Erndog

The toggle switch is a mechanical door lock lever used in many pre-war vehicles.

I was never a fan of Liquid Wrench, but tearing down my 1930 Buick convinced me otherwise. After breaking many bolts using WD-40, I sprayed them down with Liquid Wrench and let them soak for 24 hours+. They came off finger tight. It has never failed me and I rarely use WD-40 now. Although, their new lubricant in the yellow can is the bomb for lubricating!

Does that engine use an internal water distribution tube, like the Oldsmobiles did? They are notorious for rotting out and causing overheating issues.

Also called "cat eyes".

And don't forget about the water injected engines of the late 1970's.

I would love to tell you, but these pictures are all I have now.

No, I think that is just an unrelated cable. Picture 4 shows some kind of bellcrank, possible for mechanical brake linkage, though. Unfortunately, this is at a friend's house and I am 2500 miles away and won't be back for a long time.

This was pulled out of the bottom of a river in Nevada. About all you have to go on is shock type/location, axle, and unusual gas tank shield. The "tube" in the first photo points toward the front of the vehicle.

Can't really tell. Need a little more info.

Center - Post 1930 Buick.

I agree. Looks a lot like a safety deposit box key.

I think it is more likely the head of a golf club, considering his arm positions.

I agree with the 1929 Buick. Rear springs are the giveaway. Those disappeared in 1930. However, the gas tank does not look familiar.

If it is like the early 40's, it is designed that way. Similar to this? 1940 Oldsmobile - a photo on Flickriver

I did get him behind the wheel and he did very well. He was grinning from ear to ear and obviously very proud!

Update: a couple days after getting the engine running, my boy came home from college for the weekend. Of course first on the agenda was having him "try" to start the engine. Boy, was he excited and happy! After basking in the purr and glory of success, the inevitable was next. He got in the passenger side, I behind the wheel (he doesn't have 3-on-the-tree experience) and we proceeded to see if she rolls. The previous videos tell the story. The enthusiasm has definately returned! Of course, now he is no longer willing to sell me his headache project. Now he is constantly asking, "what's the next thing we need to do?". Yes!! Shortly before getting the engine running I decided it was time to find out why the engine seemed to get so tight occasionally that I frequently had to put oil into the cylinders to free it up. Before any real rpm caused damage. Turned out that the oil pump had never picked up a prime and wasn't oiling anything. I have never experienced that before, but filled it with oil and tried again (after trying the vaseline trick, which didn't work). Worked great after priming. Thank God for assembly lube. I bought a complete exhaust setup for Jonathan off of eBay. Very nice stuff, except the engine-end flange had to be trimmed down to fit into the manifold. After we did the initial drive I dropped the old system and replaced it with the new one. Turns out that the old muffler had about a 6" diameter hole on the topside. That explains the throaty volume. The new one sounds much better. I think we will tackle putting in the new windshield gasket and wiper gaskets next. That should stop the little water intrusions during rain storms. After we know it will stay dry in there we will redo the door panels. We have done one and it came out nice, but did not install it because of moisture.

Excellent article on wires. Thanks! Engine running: The car is mobile!!:

Great article on wires. Thanks!

Thanks!

Well, I changed the distributor back to original equipment, but left the 40,000 volt coil in service. Holy cow!! She runs like a top, and on all six cylinders! Once she got running, I discovered she was about 20° advanced. Fixed that and moving on. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, time flies so fast. Faster than this Olds, at any rate. My boy is in college and my daughter has gotten married and started grad school since this thread started. ...depressing. Anyway, I agree the Pertronix is suspect. Today after work I will pull the distributor and change things back. Yesterday, using a timing light on the wires, I determined that the spark plugs (except for #1 and sometimes #4) do spark for the first 5 seconds or so after the engine starts. Then...nothing, zippo! So I am thinking that the distributor, being a little bit worn out, probably has some slop in it on a small scale. As the speed increases, the rotor shaft may be moving axially just a bit. The Pertronix units are very sensitive in that direction. This unit actually has an extra 1/16th plate that I originally did not install because I didn't think the mounting screw was long enough. I could not get any spark whatsoever and contacted Pertronix. They said the extra plate had to be there to line up the magnets properly. I added the plate and all was good. So, if it is that sensitive there is a good chance it is messing up for whatever reason. I will report back with what I find out.

Not really. The last things I did were disconnect all the wiring and just used jumpers for the minimum required circuit across the coil, etc., and rebuilt a correct carburetor for it. It started acting more promising and then with more timing adjustment it got going. I then systematically reconnected wires to determine the culprit, but it never stopped working. All wiring is back in play and it still starts. The weird thing now is that it seems to only be firing on #1 and #4, and maybe an occassional other cylinder. I am getting very good spark to all of the spark plugs, and I have compression on all cylinders. I have all of the valve lashes set at ~.013 for the time being, and the valves were all just reground. About the only thing left is the timing, but can it be that far off and still have two jugs working?? I installed a Pertronix ignition system into the distributor and now I am wondering if the magnet section on the rotor shaft is for an 8 cylinder engine by mistake. Not sure how I can check that one out, though.

Try this place. They were very helpful to me and I didn't even have them do a rebuild job. Apple Hydraulics: Shock absorbers

Yes, but college and the failure of the engine to run has taken its toll on the enthusiasm. Been fighting to get the engine running for almost a year. Following a lengthy conversation with Bob Petters at Hershey and a pep talk, I got it running last night!! More to come.

Excellent!