Bloo

Well, thats fine. If you can hold pressure at idle and low RPM, the oil probably doesn't need to be thicker, unless that all goes away with the oil hot, or it starts falling off when wound up. The 37 is most likely the setting of the relief spring in your oil pump bypass.

Get some Valvoline 20W-50 oil (for the Buick, not the Jeep) and see what happens. You might be surprised.

Don't worry about the oil pump. The valves will work without it, badly and loudly, but they will work. 13CADDY's timing chain is a good guess. If nobody has been moving the distributor around you should be able to turn the crank to TDC and see if the distributor rotor points to #1 (or exactly away from #1). If it points anywhere else, the timing chain probably jumped. If, on the other hand, the rotor is pointing where it should, then proceed to a compression test.

Wet is oiled threads, dry is dry threads. It does make a difference in how much tension gets put on the bolt.

Many states still offer paper maps, and they are usually free! Look at a rest area or welcome center when you cross a state line.

I drive this 36 Pontiac a lot.....

Much is made of the yellow metal issue, but rarely is it brought up that synchronizers are a BRAKE, and most GL5, and some modern GL4 oils are just too slippery for the synchronizers to work right. You can mask that to some extent with thick gloppy oil and shifting really early, but wouldn't it be nice if the synchros just worked? I tried that Master Pro oil in my 36 Pontiac, and it was not terrible, even pretty good when warm, but was clearly inferior to whatever I drained out. I drained the Master Pro out and put in Redline 75w140-NS. That is a synthetic that somehow meets GL5, but is safe for yellow metal, and intended for use with synchros. It shifts great with this oil, just like it did with whatever oil I initially drained out. It is a thin oil, so maybe it will all just leak out, It is too early to tell. The only downside is that since the oil is rather thin, it takes longer for the gears to spin down at a stoplight. I just tap second or third to stop the gears before I go into first. My transmission is very similar to the one used in the 40 series Buicks. I can't comment on the big Buick transmission (it is different).

Yes, I am still interested!

Sort out the suspension and steering first. That cannot be repeated enough. It should drive fine on bias ply tires. That said, radials can mask a million problems. Bias ply tires by their nature squirm the tread as it rolls under the contact patch, reducing traction. They also deform when they hit a bump or a pebble not quite square, and that deformation results in a steering input. Your car had to be able to control all that when it was new at the speeds it was designed to run. If it can't now, it needs work. Do it first. Radials will make just about any car stop wandering. The trouble is, if there are suspension problems you may not notice until you have ruined a tire or two, and it can happen very fast. Also, it may not respond properly on that bad day when you need to make a really sudden unexpected maneuver to avoid an accident. I would be up for trying radials on almost any car, including yours if I owned it, but I do drive a lot. In most prewar sizes they just aren't available. When they are available, they are more expensive than bias, and bias are already too expensive. Tires are consumables like gas and oil. It makes no sense to spend the extra money if they are going to rot before the tread is used up.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pontiac-1935-36-37-38-39-40-41-1942-NOS-Accelerator-Pedal-AP3013W-Made-in-USA/362230813066 Not mine. They have these listed for a whole bunch of different makes, all with the same part number in the picture. I have a strong suspicion it is the same as your picture with holes all over the back. They have no picture of the back. You might have to ask for one. The ball pivots are just a standard part of some kind, at least on my 36 Pontiac (that they claim the pedal fits). It might be these, but measurements (and possibly thread size) would be needed. https://www.ebay.com/itm/58-70-GM-Gas-Accelerator-Arm-Pedal-Pad-Rubber-Metal-Steel-Core-studs-ball-2pc/202040027552

You can also use steel nuts on the stainless studs if you need more torque than brass can provide. It works well and doesn't get stuck like stainless does.

In the upfit of new police cars, I have had stainless nuts freeze to stainless bolts while running the nut down, before they ever hit the washers. When removing equipment at the end of the cars life, a majority (but not all) of the stainless bolts just twisted off. I was advised in some other thread that by carefully selecting what grades of stainless to use in the bolts and the nuts, the problem can be avoided. I don't doubt it, but I'll bet it never happens at a hardware store. Anyway, I am also glad it worked out for you.

For what it's worth, on these old ones we usually rebuild rather than replace. Its easier than finding another, and usually the end result is better. If it is not the sort of thing you want to tackle yourself, look for an "Auto Electric" shop in your area. Many areas have one. For instance, around the Seattle area there is this: https://www.romaineelectric.com/ An auto electric shop can probably get the starter drive (and any other worn parts), but if not, Bob's remains a possibility.

It looks as if it is the same as 37 Buick 80 then. I obtained one of those starter drives from Bobs Automobilia in fairly recent times (maybe 4 years ago).

http://restoringcornelius.com/files/29-48 Delco Remy.pdf It looks like that has manual engagement with a pedal, and the linkage literally pushes the switch after the gear is engaged. I have the same setup, more or less, on a 36 Pontiac. It uses a starter drive gear with an overrunning clutch inside. If this is what you have, the gear should have to be engaged before the linkage would hit the switch to turn the starter on. I would verify that the linkage actually pushes the gear out, just to be sure that the fork hasn't worn clear through and/or the internal linkage is not screwed up somehow. If you can verify that the linkage does indeed positively push the gear out, then the trouble HAS to be with the overrunning clutch in the starter drive (gear). If that is the case, you need a whole new starter drive (gear). They do not come apart for service. The most common failure of a starter drive is exactly what you describe. The starter motor turns, but does not turn the engine.

