Bloo

I must be missing something. On the Cadillac what fires the other 4 cylinders? On the Lincoln, if there are 2 sets of points, and 2 coils, a single condenser would need to be in parallel with the points. How can it be in parallel with both sets of points? Both coils would fire at once. There are 2 setups I am familiar with. On one of them, there are 2 sets of points, 2 coils, 2 condensers, and it is essentially 2 separate ignition systems. one set of points fires every other cylinder. In this way, coil charging time is doubled. On the other type, the type popular in the musclecar era for v8 engines, one set of points does the opening, the other set does the closing. There is one condenser, and one coil. This is essentially the same as a single point system, but allows more charging time for the coil (but probably not double). If the size of the condenser (in microfarads) is wrong, metal will transfer from one point to another leaving a "mountain". Which point the mountain is on tells you whether the condenser should be bigger or smaller.

This was just posted on the VCCA Forums: https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/422850/hampton-coach-lebaron-bonney-is-gone.html#Post422850

I suspect the worm needs the EP protection even worse than the hypoid does, it just can't have any because of the brass. I don't know what the best answer is but this thread has some good ideas. It has been an interesting read. Plain bevel gears or spiral bevel gears are the ones that do not typically need EP oil. The driveshaft comes in at the axle centerline on these. They can have EP oil as long as there are no brass parts inside. The viscosity scales are not the same. SAE numbers are ranges. SAE gear oil ranges are completely different than SAE motor oil ranges. ISO is more specific about viscosity. 600w is neither. It is a brand of steam oil, and is available in a couple of different viscosities.

Fabric wrapped belts are still made for industrial and implement use. Bando Power King belts even have marks that look like they could have come from the old days, if you daub a little flat black paint over the most modern looking parts. Not absolutely authentic of course, but it sure doesn't stick out like a modern automotive belt.

Yep.

Other members may be able to give you a chemical analysis of what happened. I can't do that, but I can tell you that brake fluid basically destroys anything it touches. It does clean up with water. When some gets spilled, the best thing you can do is flush with massive amounts of water, and as soon as possible. Seconds count for paint. The thing you have to be careful of is not to get any water inside of the system. For instance, if you are flushing around a master cylinder, make sure no water can get in through the cap or vent hole. As I understand it, brake fluid will attract water, and when it mixes with water it becomes very corrosive to iron/steel, and possibly other metals.

Pushing (or pulling) on the dent in the exact opposite direction it was hit will make a lot of it come out. The closer you can get to exactly reversing the force that made the dent, the more will come out. It may be worth doing before disassembly if parts underneath are bent. Hopefully someone in the forum will have parts. If not, CTC auto ranch in Texas (I have never dealt with them, so no experience there) is showing this Century parts car. LF fender looks good. http://www.ctcautoranch.com/Parts Cars/Buick/1958 and Back/1958 and Back/1956 Buick Century Parts Car 2/1956 Buick Century Parts Car 2.html

Crap. That sucks. Not uncommon out here in Eastern WA. I have had a bunch of near misses this year. I can tell by looking the damage isn't that bad. Don't let the insurance bully you. If at all possible get them to pay you for the damage so that the title never changes hands (instead of buying it back). Whatever happens, its your car, not theirs. I would start fixing just as soon as the insurance adjuster is done looking. Whatever you do, make it drivable soon even if it isn't pretty. Don't fall into the trap of having to put it back perfect if the money isn't there. Maybe the fender wont match. Maybe it will be pink or something. Don't worry about it. Get it back on the road.

I like seeing them too. I find Russian and eastern bloc cars really interesting because we never saw them here in the US back in the day. I think a few of them may have had distributors in the US (NewYork or LA) prior to 1962 or so, but few were sold.

To satisfy my own curiosity, what year was the one that didn't fit?

It most likely does not use seals at all on the rear of the engine or the front of the transmission, it is too old for that. I would ask over here: https://vccachat.org/ The engine probably uses some kind of arrangement with a slinger, a tube, and a check ball. The transmission probably uses a spiral groove on the input shaft, and a drain hole through the front gasket back into the transmission. Those guys will know for sure where to look, and probably how to fix it when you figure out what is leaking.

Doesn't matter if it is counterweighted or not, inline four is what makes the difference. The crank is balanced only to itself. One without counterweights is unlikely to be very far out of balance anyway. Pistons and rods are matched to each other.

But, if you buy a "smart charger", don't throw your old charger away. If the battery is really dead, most smart chargers will refuse to charge. You will have to jumper in a second battery that is not completely dead to get the charging process started.

Deer skin? Easy to work with?! Wow.... I made some shift boots out of it and found it to be the toughest stuff to sew on a machine I ever encountered. It's too soft and stretchy. It's like trying to sew Jell-o. It is unbelievably tough and probably a great choice from a durability standpoint. I would expect it to outlast cow leather.

