Bloo

Be sure that brown ground wire isn't broken. I also might arrange it so it is less kinked. It moves constantly.

I was wondering about that. Pontiacs are notorious. Does Oldsmobile have that issue? If so, that is the next thing to check.

I guess it's telling you that. I would react with extreme skepticism. No way are you going to see 160 pounds on a 6.5:1 flathead six. 70 across the board might be a little low I guess, but it is about what I would have expected. since they are even, I think it is fine. Back to looking at the ignition (and maybe the carburetor).

I have to wonder if that really belongs. Most only have one tail light, so no problem in that case. Maybe that explains why cars with 2 lights use a different mount? Could this be two single lefts? On the other hand, it really wouldn't be that bad to gas up. On a late 36 with the round lights they are mounted much lower, completely out of the way.

Ignoring late 1936 (round), and ignoring license plate illumination on the wrong side (RHD Export) there appear to be 2 types of housing. 1) All 1935 + early 1936 touring sedan, and 2) Early 1936 except touring sedan. Those are just housings. The cast bracket that attaches the housing to the fender, trunk lid, or rear pan is another matter. There are many variations, depending on whether it is 35 or early 36, which bodystyle, and whether the car has 2 tail lights or not. Apparently it is different if the car has only one light? I would expect the left side to be the same regardless but apparently not. There is also a "reinforcement" listed for early 1936 only. Maybe it goes under the sheet metal? Well. there's a pair..... The car is advertised on two different sites, neither of which I have ever heard of. One set of pics has the tail lights, the other doesn't. It must be the same car. The bullet holes match. https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1061966/1936-pontiac-2-dr-sedan-for-sale-in-parkers-prairie-minnesota-56361 https://classiccarsbay.com/for-sale-1936-pontiac-2-dr-sedan-in-parkers-prairie-minnesota-16197

Yes.

Back when the 2GC was in vogue, most cars had pumps that were about 4-5 PSI. Really old cars maybe had 2-3 PSI. 6-7 PSI pumps were available, mostly for hot rodders, probably looking for more pressure to combat boiling in the lines or the pump. Maybe those were higher volume pumps too. Probably they were. If I remember correctly there wasn't usually a regulator, but sometimes there was. On a Holley double pumper (and similar carbs) there are little plugs to check the float level, and you can adjust to account for the higher pressure (and SEE where the level is). At least you can if the difference is not too much. I vaguely recall setting up a Carter AFB or two to deal with that. Not as easy, but not impossible. If we make the grand assumption that the float valve is even capable of shutting off reliably at the higher pressure (maybe, maybe not), and we know the fuel pressure is too high, then we also know that the float level is too high. The leverage of the float on the float valve and the spring in the fuel pump fight each other. It is a balance. If we make a bunch of other assumptions like: 1) The float valve is a rubber tipped one. 2) The float valve is not damaged, scored, cracked, and is preferably new. 3) The float is good, tested, and completely beyond reproach. Preferably it is brass. Plastic ones must be weighed to verify. They don't "look" bad. Brass needs to be sunk in hot water. Look for bubbles. 4) The float level and float drop are set properly. 5) The clip is present and installed properly. 6) The pivot holes on the float pin are not too tight, not gummy, and do not bind in any way. 7) You can turn the float and valve right side up and upside down a bunch of times and it never sticks, binds, gets out of sorts in any way.... Then I would try lowering the float level 1/8" and see what happens.

Beware cheapo pressure regulators. There are some out there that do not do what they claim.

Someone mentioned the vacuum advance. Definitely check that. Also, though I can't say for sure without seeing it, the vacuum advance probably moves a plate inside the distributor while the distributor body is bolted stationary to the engine. If that is the case, there is a ground wire from the moving plate to the distributor case. It is made of some special wire meant to bend all the time when the vacuum advance moves without breaking. It is probably mixed strands of copper and spring steel. Make sure it is in there and not broken. A bad one causes the symptoms you describe, usually accompanied by popping in the exhaust. While you are in there, it would be a good idea to make sure the centrifugal advance mechanism is free. A drop of oil down the center of the shaft (under the rotor) can't hurt. Check your spark plug wires and coil wire with an ohmmeter. It can be hard to get a good connection on the spark plug end. If that is the case, use a non-resistor spark plug as an adapter. Touch the center terminal. End to end they should be a few ohms if copper, and maybe 2000-4000 ohms (2k-4k) if resistor type. The exact number doesn't matter much. On resistor wires the resistance is distributed evenly along the wire, so longer ones should be higher in resistance. That does matter. If you find an outlier, it is probably bad. Look inside your distributor cap with a bright light for cracks. There is a carbon button in the center that must touch the rotor. Make sure it does. In a 1948 car, the button is probably spring loaded. Another possibility is that the carbon button is crimped in, and in that case a piece of bendy spring steel on the rotor reaches up to touch it. Either way, make sure the carbon is going to touch in the center. If you found a problem with a bad (high resistance) coil wire or spark plug wire, or a problem with the carbon button, replace the rotor with a new one after you fix the problem. Inspect your ignition coil's tower under a bright light for a crack leading from the tower down to one of the small terminals. If/when using points (definitely a good idea until you get it sorted out), always try a new condenser.

Nothing should leak on a refrigeration system. Oil visibly coming out is a sure sign of a leak. "Topping up" is a backyard cure that eventually ends in disaster because nobody knows how much oil is still in the system. Non condensable gases (typically air) in a refrigeration system ruin performance. The air shouldn't get in as long as there is some refrigerant still in the system at all times. That is usually not the case with a leaky system, despite what the owner of the car probably thinks. If you leave a system connected to a vacuum pump for 4 hours (or whatever the shop manual says) before recharging, the system will get cold. If you leave the pump connected overnight, the system will get colder.

