Joseph P. Indusi

I would start by making sure every connection is clean with bright metal to bright metal at each connection. The bolt holding the ground strap to your motor could need attention as described above. Next I would move on to the brushes that may be accessible with motor in the car. Even though you can spin the rotor by hand if the bearings or bushings are worn the high magnetic fields in the motor may cause the rotor to contact the field poles. I think this was the last year for 6 volt system for Cadillac. Good luck and come back with the cause and repair. Joe

I agree with Pete, this is a bargain. A re-core is going to cost well over $900 if not more and you may have shipping on top of that depending on your location and where you send it out. I know because I paid near $900 some years ago. Joe

I have had good luck running all LED replacements in my 53 Buick Special except for the turn signal system. I have replaced the rear turn signal bulb, a single filament 1129 with an LED and left the front park/signal bulbs in place and the original flasher works OK as the front lamps provide enough current draw for the flasher to work at nearly the same flash rate as before. I purchased a new transistorized flasher to go with LED bulbs in the front park/signal but it did not work. I built my own transistor flasher by modifying a hobbyist flasher circuit from the web. It works very well after I changed the value of one of the resistors to get the correct flash rate. It is not obvious how to make a transistor flasher work the way the Buick is wired but I have figured it out. By the way the three prong flasher has a terminal marked X that goes to the battery or the ignition switch that always has +6 or +12 volts on it depending on your battery system. The L terminal goes to the directional switch and when it is set to signal a turn this switch connects the L terminal to the front and rear signal bulb filaments. The P terminal goes to the indicator lights on the dashboard. Joe, BCA 33493

Check on the Post-War site as Old-Tank made a tool similar to that described above for removing and installing the drive shaft on the pinion gear splines. Joe BCA 33493

The use or resistor plugs, plug wires and distributor rotors with resistors were used to reduce ignition noise in the car radio. I would not use all three resistance units. I run resistor plugs with copper strand wires and a non-resistor rotor in my 53 Buick Special with the 263 straight eight and have done so for over 8 years with good performance with no trouble. Joe

My55buick: In your first post on this topic, the person who told you about swapping a later Dynaflow torque converter and bell housing may have been referring to the use of the 1953 Buick Special only (straight eight engine 263 cubic inch) bell housing and torque converter that would bolt up to older straight eight Dynaflow cars possibly back to 1948. The 1953 torque converter was called a twin turbine and had better torque multiplication starting out from a standstill. The 1948-52 Dynaflow transmissions were basically all the same. Joe, BCA 33493

The latest torque ball seal kits provide a new outer torque ball retainer that has a rubber seal bonded to the inside. This seal rides on the torque ball and replaces the older system with the rubber boot. This type of torque ball sealing system came out I believe in the late 1950's and is backward compatible to the early 1950's for Dynaflow equipped cars. You will not need the rubber boot after you install the new outer retainer. Joe, BCA 33493

I believe this is a 6 volt car and 4 blower motors is a large drain on the battery when idling at night with the headlights on. The smaller Buicks (Specials) had one blower on the firewall and one under the front seat. I believe the larger Buicks had one extra one under the front seat for a total of 3 and I think some Cadillacs also had 3. If it were my car I would move one of the rear seat ones under the front seat and leave under the back seat with none. Once these engines heat up you get enough heat with 2 or 3 blowers. Good luck and Happy Holidays. Joe

Glad he found the problem. Since his carburetor start switch has been removed and replaced by a push button switch the starter could not activate even with engine at low rpm or low output voltage of the generator. The driver would have to push the starter button to activate the starter under any conditions. I am not surprised that he found faulty wiring as the cause. Joe

Also: Thanks for your reply on the Guide brochure. Joe

Good information Al. I never have come across a Guide brochure but will keep an eye out for one. Joe, BCA 33493

I never saw a 53 Buick with fog or driving lights that came from the Buick assembly plant or any that were dealer installed. You mention removable cover plates and I think you are referring to the covers on the front bumper bombs or guards. I have seen fog lights installed in these locations but I do not think these were factory authorized accessories. I also do not see them listed on my Buick accessories manual or parts books. I will have to do a more thorough check and if I find fog lights listed as Buick accessories I will get back on this post. The 53 Buick front bumper is not that easy to mount fog lights on as compared to earlier Buicks. Joe, BCA 33493

