Jim Nelson

Wanted a ‘1938’ series 41 Buick. Very good condition. Very good interior and good paint. Good oil pressure and working gages.

Well, I think I know the answer to my hear light question. Every manufacturer designed his own light lens assembly. . Only the bulb inside was a standard. I believe there were two light bulb manufacturers. Just like the light bulbs used on the dash board, tail lights etc. Only the housings varied to the designers idea. If Ibreak one on my ‘38’ Buick Special, I will need to find an identical len’s , right or left side since they are differnt. Thanks guys for your feedback.

The block ID number either - 43197425 - or - 43497425 is stamped on the casting where the ID is stamped. The first # is a 4 meaning it is a 40 series engine. The next number is either a #1 or a #4 followed by the rest of the stamped ID number. My ‘38’ engine (248) has the ID number stamped above the starter and JUST BELOW the flat plate that covers the lifter galley. So I know its not a ‘38’ engine. The casting on this block is just forward of the distributer. Just forward of the distributer is the opening for the ignition wires to go to the spark plugs. Thus, the block number and position of the ID boss (casting flat area) should - ? tell us what year this engine was manufactured. I’ll go over to teambuick and see if they can be of help.

Sorry, its a Buick 248

I want to know the year of mfg. of my 248. ID boss is about midway forward about where the ignition wires enter the spark plug area. The numbers there are 43 ?4 or 1 97425

How do you measure head light size. ?10” , ? 9.25”, ? 7”. Exposed len’s ? What size is my head light on my ‘38’ ? (6” exposed glass within chrome ring. ? My ‘35’ has 8” exposed lens within the chrome mounting ring. If I were to buy new lights, how do I know what to ask for ?

I’ve transported two cars . Each 1000 miles to my place. $6-700 depending ——

Want to buy a good Roadmaster. Oldbuickjim@gmail.com

Got mine from OlCar bearings. 1-910-693-3324 George Bachleda. Good pricing and he is here on the east coast - not california - - -

Thanks Tinindian. That worked. Earlier searces came up zero. To many words - -

Does anyone have any info on Trippe driving lights ? ?

Bloo, your analysis on brakes and their problems / possible solutions is well put. The test of your brakes surviving one panic stop is great. Of course, providing a nice cooling time before you head back home would be nice. Remember, its only physics : mechanical to heat. Cannot change that. Just the method and process. As I mentioned, “lays your money down and takes your chances” still holds true.

Yup. So true.. Except if you use the mechanicalbrakes they are not even. At my repair shop Dose a lot of antiques the ?modern - 60’s cars, they set and adjust mechanical in their back alley.. its gravel so a mls-adjusted brake shows up right now. They spend several hours trying to keep them in ballance. On our black top street, it leaves nice long tire marks. As they show me, any slightly worn bracket will make ballancing of mechanical very hard.. Pad, rotor ? how about just shoes and drums. And when all is said, and done, tire construction and condition and road temps all complete the pix.

Thanks Frank. Verrrry good lesson. I guess its flush time. What is the failure part in DOT 3 ? DOT 4 ? This flushing ?requirement? appeared in the car manuals but I don’t know ANYONE who talked about it and WHY. I have my own tale on tube tires vs tubeless. Driving at night going home on a trip. My car can run 65 / 70 all day long. On the Inter State, in the left lane, passing cars. Now the best point, I had just crested a hill and going into a decending sweeping left turn. BANG the left front tire exploded. I usually (all the time) drive with both hands on the wheel. So the steering wheel went into convultions. I managed to keep the car in the left lane, let up on the gas and managed to move left into the break down lane. As I was stoppin I found myself between the steel gaurd rail about 3’ away and about 18” away fron the painted left siide of of the left lane. I turned on my emergency lights and calmed down for a few moments. Obviously traffic on an Inter State could not see me untill it was to last for them to move into the center lane. Got it ? So I got out of the car and went back up the road (with my cell) to keep from becoming “road kill”. Finally got Road Ranger to help me and a county mounty to stay at the top of the hill with his red / blue lightsvon. People pay more attention to those lights. My whole side wall had separated from the main tire body of the tire. The tires were from a major classic tire mfg. you know, it advertises looking like original tires. Well, they all came off and got replaced with modern radial ply tires. It had been over 50 some year and many cars since I a problem with radials so lesson learned for me. BTW, my new tires look wonderful. I kept one of the tires as a spare. I need to look up the mgf construction date - just cuz. Isn’t life fun ?

