chstickl

There is no indication of flow direction on mine either. Waldron asked, if the perforated tube runs the full length of the muffler, or if there is a gap in the middle. The quieter versions are the ones with the perforated tube running the full length through. You might want to check that and ask for an exchange. They also said that it´ll make no difference which way to install it. I haven´t checked mide yet since it is built in and I haven´t had time to get the car on the hoist. Christian

Hi, compared to the usual, this is a rather cosmetic question on sounds. When I overhauled the engine of my 37 Roadmaster, I also got a new exhaust system. With my old exhaust, the engine was whisper soft, rather a humming and soft gliding. The new one (from Waldrons) announces the arrival of the car ahead of its appearance by its rather loud and not so pleasant sound. It sounds more like an overstrained 6-cylinder rather than a straight 8. Somewhat coarse and rattling. It that the typical "OEM-sound"? Does it make a difference which direction the exhaust fumes take through the muffler? Maybe it was mounted the wrong way round. Any recommendations for counter measures so that the car returns to its graceful acoustic appearance? Thanks, Christian

I finally found out that the contacts to and from the charge indicator were corroded and a bit loose. I pushed a bit on the wires and tightened the nuts - everything fine now. Amazing that it worked fine for long and quite suddenly failed. That was an easy one. Christian

Hi, when I took my 37 80C for a spin, the car stalled in idle and never started again. The starter motor turned fine, but there was no ignition. Back home, I found the folowing: Voltage at battery: 6.3V, fully charged Voltage at ignition lock and at ignition coil without engine: 3.4V (!!) starter turns but engine doesn´t start. Voltage when engine runs at ignition lock: 8.3V, so a bit on the high end So somwhere between battery and ignition, 3V get lost and I have no explanation. Since the charge indicator didn´t really react, I suspect this one, but am not sure. When I bridged thr ignition coil to battery directly, the engine started immediately. Has anybody seen something like this and can help with a hint? Is the voltage regulator responsile for that behaviour? Thanks for your help, Christian

Mike, it would be terrific if you could just send me a scan of the schematic to chstickl@yahoo.com . Sending paper copies might be cost prohibitive as I am living in Germany and shipping from the US is sometimes more than the material´s worth. When I have to place an order to Bob´s anyway, I will get the paper copy. Thanks for your support, Christian

Brad, Mike, Steve, thanks a lot for the useful hints. It is a 980535 model. Unfortunately I could not find any schematics under the mentioned links. I´d be glad if there is another source for schematics where I can identify the capacitor values etc. Christian

Hi there, due to a broken front window seal, the radio in my 37 80C has been damaged through intruding rain water. I was able to replace some coils and transformers and the converter, and eventuelly the radio utters some noise. But a friend told me that all the filters might be damaged too. I have old schematics but they are low quality copies and I can´t read the values of all the components. Does anybody have an electronic copy of a high resolution schematic and does anybody know who might still have some of these old components? A completely populated replacement mainboard would do as well. It would be horriffic to get the radio playing again. Thanks a lot, Christian

Mine was cracked too and I got it welded fine. Since it is cast iron, not everybody can do it and I recommend to let you show some previous work, how it looks. Might not be easy to find an artist who can weld cast iron. Mine was about US$30 for one crack - quite a difference to 600odd bucks. Chris

Hi, combining the facts, that it is louder when the engine is cold and that it gets louder when accelerating, brings up another thought you might want to check for: Exhaust blowing through the head gasket into the cooling system. There would be other symptoms coming with it that could or could not confirm this suspicion, like white smoke when starting the engine, slow loss of cooling liquid, etc. Sometimes it is better to be paranoid and check for potential desasters early. Good luck, Chris

Hi Jaques, thanks a lot for your offer. Dave T provided me with cores which I then sent to Bobs for restoring. The used radiator I got was a piece of junk, which I had a German specialist restore with a modern net (40% more cooling effectiveness), but original bottom and top. Dave was a great help to source and ship the parts to and fro. So in the meantime I should be fine and can´t wait to get the car back in one piece from the engine shop. Christian

Hi there, on my 1937 80C Mc Laughlin Roadmaster I need to replace (in fact find) new motor mounts including the timing plate at the front of the engine and I need a new radiator. As it is quite hopeless to look for McLaughlin parts in Canada, I´ll have to use US parts. Fortunately Bob seems to have the motor mounts by now, but does anybody know if the dimensions and versions are exactly the same between US cars and McLaughlin of that year? Especially the timing plate (where the front motor mounts are attached) and the radiator? Thanks for advice, Christian

Last year around this time I gave my 37 McLaughlin Roadmaster Convertible to a guy to overhaul the engine, clutch and radiator. Well, one year later the car is still at the engine shop, the motor is ready to be built in, but the motor mounts and the radiator are missing. The guy I gave the car to has brought them to different places for re-vulcanizing and overhauling. The guy more or less disappeared and the parts (motor mounts and radiator) seem to be lost. Fortunately the rest of the car is still at the engine shop. I have to get used to the thought that I will have to find spares somewhere. I did forget to mention that all this happens in Germany, not the easiest place to find spares and mechanics for these cars. Here is my question: Does anybody have these parts available or know someone who might have a complete set of motor mounts (front & rear) and a radiator? I know that the usual places don´t have these kinds of spares anymore. Thanks a lot for your help, I am quite desperate to find a solution now. Christian