On that (bakelite?) one I don't know.. I'm not sure what I am looking at. Try one contact with a soldering iron from the top (carefully). If it melts, maybe the holes go clear through and the connector stays one piece. As for the contacts, they are the same thing as a taillight for 60 years or so. Someone must have them. I don't know who though. I have salvaged them out of other sockets in the past. I have also just formed the copper wire into the right shape and soldered it. Works fine, but hopefully you don't have to resort to that in a restoration.

Look in the shop manual. I know that sounds like a snarky answer. I don't mean it that way. A quick look under the hood would just as easily tell the story. I have not disassembled one of these, but have seen and touched one, and it was just like every other car of the period. The steering column was part of the steering box. Separate steering columns became common in a much later era. The shaft (sorry, I don't know the size), most likely is the pinion, and it has it's own bearings, just like any other common car of the period. The steering column will have a bearing only at the top near the steering wheel. I admit, I have wondered about dissembling in the chassis. I have stared at the shop manual for my Pontiac wondering if it might be possible, as I have a bad bearing on the pinion I need to change. This would mean doing a steering box overhaul and complete setup in the chassis. Crazy? Yes, but I am considering it. My Pontiac is a 36 though and is a simple worm and sector. IIRC GM steering boxes took a quantum leap in 1937, and that Buick is probably a recirculating ball type. Even I am not brave enough to disassemble that in the chassis. A quick look in the shop manual should sort out what type of box it is. There are pictures of the box/column in GaryW's thread, like this one: https://content.invisioncic.com/r277599/monthly_2017_02/DSC_0947.JPG.905ff5bff6d8ac1776d27b956edc83d8.JPG

I heard that its back with a new owner, and it is now "Jim's Antique Battery" or something like that. I have not ordered anything yet.

What follows is generic for sockets that look about like that one: On the left connector, it appears that the phenolic has little tabs sticking out slots in the sides, much like a bulb socket. What needs to happen here, it that the whole mess needs to be pushed down against the spring tension, and tilted. Once tilted enough that the uppermost tilted tab clears the slot, the whole thing will slide up and out, while still tilted. Be careful. Once out, the wires solder to the contacts. Sometimes the contacts will lift out of the phenolic. It might theoretically be possible to slide the contacts up and out without taking the socket apart, but this is dubious, and not likely to work due to the insulation on the wires being too big around. The contacts will be hollow, You will need to unsolder them and clean out the holes. If they crimped or spot welded them instead of soldering (unlikely) you will need to locate new contacts. The new wires strip (maybe 1/8") and poke in the hole in the bottom of the contact and solder in. Once all the new wires are on, you'll have to do the tilt trick again to get the phenolic back in. It is fiddly, but not impossible. Fix your bulb sockets the same way! The connector on the right I am not familiar with, but it looks to have the same contacts. If so, they will need to push/pry and come out the top, unsolder & clean, poke new wires through the holes, solder the contacts on, and then pull on the wire or push on the contact to get it back down flush. If they molded the plastic around the contacts and the wires, you have a much bigger job on your hands. Good luck. EDIT: That connector on the right MIGHT be made to stay in one piece, and the holes in the contacts MIGHT go clear through. and you clean them out in place, stick wires in from the bottom, and solder from the top. If it is bakelite it can probably take the heat of soldering. If it is rubber or some other plastic maybe not.

Well..... looking further..... The answer may be a lot simpler. Apparently pre-1948 flatheads, as originally built, used oil from the engine fed from the front of that main galley down to lubricate the water pumps. You may need to overhaul one or both of your water pumps. Here is a current thread about water pump rebuilders:

Ok, heres a Ford flathead oiling system, but newer. Does your shop manual show 1939? If I am not mistaken, 1939 would be the old "21 stud" flathead and could be a little different : So, it looks like the oil comes up out of the pump, goes straight up the back to an oil galley that runs down the center of the engine, and dead-ends behind the timing gear. It looks like oil flows down from that galley to the camshaft, around it, and on down to the crankshaft. For the most part it doesn't seem to be near water jackets. We sort of need to know where the water is. In most engines if this age, water is around the top part of the cylinders, or sometimes the whole cylinder. Since the valves are in the block, there has to be water under the valve seats as well. Here is that oil galley running front to back, and dead-ending behind the timing gear. Again, I believe this is a later flathead Ford: Nothing apears to touch water here. Below that galley is the camshaft (and below that, the crank), which it oils. There is no water around a camshaft. The area you are looking at around the valley is just open. This is a crankcase vapor and oil drainback area. Those small holes by the lifters are for oil excess oil (not under pressure) to drain back to the oil pan. There is most likely no water anywhere close to that galley. It would just complicate things. There is no need to exchange water between sides. The flathead Ford has 2 water pumps. You could easily think of it as two completely separate cooling systems (except the radiator). Here is a diagram of part of the oil system on a military vehicle that has had the flathead engine modified for a full-flow oil filter. The view is from the rear of the engine. You can see the oil galley coming up (from the oil pump)on the left side, (Ignore the filter stuff), take a right turn (it's plugged with a grub screw in the picture, but would normally be open), and head over to the middle to feed the main oil galley down the center of the engine. And here it is in real life, again with the military modification you don't have. I would look all around this boss for signs of trouble. That bulging area just below the head is the water jacket. Really, it doesn't look like it gets that close to it. I am betting against a crack leaking pressurized oil into the water jacket at this point.

