Bloo

Blockley's products are aimed, for the most part, at vintage racing. The quality is likely to be way above average. .

Unfortunately the illustration of the chassis in my 1937 parts book is of a 1935 8cyl chassis. Anyone got a 1938 Parts book? Maybe a 1937 or 1938 shop manual? There's usually a picture of the chassis in the lubrication section.

If you are going to do this changeover at all, get the Olds 350. It is a stellar engine. While the 307 and 403 were similar high quality, the 307 was widely panned for it's lack of power, and the 403 was a bit disappointing as well. The 403, in hindsight, isn't very well thought out compared to it's predecessors. Neither is a good starting point when there are Olds 350s laying around. In an 85 you would probably have to lose the electronic engine controls. I'm a bit on the fence about that one because I think it is a good system, but parts availability and cost could be a problem today.

I am referring to ones cheap enough to be sold to auto enthusiasts out of a catalog. Even then they aren't exactly cheap. See links above.

One minor nit: It was a 261 camshaft (or something close) The 292 is a completely unrelated engine.

Don't they make new 12 volt Ahoooga horns? If it has to be old, maybe one from a Dodge Brothers car? If you must use this one, try the ballast resistor. Try a Chrysler one. It's about half an ohm. It might even work. There is no good way to do this with a resistor, as the load is not constant (it's super-high on startup). When you find a resistor that works, the horn will be starting on less voltage than intended, but running on higher voltage than intended. Is that good? Not really, but it might be OK. Reducing the run voltage all the way to the original 6 (or 7) will probably make the motor not start. In my opinion trying to run a motor on an electronic "voltage reducer" is most likely going to result in a pile of broken voltage reducers. .

For one thing they are thicker. .

It is because Chevrolet's 1929 creation was literally held together with stove bolts, on the oil pan, side covers, etc. Common use years ago applied it to any of the old "low pressure oiling" Chevrolets, the last of which were the 1953 stickshift 235 and the 1953 truck & sedan delivery 216. As it turns out that isn't quite true. The 216, which landed in 1937, was a complete redesign even though it looks about the same. It has 4 main bearings instead of three for one thing, and a bunch of other major changes. It is a bit of a stretch to call it the same engine. In more recent years I have heard people referring to the 1953 (Powerglide) through 1963 full pressure oiling engines (235s and 261s) as Stovebolts also. Really stretching it IMHO, although it is closely related to the last "low pressure oiling" engines of the early 50s. The 230-250-292 is a completely new 7 main bearing engine, using some design elements of the small block V8, and is not related to the earlier engines in any way, other than having 6 cylinders. Today is the first time I ever heard anyone call it a Stovebolt. .

There are several versions of that piece apparently. Interesting that it is phenolic. When I made the one I made, I was working from pixellated blowups of engine compartment photos. I extrapolated the size on the assumption the wires were 7mm. That worked ok. I had to guess whether it was phenolic or hard rubber. I guessed phenolic and made my replica look like phenolic. When I got to the Flathead Pontiac Reunion and saw some real ones, they looked like hard rubber, and they were not all exactly the same shape or color. The curved slot for the coil wire is an interesting detail, and one I got wrong. .

Wait what?!! Are you sure? That doesn't sound Buick-like to me, though I don't have a 57 wiring diagram to look at. I would expect the brake/turn bulbs to be shared in the Buick. Do you mean they are separate on the trailer? Or, did you mean the Buick? This is the correct answer if the brake and turn circuits are truly separate on the Buick. The trailer standards in North America have the brake/turn together normally. That is why the plug is the way it is. Most older American cars match. Most North American trailers match. The boxes were generally needed for imported cars in the past, especially ones from Japan. Some newer American cars may need it too. Conversion boxes are a necessary evil in those cases. They are unreliable, but there is no better non-invasive way to do it. Some people add relays to limit the load on the conversion box (and the car wiring too). You've been warned... Yep. If it has electric brakes, you are gonna need a controller. .

Thanks for posting that!

It is part of a mechanical version of what we call a "DC-DC Converter" today. Normal vacuum tubes need high voltage on their plates, maybe something like 100-250 volts in a car radio. Transformers only work on AC, and the voltage available in a vintage car is 6 or 12 volts DC. What to do? Make something like a giant buzzer that switches the polarity back and forth. Then you have AC that can be stepped up with a transformer. Once you have high voltage AC, you need to convert that back to DC because the tube plates in the radio need DC. That can be done one of two ways. The first is with a "Synchronous Vibrator". It has more sets of points in the same vibrator, mechanically synchronized with the first sets of points, doing the exact opposite of what the first sets of points did. The second and more common way is to use a rectifier tube to convert the AC to DC, like a radio that plugs into the wall would do. That muffled "BWWWwwwoommmmp" noise you hear when you turn on most car radios made before the late 50s is the vibrator starting up. .

This right here^^ is how you get good brakes.

To be fair, we have gone on for a whole page and still no one has answered his question which was: "Does anybody know if the '41-'49 spindle will fit on a '51?". I don't know the answer.

