Bloo

There's some mistakes in that (Mopar for sure), but it's about right for GM cars. The trouble is a 1965 car is right on the edge. Should it be 0-30 or 0-90?

That's backwards, so something is really wrong. Shorting the wire to ground should have made the gauge go empty. Around 1965, GM sending units and their gauges changed from 0-30 Ohms to 0-90 Ohms. The year of changeover probably varied a little by make/model (I think) so I am not sure which standard your 1965 GP gauge should be on. Both standards have 0 ohms (wire shorted to ground) as "E", so either way something is screwed up if grounding the wire makes the gauge go full. Disconnecting the wire should make the gauge go full, and most likely peg. Shorting the wire to ground should make the gauge go empty. There's probably something wrong with the gauge. Is there any chance it could be hooked up backwards? I don't know what the effect of that would be. I doubt it explains backwards but maybe. To check the sender, use a multimeter set on Ohms. Basically any will do, even the 6 dollar Harbor Freight ones that they used to give away free will work fine for this. With the sending unit out, Zero the ohmmeter buy shorting the leads and pushing the "delta" button. Then hook one wire to the sender terminal and one wire to the sender frame. With the float hanging all the way down, the resistance should be extremely low, like preferably less than an Ohm. True zero is physically impossible, but it should get real close. With the float all the way up it needs to measure at least 30 ohms more (or maybe 90 ohms more) depending on which standard the 65 GP used. If your meter doesn't have a delta button, short the leads and write down the number you get. This is the resistance of the test leads. Subtract it from the readings you get from the sender. For instance, if you get 2.1 Ohms with the meter leads shorted, and 2.8 ohms when measuring the sender with the float hanging down, then 2.8 - 2.1 = 0.7 real Ohms at the sender. I guess I should point out that if they sent you the wrong year sender, you would have the wrong amount of sweep, for instance a 0-30 Ohm sender connected to a 0-90 Ohm gauge would only be able to go about 1/3 of the way up. That doesn't explain backwards though.

LOL because it's in Washington. In theory she could file for lost title in her late ex husband's name, and assuming the title was really in his name, and not sitting in a drawer with 5 signatures on it, and assuming she still lives at the same address, Olympia would send a new title in *his* name to that address, and then she could run it through probate or whatever to get it in her name. Or, if the estate is an uncomplicated one and everything went to her, there is a good chance it could just be transferred then because Washington is a community property state and the rules apply to a couple after a certain number of years together even if they weren't legally married. Even better if her name was on the title too. In that case, a death certificate given to a license agency to be forwarded to Olympia, probably a *certified* copy, (which nobody ever seems to have enough of) and the car just becomes hers. Well, that's in a perfect world. In reality, the license agency will tell her it is not in the system anymore because it has been some number of years (3? 5?), and the request has to go to Olympia. Olympia will then stonewall her, allegedly because they can't or won't find it. It may be insufficient records staff. Or if you are a suspicious person, as I am, you might think Olympia purged all those old records and won't admit it. So then she will need to tow it to the Washington State Patrol so they can inspect it, verifying all the numbers and such, and probably checking if it is stolen. Then she can pay some large lump sum fee to the state, which will enable her to then also buy it plates and license tabs for three consecutive years. If no one else has come forward with proof of ownership at the end of that three years, Olympia will send her a new title in her name. Not surprised at all.

Yes. That takes care of what matters. I think I would put a metal washer under the bolt head too, so it can't dig into the insulating washer. Since I know you like knowing these little details, I suspect originally the bolt went in the opposite direction. I just dug out my very original looking spare distributor, and that is how it is assembled. That detail does not matter, as it appears it would fit either way without touching ground. Another thing I noticed on the spare distributor is what the original insulators look like. The insulating washers are pieces of brown phenolic sheet, rectangular, but with a rectangular "tail" at one corner (maybe to keep them from turning because they are not round?). The tails look completely unnecessary. Both tails are are on a corner closest to the breaker plate, and both point down (south) if viewed from the angle your pic shows. The insulating washers being made of phenolic sheet material implies the "step" or insulating piece that goes through the hole is really a separate piece. None of that matters either, but it is apparently how they did it.

I wonder if the intake has an internal hole in the heat riser letting exhaust in? As I understand it, a Chevrolet manifold is all cast iron around the intake passage through the heat, so it shouldn't rust out. Pontiacs on the other hand used steel tubing inside there. They do rust out and the symptoms are very much like what you describe. It's hard to develop much vacuum when the intake is open to the exhaust. Maybe it is time for a close critical second look at the manifolds on this 216.

