Glen Andrews

As someone wrote: no title, no interest. The above post by "alsancle" I refer to item #4, if there is a valid title ask for it and compare it to the serial number tag or vehicle identification number tag and make sure there is a match before money changes hands. In 1974 I was stationed in North Carolina, bought a car with a Virginia title, and went to register in my home state of Pennsylvania, on the Virginia title one of the characters was incorrect, and it took about three months to get a corrected Virginia title, and then I could register the car in Pennsylvania. That was a lesson learned and ever since then I have compared the title to the car serial number, even did it when i bought new HD motorcycles, asked the dealer for the manufacturers paperwork so I could compare the numbers. If a seller doesn't want to comply, then forget that deal.

Wow, a lot to read and to take in here. I probably won't replace my headlight bulbs to higher brightness, it's a 1938 Chevy pickup with bulbs behind the glass and it does not have a high beam indicator light. When I drive my newer vehicles (2020 & 2006) at night, and it's similar to what a couple of people mentioned above, I now put my sunglasses on like a pair of cheater reading glasses and when a car approaches I lift my head a little and the sunglasses cut out enough oncoming light, when the vehicle passes by I lower my head to my usual driving position. I too used to use the thing of looking at the white line but light is still coming into your eyes. Anyway the sunglasses work well for me.

The axle shaft has been under stress for as long as the housing has been bent, also the axle carrier bearing as well as the outer axle bearing have been under stress too. So you might get lucky if the housing is not bent too bad and can be straightened, the other pieces may be okay once the stress is relieved. Also depends on how original you're wanting to keep the car, or how much you want to drive it. Myself, I'd be looking for an undamaged axle. Good luck.

I have a '38 Chevrolet half ton pickup, same fuel pump type, you can also get them from Rock Auto, the product line to order is Victor-Reinz, a little over a dollar a piece I think, fit like a charm, get two or three of them, at that price it's good to have backup!

In the FBook listing there is a video of the engine running, just wish he would have revved it a bit, but it still sounded good. The engine and compartment are in excellent shape, inner fender wells are red, no visible rust, engine relatively clean and orderly and there appears to be no hacking into the wiring harness, so basically unmolested under the hood. The body lines look excellent and the body appears solid, and yes it needs to be seen in person. And as someone said above, if the body is good and the mechanics need attention then costs can be better predicted. I'm guessing it's over a 100,000 miles, sure the seats are worn and the dash appears to be cracked, but it is the first year for the TR4, they have a top and a car cover, but there is not a clear mention of a title. I've been watching these cars and have seen a bunch in worse shape for the same $ or more, I think this is a pretty good deal at $8000, but $7000 would be a really good deal, and once again a potential buyer really needs to see it in person. I've had TR3's and a TR6 in my youth but at this price, and if I had garage space, I would be making a one way trek of about 8 hours to check it out.

Anybody hurt in that wreck?!

And to repeat a quote I have used from time to time, from veteran oil well fire fighter Red Adair: if you think an expert's expensive, wait until you hire an amateur.

About 10 years ago I wasn't doing much with my restored '38 Chevrolet pick up and it sat a few months with ethanol gas in it, I was doing a lot of Harley riding that summer. When I went to start it I used ether, and it would quit running once I stopped applying the ether. You know what the carburetor looked like inside, so a rebuild was necessary, the ethanol gas apparently ate at the rubber flex hose from the tank to the fuel line, and I found the inside of the intake manifold black and gummy, took it off and soaked it in an acid bath at a machine shop, the intake runners of the head were also black and gummy so I used a lacquer soaked rag to get in there to clean them. A lot of hassle and aggravation that I decided to avoid after this experience. So since then I change the gas in the tank every 8 weeks, I put 4 gallons in and use that to start it up and run it every week or two or to drive around the neighborhood, I put more gas in if going to a show. Luckily I have a country store gas station near me that sells 87 and 93 NON ethanol, so for the last 7 years I've been using that. Any remaining gas I drain out I put into my Tundra's 38 gallon tank and top it off with regular gas. I do prime the carburetor if I let my '38 sit too long, cranking it when dry is too rough on the starter and the battery. I know this sounds like an ordeal to change gas every 8 weeks but sometimes it's like I try to make my life difficult!!! And I usually do a good job of it, but it works for me.

It will need some work, and tires, to be made reliable, and if the pictures are current then at least it's cleaned up and out of the garage, so it probably runs okay to some degree. Overall a really nice car.

