Zach Hughes

I would get in touch with Gregg Lange at glange0@charter.net He had the gears I needed to put my 1913 rear back together and I believe he also has them for the later 6 cyl cars.

I think a teens Buick would be a good choice for an earlier car. They are very good cars for the money, for what some people pay for a Ford of the same vintage you can get a Buick with three times the power and a far more substantial road presence. I looked very hard at a 1919 H45 near me for several years. It was noticeably bigger than my '13 model 31, and was much more modern in many aspects. The larger six cylinder engine would also keep up with traffic a little better whenever I would venture into town. Unfortunately the owner's widow could not be convinced that a "fair" condition original car that had not been run in 50 years was not worth exactly as much (or more) than fully restored and running cars were.

New member, old Buick. I've been meaning to join up sooner so I could properly introduce myself under better circumstances. Unfortunately, I am coming here for direction and recommendations on machine shops that do good work as I believe that the rear end on my model 31 has given all the miles it is going to. The carrier bearings have worn to the point that the carrier can move around nearly 1/4 of an inch. This has of course lead to some serious misalignment between the ring and pinion, in which the pinion has emerged the victor. What's odd to me is that the rear end was quiet right up until the moment it wasn't, Luckily I wasn't far from home. I've torn it all down and it would appear to me that these are the original bearings, with long tubular rollers loosely held together with a cage of sorts, riding inside split races. I see no way to adjust them to coax any more life out of this assembly. The ring gear, while chewed up on the edges looks very capable of handling 30 horsepower for a while yet. But then again it needs to be fixed right as I like to drive my old cars quite a lot, more than I should maybe. Anyway, unless someone here has a source for used parts that still have some miles left in them, It unfortunately appears to me that I'm going to need to have new gears produced (I bet that will be cheap) and have the housing machined to accept modern (read that as available) bearings. I'm looking for recommendations for places that cut gears for these old machines, and possibly a place to do the rest of the retrofit work on the housing as well if I cannot find a shop willing to undertake that task here in Texas.