Bloo

Maybe time to switch to a different song. ''

Thats a 66, with an LTD grille.

Never underestimate us. There is still time.

You might be right, but it is still a Model A. I don't believe all the firewalls are the same. Model As had some yearly changes, and even more changes if you look at 28-29 vs 30-31. I don't know what version this is, but any of them are going to have the fuel coming through about there. More here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/original-ford-model-a-firewall-teardrop.1035118/ EDIT: Late 1931. http://www.ahooga.com/notebook/howto/3/howto3.shtml Looks like a 2 door sedan from what I can see of it, the most common Model A bodystyle.

I don't know about a pop noise. Are you sure it even comes from this part? Is there a way to take that part loose so you can swing it in all directions to check? Adjust a little tighter and check again? Repeat? When it starts to drag, it should drag everywhere equally. I'll bet it doesn't. If you are running it as loose as i think you might be, it's gonna make noise when the sockets bottom out. That, along with sloppy steering is just part of the deal, but only when adjusted too loose because the ball is worn out. When the ball isn't worn out, it shouldn't have enough play in it to make noise. The gap between the back side of those ball sockets and whatever they bump into should be basically zero if the ball is perfectly round. How could there be enough movement to make any noise? Most of my experience with joints like this is decades old. I don't remember where I was getting parts, but probably NAPA or another store here "All Foreign", that is no longer extant. There was a parts man in there who could find ANYTHING, if there was just one more left in a dusty box in a warehouse somewhere, and it didn't need to be foreign. Sometimes joints like those did need internal parts. The sockets the balls ran in were sometimes plastic and they could be all torn up or broken. I've seen broken springs too. Recently I serviced a joint like that on my Pontiac, and the internal parts were all fine once cleaned up. Much to my surprise the ball was OK too. If it had been bad like I expected it to be, my plan was to check with The Filling Station, who sell a replacement ball for Chevrolet, and hope it was the same size. I don't know if it is. If it turned out to be different than Chevrolet, I would have had a real problem. Since it's a Buick I guess I would call Bobs even if they don't have those parts listed. Maybe they know something.

And on the off chance anyone reading this is not already aware, a 40 series engine might look about the same in pictures but in person it is not. Expect a 40 series engine to be several *inches* shorter than a 320. Not interchangeable.

I didn't mean looser than this 3 turn spec, I meant tighter. Yes there are rebuild kits, and yes the parts inside the joint can be worn out, and yes they should be replaced if they are broken or otherwise damaged. That should be obvious by looking at the old parts once you remove and clean them, and anyway they are a red herring at this point. The important thing is the ball. It's the most important wear part, and is permanently attached to a piece that is not normally replaced. On Chevrolets, replacing the ball means destructively removing it, pressing out the remains, and welding a new one in place. Replacements with a nut are also available, if you can trust it. I've heard they aren't a problem but might be a little shy about doing it that way. I don't know what options are offered for Buicks. You might notice modern tie rods run with no slop, and they drag. Slop is bad. One important difference is that the pressure is from the bottom, not the sides. They are tight. When they wear out, they get loose, rattly loose, and there's nothing you can do about it. Most driving is done straight ahead, or close to it, and those cups wear on themselves and on the ball, mostly while straight ahead. If the car is poorly maintained (most of them when they were in daily service), or got some crap in there from the road (all of them because there isn't much to keep it out), the ball gets ground up on the sides. At this point the ball is not round. If you measured it with a micrometer, or just your eyes if it is bad enough, it will be smaller when measured side to side than measured front to back. Driving straight, that spring takes up the wear and prevents rattles if the slop isn't too bad. The spring is more or less an anti-rattle device. If you adjust it too tight at the center on a worn out ball, the larger part of the ball will push out on the cups when you go off center, and the clearance will go below zero and break things. That is the basic problem. Best adjustment is almost zero clearance, or maybe .0005 or .001 or something at the tightest point in the steering, wherever that is. Ball wear can be uneven, and manufacturing may have not got it perfect in the first place. The tightest spot could be about anywhere. You just have to try it, and get as tight as you can with no tight spots. Obviously you cant have tires on the ground. Maybe you can disconnect an end and move the rod in all directions by hand. If, after doing this the straight ahead position is unacceptably loose, the ball needs to be replaced, period. Those little springs are nothing compared to steering forces. They really don't do anything except prevent rattles. The ball sockets have shelves or stops that they bottom out against when you turn. The springs don't even enter into it.

