Jack Worstell

Need a drivers side front fender for a 1937 Special....one with the well for a side mount. Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

Carl.....send me your address and I will send you payment when the post office opens Tuesday. Jack Worstell 5309 Sunrise Lane Charleston WV 25313

For a 1937 Buick Special 4dr Trunkback Need.... Front drivers side drum Front driver's side fender ( with sidemount opening ..) Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

Ok....what's the secret to your sucess ? Jack Worstell

Does anyone know the diameter of the crankshaft pulley on a 1937 Special 248 ? Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

I fiddled with these Borg Warner clocks in our 1937 Cadillac series 60 and also in our 1937 Buick Special And I also accumulated 4 or 5 extras ( off of eBay.). My limited experience has been that once the points start giving trouble there's no way to get the unit back to working satisfactory. I was lucky in that two of the units I bought off of eBay were NOS........the faces seemed to be "generic" but I didn't care...it was the rewind mechanism part I needed. This is how I came up with good points. The units I have don't lend themselves to replacing the points even if suitable replacement points could be found I have however seen photos of variants of these clocks which seem to be made so as to more readily accommodate point replacement...if the points could be found As someone else on this thread posted...there are professionals who repair old clocks....maybe they know what to do about fixing/replacing points. Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

We're pretty sure that our 1937 Buick came out of California and that it has unusually low mileage. We would like to get more history on the car and esp confirm what we believe is the unusually low mileage Any suggestions how we can get info from the California DMV .......or any other source ? Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

The Coker radial tires that look like bias tires....anyone have experience with these ?/ Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

We want run a rubber tube from the cowl drain on our 1937 Special to drain any water into the engine compartment or maybe just above the transmission. But we can find no hole thru the firewall for this purpose ??? Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

Are all 2530 bulbs "pre-focused" ? Jack Worsell

Yes we went to a lot of trouble. But now our speedometer ( other than the 6% error which we will fix eventually) reads right no matter what mode we are driving in: ......direct drive without free wheel .....direct drive with free wheel ......overdrive ( 30% engine RPM reduction ) This is because the speedometer driven gear runs off of the OD output shaft....not off of the transmission output shaft With the governor back in......we have in effect a semi-automatic transmission which is a convenient thing to have Jack

Jim Our speedometer problem was more involved. First of all.... even though Lloyd left the speedometer and governor drive gears on the output shaft of the OD....these gears would spin freely on the shaft. We had to pull the OD unit from our 1937 Special ...... then take it apart and then secure the two gears to the output shaft using LokTite ( Lloyd's suggestion ) We were a little skeptical at first....but so far so good. ( maybe it was ThreadLock and not LokTite....but it was one of these type of products ) Secondly....Lloyd removed the speedometer and governor driven gears from the OD. There has to be hundreds of different kinds of these little gears. When you go to find the right replacement gear...and you don't even know the original application ( and the nearest speedometer shop is several hundred miles away ) it can be a "character builder" type of problem to solve, After about a month of research, trial-and error etc etc I found that Studebaker 5200XX series of driven gears would work ( mostly by dumb luck it turned out ). It was an tip from Rick Larrick of Fairbanks Alaska who put me onto the Studebaker angle So now...after several months....we are happy. We have the governor in again so the OD operates in "semi automatic" mode just factory. And the speedometer is working just fine but it's off about 6%.....this is because we needed a 14 tooth driven' gear but the smallest gear tooth count in the 5200XX series is 15 tooth. So i guess to get the 6% error removed we'll have to install one of those "speedometer correction adapters" ( I'm not sure what the correct term is.) We put one of these correction gadgets in our 1937 Cadillac when we switched from a 3.69 pig to a 3.07 pig....works great. Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

Jim I think...but I'm not sure...that with a factory set-up there is a common vent for the OD and the transmission. because of the way the housings are made....but somehow the lubricants are kept apart. On the other hand....I seem to recall Lloyd telling us to use the same lubricant in the OD as we use in the transmission.....so I'm not sure. I'm not too concerned about because (a) we have a good vent for the OD and (b) we use the lubricants cited in the Warner OD manual About the spocklets./chain........there's no relative rotary motion between these components.....just whatever short motions there might be as a consequence of keeping these components tight with each other. Isn't there a seal in the front of the OD which would keep OD lubricant from getting to the spocklets/chain ? When we removed the OD a few months back ( to re-establish correct speedometer operation.....a long, long story ) we simply smeared a lot of grease on the spocklet;chain when we put everything back together. Jack PS our OD has two ball bearings on the OD output shaft.......thank goodness