I think I answered the wrong guy a bit further down this thread, I meant to quote you, it's late, I'm tired, and so on, but anyway I hope you get to read it; good luck with this project.

Very interesting car and project, a lot of good advice given by the members on this thread, and you have a good attitude and idea about working on this car; someone said to do something for an hour a day so that you see progress, and that reminds me of something I once heard: "this is like eating an elephant, you do it one bite at a time." Good luck with your project, myself and all the others on this thread are hoping the best for you.

Myself, like a lot of others, have worked on and been around cars a long time: can someone tell me what an IN LINE V-8 engine is!!

Maybe it is a plain faced vacuum gauge, my computer and eyes (even with cheaters on) can't make out the letters on the face of the gauge. And yes back in the day when adding air shocks was popular there was typically a valve added somewhere on the rear panel near the bumper where free air was pumped in at a gas station. There is not a good picture of the lower rear of the car to spot such a valve, the only hint I got was from the one trunk picture where there is what appears to be a red plastic line just barely showing on the left side just inside the trunk, maybe for the air shocks?? Twenty years ago I had an '85 Cadillac Eldorado and the automatic leveling sensor for the air ride was bad, no easy replacement part to be found and I didn't have a lot of money in the car, so underneath the dash on the driver side I wired a toggle switch to the under hood air pump so I could raise/level up the back end of the car.

Ed: Initially I thought vacuum gauge, but after looking and thinking about the comments, I think you're correct that it is for rear air shock pressure and the toggle switch to the right of the gauge was added to run an added air pump to pressure up the shocks. It was probably added back in the 70's as air shocks were a popular add on back then. It appears the gauge goes to 30 pounds which could be a vacuum gauge, but I'm going with air pressure gauge and toggle switch for an air pump for the rear shocks.

Okay, the multi-volt (6-12-24) Snap On meter (MT415A) that I got 2 weeks ago was DEAD, it did have an old size "D" battery inside corroded all over the place, I think that battery must have powered the meter of the unit. So last week I got a 12V dwell meter that had a brand name of "FOX" and it needed a 9V battery inside to work the meter, and this is the unit I just used yesterday on my 6V Chevy truck, wired it up just like the guy explained it on the old Chevy Stovebolt forum, so for me it was an old dog learning a new trick! Now I can see the dwell reading of my points, and see the RPM's, so I set the idle at 600, no more guessing.

Yes I remember doing the dwell settings back in the day with the cap and rotor off dwell meter hooked up and cranking the starter and adjusting the dwell on the points. And for years on my '38 I have been setting the points at the .015" -.016" range, using the vacuum gauge to set timing and put the light on afterwards just to see, and the thing ran right. But after reading the thread that mentioned hooking up a 12V dwell meter to a 6V system: "I just had to know!" So as usual I put a saddle on the project and rode it into the ground!

Not sure how to do this, but Thanks to all who read and replied to my post: 57j2olds / 61 Polara / Bloo / RocketRaider / TerryB / Rodney / and others. I received the 12V dwell meter and finally today I worked in the garage on my 6 cylinder '38 Chevy pickup 6V (neg ground). I have another car in the garage and used that 12V battery to power the dwell meter, ran a ground from the engine block back to the dwell meter ground, connected the distributor lead and I was able to finally see what RPM's my engine was running and was able to set the dwell. I set the idle RPM's at 600 and set the dwell at 35*. Before I hooked up the dwell meter I set the points at .018" which is the recommended setting, started it up and the dwell was right at 30* and had a little roughness when I revved the engine, so I closed the points up to .016" and dwell read 34* and was better, but the suggested middle of the road reading in the Snap On instructions (that TerryB posted) was 36* so I used a .015" feeler gauge restarted the engine and the dwell read 35* so I figured that was good, reset the timing with a vacuum gauge, got right at 21"hg and set the distributor there. I put the timing light on the flywheel to see where the marks shook out and I'm figuring it's at 8*BTDC. Now to see how it starts up when cold, should be good. There's another story behind my using a vacuum gauge to set the timing, If I use the suggested Chevrolet settings the engine doesn't want to start when cold; but that should probably be another thread; this thread has gone from a Buick 8 cylinder issue to me learning how to use a 12V dwell meter on a 6V system, and years ago I got rid of all those basic tune up pieces, and now I have them and am back to the early 70's technology. I really enjoy these forums and the comments made, and the things I learn from the contributors. Glen

