Pete O

Retard means to slow, and that gauge shows vacuum and pressure. I wonder if this is a gauge for a vacuum brake system?

The chilton manual shows that 8.9" rod in a v12 engine.

I pulled out an old Chilton flat rate manual, and the part numbers for the Ford and Lincoln push rods are different. It gives the 1936-1948 Lincoln as 26h-9400-a and it goes on to say that it is 8.9" long, (as opposed to 26h-9400-b for 1946-1948 which is 9.4"). The Ford part numbers are 48-9400-a and 48-9400b 1932-1948 iron cover and aluminum cover, respectively. But the one listed in the link I provided yesterday is described as 8.87", which is close enough to the 8.9" shown in the Chilton manual that it likely is interchangeable.

According to an old MoTor's repair manual I have, the Lincoln Zephyr used the same fuel pump as the Ford V8 in 1941: AC pump number 1523307. If the pump is the same, perhaps the pump rod is interchangeable? Here's a link to a ford V8 pump push rod. https://www.parts123.com/parts123/dyndetail.pta?acclink=0000019a01458. If it doesn't fit exacly, maybe you can modify it to work?

I kid you not, but his name was in fact Tony!

+ = a way of life for Dynaflow owners.

We moved from Brooklyn to Long Island in 1962. The next door neighbors had a Fastback Chevy circa 1950 and I remember thinking how old that car looked. The guy just around the corner had a new Ford Galaxy, and I remember thinking how big that car was compared to our little Rambler. But at least our Rambler beat out the guy across the street who had this little green Fiat that he was always under the hood of. He was from Switzerland and didn't like American cars, but I guess he liked constantly fixing his Fiat.

Just a historical tidbit. The Chrysler and Empire State Buildings were going up around the same time, and they competed against each other to be the tallest building. When the Empire State topped out at the 86th floor it was taller than the Chrysler. But Chrysler's builders had a trick up their sleeve. The spear at the top of the building was secretly being constructed inside the upper stories of the building, and once it was complete they jacked it up through the top in order to reclaim the title of the tallest building! But then the Empire State had the zeppelin mooring mast added to the top which brought it to 102 stories, and it reclaimed the title. Interestingly, no zeppelin ever successfully moored to the mast- the winds are too strong and unpredictable.

Meh, he's not so brave. The brave guy is the one who went up before him and tied that rigging in place 😉

Lighten up fellas. Remember perspective here. You're looking at it from the perspective of the engineer who designed it and get all defensive, perhaps righteously, when criticized. I'm looking at it from the perspective of the end user who wants to work on the car himself and can't because of the decisions the engineer made. We both have valid points of view.

I'm pretty sure there was a fwd V6 Chevy or Pontiac that required the engine to be removed to change the spark plugs on the bank nearest the firewall. That's just lazy engineering, like the battery in the Excalibur.

The manual shows that the 1935 through 1946 Studebaker was a positive ground system, so it's fairly safe to assume that the Rockne from 1932-33 was also positive ground.

I'm attaching scans from the repair manual that the describe the operation and adjustment of the Bendix-startix system. This might not exactly be what you have, but it might give you some information.

I don't have any information on the Rockne, which was a Studebaker product made from 1932-1933. I have an old MoTor repair manual that goes back to 1935, and it shows that Studebaker used an automatic starter/ignition system at that time called the Bendix-Startix. Turning the ignition/starter key to the on position caused the engine to crank, and when the engine started the system automatically blocked out the starter motor. But if any time the key was on and the engine stalled, the system would automatically re-energize the starter motor, cranking the engine until it restarted. I wonder if this is the system that is in your Rockne?

Didn't these early Buicks have a different shift pattern than standard? Weren't they 1st right and down, second, left and up , third left and down , reverse right and up? When did the pattern change to the standard?