Bloo

My knee-jerk reaction is that the choke pulloff isn't working. Verify that the housing is set to the right notch, then see if the choke behaves as I posted above. Good luck!

That is extremely misleading, and you should never need to adjust the choke housing once it is set. When the engine is warm, the choke should be fully open, period. The manual must have a default setting (how many notches lean or rich).. Set it there. If by some chance the manual omits this, set it at the large mark between rich and lean. Having done that, any reasonably modern automatic choke (and 1949 is reasonably modern) works as follows: 1) With the engine cold, and the car at room temp (you may need to disable the starter), crack the throttle to "set" the choke and fast idle. The choke (at room temp) should be almost shut. The choke valve should be fairly loose. Push on it with your fingers. It is kind of floppy. Fast idle should be engaged. 2) Start the car. The "choke pulloff" (probably a piston inside the choke housing) should pull the choke almost all the way open. Just a little tilt on the plate makes more difference in the mixture than you would expect with the engine running. Poke at the plate with your fingers. It is much tighter now because the car just started, and the choke thermostat is still trying to close the choke, but the choke pulloff is pulling the choke almost all the way open. 3) As the car warms up, the choke should slowly come all the way open. When fully warm, the choke plate should be straight up and down. No exceptions. 4) You can make minor adjustments to the housing to make things a little richer or leaner during warmup. Most factory settings were within 2 notches (rich or lean) That should be close enough to run ok as long as the other choke settings are correct or real close. There are a bunch of them. If it needs to be done, the shop manual should cover it. If not, the manual for the carburetor will. I am talking about bending little rods while checking choke plate position with drill bits or pin gauges, etc. Only to get it running as good as it can on the points before you do it. Adding electronic ignition doesn't make the car run any better than a good set of points, except by a fluke. The most any ignition can do for you is light the fuel/air charge 100% of the time. If there is no ignition miss, you are already 99.9% there. The margin for improvement is pretty thin. What electronic ignition does do is make the car stay tuned a LOT longer over time. I am a huge fan of electronic ignition, at least when something proven is available and the car is 12v (I never do it to 6v cars). It sounds like Ben Bruce has some ideas. Spitting back, as Daves1940Buick56S noted, usually means lean (it can also mean an exhaust valve not opening). If it spits back when warm, forget the choke. The accelerator pump is the most likely suspect, followed by vacuum leaks. When the car has just been running, so that you KNOW the carburetor bowl is full, disable starter somehow (assuming a Buick with autostart), prop the choke open, and look down the carb throat. open the throttle a little. You should see gas spray out the accelerator pump squirter. The action needs to be instant. The accelerator pump only exists because fuel is heavier than air, and takes longer to get fuel moving. Without the accelerator pump, when you open the throttle some air would get in with no fuel, causing the engine to go lean, hesitate, and possibly backfire. There can be no delay at the beginning of the squirt. None. One final thought: With the engine warm, choke fully open, and idling on slow hot idle, ALL of the air and fuel the engine runs on comes from the idle jets below the throttle plate. If you can see any fuel dribbling from the main discharge tube (or anything else) down inside the throat, then the carb is running over and needs work, probably to the float valve or the float.

This is going on the ASSUMPTION that your distributor moves the breaker plate with the vacuum advance (most do). If the ground is crappy, the ignition may try to shut down when the plate moves. Since most cars have the vacuum advance connected to ported vacuum, the plate always moves when you crack the throttle.... The ground is made of copper wire interspersed with spring steel usually, to prevent breakage. They last a long time. It's just something quick to check and eliminate as a possible cause. While you are inside the distributor, look closely at the wire going to the points. It will be made of the same stuff as the ground, but insulated. Make sure it doesn't stretch (due to being broke inside the insulation), and that if there are bare spots, that they cannot touch anything when the plate moves. Lots of good advice from others in this thread about things to check. Keep after it, you'll find it. Here is a ground wire in it's natural habitat (on some other brand of car):

And that is, more often than not, a special wire made to take the constant bending that happens when the vacuum advance moves the breaker plate. Make sure it is intact. If it is broken, theres gonna be trouble.

