PhilAndrews

Local guy I just bumped into pulled a running Rocket V8 engine from his car and has it, minus carburetor, on a stand outside his garage. He said he was going to make a table out of it, I said I would mention it and see if anyone wanted it here first. Free to collector. Location is Larose, Louisiana Let me know here and I can pass on details.

Anybody want a running when removed (a couple months ago) Oldsmobile Rocket V8? No carburetor but otherwise complete. Free to collector, local guy I just bumped into had pulled the Rocket and Hydramatic, sold the transmission (was bad) and put the engine up on a stand. Location Larose, LA. Phil

Apparently there was some shindig this afternoon in town at Hooters. Missed it because I was working, which is a shame.

Exhaust was blowing at the manifold. Investigated tonight because it's was cold enough to touch. Two of the nuts that hold the flange together had fallen off. Oops. Replaced those and done them up tight. No more leak. Phil

I got fed up leaving sooty marks all over the concrete. New exhaust tip. That's better. Phil

Nice. A good quality grease gun head fitting is definitely required, I had to heft on the handle on a few of mine to get them to clear initially. Tidy up looks good! I need to do underneath mine, too. Phil

Knowing GM they're all common. I'll probably just end up repairing this one for now. Phil

Ugly repair that still needs a proper pressure test with soapy water. Heavily loaded because the solder was fighting with the remnants of what was there so I had to bend the top flange out and get it to stick to a larger surface area. Hopefully that's tight now. Phil

Lifted my radiator out tonight (that makes it sound easy) and took a look at where it's leaking. The old solder looks pretty ropey so I'll get that cleaned up and repaired. Couple other places had paint bubbling up so I scrubbed those back too and found a few fractures. I'll clean those up and repair those too. Phil

Does anybody have a spare secondary hood latch that fits these cars they want to sell me? Mine broke yesterday- it's been welded before but had cracked and now the finger plate doesn't move the latch, it makes undoing the hood difficult so I removed it for the time being, but that's not optimal. Phil

Pretty sunset tonight. Radiator needs repair again. Phil

Car working area update. I cleaned the last of the hurricane debris from the corners of the workshop, ran circuits for 2 more switches so the outside lights, ceiling fan and workshop lights are switchable independently. I put some new lights up over the benches. Now I just need to get some insulation and some ply paneling to put back up on the inside of the roof. Phil

Looks like you've possibly got some oxidized cruft on the battery terminal- that oxide can form a high resistance path which will cause the terminal to heat up significantly under extended cranking. Pull it off and clean the terminals and try again?

Very much so. Others seem to see it as just another car on the street, and need that laserbeam of bright red in the corner of their eye to grab their attention off their phone and onto the brake pedal.

Well, I hear the gnashing of teeth and the wails of horror at the mention of "light emitting diode"... We have 17" of sunshine piled up on the ground here, you can take it. I also possibly have a lead on the correct back-up lights too, so keep an eye open for that. Those ones are good and they work but they're not right. Phil

Full sunshine test. Nice contrast. Happier with that. Hopefully the no name brand brake light switch will last a little longer than the last one now that it has less current demand. I'll take the slight additional safety margin offered by these bulbs considering how much I drive the car in everyday traffic, day and night. Phil

A real world test today- the Cold Morning. It was foggy and there was a chill to the air, leaving the car all misted up. I had left it on fast idle to warm up which left that lovely sooty mark on the driveway! The screen defrost and cabin heating work well, and the thermostatic valve does regulate the cabin temperature. I had a few instances lately of people getting up real close when I was braking to make a turn; I've folded and fitted bright red LED bulbs in the rear lights which has made a big difference to how people follow the car now. I was worried that the lights would not have good contrast between tail and brake because a lot of LED's tend to but these actually have better contrast with the tail lights on than the 21/5 filament bulbs and the brake lights are brighter. Unfortunately today's drivers are used to being blinded by brake lights to grab their attention- these don't blind you but they make the low down and quite small lights by today's standards significantly more visible. I like the way the back of the car looks, I would rather it not be modified by someone else's fenders. Phil

If you look down with a flashlight, have someone rock the steering wheel back and forth moderately fast and you see that lateral movement, that cannot be adjusted out and requires a new lower bushing. How that helps clarify. (Yes, mine there is totally worn out and needs overhaul). Also, as a side-note the manual says to mix up a slurry of oil and grease to fill the box; in time the lighter components evaporate and leak out past the lower seal, the heavier components absorb moisture and the grease turns to the consistency of old cheese, which pushes out of the way and then totally fails to lubricate, particularly in the cold. I cleaned mine and used John Deere "Corn Head" grease- it is a synthetic grease that's stable, thixotropic and designed not to weep past worn seals. When it's pushed out of the way, it has good "flop" characteristics meaning it'll settle back down onto the bearing surfaces rather than remaining pushed out of the way. It was designed for prolonged use in corn picking machinery, which have worm gear gearboxes like this. It's been good so far. Available at most farm machinery stores, I bought mine online, a single 14oz tube is enough to fill it. Phil

I went through a few belts and the 40.5" I got from CPR plain don't fit- the 45" from Napa went back because it was way too long. This one is 42.25" x 19/32" and length-wise it fits. I think I just need a "classical cross section" belt because this one is too fat at the base and is interfering with the pulley. I'm going to see if they have that length by 23/32" in the "classical" shape (B) and see how well that works. Phil

Question. I have a fan belt that's 19/32" wide, but it sits kinda low in the pulleys and whines because it has the cooling notches cut into the inside edge. Is this the correct width, it we m should it have a 5/8” or 3/4" wide belt?

Just in time for my alternator to start causing problems! All good, let me know what happens! Phil

Today the weather was nice so I went for a (surprisingly busy) Sunday drive. Got some more shots of that on film. I hope they come out. Phil

Hobbs under-hood light. Rewired, new bulb. Lights up when you pull the hood up. I picked this one because it's nicely protected by the glass cover. I think this is the 1952 version? Phil

Some lash can be accounted for but I have a Saginaw box on mine and the main area of lash is the lower sector shaft bushing. Prop the hood up, lean over with a flashlight past the battery and look down at the Pitman arm, while an assistant rocks the steering left and right. If the steering box end does a little wiggle before starting to turn, you cannot adjust that out; the box needs overhaul. If not then the lash can be adjusted with the top nut and end adjustment. Phil

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of the electrical troubles. Note the tail lights will stay on with no ground if you pull one out- it'll ground via the filament of the other to the other side to ground. I decided to alter the original turn signal wiring because a lot of modern 12v flasher relays do not either have, or operate the third pin correctly, so grounded the bulb holders to chassis and took their feed from the front bulb wires. The flasher relay socket then rewired to accept a standard L configuration 2-pin flasher. Those are significantly easier to source for LED ones that will still flash correctly with the minimal current draw from LED bulbs. I fitted LED bulbs to the rear lights on mine for a while, which worked but I was dissatisfied with the light distribution, as the bulbs I had (admittedly bought for a different application) shone their light sideways, intended for lamps with a parabolic reflector. Final note, for poor connections I use DeOxit D100L, very good stuff for fuses and connectors and butt joints and light bulb sockets. Works similarly to dielectric grease but also has chemicals that break down the oxide layer and also acts as a lubricant so connectors don't get stuck. The oil pressure gauge can be calibrated to the sender unit but it's a right fiddle to do. Phil