KongaMan
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Posts posted by KongaMan
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Might not need a new relay. Maybe it's as simple as cleaning the contacts.
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If you're going to repair the headlight wiring, consider doing it right and adding relays so that full power doesn't go through the switch.
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20 minutes ago, 60FlatTop said:
I have lost confidence in anything but the book and me. I will take the money I was going to pay some Gemoke (as my Dad called them) and buy tools and books.
Concur. Take the money you were going to drop on labor costs and buy tools. You'll end up money ahead, potentially with a quicker conclusion, and quite likely superior results. And some new tools.
If you look at a job like rebuilding an engine, there are two kinds of work: that you probably can't do yourself, and that you can. The former is stuff like reboring cylinders, truing heads, etc. It doesn't make sense to buy the expensive machinery needed for those jobs, so farm them out. (Dirty little secret: most "engine rebuilders" farm that work out as well.) The rest of the project requires little more than hand tools, plastigage, a torque wrench, and attention to detail (which is pretty much all there in the manual).
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Guide-matic is one of those options (like cruise control) that's actually a system -- there's more to it than what you see. If you want to retrofit one to your car, you need the sensor, amplifier, foot switch, and (maybe) some special harness segments. Make sure you get it all.
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9 hours ago, telriv said:
The block castings between 401/425 are the same in many instances. … IF I remember correctly the casting with the last 3 numbers being 705, I think, could be either a 401 or 425.
4 hours ago, RivNut said:The raw castings are not the same.
You can't both be right. 😛
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2 hours ago, ca65riv said:
In terms of troubleshooting the courtesy lights and blown fuse, it is quite a pain to keep replacing that... Kongaman is this what you're suggesting, so that I can reset the circuit when it breaks?
Those will do. 👍 Constantly replacing fuses is an expensive PITA. Once you get it sorted, you can put a proper fuse back in.
You might also try the courtesy lights using the dash switch rather than the door and the sail panel lights using the headlight switch (that switch is a notorious source of lighting problems, as it's prone to burning, melting, and corroding). But again, I'd pull and check/replace all the bulbs. Don't overlook the obvious.
Be careful removing the sail panel light covers. They get brittle when they're old.
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#1: Disconnect the clock (it's a constant draw). Pull the fuses one at a time until the draw disappears. Inspect that circuit.
#2: Replace all bulbs (a defective bulb can short). Get an AGC-ATO adapter and (if you can find one) a plug-in 5A circuit breaker.
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I get all that, but this is the essential question: Suppose that in 1964 there's a freshly cast nailhead block in the factory. How is it decided that it will be a 401 or a 425? Seems to me there are three choices:
- All the raw castings are the same; it can be whatever they want it to be.
- The 401 casting and the 425 casting are different; the 401 block cannot be bored out to be a 425.
- It's supposed to be one casting for either engine, but there's so much variation in the castings that only some of them are suitable for the larger bore of the 425. This means the blocks must be individually inspected and sorted.
Am I missing something here? If I'm not, what's the answer?
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21 minutes ago, telriv said:
The block castings between 401/425 are the same in many instances. The diff. was being core shift in the blocks. The blocks that came from casting with better centered bores had the hump in the rear designating to be bored for a 425. IF I remember correctly the casting with the last 3 numbers being 705, I think, could be either a 401 or 425. Normally the 401's CAN'T be bored to 425,1/8th. inch, because you end up with way to thin cylinder walls.
That's the thing: if the castings are the same, the cylinder spacing in the blocks is the same, and the spacing between all adjacent cylinders is equidistant, then it makes no sense that walls would be of a different thickness. Now, if there's inconsistent casting or sloppy (off-center) machining when boring out the cylinders, then the wall between 2 and 4 could well be thicker than the wall between 4 and 6 -- but if that's an issue that would apply irrespective of the bore diameter. More to the point, if a 401 block can't be bored out to 425 specs, then it never could have been a 425 to begin with. The only way that could be is if the blocks are different or there's such inconsistent casting/machining that they can't hold tolerances and they need to cherry-pick 425 blocks. If the latter is the case, then the 425 is problematic from the get-go, because that means that all of these supposedly identical blocks need to be individually inspected to see which ones can be bored out to 4.3125, which are limited to 4.1875, and (inevitably) which ones must be scrapped because they're out of spec for either. Maybe that's the best they could do then, but that sounds like an incredibly wasteful and time-consuming process.