Stuart, I ment the one on the picture which is indeed a 1934/35 one. Sorry for the confusion, looking forward to your reply. Christian

Dear Harry, thanks for advise. Would you have more details about those head studs from your buick master parts list? I don´t have one and it would be very helpful to get all relevant details (type of thread, measures, drawings, so that I can get them manufactured over here. Thanks, Christian

Does anybody know who makes them now or where I can get an old one? Thanks, Christian

Hi there, in the course of overhauling my engine, it happened that some of the stay bolts (threaded rods that connect the engine block to the cylinder head) don´t come out of the block. They would need to in order to plane the block. a) is there any secret or magic that helps to get the bolts out without destroying them (apart from soaking in rust dissolvent, heating and waiting)? if not, drilling them out and cutting a new thread is not the issue (can be done in the same machine that bores the cylinders, but nobody seems to make replacement ones. Do you know anybody who has old rods that I can buy, or is there a cross reference list from other engines where the threaded rods would fit? Thanks for helping. Christian

Hi there, after a long wait, finally the engine overhaul kit from Kanters arrived here in Germany, where my 37 Roadmaster is waiting for a complete engine job. I was a bit surprised though, to notice that they included domed pistons where the originals are flat. The least it would do is increasing the compression ratio. According to my mechanic they would fit in, so metal to metal collision doesn´t seem to be the issue. Question: Has anyone had a similar experience with Kanters? Should I just go with it or send them back? Has anyone had done this to his engine on purpose to increase the compression ratio and what were the effects on the car? Thanks for your advice as always, Christian :confused:

Hi all, thanks for advice. So far, I haven´t found a drawing or picture of how an ideal ring gear should look like. Neither have I found any potential source. Any ideas or experience with that? How do the rings from later models fit? Thanks as always, Christian

Tom, thanks a lot for taking the extra effort of taking high res pictures. I took them to my engine shop so they should be well prepared not. Christian

Tom, this is great information, thanks a lot for sending this. It clearly tells that the main journals are supposed to have all different sizes. Unfortunately the photos are not sharp enough to allow securely seeing the fractional measures. I have checked the internet already and it seems that this manual is out of supply. So could I ask you to take high res images from the tables only, as these are really fine print. Thanks a lot Christian:)

Hi there again, when I took my 37 Roadmaster engine apart, following questions came up that I could not yet find an answer to: 1. the rods have babbitted bearings and all overhaul kits I know only have insert bearings. Re-casting the rod bearings is somewhat cost prohibitive and I didn´t find a good source yet anyway. So, is it just that easy to just carve out the babbitted bearings and replace them with inserts?? What does it do to the stability of the rods? Kanter seems to just offer that. Anyone experience with that? 2. I realized that the camshaft journals (main bearings) are getting thicker, the closer it gets to the flywheel. Seems to make sense to me as at the flywheel there may be the strongest forces on bearings. .... or is it just lousy tolerances of the ancient manufacturing process? Should I mill down all journals to the same measure or would that kill the camshaft? I haven´t found a single table with standard measure for the main bearings. Does anyone have that information? Thanks as always for your valuable hints, Christian

Hi Paul and all, thanks for advice. The one thing that concerns me when still using the old ring gear is that 30% of it is missing. Now you can expect that a freshly rebuilt engine has a much better compression ratio again and thus might need quite a bit more force to be turned by the starter. How do you see the risk that the old gear´s teeth just break off, no matter which way they are mounted? Christian

Hi Paul and all, thanks for advice. The one thing that concerns me when still using the old ring gear is that 30% of it is missing. Now you can expect that a freshly rebuilt engine has a much better compression ratio again and thus might need quite a bit more force to be turned by the starter. How do you see the risk that the old gear´s teeth just break off, no matter which way they are mounted? Christian

Hi there, in the course of redoing the engine of my 37 Roadmaster, I found out the the sprocket (gear rim) on my flywheel is 30% worn off. I never had any issue that the starter didn´t catch or made funny noises. So, is there an easy and straight forward way to replace the gear rim? Who could supply an exchange rim? .... or should I just leave it, as this is no more daily driver (less than 1000 miles annually) and might possibly outlast my life anyway the way it is? Thanks again, Christian

Hi there, after a lot of good advice from here about overheating and other issues with my 37 Roadmaster, I finally decided to give her a complete engine overhaul. After taking the engine apart, it turned out to be the right decision for a lot of reasons. The oil pump was broken (despite delivering good pressure), all water channels were almost clogged, one piston had a crack and broken rings, and so on. My engine shop is able to handle all but one issue: I´d like to see if anyone has had a similar problem or knows how to handle it: Measuring the crankshaft, it turned out that the shaft diameters per cylinder (where the piston rod is sitting) vary a lot from each other. In addition, the piston rod bushings seem to be casted onto the piston rods. So they cannot just be exchanged with oversized ones and drilled to fit. Taking the rods to a shop who can cast new bearings on them is extremely expensive. So do you see any alternatives? How is that typically done? Thanks as always for your advice, Christian