37_Roadmaster_C

DJ, Buicks from at least 1937 to 1960 have a starting system in which you turn on the key (just on, no start position) and then step on the gas and she will start. There are several variants on the switching that makes this happen, but simply put there is some form of switch activated by steping on the gas and then the starter is locked out when the engine is running to prevent grinding the starter. Robin

+1 on what Bob said with one more thought... I work in an electrical field and in most cases when troubleshooting a problem like this I would start where you know the power is good (battery) and work in a logical manner toward the end (lights). When you loose the power you then know the problem is between where you are now and the step before with power. The only other thing with this problem is that I would check for power at the headlight socket as it is quite common for the bulbs to be burned out because someone hooked up a 12 volt battery... Robin

Larry, I do not know the year range for sure, but both the 37 Roadmaster and the 60 Electra have torque tube drive. Robin

Don, This is what I am thinking. The origional and the replacement are both 11 inch disks with 2.5 inch wide pressure plates. The springs are also different. The origional has 8 springs about 1/2 X 1 inch the replacement has 6 springs about 3.4 X 1 long and much larger spring wire. I am fairly sure that my supplier goofed but I really want to know for sure before I makew an a$$ of myself trying to make them eat my mistake. I really want to be fair and get the problem resolved with as little cost to everyone as possible. Robin

Hi All, I am in the process of restoring the 37 Roadmaster Phaeton. I recently aquired a replacement clutch disk for the car... It is not the same as the disk that came out of the car. Now I am wondering where the problem is. Normally I would give Dave Tachney a call but I know he is away from home until about the 8th . The replacement disk came from a source that I would normally think of as reliable, not any of our normal suppliers, but good people anyway. Now I know that my car has had work done in the early 40's but I am fairly sure the transmission is origional. The disk that came out of the car is an 11 inch disk and the spline measurments in the disk are as follows: 10 spline, 1 inch across the spline tips and approximately 1.225 inch across the spline valleys. The replacement disk simply has a smaller spline by about 1/8 inch. Now my question is which one is right for a 37 series 80 car? If anyone has any info I would really like your feedback, if not I will wait for Dave.... Thanks for any input you may have. This is not really to time critical except I need to get it corrected with the supplier as I don't know if they sent me the wrong part or if my car has had some non-origional transplant. If the first then it is the suppliers problem, the later it is my problem. Either way I need to get it taken care of in a timely manner. Thanks, Robin

They did the master and wheel cylinders for my 37 Buick and the work was quick and high quality. I will be sending all four shocks from the same car to them within the next month.

I also am no expert but I feel that the extra length of the 320 will be much more of a problem than just finding a good servicable 248. Another thing is that to the best of my knowledge the only thing more modern about the 52 320 is insert rod bearings vs poured babbet, obviously more displacement AND higher compression and simply a newer casting. I just had the 37 320 rebuilt and there was no problem with parts or machine work (ground the crank, cam and had the rods machined for insert bearings) and the engine will be as good as it was new in 1937.

Cody, Glad to help. I just picked up another starter for my 37 from Dave at the Portland show, along with a few more parts to complete the restoration. Have fun with the Special Buick (I could not help myself). Robin

Tom, Where are you going to have the speedo rebuilt? I think I will need to have mine rebuilt also and have not researched who can do a proper job. Any help is appreciated. Robin

