Bloo

My guess is it wears better? The resistance is insignificant at the voltages used. It is typically spring loaded to make constant contact with the top of the rotor. If it is not spring loaded, then the rotor must take care of that, typically by having a thin metal tongue sticking up to touch a fixed carbon contact in the cap. Once upon a time I believe you could buy those brushes separately. Today the challenge would be finding a cap with a brush of the same outer diameter to steal a brush out of. Generally they just pull out. They are attached to a cone shaped spring that is largest at the bottom of the hole, farthest from the brush. To install, it is a little fiddly to get the big end of the spring started more or less straight, but then you just push.

This system uses 0 ohms for Empty, and so there is no tolerance or fudge factor anywhere. There are a bunch of things to check while the tank is out of the car. 1) The float should not hit the bottom or the top of the tank (but almost). If it hits it is probably going to eventually sink. 2) It needs to swing from 0 ohms empty to 30 ohms full. If there is not 30 ohms difference, the needle cannot swing the whole way. A little over 30 is ok. If it is way over 30, the gauge will be wildly inaccurate, staying pegged full for the first few gallons. Check an empty tank by checking right side up (0 ohms) and upside down (30 ohms) 3) The float needs to be far enough from the bottom that there is an appropriate amount of reserve. Put some gas in the tank, enough to bring it above 0 ohms, then suck the gas back out with a hand powered transfer pump until you get to 0 ohms just barely. The original senders have a brake, and if you have one of those you need to keep shaking the tank while you do this. Once you are at 0 ohms, transfer the hose to a different container and keep pumping until no more gas comes out. Check how much gas is in your second container. This is your reserve. If you suck air before you get to 0 ohms, you will run out of gas before you get to "E". If the reserve is there but is not an appropriate amount (too little or too big), now you know. Either way you can fix it while the tank is still out. Don't use any kind of electric pump. Also avoid the Harbor Freight red-colored plunger pump, it's crap. Any other hand powered transfer pump should do. 4) Always add a ground to the tank, Run it from the frame or body to a sender mounting screw. 5) The gauge needs a good ground to work as well. The instrument cluster can have a bad ground due to fresh dash paint. If you have the gauge out of the cluster, and you look at it closely, you can see where it grounds to the cluster. 6) With the key on, if you disconnect the tank wire and ground it, and the gauge goes to "E", and you let the wire hang loose and the gauge pegs full, there is a 99 percent chance that the gauge and wiring are ok, and only the sender and/or sender ground need attention. 7) I recommend adding a sock filter to the fuel pickup if the sender does not have one. Good luck!

Well don't keep us hanging. I used to run carbon-arc projectors and I don't remember any nickel trick. What was it? These projectors were from 1946, and the lamphouses had automatic feed motors. The adjustments had been so dialed in over the previous decades that they hardly ever needed any intervention during a reel.

Notice the external shunt "10 red shunt". That implies it works like the Chevrolet ammeter. It is a bi-directional voltmeter, reading in amps. Apparently it uses a piece of #10 wire as the shunt, rather than a chunk of metal on the horn relay.

What do you mean "coil center? The carbon brush? Pictures would help. On some caps, the carbon brush is on a spring, and can just be pulled out. On some other cap designs, the brush is crimped in. That would be much tougher but probably not impossible.

i suspect it is nothing like the Chrysler system. Does the horn relay look like this? If so, have a look at this Chevrolet truck thread https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/456521/howdy-from-oregon-gauges-instrument-panel.html

I doubt they cut it off. If the 1939 was done like that, the strip probably rotted and fell off. I have mainly been looking at 1936 Fisher bodies. but have not seen many pictures where the strip is still present. The stitches that held it are always there. On my 36 Pontiac, I was able to trim and tuck the mat under the firewall pad, barely. It's not quite right, but doesn't look too bad.

