Rusty_OToole

Over a long period of time the points in the governor can become gummed up, covered in oil and stop working. You need to take the cover off and clean the points. Be careful they are a soft silver material not hard like ignition points. Some contact cleaner or brake clean spray and draw a strip of white typing paper between them until it comes out clean.

Heat risers usually rust in the closed position. On the Chrysler it is built into the manifold, you can't replace it without replacing the whole manifold, you have to fix what you have got. Some heat riser lubricating oil and a few minutes of light tapping to loosen rust will usually get them moving. The only thing that wears out is the bimetallic spring. Parts and rebuild kits should be available from Andy Bernbaum or Roberts Motor Parts.

The brakes will work as long as there is fluid in the reservoir. I would top it up and leave about 1/2" or less space. The exact level is not critical

Ha ha ha I thought it was Fred who built them.

This is surprisingly effective, especially if you use polished aluminum. The shiny surface reflects the heat and aluminum absorbs and disperses heat better than any other material. Years ago I lived in an old farmhouse with wooden wainscot along the walls. I had a wood stove less than a foot from the wood so I made a heat shield of aluminum and spaced it 3" away from the wall. No matter how hot the stove got you could slide your hand behind the heat shield and the wall was cool. Land Rover made a false roof for tropical use that worked on the same principle.

15MPG is typical. Not much you can do about it but at least you can burn the cheapest regular gas. They bragged when the car was new that their engine did not need special high octane fuel, and developed full power and performance on 70 octane regular. A rebuilt carb might help. It should not smell rich after it is warmed up, when it is cold the choke will be on. That is a big heavy solid iron engine and it takes a long time to warm up. On trips of less than half an hour it will never completely warm up. Plus, stop and go driving is murder on those heavy old luxury cars. See if you can clock the mileage on a trip of 100 miles or more.

Industrial bearing supply stores can be found in any city, they can supply grease seals of all kinds. Take the old one in, it may have a number on it or they may have to measure it.

Years ago I saw an article by a Hudson engineer explaining why they used splash lubrication long after others went to full pressure. There were about 10 reasons. I only remember one. With the Hudson system when you start your engine, the bearings get oil as soon as the engine makes 1 revolution. With a pressure system the bearings can run dry until the pump builds up pressure. This can take up to a minute in cold weather. As most engine wear occurs when the engine is cold, the advantage of the Hudson system is obvious. I think the splash system was good up to a point. In normal driving it was fine, continuous high speed was its downfall. My father bought a 1947 Hudson when it was a late model. As continuous high speed was his middle name, the engine only lasted 2 or 3 years. Not long after, Hudson adopted the full pressure system like everyone else.

The American Austin company was formed to build the Austin Seven under license from the English Austin company. They paid a royalty of $5 a car for the privilege of using their design, their patents, their name and trademark. After the company was reorganized they changed the design of the body, engine and chassis so much there was hardly anything left of the original design and they stopped paying royalties. This meant they could no longer use the Austin name so they picked the name Bantam. This accounts for the name change. To be perfectly correct the name Austin should not be used in connection with the Bantam car or company. Incidentally there is a travel trailer forum I look at from time to time called Air forums. Recently a poster posted pictures of a "mystery trailer" built right after WW2 that had an ID plate marked American Bantam Company, Butler Pennsylvania and the serial #1001. There is some speculation that this is a reconversion project, a prototype. Has anyone ever heard of Bantam making travel trailers? I know they built baggage trailers for Jeeps during the war. The mystery trailer http://www.airforums.com/forums/f417/mystery-trailer-76069.html

I guess I must look stupid or something because strangers at car shows are stand offish with me and I'm a 62 year old white man who bathes regularly. If you act half way sensible and show an interest in someone's car they usually thaw out pretty quick. Please don't act like you know more about a car than the guy who drove it to the meet. You won't have much trouble getting acquainted. Let me tell you a secret. People like to talk about themselves. They also like talking about their hobbies. If you can get them talking in 10 minutes you will have a friend for life. Hell their wife won't listen to them that long and as for their kids they won't listen at all.

On cars for which torque settings are not available you can go by standard tables listing max torque for different size nuts and bolts. An industrial supply house that sells nuts, bolts, etc should have such a chart. They also appear in the back pages of old engineering manuals.

By 1954 they had the Powerflite. This was a 2 speed torque converter transmissions similar in action to the Chev Powerglide, Buick Dynaflow, Packard Ultramatic, Fordomatic and similar transmissions. In 1957 they brought out the 3 speed Torqueflite.

Not a brillo pad. A copper scrubbing pad. The Pledge acts as a mild cleaner and lubricant to prevent scratches. I have tried many methods over the years and this one is tried and true. There may be better products and better methods I don't know about.

