Brian_Heil

Adjusting the points on an early Buick is a bear. That tiny locking nut is hard to get to. With your meter telling you where you are, tweak the points arm (as in slightly bend) with a pair of needle nose players and you can dial it right it. I won’t tell if you don’t tell.

Easy enough to check. When you only have rear brakes, you need to make sure they are set up correct. That goes for the parking brakes too. When the bands get wet the parking brake is all you have left.

Not the greatest pic. I’ve marked up where mine were cracked. This is my spare rear axle assembly that resides under my 2500 Suburban for storage. I’m doing a one arm plank push up with the phone in the other to take this. You owe me Buick Brother. Ha. There has to be a story why all the major donor parts off a 1923 Model 45 were painted red. I just wish I knew it. I bought the entire drivetrain from a guy doing a street rod conversation years ago.

Yes Inspect the cast arm from the axle out to point C/D About midway along the arm, both of mine were cracked just forward of that round cast feature.

Check the long cast steel reaction arm that goes along the inboard rear side of the backing plate that holds the block for C/D in the Dyke pic. Both my arms were cracked when I bought my car. Took the expert welder from Buick Engineering in his home shop to grind grooves at the fracture and use the correct weld rod due to them being cast steel. Still doing fine and that was 25 years ago. The backing plate rivets were all loose too due to them doing the work of the cracked reaction arms. Had to drill them all out and use larger grade 5 bolts and lock the nuts in place with a center punch.

The distributor cam lobes are well worn on my 1923 6 cylinder but uniformly so. I can still get the correct degrees of dwell with a dwell meter and pay no attention to the point gap that results in the correct dwell. If you can get the correct dwell, you will be fine. Dwell angle, is dwell angle.

If you don’t already have a pair of tall stands like Bob shows, they will make things even safer.

I think they are using Nylon with a melting point around 500F Hot glue is ~175F We used Nylon to help retain the water pump bearing in the housing of the 3800. Injected hot into a groove in the bore of the housing and a matching groove in the the bearing outer race. Worked great. The housing was aluminum and the bearing steel. At very cold temperatures and limit press fit stack up the aluminum was yielding due to differences in thermal contraction rates and a fairly thin wall of aluminum

When I purchased my 1911 Buick, the 4 digit VIN on the West Virginia title (and car) came back as a stolen moped in Ohio. Per the Michigan Secretary of State clerk. "There is no such thing as a 4 digit VIN.' I explained there was in 1911 to no avail. Next she typed the 4 digit VIN into the computer. The fun then started. Pre Covid, a state inspector was required to come to my home and inspect the vehicle before I could transfer the title. A rather unpleasant person came out and treated me like a moped thief. I assured them I had not used moped parts to build a 1911 Buick nor had I ever stolen a moped. The person actually looked around the garage for a moped. After I listened to numerous title fraud stories, the person finally agreed I had not used a stolen moped VIN from Ohio on my Buick. What should have taken 5 minutes took an hour. My tax dollars at 'work'. My 1923 Buick came from New Hampshire to Michigan 25 years ago. Car had never had a title. NH did not title vehicles for years. Bill of sale only. Back then I had to take the bill of sale and an inspection form from the Secretary of State to my local police station for them to verify the VIN and then back to the SOS to get a title. The local officers were wonderful to work with. Ahhh, small town living.

Agree on the ‘drop the pan’ comment 100%. Inspect the gunk for Babbitt and run a magnet around in it and see what you find. Clean pan and pick-up. Next would be a compression check for stuck or burnt valves Then check for lube circulation with valve cover off during compression checks motoring with starter and the oil pressure gauge. Cheap online fiber camera to inspect the fuel tank for gunk after you first drain. Cover off the carburetor bowl and inspect for gunk and float function and needle seating/sealing. Do you have spark? And the list goes on.

Ha For those with touring cars, the second windshield really does make the backseat comfortable. Without it, the wind coming over the front windshield hits the backseat passengers right in the face. I made mine with cheap easy to replace plexiglass panels from Lowe’s. It pivots on arms from the main top anchors on either side so it flips up for entry access and rests on the door top pads. Make sure to measure with the top in place/up so you clear everything and can use it with the top up or down. Easy to remove too. Don’t have too many pics of it but here’s one from this summer.

Never had a foot rest or a robe rail in my 1923 Model 45. No witness marks for either. Guessing my floor wood is new and the reupholstering covered the rail marks. After all these years of kids, dogs, luggage, more luggage, garage sales and other assorted cargo (apologies to those who actually rode in the back) and er a passengers, I’ve never missed either and no complaints. So if your car is lacking either, don’t get too bent out of shape.

You have posted in the correct Forum. Several 1929 experts. Give them time to see this and respond.

Actually you should not use silicone products around modern engines as it can and will contaminate the Oxygen sensor(s) in the exhaust. Silicone is also not permitted in areas where paint is to be applied in automotive facilities either

David Looking at your older posts, it would appear you have a Model 35 4 cylinder Does anyone know the 4 axle ratio? I’m not familiar with the 4s. In addition to advanced timing, balloon tires the next time you need them will give you 10% more speed and better stopping contact patch. I was going to say for free but the tires sure aren’t.

And very soon it went to ‘automatic’ lubrication. A design evolution that would suggest it did not get serviced often enough in the prior designs.

My preference is the M533 and if leakage is a concern, the Penrite steering box lube. Migration is what gets the lube into the tight fits of the yoke bearings. Corn heads run ~300 RPM, our U-joint ~5 times that. I would be concerned with the corn head grease being thrown and stuck to the inner wall of the ball and not being worked and fluid and getting where it needs to be. I’d at least pack it fairly full so you know it’s in contact with the spinning joint and being worked and not just hanging on the walls. Channeling as it is known is a significant consideration in machinery lubrication design.

Agree that Shop Manual is a stretch. When I got my copy years ago I too was very disappointed. Almost like they didn’t want the average person servicing their Buick.

Perhaps a better approach might have been ‘my 1916 calls for soft cup grease in the U-joint housing. What are others using in theirs?’ Terry, you have every Buick print for your car along with Walter Marr’s grocery list the day your car was made along with his 5th grade report card but no lubrications chart? I’m speechless. 😷😷😷

Still would be nice to know what the very comprehensive Buick Lube Chart and Manual call out.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thixotropy Thixotropic Also corn heads operate at relatively low speeds but most importantly have big gear sets that mix the lube and work it.

The corn head grease actually is not affected by temperature but rather by ‘work’. It becomes more fluid when squeezed for a better term. Not sure how much of that is going on in there.

Terry I was pretty sure yours was different. What does your lube chart say? If they recommend steam cylinder oil then I would fill with the above M533. If there are leak concerns then I would use the Penrite Steering Gear box lube.