Well this task is a lot easier than you think. First, ‘35’ was the last year for mechanicals. Keeping them ballanced was ALWAYS a problem. That is why all cars went to hydraulics. Second, I am only working with prewar series 40 and series 50 Buicks. 1936 was the first year Buick had hydraulics. So its not re-engineering here. Just a continuing the improvement that Buick engineers were doing. Hydraulic’s were a simplification of how to stop your car reliably. and straight. New pre fitted lines are a phone call away. Flex lines are on the shelf. Its some what like comparing 1955 Buicks to 2018 Buicks with things like dual braking systems, anti-lock system, air bags , seat belts with shoulder harnes. I’m just moving the old system off to the side and replacing them with new and easier to work with systems. The mod’s I am doing are things that are invisable or unrecognisable to the average person. My cars are not museum pieces. For those who want that, please enjoy them as mine don’t gather dust and are found on the road. I find that it brings a alot of enjoyment and questions about our old cars.

Hmmm, that was an exciiting experience. Do you recall how the fluid got out of the reservoir ? Very strange

Hey, Billorn, That was cute !!

Whoa - - - a total failure with a brake system that is supposed to have separate braking in case of a failure. Tell me / us what happened. It makes no sense. The only common area was the reservoir and it has a separating wall to keep fluid separate if one system goes crap. I'm very curious to the failure mode.

Hi Bernie, Interesting comments on brake system. Unfortunatly I live in an area that is where survival is difficult. 1st. Over a million normal (?) drivers, 2nd. I live in the south which gets a tourist influx that adds at least 20 to 30% more drivers from Nov. to. Easter every year. That influx has increased every year. 3rd. The additional drivers (most of them) do not experience the high volume of cars each day driving over roads that are 6 to 8 lanes. Plus they are disorientad and do not know “exactly” where theybare going. Its called prior planning on how they will get there. 4th. We have the ocean / Gulf that funnels the massive flow and provides a destination. Parking sucks as big money bought up all the little guys and gives us high rise condo’s so you have a difficult time even the water. 5th. We have a great numbers of accidents known as “T - bone”. Drivers who literly run lights in the confusion of their travels. Then throw in normal (?) ‘I didn’t see him excuses of normal traffic accidents. Now as we drive and try to keep from getting creamed, our old designed for traffic at the time - neet cars, it gets hard. My 37 Buick with the smallest brakes sold become very - problematic. I give my self plenty of space BUT the guy in front of you may not be as quick as you as you plan your stop. My last issue put me in a position to use all the braking I could muster. Come in brake fade - - . So my first Buick has had the front brakes up graded to Century level. That gives me 14% better brakeing. If you are lucky enough and have a 39 or 40 or newer, you can install front disc brakes. Plus, having a dual master cyl. to split the braking incase of one system failure. I’m old enough to remember the accidents where you met the steering shaft in a very uncomfortable way. No seat belts, running lights for evening driving. Air bags etc all the nice survivability equipment in todays cars we take for granted. When I buy a pre-war car it gets trucked to a very close lot where I carefully drive it home and into my garage. It doesn’t come out untill seat belts are in place. Enough said for us drivers of our very nice older cars. My cars are not dust gathers, I drive them. My last long drive was approx 1600 miles from Tampa Fl. to Murphfrreboro Tn. Over a week for a club get together. No dust in my garage - - My latest car (and last one) is a ‘1935 Vicky. Last of the mechanical brake cars for Buick. Needless to say, I will eventually put hydraulic dual system in place so I can survive to a rip old age. Of course, its just my humble opinion, “Put your money down and takes you chances” as an old friend reminds me.

Gdmn852, With the stock 49 rear end you can get a better rear ratio. You have a ‘removable’ torque tube. You can get a later dynaflo ratio and make your car decent enough to run on the highway. BTW, I am a VERY BIG FAN of NOT running my straight 8 engines over 3000 rpm for anything except passing of a slow car. You can change the third member to something like a 3.6 (standard tranny ratio). I think you can use a 3.41 ratio from a dynaflo rear. (‘54’ rear). Makes your car good on the highway. With dynaflo tranny, you can use the lower ratio’s and still accelerate nicely. No one knows as the up grades are hidden. Since you have a post war Buick, they make a disc brake mod. That will give you fade free heavy stopping so you don’t bend any sheet metal. If nothing else, you can just bolt in - 2-1/4” wide front brakes (later - around early 50’s) for great stopping. As you know, your car does a greater degree of stopping with the front brakes. The rear’s just come along to keep the back end from locking up and making neat tire tracks on the street. I am a BIG fan of good brakes on our old cars. My world of +million people, plus way to many tourist who have no idea where they are going and the rest are to old - -

Just replacing with New bearings and set up with the proper clerances will give you a nice relatively quiet rear assembly. I found Olcar to have a nice selection of bearing at a reasonable cost. Several bearings are ‘standard’ size so you could buy them from a local bearing shop. I owned a bearing shop for 18 years so I got familiar with them. A good machinist can make some sleeves to change the OD to match some of the “factory” only bearings. When things get unavilable, things become more fun to repair. Junk to gold.

