Bloo

GAH!! Yes, I have the spring and washer that goes under the stick. I think the stick is OK but not sure. For today I just want to get it back together, I only took it apart to install a floor mat, although I also viewed it as a fact finding mission. It is clear to me I will need to acquire new fulcrums and springs, they're shot. There is literally about 1/4" of wear. I have not investigated the bottom of the stick's fit inside the transmission yet.

Check this thread out...

It looks like I have everything except one small spring and one small cup. These parts are all totally shot. How do the big wire springs go in? Is the difficult-to-squeeze end up or down with relation to the ground?

It wouldn't surprise me. I slipped and things went flying. I have not found all the parts. I don't think anything went inside, but I wouldn't rule it out. I may be taking the top off soon.

I have not seen any online decoder. I probably won't be much help because I don't have new enough books for Pontiac, but in that era I believe the serial number that normally functions as a VIN is located on a tag in the driver's door jamb. There is also an engine number on the block, I think at the front on the driver's side, but I'm not sure. There are only 2 engine options, a 6 and an 8, so that part should be obvious. There is a Fisher Body tag on the firewall that has the body number and some other information. I don't believe any of the numbers normally match, but you can probably tell if the engine is the same year as the car. From the Fisher Body tag you can get the original paint colors and the upholstery options, and maybe some other details. I suspect there are others in here who know how to decode that. Welcome to the forum! EDIT: I just noticed your thread title. Pontiac Chieftans of that time frame came with either 3 speed manual on the column, or a Hydra-Matic. Is the transmission missing or broken? Does the car have a clutch pedal?

Ok so the little springs on the bottom push out and hold the whole thing in. Are those 2 wire springs at the top of the picture identical? What do they do? It looks like one end hooks in a notch in the fulcrum, is that right? What happens to the other end?

I would appreciate it, Thank you.

Does an exploded view of the 1930s Buick Special floor shifter exist? This design was also used in a bunch of Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs. The shift tower is only about an inch or inch and a half high. Like this: I slipped as I was taking mine apart on the Pontiac today and parts went everywhere. It needed work anyway as it was kind of loose. I need to see what all is missing (or not). Pontiac did not illustrate it in the shop manual or in the master parts book. Did Buick do any better? Thanks.

Ben Bruce nailed it. There is a thermal circuit breaker. Either the breaker is too weak or the current is too high. They will trip, reset, trip, reset all day long. Either the bulbs are way too big or there is a short circuit somewhere. The breaker is at the headlight switch on a 37. Don't rule out the dimmer switch as a possible cause. On some dimmer switches water damage has caused them to start leaking current to ground.

It looks better with the wide whites, particularly like the ones in the picture. They are a little narrower than often seen now, but still go at the way to the rim. That was the style in the late 50s through about 1961.

My 36 is down along the pan rail on the drivers side.

You could try blocking every vacuum port that goes to the engine or carburetor or PCV plate and see if you get any dramatic difference. Some device at the end of a vacuum hose could be leaking, a power brake booster for instance. Does this one have a plastic vacuum manifold up on the firewall? Sometimes they rot and break.

I believe those parts come ultimately from Steele Rubber. Mine were bought by the previous owner of the car. California Pontiac Restoration may also stock them. https://www.steelerubber.com/automotive https://www.pontiacparts.net/

If this is a 36, I don't believe the engine serial number is supposed to match the car. I don't believe it is on the head either. It is probably on the left front of the block somewhere. The car serial number is on an aluminum tag on top of the frame near the steering box.

OUCH!

It's different. Quality chrome is a triple plate, copper-nickel-chrome. The chrome itself I'm told appears clear, it is the nickel you are looking at through the clear chrome. A part has to be like a mirror before the chrome goes on. If the part is not like a mirror, and it never is, the plater might sand things way down so less metal and time is used, and all the detail of the part is lost, and it looks kind of wavy before he really gets going, He might even skip the copper. You have probably seen disappointing parts like this and there is nothing to do usually to bring it back. More parts must be bought (or fabricated) and then sent to a different shop. OR he can plate the part copper, sand a little, plate with copper again, sand a little, back in the copper tank again over and over until the low spots are filled up and then he can polish the copper to a mirror finish. When it is perfect, he can plate with nickel and then chrome. It takes a lot of shop time to do it right. Plating these metals requires all sorts of hazardous materials, like vats full of cyanide (yes, really) and hexavalent Chromium itself is quite poisonous. The environmental costs are through the roof to use and dispose of the spent materials. If you see some part that is missing all the detail, has visible sanding scratches in it or is peeling, then you know what happened. Talk to people who have had work done. See the job if you can. Take a drive if you have to. ALL the shops are expensive, even the horrible ones. The most economical job is the one done right the first time. You could easily wind up buying more parts if someone ruins or loses yours, and paying for the job a second time at a second shop. Choose carefully. My last load was done at Librandi's. The quality is outstanding and they delivered a few days early. I will use them again, even though I had to ship the parts clear across the country. No surprises, no problems.

Not to mention that with the typical wait times, the job would drag out to years.

I don't suppose any of this crosses to 1913 SA does it?