This is as basic as you can get. Basically a neon flash bulb with insulated leads similar to spark lug wires with possibly a resistor from one lead with the other lead on the resistor connected to one of the neon bulb. Ok for any battery voltage, 6 or 12 volts. If this were a powered timing light it would have likely been made for 12 volt system. Powered timing light gives a brighter flash than this one shown here. Joe, BCA 33493

This was a Buick factory authorized accessory in the 1950’s. The shift quadrant on these early Dynaflow equipped cars was not illuminated so when driving at night this accessory, consisting of a bulb, socket, wire and a mounting fixture could be installed to provide illumination. I have one on my 53 Special hardtop. I think these are quite rare. Joe, BCA 33493.

Looks great and as nice as any Caballero. Other than the engine are there any other differences between the two? Joe

I obtained this from the 1948-49 Buick Shop Manual. Hope it helps. Joe, BCA 33493

There are slight differences in thermostats other than the opening temperature. My 1953 Special straight eight had what I call a standard 160 F thermostat that had a 1" diameter in the open position. I replaced it with a so-called heavy duty thermostat that I sourced from Bob's and I measured this to have a diameter of 1 and 5/16" in the open position.. The replacement from Bob's is a Robertshaw Power Performance thermostat and the increase in the opened area (calculated using pi times radius squared of each thermostat) gives an increase in area of about 1.75 times the standard thermostat opening area. This may be enough to cause the fully warmed up temperature to be slightly higher as you are reporting. However, I think it is best to use an infrared hand held unit to do a comparison as this will be more useful for comparing temperatures. Finally I note from an original Buick Parts book that there were 4 thermostats listed under Group 1.246 for straight eight engines covering from 1942 (my book begins at 1942) to 1953 Series Forty cars. The lowest temperature thermostat is Part # 3133595 for 151F and this is the old bellows type, the others were 160, 170 and 180F. The diameter of the opening on the 151F thermostat is just about 1 and 5/16". Joe, BCA 33493

All good advice from posts above. I agree that the heat riser valve was stuck in the “heat” position. So either try to free it up or remove it completely. I had to junk an intake manifold a few years ago because there was a rust through from the outer plenum to the actual intake tubes. Joe

Steve: Save yourself some trouble and buy a heavy duty cutoff switch especially for a 6 volt car. Joe, BCA 33493

Don is correct. The bulb that goes here is a single filament with one end of the filament going to each of the contacts on the base. One contact is wired to the door switch. The other contact is wired to a +6 volt source. The body of the bulb and the socket may or may not connect to ground but they are not part of the circuit. Nearly all sockets that are used with a dual filament bulb will have one of the socket side channels longer than the other so that the bulb can only be inserted into the socket one way. This is most common on the stop and taillight combination bulb systems. Joe, BCA 33493

The seal shown above was made to slip over the splines at the end of propeller shaft so it has an interior surface that matches all the splines. In the 53 models they supplied a metal collar that slipped over the splined part of the propeller shaft. The seal for this is a simple circular seal that contacts the outer diameter of the collar. It is driven into the end of the torque tube with pucker toward the front of the car. I think this type of seal was used for several years after 1953. Joe

Thanks. I will check with local NAPA. I have seen those long types at service stations some years ago. Joe

I have one Bourdon tube type tire pressure gauge that I think is of the more accurate type as opposed to the pencil shape type. I like to carry a gauge in each car so I am looking for an accurate pencil type if they exist and would like to get some reccomendations. Thanks. Joe BCA 33493

I agree with the above posts regarding the model name Imperial. But could it be a European term for a four door sedan? This looks to be a 4 door with a B pillar that tends to look more formal than the hardtop. Just a guess. Joe, BCA 33493

Pete: Two very interesting cars. Only 9 years apart in age but what a difference. Good luck and keep us posted. Joe, BCA 33493