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What's the difference between the castings other than the bore -- which is largely a machining operation. IOW, if you bore out a 401 block to 4.3175", do you or do you not have a 425 block? If not, why not?
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Aside from the bore, what other differences are there between the 401 block and the 425 block?
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I'm just yanking his chain. I'd figure to turn it off if it got to be annoying. There's also an override on the footswitch for even more control.
I always thought it had that 60s Jetsons appearance, irrespective of whether it was useful or functional. It's almost worth buying a dummy sensor and sticking it (non destructively) on your dash. 😛
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2 hours ago, RivNut said:
I turned off the Guidematic in my 63. I lived in the suburbs with not a lot of oncoming traffic so that was not a problem. My problem was with street lights. Every time that I would go under one, the headlights would dim. When I was no longer under the street light, the brights would come on.
Why are you driving with your brights on if the road has streetlights? 😛
BTW, the manual says "Street lights and other extraneous lights encountered in the city are sufficient to maintain its vehicle headlights on low beam."
Guide-matic is one of the cool retro options, but one that I never pursued because I didn't want to drill holes in the dashpad.
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If the guy for whom you inspected it didn't buy it, that tells us what you know.
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As Tom says, you might make the back part of the spacer about 1/4" thick. That's a little thinner than the 5/16" tape -- which allows room for the tape to compress with a little sealer on the spacer. Note also that the manual says "Shim as required" to position the window correctly. That's why a dry fit is essential: make sure it's exactly where you want it to be before you goop it up.
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Daniel Schmitt must be a P.T. Barnum acolyte.
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Seems like perfect content to be migrated to rivowners.com.
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59 minutes ago, RivNut said:
I have no idea where the blue & white shading comes from
Looks like a shadow from a venetian blind.
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Except that the 63 and 64 switches have 5 positions (not 4 as stated): ACC, LK, OFF, ON, and START.
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49 minutes ago, 65VerdeGS said:
Come to think of it, on my '65 I can remove the key when the car is running. Is this normal for a '65?
Everything else works as it should with regard to the ignition key.
What would cause the lock cylinder to allow the key to be removed while the car is running?
I can pull the keys when the car is running. That is likely normal in those cars. I have a later car that I used to be able to do that with, but cutting a new key removed that option.
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42 minutes ago, Riviera63 said:
My 63 is two keys. Straight edged for the ignition and glovebox (I think, memory may be faulty) and the round edged key is for the door locks and trunk. My 63 Pontiacs were the same as well.
Perhaps unoriginal. My 63 and 64 have a single, hex-head key for everything.
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8 hours ago, 1965rivgs said:
I can match all your locks to one key or split them between two different keys as was original.
When did Buick go to two different keys?
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30 minutes ago, mobileparts said:
Factory Sealed -- Perfection....
I have never heard or used "rubber" shock absorbers......
I presume you have used shocks with internal seals.
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Used or not, rubber degrades. If someone's buying it to install, ya gotta wonder how well a 50-year-old shock will work.
Be careful removing the sail panel light covers. They get brittle when they're old.
Sorting out electrical gremlins on a 65
in Buick Riviera
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That's correct.
For any of the sockets that have a spring loaded contact in the base, the wire gets hard and immobile, and the spring can't push the contact against the base of the bulb. Try turning the lights on, then pushing the bulb back into the socket and against that contact before you go through the PITA of removing the sail panel, etc. You might also consider replacing the sail panel bulbs with LEDs. Those bulbs get hot enough to discolor the lenses and make them brittle. LEDs will mitigate that.
No dome light. Over the glovebox, on the sides of the console, at the rear of the console (with its own switch), and sail panels.
It's there. IIRC, the lamp holder clips into the ashtray frame above the ashtray.
Also, the flaky door switch is SOP. You can take them apart and clean them, or have them rebuilt with better innards.