The Pierce Arrow and Duesenberg speeds are a matter of public record. Timed by the AAA on the Bonneville salt flats, on a course surveyed by the Utah Department of Highways. The first Pierce record was set by a stock roadster with a 12 cylinder test engine. The car was stripped of fenders, running boards, etc. They came back the next year with the same car, stock chassis, with a more streamlined body. Final effort had a hopped up engine with 4 carburetors, this one made 117 MPH and I must stress, this was AVERAGE SPEED FOR 24 HOURS. Including fuel stops. Actual top speed was higher. The Pierce record was beaten the next year by a supercharged Duesenberg roadster called the Mormon Meteor. Again, a 24 hour average. According to Maurice Hendry Mercedes warned their customers not to use the supercharger on the Grosser Mercedes for more than 2 minutes. With supercharger top speed was 101 or 102 MPH, without the supercharger engaged top speed was in the 90s. As it took almost a minute to accelerate to over 100 once the blower was engaged the 100+ top speed was not very useful. I quote the Pierce and Duesenberg speeds because they are official records. I suppose Lincoln could have built you a V12, or Cadillac a V16 with streamlined body that would top 100. The 1938 - 40 Cadillac V16 is said to be the fastest most powerful large car of the classic era. If you want more than 3 speeds I believe luxury cars of the 30s were available with overdrive. But of course, the customer could order any style body and any rear axle ratio he wanted. Incidentally a supercharged Mercedes roadster tested its mettle against a Duesenberg touring car in a celebrated race on Muroc dry lake in 1932. The Duesy beat the Mercedes handily.

There should be an ID plate on the body someplace giving net weight (vehicle) and gross weight (vehicle plus load). If it is larger than a 1/2 ton pickup truck. How many wheel bolts? Light trucks used 5 bolt wheels like a car. Larger than 1/2 capacity had 8 bolt or (even larger) 10 bolt. It appears the wheels are long gone so will not ask about tire sizes.

Geez it's only a $1 buck at the dollar store. Don't you have a can of Pledge or furniture polish around the house? I am not selling anything, if you think it's worth a try gamble a dollar and try it out on an old bicycle rim or something. If it doesn't work use the other 2 pads in the kitchen (there are 3 in a package). What have you got to lose?

Doesn't the 41 Buick have a cowl vent? If it is working correctly it should funnel a big blob of cooling air onto your feet at speed. See that it opens all the way and is not clogged with dirt and leaves. You could also get a couple of bags of ice to use as foot rests. I am only half kidding.

The rings do not carry the torque load. Pressure would be on the top of the piston, the wrist pin, rod bearing and crankshaft. Sometimes on old engines you can tell if the engine was lugged a lot (wear on the top rod bearing shell) or revved high (wear on the bottom bearing shell). O ya be careful if you "lug" an engine by yourself you could throw your back out ha ha lol funny joke.

Studebaker, like Packard, had separate rear fenders. Studebaker was the first with new styling from an old line company but may have been beaten by Kaiser and Crosley.

There should be an access plate on the bottom of the bellhousing. Remove the plate and turn the engine till the plug on the Fluid Drive comes to the bottom. Now you can remove the plug and drain the oil. Put the plug back in, turn the engine till the plug lines up with the fill hole in the floor boards. Stuff a rag around the hole, remove the plug, and fill with TDH Tractor fluid, ISO 22 or 32 grade. Or 10 motor oil. Complete drain and fill takes about 10 1/2 quarts. By the way Chrysler never recommended changing the fluid at all. However I don't think they expected them to still be in service after 70 years.

First Plymouth didn't come out until 1928. Whippet was very popular in its day but the novelty soon wore off. Hudson's Essex Coach was the first low priced closed car and had considerable vogue in the early twenties, in fact it gets the credit for starting the trend to sedans in place of touring cars.

Buy the best car you can find or afford. Do not even consider any car unless it is complete, running, driving, and in decent shape. Do not overmatch yourself on your first project. It costs so much money (not to mention time) to restore an old car it is actually cheaper to buy a good one. You should be aiming for a #3 car. A solid driver that looks good from 20 feet away. Not a 100 point show car (too much $$$ bucks to buy) or a klunker (too much time and $$$$ bucks to fix up). If you can find a knowledgeable mechanic to inspect the car so much the better.

I use copper scrubbing pads with Pledge furniture polish. Removes rust but does not scratch like steel wool. Then follow up with Simichrome, FLITZ, Solvol Autosol, or your favorite chrome polish. Finally a couple of coats of car wax will prevent new rust from forming. Copper pads from the dollar store 3 for a $1 buck.

Have done this many times. There are 2 good methods. 1st disconnect the ground cable off the 6V battery, start the engine with the 12V jumper cables, take off the cables and quickly stick the 6V cable back on the battery before the engine stalls. This cuts the 6V battery completely out of the circuit for safety. Second method is to have one person stick the cables on while another starts the engine, then quickly take the cables off. The object is to not have the 6V battery subjected to 12V. Too much voltage for too long could be a bad thing. As others have pointed out be sure the lights, radio etc are turned off for safety. I have never damaged a starter, coil or anything else this way but of course there are no guarantees.

It sounds like the tube is ok, if it was shot the engine would be hot at the back and cool at the front. Have you checked the rad? Is it clean, not plugged with bugs and dirt? You can blow it out from behind with an air hose. Is it clean inside? I had a problem with a similar car, a previous owner left the rad cap off and mice built nests in the top of the rad. It would idle OK but overheat as soon as it hit the road. I spied some debris made of shredded paper towels in the rad and fished them out, but in the end had to take the rad off, turn it upside down and flush it with a hose. Enough shredded paper came out to make a pile the size of a football. No more overheating after that. You may also need to flush the cooling system. The engine water jacket can get full of rust mud and silt over the years.