Gene Brink

"Did he break the transmission? You betcha. Several times. But then he had a lead foot and a couple BRASS ones. He learned to take it out , tear it down and back in in a day. Long one. He was 19 at the time." Can relate to that, Ben. Mine was a '54 Super and my right foot spent way too much time against the floorboard and L to D shifts were deadly for the Dynaflow. Like your brother I got pretty good at removing and replacing (4 or 5 times - memory is getting a bit hazy...) and junk yard transmissions were only $25 in 64-66 so the cost wasn't too high. Finally solved the problem by buying a '55 transmission, and linkage for the kick-down, and installing in the '54. With the dual stator acceleration in D was acceptable for a lead foot like me. Drafted in Jun '66 and while I was gone my folks sold the Super - still miss it today.? My take on reliability is that the early Dynaflows (49-54) are not as forgiving when abused as those from '55 on and from '58 to '63 are every bit as reliable and perform as well as 3 or 4 speed automatics in other marques. Drive yours and enjoy (I too vote for a high idle causing your lurch into L or R - Old Tank's advice to make sure your brake is firmly pressed when shifting will minimize this problem).

Found this yesterday and wanted to share as there is some good stuff here - http://www.secondchancegarage.com/index.cfm. Enjoy!

Congratulations, Scott. Must confess I am jealous...?

Nice shirt ?

John, Noise sounds like your parking pawl is trying to engage with the parking gear it locks into (designed so it can NOT do so when the car is being driven over 5 mph - guess how I know this???) so may be something out of whack in the output tail shaft housing where it is located. If the sound lasts long enough (4 or 5 seconds should be enough time) try carefully shifting from drive into neutral to see it stops. If so that is where I'd check if all else fails (I say this because you would have to pull the transmission to check on this). Good luck!

Have it with vinegar section in my Walmart. Labeled as cleaning vinegar and was only in gallon size.

Bill, Several good suggestions from earlier posts. You did not mention if you had a new distributor cap so here is something I encountered 35 years or so ago. I had a 64 Chevy pickup with a 283 that acted exactly the same way. Turned out that there was some carbon tracking on the inside of the distributor cap causing misfire when the engine was run over 2,000 rpm. New cap and ran perfectly. Hope you solve your problem

I don't have a solution to the problem, Pete, as regardless of where the cars were parked you would still be up & down the same number of times. Seems to me the walk between cars spread out might actually give a bit of relief by providing some recovery time...?

Welcome aboard!

Tom Telesco on V8Buick says the only gasket to use is Remflex - http://catalog.remflex.com/category_s/154.htm. Info about reads well, makes sense and might be worth a try.

Craig, Duco#202-57365. Ditzler#41336. RM (RInshed Mason) #PS-0341-D. No idea how close any of these will match your original color. Had a problem getting a PPG number for my daughter's 65 Rambler but managed to find a paint shop that actually kept all of their old chip books so managed to get a good match using an old school formula that evidently never made it into the computer so you might try another paint shop. Good luck!

Word of caution, Paul. If the hinges are binding (agree with suggestions that you oil the hinges) and you force the hood down by pushing down on the front end, on either side of center, you can cause the hood to buckle on one/both of the edges about 10" or so from the front edge. Not at all an uncommon problem when I was in my teens (a l-o-n-g time ago).

Welcome, Paul. Love to see additional pictures. Guessing you actually have a Turbo-Hydramatic 400 transmission (assuming so as you indicated it has three speeds and a Dynaflow would be low and drive only) which generally would require that the torque tube set up originally in the car be scrapped and an open driveshaft and extensive mounting of the rear axle be modified. (Just saw that Ed beat me to this...). In any event the car will be a lot of fun for you - enjoy!

Nice! What year? When was the picture taken?

Nice! Enjoy!

Beautiful and hardly broken in...?

Boy if it did most of us would be driving small cars...

