Bloo

There must be a school bus forum somewhere on the web where someone would recognize the body. That doesn't really identify it though. Several body companies existed, sometimes building whole busses, but often building a body on a truck chassis, like this one. Bluebird has been mentioned as a possible body builder. There were others. The windshield is very distinctive, and I would think it would be enough by itself to identify the body maker. The truck chassis may be more trouble. Here is a 56 Chevrolet school bus that seems to have a windshield like that. I think the truck was probably a Ford. Look here: https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/08/04/long-overlooked-this-easy-to-own-hauler-is-rising-in-popularity These are smaller trucks, but is this your firewall? The two things sticking out of the firewall at the right are master cylinders, one for brakes and one for clutch. They look about right, as does that straight line pinch weld across the front of the firewall.

My comments in my earlier post refer to a 1954 Pontiac, and also my 1936 Pontiac, which has drop center rims very much like the ones on a postwar Pontiac. The load carrying capacity of a tire is directly linked to the pressure. The more pressure, the more load it can carry. For modern tires, there are tables you can look up to see how many pounds the tire can carry at a given pressure. How much pressure is appropriate depends on the car. My 1913 Studebaker has bias clinchers, and cannot be less than 60(!) pounds. Generally speaking I think taller narrower tires are likely to need more pressure, and are likely to be rated for it. Radials almost never want less than 32psi no matter what the door sticker says. They might want a lot more. I have never heard of anyone having a blowout because they put too much air in. It probably happened to someone somewhere, but it is extremely rare if it happened at all. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of tire failures are caused by underinflation and overloading. Those two things are really the same thing since load capacity is dependent on pressure. The tire gets too hot from all the sidewall flexing and the rubber reaches a temperature it cannot stand. The tire falls apart. How do you reduce the flexing? More pressure. A little too much pressure is always better than not enough.

^^This is the way. You need to have 6 volts at one coil terminal with the ignition switch on, probably the negative one because I believe the Chrysler is positive ground. You need to have the voltage going on and off at the other coil terminal as the engine turns over. This is measured from a coil terminal to a good engine or chassis ground in both cases. You could use a meter I guess, but the digital ones sometimes don't play nice around ignition systems. I would prefer a test light. A cheapo one or a homemade one would be fine. If there is no power at the coil at all with the ignition switch on, and the battery is not dead, the ignition switch or the wiring is suspect. If there is power at one terminal and none at the other when the engine turns over, either the coil is really bad (burned out), or there is a problem in the distributor. To find out, shut the key off, disconnect the small wire from the distributor to the coil terminal, and turn the key back on. You should now have 6 volts at both terminals. If not, and you still have power at one terminal but not the other, get a new coil. If you have power at both terminals, the trouble was in the distributor. Either the points are not opening, or the wire is shorted to ground somehow on it's way to the points. Investigate and find out! If there is 6 volts on both small terminals of the coil (distributor is hooked up as normal), and the one connected to the distributor does NOT go on and off while cranking the engine, there is a problem in the distributor. It is one of 4 things. 1) The points are not ever closing (gap too wide). 2) There is some schmutz on the points preventing continuity when they are closed. Clean them with a points file or any tiny file if you have one. One or two drags ought to do it. If not, try dragging a piece of paper soaked in brake cleaner between the points. Sandpaper is not advised because it can leave behind crud that shortens point life. 3) The wire going to the points is broken either outside or inside the distributor. Inside the distributor special wire is usually used that can take flexing over and over without breaking. It could be broken inside the insulation. It should not stretch. 4) If the distributor has vacuum advance, and if that vacuum advance functions by moving the plate the points are bolted to, there needs to be a ground wire from the plate to the points case. It is more special wire meant to bend almost forever without breaking, and will probably be bare. I am almost certain the Chrysler is built this way. You should be able to see the bare wire in there with the distributor cap off. Make sure it is there and not broken. If you have power on one coil terminal, and the power on the second terminal goes on and off while you crank, as it should normally, and you still have no spark or extremely weak spark, get a new condenser and try again. If you still have no spark with a new condenser, get a new coil. Good luck. Let us know what you find.

