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

[BenelliSEI]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish.

I'd say all in all a good weekend at the track  [I miss my weekends at the track]

BTW - The "King Ranch" Ford truck edition is named after the King Ranch in South Texas, one of the largest ranches in the world at 825,000 acres.

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish. A few of my laps on Saturday morning were the quickest we’ve ever been at Mosport, in the LEXUS, so all good. Upright, ball joint and tie rod end will all get replaced, for sure! We have a nice, long break to the next event, so the car may just sit for a few days…….

Tintop - great video! Thx for sharing

Thanks Stev-o it was a lot of fun racing the sidecar.  Something I never thought I'd do.  I wonder how many other people can say they raced both cars (70 Lotus Mk2 Cortina) & a sidecar at Mosport.

Me! I started on a motorcycle at a BEMC event when I was actually “under age” (borrowed someone else’s drivers lic). My parents found out and that was the end of that! 32 different race cars over the past 55 seasons……

[Tintop]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish.

I'd say all in all a good weekend at the track  [I miss my weekends at the track]

BTW - The "King Ranch" Ford truck edition is named after the King Ranch in South Texas, one of the largest ranches in the world at 825,000 acres.

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish. A few of my laps on Saturday morning were the quickest we’ve ever been at Mosport, in the LEXUS, so all good. Upright, ball joint and tie rod end will all get replaced, for sure! We have a nice, long break to the next event, so the car may just sit for a few days…….

Tintop - great video! Thx for sharing

Thanks Stev-o it was a lot of fun racing the sidecar.  Something I never thought I'd do.  I wonder how many other people can say they raced both cars (70 Lotus Mk2 Cortina) & a sidecar at Mosport.

Me! I started on a motorcycle at a BEMC event when I was actually “under age” (borrowed someone else’s drivers lic). My parents found out and that was the end of that! 32 different race cars over the past 55 seasons……

Wow! that's a lot of cars, and the 11 must have been special.  The one a I got the do a vey short test in was the twitchy-ist thing I ever sat in.  My parents stopped my brother and I racing a B Class Hydro after 2 events when our 'mentor' was killed in a crash.  The list also includes Solo 2 (MGB & Civic), Solo ! (Lotus 7), Karts, single engine Champion 1 year against Paul Tracy (missed Dual's by 1 point same year).  Basically I just loved the competition, and trying different ways to do it.

[BenelliSEI]

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish.

I'd say all in all a good weekend at the track  [I miss my weekends at the track]

BTW - The "King Ranch" Ford truck edition is named after the King Ranch in South Texas, one of the largest ranches in the world at 825,000 acres.

Thanks All! We had a great time despite the early finish. A few of my laps on Saturday morning were the quickest we’ve ever been at Mosport, in the LEXUS, so all good. Upright, ball joint and tie rod end will all get replaced, for sure! We have a nice, long break to the next event, so the car may just sit for a few days…….

Tintop - great video! Thx for sharing

Thanks Stev-o it was a lot of fun racing the sidecar.  Something I never thought I'd do.  I wonder how many other people can say they raced both cars (70 Lotus Mk2 Cortina) & a sidecar at Mosport.

Me! I started on a motorcycle at a BEMC event when I was actually “under age” (borrowed someone else’s drivers lic). My parents found out and that was the end of that! 32 different race cars over the past 55 seasons……

Wow! that's a lot of cars, and the 11 must have been special.  The one a I got the do a vey short test in was the twitchy-ist thing I ever sat in.  My parents stopped my brother and I racing a B Class Hydro after 2 events when our 'mentor' was killed in a crash.  The list also includes Solo 2 (MGB & Civic), Solo ! (Lotus 7), Karts, single engine Champion 1 year against Paul Tracy (missed Dual's by 1 point same year).  Basically I just loved the competition, and trying different ways to do it.

+1 to that! “Everything else is just waiting around”.

[BallAquatics]

Diff cover on my 25 year old S10 rusted through.  Easy enough job, should take an afternoon.  Changing the cover was a piece of cake even though the bolts were rusted to the point that they had heads that were almost 2 sizes smaller than original.

