neil morse

Looks like a solid and honest car at a very reasonable price. Good luck with your sale!

Correct. Was it the split rear window that gave it away? https://www.streetsideclassics.com/vehicles/2912-atl/1940-buick-limited

I'm pretty sure that's entering SD.

Iconic shot of Edward G. Robinson in Cannes with the late, lamented Kirk Douglas, who died this week at 103!

Haha -- yeah, someone really had to go out of their way to install that unit upside down because they had to have reversed the side lenses to have the B-U-I-C-K E-I-G-H-T letters read right side up. I will mail that reproduction emblem today. Neil

Sorry, Ben, I missed your post yesterday. As Don says, we are working out our schedules to get together for the next step. Currently, we plan on reassembling the transmission next week with new front and rear bearings (everything else seems to be in good shape). We will probably be putting it back in the car the following week. However, I'm sorry to say that I don't think anything we do will help you on your "growl/howl" problem. My transmission was very quiet (other than the characteristic whine in first that Don mentions). The only problem I had was popping out of third gear, and I think we've got that one figured out.

Good evening, Ken! I have a '41, and I can tell you without question that the '41 did not have turn signals in the rear deck lid. Apparently, it was '39 and '40 only. I knew about '39, but I didn't realize that they did it in '40 as well. But in '41, the turn signals were under the tail lights, with an arrow pointing the way.

PS: Dave, your car looks great, even on the "flatbed of shame."

What a tease! 😄

Hey Ken: I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. I have an extra of the Bob's reproduction version for the trunk lid emblem. I will send it to you. I already have your address. You can evaluate it and either use it or send it along to someone else. Question: Were the turn signals in the trunk lid emblem for '40? I thought that was only in '39. Neil

On the streets of San Francisco.

Do you have reason to doubt what the seller posted in the eBay description? "I will be asked why I am resisting this car. I am re-listing because the previous high bidder did not appear to understand how eBay auctions work. He did not pay the deposit and did not respond to communication and had (0) transaction history. That was unfortunate for me and now for him but life goes on."

Transmission Dissection So today I got a chance to bring the transmission down to Don's place where he and another friend helped me take it apart, clean everything up, and diagnose any problems. I'm going to let Don comment on all the technical aspects because I'm just a student here, but I will post a bunch of photos for now. In a nutshell, as you can see from the pictures, everything inside the case was coated with a layer of black coke that should not have been there. Don said it looked like it had been in a fire. This made the disassembly a much longer process than it should have been because a lot of things that should have just slid out and apart required a lot of cleaning and punching to get out. However, the great news is that apart from the terribly damaged front bearing, all the internals actually looked very sound once we had removed them and cleaned them up. More later on theories as to what caused the failure and why it was popping out of third gear. Here's a photo gallery for now.

Yes.

Good eye! I didn't see the one in the back.

What fantastic Victorian Gothic architecture! Do you know where that photo was taken, Ken?

Yes, it's a mystery right now and I'm not even sure we will be able to figure it out. All I can tell you is that the snap ring that holds the throw-out bearing support in place was also very chewed up. This photo shows the shards of the snap ring that fell out when we pulled the transmission out compared to a new, intact snap ring. Maybe the snap ring popped off and the pieces were rubbing against the bearing? The surprising thing to me is that it continued to work so well. Other than popping out third, the transmission had no other symptoms. No growling or other odd noises. Go figure. I don't know about video, but I will certainly post a bunch of photos of the job as we go along. I'm not going to do a full on @Gary W, 😉 but I will try to keep you posted as well as I can.

Now that I understand your question better, I would say the answer is definitely no. The only fluid that could leak into the area where the gasket is located between the transmission and the bell housing is gear oil. If you know for a fact that it's engine oil that's dripping out of the bell housing pan, it must be the rear main seal as Matt suggested. In which case Matt's other piece of advice is also good -- just learn to live with it because dealing with that problem is not something you want to contemplate!

Don't worry about stealing my thread, Peter. Leaks are definitely part of what I'm trying to deal with, too, as I will explain below. My first question about your leak, can you tell what's actually leaking, engine oil or transmission oil? Although I'm still learning some basic Buick anatomy here, I think identifying the fluid is the first step to understanding where it's coming from. Matt talks about the rear main bearing or the torque ball. But unless I'm missing something here, those two areas are going to leak different fluid. And if you've ever smelled the gear oil in the transmission or rear end, you know how different the gear oil is from engine oil. The gear oil has, at least for me, a literally nauseating aroma. The day that we took the transmission out of my car and I opened it up, I felt nauseous for at least two hours. I asked Don about it, and he agreed. In fact, what he said in his characteristic style was, "Neil, if you didn't puke into the gear box when you took the cover off, you're doing it wrong!" Engine oil, on the other hand, has a kind of gasoline smell to it. If you can collect enough of the what's leaking and stick your finger in it and then take a good whiff, you should be able to tell which it is. Another suggestion I would have it that you take your car for a good drive to get everything heated up and then put it back in the garage after putting fresh cardboard down on the garage floor from the front of the car to the back. Wait a couple of days and you should be able to see where the fresh drips are coming from. Whatever your car is leaking, I doubt that it's due to a faulty gasket between the transmission and the engine. One of the first places I would suspect based on my experience is the two holes in the side of the transmission case where the shift linkages exit the case. My car was leaking a lot from that area. I got new seals for those openings that we will be installing when we rebuild the transmission. Okay, on to the leak problem I'm currently trying to diagnose as we do the present job. As I referenced above, there's a pan under the bell housing that you can remove to get access to the clutch and flywheel. Here's what the pan on my car looked like when I removed it. According to Don, the bell housing on my car is "far and away the most filthy one I have ever seen." (Not the good kind of superlative to hear, obviously!) This area should be dry and relatively clean. The fluid and gunk in here would logically be coming either out the back of the engine (rear main bearing problem) or out of the front of the transmission (transmission bearing problem). In my case, we're pretty sure at this point that it's coming out of the transmission. One, the stuff in the bottom of the pan is definitely the smelly stuff, and two, we already know that the front bearing on the transmission is a mess. You'll see there's a little hole in the bottom of the pan to allow any accumulated fluid to drip out. That's another area for you to check on your car.