I think 3 to 3-1/2 turns might be too much if it isn't all worn out. I don't know how fine those threads are, but it sounds like way too much. In my opinion, Buick is doing CYA here in the manual. That spring-loadedness is not a desirable thing, it is there to keep you from breaking it. You would want the car up in the air so the steering turns super easy, and the adjustment in a perfect world would be zero slop. The closer you can get to that, the better. On used parts, all the wear is at the center, so don't check it there. Check it everywhere else. Get it as tight as you can get it with NO tight spots or draggy spots. It must not drag anywhere in it's travel. Don't think of this as preloading a spring. Think of it as removing all the slop. The spring loaded socket is there because there are tolerances in manufacturing, and the ball might not be perfectly spherical. After some wear, it definitely wont be perfectly spherical anymore. Some slop at the center is almost unavoidable. If Buick just said remove all the slop, then someone would tighten it up without giving it any thought. They would probably do it at center, the worst possible case, and kill somebody when the no-longer-spherical ball tightens up while turning and non-compressible metal breaks the joint apart. It needs to be checked through the entire travel and not drag anywhere. Anything beyond that is just loose steering. There is one case where these joints are allowed slop. On Fords, Studebakers, and some old Chevy trucks, a joint like this is used to trigger the power steering control valve. If you take all the slop out, the power steering won't work. On those cars as soon as there is any movement, the power steering kicks in and you so don't really ever feel the slop. I have never seen a power steering setup like that on a Buick, and I don't believe they ever offered it.

I read about that "code" thing several years ago. If I recall correctly it allows them to steal your phone number for use in Google Voice. Don't respond to those.

I keep looking at this and I think there are more things you should check before taking the coil/switch apart. With no wires connected to the coil/switch, and the switch turned to "bat" position: 1) Ohms measurement from H to M (coil secondary winding) 2) Ohms measurement from + to R (coil primary winding)

I'm not sure exactly what I am looking at but, I don't think I would expect those to be connected. Look at the wiring diagram in that Eisemann document. Follow the link to the whole document. There is another version there that is the same, but just missing the ratchet. Everything else is the same. The wiring diagram is quite a bit easier to follow with the ratchet contacts out of the way. Apparently it is a high tension magneto but the high voltage still goes through the switch. In magneto mode, high voltage leaves the magneto and enters the switch/coil on terminal HM. A wire from terminal H goes back from the switch/coil to the distributor center contact. As for how to get it apart, Eisemann shows you what's inside. Have a really good look at the unit. Maybe it will be obvious, screws or something. There has to be a way to get it apart. The biggest problem I anticipate is figuring out what value capacitor to get. For a test, you could try hanging a condenser across M and R. If it starts, it confirms we are on the right path. It probably doesn't need to be that close in value to start and run, but it probably does need to be real close when you choose a permanent replacement. If it is wrong it might chew up the points.

Ok, to clarify, you have everything shut off, and the points open, and you shorted R to M temporarily, and then without the short, you touched the ohmeter leads to R and M, right? And the ohmmeter did not "kick" and slowly go to high resistance or open? If that's true, and it was just plain open circuit, your condenser has left the building. I think you have found the problem.

Yes. Definitely polarize, and before you try to start it. There is a possibility of damage, but it depends on too many things I don't know about your car. Of course modern electronics always goes up in smoke when you do that, but old electromechanical car stuff was surprisingly tolerant. Sometimes people drove them around wrong for years. Sometimes the radio even worked. The ammeter goes backwards. Spark is weaker. Old voltage regulators had special plating on the points that was different for positive ground. Running backward would shorten the life, but they would usually work. I am amazed how often it was no big deal. Of course if there were one or two electrical devices that couldn't take it, they would refuse to work and maybe go up in smoke.

