Bloo

You'll need 2 corks.......

Are you SURE you aren't overfilling it? Old cars typically only want the tubes in the radiator covered, and not much more. They spit out what they don't want. I imagine you know that, but I have to throw it out there. You could have radiator foaming, or your water pump packing could be leaking excessively, or some combination of the two. Slight head gasket leak? Have you retorqued the head recently? Many oldies need it when they get a major tune up. I hesitate to suggest it because I don't know if it is a dangerous thing to do on the President. You might see what Studebaker recommended, and also what other President owners say today before trying it. If it's not overfull, my money is on the water pump packing needing tightening.. or a little more packing. Nice car!

Good lord. Bon Ami? Yes people used to do that. They used to put horse manure in radiators to seal leaks too, that doesn't mean it is a good idea. If some factory is recommending that, my first thought is they are doing it out of cheapness, hoping the problem will go away. No one with any mechanical sympathy at all will spend hours doing a bunch of nice machine work and then throw sand at it. When you seat the rings in an engine, it is mainly the cylinder bore itself that has to wear to break in, not the rings. The rings are fairly round. The cylinder bores, with more heat at the top than the bottom, head bolt torque pulling on the walls, etc. are not near as round as we might hope. During break in, the rings are scraping down the high spots. Engines exist that have such hard, tough, high quality steel in the cylinder walls that break in can be really difficult. I can assure you that the Chevrolet 283 (yes, I own one) is not one of those engines. Drive the car. Cars that sit around for extended periods (I have a few of those too!) never really work to their full potential. One of the things that happens is that the rings get gummed up and stick. If the car runs reasonably well, don't get caught up in the little stuff, least of all oil consumption, until you have daily driven it for 3 months or so. Just keep it full of clean oil. Check it every day at first, and then at every fill up once after you have a handle on how much it uses. Change the oil if it looks or smells bad. If it has a PCV system, clean it out. Above all, drive it. If after a month or so it seems that the engine was never broken in, then use tinindian or plymouthcranbrook's method. No point in heavily stressing it now if it has been sitting a lot. Let it wake up.

If it's cork, and you use the one from the wine, don't forget to seal it first. Gas tank sealer might work. Bob's has pre-sealed corks as an alternative. 1937 Buick still used a cork. Did 1940?

Also ask on the VCCA Forums if you have not already done so. http://vccachat.org/ Good luck, and hope you find one.

It looks fine to me, the resistance wire isn't broken or worn through. You'll need to clean the wiper and that contact at the end with all the green corrosion, at least in the spot where the wiper contacts it. I don't see how the wiper gets it's ground, It's in a shadow in the picture. You will have to clean or repair that so that you have a good connection between that lower piece and the wiper. How were the halves held together? The lower piece will need a solid electrical connection to the top piece also. I would probably solder it in at least one spot when putting it back. I would also add a ground strap or wire from one of the sender mounting screws to the chassis. The float will be bad. If the Mopar sources don't have it, Bobs Automobilia has Buick ones that come already sealed and should work fine. If you try to make your own, use only solid cork, not that cork that is made of little pieces glued together. It was recently suggested in another thread that balsa will work. I've not tried it. Either way it must be sealed with something impervious to gas and alcohol. Gas tank sealer would probably do. The closed-cell nature of cork is not enough by itself, you must seal it. All this assumes it is the right sender for the car. It must match the gauge electrically. You could get a good guess by measuring the resistor with your ohmmeter while it is apart. It should be the same or just a little more than the highest expected reading on a good sender for your car.

Full pressure oiling came in 1953, but only in cars with automatics. I had one of the last of the dippers, a 53 with a stick. Don't bet on it. It's true in the US, but things get really weird in Canada.

IIRC the last 2 years of Studebaker used McKinnon engines, which were Canadian made industrial Chevrolets. 194, 230 and 283. Before that, it was all Studebaker built engines.

Typically no, but a good alignment specialist will know what to do. The main issue is toe in. Oversimplifying a bit, toe in is used to compensate for the drag/friction of the tires. If the tires are toed out, the car will be unstable, wanting to dart all over the place. As speed increases, so does drag and this loads up the suspension making the tires tend to toe out. The factory toe in spec will be such that when the suspension is loaded up at speed, the tires will be going straight, or still a tiny bit toed in. They should stay straight or toed in under braking too. There is rubber in the suspension... Radials will work fine with original specs. the issue is that they drag less, and don't need as much toe in to never toe out. If you run factory specs, the tires will drag more than they need to at speed because they are toed in more than they need to be. Also they will wear faster than they need to. You can do better by changing the specs. If you have to guess how much toe in, 1/2 of factory spec is a good place to start experimenting. Some cars are even fine with zero toe on radials. I don't think the "more caster" thing is necessarily a radial thing. More caster causes the wheels to want to steer toward the center of the car. This makes the car feel really planted and stable. It also makes the steering return more positive (and harder to steer with manual steering). It makes the car feel more like a driver would expect today. There is such a thing as too much, especially on bumpy roads. If one wheel is knocked loose the other one will still try to steer toward the center of the car. The more positive steering return of extra caster would likely be appreciated by the same people who would prefer the relaxed straight-ahead feel of radial tires. Maybe that's the connection. For what it's worth, about 3 or 4 degrees positive caster can be very nice on a big American car with power steering. I am not sure what number would be ideal on a Riviera.

