Bloo

You need 6v cables if you don't have them. The wire is bigger. 00 gauge is about right. A local supplier of tractor parts should have them, or make some up out of 00 welding cable. The starter bushings could be worn and letting the armature drag. The brushes might be worn out. Compare their length to new ones, but unless they are 2/3 gone or more, look elsewhere for the problem. Look at your commutator. Someone may have undercut it. You do that to generators, but not starters. If someone did, copper from the brushes will fill the grooves between the copper segments and cause the starter to draw way too much current. Look for this when you look at the brushes. The copper bolts in the solenoid could be shot. Check them for extreme wear. Also ohm test both solenoid windings. One goes from the small terminal to ground, the other from the small terminal to the large bolt that is connected to the starter motor. You'll need to disconnect the link down to the starter motor in order to check. A bad winding can cause your symptom. Many Buick starter solenoids of this era have threads to adjust how far the solenoid pulls the gear out. The shop manual should have the measurement (maybe 1/8" but check the spec). I can't swear to it but I think if this adjustment was off it could prevent the solenoid from making good contact.

An ohm test is a terrible way to check a coil. An ohm test is a good way to check for a coil that is burned out completely, but that's about it. Coil testers that actually work are uncommon. I wish that weren't true, but it is. If the spark is good I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm no scientist but I have wrestled with this issue. Bit of a brain teaser, isn't it? All that apparently matters is the distance between the center of the axle and the road. Whatever the rest of the tire is doing apparently doesn't matter too much from the drivetrain's perspective. As far as it knows, this is the radius of the wheel. Tire manufacturers often publish revolutions per mile in their datasheets, and it often does not match what you calculate from the physical dimensions of the tire perfectly (it's close).

1938 gears are the new hypoid design that first appeared in some 1937s (Special and Century IIRC). The good news is it isn't impossible like 1936. I hope you find some.

Yes, start your own thread. We have members who can answer that who might not click on an 8 year old Buick thread, and welcome to the forum!

I believe the 1936 Special is all by itself in design. It may be closely related to some Olds axles of the time, but those do not have torque tubes, and the pinion would be completely different, so no possibility of interchange with Olds. I have a 1936 Chevy 1/2 ton Canada-only torque tube rear axle here that I strongly suspect shares the ring and pinion design with 1936 Special, but I have no way to prove it so it wouldn't be worth trying to ship (it's big and heavy). Ratio is 4.10, and the ring and pinion appear good. If you happen to be close to central Washington State USA, it might be worth coming to get it and see.

It isn't a really a problematic part. There were some issues for the first year or two (when GM and Ford were still using points on almost everything) and nobody knew how to troubleshoot it yet. In 73, as originally built, there was a double ballast resistor. One half of it was the same 0.5 ohm resistor used with points, the other was a 5 ohm ballast for the power switching transistor in the module. In 73, there were a bunch of failures of the 5 ohm half. Better ballast resistors followed, and then some time later a module redesign that eliminated the 5 ohm part of the ballast resistor. A ballast resistor is an easy fix, but at the time, few people knew so the tow truck was called.... Confusingly, if you replace the module today on a car with the 5 ohm ballast half burned out, the car will run. The owner will probably think the module was bad. Why? Because new Chrysler ignition modules (for decades now) have only 4 pins in the connector. The missing pin went to the 5 ohm resistor. Any factory installed original electronic ignition module (in any make of car) that was made in the mid 70s is on borrowed time after 80K miles IMHO. I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles on Chrysler systems like this, and have never had a module failure. If you have the newer 4-pin module, you don't have much to worry about. Mopar Performance's "Orange Box" is the best one ever for a street driven car, but it is out of production (watch for it at swap meets). If you are worried, toss a spare module in the glovebox.

Should have electronic ignition in 1973. Condenser? What condenser? The radio interference one? Ballast can act that way. That or the ignition module, or the pickup coil in the distributor. Pull the plug off of the ignition module. How many pins? 4 or 5? If 5 I would probably replace it with a 4 pin. Should have a 2 section ballast in 73. If it has a 4-pin ignition module (instead of the 5 pin it would have had when new), the second half of the ballast is no longer used. The second half was almost always what failed on ballasts. You could take the ballast off and look a the back side. Some really old ballasts were not potted (you can see the coils of resistance wire) and the resistor can sort of move out of the back with heat and short to ground. I am pretty sure they fixed that by potting all of them long before 73, but I might take it off and look just in case. If it's got a 4 pin module, and you still have voltage at the (+) terminal of the ignition coil when there is no spark, the ballast isn't the problem. Most likely failure is the ignition module. The pickup coil in the distributor could also be bad.

