) the small relay on the solenoid would click but the plunger wouldnt move. As of now, nothing happens in the solenoid or its relay when I put power to s-terminal. Nothing but a big spark so power is going thru it so im guessing its grounded somehow. I will hopefully have time tonight to work on it. Thanks James C

The only two places I could find that had custom mix nitrocellulose were Hibernia Auto and Bill Hirsch. Hirsch didn't seem interested in selling anything under 4gallon minimum. The Hibernia people were pleasant and mixed up a quart of my color for a decent price. James C.

I edited my last post about the field coils having no resistance. They both actually have .02ohms. And they are not grounded to frame. They are fine. So in the course of tearing apart, testing, and rebuilding this starter probably 10 times... the starter now works!! It works perfect! except the solenoid doesn't work... My two main problems were the field coil terminal unsoldered and shorting to the frame and then the jumper cables I was using to bench test with over the last few days wasn't carrying enough juice to spin the starter. I removed the field terminal and fabricated insulation out of nylon sleeves, nylon washers, and a rubber washer and then resoldered the field coils. That was the cause of my slow start all along! The bunk jumper cables would deliver a big spark and fire the half of the solenoid that works, but literally wouldn't budge the starter at all. So I thought the starter was bad for the last two days. On a hunch I tried a different pair of cables and the starter spun fine. Lesson learned. But now the solenoid wont fire. Before I put it back in the car, on the bench, the solenoid fired and worked correctly. I put the starter in the car, pressed the start button and everything worked perfectly. I let it fast idle and warm up while I picked up some tools. Shut her down, hit the started button again.... and nothing. Ran a jumper wire from POS battery source to the S-terminal; got a big spark but no movement. The starter turns over fine still. So, anyone have any guesses on how to open up the solenoid can to get at the pull in and hold in coil??? Thanks everyone, I've learned a lot here. James C.

So i found the problem (probably). The terminal to the field coils had become un-soldered. So with much frustration i got them soldered back. But unfortunately now the starter doesnt spin at all. Perhaps the coils got too hot and shorted? I dont think the coils are grounded to frame, but they do give a reading in the kilo-ohms from field terminal to ground. The resistance thru the field coils is 0. Is that too low? Field shorted? Pretty frustrated at this point EDIT: the coils actually have both .02ohm resistance!

Thanks everyone. Ive been through the starter once and cleaned everything and i must have lost that phenolic spacer. I dont remember seeing it, but there is definitely evidence this starter has been opened up before. Anyone got any sources for said spacer? I will hopefully have some time to work on more diagnosis tonight.

Yes. It is a lot. I actually put an 1/8" nylon shim and that took up most of the play. But otherwise this is a fairly low mileage car. The bushings at each end are nearly perfect with no radial play at all. By the way, the shim didnt help my slow start/stalled starter condition. If I test for voltage drop from the stater post on the solenoid to ground on the starter case i get 3.0volt drop. But this is with the starter stalled since it will not turn the motor over anymore. I get acceptable voltage drop thru pos and neg batt cables. And i even welded nuts to the frame to create multiple ground points. Can the magnets go bad or get weak? It is a delco remy 734z Thanks James C

How bout nylon?

Ive got a 1937 buick with a delco-remy starter. Ive been having trouble and i noticed the armature has a lot of longitudinal endplay and the brushes arent centered over the commutator. I need some shim washer... What type of material is best? Copper? Stainless steel? Thanks James C

1937 Buick Special 40 - 248ci straight eight Is there a decal on both sides of the valve cover? or just the spark plug side? Thanks James C

I just got off the phone with TCP Global and their paint guys said that acrylic lacquer doesnt blend with nitrocellulose lacquer. Is the original 1937 paint nitrocellulose??

I have a survivor 1937 Buick Special. It is all original and well "patina'd". The color is Chancellor Blue. Im pretty green when it comes to painting. I would like to "blend" in some spots that are a bit rusty like on the cowling under the hood and in the fenderwells. I know the color will not match but it doesnt matter. I just want a correct color paint that is compatible with the original paint. Ive found many color chips on the internet but no mention of type of paint. What type paint would Buick use in 1937? Is it nitrocellulose lacquer or enamel? If it is nitro, the only place i see so far to get it is Hibernia Restoration. Any other sources? Thanks James C

Thanks jenz. I will set my clutch pedal up per the manual's instruction and then raise the clutch fingers until I get about 0.1" air gap between fingers and throwout bearing. I am also getting a lot of oil on the flywheel and am worried it will contaminate my clutch. I am not sure where it is coming from. I sealed the rear main bearing pretty well I thought, but there is also a pretty steep hill that I back down to my parking spot so perhaps oil is just coming right out the rear main bearing! Seems there is oil coming from everywhere! Very frustrating. Oh well Thanks James C