One side will read battery voltage (measured to ground). That is normal. The other side should make some voltage when the generator spins up (measured to ground). If it won't, the generator isn't working. When the generator makes a enough voltage, the cutout should snap down and connect the two together. A fast idle or a little more should do it no matter what. If the generator will make some voltage revved up, but the cutout is not kicking in, look for trouble with the cutout. Once the two are connected, then the voltage will rise to something above battery voltage (on both sides as they are connected together now). If the cutout snaps down, but the system still doesn't charge, the cutout points are probably dirty. P.S. 16 amps sounds like a lot. I seem to remember one or two of the VCCA experts say the numbers in the book are absolute maximum, for bench testing, looking for trouble, and that generator will melt and throw solder if you attempt to run it on the car for any length of time set that high. Even if the generator could sustain it, 16 amps sounds way too high for a car with no voltage regulator and only a cutout. Nothing to worry about until you get it charging though. P.P.S. If I had it apart I would probably shine that commutator up with some crocus cloth. I expect it will work as is though. Make sure your brushes move freely and are held under a little spring tension against the commutator.

Headlamps, prefocused (with the ring so you don't have to adjust focus when you change a bulb) and manual focus (bayonet sockets that you focus mechanically) both are focused lamps. The reflector is designed around a small point of light. In many old designs that had v-shaped filaments the "hot spot" is effectively a sphere. In newer designs, usually the filament is straight and there is a tiny cylindrical shaped light source. Usually the cylinder of light is placed front to rear in European-influenced designs, and side to side in American influenced designs. In September 2020 as I am writing this, an LED does not yet simply hang out in space like a filament and throw light in all directions. The LED itself throws light out the front (as of September 2020) and requires a heatsink on the back. For this reason it is currently impossible to simulate a filament. Lens and reflector systems have to be designed around the LEDs to work properly. On high beam, moving the spot anywhere other than the focal point defocuses the beam. You can get bright, but probably not shine very far. On low beam, a second filament is off center of the focal point and is intentionally defocused, but if the light source is not in the expected place, it still probably wont hit the road in the expected pattern. If you look at the construction of an LED bulb, you will see the problem. In recent times I have seen some LED replacements that have LED light sources sunk down deep in slots in the heatsink fins. This gets the light a lot closer to where it needs to be, and has to be a huge improvement over the ones that came before. It still isn't really close enough. A bulb is likely to outperform it for visibility, although the LED probably looks brighter (and whiter too) to oncoming traffic. If any of you guys try them, please report back. LEDs will be a really great thing for our antiques if they ever get LED replacements really working good. The light output is so high and the current draw is so low. EDIT: What I wrote above only applies to headlights and other focused lights, like driving lights. LEDs should (and do) work great in tail lights, brake lights, signals, etc. EDIT 2: Stude Light, Yes you can brighten up dashlights with LEDs and several members here have done it. It works fine. Dash lights back in the day were often run dim on purpose, so that your eyes would adjust to the dark and get the most out of the (probably lousy) headlights. If the car happens to have only a switch for the dashlights and does not have a dimmer, It is almost a certainty that the dashlights would have been engineered dim. LEDs draw less current and make less heat at the same brightness level, so there is really nothing to stop you from sticking in some LEDs that have higher light output if bright is what you want. You probably won't overheat anything.

It isn't that simple but..... Assuming a car with a distributor..... In general a higher resistance coil draws less electrical current and charges the magnetic field in the coil slower. A lower resistance coil draws more current and charges the magnetic field faster. In general, a coil's design is a dance between charging the magnetic field fast enough so there is a spark for the next cylinder at maximum RPM, yet not drawing so much electrical current that the points burn right away. Most (probably over 90 percent) of 6 volt coils have about 1.5 ohms resistance or less, and no ballast resistor. The few oddballs that use a ballast resistor probably have a resistance even lower. 12 volt coils are typically about 1.5 ohms if there is a ballast resistor connected in series, and about 3.0 ohms if there is not. The ballast resistor, if used, limits current and the 1.5 ohm coil runs at about 7 or 8 volts, pretty close to what would happen if it was used on a 6 volt car. Some electronic ignitions (GM HEI for instance) have some form of current limiting designed into the ignition module, and use 1.5 ohm or less coils with no ballast resistor. When a points ignition (or electronic for that matter) cannot keep up, it is usually because there is not enough time between firings to charge the coil for the next spark. There could also be mechanical considerations due to points floating or bouncing or something. To charge the magnetic field faster, you would use a lower resistance coil. With that in mind, an ignition that starts failing at 5000 RPM on a 1960s American V-8 engine would be good for almost 10000 RPM on a 4 cylinder engine, because the cylinders fire half as often, and there is twice the time to charge magnetic field in the coil. Assuming you have 2 coils, 2 sets of points, and the cylinders fire alternately...... An old prewar slow-turning 8 cylinder with 2 coils as you describe is extremely low demand on the coils. How fast can you spin it? 2000RPM? 2500? The coils will see HALF of that because the coils fire alternately, doubling the charge time. It is the easiest job imaginable for the coils. It seems to me that literally any coil should work on that car, although I'll bet the originals were something closer to 1.5 ohm. I can't explain the behavior you were seeing, starting with the one plug wire removed. Be sure your distributor is grounded well, and that each coil is getting pulled down to 0 volts on the points terminal when that coil's set of points is closed. If there are pertronix ignition modules being used as well as the coils, the distributor ground still matters.