If you caught it before it made a mess, you dodged a bullet. IMHO disconnect it, make a loop of heater hose on the engine to bypass it for now. Fix it properly when you can.

1/4" Double compression "Threaded Sleeve" nuts are here (male, both ends) https://blackhawksupply.com/products/midland-16003-1-4-7-16-24-threaded-sleeve-nut-brass-fittings-double-compression-nut 1/4" Double compression to1/8"pipe (female, straight through): https://blackhawksupply.com/products/midland-16121-1-4-x-1-8-threaded-sleeve-x-mip-brass-fittings-double-compression-male-adapter : 1/4" Double compression to1/8"pipe (female, right angle): https://blackhawksupply.com/products/midland-16130-1-4-x-1-8-thrd-sleeve-x-mip-elb-brass-fittings-double-compression-90-degree-elbow The right angle female fittings are expensive and do not have the right appearance. You might have to comb ebay or swap meets for those. The sleeve nuts (male) become part of the tubing when used. You will need brand new sleeve nuts.

Right angle fittings are still made too, but only in the smaller sizes. They also don't look like the old ones, which were very streamlined. The new ones are square-ish blocks similar to a modern double flare 90 degree fitting. Right angle 5/16" is not available anywhere AFAIK. I bought some random carburetor on ebay that had one, just to get the fitting. A real prewar 90 degree threaded sleeve fitting looks like this:

There are military surplus timing lights that work on 6v, 12v, or 24v. The light itself looks like the little neon one, but is attached by its leads to a metal carrying case. It probably has a xenon flash tube inside like a modern light, otherwise it wouldn't need to be connected to the battery. One sold on the forum fairly recently, an Auto-Test 13009a. They may exist in more than one brand.

I successfully ordered 5/16" "Threaded Sleeve" nuts like these from Blackhawk Supply a little over a year ago. Not many suppliers have these or even know what they are. The female half (left side in the pic above), whatever it is called, was out of stock in 5/16" at the time I ordered. I did not gather there would be any problem getting them, I would just have to wait for them to come from the supplier. I then ordered only sleeve nuts because I needed them right away. The manufacturer is Midland Metals.

I don't believe they were way out by the backing plates on the C-10. C-10 trailing arms were made at least 2 different ways. 1960-62 trailing arms are more angled, and mount out closer to the backing plates. 1963-1972 mount further in toward the center. Which do you have? I don't know about the rigidity, but I would be inclined to mount the trailing arms at the same spacing they were in the C-10. Assuming the more common 1963-72 C-10 trailing arms, that will be further in toward the center than the rods Buick used. Is the Buick axle housing rigid enough? I don't know. I wouldn't use it anyway without a torque tube for the reason Beemon mentioned (lack of parts), and a whole bunch of other reasons. More on that in a minute. IMHO if you want to use that axle, run a torque tube. If you don't know what the distance is between the trailing arms is, I could get a fairly close measurement. I have an old C-10 (later-style arms) that drives straight. Post back if you need me to measure. One thing to consider is pinion angle. On a Hotchkiss drive car (open driveline) the universal joints need some angle. To be specific, the angles of the 2 universal joints need to be equal and opposite. Yoke-and-cross u-joints do not have a constant speed as they rotate. The more angle the joints have, the more the driveshaft speed varies as they turn. If the angles are equal and opposite the speed variations cancel. If not, they manifest as driveline vibration If an open driveline runs perfectly straight, it will be smooth when first assembled, but the needle bearings will never roll, and they will pound little needle-bearing shaped dents in their races in the cross and caps. You will go through a lot of u-joints. The panhard rod should be level at normal ride height too, to minimize unwanted steering as the suspension moves. Axle should also be centered. Now about that Buick rear axle... at the very least you will have to weld the perches for the torque arms to it. If the pinion angle is different or panhard rod position is wrong, you might have to cut everything off and reweld. Either way, it screws up the wheel alignment because the axle housing warps from the welding. You can fix this on an alignment rack (with all weight on, so ride height is normal) by heating the axle housing out near the ends with a rosebud torch, and watching the alignment on the machine. You are shooting for zero camber and zero toe on both sides, and zero thrust angle. It is best to have it mocked up with no seals or oil, as that is all probably going to get ruined. Keep a fire extinguisher handy. If you don't have access to such equipment it might make more sense to have Moser or Currie or whoever build you an axle housing (with shafts if needed) that is square with everything already welded on. If it were me, I would stay with a dropout style axle, because if you need to work on it, you can set it up on the bench instead of under the car. The Ford 9 inch is a good choice because parts, including any gear ratio you might want, are readily available. It has higher drag than some other axles, but is bulletproof. The old late 50s to early 60s Pontiac/Olds axle is another good possibility. Lower drag than the Ford, but more expensive and less choices for gear ratios. Mopar 8-3/4 is another possibility (my favorite), but tends to be really expensive, and never came with the same wheel bolt pattern as the Buick, so there is no possibility of off-the-shelf axle shafts. EDIT: One final thought, never assume anything taken off of an old C-10 is within any sort of reasonable tolerance. Don't attach the front mounts for the trailing arms to your frame until you have verified that the rear axle will be in perfectly straight (with normal ride height and the panhard rod level!). You may need to fudge the mount locations a little.

