Bill White

I was referring to the bypass valve in the thermostat housing. I just didn’t do a very good job of explaining myself. I do have a thermostat installed, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what temperature one I installed. I was thinking of replacing the spring-loaded valve with the freeze plug with the 5/16 hole in it, or the brass tube over the shaft of the spring-loaded valve stem as an added level of insurance from over heating. I don’t remember how hot the motor got last summer, but it certainly didn’t peg the gauge while idling in traffic. Since the BCA National meet in Cleveland this year is in mid July, the thought of over heating is in the back of my mind. I’m adding pics this time, two from Rodneybeaucha, and the other also from this forum. Hope they don’t mind my reposting their pics. I’m guessing we will have some 90 degree temps in June, so we will be driving it to see how well the cooling system is working.

A couple of years ago, we had the radiator recored and the water pump rebuilt. Both were leaking. While we had it apart, we thought we would put the freeze plug with the 5/16” hole in the passage of the cylinder head water jacket. Before we drilled the hole, the freeze plug would barely fit into the hole. After we drilled the hole it would fit in very loosely. My first question is, how do you keep it in place, or did I have the wrong size plug? Another question, do you just remove the valve, or do you have to cut the part out that holds the spring valve in place? I found an old post dated 7/15/19, by Rodneybeaucha mp from Australia, who said he just put a brass tube over the center brass rod which would prevent the valve from closing. He stated that it worked fine for him. We are planning to drive it to Cleveland which is over 700 miles and are taking precautions. Sometimes in traffic the temp gauge starts to creep up. Any thoughts and answers to my questions are appreciated. Thanks, Bill. Forgot to say our car is a 1940 Buick Special mod. 46 with original 248 engine.

This car is not mine. My wife showed me this ad on Facebook marketplace. I am not on Facebook and don’t know how to add a link, therefore I just took some screen shots.

I suggest you consider taking off the distributor plate and checking that your centrifugal weights are clean and free in movement. My son and I took ours apart and found that someone had put grease under them for lubrication, but the grease dried out and they would hardly move at all. One of the balls that kept the plate centered in the distributor also kept sliding out of place, which also kept the advance system from functioning properly. We replaced our plate with one that has several ball bearings integrated into the plate, (thanks to Jolly John), and there is a remarkable improvement in performance. Our vacuum advance unit also leaked and would not hold while vacuum was applied. Had to replace that too. Our car is a 40’ Buick Business Coupe, I would think your distributor would be functionally about the same. I hope this is helpful for you. Bill

Well, we tried to center the shoes with the above method, the drum moved freely after, but the measurements were not good. Repeated the process again, and got the same results. One end of the secondary shoe measured .015, but the other end was so close that we could not get the feeler guage in at all. So we just loosened up the anchor bolt nut and tapped it forward with a hammer, and got better results. As it is now, the bottom measurement is a good .015, and the top of the shoe measurement is a tight .015, or a perfect .014. I don’t think .001 will make any difference. Hope to get the other side done tomorrow. The first thing we did today was replace the old brake fluid with new and bled the brakes. It was almost exactly 4 years since we installed a new master cylinder and put in new DOT 3. Game plan was to switch out the fluid every 3 years, makes me think about how fast the years are ticking by. Thanks again for your input. Bill

Hi Everyone, my son Tom (business as usual), put new front brake shoes on his 40’ Special, mod. 46 yesterday. He adjusted the brakes shoes hard against the drum, then backed them off 10 clicks on the adjuster wheel. (Arbitrary number of clicks) After pressing the primary shoe against the drum, we checked the clearances on the secondary shoe per shop manual instructions. Had the proper clearance on one end of the brake shoe and had no clearance on the other end. As I understand it, the adjustment we need to make is with the anchor bolt, but the manual does not say how that adjustment is made. Loosen the anchor bolt nut, and then what? I guess I’m missing something here. Tomorrow we will loosen the nut and see what we can figure out. Any input on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bill

Having just put new brake shoes on my son’s 1940 Buick Special, we checked the distance between the brake shoe and the drum with a .010 feeler gauge as shown in shop manual. Had perfect clearance on one side and no clearance on the other side. Manual states to make adjustment with the anchor bolt. I can see how to loosen it, but not sure how to adjust it. We adjusted the shoes hard against the drum and backed off 10 clicks on the adjuster wheel. Pushed the primary shoe against the drum and checked the clearance before checking the afore mentioned clearances. Do we just loosen the nut on the anchor bolt, then tighten it again? Thanks in advance for any help with this issue. Bill