60FlatTop

I replaced all the u-joints on my '64 Riviera right before I went to the Buick Nationals in Sandusky, OH. They were standard 1" internal clip joints. I had trouble with the Cardan body blocking the joint cross to drive the caps out of the old ones. I ended up cutting the cross with a torch, Once the cross was out I could use a punch to finish knocking the caps out. Reassembly was no problem.

Paul from PA, I like your avatar picture.

Back in the early 1990s I had a '64 Riviera master cylinder sleeved thinking I was good forever, just buy a rebuild kit. A few years ago I did the brakes. No master cylinder kit available. New offshore master cylinder are available for $65. I bought one of those but I was not real happy with the machining or casting quality. I pulled out the guts and used the parts to rebuild my sleeved one. Try a new $65 one. If the line fitting threads in easily you should be OK. I am not a proponent of converting to a dual master cylinder. Inspection and maintenance of a single circuit or two circuits will give the same reliability.

Just came in for lunch. Didn't want to spend all day trimming those 65 year old Blue Spruce anyway. Three sort of easy checks at this point. Get a piece of hose like 3/8 fuel hose and use it for a stethoscope. When the car is cold set the front wheel up on an old rim to raise the car. Use the hose to probe for sound on the bottom side of the exhaust manifold. Check the exhaust manifold bolts to be sure they are tight. Check the exhaust flange studs to be sure they tighten fully and are not stripped. Next go up top and slide the hose under the intake manifold and listen. There is a large Welch plug in the center of the manifold exhaust crossover that can rust through starting with a small crack and expanding over time. Third is the one you don't want to hear. Sometimes a Nailhead will crack a piston. Check the compression on #6 & 8. If anything out of the ordinary shows up do a leak down test, both cold and as close to operating temperature as possible.

Peerless Jack. First thing I thought of was Kirk Douglas.

The heat tube for the automatic choke passes through the exhaust manifold and I have seen them leak. It is a tricky one to find. Just follow the choke tube down. Such a leak can also show up as carbon around the bimetallic element in the choke housing. Another point on exhaust leaks. I do not use gaskets on the exhaust manifolds on my '64 Riviera or the '60 Electra. They tend to leak. Over 30 years, no gaskets.

Today's automotive mechanics and shops can be put into a position where they are bound to base a repair on the OBD code. This is from the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles consumer's bill of rights: The "Consumer's Bill Of Rights" Under the Repair Shop Act, you have the following rights when dealing with a repair shop: "Written Estimate If you request it, the repair shop must give you a written estimate of the parts and labor necessary for each specific repair. The shop may charge a reasonable fee for developing a written estimate, but the labor charge for an estimate may not exceed the shop's usual hourly labor charge. The estimate must list each part and its cost, and show what parts, if any, are either used or not of original quality. It must show the labor charges for each repair and by what method they are calculated. The shop may not charge more than the estimated price without your permission." P04xxx codes display a suggested problem. That would be the basis of step one, estimate of the repair. The code detail may not be the actual problem. I have been studying computer based engine control for a few years. I have College level text books ranging from the mid-1980s ALDL to recent and I subscribe to an online computerized engine training channel, as well as maintaining subscriptions to ALLDATA.com for my 21st century cars. Every source emphatically recommends a full diagnosis of the issue and warns that simply reading the code does not replace a full diagnostic. The regulators specifying a full estimate up front are misled. Old men who sit on couches and say all the young mechanics just read the computer are equally misled. But the mechanic may be pushed into that perception by regulation. I have a P0420 code on my '05 Cadillac STS, bank 2 catalytic converter inefficiency. Believe me, I worked hard to make sure I was not spending $1,000 on a new cat needlessly. There was deeper testing. A licensed shop in NYS may have risked my money to comply. Real mechanics in my family have taken their talent elsewhere due to regulations and business practices. I will continue to study and maintain the knowledge I need. That osmosis by the hour has never worked well for me. Too many unanswered questions.

I can't remember what I shipped out on this load. Brain from Poland, IL. Loaded in Brockport, NY. We used to load those cars bound for Sweden in the library parking lot. I live in the village literary district, across the street from the library.

The number of hours of exposure is not a very good measure of experience. Working a 5 day week with holidays, some vacation, and 8 hour days put an employee on the line for about 2,000 hours. 5,000 hours would make a guy 2 1/2 years older than when he started, probably not much more. The greatest problem in most careers, mechanical or soft skill is the lack of a foundation in the basics. Many years ago I saw a PBS interview with a famous astrophysicist. The interviewer asked what the latest, leading edge discoveries were in physics. The reply, with a smile, was "You ask me that but you don't know how a butterflies wings work." Once my wife asked me why I fixed other people's cars when she knew they were friends who had mechanical skills. I told he "They fix Fords and Chevys and Cadillacs. I fix automotive mechanical systems. There is a big difference" It is all in knowing the basics at the simplest level. My real profession is power plant engineering. I have a broad exposure that has covered many overlapping career fields. For many years I taught the 4th year of a 4 year apprenticeship program for heating and air conditioning mechanics. I spent most of my time teaching very basic first year principles as the applied to the final year requirements. I begged the program board to let me teach the first year. They refused saying they could get 1st year instructors a dime a dozen. My experience was needed for a 4th year instructor. I told them if I taught the 1st year all they needed was a spirit guide for the 4th. So many poor decisions are made due to the ignorance of management at all levels. I talked to my daughter last week. She was working hard preparing for a couple of certification tests in her career. She said "Oh, I have to remember so many odd things. Like one filing has to be made within 168 hours. What an odd number." I said "That's the number of hours in a week." "OOOHHHH". So many basics glazed over.

