[mechanickeith]

Close enough azkeebler!! Also the just completed long trip may have given it enough run time for the rings to clear/clean out causing a drop in blow by.

[hootsk]

Thanks Keith and Scott. The motor seems to improve dramatically with every flush and gasket swap, so I'm going to keep doing them at short intervals. There must still be plenty of crap in there, because the oil pressure relief valve sticks with it every time I flush the block and I have to manually clean it out. Next up will be the carb refresh and choke heat riser tube replacement.

There's a couple of new sounds coming from the back of the car -- one, a high-pitched squeak, the other, a big, heavy rattling sound that sounds like rocks rolling around in a drum. Both very loud, like they're outboard. Neither one seems to affect performance of the engine, transmission or brakes.

I'm think I might pull the rear drums and see if I can see anything obvious. My guess is some kind of a large bearing gone dry?

Keepin' on keeping on.

Chuck

[mechanickeith]

Sounds like you may have a rear wheel bearing going out. Go down a road that has lots of side streets. Stay in the right lane & as you pass the side streets the rear suspension will cause the car body to swoop up & down. As the body goes up & down, if it a bad wheel bearing, the tone/sound will change as you are rolling down the road!!!

Keith

[hootsk]

You got it. It's not totally consistent with the road, but that's only a matter of time, right?

So I assume there's a bearing in the transaxle inside each yoke, but that's not the one you mean. You mean the bearing on the outboard side of the swing axle that's held by the rear suspension?

Anyone have a part # or source for the rear wheel bearings?

Chuck

[TempestFugit]

Uh oh, brace yourself...

As far as the 'high pitched squeak', that might be a swing arm bushing deteriorating and allowing metal to metal contact. see the recent discussion on "Rear Suspension Bushings".

wheel bearings might not be so simple.

[mechanickeith]

Chuck, The 62's have a dust shield on the axle side of the bearing. When the bearing wears enough, the dust shield rubs & makes the squeaking noise. The bearing rumble does change with suspension movement. The factory rear wheel bearing number is 7451154, also used is a Hyatt number AD-11034-Z18. Call South Shore Bearing, (617) 471-7800, Be prepaired to give up your first born son for a wheel bearing. (if they have one) Do a search on this forum for rear wheel bearing. If you mount up a NOS bearing straight out of the box, it will not last long. The factory grease dry's out & needs to be repacked. I have posted several times what needs to be done before running a new bearing. I do have the correct bearing press fixtures & can do the work if you cant find someone closer. Let me know.

Keith

[hootsk]

Keith, where did you find that Hyatt product?

[mechanickeith]

Chuck, The last 2 rear wheel bearings I got were from south shore. If you have a brand new, old stock bearing, in the GM Delco can with the 7451145 number on it, you take it out of the can & on the bearing it will say Hyatt AD-11034-Z18.

Keith

[John in Minnesota]

I got mine from, Then and Now Automotive. www.then-now.com. 1 781 335 8860. They are Bower, Part # AD-11034Z-18. Look new, rubber seals fresh, spendie. John

[hootsk]

Saturday morning I got a call from Mark LaGrou, the 215 rebuilding guru, and he asked me if I'd take the dipstick out of a Buick Special engine and compare it to one of the Tempest 215 dipsticks. I was like, aren't they the same?

They're not! The Buick 215 dipstick is 14" from flange to tip, but the Pontiac one is just 13.5".

Warning to me and Jay and possibly the one other guy on here who's doing the little aluminum V8 conversion The distance from the tip to the low oil mark is 2" and the distance between the high and low marks are 4" on both versions. But the Pontiac flange is 1/2" closer to the high mark than the Buick. So if you've changed the pan to the Pontiac type, you need to chop 1/2" out of the center of a Buick dipstick to get the correct oil level reading in the Pontiac. If you use the Buick one, you'll be about 1/2 quart low.

Add that to the growing list of Pontiac-only 215 parts!

Chuck

PS The one from the Kansas car was so wildly wrong, it's from a Chevy or something. Not even close. I was way overfilling that crankcase.

[jusjay]

Thanks Chuck, I would have never check for that!!!

[hootsk]

Jay, check your dipstick, if there was one with that 162P block it's possible you have the correct one. I just can't remember if there was one in that crate.

Otherwise we may be asking Mark L if he can make us up a few. I know I need at least two of them!

[jusjay]

I'll check tonight when I get home. Don't remember seeing a dipstick, but could have been there!

[hootsk]

Add yet one more difference between the 4 cyl and 215 Tempests to the list: the position of the engine mounts. They're about six inches total narrower on the 215 cars than the 4 cyl.

So if you're doing a 215 conversion with a 4 cyl car, you'll have to cut the mounts off the crossmember and move them each in toward the middle about 3". The little aluminum Buick V8 is narrower than the big iron Pontiac 389 the 4 cyl is made from.

I can post the exact measurement after I figure it if anyone needs it.

Chuck

[importsmasher]

Whoever converted my Tempest in the 60s used the 4 cylinder mounts and made a plate that goes from the mount to the frame brackets. The 4 cylinder mounts are bolted to the 215 and the plate bolts onto the mount and then to the frame to make up the difference in width. I don't know if they ever drove the car with this setup (they parked the car in 1970), but I have used it as a daily driver for 12 years.
Importsmasher

[hootsk]

That seems like a clever way to do it if you didn't want to mess with cutting and rewelding the mounts. I'm not surprised you've never had an issue with them being a little more outboard than stock. If they're running right, the 215 and its Buick nailhead cousins are very steady motors. I drove a Special around for a good year and change before I realized the rubber on both mounts had disintegrated and it was basically free to jump and twist as it wished. But you couldn't tell at all from inside the car.

Chuck

[hootsk]

Some more detail on the mounts ... they are not the same as the 4 cyl mounts as I thought. Completely different. So different mounts, in a different position, taller and with some kind of shim on top -- I threw in the towel and hired a fabricator. He thinks he can copy the ones on the original car and get the reproductions onto the crossmember for about $200.

Chuck

[jusjay]

Make 2, Chuck! Pleaseeeee

[hootsk]

Might be tough without the car because they're custom pieces and custom welds right on the crossmember. I'll PM you his number and you can talk to him. His name is Morgan Goldberg.