Pat_n_Pat

I need a 1931 Buick series 60 camshaft. Any Help would be appreciated. Thanks, Pat

Hey Guys: Thanks for the comments. We have the cam out of the car. The problem with loosening the rear mounts is the engine has been dropped in the frame, and the firewall is too close to the engine. A friend brought his gear puller and it took just a few minutes. Now off to the cam grinder! Pat

Problem solved. Found correct position for crankshaft. Then had to drop pan and remove oil pump as the drive gear was preventing bearing clearance. Now the next problem. Timing gear removal. Because it is Bakelite (or something like that) I do not want to reef on it with a 3-hook gear puller. Tried a bit of pressure but chickened out. We had hoped to slide the cam out and have the cam grinder press the gear off, but the gear hits the frame front cross member at the end of the horns. Any thoughts on the best way to remove the timing gear? Pat

HELP!! Any special ideas on how to remove the cam. We have everything unfastened, and we can start to pull the camshaft out, but it keeps hitting on crank journals or conn rods. Is there a specific position crank has to be in to remove camshaft? what is it? Pat:confused:

I think we may have figured it out. This car has a very short wheelbase (109"), therefore a very short torque tube. The engine was dropped a few inches, but the driveline still slopes to the differential. The churning of the ring gear throws gear lube all over the place (as it should), past the pinion bearings and into the torque tube (to keep all the bearings lubricated). Any time you head down a steep hill, or stop quickly, the gear oil "sloshes" up the torque tube. that would normally not be a problem, however, with such a short torque tube, it can reach the U-joint. Now here is the big part! The U-joint slip-yoke spline rides in a bronze bushing. The bushing has a spiral cut groove to allow allow transmission oil to lubricate the bushing. The U-Joint slip-yoke spline has a spiral cut groove the opposite direction, designed to "pump" the transmission oil back to the trans, and completely lubricate the bearing in the process. The problem is any differential lube that makes it all the way to the U-joint is picked up by the slip-joint spiral and fed into the trans. Amazing how much gear lube this will pump in a short time! Now for a solution:confused: One possibility is to weld up the groove in the slip yoke. The bushing would still get oil, but we could end up overfilling the differential! A second possibility is to make a sleeve that fits in the torque tube to dam the movement of gear lube. A third would be to make a sleeve, and add a neoprene seal. Thoughts? Pat

For clarification, the car is a racer, but the engine still uses a stock series 60 cam. It will be reground for our purposes. We are getting this car ready for the Hemming's Great Race. Pat

I need a cam and U-joint for a '31 Series 60 Racer. Cam will be reground, so wear is not a huge issue. Pat

Thanks Packard 42: I would really appreciate it if you could find the name of the shop. Thanks for the help; Portland is just 30 miles down the road. Pat

Hi John: The Chevy axle I am considering is also 6 lug. The problem is that the Chev pattern is a 5.5" circle, while the Buick is 6.6". That is why I need to know the diameter of the hub to see if it can be drilled for the larger pattern :confused: Pat

I would be using new drums; they are easy to get and inexpensive.. Re-drilling used to be SOP for rodding in the 50's and 60's. Just rotate the hub 30 degrees and drill. I need to know the diameter of the hub where it bolts to the drum. If it is 7.5" then it is an easy modification. If it is 7.0" or less, I would need to make a decision whether to ring it or mill new hubs. I have made wheel adapters before (to adapt Ford wire wheels to an Olds rear end). They work OK on a rear axle, but I do not like wheel adapters on the front because they put undue strain on wheel bearings. The objective is to get to hydraulic brakes; there is at least one 'teen Hudson racer running '50 Chevrolet brakes. Of course, late '40 Ford and Lincoln brakes have been put on early Fords for years. (my '35 Ford that I built in 1959 runs Lincoln front and Oldsmobile rear brakes). I can't use the Ford set-up on the buick because the spring pad locations are not right. Pat

Can anyone tell me if a ’54 Chevy ½ ton truck has enough “meat” on the front hubs and brake drums to re-drill lugs to a 6 x 6.5 pattern? We are building a 1931 Buick Racer to compete in this year’s reincarnation of Great Race. We want to convert the existing mechanical brakes to hydraulics. I have access to a complete ’54 front end. The spring perches, drop, and overall width will work well. My only concern is that the 19” Buick wheels have a 6 x 6.5 pattern, so hubs and drums would need to be re-drilled to the larger diameter. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Pat

Has anyone adapted hydraulic brakes to a 1931 8-60? We have a ’31 based Speedster that we will be using to compete in the Great Race next year. I have read the other posts and I have long known all the arguments for maintaining manual brakes (we keep them on our cars that came with them). They work great on flat, uncrowned roads and are fine for normal driving and the occasional panic stop. They were engineered to work well with the stock sized tires, and we strongly agree that well maintained manual brakes should be kept for normal driving. In the events we run (Great Race, Hemming’s Challenge, and VCRA) EVERY stop is a near-panic stop. Right side shoes wear faster than left on crowned roads. We also need to be able to adjust brake bias while running, depending on road conditions…. impossible with mechanical brakes. We are running Dunlop Racing Tires all around (7.00x19 on the back and 6.50x19 on the front). That’s a lot more rubber than the brakes were designed for! We are not allowed to run disk brakes as the cars need to maintain their original appearance as much as possible (although you can run disks if they are hidden inside the drums). Can ’36 or later backing plates and drums be modified to fit? We want to run the original wire wheels, so we would need to do some fabrication). Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel (pun intended) Thanks, Pat

