Joseph P. Indusi

Old-tank: Your 55 Buick’s probably have a generator so you are doing very well with AC on these beauties. Sixty- five mph is a good speed given you have drum brakes on your 4000 pound cars. Can’t think of why 65 mph creates a problem for your cars. Happy 4th of July to all! Joe

I installed one on my 53 Special 45 R about 8-10 years ago. Compared to the standard thermostat it does offer a larger area when opened for coolant flow. I noticed that the car did run cooler. I sourced mine from Bob’s. Never had any problem with it since. Joe

Now this one I like. You have redeemed yourself MrEarl. Joe

Pretty bad. I give up! Joe

Come on MrEarl you have to do better than this! Joe, BCA 33493

I converted all the bulbs in my 1953 Buick Special to LED bulbs except for the headlamps and the front park/turn signal bulbs (#1154, a 6 volt bulb). I retained the front incandescent 1154 park/signal bulbs so the original flasher would function. The currently marketed flashers for LED bulbs will not function on all model cars without some rewiring. I designed and built two transistorized flashers so I can replace the front incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. I purchased all the LED bulbs from LED bulb suppliers as recommended above by Matt. I prepared an article on this conversion for the Bugle and perhaps Pete will publish it. I am working on a second article to deal with the issue of using LED bulbs for the turn signals. If you are adding turn signals to a car not originally equipped with them then try to purchase a solid state system that will function with LED bulbs. Finally, use 6 volt LED bulbs in a 6 volt system. You will be happy with the reduced current draw and the brighter output. For taillights or brake lights be sure to purchase red LED bulbs. Joe, BCA 33493

Thanks Bob for your reply. Joe

Installing new trunk rubber gaskets on 1953 Buick Special 45R. Have done door gaskets, window fuzzies and front vent window gasket (very challenging) a few years ago. Never touched trunk gaskets until found a small leak after washing car. I have a few bare spots in body gasket track from scraping old gaskets off and a few minor surface rust spots. Somewhere I heard that 3M super weatherstrip adhesive will attack paint and possibly not adhere to metal track. I want to touch up the bare metal spots and surface rust but maybe should apply adhesive directly to cleaned up metal track. Anybody have any advice from experience with this? Joe, BCA 33493

As far as I know most of the Chevrolet models in those years used the GM “A” body whereas the Buick Specials were built using the GM “B” body. They do look similar and it is possible that both bodies shared the door panels but only detailed measurements as suggested above by Gene Brink could help you resolve the issue. Joe

Get under the car and check the condition of the motor mounts and transmission thrust pad. Also check the transmission shift lever linkage. Any defect or improper alignment in these components may cause the transmission to shift from Drive or Low into neutral in certain instances. Joe

Wamps98: Follow Cheezestaak process and check wiring to see where you lose voltage. Old-tank gives good advice regarding fuses. The fuse element can disconnect internally but appear visually to be good. I have experienced this several times over the years. Please report back when you find the problem. Joe

Neat little trick using the meter mechanical zero adjustment. And most of these old meters from back in the day always had a mechanical zero adjustment screw. Nice work. Joe, BCA 33493

DB26: Seems like it might be too high but it might also be leaky considering it is that old. Some meters may test for leakage but you can connect one lead of the capacitor to one lead of a 100 volt or more DC voltage source. Then connect one end of a DC voltmeter to the other lead of the voltage source. Then connect the other lead of the DC voltmeter to the other lead of the capacitor. If you get any DC voltage reading at all after a few seconds then the capacitor is passing DC current or leaking. Observe correct polarity when connecting the DC voltmeter. Good luck. Joe, BCA 33493

Let me put my two cents in here. Glenn you say it heats up under load, check to be sure there is a spring inside the lower radiator hose to prevent it from collapsing under high RPM. Joe

I replaced all the incandescent bulbs in my 1953 Special 45R with LEDs except for the sealed beam headlights. You will experience very much less current draw, brighter dash illumination and brighter exterior lights. In 1953 the Special models had a 6 volt system while the Super and Roadmaster models went with 12 volts. Below is the data from my 1953 Shop Manual and 1952 Shop Manual showing the 12 volt bulb numbers that correspond to the 6 volt bulbs. 6 Volt 12 Volt 1154 1034 1124 No Data 1129 1073 82 Dome Lamp 94 63 67 51 53 210 Park Brake Warning is 15 CP, try 94 55 57 Where is bulb #1124 used on your 1952 Buick? Hope this helps. Joe, BCA 33493

The only reason I can think of for converting to 12 volts from 6 volts is if you are planning to install air conditioning. Otherwise with adequately sized battery cables and a good wiring harness these cars ran and will run fine on 6 volts. In any case good luck with this project. Jooe, BCA 33493

I had a 3.36 put in a 1948 Special sedanet. I had thought I was buying a 3.60 from a now defunct Buick outfit in California but they shipped a 3.36. Worked OK but second gear was weak on hills but I could do 60-65 MPH with ease in 3rd but I never went above 60 because I knew stopping from 65 on bias ply 6.50/16 tires was too risky for me at my age. My 53 Special with a 3.6 with Dynaflow is very responsive and I can run at 55-60 MPH with no worries. Joe

I am surprised as well as I thought the 4.454 was only used in the post war standard transmissions on the Super and Specials. Joe

I would try soldering with a high wattage Weller soldering gun. Use electrical rosin core solder and clean both sides first. I don't think you want to use a torch, the Weller gun might work. Joe

A friend recently acquired a 1996 Riviera. He had the gasoline tank leak repaired and that much is OK. However, the fuel gauge does not work. His mechanic says that their is a problem with a module (slosh module?) that receives the signal from the gasoline tank sending unit and operates on this signal before sending the module output to the gauge on the instrument cluster. This is how it was explained to me, more or less. The mechanic claims that the module is unavailable. My friend would like to buy an after market fuel gauge to mount under the dash. For this he claims he needs to know the resistance of the sending unit. Does anyone know the fuel sending unit resistance. Does any of this make any sense. I am not familiar with the 96 Riviera and have not looked at the car myself. Any help greatly appreciated. Joe, BCA 33493

I cannot confirm that the Ford/ Mercury temperature sensors are used in the 51 Lincoln but I suspect that they are. I believe these are King-Seeley type sensors that are not simply resistors that change resistance with a change in temperature. There are a few Ford websites that explain how these work but I cannot put my hands on my files right now but will check in a few days. Joe

I also used the little flat head screws that disappear into the fuzzy strip. Used some 3M adhesive on the back of the strips. Looks as good as the original. I have the staples but they must have used a powerful gun at the factory to use them. I used stainless steel screws and they have done the job well for over 15 years. Joe, BCA 33493

some photos of the AC Spark Plug torque wrench made by Jo-Line Tools. Joe

I have a GM torque wrench for AC spark plugs from the 50’s inherited from my uncle who was a parts and service manager in Olds, Buick and Cadillac dealers. A very nice tool made in the USA. Joe

I always store my clicker type at the lowest torque setting when not in use. Joe