I guess if it doesn't vapor lock, then you don't need it. Current Internet wisdom about vapor lock suggests this wouldn't help anyway. On the other hand, back in the 80s before we had the Internet, I added one of these Buick filters (and a return line) to a Ford and almost cured an aggressive vapor lock problem. It went from vapor locking even on cool days to only vapor locking if the outside temp was 98F or higher. Can't you buy it anymore? If you can't, one from a carbureted Chrysler K-Car will substitute. It won't look right, but it will fit.

These only have one filament and it is a bright one. You could conceivably combine stop and signal (using the method we were talking about several posts back), but you would still have to have something else for a taillight. A double filament stop/taillight bulb has 3 connections. The two little contacts are both hot, one is for the bright filament and the other is for the dim one. The base is the third contact. Both filaments ground through the base. On these Par36 bulbs, the two terminals are hot and ground and there is only one filament. Also, it doesn't matter which terminal you use for ground. The brakelight switch wont care which terminal is which. On the flasher, however, you will have to use the correct terminals for each wire.

You have sealed beams for signal lights?!! I take it then they are separate from the brake lights. That changes everything. There would not need to be any interconnection between those and the brake lights. For brakes: 6v >> brakelight switch >> large filaments in tail/stop light housings. For signals: 6v >> flasher >> signal switch >> 4 wires, one each, to 4 signal lights This assumes a signal switch that has separate wires for front and rear. If you have separate wires, use them, because the sealed beams probably draw a lot of current. The separate wires for front and rear are not necessary though in a system like this. If you dont have them, just hook the right wire to both right lights, and the left wire to both left lights. How many watts are those sealed beams? If they are a lot more than a signal light bulb, it is gonna be really hard on the signal switch, and you might need a heavier duty flasher.

A GM gauge of that period is 0-30 ohms. Next time you have the tank full, measure from the gas tank sending wire to ground. Measure just the sending unit, disconnect the gauge from it. It should measure about 30 ohms or maybe more. If it says 15 ohms or so, the problem is still in the tank. If 30 ohms or more, the trouble is with the gauge. Make sure the gauge also has a good ground. Sending units are electrically the same on 6v and 12v GM cars up until roughly 1965. These are balanced coil gauges, and are fairly insensitive to voltage, but all the way from 12v to 6v could be an issue. Yes, a 12v gauge would be different than a 6 volt gauge. It probably matters but I have not tried it. Going the other way, using a 6v gauge in a 12v car, the gauge would draw too much current and I would worry about it burning out. Some people have got away with it. I don't know for how long.

Yeah, if you look inside, the bright one is bigger! If both come on, either something is wired incorrectly, or there is a bad ground. Usually it means a bad ground.

There are two common ways of handling the turn signal/stoplight issue. The first is to have a separate filament (or whole bulb) for the rear turn signals. In the modern era most Asian cars do this. 39 Buick is another example. In this scenario, the turn signals are a completely separate circuit, and not tied into anything. The switch is just a simple switch. The second method shares the stoplight filament with the turn signals. This is how most American cars are wired from the time factory turn signals became common (early 50s) through the 80s or 90s at least. Usually a dual filament bulb is used. There is a dim filament and a bright one. The dim one is for taillights ONLY. The bright one is shared between the turn signals and the brakelights. It looks like you are using the second method. To share the filaments, the turn signal switch has to be much more sophisticated. Here's how it works: 6V is fed through the flasher (in through one pin and out through another) to the turn signal switch. In the switch, one front signal bulb gets connected when you turn a signal on. 6V is fed through the brake light switch to the turn signal switch, from there the switch connects it to the bright filament of both rear bulbs when no signals are on. Brake lights work as normal. When you turn on a signal, the turn signal switch disconnects ONE rear bulb from the brakelight switch, and connects it to the flasher. The third pin on the flasher is for an indicator inside the car. If there is only one indicator bulb, it connects to the third flasher pin. If there are 2 indicator bulbs inside the car, one for right and one for left, they connect to the front signals, and the third flasher pin is not used. Yes, there need to be completely separate wires all the way from the turn signal switch to each bright filament in the rear bulbs. Without this, there would be no way for the turn signal switch to disconnect ONLY ONE bright filament from the brakelights and connect it to the flasher when you turn a signal on. As JACK M mentioned, pay attention to the ground path from ANY light back through the body or frame or whatever. If the grounds are bad, the problems will be bizarre.

I think both the red Olds and the car in question have a firewall dent, it just isnt showing up well. How about a 1936 LaSalle? http://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=80268

Still looking for a 1937 40 series pulley or whole generator. Condition fairly unimportant. Generator is Delco 918B or 918G. Pulley is 1869825. The pulley may be the same through 1939 (I have conflicting sources about that). The one I am looking for looks like the Roadmaster pictured above, but is a little narrower. It is still a wide pulley compared to most, just not as wide as the Roadmaster. Thanks.

I think someone added that. Note the two old wiper protrusions below the windshield.

What engine do you have? The drains from the head are probably clogged, most likely with crud and pieces of old umbrella seal. This issue affects Wideblock 318s, and probably early Hemi and Spitfire as well (isn't yours a Spitfire?). It happens because when the valve cover does not drain, the oil level has to come up much higher to spill over into the lifter valley. The result is that the exhaust valve stems, guides and springs are underneath oil. The oil slowly drains into the exhaust manifold and makes all the smoke when you fire it up. You don't necessarily need to replace the valve seals if you find pieces, not unless you're just trying to reduce the oil consumption to that of a brand new engine. Just unplugging the drains should get rid of the smoke.