'55 Buick Special Starter

[James62]

When I was a kid, we had a '55 Buick Special with standard transmission. I remember that to start it, you had to hold the clutch down and apply the brake while pushing the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. I'm trying to find out how this system worked such that if you were driving and pushed the accelerator all the way down, it didn't hit the starter again.

[Bill Stoneberg]

Once you had vacuume from the engine, it would not let the switch close that engaged the starter. So even if you pushed the gas pedal all the way down, it would not start the car.

[James62]

Bill ?

Thanks for your answer to my question about the starter. I have

another one-was there a button, similar to the high/low beam button under

the accelerator pedal, or did we just push the pedal all the way down to

engage the starter?

My family bought our ?55 new when I was 5 years old. Our next new

car was in ?65 when Dad bought a Chrysler Newport. The Buick became my

primary car about that time, when I got my driver license. I?ve got a

lot of very fond memories of driving the car, but my memories of the

mechanics are faded.

By the way, I noticed that you are in Houston. I was raised in

Houston, then moved out to Deer Park when I was twelve (my mom and sister

are still there). I moved to Denton in ?68 to go to college. You speak

of taking the ?50 to show in Plano. My wife grew up in Plano. We now

reside in Grand Junction, Colorado.

I am working at a little resort in Gateway, Colorado. The owner of

the resort is John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery channels. He is

a true motorhead and has constructed a beautiful museum at the resort

to display some of his collection of American automobiles, dating from a

1906 Caddy to a 2006 Foose Mustang. Included in the museum are a ?51

Roadmaster, and a ?54 Skylark. Both are beautiful specimens, as are all

of the cars. Mr. Hendricks is also the owner of the ?54 Olds 88

concept car. The museum website is: www.gatewayautomuseum.com.

Russell Lewis

[JohnD1956]

The switch is on the passengers side of the carburator. Like Bill said the vacuum would stop the switch from engaging. This was because the switch contained a ball bearing and when vacuum was present the ball bearing would be sucked into a neutral passage in side the switch. Ingenious huh?

But that's not all. This part I still don't understand completely but in elementary terminology, when the starter was drawing amperage to operate, the energy in the cars electrical system flowed one way. When the generator began to produce electricity, there was a relay that switched the energy flow a different way and that prevented the starter from engaging. This was a fail safe system just in case.

It still works very well on my 56 and countless others here.

JD

[Guest ZondaC12]

never have i heard an awful grinding noise from the starter/ring gear when i hit the gas for more power. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Guest imported_JPIndusi]

The Buick starting system had two methods to prevent the operation

of the starter after the engine started. The first method is

described above; the engine vacuum would lift the ball in the

carburetor stater switch and prevent the switch contacts from engaging

in any postion of the throttle.

The second method was to power a relay from the wire coming out

of the carburetor switch. The relay coil would need to be grounded

to close the relay contacts which then operated the main starter relay.

The ground connnection for the relay coil was obtained from the armature

terminal of the generator because when the generator armature is not

spinning the armature terminal is at ground potential (-6 volts). Once the engine

starts, the armature terminal is no longer at ground potential since there

is now a voltage generated and the armature is at +6 or 7 volts. The relay

coil is no longer grounded so the contacts to the main starter relay open.

This prevents the starter from operating.

Joe, BCA 33493

[Aaron65]

The only time mine has ever made a grinding noise is when it starts then quits and my foot is still on the gas...oops!