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Aaron65

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Posts posted by Aaron65

  1. That's fine...won't hurt the carb at all...I'd personally just carefully disassemble the switch and make sure it's clean. Don't lose any parts and be careful to note how it goes together. There are a few contacts in there that may be dirty. Just clean them up and you should be good to go.

  2. Anything clogged back there can cause the lifter not to pump up. The lifters are fed by the rocker shaft. To replace the lifter, you need to pull the side cover off the engine. Get a new gasket first...I use high tack or something on the cover side of the gasket for easy removal later, if necessary. There should be some threads on here about valve adjustment when it comes to that...if everything is that gummed up, you may end up pulling that lifter to clean it out anyway. If you end up replacing one, break it in like you would a new cam. I'd be pulling off that rocker shaft next and cleaning everything.

  3. Do yourself a favor and get a shotgun cleaning kit...the brushes fit right through the rocker shaft assembly. AND make sure to remove all the rocker arms and clean out ALL the passages...they will be gummed up. You will most likely find an inch of sludge in the bottom of your oil pan near the drain plug. Clean out the oil pump pickup too. I can almost guarantee nobody has done this since that car was new!

  4. Todd, right now I'm seeing that in the local school system. In their "budget crunch" they have eliminated most of the vocational training classes. Their justification? They see their mission as preparing kids for big-name four year schools.

    The current deputy superintendent was a guidance counselor way back in the Stone Age when I was in high school. When they announced the cuts I asked him if he considered vocational training essential to keeping modern life running smoothly, since we have to have mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians et al to accomplish that.

    All I got was a deer in the headlights look. The guy had simply not stopped to consider anything like that.

    The neighboring counties all have specialized Vo-Tech high schools in addition to the regular high schools, and the local community colleges and tech schools will all tell you students from this school system are usually at least a year behind students from the other schools in the skilled trades curriculums.

    But hey, they had a kid get accepted to Harvard a couple years back, and I thought they were going to wet their pants. Never mind that kid couldn't change a light switch, but he'll make enough money with his Harvard education to pay someone to do it. Most likely a classmate he considered downscale and trash.

    I'm a high school teacher, and I totally agree...luckily, our school works with a very good Intermediate School District with lots of vocational ed programs, but it sure isn't pushed in schools anymore. The days of 4 sections of auto shop like when my father-in-law was in school are over, unfortunately.

  5. I made a fuel return like the one you described on my '53 Buick. Jon the Carbking told me about it on the phone one day...it helps out quite a bit. A little tweaking with float levels and jetting and I could probably get it to start right up hot on a hot day. I returned the line to the filler neck rather than drop the tank.

  6. This is from memory...I was 6 when my Dad bought an '83 LeSabre with a 307. Long story short, it had a defective engine which was replaced in 1985. I was a car-dork even then, and remember researching that the new engine would have had roller lifters. I would double check this statement as the research was done by an 8 year old.

  7. If you can get a copy of the August (I think it was) 2009 Buick Bugle, I wrote an article about fixing the torque ball seals on my '53. You'll need some room to pull the differential/torque tube out the back (not necessary to pull it all the way out), and a helper really helps. The rest is pretty straightforward. If you're mechanical and plan all your moves out ahead of time, it may be a 2-4 hour job, depending on how bolts go in and out, etc. Good luck!

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