When you take that all apart where the wires and spring attach with the bolt, you will see how it is. There's a big hole in that tab for the insulation to go through. The points spring goes completely on the inside, held back from the tab by the insulation.

That piece the bolt goes through is part of the breaker plate and is grounded. The condenser wire, the points wire, the points spring, and the bolt all need to connect together and must be insulated from ground. There absolutely should be insulation in there, and if there isn't, that is the problem. Great if you can get original parts. I did eventually get the original parts in the form of a whole spare distributor, but haven't yet put it in. The bakelite or phenolic is better for sure, as nylon is soft and gets softer with heat. Distributors get hot. Nevertheless it has been fine for 6 years. Your bolt may be fine, I just can't tell for sure. If it is wrong it won't fit through the insulators. If you have to buy a modern bolt to get back on the road, be sure to get one with a hex head. these need to be serviceable with open end wrenches.

OK, looked at the Pontiac, and it might even be the same distributor series after all. Also, that bolt looks huge compared to mine. I didn't take it apart because I didn't want to reset the points, but I remember now that the whole distributor was a godawful mess when I go the car. Someone may have been working only with a hammer and a pliers. If you have a short, take that spot where the wires and the points come together all apart and see what is there. For the metal parts, I suspect it should be: bolt >> washer >> (insulators) >> washer >> lockwasher >> nut. The hole in the insulators will determine how big the bolt can be. Yours may be too big but it is hard to tell. For the insulators I suspect it should be: 1) Shoulder washer (with shoulder thickness slightly less than the thickness of the metal) >> flat washer OR 2) Shoulder washer (with shoulder thickness less than half the hole thickness) >> shoulder washer (same) OR 3) Washer >> sleeve to go inside hole >> washer These insulating parts would have all been bakelite or phenolic originally. Ace hardware might have something that will work in nylon. My car most likely has option 1) in Ace Hardware white nylon. Something about like this, plus a nylon flat washer. It will work in a pinch if the original parts are broken or missing.

If the coil is getting hot, it is probably on all the time and you have a short. I'll bet if you had checked with a light it would be solid off. No matter. Disconnect that wire to the coil and check ohms or continuity between the outside terminal of the distributor and the distributor case. It should go open circuit when you open the points. I suspect it won't, and I suspect the trouble is at that bolt where the W/BL-TR wire, the condenser wire, and the points all come together. That has to be insulated, Is it? Are those one-piece or 2-piece points? There are probably some phenolic spacers or fiber washers that go in there somehow to keep the terminals and the points spring and the bolt from touching ground. I will go look at the Pontiac shortly, although it is not exactly the same. It seems Olds got the new larger distributor design a year ahead of Pontiac. Still, I'll bet the method used to insulate that is very similar.

Studebaker Big Six?

Put a test light on the exposed low voltage wire of the coil, and the clamp end of the light to ground. Turn ignition on and crank. 1) Light stays off... disconnect the small wire to the distributor, Put the test light on the exposed low voltage coil terminal again and turn the ignition on. 1a) Light still off.... Either the coil is burned out, or you don't *really* have voltage to it. It is hard to tell because the hot wire is armored. Do you know how to take the cap off of the coil? I have done it and will try to remember how if it would help. 1b) Light on now..... Either the points aren't opening or something is shorted to ground inside the distributor. Put the low voltage wire back on. 2) Light came on solid and didn't flash while cranking. Points are not closing or a wire is broken. It could be the low voltage wire from the coil to the distributor, or it could be the points wire or the ground wire inside the distributor. 3) Light flashes while cranking . This is normal. When you have the light flashing, if there is still no spark, take the coil wire off at the distributor end, put it close to the block/head somewhere and crank. See if you have spark at the coil wire. If no spark there, or extremely weak spark, try a new condenser. If that doesn't fix it, the coil is probably bad.

This!^^ And to expand a little, the tie rods must be exactly the same length. If not, the car will steer itself as it goes over bumps. when these are exactly the same, and the toe in is set correctly, the steering box (or rack) will automatically be in the tight spot in the center, where it belongs. This applies to any car where you can reposition the steering wheel on a spline. On the other hand, many cars that have steering boxes approach this from the opposite direction. The steering wheel only goes on one way, either having a master spline or a key. If this is you (probably), the master spline or key assures the steering box is centered. When the steering wheel is centered, and the toe is set, the tie rods will be automatically the same exact length. Well.. unless you are a whole turn of the steering wheel off center, or the car is bent, but then you have bigger trouble.