I bought a 12v Optima in 1995. 18 years and a few vehicles later it was stolen out of my truck while parked on the street. It was still working fine. It's replacement is getting weak and probably needs to be replaced, so maybe they aren't as good as they once were. I have them in a couple other cars now. Are they worth it? Maybe. I generally don't buy anything else now. The biggest advantage is they generally don't corrode up the battery terminals. They don't eat up your battery tray either. If your car won't start it is much more likely a corroded terminal than something wrong with the battery, so there is a reliability and maintenance advantage.

Almost certainly. A general machine shop, not an automotive one.

I like Bhigdog's idea too.

It's actually a 7 wire clip (whether it needs to be or not). I suspect it may have been an Oldsmobile part first, but if so, they didn't stick with it like Pontiac did. I would ask Kurt Kelsey (shoot a PM to KornKurt here on the forum) and see if he has anything. I made one for my 36. I don't recommend it if you can find one to buy, but at the time I couldn't. https://imgur.com/a/1DT42

I don't know. It looks like the damage is back a bit from your pics. I would ask. I suspect it is possible. I have had some nice work done at Flamespray Northwest of Seattle WA, but that doesn't seem to be in your neighborhood.

If the bearings have a race and do not run rollers directly on the shaft, maybe it could be fixed by spray welding?

It is camber that requires bending on straight axle cars, not caster. You won't know much about the camber until you do the kingpins as the kingpin slop will make the camber measure more positive. Keep us posted.

I am not a fan of diode cutouts, but on a 3rd brush system with no regulator there is no reason for one not to work. It is normal for a generator to charge very little or not at all at idle. It is related to the number of poles and the speed the generator is turning at idle. I second that you don't need to polarize if it works. If you are pegging the ammeter, the charge rate is definitely set too high, or there is still a problem with the generator. Don't run it like that much. I suspect damage is likely to happen fairly quickly. I read on on the VCCA forums years ago that the "maxumum" output rating of the generator listed in manuals is only for testing, and the generator will damage itself if run indefinitely that way. It is probably true, because for normal use while driving, you would never set the third brush close to the maximum output shown in the manual. This is the sort of thing that gets noticed now when people add voltage regulators, and might want to use the maximum setting, but would not have been noticed in 1930 because the third brush would never be set to maximum (or higher) on a running driving car. The voltages you list sound reasonable to me, but don't pay too much attention. There is no voltage regulation, and the voltage could be literally anything. You only have current regulation and only by the third brush. A third brush generator will try to charge at its set current all the time, whether it is appropriate or not. Due to the idiosyncrasies of third brush regulation, the generator will only make it's maximum setting at one speed. Turn it faster or slower and you get less. The folks over on VCCA would probably give you a good place to start for a current setting. Off the top of my head I suspect 6 or 7 amps, but listen to them, not me. There is no setting that will satisfy operation with both headlights on and headlights off. It is always too low with them on and too high with them off. In 1930, there was no expectation you could drive forever at night without running out of battery. Also in 1930 the guy at the gas station could check your battery with a hydrometer now and then, and if it was undercharged, turn your third brush up a little. It is was boiling the battery and losing too much water he could turn it down. It all came down to normal driving habits and timing, and how much the lights were used. If the battery was fully charged (but no more) when you pulled into the driveway at the end off the day, the setting was just right.

A ball bearing and it's associated cups and cones are a different physical shape than a tapered roller bearing. As such, the spindles and the hubs are configured a little differently. In plain terms, standard tapered roller bearing sets for automotive wheels are too wide and not tall enough, and the center race does not stick out far enough. Conversions that use the factory hubs and brakes usually involve special bearings designed for the purpose. They are expensive because they are nonstandard, and usually only available through specialty retailers. In the case of GM cars, they don't quite fit either, and the last I heard you had to put the seal over a big socket and hammer on it to put an outward curve in and get it to clear everything and not rub. None of that is confidence inspiring in my opinion. I do believe that tapered roller bearings can take a lot more abuse, at least in hubs that were designed for tapered roller bearings. However, I would trust some smooth, undamaged ball bearings, even the Chinese ones everyone complains about, a lot further than something that almost fits. Just follow Tinindian's advice and repack them fairly often. Use a high-quality wheel bearing grease. I like RedLine CV-2. That said, if you must have the special tapered roller bearings, the ball-type front wheel bearings were just in a few sizes in GM cars for decades. Figure out what year/model Chevrolets take the same ball bearing sets your Pontiac does, and then check with The Filling Station, Chevs of the 40s, etc. I'll bet you can still get some tapered roller conversion bearings. If you change one front wheel bearing to roller you have to do all of them. Tapered rollers adjust a little differently so it is an all or nothing thing. Good luck whatever you do.

I'm just going to add that automotive (battery) cable is also available in those sizes, and it is not the same as building wire. Building wire is much stiffer than automotive cable and should be avoided in nearly all cases. When using welding cable instead of battery cable you should be extra careful to keep it away from grease contamination, heat, and so on, as it's maker did not account for automotive use in the design. The advantage of welding cable is that it is WAY more flexible than battery cable. That can be a real advantage when dealing with huge cables like 2/0 or bigger. I have used it in the past and I like it.