Bias tires did indeed run at lower pressure than might be advisable with modern tires. Lower gives a smoother ride but feels squishy. Higher feels "tighter" but less smooth. In any tire, higher pressure means less flexing of the casing, and that means less heat. Most tire failures are related to heat. Bias tires generate a lot more heat than modern tires no matter what you do, and if they have inner tubes too, that hobbles their ability to dissipate heat. There is not a chance I would ever run as low as 22/20 where I live. It gets over 100F/38C here every summer, and that is just begging for a blowout. The caveat is that pressure directly affects how the tread contacts the ground, and for best traction you want the tread dynamically flat at the contact patch. Too much air wears out the center of the tread more quickly, and too little wears off the outer edges too quickly. Over multiple sets of tires you can learn what works best. Radials tend to be far less sensitive to this because there is a usually a steel belt under the tread. With bias, you should be paying much closer attention to get the best traction and tread life. 22/20 is way at the low end of normal, even for bias. When I had bias on my Pontiac, I ran the sidewall maximum, probably about 35. That is quite high for bias*, and I did not have excessive center wear. It was not really noticeable. I don't recall the factory settings offhand, but they were down in the 20s and I feel fairly sure that would have caused more wear at the outer edges than is desirable. *- EDIT: Referring to 600-16 on drop center rims.

I have no experience with that Lincoln radio, but quite a bit of experience with 1940s radios. Generally speaking, any radio with a vibrator will need it's buffer capacitor replaced before attempting to power up. It's capacitance is fairly critical. Don't try to match the working voltage. Higher is better. Additionally, any paper/wax capacitors should be replaced. There is residual acid in the paper from manufacturing, and the paper disintegrates. None are still good. When operated at higher voltages, they leak current from one plate to the other. There are certain places in the circuits where there is not much voltage, and one of these could still function, but the attachment of copper wires to aluminum foil internally is not great after 70 years in an acid-laced environment either. The best policy is to replace all of them. Use "film" capacitors for replacements. Match the capacitance, but you may still have some prewar values in 1946, so pick a close postwar value. For instance, use .022 for .02, .033 for .03, .047 for .05 and so on. Go higher than original on working voltage. There is no harm, and capacitors have shrunk in size so much that higher voltage ones get you bigger wires and more length. They will still be tiny compared to the old ones, but will be likely to fit better. Standard practice is to use 600V or 630V capacitors to replace the 250V, 400V, and 600V capacitors from days of old. Yellow axial film capacitors such as the CDE 150 (formerly Mallory 150) and similar capacitors should be a good choice, or the CDE (formerly Sprague) Orange Drop and similar. On any capacitor that was higher voltage than 600V, just match voltage or go higher. Any capacitor across the primary winding of an audio output transformer should be 800v or better no matter what the original was. Electrolytic capacitors from the 40s, at least the ones in sealed aluminum cans can theoretically still work, but were not high reliability parts when new and should be replaced. Some people cut apart the cans and restuff them. Replacements tend to be cheaper and available in higher grades with radial leads. Axial are available. Match the capacitance, typically rounding up to get to a postwar value if necesssary. The same or higher will be fine for working voltage. Radial lead capacitors typically don't fit worth a damn in tube radios, but can actually be an advantage if you replace above-chassis cans with new electrolytic capacitors under the chassis. You might need to add terminal strips. A current manufacturer is Keystone. They might cost more than the capacitors. I prefer this method, but you may well not have space to do it in a car radio. In that case, you would have to either restuff the can, remove the can and mount the new ones above the chassis somehow, or buy a custom-made can. Mica capacitors should be left alone unless proven bad. Tubes are highly unlikely to be bad, despite what most people seem to think, and are readily available if needed. Some electronics suppliers where you can find capacitors, resistors, etc.: https://www.newark.com/ https://www.mouser.com/ https://www.digikey.com/ And a couple more who cater to hobbyists and have all the right sort of capacitors (and resistors) in stock for vacuum-tube based electronics: http://www.tuberadios.com/capacitors/ https://justradios.com/ Tubes: https://vacuumtubesinc.com/ http://www.pacifictv.ca/ Custom replacement can-type electrolytic capacitors: https://hayseedhamfest.com/

It is an easy transmission to rebuild, as you can see from the Pontiac thread I linked above. Most of the parts inside your transmission will look the same. Many of them are the same. Good luck whichever way you go.