Yes, sort of. It is full scale (60 degrees on the 6 cylinder scale) with the points closed. It should be attempting to swing wildly back and forth between 0 and 60 (when set for a 6 cylinder) as the points open and close. It can't really do that because of the mass of the moving parts of the meter, so the needle appears steady with the engine running. While cranking it should probably kick around a little bit. Dwell meters are just duty cycle meters with a scale marked in degrees instead of percent. 30 degrees on a 60 degree (6 cylinder) scale is a 50% duty cycle. It is "on" 50 percent of the time. Most engines have a dwell spec of slightly more than 50% "on" time. 36 degrees sounds about right.

Dwell shouldn't change but often does. Sometimes due to worn out parts like distributor shaft bushings, sometimes by design. For instance you may have heard of various distributors on Buicks and others where some ball bearings have dug pits and cause the vacuum advance to stick. The plate has to rotate somehow unless the whole distributor rotates like a 216 Chevrolet. Bushings can stick too. One approach some manufacturers took alleviate the sticking was to have the breaker plate on an off-center pivot, rather than rotating perfectly around the distributor shaft. It's more reliable because it probably won't stick, but the dwell changes whenever the plate moves. If the number of degrees is reading right you are all set. That car runs as two 6 cylinders doesn't it? If so 6 cylinder maximum and minimum dwell numbers should apply. With the points open (0% "on" time), the meter should read 0. With the points closed (100% "on" time), the meter should read 60, because 60 is the maximum number of distributor degrees per cylinder on a 6 cylinder. It fires every 60 distributor degrees. If your meter can do that, it is probably working fine. 48 sounds high to me, but that number is probably in a book somewhere. If it runs good...

There's gonna be no vacuum with the throttle full open. That's normal. You would normally check compression with the throttle open, but everybody has their own method it seems. I wouldn't worry at all about 65psi for now. You had it running, right? Just badly? If it wasn't knocking you probably have a runner. We can help you figure this out.

is that on all cylinders? 65lbs and fairly even? A low compression engine like a 216 should run fine I think even if a bit tired. What's the history? Did it happen suddenly?

Not necessarily. Both are great engines. The 318ci version of the "LA" engine (that one that looks like the picture) did not emerge until 1967. The earlier "wideblock" 318 was in its last year in 1966 (1967 in Canada). It will outlast a slant 6 and get better gas mileage while doing so. It would be my choice if I was picking. The "LA" 273 is not quite as good as an early type pre-67 "wideblock" 318 in my opinion, but is still a great engine. The "LA" 273 is the original Valiant/Dart V8 engine that began in 1964. They don't get much love because they have less displacement than an "LA" 318 (of 1967 and later) and look/fit exactly the same. If you are in it for the long haul though, and I always am, I would much rather have an "LA" 273 than the 1967-up "LA" 318. The 273 has solid lifters, no plastic timing chain, etc.

That's a 273, not a 318. Or if it is a 318, it isn't the original engine. Nice car.

Joints like this are typically only spring loaded to prevent imperfections or wear from causing binding, so my guess is going to be as tight as you can possibly get it without binding anywhere in it's normal range of motion. It will be loosest straight ahead due to wear. If the ball has worn to an oval, or is no longer at least almost round, you'll need to replace the ball. Severe wear causes sloppiness at the center that you can't adjust out because it would cause binding off center. If the ball were truly perfect, the springs wouldn't be doing anything at all because the adjuster would be bottomed out. Nothing is perfect though. An exception is when one of these joints is used with intentional slop to trigger a power steering spool valve. I doubt that could apply to anything 105 years old. EDIT: I see you are talking mainly about the adjuster end, but the top end of the first pic is what looks off to me. I can't really tell where the internal shelf is though. What would happen if the top (in the first pic) half of the ball socket were theoretically bottomed in the housing with no spring? Would that result in the ball located in a position not hitting on the outer housing anywhere? If it would hit, there might be parts missing.

It's possible to have such things done, but unlikely that you would have anyone local. There are companies who "restore" antique appliances, and in the case of refrigerators and freezers generally gut them for modern refrigeration. That is highly questionable in my opinion given the typically short lifespan of a modern refrigerator. There are also hobbyists who can and do restore the original mechanisms. A substitute refrigerant is typically used, at least in units that originally specified R-12 or Sulfur Dioxide. You might find davida1hiwaaynet on youtube interesting to watch. There are of course inaccessible spots in the lines where a leak can exist. My parents had a refrigerator in the 70s and 80s, the make I have forgotten the name of but it was a common one built in the American midwest. It was a plain box like many of it's time (and now) with a bunch of tubing running around inside the walls for an evaporator. This manufacturer had cheaped out and used steel tubing which rusts out. It was leaking. In the 80s, a repairman offered to disassemble the whole thing and replace all that steel tubing with copper for what I thought was an extremely reasonable price. He was originally from the state where these were made, and had fixed a large number of them "back home" successfully. My parents opted to just have it charged instead. Then it failed completely and defrosted while they were on vacation flooding the kitchen.... Back on topic, Hupp made air conditioners and possibly other appliances in Canada long after they gave up on the car business.