I don't have a Buick in front of me right now to look at, but most inline engines are the same. The heavy spot on the weight should be straight up, or nearly so when the engine is cold. The heavy spot of the weight typically falls toward the block with the engine warm. The total travel is a bit less than the 90 degrees that it would be on a V8 style engine where the flapper blocks the flow. With the thermostat spring off, you should be able to turn the flapper shaft 70-80-ish degrees before it bottoms out on either side. Orient the spring to the weight goes down when it gets hotter.

This is a 1936 olds, but shows the rubber strip I believe Jolly_John was referring to. If this is right you should be able to the see stitching along the bottom of the firewall pad that once held the rubber strip. The mat just tucks under the rubber strip.

With a larger bore the pedal effort required to stop the car will be higher, probably a lot higher.

What is the source of a "Jenkins" mat? Is this something from long ago or something currently reproduced?

I second that. If all goes well nobody will be in there to put more grease for a long long time.

I didn't until a few pages ago, but it is very simple. The pump pushes water directly into the bottom of the water jacket on one side, and it pushes through a tunnel in the pan, and then through an elbow into the water jacket the other side. I have wondered about that tunnel, and I think I asked about it, and as far as I can remember it has not been checked for a blockage, however... If the tunnel was blocked that would only stop flow on one side. Matt found no flow on either side in the last test, so that is why the blame lays directly on the water pump. There just isn't anything else.

I second this.

I agree with everything Carbking said about throttle shaft bushings. Speaking in general terms, and not just about the WCFB, a throttle shaft problem, often manifests by the throttle plate getting stuck on the bore and not closing enough for the engine to get down to a slow idle. Sometimes people complain about the little bit of gas that gets out there and leaves a stain on the manifold. That is unavoidable, but a loose shaft will do it a little worse than a good one. A loose shaft (and the attendant worn throttle plates on the secondary of a carburetor that is designed to run with the secondaries sealed (quadrajet, etc.) can cause the secondaries to feed fuel at idle. Almost always, a bad throttle shaft will cause some other big annoying problem long before it gets loose enough for the vacuum leak through the shaft bore to be an issue.

All good advice in this thread so far. With a coil tester, but you probably don't have one. Neither do I. Since it is completely dead, there are some things you can do to see what is going on. The voltage should be the same as supply voltage if the points are open (10.4 in this example), and zero with the points closed. Check both ways. "Other side" should mean the points wire post on the coil in this example, ignore the big high voltage wire for now. If it does not some come to supply voltage with the points open (10.4 or so in this example), either something is shorted to ground in the distributor, or the primary winding of the coil is burned out. Disconnect the wire to the distributor. Now there should be 10.4-ish volts on the small coil post you disconnected the distributor points wire from. If there is still no voltage there, suspect the coil. If the voltage does come up to 10.4-ish now (but wouldn't with the wire connected and the points open), look for a short in the distributor. Change the condenser no matter what. Hook the wire back up. Once you have it so the voltage on the points wire post changes from zero with the points closed to supply voltage (10.4) with the points open, disconnect the big high voltage wire from the distributor, tape it or arrange it so there is a small gap from the end of it to the block and crank the engine. Still no spark? Suspect the coil again.

A tube type radiator can be oriented either way. Horizontal flow is the norm these days, but it was usually vertical in antiques. Honeycomb radiators could be oriented either way as well, but the flow is not in a specific direction. The fluid has to change directions more than once to get around each of the tubes.

How much have YOU driven it? Yeah, that is more spread than you want to see. I'm pretty lenient on that and it's still too much, but... 100psi is really too high for a burned valve, so the engine should tune and run mostly OK. If it has not been driven much since being brought out of hibernation, there may be literally nothing wrong. I wouldn't be thrilled with those numbers, but the compression and leakdown test results on engines that have been sitting a long time are often not very good. It may just need to be driven. Don't write it off yet.

🤣 Keep after it.....

