Roger Barrett

H.H., glad it all worked out for you and you could use the cover. We all got an education. I should have researched this a little more beforehand. Now I'll know more next time. It's cooling off up here and raining. California is on fire and we need it. Is it warming up down there? Bet you are looking forward to touring season. Roger BCA #99 and Erik

Do you still need a water pump end cover? I have a bunch of these pumps from 1926-28. I believe the Standard and Master pumps are the same but let me know what you have, most of my stuff is Standard 6. I will send you a cover for nothing but shipping costs. Always happy to help Buick guys with parts that are overloading the shelves in my storage rooms. Regards, Roger BCA #99

Your water pump shaft is probably rusted and grooved where the packing contacts it. New packings will not last if that is the case. A new pump shaft is called for. I like to make them from stainless steel. A permanent repair.

Dave, sounds good to me, that will make less work for you. Lots of guys have good things to say about Lloyd so made the right choice and I think you will like the difference. Your Buick will be a bunch happier on the freeway.

We have put overdrives in three prewar Buicks and are happy with all of them. We don't usually go much faster than we did before but engine speed is lower at the same speed. That being said, our 27 sport roadster has been over 75 mph. We like having an intermediate gear between second and high, using second and overdrive. This may not be an issue with Buick 8's. One thing to pay attention to is something called gear setup. It means the relationship between the ring and pinion gears and both are adjustable either direction. It is imperative that when you go back together this relationship is unchanged or you will have noise or broken parts. What we do is measure and record the position of the gears, depth of pinion out of case, backlash, and the like, before we take them out. Then put everything back in the same place when to OD job is done. If your vendor does the gear removal and replacement you don't need to worry. Also, we have our vendor put a seal both in front and behind the OD. You will really like the difference OD makes in drivability on modern roads.

These cars are prone to shorting the spark plugs on the cover, especially if you have longer plugs than the originals. Have you changed anything on the engine since the last time it ran? If so, that's where to look first. Hold your hand over the carb intake with the choke open and have a helper crank the engine. Suction should be pretty strong. If not, with decent compression numbers, I would be looking for a big vacuum leak. Look at the butterfly valves in the Marvel heat system to be sure you don't have both of them blocked, which will effectively strangle the engine. No air out, no air in. Just some thoughts. Good luck.

Alignment of the rods means that the wrist pin hole in the small end of the rod is exactly parallel to the big end journal bore. If it is not, the rod bearing, wrist pin, and piston fit in the bore will all be subjected to undue stress. I use a Sunnen rod alignment tool to check them. If they need adjustment, the large end is placed in a soft jaw vise and appropriate tweaking is made to the small end. Then it is rechecked. Sounds crude, but that's how it is done even on the newest engines. When your engine is assembled, the small end of the rod should not be in contact with the wrist pin boss of the piston, you should see the wrist pin on both sides between the rod end and piston. The rod journal on the crankshaft should be less than .001" out of round. If it is not, the shaft was not reground or it has suffered wear beyond what is acceptable. Torque specs are not available for many older engines, but a 3/8" rod bolt should have 30 ft lbs and then tighten to the next available cotter pin slot. If the mains are 1/2" bolts, they should be 75 ft lbs or better before lining up the cotter pin hole. Many aspects of babbit work are more art than science. Things do go wrong, work with your babbit vendor and get it straightened out. Please let us know what you find. Regards, Erik & Roger, Rumble Seat Garage

We have built a couple of these engines, and there are a number of ways to really screw them up. The rods are offset, as the cylinder bores are spaced differently than the rod journals. If the rods are not correctly installed, there will be trouble. There is a hole drilled in the rod and bearing that directs a jet of oil up at the cylinder wall when it lines up at the proper moment with the hole in the crankshaft. If this hole has not been redrilled by whoever did the bearings, the cylinders and also the camshaft and starve for oil. Check your rods to make sure the hole is there. Also, a bent or twisted rod can place severe stress on the bearing. Rods must be aligned after they are bored. Run a plastigage check on another bearing, about .002" is good, and see what the bearing looks like. Bright spots on the sides of the bearing indicate alignment problems. Look at your failed bearing and see if large chunks of babbit are falling off of the bronze shell. This would indicate poor bonding of the bearing to the shell. I hope you can avoid that, as it means bad news for the rest of your bearings. Since your oil pressure is good, there must be some other problem. Good luck and let us know what you find. Regards, Roger & Erik

Leif, thanks for the link, that is the information I needed. regards, Roger. BCA#99

Gentleman called us for help with what he said is a 25 Master. Turns out that's what the title says, but it has seperate starter and generator, so I think 26 year model. He says his engine number is 2221013. He needs engine parts and has found another with the number 2412319. I think they would both be 26 or 27, so the parts he needs would be the same. (Valve train stuff) can the numbers guys shed some light on this? Thanks for helping. Regards, Roger Barrett BCA #99

Terry may be your best bet here. My float arm measures 1.875" long. May be the same part, but Terry has earlier parts than I have and more likely the correct ones. Looks like you will get what you need. regards, Roger

Here is a picture of one of our spare floats. Roger Barrett

We have a bunch of Marvel stuff here, mostly 26-28 Standard. Can you give us measurements of the float arm? Length, distance between pin and either end of the arm, and pin diameter? We can probably help you. Repairing the original float arm can be done but would likely result in additional weight. Send an email for more info. Roger Barrett, BCA #99 bcanumber99@yahoo.com