Problem started when it was time to add new grease.  Plug probably hadn't been out since installed at the factory.  No amount of PB Blaster, heat, or impact would get it out.  Last resort was an 18 inch breaker bar and a floor jack.

Finally removed the new cover and drilled and tapped a hole for a 1/2" - 20 plug.  From the photo, looks like it needs to be snugged up just a smige.....

This is my Dad's old truck.  It sat in the garage every winter while they were in Florida.  He'd get it out to go get a hair cut once a month in the summer time.  It's rusted badly underneath even after living most of it's life in the garage.

[RAFster122s]

Garages allow vehicles to rust far more than people realize, the salt from driving around on the roadways in winter work on the underbody and everywhere it has wicked it's way into. The garage being warmer than freezing allows the salts to work and any dirt collects moisture and retains it. It is better for the car to sit outside in freezing weather so the salt doesn't work on the vehicles metal. Dirt and moisture and heat are the ideal breeding grounds for rust...

[Terry in Australia]

So last week at 0515 I threw the drive belt on my Ford truck. I waited 2 days for a mobile mechanic to come and fix it, and so by day 3 I told him to skip it, and went to the auto parts store and bought a new one. I installed it and found that the belt was somehow misaligned and was rubbing against the belt tensioner assembly.

Turns out my harmonic balancer had crapped out and the outer pulley had come unattached to the inner pulley because the rubber moulding between each piece had gone brittle and cracked. The outer pulley was moving backwards and forwards, causing the belt misalignment and was already chewing my new $50 (AUD, around $35 USD) serpentine belt. Poop.

I rang the parts store to see if they had a new Harmonic Balancer assembly and they did ($275) and reminded me that I'd need the special puller that would allow me to remove the assembly without removing the radiator. ($275 also) I bought a new front main seal, and a couple of optional tools to remove the seal, and some degreaser and a brush.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd taken Tuesday off to do the fix, and was 'rapt that the new puller was dead easy to use, after first removing the 22mm (7/8") crankshaft bolt. It was obvious that it had been off before and someone had attempted to stem the oil leak by splotching some sealant on the back of the washer. It didn't work, there was a decent leak regardless.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Still, the bolt came out easily by attaching my long breaker bar and resting the handle on the inner frame rail, and quickly cranking the engine for a couple of turns.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The remover was apparently designed by Ford to make it possible to remove the Harmonic Balancer without removing the rad. Came off easy.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The old harmonic balancer looks pretty sad. It's a pity no-one restores them because all that's wrong with the old one is that the rubber went rock hard and cracked.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The old front crank seal popped out easily with the hook tool, so it was well worth the $20.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I had to make a little alloy drift to install the new seal, but it wasn't hard.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I lubed up the new balancer, installed it, and cranked down on the crank bolt. Assembled the new, new belt (I'll keep the other one for a spare, as it's just a bit scuffed and did maybe 10 minutes worth of work) and cranked the bolt down. I couldn't work out how to stop the crank from turning so spent a couple of hours making a special tool to hold it, but it was next to useless, so I wrapped the old broken belt around the crank pulley and tied it to a frame rail, and that allowed me to crank down hard on the (loc tited) bolt to make sure it wasn't coming off.

I reassembled everything and then the Amazon man turned up with 5 litres of Gulf Western full synthetic oil ($30 AUD for 5 litres with free delivery, bargain!) a new Ryco Z9 filter and a bottle of AT-205 re-seal just in case the rear main seal was leaking. I was surprised at how thin the synthetic oil was, like water, but everyone on the Ford forums says it's good stuff, and as I don't intend to change it again for 10,000 miles, so well worth using good oil.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I drove it to work and back (54 miles) and it purred like a kitten, so I'm calling it good. Still cost over $700 (AUD, about $450 USD) but would have cost me twice that much if I took it to the shop. I celebrated by eating a "Cottage pie" for dinner.

Falcon harmonic balancer and oil change Tuesday 23 July 2024 9c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[BenelliSEI]

Nice work Terry, and you know it’s done “right”. You’re braver than me using the engine ranking over! Last time I did that was a rolling Jack under the long handle. Almost lifted the car off the ground before that crank bolt came loose!

