JohnD1956

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@NTX5467 Haha...I the ole whitewall vs blackwall battle. @Machine Gun Stick with the blackwalls. In my opinion, they give it a muscle persona.

That looks awesome! Very nice addition.

Not being an engineer or architect I do wonder if this will be too much strain on those truss supports? I'd lean towards running a line of 2x? on the floor across the trusses and under the outside edge of the shelfs, from end to end, and then run the shelf supporting uprights from the 2x? on the floor alongside the truss supports.

This description is not quite accurate. The switch on the carb has a ball bearing in it and when there is no engine vacuum the ball bearing rests between a cam (like a fuel pump cam) in the base of the carb and a plunger in the switch so that when the accelerator is pushed the cam pushes the ball bearing and plunger assembly to make the electrical connection between the two contacts in the cap of the switch. When the engine is producing vacuum, the ball bearing is pulled out of place so it no longer contacts the plunger and the plunger cannot be operated to make that connection. This is one of the failsafes to prevent the starter from becoming engaged while the engine is running. The other failsafe I still do not totally understand but if I have this right, the starting circuit is actually grounded thru the field of the generator. Thus when the generator begins to produce electricity that ground is broken and the starter won't operate if the 1st failsafe fails. The car in question has been modified with an alternator so the 2nd failsafe no longer exists along with no ground for the starter system. And if the 1st failsafe is no longer there then that would cause a vacuum leak. But there is just a few variables which we cant tell like is it even a correct carb with the switch for the car? Some on here have talked about a workaround to employ the starter switch with an alternator modification but that is totally above my understanding too. In this case the question is for 55 guys. Where do the two wires on the passenger side by the distributor go? And where do the three wires on the drivers side of the distributor go?

As near as I can see the switch is the wrong application for your car. The first diagram of the hose routing you posted is for a '56. That shows a switch with 3 vacuum hose ports, not 4. The washer bottle top in that diagram is for the 56 too. The top you showed on your car is what I thought the 54/55 came with. Unless one of the 4 ports in your switch is the Bowden cable to the wiper motor, I would think that is the wrong switch for the car and even for the 56 application. As to the variable speed, the picture of the switch shows an off and on position, but when the system works right the area between the off and on will produce multiple speed levels. Just stop pushing it when you get to the speed you want. This is true for the 56 in both the wide and fast position of the 2nd knob. The 54/55 system does not have the wide /fast option. Not to say someone didn't try to install a 56 system into your 55 in the past. But as it was pointed out, the escutcheon for the dash is different between the 54/55 and the 56. The 54/55 dash is round where the wiper switch goes, the 56 is flat where it goes. So the 56 will not sit neatly on your dash board. If it were me, I'd harvest the parts from the parts car for correcting this situation

Looks to be " '58 muscle ! "

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Have you checked the tierod ends?

By pass the rheostat with a jumper wire.

It looks like those terminals on the Rheostat are not clean enough to make contact and work. Have you tried to clean the terminals ?

I used to have a 1995. It was one of two Buicks I regret purchasing. Both were beautiful, Both were money pits. The Riviera was a real expensive car after about 65K miles. But that was a 95, which is reputed to have a lot of problems. Mine sure did. I don't know about the 1997. I will say that regardless of the repair problems, both of the two Buicks I mentioned here were great to drive when they were running right. Especially the Riviera! Those seats are magnificent! I could drive all day in that Riv without the typical aches and pains of being seated that long. I could drive with the sunroof open and it was still quiet in the cabin. I appreciated the guts of that supercharged 3800 especially at highway speeds to pass someone. That car was like a sylvite tiger on the open road, silent and quick with seemingly unlimited top end. But I had a real love/hate relationship with mine. I am sure yours will be a lot better than mine ever could be. And I am looking forward to your drive reports and pictures. Good Luck Rodney!

Only 10K on it! WOW!...

Thanks for the update Steve. I was glad to see the picture of the cheater pipe because at first I couldn't imagine what you were talking about. But then I thought all's fair in getting your nuts off...

@Smartin These full sized Buick driveshafts are scary. The Queen has one of those joints just in front of the pinion. I am not having issues now but was interested to see if a single u joint would suffice.

Picked up during my trip out west. Its 9'x3'. Bigger than any wall space I had.

There wasn't a carrier bearing in the middle for the cv joint?

Hey Adam, this interests me. What was substituted and how did it drive afterwards?

In my opinion i can't understand why someone would run 30+year old tires. Especially to 70 mph. If one cares not for their own safety at least think of the possible victims in the car next to you.

Take a closer look. If it is similar to the 56 the pivot bolt is welded to the bracket and I had to take off the entire bracket to pull the bar off of the pivot bolt.

And those are often the times the flare looks perfect too

I think you should make sure the hub diameter of the rim will be big enough to fit your hub.

I think those are too thick for that purpose. Likely tried to use them that way, but left for another day when they realized they should have been installed before putting the new wire into the column.

Dielectric grease?

56 has the trans cooler inside the lower radiator tank.