Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[BenelliSEI]

Still selling a friend’s collection of WW1 vehicles. This Model T Ford Ambulance is going out to Alberta next week. Had it running today.

[dave500]

wow what a gem!!

[Terry in Australia]

My maternal Grandfather was from Wales, and loved English cars. For some reason he bought a Model T Ford and hated it, so drove it to the local dump and watched it being bulldozed into the ground. It’s a pity he didn’t just park it in the back of his garage for when one of his grandkids (me) would have appreciated it!

It ran in the family though, he gave a 1918 Indian Power Plus To his nephew (my uncle) and when my uncle’s dad was building a new garage he dropped it into a hole in the dirt floor and concreted over it......

[spotty]

gotta say apart from the monetary value of the Indian, its no great loss to the world, side valve, tow cylinders short of a real bike and hard tail...three strikes and you're out

[Terry in Australia]

gotta say apart from the monetary value of the Indian, its no great loss to the world, side valve, tow cylinders short of a real bike and hard tail...three strikes and you're out

No, they were great bikes Spotty, a 1000cc V twin that would do an honest 60 MPH in 1918, they were arguably amongst the world's first superbikes. I had one in pieces that my cousin asked me to sell for him 20 years ago, sold it to a dude in Germany for $15K USD, but he b1tched because it had a bronze racing carb from the era instead of the original? Fcuking hell, I would have just been happy that there were enough bits to build a running bike out of............    

[bear]

gotta say apart from the monetary value of the Indian, its no great loss to the world, side valve, tow cylinders short of a real bike and hard tail...three strikes and you're out

Your a hard man Spot. Marking down a bike on 21st century values that was built in the early 20th century and considered " cutting edge at the time".

[spotty]

Yeah, I'm a cnut like that

Comes from hanging round with a bunch of mates who revere such things and having to keep them grounded in reality

Did I mention the injun would also lack any meaningful form of braking, little if any lighting and the dependability of a crackhead 10 minutes after he's scored

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I'm a cnut like that

Comes from hanging round with a bunch of mates who revere such things and having to keep them grounded in reality

Did I mention the injun would also lack any meaningful form of braking, little if any lighting and the dependability of a crackhead 10 minutes after he's scored

Yeah, I guess you're in a bit of a mood Spotty, because you're comparing 100 year old bikes to what you've grown up with. My paternal grandfather had a Power Plus when he returned from WW1 and I often wonder if the bike under the concrete is the same one, as they were expensive bikes back then, and not too many in my home town, but as far as brakes and reliability etc went, they were as good, or better, than anything else available at the times.

Compare your VMax or ZZR to a modern bike, and someone born in the 80's or 90's would ask why you were riding an old piece of sh1t like that around, when you could be riding a new Hondazuki XYZ with ABS, active suspension, 20 different ride modes, etc etc. Just because something is old, doesn't make it bad, or none of us would be riding CB750's...........

[spotty]

and exactly the same could be said of the vmax, but more so, sh1t brakes ans suspensioneven copared with its contemporaries and they kept it in production for nearly 30 years pretty much unchaged

but to face realities like that would be to take all the fun out of being locked up at home for weeks at a time with nothing to do but annoy the internet and drink

anyway back to the thread in question....today was take photos of mrs spottys S series valiant to send to a prospective new owner in qld, its got rust in all the usual places and rooted paint but mechanically its a good thing with a stinking hot motor and disc front end
shes asking $10K which seems fair for what is a fairly rare old thing these days

[Terry in Australia]

Yep those old S series Valiants were beautiful cars, a friend of my brother had a black one back in the 70's that we all called "The Batmobile". My Dad had the next model Val, an AP5 with push button auto, which I loved. I bought an AP6 Regal (column auto by then sadly) in mint condition for 50 bucks in 1977 or 78, and sold it for 100 a few months later, I'd love to have it now too. I just need a 5 acre garage with a bed and a dunny in one corner....  

[Don R]

 I took the powerglide trans. out of the Dragster and since I bought a book on repairing it I figured I'd give it a go. After not seeing anything obvious I made a call to my usual trans guy who finally answered the phone.  After giving him my test results his suggestion was correct, there was a piece of grit in the relief valve and it was lodged open.  I also found a roll pin backing out and trying to poke a hole in the metal plate in the middle of the valve body. I drove it back down and staked the hole ala' 750 bearing retainers. Then I used the anvil on my vise to peen the aluminum separator plate flat again.  I used the bike lift for a work table, bad idea as it keeps me hunched over and is killing my middle back. Anyway my new concern is that I rolled the seals behind the pump. I may pull it again and check it.

[CBJoe]

PCV valve gasket broke in half and fell into the valley of the Firebird.  So Steve-O gets what he wants and I’ll paint the intake

Got everything removed and was happy to see the gasket material did not fall into the important bits.   Got all the gasket surfaces cleaned up.  Cam and lifters/pushrods look good to my eyes.

Gonna pull valve covers and paint them along with the intake and valley pan.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Terry in Australia]

Gee it’s a long time since I’ve peered into the valley of a v8 engine Joe, last time was the 327 in my 1970 GMH Monaro back in 1987. I backtraded my 1985 Iron head Sportster on that car and still regret losing it, and the Monaro, and the 351 XY Falcon I traded the Monaro on.