Let's not say cracked block yet. Thats expensive. Cracked blocks were a death knell for any car back in the day. Repairs were possible but any such history dramatically reduced the value of the car, because the problems had a good chance of coming back. It didn't help (at least in the USA) that many states titled the car to the engine block number. It is time for some detective work. It is not always possible to figure stuff like this out without tearing the engine completely down, but sometimes it is! Let's figure out what is actually happening. First of all, you say oil gets into the coolant only at highway speed? How can you tell? When I have had cars with oil in the coolant, it makes a nasty brown foamy muck that is almost impossible to remove. How do you get clean in-between tries? Are you flushing it every time? Does that even work? How can you tell it is OK at low speeds? Since it seems to matter what speed you drive, the first thing I would do is hook up an oil pressure gauge. A real one, mechanical, with markings you can trust. I would then tape it to the windshield and drive the car. Most cars have very low oil pressure at idle, but underway it is about the same at any speed. There is typically a blow-off valve in the oil pump, and once it is turning fast enough, the excess oil pressure is just blown off. This is why most cars have the same oil pressure from fast idle all the way to high speed. There are exceptions, and I don't know it if that applies to a 39 Ford, but... I would sure want to know if the oil pressure is lower driving around town than it is on the highway. The gauge will tell you that. The next thing to do would be to find a cutaway drawing of the engine that shows the oil galley routing. These exist for many old engines, and almost certainly for the flathead Ford. Follow the oil galleys. Where do they touch the water jacket? Can you see any of them, whether they touch the water jacket or not? A crack might extend beyond the area causing the problem. Do whatever you can to see the outside of the oil galleys. Are any visible under a valley cover? Could the areas be seen that touch water if you have a head off?

It isn't. If you blow up the picture really big you can see part of a socket. I agree. Without any better information or pictures, I'm gonna put this at 1934. Metal tubes, an RCA creation, arrived in about 1935. With them came Octal sockets, not just for metal tubes, but glass ones too. The industry followed more or less. Some companies (notably Philco) resisted RCA's bullying for a while, and the old style tube sockets persisted into the early 40s, even beyond for some applications.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? If you want a modern cartridge bearing and seal in there, friends of mine have used "Flying Dutchman", and were happy with the results. http://water-pump-rebuilders.com/ Is that what I would do? Probably not. When you put a modern bearing in a prewar pump, it is like a modern pump. If it starts leaking, you need another one to get home. On a packing-style pump, you just tighten the nut a little. In fact, that happened to me on the day I brought the Pontiac home. The pump started leaking about 20 miles into a 165 mile trip. I tightened the nut a couple of notches and continued. It still works fine a couple of years later. If that had been a modern bearing and seal, I would have been calling for the slideback to take me the remaining 145 miles.... For a packing-style pump needing a complete overhaul, any general machinist you trust will do.

A 39 will be synchronized on second and third, but not first. I am unfamiliar with the wolfs head product. I have a 1936 Pontiac with a transmission that is very similar to the small Buick transmission (Buick Special, series 40). I am using Redline Synthetic 75W-140NS in the transmission. So far that is working out great. It is a fairly thin oil, and time will tell whether it leaks out too much. Matt Harwood mentioned that thin oil doesn't "stop" your unsynchronized first gear very well at stoplights. That is true, but I just "touch" one of the synchronized gears (usually third) before shoving it into first at a stoplight. The first time I changed the transmission oil I used Master Pro SAE140 GL4 gear oil, as several people elsewhere in these forums have reported good results with it. I couldn't stand it. Shifting was balky, and I couldn't use second at all when the car was cold. Maybe I'm spoiled. To it's credit, it did "stop" first gear better at a stoplight. It was definitely a downgrade compared to the unknown oil I drained out. I drained the Master Pro out and put the Redline in, and now it shifts fine like it did with whatever oil I drained out. In the rear axle I am just running some ordinary hypoid gear oil. The slipperier the better. The only reason not to do this is if your rear axle has any brass in it. My Pontiac axle does not. I will have to defer to the Buick experts in here about whether the 39 Buick rear axle has any brass in it. If it does you need to pick something safe for "yellow metals". Which model is your 39 Buick?

Use oil intended for synchronizers in the transmission. Use hypoid gear oil in the rear axle. In 2019 those should probably not be the same oil. Hypoid gears require a very tough film strength for protection because the teeth are sliding across each other and it tends to scrape the oil off right where its needed. Synchronizers on the other hand are little brakes. They have to scrape through the oil to work. Hypoid oil was so bad in the 30s it could just barely do its job, and as such worked ok in the transmission. That is unlikely to be true today.