To explain the polarity insensitive statement... LEDs by themselves are polarity sensitive. However, when they are built into an assembly (replacement bulb) the electronics inside can be configured to make them insensitive to polarity. If you have an electronics background think of a bridge rectifier in front of the LED array. In this configuration any polarity INCLUDING AC will light the LEDs as long as the voltage is correct for the design. Now another thing to keep in mind is the statement about LEDs using MUCH less current than regular bulbs. This is true and can/will cause other problems. Starting with turn signals, as was mentioned above you will need either a flasher designed for LEDs or as Marty said you will need a ballast resistor to provide enough current load for the regular flasher to work. If there is to little current the signals will just light up and not flash... *** I just reread Martys post above and will defer to his experience as to how the light might respond. My experience is that the light just stays on, however depending on the circuit other actions are possible. *** This is common and flashers and resistors are available to fix the problem. Another thing that can happen with LED replacement bulbs is the low current can cause the lights to operate intermittantly if there is a switch, connection, splice etc that is questionable. The current from the regular bulbs will actually cause a small arc in the connection or switch and cause a cleaning action where the LED current is so low this will not happen and the circuit will be open and no current will flow and therefore no light from the LED. This is uncommon but worth mentioning. Another thing worth mentioning has to do with the polarity insensitive LED bulbs... by the nature of how they are made they WILL be more sensitive to low voltage than the fixed polarity models. By design there will be a loss of approximately 1.2 volts in the bulb design. While this is not a problem as the bulob is designed around this voltage loss it does mean that the 6 volt car now really only has 4.8 volts inside the bulb... Soooo if the car is running a little low. or the wiring is a little lossy the bulbs might not light. Just a few things to think about. I hope this helps. Robin

Congratulations to Lamar, Mikey, Robert and Jessica... You are all very deserving of the recognition. This was my first show and gathering and I am glad to be part of the fun. Now seeing Lamar in red tights, only if the cape is a wrap-around . Congrats to all, it was fun. Robin

+1 on what Joe said. As mentioned above there are replacement LED bulbs that are polarity insensitive, they will work on both ground systems. Now another thing is that LEDs are more critical of low voltage. If the voltage at the bulb socket is to low the LED will not light. Leds are pretty much either on or off, they don't dim much with low voltage, they just go off, where an incadesent bulb will get dimmer with low voltage. First thing to check is like Joe said... Carefully connect the LED to the battery and see if it lights. Also, your Buick is 6 volt negative ground if it is stock. Good luck. Robin

The most beautiful cars are the ones we own.... with a few exceptions - see above . Of course Buicks... no I'm not going there . Robin

Mark, Thank You for getting this new meeting place. We will see everyone there ))

Been raining since before dawn in central Washington. Please send it our way, we need it to help with the fires... Robin

I would like to say yes to 2 seats anywhere everyone is meeting. This is my first show so my father and I would like to meet everyone. Robin

John, Thank you so much for the information. We were planing to arrive in the Portland area late Thursday as we have a meeting south east of Portland mid day Thursday, then need to meet my brother in Camas, east of Portland, for dinner and family time. The plan was to go to the breakfast and then meet people and view the cars on Friday. Now that you mention the timing for meeting the office staff I think we might push up our arrival to Wednesday so that we can get an earlier start on things. I think I can move the Thursday meeting to Wednesday then spend Thursday meeting people and drooling over the cars . We will see what dad thinks of this idea. Again, thank you for the info. Robin

This is an open question, slightly related to the apove... My father and I will be attending the Portland show as spectators as we are not BCA members. We will be joining the club to be able to participate in club events as well as to be able to join the closest club to us. Now for the questions.... 1) Can we join the BCA at the show? 2) How can we meet the members and introduce ourselves? 3) Can we join the forum breakfast on friday? 4) Is there anything else we can do to participate (we are not looking to join the tours etc. as we are northwest locals and have been on the roads etc)? Thanks for any info, and hope to see some of you there . Robin

I am a poor one to speak as my 60 Electra has been in storage for 22 years (long story, but mostly me being to lazy to get her out), but before she was put into storage she was my grandmothers only car and used weekly as a driver, even now I would not even hesitate to drive the 60 on a daily basis after I freshened up the rubber parts. I actually thought about getting it out for the trip to the Portland show (about 300 miles one way), but got to thinking that it would be asking for trouble by pushing it that quick. I will get her going after the show and start driving her regulary.