So Ive rebuilt and re-installed the engine into my 1937 Buick Special 248ci. It runs! But when the clutch throwout bearing pushes the clutch finger levers in they hit the friction plate springs. So just for now I have the clutch pedal adjusted just enough to disengage the clutch without pushing the levers into the springs. I remember the peculiar sound it makes from before I rebuilt the engine so it had the same problem then. So when I rebuilt the clutch I readjusted all the fingers until they were even, but I didn't know what height they were supposed to be set at. I measured off the top of the pressure plate, bringing the two low ones up and the high one down till they were even. But now I see that they all should have been brought up too! Does anyone have any idea what the distance from the top of the pressure plate to the fingers should be?? The only reference I could find was to a "special tool", but I couldn't find that. So now Ill have to adjust the fingers up while installed in the car. I guess the best I can do is to turn the locking nuts on the fingers equal amounts of turns and hope all is even. And as a second concern, does anyone know if there is a washer or shim under the ball stud that the throwout fork pivots on? I didn't take enough pictures of when I dissassembled so I just put one thick washer under the ball stud. Thanks James C.

I see a couple of dual point Dyna on ebay too. I just wonder if they are worth the hassle or not. Thanks, everyone. James C

Thanks everyone. How does the Delco replacement part work? Are the plastic pieces mounted to the dist housing or the breaker plate? If they mount to plate, it doesn't seem like it would rotate very smoothly against the pits in the ball bearing groove. But it has to be better than the ball bearings. Is there any drawback to the Dyna-Flytes with dual points? Thanks James C

Thanks everyone. I made a jig and ground them down in the Bridgeport at work. I took about .060" off. James C

Ive got a 1937 Buick Special with 248ci engine. Im working on the distributor and it seems the distributor plate assembly will not rotate smoothly on its ball bearings. It will move but it seems to go from indentation to indentation. Not a smooth movement at all. The ball bearings themselves don't have any gross irregularities. The distributor plate, in the three pockets where the ball bearings sit, have some wear, but it is fairly smooth. The groove in the distributor housing that the ball bearings ride definitely have large "indentations" where the whole thing gets stuck in one place. The indentation is so large I have to ask whether it is actually supposed to be there? Then my other question is what options do I have on fixing this. I have seen reference to the Dyna-Flyte breaker plates, but that doesn't seem to fix the wear in the housing (which I may be totally mistaken about). It looks like the Dyna-Flyte does away with the three ball bearings and rides on its own bearing system. Is that correct? I have also seen the Calibromatic or Spark-o-liner which seems to install a liner into the ball bearing groove. Does that work? And one last question, do these kits come with new ball bearings? and/or where do I ket new ball bearings? Thanks James C.

Sooo..... I machined a good bit of material off my intake and exhaust manifolds since they were quite pitted and leaking. But, I didn't realize till now that the gland rings may need to be machined down too!! I'm not sure how much material came off the manifolds since it was just down on a belt sander till it was all flush. It could easily have been .050" or more. The ring is about .375" deep. the shoulders in the block and manifold add up to about .290". I also have fiber gaskets that came with my Egge gasket set. It is about .100". That leaves me with about .015" of gasket squish till the ring contact. So what kind of clearance do the gland rings need from block to manifold? Thanks James C.

I work in a professional shop, it takes forever

Thanks. I wasn't going to take it apart any further to find out!!

Ive got a Delco Remy distributor off a 1937 Buick Special 248ci. Ive stripped and painted the housing. During the process of purging all the old grease I took out this cap screw (background of picture #1). But I didn't realize there was a spring and possibly something else in the hole! It is the "possibly something else" that concerns me. I just went about pushing and digging all the grease out and luckily found the spring after I pushed it out. From other forums, I think this is the "pipe plug" for the oil reservoir along the distributor shaft (picture #2). In picture #2 it looks like there is just one thing behind the plug, but I cannot tell what it is. Just a spring?? But then that brings me to the question, "What does the spring do?". I would think the spring would be holding a check ball or valve. Did I loose a ball?? Let me know what yall think. Thanks, James C Pic #1 Pic #2

Thanks.

1937 Buick Special 40 248c.i. Is there a gasket between the block and bellhousing? Or metal to metal? Thanks James C.

Thanks guys. I think my engine had a few replacement pieces; the spark plug cover, rocker cover, and water pump were all painted a non-matching shade of green which wasn't sticking well to a black under coat. The block was the correct original color. The head Im not sure about.

1937 Buick 40 248ci Does anyone know if the engine block was painted around the spark plugs under the spark plug cover? And perhaps was the mounting surface under the cover painted too or was it left bare where the gasket went? I already painted the rest of the engine under the assumption that they painted the engine assembled with all the various covers and then replaced the gaskets afterwards for the valve/spark plug/lifter covers. I'm assuming under the valve lifter cover is oil soaked so it doesnt get paint. But I'm getting the feeling the spark plug area should be painted too! Thanks.