joe_padavano

Once you register for the Wiki, you can click on edit and have at it. I've tried to fix some of those casting number issues.

GAOldsman

I couldn't get it to pull up any today.
Scott

MoGas

Wiki no workee. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Over?

MoGas

Still nothing?

MoGas

Can someone please fix the wiki site or explain what the deal is with it?

joe_padavano

The deal is that the wiki site is not affiliated with this site and unfortunately we don't control it.

oldsguybry

I was wondering how to get on the WIKI site , so I can look the info up myself , being I ask to many " im being lazy " questions. everytime I click the link the computer screen freezes and I have to end program.....but then again im at work , so maybe its restricted here or something for some reason , but i usually get a message telling me so.

Allan R

Sorry to say but you and the rest of us appear to be SOL. The link appears to be broken. Anyone been in touch with Kurt Shubes? He started this post way back. Maybe something he can direct our way?

oldsguybry

I was hoping I could find everything I was looking for on this site , this is why I was asking all the questions for the most part , cause I was not finding the info I was looking for.... I do have a Chiltons and FINALLY found a bunch of pages I printed from another WIKI site a couple of years ago.....I have a very bad memory apparently.

help442onguam

Hook it Up

ChefDeadpool

Somebody please fix the topic. It annoys me every time I scroll past it.

ChefDeadpool

Is this wiki site down now?

66ninetyeightls

Appears to be down.

wmachine

It is dead. Over. Done. Finished. Gone.

But the good news is there is a place now that eclipses the old Olds FAQs and the wiki successor. And it is bigger and better than they ever were.
It is Wild About Cars. More info is continually being added and before long everything that was on the FAQs will be on Wild About Cars in expanded, more comprehensive, and more accurate form.


Wild About Cars. http://wildaboutcars.com. An information supersource, especially Oldsmobile. More Olds content than anywhere else on the internet and continuing to grow.
You'll find Chassis Service Manuals, Product Information Manuals (AKA Assembly Manuals), Inspector's Manuals, and other documents that will contain this and much much more.
Dealer Brochures, magazine ads and articles, and a home page for you online. You can even have your very own club there and a personal forum.
Free to join, free to learn.

Allan R

Might be a good time to lock this thread so others don't try to post when the first 'stumble across it'. Change the thread title to 'Olds Wiki is dead' redirect to: Wild About Cars

ChefDeadpool

Sadly, on WOC, you can't write your own articles. I wanted to write something up to put on the FAQ about doing front drums after the experience I just went through, but forget it. On top of that, the site is confusing to navigate and duplicates a lot of things. (ANOTHER forum? ANOTHER picture page? No thanks.) I won't be returning to that site as a registered member.

66ninetyeightls

I would definately agree it is NOT a user friendly website to navigate. Usually the number one cause for website failure.

ChefDeadpool

Actually, let me rephrase what I just said. It's not confusing to navigate, it's nonsensical to navigate. Clicking on most things brings you to yet another page with a list of more pages. For example, clcking on "Home" in the heirarchy on top gives you some kind of page index instead of just taking you to the starting page. I'm sad that the FAQs so hurriedly got moved to such a broken site that was not yet ready for prime time.

jrzybob442

Re: Wild About Cars. When you have over 30 THOUSAND page images, you need to have some organization to it. Maybe you don't like the organization, but we had to come up with what made the most sense to the most people. Since the majority of the 1300+ people are comfortable with the navigation, we are happy that it's working out for most.

If you had a problem, understanding how it works, there is a help message line on your dashboard page and a help section, though we will admit that the help section could be better, but we figure content is the most important priority.

In both of your cases, have either of you been there recently? Now, when you arrive, up in the left hand corner is a logo for your brand. Click on the part of the site you want to go to as it relates to Oldsmobile and you are there. We are always improveing the site and welcome positive suggestions on what we could do better.

Second, the reason why not just anyone can make entries is to control quality. If you want to help load materials, or have material to contribute, merely contact Kurt Shubert oldsbrands@wildaboutcars.com and tell him what you have.

wmachine

I'm sorry you don't understand the structure. As Bob says, there is far to much content to make make it that simple. There are not "duplicates", as what you're referring to are *different* forums and *different* picture pages for specific areas of interest. I'm sorry you can't understand that.
We are always open to content like you suggest, all you have to do it offer it.
Most people are having no trouble getting around now that we've made some changes.

wmachine

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated......
You won't find a big library user friendly either. Website failure? I don't think you have any idea what is going on there. It's just too bad you don't appreciate it. There are more than enough that do.

mmurphy77

I have registered on WAC and LOVE the site and continue to use it frequently. I have not found it difficult to navigate or use at all. It DEFINATELY helps to identify your brand loyalty so the site can focus on stuff that pertains to you thus limiting a lot of non-related info. Kudos guys.

MDchanic

Although there are probably some changes I would make to simplify the hierarchy of Wild About Cars, such as removing the "nesting" of the Chassis Service Manual segments, and perhaps offering the manuals in much larger chunks (or whole) for download by those with faster connections, overall, I believe that the site makes sense.