I have seen a variety of comments about the lubricant to use in a BW overdrive What the Warner factory manual says is this Do not use EP type Do not use Hypoid type 40 Wt motor oil is OK 50 Wt motor oil can be used for hard driving/higher temperature climates Straight mineral oil SAE 80 is OK Straight mineral oil SAE 90 is OK for hard driving/higher temperature climates About venting and filling with oil: We removed the plug Lloyd put in the governor opening and installed a governor....Lloyd's control set-up worked just fine but we wanted the factory type control set-up....it's more of a semi-automatic operation. So we needed the governor. This the left us with no vent. So we bought a "street-T"...... 3/8 NPT threads ....removed the upper 3/8"NPT pipe plug and threaded the male leg of the tee into this opening. This left two female 3/8' NPT connections on the tee to be used. The female connection pointing horizontally we plugged with a 3/8' NPT plug. This is where we check oil level and add oil if necessary. The 3/8" female connection pointing upward: we screwed in a tubing adapter and inserted a piece of copper tubing about 8" long....this is our new vent. The point is well taken about making sure oil gets back into all of the recesses of the OD. When we add oil we have the rear wheels off the ground and the car in neutral...we can rock the wheels a little to make sure the OD gets everywhere back into the OD Jack Worstell jlwmaster@aol.com

This Summer we will put a set of tires on our 1937 Special. Sounds like radials are the way to go. Jack

I've seen a lot of discussions about bias vs radial tires. While there doesn't seem to be a solid consensus either way....nevertheless most people say that radials are better than bias for our old cars. So in what ways are radials "better" easier steering ? better handling ? a more comfortable ride ? or ? I realize that that this has discussed ad nauseam but I'd like to understand "better" Jack Worstell

.....Finally got it working ..... Jack

To elaborate on my previous post above......from the Team Buick website: Engine number location - 1935 on right side of crankcase. 1935-52 series 40, 50 on right side of engine near front. 1936-52 series 60, 70, 80, 90 on right side of engine near rear. Jack

Ben It;s the Team Buick reference that has me confused. As i read their reference...it says the numbers for small engine are to the front of the distributor and the numbers for the 320s is to the rear of the distributor....do you read their reference the same as I am ??? Jack

The engine number on our 1937 Special is 43170447 But the number ( on the engine block ) is to the rear of the distributor ...toward the firewall ??? I thought on the small straight eights the engine number was supposed to be forward of the distributor ....toward the radiator ??? Jack Worstell

I doubt the the drive gear would be bad....aren't all of these metal ?? But the driven gears are sometimes a sort of fiber ( or nylon ) composition and I would think suspect. As Don pointed out.....the square hole in the driven gear shaft sometimes gets wobbled out. Jack Worstell

Thanks Jon Jack

Thanks Tom......good info and will give me a good start on this. Jack

Thanks for the comments. Now I know how a Hill Holder works ( kind of slick ).... the Studebaker article is excellent. I didn't realize the aspect about the Hill Holder clutch linkage adjustment being touchy......but after thinking about this I can see how this might be a negative for this device. Yes I know that the parking brake or the hand throttle might be used in lieu of a Hill Holder and in the past I have used the parking brake many times for this this purpose ( but I've never used a hand throttle for this purpose ) However....the Hill Holder is the better option in that the Hill Holder requires much less coordination and doesn't require the driver to take any extra steps.........the driver uses the foot brake and the clutch in virtually the same manner as if a Hill Holder wasn't present The "Line Lock" device seems like a good alternative. Requires an extra step on the part of the driver and maybe a tad more coordination........But my guess is that the Line-Lock beats out the park brake and the hand throttle on these two points. The Line-Lock would have one advantage over the Hill Holder......no touchy adjustment to fight. If anyone wonders about my considerable interest in the Hill Holder....try driving a 1937 Special with no PS or PB...........in the hills of WVA...........A fellow needs all the help he can get.... Jack

Carbking.. .......any hints about how I can determine which variant of WCD we have ?? Is there any literature available that goes into identifying the various types of WCDs ?? ( I have literature of this type for Strombergs of the 1930s-1940s ) And if there was once one of the little brass ID tags...it is long gone. Thanks Jack