Those cars are worth a fortune nowadays as most of them were wrapped around poles or rotted into the ground, but I did manage to buy another ironhead sporty last year, so not too unhappy.

[CBJoe]

this is a first for me......worked on a lot of old bikes...never worked on old cars till now.

[Terry in Australia]

this is a first for me......worked on a lot of old bikes...never worked on old cars till now.

I was laying under my son's Ford Explorer a few days ago with crap falling into my face thinking how much I enjoy working on bikes nowadays. I'm 60 now, so I try to do as much as I can sitting down at my bench, not laying on my back.

I'd love to do an engine/transmission swap into my Explorer as I have a worked 351 Cleveland sitting in a corner of my mother in law's garage, but the thought of crawling around underneath makes it easy to just forget about it..........

[bear]

I'd love to do an engine/transmission swap into my Explorer as I have a worked 351 Cleveland sitting in a corner of my mother in law's garage, but the thought of crawling around underneath makes it easy to just forget about it..........

A wise move Uncle Tez.
Swapping that Detroit Diesel into (what was) my trusty old Landcruiser ute turned into the stuff nightmares are made of.

[dave500]

well i had the exciting pleasure of replacing the worn old brake pedal rubber on the holden this arvo,i opted for the cheap 10 dollar one instead of the one with the stainless disc brake wording on it,back then i guess you had to warn people it had disc brakes when drums were still fitted to these old cars?

[Terry in Australia]

I think it was more advertising of this wonderful new technology Dave, which it really was. One of my first cars was a 1967 ex-NSW Police XR Falcon with drum brakes and no booster. I was driving back to Melbourne on the Monash Freeway in 1982 or '83 @ 60 MPH when some cars coming out of Waverly Park footy stadium cut across in front of me. I slammed on the anchors and veered onto the centre median, and pulled up 5 car lengths past the last car in the pack. The only skid mark was the one in my undies..........

[Stev-o]

well i had the exciting pleasure of replacing the worn old brake pedal rubber on the holden

Hey Dave...just heard Holden is no more?  What caused this?  Not the virus, I guess.

[Don R]

 I would like to believe I found and fixed the transmission problem in our dragster. I've had the valve body in and out enough times to get proficient at it. There was a roll pin that was too long. When the valve body was bolted into the trans case, it pushed the long end up into the aluminum divider plate between the valve body halves, originally causing an internal pressure leak.
 This time the issue was a metal burr in the pressure relief valve holding it open. No idea where it came from the pan was clean. I'm hoping the neighbors don't mind a launch in the street in front of the house, I'm not towing two hours to test it.

[seanbarney41]

Hell yeah Don!  Rail dragsters on the street!

[Don R]

Hell yeah Don!  Rail dragsters on the street!

 In 1989 we did a 300 foot pass down the street on New Years Eve at midnight. That car was a couple seconds slower though. It was still a hoot. We put it right back in the garage and went to a party across the street.

[seanbarney41]

Hell yeah Don!  Rail dragsters on the street!

 In 1989 we did a 300 foot pass down the street on New Years Eve at midnight. That car was a couple seconds slower though. It was still a hoot. We put it right back in the garage and went to a party across the street.

...so awesome.  I need neighbors like you.  Best I got was some maniac last night ripping a 2 stroke dirt bike down the road with absolutely NO muffler at all...so damn loud...Harley douches had nothing on this guys total anti-social ride.  Somewhere around in my old Hot Rod mag collection, I have a late 60's issue, that actually promotes "Dragsters for the Street" and has pics on the cover including typical looking 60's teen and his girl cruising in a stretched out T bucket built to look like a rail...hilarious.

[Terry in Australia]

well i had the exciting pleasure of replacing the worn old brake pedal rubber on the holden

Hey Dave...just heard Holden is no more?  What caused this?  Not the virus, I guess.

In Dave’s absence Steve, GMH (Holden) Ford and Toyota stopped building cars here in 2016-2018. The car industry was being propped up By the Australian tax payer to manufacture cars that nobody wanted to buy.

Ford and Holden continued to cosmetically update 20 year old gas guzzling large sedans, And Toyota continued to build bland character-less shopping trolleys designed for government use and the taxi industry, while the people wanted SUV’s and little econo-boxes.

I bought (well leased, initially, but I’ve just paid out the lease) the last of the Aussie built Ford Territory SUV’s, which was Ford’s best seller here, but didn’t sell in large enough numbers to keep manufacturing in Oz. Once the Australian government told GM, Ford and Toyota that they wouldn’t be giving Detroit and Tokyo half a billion dollars annually to keep their factories open, they closed them and put hundreds of workers out of a job.

I’d love to see car manufacturing return to Oz eventually, but not like it was before, where GM and Ford particularly were siphoning the government welfare money to prop up their operations in the US, while building poor quality cars here. I love my Ford Territory, and being a v6 diesel will probably outlive me.

[dave500]

thats about it,no more holdens,i never liked any without chrome bumpers anyway so no real loss,except for all the poor workers,who were getting paid way too much.