....And in 1975 the Urbacar. I might still do it... Never too late....

Submerge it in a bucket of diesel and come back in a few weeks?

Craig Gillingham nailed it as close as you will get without reading the data plate (or the emblems on the side if they are still there. It is an R-series International. They start at R-110, a half ton pickup, and get steadily bigger from there. R-160 is about 2 tons or so, and probably about right for a school bus. Postwar, International's first trucks, K or maybe KA series (the details escape me right now) looked more or less prewar. In 1950 the L series came along. It looks like this: Internationals were more by series than by year, and the L series ran from 1950-1952. 90 percent of the ones that show up for sale seem to be 1952. Occasionally you will see one titled 1953 but..... In 1953 the R series came along. It was a minor facelift of the L. It looks like this: It looked like your mystery bus in 1953, 1954, and 1955. Here is a smaller R-160 school bus from 1955: In 1956 (or maybe sometime in 1955) the R series was replaced with the S series, but only for small and medium size trucks. Medium would have included the school bus. The S series looks like this:

Yes to all of that. The flare nut wrench might also be called a tubing wrench. Six point sockets and 12 point sockets. 12 point sockets are used for rounding off nuts. Nobody knows why they are still made. Tool kits usually come with an abundance of them. 6 point sockets are used for taking things apart.

I had 2 boosters done there last year. Highly recommended.

Any good quality wheel bearing grease will be fine. I like Redline CV-2, it is synthetic and very low friction. You probably shouldn't pack the hubs, but do coat the inside of the hub and the bearing cap with grease so they can't rust.

I'll be really surprised if that Delco one doesn't work. If it doesn't, I'll bet it can be made to work without too much trouble.

Use whatever you want but change it often. When the corrosion protection runs out, things get bad rather quickly. On those GM problem cars the factory said 5 years, and it was just too long. It wouldn't surprise me if the recommendation could be traced to some US emission regulations (which often specify minimum maintenance periods) rather than engineering, but I don't know. Those same GM cars used an intake gasket type that also failed spectacularly on iron engine Fords that used the old coolant formulation. I have been using the pink stuff and similar "modern" formulations since the 1980s, and I like it. It is less messy if it leaks. Nobody was dying it pink back then, but you could get it if you knew who to call. Today most of my cars have DexCool in them. None of them were originally supplied with it. I don't have much radiator or heater core trouble, and have yet to have any car sidelined by a rotten aluminum casting. I do change my coolant often. Your mileage may vary.

I would use only what the rebuilder recommended. In 1957, Type F did not exist yet, Type A was used. Dex/Merc older versions (2, 3, maybe others) are the successor to Type A. In 1963 (IIRC) Ford introduced their own fluid type, and recommended using it retroactively all the way back to their earliest automatic. I have seen at least one case where that did not work out well at all and the transmission had to be changed back (to Dex II or III as a Type A substitute). While I doubt a little mixed in would make any difference, I wouldn't use it. I found these transmissions temperamental at best. If it works right, don't change anything.

At a stoplight, if you are in a hurry to get into gear, push the clutch in and "touch" second or third gear before going for first. That will stop first gear, and so no grinding. You can go all the way into another gear instead of touching it if you want, and it still works, but it is not necessary to go all the way in.

Whew! What a relief to hear you are ok, and that your home is still there.

Also the extra tank ground is a very good Idea. I would keep it or make a new one. If the grounding is lousy the gauge does not get all the way to "E" when the tank is empty. The grounding through the straps or whatever can deteriorate over time and the owner usually finds out when he runs out of gas but the gauge is still above "E".

According to my 1937 parts book none would begin with a "U", so likely a 4. I see a problem though, 499787 is shown as a 1937 hubcap. 497877 is listed for 1935 Sixes with wire wheels 497913 is listed for 1935 Sixes and Eights. 499787 is listed for 1937 Sixes and Eights.