I think Ed probably has it right about the radiator, but I still think there are some things that should be done with regard to valve and ignition timing while the engine is out of the car. Personally I can't stand doing the same job twice. There is guessing and there is KNOWING. Now is the time to KNOW there are no timing issues. You'll be glad you did once it is driving and you are tuning it. The first would be to absolutely establish TDC. I would fashion a pointer on the harmonic balancer. Looking through a hole at a flywheel is a PITA, but might be fine after things are sorted. For now, I would want something I can see. With the plugs out, so there is no compression, you can stick the head of a giant plastic zip tie in through the spark plug hole of #1 (or whatever cylinder this engine times from if it is not #1), and turn the engine with a wrench, carefully letting the head of the zip tie follow the far side of the piston up until it gets stuck between the piston and the far side of the head. Hold it there with your wrench and make a mark on the balancer. Then turn it backwards until the zip tie contacts the head. Hold it there. Make another mark. Now make a more permanent mark between the two, preferably in red. This is true TDC. If your pistons have offset pins, there could be a slight error but it will be less than a degree. Absolutely good enough for ignition and valve timing on an antique, and you KNOW it is correct. Optional next step (but I would definitely do it!). Measure the circumference of the balancer, divide by 2, make another mark halfway around the balancer. Double check by reversing your measuring tape or device. Use a different color, maybe white. Now divide the distance by 3 and make more marks in the non-tdc color, at 1/3 and 2/3 of the distance, both sides. You should now have a mark every 60 degrees, with the red one at #1 TDC. I believe this is an even firing engine that fires every 60 crankshaft degrees, correct? You should now be able to check timing on any cylinder, and after setting #1 to something reasonable you can check a cylinder on the other bank to see if it matches (shows you instantly if the second set of points for the other bank is timed right). What it might not show you, and I don't really think this is it, but I have to ask..... could the points wires or coil wires have got swapped? If so 6 cylinders might not be doing anything. You probably would have heard it in the exhaust, but on the other hand this thing has so many cylinders it would probably run smooth no matter what. It would have stuck out like a sore thumb when you did the "kill one side to set the carb" test. Did you do that? Killing the good side would have just killed the engine. On the other hand if this WAS the problem, it would be firing every other cylinder with the piston down and the exhaust valve open. I think. That part is a little bit of a brain tease. If so, the amount of heat dumped into the cooling system and the exhaust would be astronomically high. And then there is the valve timing... Since you now know absolute TDC, you need to look for valve overlap. I have never seen an old engine that did not have the overlap (or lack of overlap) centered around TDC, or fairly close to centered around TDC, 360 crank degrees from firing. On an engine with a chain there is always slop. If the engine has been actually used, you might be shocked at how much slop. The good news it it probably won't be so much that you can't tell if the valve timing is right. If I am not mistaken, there are pictures of this engine with the timing case open. Count the crank teeth and divide 360 (degrees) by the number of teeth. This is the number of crankshaft degrees error "one tooth off" would cause. Then find where the intake valve opens and the exhaust valve closes. If Lincoln published specs, use them. If not, the center point is probably not off TDC more than 5 degrees or so, plus some chain slop. The slop might be severe, but it probably wont be a whole tooth, and if it was a whole tooth, it would be the whole tooth plus the slop. The error should jump out at you if the valve timing is wrong. I don't know how the valves are accessed on your Lincoln. I have done this on inline flatheads by taking the side covers off and feeling the valves as I slowly rotate the crank. I have also done it with a dial indicator. There are sets of offset "feet" you can buy for the indicator, and then just set the indicator up with a mag base, or one of those vise-grip things, or whatever. I went in through the spark plug hole and put the "foot" on the edge of each valve of interest. Some flatheads might not have the spark plug hole arranged so you can get to both valves, but many do. I would check one valve (either intake opening or exhaust closing), then go almost a whole 360 degrees of the crank and check the other. Don't ever go backwards while doing this, so the chain slop is always the same and always in the retarded (stretched) direction. The other day I think someone suggested a borescope. I haven't done it that way but I think it might work.