Too much neatsfoot oil on a cone clutch? Is that possible? The worst it could do is throw a little oil. It probably will throw oil if you put on enough to make the car drivable. I use the same method @Mark Shaw described.

It may have broken an axle. Can you see the spider gears? They are the 4 little ones inside the case. "Case" is not what you might think. In differential jargon it is the piece with the ring gear bolted or riveted to it. It spins while you are moving. The stationary part is a "carrier". Don't put too much stock in one wheel spinning and the other not spinning with both wheels off the ground. It might do that normally. Instead jack up only one wheel at a time. With the transmission in neutral, turn the wheel. The driveshaft should turn. If it's a torque tube and you can't see the shaft turning, no big deal, but the wheel should turn fairly easily. Then put the car in gear and try to turn the wheel. You should not be able to, at least not easily because you are turning the engine against compression. From your description it will probably just turn. Now take the cover back off and watch the case. In normal operation. with one wheel on the ground, transmission in neutral, when you turn the other wheel you should see the case turning. Put it in gear and the case should now not turn. In normal operation, the differential will try to turn the wheel on the opposite side backward instead, but cannot because that wheel is on the ground, so it tries to turn the engine instead. Let the first wheel down, and jack up the other wheel and try that side. If you have sheared a key or broken an axle, when you turn a wheel with the transmission in gear, the good side should be spinning the spider gears (inside the case) as you turn the wheel, and the bad side will not be able to. On the other hand, if the case can still turn with the transmission in gear, you have probably dropped some teeth off the drive pinion, or sheared a key at the pinion (if it has one). EDIT: Chistech responded while I was typing. Try what he said first. It's easier.

You really need a balancing machine. If you could support a flywheel flat like a pizza absolutely perfectly centered on a tall pointy cone shaped thing with a sharp point, You could do it like bubble balancing a tire, by stacking weights here and there until it was perfectly level. Then you would remove weight from the opposite side and try again until it settles out perfectly level. It wouldn't be a flawless method, but it might get you close, and it might point out existing balance problems. I imagine that is how it was done to rough cast stuff before electronic balancing, if it was done at all. Another thing I have heard of is to just make the parts with every surface machined with respect to center, so it theoretically cannot be out of balance. But yeah, for spinning parts you really need a machine. I wouldn't even know where to begin with a viscous coupling if I had the machine. That really is a question for some guy who balances things for a living. Won't the internal parts change location in relation to each other? Pistons and rods on the other hand are pretty easy. You can do those with a scale.

I hadn't heard the autobahn story, but in that era they had parts to build a 2.2 turbo to some insane horsepower (for the time), and completely streetable. It was DC/MP factory aftermarket stuff for the Omni GLH as I recall, but a 2.2 is a 2.2. It ran on pump gas but made more power on race gas. The package was called "Super 60".

Is this Canadian? I believe the 224(223?) was a Canadian overbored Chevrolet 216 intended for a Canadian Pontiac. Is this what you have? A US 1951 Chevrolet would normally have a 216 if it is a stick and a 235 if it is a Powerglide. The 235 in this case is not like the later ones. It is more similar to a 216, having cast babbitt bearings and "low pressure" oiling. The popular thing to do is to put in a later 235. Sustained speeds of over 50MPH were bad (depending on who you ask) on the old "low pressure" engines once they got a little loose. Rod bearing failures were reported. As far as I know, the 99% bolt in engine is a 1954 235, or a 1953 235 from a car with a Powerglide, or a 1954 261 from a big truck. For 1955 there were changes in the engine that make it a little more difficult, but aftermarket parts are available to make it easier, for instance a plate to mount an earlier water pump on a 1955 or later 235 or 261. There are probably other things that need to change, but this conversion is done so often you can find the parts. They kept making 235s all the way until 1962. The Stovebolt.com forum probably has the best information about all this. The 230/250 is a better engine by far on paper. In practice, I don't like it much. Also there is absolutely nothing about it that directly bolts to a pre-1955 Chevrolet. It is about the same general size and shape though, so you could stuff one in there if you want to. Many have. It's not near as common as the easy 235 swap though.