This! Also timing tape if you can get some for your pulley size. You probably can.

Unless there is some specific reason for Sears, you might want to expand your search to just "neon timing light". These were a common standard item back in the day, and probably existed in a gazillion brands. They all looked about like the Sears ones in your pictures. In the 80s, I bought one from an employer who probably hadn't used it since the 60s. They work fine and are not subject to any intermittent triggering like a light with electronics inside. They are however too dim. You might need to use it in the dark. The main critical component is a neon bulb, and it is unlikely to be bad. I don't know how anyone could ever put enough hours on one to wear the bulb out. If that happens somehow, post a picture of the bulb. I'll bet we can figure it out. Yes I have been using Grimy's method, with a 12v light and an external 12v battery. It is much brighter this way. This came up on the forum once before, and I think that the one I have been using all these years may be the same one Grimy has. If you go this route, stick with something simple and cheap. My dialback timing lights lock up when I try to use them on the 36 Pontiac.

Was the Marquette flathead engine unique to Marquette?

I'm not sure. It's probably ported vacuum for the distributor. if it is, it will connect to a tiny pinhole next to a throttle plate. The port will be above the throttle at idle, and below the throttle as soon as you open it slightly. If its already on the car you can check it with a vacuum gage. The distributor port will have noting at idle, and full vacuum as soon as you crack the throttle.

If your starter has a terminal for a bypass, why not use one? It is a technically superior system because it can maintain a hot spark while cranking, even if the battery is a little low. The possibility of a bypass is really the only practical advantage of a 12v system over 6v. Generally speaking you cant have a bypass on 6V because there are no suitable coils available. Hookup is simple. Assuming a negative ground car, 1) ignition switch >> ballast resistor >> (+) terminal on coil 2) starter bypass terminal on starter or solenoid >> (+) terminal on coil 3) (-) terminal on coil >> distributor (points and condenser) If you have no starter bypass terminal, or just choose to run without, the Bosch "Blue Coil" works very well in 12v systems that do not have a bypass. Ask at a parts store that caters to Volkswagens.

I've never heard of one. I just clean them up now and then with Westley's Bleche-Wite.