Not install a one wire alternator. The idiot light is another wire. One wire alternators are a heavily compromised design intended for tractors where no one would care about their shortcomings. I don't consider internal regulated GM alternators of any sort an upgrade, but if you must, then buy a standard GM 10si or 12si internally regulated alternator instead of the "one wire alternator" and hook the idiot light wire up to the idiot light pin on the new alternator. Done. You'll have to extend the wire probably, it is at the regulator location now if you have an external regulator, and would need to reach the alternator.

No. The only GM positive ground cars I have ever heard of are very old Cadillacs, and maybe some Oaklands(?). I don't recall when Cadillac abandoned positive ground, but it was long before the 1953 change to 12 volts. Buick, Chev, Pontiac, Olds etc. are all negative ground.

Could the battery be in backwards? Colors don't mean anything. Follow the battery cables and see where they go. It is a negative ground car. Then polarize it one more time and see what you have. About the dead battery overnight thing, with everything shut off, disconnect a battery cable and connect an old fashioned incandescent test light between the now empty battery post and the cable you disconnected, so the test light is now in series. If there is an overnight draw, the light should glow brightly. Then to see if it is the charging system's fault, disconnect the GEN or ARM wire(s) at the regulator. Careful, that post might be battery hot if the cutout points are stuck. You won't get fireworks though as long as the test light is there. Worst case, it glows brighter. If disconnecting the GEN/ARM wire(s) makes the test light go out, take the cover off the regulator and unstick the cutout points. If disconnecting the ARM/GEN wires doesn't make the light go out, hook the wires back up and look elsewhere for the current draw. You'll probably need a wiring diagram. The traditional way to do this is pull fuses one at a time to make the light go out, and if you find one that does make it go out, follow the diagram to see what that fuse leads to. If not, look on the diagram for unfused things, and start disconnecting them one at a time until you find out what makes the light go out. The 3 most common causes back in the day were: 1) Borg clocks, 2) Glovebox light on with door shut, and 3) Brakelights stuck on and/or hydraulic brake light switch partly shorted, in that order.

I wouldn't risk it. It was made to run on 6 volts. On battery it should make no difference how fast the engine is cranking. I suspect a condenser. It looks like there is one inside the dash mounted coil, and a separate one elsewhere for the mag. I can't explain why the ratchet switch works when cranking doesn't. Maybe dirty contacts, but I still suspect the condenser more. It looks like this is a low tension magneto, and that dash mounted coil is used in both modes, but the condenser inside the coil is only used on battery. Before taking stuff apart, you could try scabbing another condenser between terminal "R" and terminal "M", or between terminal "R" and ground. It isn't really a good test, and wouldn't prove anything unless it made the engine start. It might. If the condenser inside the coil is shorted this won't help. If the piggybacked condenser doesn't make it run, you could try an old fashioned condenser test. With the battery disconnected, and the switch at center off, and the crank placed so the points for battery operation are open, touch a jumper wire from "R" to "M" for a couple seconds, and afterward probe "R" to "M" with an ohmmeter. The meter should kick to a low value and then go higher slowly and settle to a fairly high ohm reading. This is easiest to see on an analog VOM, but a digital meter should do in a pinch. This test is kind of BS, but if the reading doesn't settle fairly high up in the megohms, the condenser is bad. If it tests normal, it doesn't prove the condenser good. This is about all you can do without taking the condenser out, and if you take the coil apart, it should be possible to clean the switch contacts somehow. If the condenser needs replacing, you need to know how many microfarads the original had. I didn't see that in the documentation. Maybe someone knows. https://oldcroak.com/gr4-ed-2-magneto-parts-service-manual/