Search around in old threads and see who the pro restorers are using. All chrome plating is expensive, even crappy chrome plating. Prep is most of the time spent, and is extremely important. Pot metal tends to be pitted, and some platers will grind too much metal off, losing shape and detail. A few platers still use hexavalent chromium like the old days that has the characteristic blue color, but most use a different type now that is more yellow by default, like you might expect to see on an 80s car. Some claim to be able to overcome the yellowish cast by newer methods. It may be true. The two jobs I have seen recently that came out extremely nice were both hexavalent though, from two different highly regarded shops. Still, the prep is going to be way more important than the plating itself. About 30 years ago I was having lunch with a bodyman/fabricator and two former chrome shop workers. What I took away from that: "Always get show chrome if you want it to last". You are going to be paying through the nose either way. It would be nice if it did not need redoing in a year or two. There is a long line at chrome shops, both good ones and bad ones. Always ask how long the pileup is in front of you. It probably wont be less than 3 months. Don't believe what they tell you either, unless you have talked to recent customers of theirs who say they delivered on time. Quite a few don't. Plan to be without your parts longer than you have been told.

You mentioned a Powerglide. assuming it is a USA-built Pontiac, that is a bit of a rarity. Pontiac used Powerglides for a few months due to a massive fire at the Hydra-Matic factory. I don't know if it makes it any more desirable, probably not as I suspect the Hydra-Matic would be a better driving experience. Nevertheless, it's uncommon. I can't remember ever seeing one.

Is there some reason you can't test that regulator with the pressure pot? It wouldn't cause your low pressure issue anyway unless it is extremely weak or stuck open. Maybe with the Snap-On gauge Ed suggested tied in? If there is no way to vary pressure on the pot, maybe connect a small air regulator to it's charge port? Maybe a leakdown tester could stand in as a temporary regulator? Watch what pressure the Snap-On gauge reads when the valve bypasses and really starts squirting oil. I would expect the exact pressure to be a bit ambiguous, due to hysteresis and so on, but if it was way low or way high that should stand out.

Dave T. is a guy in Minnesota who is not on the forum but who has a lot of parts. His name often comes up at times like these. These guys are referring to a 3.9-1 or a 3.6-1 crownwheel and pinion, that will fit in a Buick Special, but can typically be found in a Buick Century. There are many more Buick Specials floating around with their original 4.44-1 ratio than there are crownwheel and pinion sets with the faster 3.9-1 or 3.6-1 ratios. Those parts can be very difficult to source. Dave T (mentioned above) would be more likely to have it than anyone else I suspect. Yes, 50MPH was considered pretty fast in the US in those days. The 1936 Pontiac Shop Manual says something like "Studies have shown most people drive their cars 35 to 40 miles per hour". Most of our roads before the war were not such that they could support sustained high speed. There was still a lot of dirt and gravel, rough expansion joints in the concrete highways where they existed. Oh sure, some makes advertised high speed, and may have entered some specially prepared cars in races, or even had some "hot" model that would go pretty fast. The Buick Century claimed 100MPH. But they also knew nobody would do it regularly. Speed limits were quite low, and then got really low during the war (to save fuel). Also, Americans didn't like to shift. Model T Fords with their epicyclic setup didn't require much training, but unsynchronized gearboxes were tough for average people. A car's worth was often judged in those days on how much you could lug it around in high gear without downshifting. The automakers could optimize for this by putting in an an extremely slow crownwheel and pinion, knowing full well the owner would most likely never have the opportunity to overwind the engine very long before he had to slow down due to bends or just a terrible road surface. After synchronized gearboxes arrived, the preference for slow gearing and lugging the car around in high gear inexplicably persisted for decades.

Looks like a 1936 Master Six touring sedan. From the body plate it looks like it was black with black wheels, silver pinstripes on the body and silver pattern on the wheels. The "D" means someone paid extra for lacquered fenders. It had a tan cloth interior. The car's serial number is on an aluminum tag on top of the frame close to the steering box. More here: http://www.badgoat.net/Early Times/36 Restoration Guidebook Feb_06.htm I assume you have looked on Ebay... bearings for the 208 do show up from time to time. If you have not already done so. check with @Kornkurt here on the forum, and also at California Pontiac http://pontiacparts.net . I imagine you have tried all that. If the former owner did a good job replacing the wood in your doors, one of your biggest potential problems may already be solved. Is the wood in the main body good? Early Times Chapter https://www.earlytimeschapter.org and Oakland Pontiac Worldwide https://www.oaklandpontiacworldwide.com/ are the appropriate clubs. Both have publications with want ads in them. 1936 parts do show up. Here's mine, nearly a twin:

I agree that soldering on those sockets is a giant PITA, and why I mentioned the hose clamp. The current flows in a circle from the (+) source to the (-) ground. When the car is off, both are on the battery. When the car is running, that's (+) at the big post on the alternator, and (-) at the alternator case. Getting back to (-) with the fewest restrictions is desirable. On most cars both the body and engine must be grounded. Sometimes the frame is too. Huge cables are used for starter current (in the same sort of a circle from battery to starter and back) On a typical GM car with an alternator, the body ground is a small wire on the negative cable at the battery post end. I can't at this moment remember if the first gen. RIviera is like that but I suspect it is. If it isn't at the battery (-) it would need to be a strap or cable from the engine/trans/ps etc. to the body. I'd never fault anyone for making home runs with grounds. I do it sometimes. I also always ground the fuel sender. They need it.

While I do not have that particular socket housing type here to look at, I would just like to point out that on MANY sockets of the period, a steel socket is attached by crimping to an aluminum reflector, and the ground fails where the socket is permanently attached to the reflector. It LOOKS fine, but doesn't work. If that proves to be the problem, the ground wire you add must go all the way from a grounding point to the steel socket. Just to the aluminum reflector is not good enough. The wire is best attached to the steel socket by soldering. You may from time to time see where someone has drilled a hole and driven in a screw between the steel socket and the aluminum reflector, right at the crimp. It is an attempt to fix the bad connection. A better, less destructive way for people who don't solder is to attach the ground wire to the outside of the socket with a small hose clamp.