And time continues. My 35-58 Vicky is home on jack stands. I got the original fuel tank when I got my “Vicky”. It was a leaking sive. A new built tank is expensive. I explored a company called “ReNu”. They restore old gas tanks that don’t hold gas. I loaded up the old tank and drove around 100 miles to his shop. He explained what they did and what I can expect. I ‘“put hands on” a tank he had ReNu’d for a Hudson he was working on. A calibrated eye on what tooling he had and used told me this seems to be a good repair station. I got it back in a week. It was less expensive than a new tank. PLUS it fits like an original - cause it is. I replaced the level indicator with a modern combo unit. Gas out and level indicator. The old system was strange design. I got a 1939 - 1954 unit. I needed to modify some of the holes etc. I then put the ‘new’ gas tank back in the car. I needed to replace most of the cobbled up fuel line from the tank forward midway to the engine. Caught a cold - first in 3 or 4 years. On hold - -

Yes, the pin is mostly redundant. The possibility of the drive shaft needing the pin is a lawyer / engineer solution for a non existant problem. The shafts I’ve worked on would never needed the pin. The bolt I used is there JIC . BY using a bolt, it becomes easier IF you need to seperate the pinion / drive shaft again.......

If you have a '38' or later service manual, they tell you how. Other later service manuals work. The first thing is to put the double row ball bearing on the front of the pinion shaft. You then screw on the front nut and torque it to - I believe about 130#' to 140#' That sets the bearing. Then clean up the shims so they are clean. Those shims set the position of the pinion gear against the ring gear. Install the shims back into the housing with a bit of oil to keep them from moving. Then you slip on the pinion collar and follow it with the rear roller bearing. Now this is important - you NEED to have the assembly spacer ring that keeps the roller bearing forward as you push the assembly forward into the carrier housing. Also, twist the pinion collar to ALIGN the holes on the collar with the three screws in the carrier housing as you push it together. If you don't get them aligned as you get it together, the holes in the spacer won't align with the holes where the screws are inserted. If you are close, you can move the pinion collar by sticking a small screw driver in the hole to make sure they are aligned. As you put the three screw in, they will provide the final alignment. The service manual tell you how to sequence the three screws - tighten them correctly. You will not be able to move the collar (rotation wise to align with the three screws)) once you start pushing it together. Been there / done that, redone that again - - duh ! You need to use the spacer (C-shapped) to keep the roller bearing forward as you push it all in place. After you have pushed it in place, you remove the instillation spacer and its sone. NOW I remember - there may be a spacer ring between the pinion gear and the roller bearing to keep the roller bearing from moving rearward and touching the gear. So sorry if my memory is not all there, I am suffering from 'old timers' so I use my service manuals. This should give you a good run at it. Then you need to put the drive shaft back on the front of the pinion shaft. I used teflon paste to lubricate the male spline for assembly. Do it slowly to get the cross pin hole aligned. I went to my favorite machine shop and played it on their metal bench. Fixed the transmission end to a non moveable block ? and then used a screw jack on the pinion gear (with an aluminum block to protect the gear. Slowly pressed / moved the two parts together until the cross pin holes aligned and then put in the cross pin. Now yo can use any (?) 1/4" bolt for this function. I used a grade 5 NF bolt and a lock washer to keep it together. Being a nut about balance, I matched the head of the bolt with a regular washer to try to keep the same weight at both ends of the bolt. Works. If you have a drive shaft shop close by, you can then take the complete assembly there and have them balance it perfectly. A great way to finish up a part that you will not be able to do easily in the future. Read you service manual to see if I forgot anything. By the way, "Dr Earl" the moderator on these forums, has the spacer assembly ring and the very important forked tool to tighten the carrier bearing on final assembly. It is not rocket science, just proper procedure with the proper tools. JMHO

The old timers had a method to fix the worn spline. As I remember, they would clean the spline realwell. Then with solder cleaning acid. Heat the spline enough to melt the solder. Apply a coat of solder on the spline and then press the spline into the female fitting. Resulting spline was tight again. Their comments were that many years later, they were able to check the tighten of the repair. All were like new. So, having a small coating of solder on the spline works.