Bloo

Really tight in there, couldn't get a good picture. Mine is more or less like the one in the manual picture, except there seem to be only 3 bumps (I think) on the front of the balancer instead of the 4 shown in the manual. It also appears that the bumps on mine are separate pieces, apparently spot welded on. Yours doesn't seem to have them at all. It doesn't really prove anything as these cars had a bunch of mid year changes. The seal does indeed key to the crank and spin a piece of cork against the front cover (see manual pic). The manual also mentions using a tool (probably a spacer) to get the timing cover centered on the crank. What is it about the balancer that your machinist thinks is wrong or wont work? Did it run before with this balancer?

Greetings from another 36 owner. I have not had my engine apart, but as I understand it, the front seal is an improbable thing that spins a glued-on piece of cork against the inside of the timing cover. I am not sure how the balancer figures into this. I will look at mine when I get home and see what I can see (probably not much).

Guide was offering truck/bus add-on signal lights as early as 1936 IIRC (both mickey mouse ears, and flush mounted for buses). I don't know what the switches looked like, probably not a stalk. Whatever it was it would not have been set up for sharing bulbs with the brake lights, as the signal housings were all separate items. The 39 Buick (hopefully some owners will chime in), as I understand it, has a switch lever on the column shifter. The signals are rear only, over the license plate. For 40, (any 40 owners out there?) I'm told Buick added front signals and moved the switch onto a stalk so they could add cancel, and it was still on the right side of the column. IIRC Buick kept the signals over the license plate, meaning separate bulbs, an implying the switch is probably not set up to share with the brakes. From about 1941(?) there were Guide signal switches for Chevrolets and so on. It is called a "Guide 6002", and there are several subtle differences depending on year, etc. These attach like an aftermarket turn signal stalk. I am not sure if these can share a bulb with the brake lights. Maybe. I doubt it. They do not cancel. They continued with minor changes until about 1948. After that, there was the guide 6004. It came in a bunch of versions for different applications and years, two different mounting styles, different colors, some with a red indicator lens, some with green, some for brakelight interface, some not, etc. These have cancel, and still look about like a 6002.The ones that do not have enough wires to interface with the brake lights apparently do have the extra contacts in the switch, so you can just solder wires on. All the wires probably need changing anyway. IMHO this is the one you should look for. Yeah, it is not period (it's really 49-52 or so), but it is small and looks the part. Beyond that, there are several switches available that do hail from the 30s, with looks to match (Yankee, etc). Most do not cancel and cannot interface with the brake lights, meaning you would have to add another housing of some kind in the rear. If it were me, and I just had to have signal lights, I would get a Guide 6004 with the least visible mounting style (the glorified hose clamp), solder all the wires in, put dual-filament bulbs in the fender top lights, and share the brakelights in the back. It would be almost invisible.

If they didn't they would probably just send you packing. Would a good repro fool them? Maybe. I have yet to see any repro plate for WA offered on the web that would fool me.

Badger Mountain Road, overlooking Wenatchee, WA.

I have a bit more to hide.... LOL! It has a few scars.

I know what you mean. (Ok, it isn't a Buick, but it can almost pass in the dark.....)

Washington State doesn't allow repros.. The plate can be restored, but has to be real.

A 66 c10 is perhaps a worst possible case example..... I have one, I know..... The best plan is to make the stock stuff work as well as it can, and drive the car! Find out what the REAL limitations of the car are and if necessary for daily use, make changes. At least one forum member put a disc conversion on a mid 50s GM car, and then took them back off when they didn't perform as expected. YMMV.

If you take the time and sort the car out, you can drive it anywhere you want. You are on the right track. Do the obvious stuff (hoses, brakes, etc.), and take it on longer and longer jaunts and fix things as you find them. After a while, it will get to the point you can trust it for really long trips.

The biggest difference between #2 Permatex and Indian Head is that Indian Head hardens. Indian head is great for gluing something in place. It will never move once dry. #2 Permatex stays soft. Great if that is what you want. Both are shellac as far as I know. Hylomar is an anaerobic sealant more in the vein of Loctite. Indian head generally shouldn't be used on both sides of a gasket, unless you intend for it never to come apart.

For what it is worth I usually glue fuel pump gaskets to the engine with Indian Head, and run the other side dry, or with the tiniest, thinnest (cannot tell it is there) bit of silicone. If the pump has to come off, the gasket stays in place and can be reused. If your gasket sealer, whatever it is, is still slippery when you tighten the bolts, the gasket will try to squirt out and probably split. If you have sealer on both sides consider just snugging the bolts down, and do your final tightening after the sealer has had some time to set up. Don't overdo it on gasket thickness. It might reduce fuel pump stroke.

If and when you have a gasket that will not stop leaking no matter what, try this: Cut a new gasket from an oil filter box. This is the worst sort of rubbish cardboard imaginable. You may notice the ink crumbling off as you cut it with a scissors. The card on the back of a cheap notepad is another possible source if there is no oil filter box available.. Spray this new gasket with high temperature engine paint. Do both sides and let it drink all the paint it will. Lay it out in the sun, and when it gets to the point where it is sticky or tacky, put it on CLEAN surfaces and tighten it down to spec. Give the paint some time to set up before you use it, then double-check that it is tight. Works on engine oil or antifreeze. It even works where aluminum bolts to cast iron, though logic dictates it should not. This is a throwback to the old days. Really, there is no good reason you should need to do this in 2018. Indian head is still available (for the moment). Hylomar is still available. Silicone that actually works is available. Fuel pumps usually seal ok with a dry gasket..... If you ever get really stuck and nothing is working, it is an option.