Technically, I think it still does! What a wonderful drive Highway 1 is, I've done it twice, as well as the parts of 101 that aren't bypassed by Highway 1. Isn't highway 1 a fairly recent thing though? In a thread I have lost track of, someone posted a driving guide for the old "Coast Highway" through California. I gathered it's route was more like current 101 than 1, although it is not easy to cross reference these things. Speaking of driving along the coast, worth mentioning is the "Lost Coast" from Ferndale out to the coast then back through Honeydew and Ettersburg(?) or something like that, getting back to 101 somewhere around Redway or Garberville. It is a lot of driving for not much coast, but when you are along the water there will be nobody out there except you and maybe a cow or two. The roads resemble prewar mountain passes if you are into that sort of thing, about a lane and a half wide winding through the mountains and there might be a one lane bridge here and there. Most of it is paved. You might be on dirt or gravel here and there, but I doubt it amounts to a mile overall. Honorable mention to Shelter Cove, though there is only one way in and out of there. Hint: Pick up a "Lost Coast" tourist map when you get close. Google maps makes an incomprehensible mess of this area, and you probably won't have phone service anyway.

I am using the felt in my 1936 Pontiac, and have not yet had any trouble. That seal looks like it should work, but if it fits too loose of course it wouldn't. Thanks for posting the pics. One way or another I hope it works out for you.

I believe that is Buick 1317094, and I don't have one to look at. Almost all Buicks of the period used a steel retainer with a felt or leather packing (thick washer). The two pieces sold separately, and you could just replace the packing for maintenance. 1317094 is the exception, the part number includes both, making me wonder if it might be something more like a modern seal. These aren't much of a seal, just a felt or leather washer wiping on metal. They don't usually cause any trouble. I have to wonder what was wrong with the Chu Hung seal. Did it not fit properly in the bore in the hub? How did it fit on the spindle? Loose? Do you have any pictures of it? If by some chance it was metric, it will have the dimensions on it in millimeters, but that only helps if it fit properly. P.S. This isn't what you asked, but could it have been overpacked or had some grease that melts at a low temperature? These ball bearings do not have to be packed clear full like Timkens, though every part of the bearing should be completely covered in grease. I coat the cavity very lightly with grease to prevent rust from starting and getting out into the bearings, but the instructions say it shouldn't be more that 1/16" thick. Also these bearings run with a very slight preload, unlike Timkens which would rather have a tiny bit of slop. 1952 instructions from New Departure, who made the bearings, are here. Note the part about how to adjust the nut. This is the same setup you have on a 1940 Buick. http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/manuals/1952sbb/52bb12.htm

I too believe the 37-38 40 and 60 series ring and pinion sets will interchange with each other, but not 39, however I am not close to my books to verify it. I imagine a crowd of 39 40 series owners is gathering in @Pete Phillips' front yard about now....

Question for the Edsel people: Is that real? I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of a 60 Edsel with the Starliner roof.

And always verify the reputation of any potential seller before sending money.

There was a long thread about something similar a while back but it was involving 1938 Buicks, not 1936. Apparently Buick changed the pump as well as the flange it bolts to. The car presented with the wrong version of the pump, mounted upside down because apparently that was how it could engage the cam, leaking oil because the flange was backwards.

Highway 99 was the main North-South route in Western Washington before Interstate 5. It is just a street with stoplights, but it is huge. Without looking it up, I'm thinking it might be 6 lanes plus turn lanes, etc. @Dandy Dave's comments are spot on. It is not pedestrian friendly at all. This street is known as Evergreen Way in Everett, and Aurora Avenue by the time it reaches Seattle. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were still a lot of trees out here. Businesses lined "Old 99", Including some wrecking yards, but there was definitely space between Everett and Lynnwood. Now you can't really tell where one stops and the other starts.

Thank you!

I still don't see a link to download a PDF, so if someone has that, please post. Either way, thanks for posting.

