Bloo

The 38.1 is some other tire size. I think the point of that graphic was to show the difference between a tube-type rim and a tubeless one. It missed the mark slightly because the tube type rim shown has a locking ring, and a 39 Buick does not. Assuming you are in the US, cheap tires do not exist in an appropriate size. I have never seen anything close under $100. Modern tires have a different aspect ratio, and on a Special (and many other cars) it makes an already bad gearing situation worse. The outer diameter is going to be too small. For a spare it won't matter though, as long as you aren't trying to put it in a sidemount.

Clean that u joint, grease it up, and run it. They were reliable, and Chrysler used them until 64, maybe 1965 on a model or 2. I don't remember how to get the boot on. Disassembly would be good for cleaning. Keep track of the parts and put the wearing surfaces back the way they were so it doesnt have to break in again. Is that an 8-3/4" rearend? It looks like one. If it is, and you are planning on replacing the axle seals, there is a gotcha. They have to get driven in really deep, and the seal is often warped by the time you get it to the bottom of the bore. Be sure to use a driver that fits good clear to the outside of the seal, and don't use any seals with that red goop on the outer diameter. They drag too much. They will warp, but you wont know until your brakes are full of oil. If you want to seal around the outside (a good idea), use a little indian head, and be sure to drive them in immediately. Indian head is pretty slick when its wet, but not for long. Once upon a time, if you bought CR seals (at the bearing store), they came without the goop. I don't know if thats still true. The inner seals hold the oil in, and the wheel bearings are packed with wheel bearing grease. An outer seal, if it exists (it does on later MoPars), is just to keep crud out of the wheel bearing. There are probably gaskets at the wheels, a real gasket between the flange and the backing plate, and a foam one between the backing plate and the bearing flange. More stuff to keep crud out of the bearing. The oil should never be this far out. I believe the older models (like yours) with tapered axles have a shim pack on each side to set the wheel bearing endplay. I don't remember when Sure-Grip (limited slip) became an option. It really wouldn't surprise me if that is original. On the other hand, if it's 8-3/4, maybe somebody just shoved a different punkin in it. That would explain why you are having trouble getting a pinion seal. BTW the switch from shim adjusted pinion bearings to a crush sleeve occurred in the mid to late 1960s

Wasn't that long fiber grease?

Well, if the beads won't seal then you need tubes. Personally I would rather run tubeless unless some factor makes it impossible. Leaks from punctures are usually slow ones. When a tube gets a puncture it is more like BANG!!! flop...flop....flop...

One or both of those companies have a trademark on the container color.

Welcome! If you have a starter that just doesn't work, look into getting it rebuilt. If you don't have one at all, I would start by either a PM to Kurt Kelsey (KornKurt on this forum, he's located in Iowa), or a call to California Pontiac Restoration. Good luck!

Ok, so the pittman shaft is 90 degrees to the column, right? Is there just too much frame in the way? Is the steering box taller? What kind of pittman arm are you using? Buick? Jeep? Unless it is just too tall, there should be a way, You need to get the end of the pittman arm (and the arc that it swings) in the right place, and the drag link in the right place, or it just introduces bump steer. Maybe a different pittman arm? There should be a bunch of different ones that will fit on that Saginaw box. Basically the pittman shaft needs to run at the same angle the idler inner pivot point does. The box has to be at the correct height (up/down) to aim directly at the column. The Pittman arm is just gonna have to be the right length, and the right amount of up/down at the end, If it isn't, you need a different pittman arm. if the spline on the pittman shaft is so high or low at that point that a pittman arm cannot be had, then you need a different steering box. If you can get that much right and you are running into the frame or something you probably CAN get away with having the box off center a little. Do you mean the spacing away from the frame would be 1/8" off? You can fudge that a little! Yes. I know it isn't right. It means that the pittman arm would be slightly off from straight ahead, and (without any correction) the steering wheel would not be centered. Correct the steering wheel centering in the column somewhere. Yes, I know there is a necessary tight spot at the center of the steering gear. That tight spot might be wider than you think! I converted a Chevy truck decades ago. I put in a variable ratio Saginaw box. The frame was not made for it. In order to get the box in exactly the right spot (right/left), I would have had to cut and section the frame to accommodate the bulge in the side of the steering box. I elected not to because I did not want to weaken the frame where the steering attaches. In that particular case, the original manual box had one of its tabs on an aluminum spacer. It was about 1/4" or 5/16" thick. I went to the junkyard and got 2 or 3 more of those spacers. Also, I had to redrill the frame to get the steering box where I needed to be. This mounted the new box with the bulge just barely touching the frame. So, the pittman shaft wound up either 1/4" or 5/16" too far to the left (the steering box is outside the frame on a Chevy truck). This meant that the pittman arm was not quite straight ahead (but almost!) with the steering straight ahead. It also meant that rag joint was 1/4" or 5/16" left of the theoretical correct center of the column. I was afraid I would be off of the tight spot at the center, and it would be loose all over the road. It also theoretically screws up the Ackerman. I was just sure I was going to have to go back and section the frame. In practice, the steering column mounted and hooked up without even enlarging any factory holes (I did have to put in a shorter center shaft), The Ackerman error was negligible. The steering box remained tight at the center. It drove great. In one of the Chevrolet truck forums, someone now sells a bolt-on plate that does that same conversion I did. The steering box has to be shifted EVEN FURTHER left than what I did. Why? Because there is an adapter plate between the box and the frame, but my steering box was touching the frame. People rave about how great the adapters are. Apparently you can get away with EVEN MORE right/left offset than the 1/4" or 5/16" I had. I sure wouldn't worry about 1/8" of sideways shift until you have tried it. IMHO it will probably work.