Rodney, thanks for the reply, I found an old post on a Chevy Stovebolt forum that explained it, and after reading and absorbing it I have pretty well sorted it in my mind. I am waiting for a 12V dwell/meter to arrive and probably next week I'll give it a go to see how well it works. That looks like a pretty neat piece that Bloo posted. Take care, Glen

I took the thing apart and the rotary switches are stuck, WD40 didn't do anything, and one of the rotary switches (the Volt selector) is broken inside, there is much corrosion from a left over size D battery, and just deterioration of the internal electrical parts, as I said it is DEAD. So I cleaned it up some and now I have another piece of interesting junk in my garage, I'm only out about $45 with shipping; how many times in this hobby have I wished that was the largest sum of money I've burned up chasing things!! And I have a 12V one coming, $39 with shipping, and I have the explanation on how to wire it to work on my 6V negative ground system; so hopefully that 12V one works and I can get on to checking my actual engine RPM's, and dwell reading.

Yes pics are fuzzy, but it apparently has been rebuilt by a rebuilder based on the sticker on the side, has a blue line on a white sticker. Typically there are numbers stamped into the main body of the Quadrajets which can identify which car line and model the carburetor was originally used on. In the mid 80's I worked as a sales rep for Champion Rebuilt which did a lot of Carburetors at a plant near Lock Haven, PA. I got a rebuilt Quadrajet from them for my '76 Corvette, which worked fine, when I checked the numbers stamped into the main body it was actually a carburetor from a Camaro. Not sure this is the case all the time, but may be enough to identify this carburetor. Good luck!

Terry, that looks like the unit I got, but as I said it is a DEAD unit and I figured that when I bought it. I have a good friend who was a Snap On Dealer for 20 plus years so I showed it to him and asked if he can find one, if not I have that 12V one coming which I'll be able to use with an extra battery. I'm supposed to receive the instruction booklet in the mail, which will look like what you have posted, thanks. There is a SUN dwell/tach unit on Ebay that has a 6V and 12V setting, but it has no cables with it and is priced at $200; so I figure I'll get this 12V one for about $40 with shipping, I have plenty of extra test leads (as most of us do in this hobby) so I will be able to give it a try probably next week. Thanks again, Glen

Okay, thanks for the responses. So last night I googled 6V dwell meter and found an old post (7 years ago) on the Chevy Stovebolt forum where someone explained it so I took pictures of the post and hand wrote it out, and it makes sense. In the Stovebolt post it's explained as someone else above in this thread explained it. A separate 12V source that the dwell meter power leads get hooked to, and then run a ground wire from the negative power lead of the dwell meter and connect it to the engine block, which yes my truck is negative ground, and then hook the dwell/tach lead to the negative side of the coil or distributor points lead on the side of the distributor. Last week I bought off Ebay an old Snap On meter that had a 6V 12V and 24V selector switch, and it was listed as "untested" , and it doesn't function so now I have another interesting piece to display in my garage. This morning I just bought a 12V dwell meter off Ebay that is listed as working. Probably twenty years ago I got rid of a 12V dwell meter and timing light; I used feeler gauges and a vacuum gauge to set the points and timing on my '38 Chevy. Now I want to know the RPM's and the dwell reading; and about ten years ago I bought another timing light, so I'm pretty much back to where I was in the early 70's with basic tune up equipment.

Rodney: I have a 1938 Chevrolet (1/2 ton pickup) that is 6V and original 216" engine, I am trying to find a dwell meter that will function with a 6V system and you mention that a 12V dwell meter can be converted to work on a 6V system. I no longer have a 12V dwell meter but they are available all over Ebay, so can you explain how to do that conversion. Last week I bought a Snap On dwell/tach meter off Ebay which had a switch setting for 6V 12V and 24V, and of course the description was something like an untested unit yada yada and so on. So yes it was a piece of junk but an interesting piece. I would like to know with my engine the RPM and Dwell settings; I use feeler gauges and a vacuum gauge to set the timing and points, also use a timing light. Thanks, Glen Andrews

I attended the Raleigh (NC) Classic Auction in early June, not a big time auction but has been going on for many years. A lot of the cars are from dealer collections from the Raleigh area and other cities in the nearby area, and some from Southern Virginia, and there were some single car owners and such included in the auction. There might have been 250 cars in the three day auction, practically every car had a reserve set. Sitting with a friend watching this we found that many of the bids were getting to about 60-70% of the reserve, so many cars did not sell; seems like potential buyers are not quite ready to pay what sellers wanted. Okay, don't shoot the messenger, just an observation at this auction.