Neither copper bolt can make contact with the steel frame. Can you please clarify if your Buick has Autostart or not, as solenoids for both kinds have been posted in this thread. Electrically there is no difference in the solenoid itself, but the Autostart one has a relay on the back, making the "normal" solenoid terminal inaccessible, and that causes confusion. The copper bolts cannot contact the steel frame in any way, and if there was a steel sleeve, then there must have also been shouldered fiber washers, or at least a shouldered fiber washer on one side, or a fiber sleeve over the steel one, to prevent contact to the steel frame. You should read continuity to ground though with it all assembled. The diagram below is one I posted in a 1936-37 thread, and it shows why. There are 2 windings in a solenoid, a pull-in coil and a hold-in coil. You can see them more clearly in this diagram. Both begin at the relay terminal in the picture (or at the solenoid terminal on a car with no Autostart). One coil ends at ground, the other ends at a copper bolt, specifically the copper bolt that will be connected to the starter windings when the solenoid is installed. As you can see, there is a path from one of the copper bolts, through the pull-in winding to the relay contact, and from there through the hold-in coil to ground. I would have checked them separately. Whatever way you check them both windings must be good, and there will be a continuity path from one of those copper bolts to ground. There can not, however, be a short from a copper bolt to the steel frame. Things to pay attention to on a 30s Buick solenoid: 1. The copper bolts. This is the most common problem by far. Bolt head erosion causes the copper disc to no longer reach the bolt heads. You can sometimes turn a worn bolt around backwards to get a new piece of bolt head. More often than not, someone already did that and used up the other side. Then you need new bolts. Don't neglect this. "Rebuild Kits" show up on Ebay now and then if you cant get the bolts anywhere else. The 1970s GM copper bolts might even be adapted, but as I recall they are an extremely poor fit, probably requiring a bunch of ingenuity. The bolt head must stick up to the original height. 2) The plunger adjustment. It has to be checked with the boot off if there's a boot. There are threads at the plunger, marked "adj. stud linkage" on the diagram above. The gap is measured as shown at the far left. 1/8" is correct for some later Buicks, but would need to be checked with the manual in your case. To check, you need to hold the solenoid plunger all the way in. This means ONLY the outer part of the plunger, not the center threaded part sticking out, and not any part of the linkage. 3) The windings, as already mentioned above, need to have continuity. There should be continuity through the hold-in coil from the relay contact to the solenoid case (ground). There should be continuity from the relay contact to the copper bolt that will connect to the starter windings. Both windings must be good, and if not, you need a different solenoid. I have seen an open hold-in coil on a 37 Buick 80 series. Among other problems, It cranked extremely slow because the copper disc just buzzed on the copper bolts, never making good contact. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

Wow, I have that chart and didn't realize it went back to 1926! 👍 The head torque sequence diagram shown would only apply back to 1935 however, as earlier Pontiac sixes were a different engine family and had 2 heads.

If they want to take the conversation away from or off of the forum immediately, that is a huge red flag. If tell they you to contact a third party off of the forum, who has what you need, that is an even bigger one. I agree with @30DodgePanel that you should only deal with members who are well known. Keep in mind that most of the parts people advertise for on this forum are not easy to find, and ads can stay up for literally years. I've had an ad up for some used roller 34x4 tires for ages. I can't even remember how long that has been up. Look in the seller's post history. If the seller is a recent joiner to the forum, and almost every response is to an ad, saying the seller has what the advertiser is looking for, and the makes and models of car that the parts are for are all over the map, then there is a 99.9995% chance it is a scam. This happens all the time. The moderators here are pretty quick about deleting these, but someone has to notice it and report it. People still get ripped off. It is unfortunate, but people just do not read threads like this. The administrator here had a big red warning banner at the top of the screen for quite a while, with a link to some advice similar to what you see here. I doubt many clicked on it.

That just looks all wrong to me. I can't put my finger on exactly what except I agree that left gear is too far from the housing. I don't believe that is going to work well at low engine speeds or after the oil is hot. It may be time to find some other gears that have the correct outer diameter and machine them to fit.

This is because torque wrenches were not a thing yet in typical garages in 1930. "Tight" or "Snug" is probably what the book says. I have a 1936 Pontiac, and there are no specs for it either. In some cases you can look at newer engines of the same engine family. That worked for me, but won't work for you as the split-head six did not remain in production long enough. There are tables of standard torques for standard bolt and thread sizes, and that is probably the best you can do. You should assume grade 2 on the charts unless you know the bolts and threads are better than that, as bolt quality took quite a leap in WW2, and prewar fasteners may be rather soft. There are other split-head six owners in this forum, so you may get better answers that this as the thread progresses. If not, you might try posting in one of the Pontiac sections.