Hi Rons49: Thanks for your input; we wil check the output of the pumps. Carter was making 6 volt rotary vane pumps in the 40's. Back then I think they were all 6 volt. I am not familiar with issues of using a 12 volt carator pump you mentioned. However, we know of a few Great Race/VCRA/Hemmings Challenge competitors that have used a 12 volt rotary vane on a 6 volt car successfully when a 6 volt was not available. There is no part number of my two rotary vane pumps, consequently I cannot tell if they are 4070's or 4259's. We now have a barn full of parts for just about who-knows-what, and it is time to use what we already have instead of buying something new every time we need a part! We run auxiliary pumps on all of our cars; we had to run the entire 2010 Hemming's Challenge '41 Packard on our electric pump. We also had to run the last 1500 miles of the 2007 Great Race on our electric pump after the stock pump failed on our '56 Thunderbird (of course, it was 12 volt). We will be running these pumps in parallel on a 1931 Buick Indy Racer which is now converted to 12 volts. It has a pressure regulator (as do all of our electric fuel pump cars) and runs 4 Winfield carbs. We plan to pull the carbs and replace with a pair of two-throats as low-end torque is far more important than high-end. We can use these as 6 volt or 12 volt pumps, we just need to know what they are.

Ben: I just posted a few to the Gallery. Thanks for asking. Pat

I have two Carter Rotary Vane electric fuel pumps, and I am trying to figure out if they are 6 or 12 volt. Neither has any part number (the number on the label is the part number for the label). I do know that a 12 volt version of the Carter Rotary Vane pump will run fine on 6 volts. The pump will just perform at about 75% efficiency on 6 volts. What will happen if I run a 6 volt pump on 12 volts? I know that 6 volt wiring is heavier than 6 volt wire (necessary to carry the amperage), but what will happen with rotary pump? :confused: I know that Carter has been making these for a very long time (WWII). It could be possible that no marking means 6 volt, and 12 volt pumps are marked as 12 volt. I have tried to contact Carter, but there has been no response to my inquiries. Any info/ideas for checking would help. Thanks, Pat

Mark is right. Do you have a service manual? I am not familiar with the 26, but it can't be much different than our 31. The Cut Out is a little "box" mounted on top of the generator (newer cars used "voltage regulators" with their generators). It can be a little touchy. The cut out connects the generator with the battery when the engine speed is sufficient to charge the battery, and disconnects when the engine rpm is too low. It prevents the battery from discharging through the generator at low rpm. Pull the cover, clean it up, check the contacts. On my '31 the points should be between .015" and .025". The points should close when the voltage is between 6.7 and 7.5 volts. Pat

Try Coker. They have the ability to search by car and year. Here is a link: Search results for: '525-21' (Usually there are pics, but there is only one on this page). You can also call (if you talk with Mike, say hi from Pat n' Pat). We have purchased many sets through them and have always been pleased.....and we drive our cars hard! We have run four sets on two different cars cross-country in the Great Race, Hemmings Challenge, and VCRA rally events. Universal is also excellent, as is Lucas Tire. Pat

You can probably bet that the leather "flapper" in the motor is a little dry (remember, NOS means OLD). Try the info at this link: 1933 Plymouth Wiper Motor Tune-up. I did on one motor on our '35 Cad.....Now it runs like crazy, but the other one is sloooow!

The Ammeter doesn't care if it is 6 or 12 volts (but it's light bulb might..). It only measures amps. Our Packard has auxiliary gauges for competition to supplement the stock gauges. You have no problem putting 12 volts through a 6 volt coil for starting. It just gives a hotter spark. As I said, most 12 volt coils were actually 6 volt coils with a ballast resistor(internal or external)--12 volts to start, then 6 to run. Fred, you are correct, just keep contact long enough to start the engine. The original question was about using a battery pack. With a battery pack you connect the cables, then turn the pack on.....crank....start.....turn the pack off. You do have to have some generator output (or a 6 volt battery) to keep the motor running. The cut-out relay will probably protect the generator because there is not sufficient revs to engage it. Just as an aside, I had to buy a battery charger while on the road when the charging system went out a long way from home. Hated to do it (have 4 chargers and 3 trickle chargers at home, so I decided to go cheap at Harbor Freight. I LOVE THIS CHARGER!!!!!!!! Small, flexible, smart, 6 or 12 volts....and it figures it out on its own. Here is the link: 6/12 Volt Electronic Battery Charger and Maintainer With LCD Display

Hi Mark: Yes, I do use the same for both. The problem is that I end up with too much in the transmission and not enough in the differential. Neither of which is a good thing. You would think it would flow back downhill into the rear end, but it doesn't. If I could only figure out the physics of this I could probably build a perpetual motion machine;) Pat

Thanks Roger_Roy: The driveshaft does slope to the differential; just not as much as a stock Buick. A baffle would probably work just as well as a seal; just need to slow the flow of the gear lube! Pat