It also shouldn't be necessary. I wonder what the voltage at the coil is while cranking? I also wonder if the cranking is done with a crank. I have a 1913 Studebaker that is hand cranked. It starts easiest on battery and then you switch to mag. Fortunately it still works. It is 6 volt, originally 4 dry cells, although voltages used were all over the place in that period. Someone posted pics of a 1912 Flanders, a closely related car, and there were a bunch of dry cells in it, and I don't even think they were all in the picture. That Flanders must have been at least 9 volts if not 12. It wasn't unusual. Colloquially setups like these were called "hotshot" magnetos in the US back in the day because they used telephone dry cells to "hotshot the mag" to give you a hotter spark for starting. The setup on my Studebaker is a Splitdorf, but there were many others. I don't completely understand how they work, it must approximate a Kettering-type points and condenser ignition in this mode, but it is too early to really be the same thing I think. Maybe it's just an electromagnet to strengthen the magneto. There were also dry cell powered Atwater Kent ignitions in those days that were points and condenser driving a coil, and those definitely did not work the same as Kettering. Points closing was a spring loaded "SNAP!" affair that was over in an instant, so apparently no dwell time to charge the coil. There was no magneto and you ran on battery all the time. We had those Atwater Kent ignitions on some Hupmobiles here in the US, K and N for sure, and probably others, but I understand Hupmobile put magnetos on when they exported the cars to Australia. Here in the US, hotshot magneto setups disappeared when impulse magnetos came along. You just started on the magneto, and no more switching from battery to mag. In all cases if the spark is weak, the first thing I would be looking at is the condenser(s). Splitdorf mags have a flat condenser sandwiched between the lower and upper half of the magneto. That would be scary to take apart, due to Splitdorf's reputation for pot metal rot. I'm thankful it still works. Although it is possible there may be another condenser in the dash mounted coil/switch assembly for the hotshot function.

If you can cram it in there, it will work. If it really is the right size to fit, you can cut individual stacking rings rings which have a slope cut where the ends meet. Or not. It wasn't always done that way. All the advice so far is right on. Repeating a little of it.... 1) Put some packing in, tighten. loosen and add more, repeat, etc. You probably wont get it all in in one shot. 2) If you can't fix it with packing, it probably needs rebuilding. It's not that unusual. A worn out bushing will cause the shaft to move around too much to hold water in. A burned or rusted out shaft will just tear up your new packing and not work. I would add... 3) Allow it to leak a little especially at first while the packing is breaking it in. After it settles in, you'll want to get the leak down to almost nothing, because if you don't it can suck air in through the leak and make the car run hot and/or push coolant out. Don't completely stop the leak though. If you do that, the shaft and packing will burn. Less leakage is better, but it should be damp or maybe have a drop if you ever stick your finger under that nut to check. 4) Use real water pump grease (not ordinary chassis grease) on any sort of grease fitting or grease cup that feeds the water side, in other words any fitting or grease cup that leads to the area between the packing nut and the water. Usually there is a grease fitting there. A few cars use oil in an oil cup at that spot instead of water pump grease. Fittings located outside of the packing nut, where the grease can never touch the water, are less picky about "real water pump grease". A modern lever type grease gun has enough pressure to easily break a water pump casting. Be careful. Some little gun you push on the end of with your palm would be better.

I'd say the opposite about the hidden headlights. That Galaxie grille might not be anything special, but in my opinion it's a massive improvement over the LTD hidden headlight One. I have a Marauder with that flying buttress roof. A Monterey nose without the hidden headlights would also be a massive improvement over the hidden headlight Marquis nose it was built with. As far as I know, Mercury didn't build any of these short wheelbase coupes with exposed headlights like Ford did. Not my car(s) but the bottom one is pretty close.

"Magneto takes over after the engine starts" sounds really old. What is it? How sure are you it is 6 volt? In the days before starters when cars often carried dry cells, 9 volt and 12 volt were not unheard of. I would be a little concerned about possible damage, and especially if the ignition parts are the of the unobtainable sort.