Brake and Equipment of Minneapolis MN. I had a 70 Mercury screwball part-of-one-year-only master cylinder sleeved there. They did very nice work on the sleeve. They would have rebuilt it too if I wanted, but I prefer to do that. https://brakeandequipment.com/ Brake and Clutch Supply of Seattle WA is another possibility. I'm not sure if they sleeve. Probably. They would have parts for sure. Yelp link because their website is awful. https://www.yelp.com/biz/brake-and-clutch-supply-seattle EDIT: Cylinder that was sleeved at Brake and Equipment:

The manual is very UN-clear on clutch adjustment. As I recall, the information is split into 2 different parts of the manual, and you needed to be looking at both for it to make any sense. I am looking at the manual right now, and I am not seeing that, and it isn't making any sense. There is a diagram that shows there should be 5/8 between the pedal arm BEHIND the toe board, with the pedal all the way up, at rest, and at the same time 1 inch of free play. That's 1 inch measured at the top of the pedal from the at-rest position pushed until the throwout bearing contacts the clutch. My guess is that a stop must set the 5/8", and the 1" would be set by the linkage adjuster. That is NOT what the manual says, it says the linkage adjuster sets the 5/8. There is a bunch of linkage, and maybe if they put the stop in some illogical place that would make sense. Maybe you have to be looking at it. I have adjusted mine successfully but I just can't remember. There could be wear in your linkage. It wouldn't bother me to have a little less than 1" free play to get a little more motion. Be sure to grease the linkage while you are in there. There are 3 zerks for the clutch and the brake. Oil any pins or other moving points. You can take the piece of plywood over the battery out and it allows you to see the linkage better. If you get it adjusted really right, and the clutch still drags, and it is not due to gobs of wear and slop in the linkage not making enough motion to disengage, then the clutch needs to come out, and probably be overhauled or replaced. That's a lot more work. There might be oil contamination. If there isn't, the pressure plate may be all out of whack, It has a bunch of springs and adjustments on it to make it symmetrical and leveled when installed. I hear they are a real PITA, and I have not done it on my Pontiac. As I recall, @chistech successfully fixed a similar one on a Chevrolet, and if you get to the point where you have it out of the car you might PM him and ask if he has any hints. Hopefully you won't have to take the clutch out.

That is all correct, although the 2520 is a new one on me. Current production bulbs are all 2530 more or less, although they vary and may not quite hit any spec. 2320 are stock for my Pontiac, and are almost impossible to find. I did manage to find a couple. 2330 are what most NOS/NORS bulbs still available in quantity are, and were often used to replace 2320 back in the day. Isn't 2330 stock for the 37 Buick? 2530 would be great if your generator can carry them without sagging. I really think it can, but I have not been able to test that yet. What kind of fog lights are they? I think that is pretty unusual to have dual contact sockets and dual filament bulbs in fog lights. I would have expected a prefocus bulb with a single contact.

And he has one of these cars too. That makes it even better. Can his run at a standstill like this without overheating? I'm guessing yes, but I have to ask. An engine with only centrifugal advance has to be set up for maximum load, and when it is lightly loaded the timing is effectively retarded (compared to optimum), making a lot of fire in the exhaust, and heating more of the cylinder walls. Obviously a lot of cars have been made that way over the years but it is not optimum, and creates a lot more heat. That is why I asked what I did above. Have you tried it? Does one bank behave differently than the other? I was wondering if the timing could be different on one bank than the other. On systems like this you usually have to set one set of points, set the timing, and then slightly screw up the gap or dwell adjustment of the other one to get the timing the same on both. There has to be a way to check it without too much hassle or disassembly since the engine is out of the car. How does one set the valve clearance on this engine? Is there a cover you can take off and see the valves and get a feeler gauge in? Alternatively, do you have a borescope? Or better yet maybe a dial indicator with interchangeable feet?

On to the heat issue then. I wouldn't necessarily expect the engine driven fan to be that much better but maybe. It should probably be enough since the engine isn't loaded. there are some things I would really like to know.... --What are you using for coolant at this point? --How is the timing controlled? Are there weights and springs in the distributor for a centrifugal advance? --Is there any sort of vacuum advance or vacuum control on the distributor? --How may sets of ignition points are there in the distributor? How many ignition coils? --What is base timing currently set to? --Is there manual control of the advance (on the steering wheel or something)?