Uncertain about whether or not you need plugs in the pictured holes but they do not appear to had plugs given the "old engine" discoloration of the metal. If they should be plugged I'd bet you would show oil leakage from your previous attempts to raise oil pressure by turning the oil pump as it certainly would flow oil freely if it were getting to them. Your front cam bearing should have an elongated hole and two round holes in it and cannot see clearly enough in your picture to determine if yours does. Roughly speaking the elongated hole should be at the bottom (slightly to one side to align with the oil passage in the block) and the two round holes positioned like the upper arms of a Y (also aligned with holes in the block) so the oil can flow to the valve lifter oil galleries on each side as well as on to the rocker assemblies. As others have stated the front journal on the camshaft has to have a machined groove in it that will align with all three holes in the bearing to permit a volume of oil to circulate. From your previous descriptions of what you've tried, etc. I'd bet the camshaft bearing is incorrectly installed (or worse yet the machine shop inserted the wrong bearing in the front position) or, if replaced, the cam front journal does not have the necessary groove in it. A good oil flow diagram for your engine can be found at (fig 60-124) https://www.teambuick.com/reference/library/66_chassis/files/60-c.php. Good luck.

Wow hard to pick just one as I lust for three (at least 3 for the longest time...). In order of preference they are '65 Riviera, '65 Skylark GS, '67 Electra

Don't forget that the '55 was the first year for variable pitch stators that felt much like a lower gear when engaged (NOT as low as the low position though) by flooring the gas pedal giving a noticeable improvement up to 50 mph or so. If your transmission is working properly you should feel something like this when you floor it. If you don't feel anything like that the shop manual gives instructions on how to adjust the linkage (connects to throttle linkage) so it will properly engage. Assuming this works it sounds as though your transmission is working correctly. I can advise that you don't want to shift from low to drive on a regular basis - especially if you do so under full throttle - unless you enjoy removing/replacing transmissions (which I did six times when I was much younger and felt the "normal" position for the gas pedal was tight against the floorboard).

Almost without exception I do NOT like the way big rims and tires look on an older car but this one carries it off better than most. Pretty pricey... https://www.youtube.com/embed/uzHk2lunQbc?rel=0. https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/d/1940-buick-series-40-special/6464849908.html

Last nights episode had a beautiful '65 Riviera Gran Sport on it. Jay was a bit confused about engine specs - but can't really blame him as it must be very hard to keep track of specs on as many cars, trucks, bikes, etc. that he owns. Worth taking a look if you love (even like) the first generation Rivieras.

I don't have much experience driving in snow and the only time I needed chains was in a Volvo 240 when I was only able to get 3/4 of the way up a hill at Big Bear Lake before the car refused to go any further on an icy road (about a 200' rise over 1/4 mile or so) . Tried twice with about a 20 mph running start and then had to put chains on in the roadside snow after which had no trouble (BUT taking the chains off when going down the mountain with running melt run off was NOT fun - brrrr but was soaked on my backside). Jim's remarks reminded me of an often time quoted story my dad used to tell. One morning he got up, in Cleveland, to overnight snowfall sufficient to keep him from getting the '39 Buick out of the driveway so he could go to work at the Acme Machine Co. So out came the shovel to clear the drive and then to work he went. Of course the snow plow came during the day so he had to shovel a pile of snow to clear the drive to get the car off the street for the night. When he came into the house he said "Mary, how would you like to move to California?" (where he was stationed briefly before shipping to Europe in WWII and met and married my mom who came to LA from Tulsa and was working at Lockheed deburring P-38 fighters) to which she replied "I'll pack the suitcases right now!" They moved in Spring of 1949 when I was two so I'm "almost" a CA native (where we keep most of our snow in mountains - a very civilized solution I think - although we have way too many people here - many because of our weather).

Sending units are measuring the depth of fuel in the tank so if the height of the tank is the same for both 19 & 17 gallon tanks the sending unit reading should be the same for both tanks and I'd expect the gauge reading to be accurate for both with regard to empty to full but actual gallons would be different. When fitting a replacement tank if one is not able to find an exact replacement the most important measurement is the height of the tank (and then, of course, filler location).

I think it must be their version of the 455 V8. Miss the days when you could walk into a machine shop and they could tell at a glance what you were bringing in.