Tom, If you come up empty, could you send me pics of your riser? We have repaired a number of these in bad shape. We use a powder spray torch to replace what is lost due to breakage or corrosion. I can spray a whole new section of a casting that is broken away, then remachine the part back to original specs. The tooling and the powder is expensive, so I only use it on rare parts. It has paid for itself every time I use it. I don't like to think of us here at Rumble Seat Garage as a last resort, but sometimes that's what it comes to. Let us know if we can help. Regards Erik

While you have the pan down, take the time to carefully inspect the oil plumbing manifold. They are prone to cracking at the soldered joints. Problems here will result in low oil pressure. Also, a new screen on the oil pickup is a good idea. Roger & Erik

I have not seen the car, all I know is it is a 50 series machine. The job was referred to me by Bob's Automobilia. The car is in Vallejo, Ca. I will get more info and pics if I can. Regards, Erik

Larry, understood that fuel pressure is not set by the float, but fuel level in the bowl is affected by fuel pressure. So I am using an electric pump with adjustable regulator and pressure gauge on my test bench to adjust the float. For many years I had a 17 D34. That car was real performer, would run away from the model T's and Dodges of the period. Marty, that's a fine looking machine. I don't know what model this carb is going on, but I think all the 34/35 Buicks are beautiful cars. Wise to have an electric pump for the reasons you stated. All of mine do. Regardss, Erik

Thanks, guys. I will set the float level at 4 psi. My research indicated the same. This carb has been a project. I had to spray weld a new ear on the air valve housing that was broken off and also replace the tubes in the heat riser housing. Thanks to Bob's Automobilia for making the kit available with tne Nitrophyl float. Erik and Roger

We are building a Marvel carb for a 35 series 50. Last of the marvel carbs, the acme of their development. Even has port for vacuum advance. That being said, it is the same technology Buick used for maybe 20 years prior. To set the float level, I need to know the fuel pressure the mechanical fuel pump supplies. On earlier carbs I use a gravity flow setup to supply the carb and tweak the float to put the fuel level just below the end of the high speed nozzle. On this one, I need to have the correct pressure supplied. I am guessing between 3-7 PSI. I have the shop manual and it shows every specification but that one. Any ideas? Regards, Erik and Roger, Rumble Seat Garage.

David, Originally the shaft would have been a nice even number like 1.75", 2" 2.125", or the like. So for instance if the journal measures 1.998", you may assume the standard was 2" and it has worn a bit. If it is 1.980", it has been ground .020" undersized. The size doesn't really matter because the machinist can bore the bearings to any size you need. What is more important is that the journal be reasonably round. These bearings are quite forgiving of less than perfect conditions but more than .001-.002" out of round will reduce the life expectancy of the bearing. Ron's machine shop in Shandon Ohio does nice work and may be cheaper than what I quoted. We can also handle it here at Rumble Seat Garage. There are also several vendors who advertise in Hemmings Motor News. Herm Kohnke, not sure of the spelling on that one, does some of the finest work I have seen. You have options. regards, Roger and Erik

There are guys who can handle this. I do it here in California, there are others much closer to you. We did a set for a 1914 Buick truck a few years back. You should check the rest of the rods for impending failure. All your Babbitt guy needs is the rods and an accurate measurement of the journal diameter and width. Expect to pay about $300 for the first one and $150 each after that. Email or call me if you want to know more. Roger Barrett, BCA #99. 530 863 seven five seven nine

The 26 and 27 are the same, pot metal case and carbon brush type rotor. 28 is all different with cast iron case, more modern style points and air gap rotor. I think the same unit was used in 29. At some time they went to dual points around then. For 26/27 I have caps and rotors and I think I can assemble a complete serviceable unit. 28 I am out of. I will seewhat's we can do, stay tuned for details. regards, Roger and Erik

We got the car disgorged today. Sure enough, most of the missing stuff was in there, including the landau irons from behind the rear window. Most of the engine parts were in the rear seat area. Found the headlight bar but not the lights themselves. Too bad, because they had the rare nickel trim bands. Also the dash clock is missing. The odometer shows just over 11000 miles. AzBob, the heat riser was there and not cracked. Will need some TLC. We will have to carefully remove it from the manifold and the throttle shaft is locked up. Wheel hardware we can also help with. H.H. from Melbourne, we have a couple of distributors. One came with the recent arrival, looks like it will work. I have another that we took off a running 1926 sedan we converted to a 1928 distributor. The problem is it is seized in the generator rear casting. This is not unusual. I may cut the iron casting away from the distrib to save it. We have converted a lot of these cars to the 1928 distributor because they are made of iron so are not prone to the problems the pot metal ones have. Also, the points, rotors, caps, and parts are easy to get and cheap. These distributors come up for sale on eBay and swap meets. If you want the correct pot metal 1927 unit I think we can help. Anyone interested email me at bcanumber99@yahoo.com or call me at 530 863 seven five seven nine. Roger & Erik

What kind of parts do you need? We have quite a bit of stuff besides the recent arrival. Roger

We will get some pics after we get it after out all of the parts stuffed inside and seewhat's there. roger