I believe that the babbitted 320s were not built with precision shells on the main bearings, but were precision line bored, so that later 320 main shells (1940s) fit, and fit with no shims. I read that in a manual somewhere, and I am fairly sure it applies back to 1937. It is likely it goes back to 1936 too, because the 320 was a brand new engine design in 1936. I cant say for sure though. Some of the people in the "Buick Pre-War" section of the forum will know. It might pay to repost this in that section or move it. On the rods, those are babbitt for sure, and yes it is expensive. Later (late 40s?) 320 rods have shells instead, and you can probably substitute them. Someone I know has done it to a 37 320, and it is likely this trick would also work on a 36 but I don't know for sure. If you need pistons, 38 slightly domed pistons (which are more readily available) will fit a 37, but if I remember correctly maybe not 1936. I seem to recall there was something odd about the 36 combustion chamber. You would have to check piston clearance to the head very closely if you try it. Some grinding might be necessary if it will work at all. Replace the whole engine? I wouldn't unless I had to, but the 320 was made all the way through the end of the 52 model year. I imagine the newer you go with the engine, the more the problems pile up with engine mounts, accessory mounts, bolt holes, sender holes, carburetor angle, and so on. That is usually the case with GM engines. I also think that a 320 taken from a car with a Dynaflow might(?) need to be rebuilt with a different crankshaft. Better answers than mine will be available over in the "Buick Pre-War" section. Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

Tighten 'er up. Looks like threaded sleeve. It's probably fine.

For starters, there is a recurring and confusing issue with the dash indicators on 53-54 Pontiacs, Chevrolets, and probably other GM cars. I highly recommend that you ignore those dash indicators entirely until the system is mostly working. If you have separate indicators on the dash for left and right, there is a good chance the 53-54 issue applies to your 51 car as well. I'll have more advice about that later if the dash indicators still malfucntion after you solve the main problem. What I would do: I would make a jumper wire with a couple of spade lugs, pull out the flasher, and jump 2 of the terminals on the flasher plug of the wire harness. Ignore the terminal that normally goes to flasher terminal "P", jump the other two terminals together. Now, if everything was working you would be able to turn on the signals solid (no flash). Turn a side on. Start by testing the front because the front is simpler and does not involve sharing a bulb filament with the brake lights. On the signal light on the side you turned on, try another bulb. Also check the bulb number. I suspect it should be 1154, but don't have a 1951 shop manual handy. If another bulb doesn't help, try grounding the socket shell. Attach a temporary jumper wire to any good ground. The (-) battery terminal is best, but any solid ground will do. Poke the other end to the outside (metal shell) of the bulb socket. 1) Does the bulb light? 2) If not, does grounding the shell of the socket make the bulb light? 3) If that made it light, which filament in the bulb lights when you ground the shell? It should be the biggest heaviest filament. Is it? Let us know what you find out. EDIT: Are these factory signal lights with a factory signal light switch? If it is an aftermarket switch on a car that was built without signal lights, that changes things slightly.

I don't know. On my 1936 208, I found paint marks indicating clocking. That implies that at least those 2 parts were probably balanced together, and that replacing the pressure plate would require re-balancing the flywheel at the very least. Worst case would be that Pontiac put the crank, balancer, flywheel, and pressure plate all in the balancer together, and you would have to have all those parts back out of the car. Ugh. I hope not. "External Balance" is not out of the question on a straight six, but it is highly unlikely in my opinion. Straight sixes are naturally in first order balance, and so it is just a question of balancing all the parts. There is typically no need for off center counterweights so large that they would not fit inside the engine, as sometimes occurs with V8s and other engine configurations. The 200s are old enough that balancing was not done by every manufacturer. I don't know exactly when Pontiac started. Even if the engine was in balance when it left the factory, the rods were still babbitted on the 200s, and it was common in those days to replace just one rod (or piston) from a parts store after some failure. You could easily have parts that no longer match in weight. There is normally no issue of "total weight" of a rod and piston assembly vs crank balancing on straight sixes. All that has to be done to pistons and rods is make sure the weights of all the piston and pin assemblies match, and the weights of all the rods match. For best results you would match and balance the big ends and the small ends of the rods separately. I would start by balancing the pressure plate and flywheel separately, and see if it helps. I'd have the balance shop check them together before starting to see if balance is likely to solve any problems, but then balance them separately.