A full Classic. Maybe two. Sweden, NY.

Dwight Romberger's Buick from Niagara Falls in Bergen, NY heading for PA.

I have talked with Ruth. She is really nice. I just had a flashback to when my Mom used to take Valium because two of her three kids caused so much trouble. She got through the day.

My first experiences came from disassembling rearends and transmissions from the piles at a junkyard. Easily a quart would pour out from condensation. They are vented and outdoor temperature changes will make that mass of steel suck the moisture out of the air. Now that I am older I know that the water vapor shrunk about 1200 times when it condensensed and grew more moisture laden air into the cavity to accelerate the process. Large engine blocks will do the same thing and I have had a quart of water drain from an oil plug when draining an engine. A car parked in 2000 has had plenty of time to build up condensation and well as a whole range of sitting idle issues. When I was a kid I heard people say "She sat out in the field for 20 years. We put in a fresh battery and some gas, started on the first crank and ran like new." Wasn't long before I found out they ran for a week or some problem inspired the owner to "disassemble the car for restoration". It is hard to find that insight in a local repair shop today and if it was there the owner might have did the damage already. Long term idle storage and attention to the process of recommissioning can prevent much of the work that frustrates an old car owner.

Like the calibrated palm to weigh a Q-jet float. This is a metric but not to be confused with metrology. I have a real good story about how I once got a very high level security clearance on an assumption about that. The rocker arm assemble R&R is pretty straight forward. In the manual there is a note about the notch at the end of the shaft on the bottom. But you shouldn't have to take the assembly apart just checking it.

Well, like you mention in the beginning: Just kidding. The hardest ones I have done were '59 and early '60's Cadillacs. Those have a similarly tight arrangement. Some use two rubber hoses at the rear with the steel line passing through the crossmemeber and making a tight 90 bend. Leaving the new line loose to slide through the chassis you can assemble the flare, hose, and bracket with the line pushed to the rear for access. Then slide it forward clamping the bracket and wavy clip to the frame as an assembly with the bracket bolt. You can tweak the bends as you finish with a small tubing bender. Even a round piece of metal or a small glass jar will help make the final bend.

You can use brake line from a 25' roll cut to the approximate length and feed it through the proper route. Form the bends in place, cut to size, and slide it in either direction to double flare each end. Then clamp it in the original locations. It takes some monkeying around but I have done it quite a few times. If you haven't made many double flares practice a few. Your last double flare is always the best looking one. You can make a new fuel line the same way. At the end of the fuel line just use step one with the mandrel of the double flare to make a bulge for the rubber hose.

Entertaining topic. I have been reading each sentence and absorbing the flavor of the whole thing. I am reminded of an old friend of the family who grew up with my Dad. He used to reminisce where all the old guys go for coffee.

Looks like a 231 Buick V6. These pictures are from an MG swap but the details show well.

I think one has to have at least an MBA in business management to recognized the marketing potential of that exposure.

Just leave it in Drive when you shut it off and then shift to Park. I like to run my Dynaflow idle a little high and it stops that dieseling.

Don't overlook the possibility of rocker arm shaft shaft wear. It occurs on the bottom of the shaft where the pressure of the valve springs is high. To check you need to remove the valve covers and then the rocker arm shaft assembly. It is not a bad job. You can slide each rocker arm against the spring around the shaft to inspect it. While the rocker arms are off you can put your finger on the tip of each valve stem and see how much wiggle they have. It is an indicator of wear in the stem bore.

I saw his signature down the side of the topics like the size sticker on jeans at Walmart. I laughed. It reminded me I still have today to jet 15% on all I can put in a bucket AND get the bucket free!

The second picture is a turbo hydramatic. The vacuum modulator and housing ID it. Are these two cars in pieces and you scooped up the whole load?

Thank you. Long time Buick guy. I really don't have to spend time working on the cars. I take long walks along the Erie Canal towpath in remote places. My wife worries about me failing medically in the wilds. I tell her if I am found they will look for a missing priest. "Well, this guy never did any work." The message about the pipes is valid... and costly.

Above I recommended repairing your existing components if they fit well. My experience with shop bent vendor's mail order components ha been very disappointing. They cannot duplicate the quality of NOS or aftermarket manufactured pipes and mufflers. I will buy spare manufactured components for my cars but will repair my own if they rust or lose deadener. In the early 1990's I first repaired a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud muffler that would have cost $3500 to replace. It was easy to adopt that philosophy when mail order providers let me down. I will buy manufactured NOS or NORS components for spares when I can. Below is an NOS over the axle pipe I bought many years ago from Jolly John. It is what I look for in fitment. The first generation Riviera used a ball and flange connection at the muffler. The flange is well formed and not welded to the pipe. The flange is heavy stamped steel. Some fabricators provide flat flanges, nuts, and cut threaded rod. That can force you into their full system if you just need to replace one component. I have found the flange on shop made pipes to be shallow. I have pipes from one vendor that have a contact area of less than 3/16". They slid through the flanges when tightened. My '60 Electra is the system I got beat up the worst on. Starting with a $500 shop fabbed mail order system. I had $1600 in a somewhat cobbled system that was quiet and did not rattle. I also missed the BCA Danvers National Meet monkeying around with it. Be cautious about your replacement, try to buy NOS or NORS, consider repairing, and take preventive action by always driving your car 10 miles if you start it, even to move it one car width over in the driveway. I always do that. Note: My wife just walked by and I showed her my pointing picture. I told her "Look at that. Those guys are going to say "That guy's no mechanic! Look at that finger."