Old Plumb Bob... All these years I though he was such a straight-up guy, and now I find out he's crooked.

This place has a couple of sizes that cover 2". I'm not sure where to get 1". http://restorationstuff.com/featured6.html

Before you do anything, talk to as many SM and Merak owners as you possibly can.

There is an old saying that a person who says something can't be done is often interrupted by someone doing it. Several years ago, on a forum I used to frequent, somebody started a thread to complain about the Prius. As I recall it ran to about 30 pages. All the reasons it was going to fail were outlined in great detail. The technology is too new, there will be severe reliability problems. There wont really be enough difference in efficiency from the hybrid system to help. Batteries will fail in 2 or 3 years and cost a fortune, leaving owners with a useless car and a payment. Toyota will lose money on every one they make, and it will cause them to go broke. Batteries take more resources to manufacture than the fuel saved. There were numerous thread derails to the subject of diesels, and how they are "greener" (this was years before the Volkswagen story broke). There were many more reasons the Prius couldn't possibly be any good. Replies were passionate. In 2002 my parents bought one. It outlasted both of them. I have been using it for a winter car for a few years now. It isn't my cup of tea, but it would be pretty hard to argue that was a bad purchase. It has about 212,000 miles on it, and has never had any major repairs. The traction battery is original. It got about 40-43 MPG for most of its life (with the A/C on high), but has fallen to more like 32-35 lately. That might be battery age, or it might just be lack of use. In Central Washington we just don't have the stop-and-go driving conditions that push hybrid MPG figures into the stratosphere. More recently, Toyota expanded the Prius from one model to a whole line. They don't seem to have any trouble selling them. I have long maintained that when pure-electric vehicle range improved to the point that you could get to the next major community without a recharge, popularity would explode. Tesla did, and it is happening. I see Teslas on the mountain passes around here all the time. Drive what you want. Don't worry too much about the other guy.

This is Citroen's supercar. They are incredible when they are right, however this is not a project to be taken lightly, and it is going to be expensive. The engine as you mentioned is Maserati. It is the same engine family used in the Merak, and is largely unrelated to the later V6s. It is an aluminum, wet-sleeve, double overhead cam engine. The cam chain runs up the middle of it (almost), and if I remember correctly, there is no tensioner. I would be extremely reluctant to start this after a 35 year sleep without tearing it down first, doubly so since it had issues when parked. You really don't want to risk damaging anything. The chassis is typical Citroen of the era, meaning it has a hydropneumatic suspension like a DS. The hydropneumatics alone could keep you really busy for a while on a car that has sat that long. As others have said, do LOTS of research, and read, read, read. It is an extremely complicated car. It will have needs. On the Maserati end of things, people who are new often spend money on the wrong things and then quit in frustration when they realize what still lies ahead. Repairs must be done to a very high standard. There is no "close enough". Don't jump into anything.

1954 Chevrolet Bel Air

What i think is getting sort of missed here is how much cheap tools have improved in recent years. In the 1970s-80s-90s, cheap tools were unusable crap that was probably going to cause damage to whatever you were working on, and maybe injure you. Craftsman was expensive, but good enough to get some work done. Snap-on, Matco, and Mac were excellent, but completely out of reach for the average person. If you were missing some socket to get a job done, you might ask a few friends, ask yourself if you can really justify buying some weird size socket you might never use again, and then grudgingly scrape your pennies and go buy one Craftsman socket. Today there is a lot less change scraping, and you come home with a whole set of sockets, and best of all, they don't suck. The current crop of Harbor freight wrenches, sockets, etc, are almost commercial grade. What do I mean by that? I mean they are real usable tools that fit correctly and usually don't break. They are as good as Craftsman was in the 80s, and they are finished better. Those of you who have not tried just don't know. If you were expecting the "tool sale" stuff of years past, you are in for a big surprise. I have seen big rollaway toolboxes that look perfectly usable lately at places like Harbor Freight, Home depot, etc. that cost in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands. The whole landscape has changed. Everyone and his dog has a MIG welder today. Think about that for a minute. Most of my tools are Snap-on, Matco, Mac etc. left over from my automotive career. Am I glad I kept them? Yes. Are they still noticeably better than the Harbor Freight stuff? Yes. Could I justify buying most of them for hobby use now? No.

For a head, I would PM KornKurt in this forum, or try California Pontiac Restoration. One of the two might have something. Have all those numbers you showed us ready. I don't have any new enough books to make sense of your numbers. I am pretty sure it is newer than 1937. The Pontiac Straight Eight was made from 1933-1954.