Of course, even if it didn't make sense, it is such a mind-numbingly useful site (to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams) that I couldn't possibly have any complaints about it.

Thanks, Kurt and Bob, for all the work you did to get it where it is, and when I'm willing to do even a tenth of that work to help you THEN I'll start complaining about the parts I don't like.

- Eric

Allan R

X2. The first time you get on the site it is important to stop for a second and evaluate what you are looking at. One of the members here GAOldsman recommended the site to me many months ago. I went, joined up and had a few hiccups navigating at first. How did I solve the problem? Ask someone who uses the site. It's really not that hard. One thing I do like is that the WAC site offers anyone the opportunity to go beyond just the brand they are most loyal to. Even Olds guys look at Chevies, Mopars, Fords, Buicks, Pontiacs, + Imports! IMHO that shows the diversification that promotes the overall hobby to as many folks as possible. I also think it would be cool to have the site at a booth at Carlisle or other big events to promote it.

Having that much info available is worth the navigation. I don't agree that putting larger chunks of the manuals makes it easier. I've found that when I'm looking for something specific I want as little extra info to look through as possible. I do agree that the index that shows content might be an area for improvement. I love the pdf format. Only thing that would make it nicer is to have the pdf reader have tags for finding info faster in pics, but I don't know how you make that work

X2 While I know that having control of a website means limiting some input, I think it contibutes vastly to the organizational skills and content, as Kurt says. IMO, there are too many who find it easier to criticize than appreciate. But that's life. WAC is a valuable resource and I for one am darned glad it's there. It has allowed me to find info and share with others who are struggling to find resources on their projects. Keep up the great work, I know this site is still growing. For the short time it's been around I think you guys have done a fantastic job.

To all the others who read this, before you dismiss me as a suck up, you should take a tour of WAC, ask questions of Kurt and the group (as per jrzybob442) and/or consider offering your services to help support/grow the site. Nothing gets done without participation and teamwork.

MDchanic

Yes, BUT some of us would prefer to have the entire book on our own computer, and just look up what we want as needed. I have a few complete manuals on both my computer and the flash drive that I carry everywhere, so that I can look things up as questions occur to me, no matter where I am.
I haven't downloaded all of the Chassis Service Manuals, but I do plan to do so one day, and then I will probably use a full copy of Acrobat to reunite the sections and create indexed chapter divisions, which is a pain in the rear, which is why I wouldn't mind having complete copies available for download in a single bite.

Diff'rent stokes for diff'rent folks - we all use the information in the way that suits us best.

- Eric

jrzybob442

Eric, there are copyright issues - we carefully stay within the rules laid down by the copyright law and our agreements witn those that created these documents.

Please read http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-b...=9990340731914

The manuals are broken up so that someone can't easily copy it en masse in order to resell it. So for a little inconvenience, we all get access to the materials.

Those of us running the website are working to make sure that materials can be at your fingertips when you need it, otherwise you'd each have to pay for a copy - which are available on CD from various vendors for about $30 a piece.

We buy each copy you see on the site - we don't take it from anywhere else. We are acting as a professional research and library so as to be in compliance of the law.

So far we have paid over $800 for Olds chassis service manuals alone - with more coming. And it's free to you - because this isn't all about those of us running the website - it's all about doing it for all of you. You might want to take a look at: http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-b...=9990286468866 which explains why this website came to be and the legacy we are trying to protect.

MDchanic

Ahhhhh. I didn't realize.

I have no complaints, then.

Never mind.

- Eric

66ninetyeightls

There are many programs out there that will very quickly and easily combine multiple PDFs into a single PDF

jrzybob442

No kidding.

And, in fact the pages are combined. And in most cases were appropriate, "optimized". As such most of the downloads are about 30-50 pages and about 500-3000KB.

The issue is our aggreement with GM. Which I explained above to Eric.

Please, don't think we just crawled out from under the apple cart. We were building websites in the late 90s and are well aware of the tools available.

We have kept much of the site simple to use - however itis a very powerful and complex website - a page call can be many actions at one time. For example, when you state your brand, the site "knows" that and delivers content based upon that brand. You can go to the open areas and look up stuff in general context, but we found that the majoriy of people were brand oriented, so we made that change.

It is not just an Oldsmobile site - but it contains a huge amount of non-Olds material, which is growing every day. We are now loading Pontiac and Buick Service manuals as we speak.

66ninetyeightls

Notice how I quoted Eric? That would indicate that the reply was to him and nobody else. I was letting him know that if he wanted a single file he could download all the sections and combine them into a single file for his personal use.

MDchanic

Notice how I said I would use a full copy of Acrobat to reassemble them?

I've got that covered

But, sincerely, thank you for the advice - I am lucky enough to have a full copy of Adobe CS (okay an old full copy), but other folks might not realize that they can do this stuff with the right software .