One thing to keep in mind it that a modern positive seal will most likely leave grooves in the surface eventually, while leather (or felt) would likely cause less damage in use. It kind of boils down to "do you have an unacceptable amount of leakage, or not?". In my case I am going to use a modern positive seal in the torque tube, because the "transmission oil seeping into the rear axle" problem (as seen in a few Chevrolets and Buicks) is something I don't ever want to have to live with down the road. I will be leaving the axle seals leather or felt, but preemptively adding some type of a vent so if the axle seals get replaced with a modern type later on, no drilling will be required.

Chevy wasn't vented until 1937, and then the vent was in a spot that leaked. The cotter pin trick is right out of a 1937 Chevy TSB. It is probably available on chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com in one of the Chevrolet service news issues from that time. My 1936 Pontiac, with it's Chevy-like rearend, isn't vented either. It will probably wind up with a cotter pin in a bolt eventually.

My 36 Pontiac still doesn't have a heater. As for the southwind, they are very effective and most likely put a hot water heater to shame, particularly if that hot water heater is in a prewar car with a fairly cold thermostat. In 1960s and 1970s cars you can sure tell a difference between a 195 degree thermostat and a 180 degree thermostat in the winter. Most prewar cars came with 160 degree thermostats (or less, or none at all) due to the alcohol antifreeze in common use at the time. Southwinds burn gasoline and I am not quite bold enough for that these days. I think I'll stick with lap robes. How about you guys?

Frank Mance Plating in Pittsburgh, PA did my Pontiac reflectors in silver.

The generator is a Chrysler alternator of the type introduced in 1960 and made until 1969 or 1970. If 1956 is a casting date, the alternator is likely a later addition.

I wish you the best of luck whatever you do, but IMHO the extra cable length will be a bigger problem than a slightly smaller battery. As others have mentioned, the cable will need to be huge. 2/0 cable should be more than adequate (and is a good choice) with the battery in the original location. If the negative cable goes to the starter (in a positive earth system), the positive cable will go either to the engine/transmission assembly or to the chassis. If positive goes to the chassis, then there needs to be a third cable or strap, every bit as big and good and clean as the other two, running from the chassis to the engine transmission. If positive goes to the engine/transmission, then there still needs to be a wire or cable from the chassis to the engine/transmission, but it can be smaller as it is not carrying starter current. Optimas are a screwy shape, but have more cranking amps than a 1930s car battery and usually fit in the available space. Some folks use 2 Optimas in parallel, and it still fits in many battery boxes. 2 should not be necessary on a Dictator.

This may be a separate issue (or not, I am having trouble getting my head around it). Originally the indicators on the dash were wired in a screwy way. I believe it was PROBABLY set up so the dash indicators would somehow indicate when a bulb on the outside of the car is bad. It did not work with Summershandy's flasher. If you have the same one, and it sounds like you do, you may have to do the same thing. The symptom (IIRC) is the dash indicators both flash with a signal on. The dash indicators are wired from the front signal circuits (one each, right and left) to a common "ground" through the third pin on the flasher. On any "normal" signal circuit, that wire would go to body/chassis ground, not to the third pin on the flasher. If you are using the same flasher Summershandy is you will need to ground that wire (but not the flasher terminal itself) to get the dash indicators working normally. You will also probably have to switch their positions in the dash. It would probably make sense to go ahead and do this. Usually if you pull a front or rear socket out with something on, both filaments will glow dimly as there is no ground, and the filament that was on has to find a ground somehow through the other filament. I wouldn't be too concerned about that now. I see you rebuilt your switch. Nice! I can't guess if those are supposed to touch without seeing what wires go there. It may be normal. Here is how it works NORMALLY, hopefully to take a little of the mystery out. ---6v from the car's electrical system goes to the flasher power terminal. It comes out another terminal and heads to the turn signal switch. At this point I should point out that the third flasher terminal's normal reason to exist is to flash a dash indicator on cars that have only one, not a separate right and left. It will be unused once you disconnect and ground the wire that goes to the dash indicator bulb grounds. ---6v also goes from the cars electrical system to to the brake light switch. Switched voltage from the brake light switch then also goes to the turn signal switch. When the signals are off, the signal switch connects both rear turn signals (the bright halves of the dual-filament rear bulbs) to the brake light switch. For now, the brake lights work just as you would expect. ---When you turn on a signal, the left signal in this example two things happen: 1) The turn signal switch connects the left front signal bulb and the left dash indicator bulb to the flasher, causing them to flash. 2) The turn signal switch disconnects the left rear signal bulb from the brake lights, and connects it to the flasher, causing it also to flash. This is how the bulb is shared for both functions. Hope this helps.