Yes. Assuming it has hydraulic lifters, and it probably does, Lifter preload is adjusted by selective length pushrods on these engines. Additionally head milling and other factors like rocker arm and shaft wear wear can lead to you needing a pushrod or two that are not standard selective lengths. There is a company in Oregon I believe who will make you any length you want. I bought about 5 non-standard pushrods from them to help sort out the lifter preload on a 390 Ford. I will be happy to look for the contact info if needed. Several people have mentioned the MEL engine. On first look I also thought it was an MEL engine. I now believe it is an FE engine, which should make parts availability a little better. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about that.

Having not seen your individual situation, It is hard to say what will work and what will not. On many cars though, @rocketraider 's example of a long extension and a swivel socket is on point. What may work best is a swivel extension on a regular socket if you can get enough angle with that to reach the bolt head. It is still done with a long extension from under the car. Next would be the swivel socket or "universal" socket, chrome version. This will get you more angle, but be more prone to trying to twist sideways off the bolt head. Try different clockings of the socket with relation to the bolt head. Some stay on better than others. Next after that is the impact version of the swivel socket, black with a ball shaped joint. These are less likely to do the job than the chrome ones because they don't bend quite as well, and are fatter and more likely to interfere with something. Definitely worth trying though if you have them around. Last would be a universal joint adapter on a regular socket. Those are 99% useless, although it might be worth a try I guess. I've not found much use for those ratcheting head end wrenches either. I expect the head of the wrench would be too fat on most bellhousing bolts, as there is often barely room for the wall of a socket, but if it works more power to you! It would sure beat the one-or-two-notches-at-a-time method with a standard combination wrench that is necessary on some cars.

Those are part number 1300501 Synchronizer Detent Spring, there are three of them. They are the part that broke in my Pontiac transmission. The one in your picture looks normal to me. It might be a good idea to replace those as the ends can fall off from wear. I bought some NOS ones and I don't know where to find more of them. Northwest Transmission Parts would be a good place to ask. https://nwtparts.com/ The two square-headed bolts holding your shift forks on the shift rails were safety wired originally, and probably should be again.

Nickel picks up where Brass leaves off. That is for all practical purposes 1915/1916. There is no clean break in the cars. In 1912 most US cars were right hand drive, had gas and kerosene lights, and brass everywhere. You started them with a crank. A year or 2 later a lot of the brass had disappeared. By 1916 there were a lot of black hoods and radiator shells, almost everyone had left hand drive, electric starters and lights. HCCA, the "Brass" car club had to make a decision about what the cutoff was going to be. That brings us to the Model T Ford. The Model T started in 1909 as a brass car. By sometime in 1916 it had electric lights, an optional electric starter, and was all black. By the mid 20s the price had dropped below $300, and they had made 10 million of them and would make 15 million before it was over. It is difficult to visualize now how ubiquitous they were in the 20s. Imagine if everyone on your block and 3 or 4 blocks around you drove a 1993 Ford Escort, and most of them were the same color, but one guy who works at the bank had a Buick Regal. Another thing that is a bit difficult to fathom today is that the Model T had a planetary transmission, and learning to drive one was different than any other car you would likely run into. The planetary transmission was a holdover from 1909 when it wasn't even weird. In the mid 20s though, there was almost nothing else like it. Since the Model T was by far the most common car, a lot of people only knew how to drive a Model T. The Model T, being so different, not only had it's own driving methods but it's own set of common problems and solutions. Lets say you are a car club, and you are trying to organize appropriate events for these old crank start, gas and oil lit cars with brass all over them. What do you do when 90 percent of everything left are black Model T Fords with electric lights, and a lot of them have electric start? It should be obvious that everything will be geared toward the Model T. Is that what you want? If you are the Model T club, then yes. If you are the HCCA and trying to cater to everything else then no. What they did was make the cutoff exactly when Ford dropped all the brass and started making the all black Model T's. In the 1950s that change was widely believed to have been at the end of 1915. That might not be quite true. there may not have been a clean break. HCCA had to pick a date, and that is what they picked. The die was cast. It let in a bunch of really brassy Model T's, and left out the much more common black ones that would have overwhelmed everything else in the club by sheer numbers. And that is how the brass era came to end at midnight on December 31, 1915. The Nickel era picks up where brass leaves off. Some of the cars don't have a lot of Nickel yet in 1916, as black hoods and radiators were in fashion, but they probably have some. There was a time not terribly long ago when there weren't a lot of events for cars from the nickel era, but that has changed.