Machine Gun

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

It's too bad there's no video to indicate whether the train is traveling with or against gravity.

Wow, after that introduction to non-greaseable U-joints how do you expect me to answer your question without feeling shame and humiliation over installing non-greaseable ones? 😅 Seriously, I bought non-greaseable joints that I will install within the next few days. Why, when greaseable ones are readily available? First, convenience. Second, unless there's a factory defect in the new ones the only thing I expect to be driving when the new ones fail is a caravan of worms.

Three people deserve jail time for that musical abuse: the "musician," the person who recorded the crime, and the person who thought it was a good idea to post it on YouTube. @EmTee as for posting it here, I grant you immunity as the whistleblower.

My Skylark has only one key. GM was inconsistent in how it keyed its vehicles regarding one or two keys. For example, my A-body Skylark has only one key, yet my mother's '66 A-body Chevelle had two keys as did all of my family's other GM vehicles ('55 Olds 88, '62 Olds 88, '69 and '73 LeSabres, and '78 Regal). My Skylark is the only GM vehicle I've ever personally seen that used only one key.

None at all. I was very careful to check for play in the bearings at both ends of the driveshaft, and fortunately there was none. No hint of leaks, either. From the looks of things, the lube left town a very long time ago. Per the factory service manual Buick installed non-greaseable U-joints, so whatever was put in there when the joints were made was all the lube they would ever see.

On the way to Buick Gardens on Friday morning the car began a subtle vibration. It felt like a failing U-joint. The vibration began to intensify pretty quickly to the extent that Ruthann and I decided to head directly home on Saturday instead of continuing our trip to Warm Springs, Griffin, and Savannah before heading home the following Thursday. Our decision to go straight home shaved 550 miles off the trip. Good thing, we'd never have made it home had we continued on. Things got really sketchy halfway through Pennsylvania and I wasn't sure we'd make it all the way home. All I wanted at that point was to get at least 100 miles from home so we could get a free AAA tow. Miraculously the Buick got us home under its own power. I dropped the driveshaft this afternoon and found the front U-joint all but destroyed.

@MrEarl Our heartfelt thanks to you and Rita for generously opening up your place to host this wonderful event. Thanks also to those who took photos, and took the time to post them. I hope all of you enjoyed safe and trouble-free rides to your destinations. Looking forward to meeting up with you again at future events. Ruthann and I got home this afternoon, having cut our planned trip short by four days and many hundreds of miles. Persistent carburetor problems and an ever-increasing driveline vibration that acts like a failing U-joint made us think better of doing anything but making a bee line for home. Not to be deterred, we're driving back down to the Carolinas in Ruthann's car tomorrow to visit the friends and family we planned to see.

Unfortunately I can't make it down there in time for the preview and auction. I'll bet I'd have a great time wading through all that stuff during the preview, and possibly taking home some stuff I wouldn't have known I needed until I saw it.

Safe travels, guys. My wife and are leaving early tomorrow morning for the Charlotte area, then on to Buick Gardens on Friday. See ya!

I hope no one sees me doing "Self Service" .

Not knowing just what your ticking noise sounds like, I'll relate a similar experience I had shortly after buying my Skylark. I would hear a slight tick coming from the right front wheel. It drove me nuts for a couple of days until I figured it out by chance. It was my wheel cover. It ticked only when there was full weight on the wheel, like when driving down the road. No hint of anything when the car was up in the air. If you can't replicate the noise with the car in the air and there's no other obvious cause for the noise, pop the wheel covers off just for yuks and see if that's your issue. A long shot, admittedly.

While clearly not the case here, I see no reason one couldn't have a concours on a concourse.

Thank you!!! I no longer have any anxiety about my visit and having to lift that thing again.

Wow, those standards are a cramp. Not so much for what they are, but for how far back vehicles have to comply. I have it pretty easy here in NJ, where no such standards exist for vehicles manufactured prior to certain features being mandated for new vehicles. In other words, if a vehicle complies with the standards in effect in the year of manufacturer it's good to go. It's a moot point for passenger cars manufacturer prior to 1995, in which case motor vehicle inspections are no longer required in NJ regardless of whether the car is registered as an historic vehicle or is used as a daily driver.

The wider tires like nice on your car. The RTV bead was offered as a possible solution to my projectile wheel covers a few months back when I was whining about the problem. I decided right off that I wasn't going to do that. I don't doubt its effectiveness, but it's not the sort of "solution" I'd implement.

@NTX5467 The distortion is completely independent of the door glass. It's a reproduction mirror with flat glass that's just junk. @Loren@65GS.com Thanx for saving me research time. I ordered the Burco glass yesterday from Rock Auto at around $12. I thought that was a better deal than the guy on eBay who has one listed for $73. I can still do math!

@60FlatTop I'm not so concerned with temperature that I'd emulate any technique employed by the Prince of Darkness 😛. Capacitor temperature ratings up to 105 degrees C are standard. Higher ratings are available on special order, but if the environment the ignition capacitor finds itself in gets that high there are probably bigger problems I would have to worry about. @old-tank Thanx for the tip on mounting the capacitor externally. I will do that for testing purposes. I like to think that I'd have come up with idea on my own but I wouldn't bet on it. As for re-stuffing a can, I will probably to that despite it being an unnecessary effort. On rare occasion I will re-stuff old radio capacitor cans during restorations. Whether I eventually do that here depends on the physical size of the replacement. @Daves1940Buick56S I have capacitors on hand that are rated at 400V. If tests are successful I will order and install one rated at 600V. I have several 600V caps on hand, but not with the proper capacitance value.

@EmTee Based on my limited research it seems that ignition capacitors have a value around 0.22uF. That's a common value in electronics, and I have a bunch of them in my parts store. Experimenting with ignition caps is another Winter project I have in mind. I would replace the innards of the can with a proper high-temperature, high voltage cap and see how it performs and holds up.

@EmTee Very interesting about your door glass! Fortunately that's not the issue in my case, as replacing the mirror glass should be a simple task. NOTE: I'm generally cautious when using the word "should" because things that should be are often not. If I can find the right size mirror glass I'll replace it before my trip to Buick Gardens.

I decided to convert my Skylark to electronic ignition...just as soon as new points become unavailable.

I wasn't aware that Buick's remote mirrors are swappable side-to-side. My car didn't have a passenger side mirror so I bought a non-remote version from a well-known vendor. It's a POS (POC for those who are slightly more refined than I). The glass is so distorted as to be completely unusable. I wish I had checked it when it arrived, but I let it go far too long and now I'm stuck with it. My bad on top of their bad.

@tdutch Never mind. I did a look just now and Buick/Delco/United Motors auto radios were no longer included in Rider manuals that late. Rider stopped publishing those manuals in 1954, with the final volume covering 1953 radios. When I have more time I will see if any of my other literature shows similar AM car radios so that you might have a starting point regarding what value capacitor to start with.

@EmTee I like the way you think!