I am on the fence about this. I like electronic ignition but it is important to keep in mind that it's chief advantage is it's ability to remain stable over time, not "run better" despite what 50+ years of advertising copy says. There are some technical reasons I don't expect electronic ignition to work out well on a 6 volt car. I won't rehash all that again here, but I will say that anyone who really wants to do it should get the car running right first. Then try the electronic ignition. I agree with others. It is time to get back to basics, starting with a compression test.

Yes it is the spring that sets the pressure. To be clear, this is the coil spring behind the diaphragm, not any other spring like one you might see pushing on the arm. The laws of nature make the pressure what it is. "Pounds per Square Inch" in this case boils down to the area of the diaphragm in square inches, and the force the spring provides in pounds at it's installed height.

It sounds like too much to me.

That's #1.

I considered suggesting that. It is definitely what I would do if I absolutely had to have a 12v accessory, although I have not done it so I am not sure what the pitfalls would be. If I were doing it, I would use one of the smallest frame internally regulated ND alternators, from a Kubota tractor or a Geo Metro or similar, and a small compact battery, like a big motorcycle battery, a lawn tractor battery, or I would highly prefer something sealed, like an Odyssey. The 12v system could be negative ground and completely separate. There would be about 22v between a hot 6v wire and a hot 12v wire, but as long as you are aware of that it is no big deal. Contrast that with a typical 12v conversion, which might be easy and might be tough depending on the car. Going from positive to negative ground introduces more problems. Each accessory or gauge requires it's own solution. Radios can usually be converted, clocks vary, a heater might need a different motor adapted. Electric wipers might also. Some gauges might never work. A Chrysler M6 transmission will probably never work, but you won't run into that on a Packard. Anyone who converts inherits some or all of these issues, no matter what their reasons are for doing so. Most guys don't have the will to see it through and never finish it. They wind up hanging some cheap aftermarket gauges under the dash and leaving some other things broken. Some of the guys at the local cruise in seem fine with this, but I like everything to work as intended. I had a lot of converted cars pass through my service bay over the years and I have never seen one yet that had everything working. Unless there is some pitfall I have not thought of, a small separate system would sidestep all of that.

As far as I know, Permatex #1 will say Permatex #1 on the squeeze tube. It is a hardening shellac-based sealer similar to Indian Head, but it has a thicker paste-like consistency more like Permatex #2 instead of being a brush-on liquid.

Well that's news to me. I own a 1936 Pontiac and have been watching 1935 and 1936 Pontiacs for years and I have never seen even one with an oval tail light. You might be thinking of Chevrolet(?). 1935 and early 1936 Pontiacs all have the teardrop shaped light. Late 1936 Pontiacs have a round light, the lens and ring of which will interchange with 1936 Buick 40.

A soldered on terminal preferably, or at least one crimped very well, better if insulated or sealed somehow. The battery shops have heatshrink tubing with goo inside that can seal up the connection. The trouble with those ones in the picture is the clamp connection is subject to all the same corrosion that the terminal itself is, but the clamp to the wire typically never gets cleaned out when the terminal does. That's two points of failure instead of one. Worse, the corrosion develops around a bunch of little strands, and even if someone realizes it needs cleaning, it gets harder and harder to clean every time. After a while you just have to cut it off. The corrosion continues to wick up the wire, and it isn't too long before you can't cut off enough to fix it anymore. They are literally designed to fail. EDIT: Something like this would be a good choice:

This thread is about replacing a 6v battery with two 6volt batteries in parallel. Voltage does not add when the batteries are in parallel. The larger cables are still needed.

Gravity would make the pressure the same in both boxes. The smaller pipe has more resistance to flow, and it will take longer to get the same amount of water through it. If you raised the pressure in the box with the smaller pipe, so there was more "push" than just gravity, you could make it flow like the other one. These water pipe analogies fall apart pretty quick, but it is a start.

Think of voltage as pressure in a water pipe and current (Amps) as flow. To get more flow at a lower pressure, you need a bigger pipe. If the water in that pipe were feeding a water wheel grinding grain or something like that, to do the same amount of work you would need move the same amount of water up to the water wheel.

If I do this enough, maybe I can afford some more Evaporust.

I was trying Ed's method (running it full strength). The reason it wound up diluted was I only had distilled water with me and had to add it to get home.

While that is technically true, it is a bit misleading. If one compares a properly designed whole 6v system with a 6v battery to a properly designed whole 12v system with 12v battery, the 6v system will require twice the current (Amps) to do the same work. That is why the cables are always bigger on 6 volt cars, and why only a very few people get away with using cables that were intended for 12v systems on 6v cars without trouble. They are typically 4 gauge, and that is just too small for most 6 volt cars.

The biggest problem is that the pressure that develops inside from heat will blow a hole in your solder as you attempt to repair. Most floats have a tiny hole somewhere independent of the seams with a small dot of solder over it. Open that hole while you do your repair. Then, solder it back shut last. You will need to do something to reverse the flow of air while you solder that little hole shut. Dunking the opposite end of the float, the end away from the hole, in ice water as you are taking the soldering heat away might work. Electronic "freeze mist" might also work, but you would probably need a second person to spray it at the far side. You don't want to overdo the cooling and get the air flowing the other way. To test a repaired float, sink it in hot water and look for bubbles.