That's the bowl vent. On the Ford it would have been hooked into the evaporative emission controls (charcoal canister). Earlier setups just vented this to the atmosphere and had no hose fitting. Unless you have a similar place to hook it, leave it open. This supplied filtered air to the choke stove. On the Ford, filtered air flowed out from here, through the choke stove, and then the heated air flowed back up to the choke housing. On some cars, the choke stove does not use filtered air like the Ford did. Either use this fitting the way it was intended, or plug it to avoid dirt getting around the air filter. This might be PCV. If so, the passages inside and under the carb will distribute the incoming air evenly between the two barrels, in such a way that it mixes evenly with the fuel. WIth the carb removed, you should be able to see if this is what it is. Some (maybe most) Fords used a separate plate underneath the carb for a PCV port. Either way, the PCV valve should be connected to a port designed to mix the air evenly, not some random manifold port. Power brakes can connect anywhere. Yes, thats what it is. Hot air from a choke stove connects here. On Fords the choke stove was typically inside the right exhaust manifold, with two steel tubes. One (noted above) sent filtered cold air to the stove, the other one fed the heated air up to this port.

You definitely shouldn't need an amplifier on the AM(MW) band. I suspect a problem with the antenna or antenna cable. A few things: 1) Put your antenna up all the way if it is telescoping, and try it at night. If you still get only three stations, it is very likely something is wrong. 2) As Frank DuVal said, there may be a trimmer. It needs to be set after the radio and antenna are installed in the car they will be used in. 3) Some radios are just crap. If this is an MG factory radio, I might try to find a UK MG forum and see what experiences others have had with the same radio. This probably isn't the answer, but it could be. Good luck, and let us know what you find out.

I see a difference in the hood now. The car in the OP seems to have the round signal lights like a 59? Is the single headlight option 60 only? Thanks!

What makes the front clip 60 instead of 59 like the rest of the car?

I saw what was left of an original leather interior in a 1937 80c. The color was very close or maybe identical to what your picture shows.

Doesn't look too tough, but you better wear gloves. Seriously though, the cat shouldn't plug up under any normal conditions. Plugged usually means it melted, or the biscuit broke inside and rolled over. If it is truly plugged, keep troubleshooting until you find out why, otherwise it will probably just happen again. Does it have flanges at both ends? If so soak the bolts each day with Heat riser solvent for a couple of days, and keep driving, so that it has a chance to heat up and cool down a couple of times with the solvent on it. Good penetrating oil will substitute for heat riser solvent in a pinch. After a couple of days the bolts will probably come out without twisting off. If it has slip joints, that will be a little tougher. I would still soak up the joint and the threads on the u-bolts (or whatever it has) and drive it. When you take it off, sometimes a lot of horsing around is necessary on a slip joint because the u-bolt collapses the pipe a tiny bit, and prevents it from sliding apart. I recommend putting any slip joints it might have together with Walker "Acousti-Seal". It will make it much easier to take apart next time. Good luck. Heat riser solvent is Chrysler #4318039AC (I don't believe GM still makes any).

They have "WM" cast into the case. Not really. Also the shifter is further forward, causing the hole in the floor/toe board to be in a different spot. I doubt it. A few Ford internal parts fit. The Chevrolet trans had weak synchromesh, and was replaced in 37 with a trans that was lighter and worked better. The Warner had similar internals to the ones they were selling to Ford. All the Ford guys seem to want 39 internals. I have never seen a picture of one on the Internet, and information is scarce. As I understand it Chevrolet stopped supplying parts for the Warner fairly early. Although some Ford stuff is the same, not everything is, and it could be a nightmare getting parts. Have you asked on the VCCA site? If anyone knows, those guys do. https://vccachat.org Here are some old threads I imagine you have already seen, but just in case.. https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/120415/36-fa-fd-transmissions.html https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/362805/1934-chevy-truck-transmission-help.html https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/22866/35-master-jumping-out-of-2nd.html

I agree with 61Polara that we will need a diagram of the wiring as it is now, then we can probably figure it out. I Imagine it was converted to 12V because of the A/C. It is a rare thing to see a Buick autostart system working with an Alternator. I haven't tried it myself, It shouldn't be impossible, but a lot of guys have trouble. Keep us posted!