Yeah, that thing isn't the gasket. maybe something to help keep fuel splash back when the diaphragm fails, and minimize oil contamination? I have seen a thing like that somewhere. There is no magic to the actual gasket, is there? IIRC it is the same one used by many American cars through the 70s and beyond. Any parts store in the US will have it. Try "1975 Chevrolet 350" or "1970 ford 390" or "1978 Plymouth 318" or almost anything else you can think of. If they don't have it, or don't know they do, look over on the wall with all the Edelbrock and Mr. Gasket stuff. There will be one there. I like original bolts, but if they are suspect, theres nothing wrong with using new grade 8. That will end any bolt problems (but grade 5 would have been fine). Tighten them to spec, whatever that is (no more). Loctite prevents oil leaking out the threads, if the holes go all the way through.

Aren't 37 points a single part you just screw down to the breaker plate? If so, you almost never have to change the tension. The distributor NEEDS to go back in the way it was before, or everything needs to be changed to match the book (pump shaft position, distributor position, wire position on cap, etc... If it was running you don't need to change it.

Are either of those left hand thread?

Do you have a picture of the regulator and clip in question? And the shop manual picture? I suspect it is just a condenser to suppress radio interference. I would not be quick to condemn the 5-pole. I have one on my Pontiac (electrically identical to Buick according to Delco), and since cleaning its points, has been working terrific for over a year now. Getting rid of it on a Buick with autostart is a bit of a kludge.

Im not sure about the nut! it might be backwards on one side like the lug bolts. Get your eyeball down there and you might be able to tell...

If the factory manual insists on a tool, look in Chiltons or Motor and see if they have some adjustment sequence that will work. Those are Lockheed brakes IIRC. They might have their own section in the manual.

61 Polara and Spineyhill pretty much nailed this. Remove the cotter key on the rear axle and loosen the nut. Back it off 1/4 inch or so but leave it there. Use the puller. Air is a better way if you can get away with it, but you will see places on the puller's "crank" to hit with a hammer if you need to. Sometimes you might need to leave the tension on it and keep tightening every day and eventually it will pop. Remove springs with Spineyhill's pliers. Get some GOOD flare wrenches if you don't have some. The Harbor Freight ones are fine (surprisingly). Wimpy ones will just round all the fittings off.

I don't remember. I suspect it holds the cylinder and the shoe. IIRC that big round thing is an eccentric adjuster for the end of the shoe. You can literally adjust the shoes up and down as well as in and out. Thats the good news. The bad news is you need to to do that to get them working. It was done with a special tool that mounted like a brake drum and allowed you to measure how far the lining was from where the drum would be, all the way around. You are gonna need a manual. There may be a sequence of adjustments that would work with the drums on. If not, you may need to make a tool. These have no servo action like most drum brakes of 1955. Thats why the cylinders are split on front . Two leading shoes! They feel really solid and linear like disc brakes, and stop like crazy when they are adjusted right. When they are wrong, you stand on your nice solid pedal and not much happens.

I don't know if you have to adjust a Buick running, I would have to look in the manual, and I am not sure where it is. I suggested it partly because it probably needs it, but mainly so you could watch the valves moving, eliminating any possibility of a flat camshaft. I do not expect to see that in your car, but it would be good to eliminate it, and if you adjust your valves, the valve cover will already be off. I see in some other thread you are pulling the cover anyway to replace the gasket. Watch the valves. The motion should all be about the same. A bad one moves little if any. Do I recall this car has a newer engine? If it has hydraulic lifters, probably no need to adjust, but check the manual for the year of the engine.. . I don't know. If that is the correct heat range, then yes. Choices are limited these days. Any plugs known to work ok in another Buick straight 8 should be fine. In fact, literally any clean correctly gapped plugs that physically fit should be good enough to suss out the problem you are having. Do I like that they are resistor? Not really, but almost everything is. Vacuum should pull a bunch of extra advance in when you open the throttle with no load, then go back away at idle. The shop manual will probably tell you how much. Pay attention to the units used in any specs. 1 distributor degree = 2 crankshaft degrees, 1 distributor RPM = 2 crankshaft RPM. Centrifugal advance is just directly related to engine speed. You should still see it working with the vacuum disconnected. If the condenser hasn't been replaced, be sure to try that, probably first.

It has been way too long.... My gut reaction is that you would back off the adjuster, but not mess with the pivot. IIRC the pivots were adjustable on these. It seems to me if you didn't back off the adjuster you might not get the drum off if there is a ridge from wear. The back ones (if you haven't seen them) should not have the split cylinder like the front, just a normal cylinder at the top, so both shoe pivots will be at the bottom. The adjuster would have to be somewhere else. Probably halfway up the shoe.

Pontiac through those years will have insert bearings (not babbitted rods).