- Eric

Allan R

Actually there are lots of freeware versions of pdf adobe available on the web. I used them quite a bit when I was building my 2009 Canadian Bonspiel. It's actually easy to use once you know what to look for and how to use it.

Craig, Eric - you guys play nice now or I'll have to build you separate sandboxes..

66ninetyeightls

You wanna go Allan??? Don't start!!! I'm not too afraid of the cold up there in Igloo country to come and throw a snowball!!!

Allan R

You're on buddy! I think you get more snow than I do though - the heavy wet stuff?? Buy you a beer next time you're out, ok?

66ninetyeightls

Sounds good. I may be up that way teaching at NAIT in December.

jasoneswan

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know I've got the wiki back up and running, unfortunately the users and changes since the first FAQ conversion were lost, and from what I remember there wasn't a crazy amount of revisions made - correct me if I'm wrong.

http://www.oldsmobilewiki.com

I PROMISE that the wiki will stay up for a very very long time now, I just bought a dedicated server, really beefy one. There will even be backups being made so I won't be able to lose the database again.

Looking forward to what the community can put together. Keep in mind not only can you edit existing articles but you can also ADD in articles. You can also add in pictures to compliment the articles, alot of the original FAQ relied on ASCII images to get the picture across.

If you're unfamiliar with how wikis work and how content is created and edited, and how to format certain things, read up here:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents

You can email me at jasoneswan@gmail.com if you got any questions

W30post

I see where to post this now.

Octania

Correct...
Thanks for the credit/ blame...

some of the errors arose from using cut.n.paste, then getting distracted and neglecting to change the pasted parts to correct info, then once set free on the internet it was not possible to correct it. Perhaps I can become an editor and even find time to help add/ correct info. Much of this info entering was done with windows 3? One step this side of DOS...

I noticed last week that 394 engine info is hard to find. For example, will my '60 394 heads work on a '61 394 [NO! Exhaust bolt pattern differs, as found via net search which led to photos of HEADER FLANGES at Headers by Ed site...]. Now we find that 394 heads are prone to cracking, but WHERE? Text description or photos would be nice.

Agreed that the drill spot to ID a 0.921 lifter block needs to be clarified. I was the 1st to spread the word on that tip, if not the 1st to notice it, when I observed that my brother's E block and all the 66-67 Toro blocks on hand had that feature.

I just had a call from a feller yesterday, owner of a '67 W30, he was not aware how rare that was or how tough to replace that stolen OAI air cleaner would be. Guided him to the purchase of a correctish E block motor to replace the G block currently in the car. How to ID '67 442 application stamp on the heads, etc.

speaking of which, let's start off the wiki with some definitions. "Left" and "Right" are the CAR'S.... not the observers'. The observer's L/R vary with his/her position and orientation. And a "STAMP" is typically [but not always] a recessed character created in a part such as a casting by striking a stamp with a hammer, or rolling dies perhaps. Examples: Engine Unit Number stamps on pre-68 heads, VIN stamps on '68-up engines and transes, or on frames, and carburetor application numbers. Some stamped ID marks are stamped from the backside using mirror image characters, and so have raised digits: early carb tags, VIN tags, perhaps posi ID tags. Typically raised or convex casting ID features such as the "C" on C heads shall not be referred to as "stampings" in the interest of clarity.

Among the issues we might address:
Is my 350-2bbl a "Rocket"? [Origin and definition; limitations if any (Corporate C type motors for example)]
Solid Main Web 403 - you knew that one was coming, right?
"supremes have offset engine, therefore headers won't fit" [bullshed]
Why then do 71? Big Cars have huge spacers between motor mount and block... on ONE SIDE? Harmonics damping?
How to spot a W31 balancer; various balancers used over the years, and interchangeability?
Lots more info on the pre-64 era engines- how to ID, what are the best heads/ block, Interchangeability... clues like the exhaust manifold bolt pattern that changed from '60 to '61-64.

Let's get together and make it better!
Big Kudos to Jason for making this happen!

by the way, '64? 394 heads have a large ID "23" and casting number 583832- or is it 588832?. My current samples have one "stamped" [correct use of the term] "J 311242" - now we need to decipher what that means. Presumably the 311242 is the engine serial number, and the J indicates the exact application- 2-bbl vs 4-bbl or whatnot.

IMG_6584.jpg

IMG_6585.jpg

IMG_6591.jpg

THIS is a "stamped" application mark:
IMG_6589.jpg

ThePackRat

I always considered the sides of an engine to be the same as the car itself ... that the engine is installed in.

LH = drivers side.
RH = passengers side.

While I am sure there are a few RH drive cars in existence .....

Stumbling across one in most day-day discussions, even with the long reaching arm of the internet ... is pretty nil I think.

Greeley

This is actually a great resource for this site, Not only can we put our editable FAQ on here but think about what else we could add. Anyone could list possible fixes or maybe suggestions on what to do and not to do for things that may or may not be problematic. It's kinda cryptic saying it like that but Wikis are fun resources that anyone can add to however it may need a verification tool for those dang teenagers who would put stupid stuff on it.