Cody, If you need a replacement solenoid (or yours rebuilt), call Jason Smith, info at the bottom of my post above. Robin

+1 on what Bob said. I am going to have custom battery cables made for the Roadmaster. I will be using two 6 volt Optima batteries in parallel. This will do several things for me... 1) lots of cranking power, 2) stock generator and regulator will charge properly, 3) no voltage problems with radio, gauges and lights, 4) the two Optima batteries will fit into the stock under seat battery tray with very little modification, 5) the custom cables will look good from the engine side of things. These are just my thoughts, your mileage may vary .

Joe, I tend to be a little critical of people that treat others the way you have been treated. After the hangup and refusal to respond, if I were you, I would call the police department in Troy and file a theft report against Mr. Linn. You may need to go through your local police but I don't know. Start with a call to the Troy police department and then go from there. I had a simular situation many years ago where I sold and shipped some equipment to a guy 2000+ miles away and the check he sent me bounced. After several calls and broken promices I called the police in his home town and told them what was going on... Long story short, the fellow called me about 2 hours later and advised me that a certified check would be arriving the next day and he would really appreciate it if I would call the police chief as soon as I got the check to keep him from being charged with theft the following afternoon. Next morning UPS delivered the bank check and I called the police chief and thanked him for his departments help. I also sent a check for $100.00 to the departments volunteer fund . Anyway, just my thoughts. Robin

Cody, First question is... Do you have a factory shop manual? If not then you really need to get one. Next, I assume that you have the battery charged and properly connected, IE: negative ground, positive to starter solonoid. Now with either a volt meter or 6 volt test light check for battery power on the relay contacts, while NOT trying to start there should be power on one contact and not the other. Now if that checks monitor the contact that did not have power and hit your remote switch. The relay should close and you should get power on the contact. Just a note, it is a good idea to reference ground on the solenoid mounting bolt as the coils are grounded to the case of the solenoid. If this is all good then the solenoid is bad. There are several variations to these tests but all are basicly the same. I am also assuming that the starter circuits are basicly the same as a stock 1936 car. My 37 is very simular but there is no carb switch, just a vacuum switch with a linkage to the throttle for starting, it basicly works the same but has a vacuum lockout to help prevent starter activation while the engine is running. Now the wiring diagram in the shop manual clearly shows the wiring and is fairly easy to understand if you have even a little electrical knowledge. I hope this helps. feel free to ask more if needed. Another source for help/repair is Jason Smith with Advanced Electrical Rebuilders in Grand Ledge, MI - 866-228-0218 - jason@aerrebuild.com, he posts here fairly often and gets great reviews from the members.

Cody, I assume that when you say "only the contacts open and close", you are refering to the relay on the end of the starter. If this is the case there are a few things to check. The solenoid is switched by the relay on the end of the starter and the solenoid pulls the bendix in and switches the starter motor on. I would check for power to the solenoid through the relay contacts. If there is power through the contacts then the solenoid is bad or there is a bad ground to the solenoid. These are the things to check first. If you need more help just ask. Robin PS: Where are you located? There are many members with lots of knowledge all over and one may offer to help if they are close enough .

Cody, Engine Serial number ranges for 1936 [TABLE=class: cms_table_grid] <TBODY>[TR] [TD]Series</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]Start</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]End</SPAN> [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]40</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]42995239</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]43166224</SPAN> [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]60</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]63001000</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]63166224</SPAN> [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]80</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]83001000</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]83166224</SPAN> [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]90</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]93001000</SPAN> [/TD] [TD]93166224 [/TD] [/TR] </TBODY>[/TABLE] The number you listed is right in the range for a 1936 Special. Above is a list of engine numbers for 1936. I copied it from another post here. Do a search for '1936 buick number' and you will find the origional post. What may be throwing you off is the first number. Buick stamped the series number as the first number of the engine number when the engine was installed at the factory, but the listing in most cases omits that number. The list above has the series number included. You do not need to resolve anything