Some bad gas probably got in there and glued the valves in place . Can you move those valves now? It is possible (usually) to unstick valves without taking the heads off, but it might be more work. If they wont just easily come unstuck, you can fill each cylinder with rope, compress it against the valves (by hand) with the piston, and take off the valve springs. You will probably need to make your own prying tool to compress the valvesprings. Then, a combination of carb cleaner, penetrating oil and pounding with a SOFT hammer may get them loose, Only a brass or plastic hammer, don't use a steel one. Once they move wash the guides out well with the carb clean and penetrating oil, then reassemble. If stuck valves from bad fuel are the problem, you will most likely need to clean the whole fuel system out. For now, I would clean out the carb (overhaul it), the fuel pump, and the line, and then I would start the repaired engine on some premix (gas with 2-cycle oil in it from a boat can), and warm it up. Once you have a good engine again, move on to cleaning out the gas tank and the line to the back. Or, you could pull the heads. I would not expect it to squirt oil while cranking. Most engines dribble. There are plenty of 322 people in this forum and I expect someone will post the answer to that soon.

This is an open-driveline car, right? Block the wheels. Jack up one rear wheel. Leave the other one touching the ground. Put the car in neutral and release the e-brake. Make a mark, or put a piece of tape on the driveline or u-joint flange so you can see how far the driveshaft turns. It helps to have 2 people. Make a mark on the tire you jacked up with a piece of tape. Carefully rotate the wheel just enough to take out any slack in the gears and splines, without rotating the driveline. Now, continue rotating in the same direction while watching the driveline (you probably need a second person to watch the driveline). Rotate the wheel exactly 2 turns. Count how many whole turns the driveshaft makes, and then note how much of a partial turn it made at the end. For instance, 4-1/2 turns is about 4:50, and that gets you close. Then, if you know what ratios were available in your axle, you can pick the closest one. For instance, my Pontiac had 4:11, 4:44, 4:55, 4:89 available. It made a little more than 4-3/4 turns, so thats 4:89.

Well I read them, I just don't have a lot to add. Keep it up!

1968 Ford Galaxie, or maybe LTD.

What do you mean by pigtail? There are all sorts of things that could have gone wrong. The good news is that 1958 and 1939 are electrically compatible. IMHO socks are a great idea. If it were me I would add one even if using the original sending unit. This is a 0-30 Ohm system, with 0 being empty. What you need to accomplish now is 0 ohms empty and 30 ohms full. The float could be bad or leaky, or it could be hitting on something in the tank, or the arm could be bent wrong, or it could be too long..... When you get the tank out measure the ohms. Short the leads of the ohmmeter first to see how many Ohms the leads are. If it reads 1.2 Ohms for instance, that is really zero. Now measure the sending unit in the tank with no gas. It should be very close to "zero". If the float hits the bottom it won't get there. Turn the (empty) tank upside down. It needs to go to 30 ohms or higher (given your symptoms, it probably wont). If it wont, take the sending unit out and try to see if it goes to 30 ohms out of the tank. Check to be sure the float isn't leaky or full of gas. If it is a brass float you can dunk it in hot water and look for bubbles. If all that is OK, see if you can tell what the arm was hitting on. If it is not hitting anything, maybe the arm is too long and the float is hitting the top of the tank before the sending unit gets to 30 ohms. Incidentally, the float should really never QUITE hit the tank. The sending unit should have stops of some sort. If the float hits, over time it might crack. Once you have figured that part out, I would also try it right side up with some gas. Suck out the gas through the pickup with a transfer pump (do NOT use a fuel pump or anything electric). Do not buy the orange/red plunger type transfer pump at Harbor Freight. It is crap and wont even last long enough to fix one gas tank. Get something with a squeeze bulb or a crank. The idea here is to make sure that the gauge gets to zero (0 Ohms) before you run out of gas. Ideally, you should be able to keep pumping fuel after the sender hits 0 ohms. Pay attention to how much you can pump before it sucks air and stops pumping. The difference between these two points is your reserve. The service manual sometimes even tells you how much the reserve was originally. It probably shouldn't be 5 gallons for instance, maybe 2. If it is wrong, you probably need to give the arm a little bend. You can't suck all the gas out, and any left in the bottom after sucking out the reserve is simply lost capacity. For this reason, the hole in the end of the pipe with the sock on it needs to be REALLY low in the tank. If you have to bend the float arm to fix empty/reserve (0 ohms), then turn the tank upside down again after emptying it. Make sure it still gets to 30 ohms upside down. Work outside. Have a fire extinguisher handy.

How about a Brush?

It should be greased a little or it could rust from condensation, and that could get in the bearings. There is also a cavity in the hub between the wheel bearings. Some cars want grease packed in there, others explicitly don't, but either way it should be coated with enough grease to prevent rust.

Hupmobile model R?

1956 Plymouth

Check that the body, frame, and engine are grounded solidly together (could a ground strap somewhere have failed?).