My mother had a 59 Cadillac. The only thing transistorized in hers was the audio output. The rest of it was 12 volt "space charge" and other low voltage tubes, so no vibrator was needed. The sound was amazingly good, as was the sensitivity. It's ability to pull in distant stations was phenomenal. Many GM cars of that era had similar Delco radios, and the slightly older ones with vibrators were also extremely good. I agree, and the paper capacitors too as they were still the default in 1951-52. They are likely to be in worse shape than the electrolytics this many years in. The buffer capacitor is still job one. Me? I would do it all and get it overwith.

The link is leading to Yahoo mail, so that is probably where the picture is. If my guess is correct, only you can see the picture because only you are logged into your email. You will either need to either: a) upload the picture to the forum, or b) upload the picture to some hosting service (imgur.com is free), and paste the link in your post using the link tool at the top of the post editor (looks like a chain link). .

I think it is a 51 or maybe 52 full-size Nash radio. What year is your Nash Healey? https://www.ebay.com/itm/1951-NASH-AM-PUSH-BUTTON-RADIO-WITH-FACEPLATE-AND-KNOBS-/203093936945 .

I will just throw in that I believe when some of these guys say things like "establish ownership" they aren't really referring to your step mother who may own it, but to TITLE. Title threads on this site are a quagmire because it is worldwide, and even if we restrict the discussion to USA the laws vary wildly among the 50 states. Opinions vary wildly, because people have had wildly different experiences with the state DMV, depending on where they have lived. "Establishing ownership" in this context means not so much that she owns it, but that she can provide the title, or paperwork necessary for the new owner to establish ownership, and to buy licenses for the car. Some states are easy, some are not. The truth of the matter is that with any collector car there is a good possibility that the buyer could be from out of state, and even if you live an a state that does not use titles, the lack of one limits your market, and also lowers the value significantly. If you want her to get the most money she can, help her get her paperwork in order, and the sooner the better.

It is the most important skill that exists in any sort of auto repair, but one of the hardest to acquire.

I have never heard of hanging them, only storing them vertically, usually sitting on the crank flange. Wouldn't that likely put less weight stress on it than laying it flat, just due to a reduction in leverage? I don't know, but it is an interesting point to consider. I was unaware that the kind of temperature changes found in storage made such a difference. Cast iron does move around when sitting. Anyone who doesn't believe cast iron moves should take a brand new brake rotor (or drum) that has been sitting in a stack and re-machine it. Despite the clearly visible machined surfaces, it won't be close to straight. For long periods, I would rather store the crank in the block. One more thing, Are forgings any more stable over time than cast iron?

Is the accelerator pump in the carburetor working? Next time it's cold and you know it isn't going to start, with the engine off look down the carb throat and open the throttle. There should be a quick squirt of gas. If there's no squirt of gas, either the accelerator pump doesn't work, or the carb is empty of gas. Try again when it has just been running, so you know there is gas in the carb. If there is still no squirt, the accelerator pump needs attention. Does the choke work? Is it manual or automatic on this car?

I think there is some confusion in this thread between: a) stuffing more friction plates in than what the car was built with (not a good idea and probably not possible), and b) possibly shimming the clutch pack with an extra steel, (or a selective-thickness steel spacer, or a selective thickness snap ring, or something like that) to get the end clearance of the clutch pack right. a) should not be done while b) is a normal part of a competent rebuild on almost any automatic transmission in almost any make of car. The awful truth is that "rebuild kits" almost never have everything you need to get the end clearance right. Sometimes an extra steel, or the original steels (if still good), or another parts order. Usually another parts order for some kind of a shim. If there is no end clearance spec, I just don't know what to say. If the new parts do not conform absolutely to Buick's original design, It might not end well.

Sorry for your loss. I second Dave39MD's recommendation to post this on the VCCA forums. http://vccachat.org/

I wouldn't hesitate putting an Optima in anything. If anything, the Optima should be better because of it's lower internal resistance. The only "filter" for voltage spikes in really old cars is the battery and a few radio suppression condensers (if the car has a radio) that probably stopped working 50 years ago. Batteries are a terrible filter. The Optima should be marginally better, but probably not enough better to do much about all the noise and voltage spikes. The Optima might like the charging rate set a couple tenths of a volt higher in a perfect world, maybe, depending on the car. Ive heard that too. On the other hand I ran a Chrysler (orange box) electronic ignition along with a points regulator for years. Chrysler recommended against it but I had zero issues. A transistor regulator helps clean up hash and spikes from the charging system, but does nothing about the ignition, which seems to be a bigger contributor. It also does nothing about the horn, or and of the little relays and motors that may or may not be scattered throughout the car. I have seen spikes over 200 volts floating around on the electrical systems of pre-computer 12 volt cars. Poking around with an oscilloscope is a real eye opener. Silicon based electronics do not like to see big spikes like that, it causes failures. When electronic engine controls came along, the automakers had to clean the electrical systems up. Reliability is one reason. The other is of you are using the typical 0-5 volt or 0-9 volt signal for the sensors (or 0-1 volt for oxygen sensors). you can't have 200 volt spikes floating around on adjacent wires in the harness. It just won't work. More modern cars have have a reverse connected diode or a resistor connected across every relay coil, and suppression capacitors scattered throughout the car on motors and other electrically noisy devices.

There was an example of the Pontiac version running and driving at the 2019 Early Times Chapter flathead reunion. The Pontiac engines are not identical to Oakland, but very close.