[Don R]

 I'd been collecting distributor parts for my 40 chevy, it had the original type Delco points. I'm not a fan of the big HEI and want to keep the big old Mallory mag coil on the firewall. At any rate I got the assembled distributor dropped in with the magnetic pickup that was on our dragster when we bought it. I already had restored the centrifugal advance, re-sprung it and put on a new vacuum canister. I cranked it and no spark, after watching a video of the PerTronics unit I realized I still have a ballast resistor in the power wire. 
 I'm heading out to jumper out the ballast resistor that's hidden under the dash on a big old aluminum heat sink. If it doesn't work then I'm going with the PertTronics unit, that will require a dissassembly to remove the unit that's in there now and make up a mix of the two distributors.

[Terry in Australia]

Nice work Terry, and you know it’s done “right”. You’re braver than me using the engine ranking over! Last time I did that was a rolling Jack under the long handle. Almost lifted the car off the ground before that crank bolt came loose!

Thanks John, it was a bit scary but it worked and hopefully I won’t have to do it again for another 20 years or so. I’m glad I did though, that front main seal was leaking a good bit of oil so even if the harmonic balancer was still good it needed to come off to replace the seal.

[BenelliSEI]

Nice work Terry, and you know it’s done “right”. You’re braver than me using the engine ranking over! Last time I did that was a rolling Jack under the long handle. Almost lifted the car off the ground before that crank bolt came loose!

Thanks John, it was a bit scary but it worked and hopefully I won’t have to do it again for another 20 years or so. I’m glad I did though, that front main seal was leaking a good bit of oil so even if the harmonic balancer was still good it needed to come off to replace the seal.

Terry……. Brilliant when it works, not so much if the bar goes through the rad (don’t ask how I “imagined” that happening).

[Don R]

 I remembered that my Mallory coil doesn't want 12Volts and an electronic pickup does, so I just threw a set of points back in my coupe. I put the good vacuum advancer on the former distributor with new points.
 I think I'm having the same trouble as Terry, I can't get the timing mark to come around to the tab with the motor still running. I'm starting to think the outer ring has turned on the hub. I also have a front cover oil leak although I'm not sure if it's the seal or the front of the pan. It has the big balancer on it, I may get a good one with timing marks stamped on it so I can replace the pointer also. The chrome tab that's on it sucks, it reflects the timing light and covers almost all of the balancer so it's really hard to see.

[Terry in Australia]

Nice work Terry, and you know it’s done “right”. You’re braver than me using the engine ranking over! Last time I did that was a rolling Jack under the long handle. Almost lifted the car off the ground before that crank bolt came loose!

Thanks John, it was a bit scary but it worked and hopefully I won’t have to do it again for another 20 years or so. I’m glad I did though, that front main seal was leaking a good bit of oil so even if the harmonic balancer was still good it needed to come off to replace the seal.

Terry……. Brilliant when it works, not so much if the bar goes through the rad (don’t ask how I “imagined” that happening).

Yeah, if there was an actual tool you could buy to hold the Harmonic balancer while you loosened it on an automatic (easy on manual cars, just put it in gear with the e brake on) I would have bought it, but there isn’t. I watched some Youtube vids before attempting it and everyone was using that method, so I figured it was pretty safe. Tightening is another matter, I made an attempt to make a holding tool to re-tighten it to 90 foot pounds but of course it didn’t work as well as I’d liked, so I wrapped the broken belt around the pulley and tied it off to the frame rail and tightened it as much as I could. I used blue loctite on the bolt as recommended and 100 miles later it’s still on, so that’s a good start.

Don, it could well be your harmonic balancer has sh1t the bed, just take a look at it with the engine running, if it moves back or forth or appears to wobble, it’s time to replace it.

[grcamna2]

Nice work Terry, and you know it’s done “right”. You’re braver than me using the engine ranking over! Last time I did that was a rolling Jack under the long handle. Almost lifted the car off the ground before that crank bolt came loose!

Thanks John, it was a bit scary but it worked and hopefully I won’t have to do it again for another 20 years or so. I’m glad I did though, that front main seal was leaking a good bit of oil so even if the harmonic balancer was still good it needed to come off to replace the seal.

Terry……. Brilliant when it works, not so much if the bar goes through the rad (don’t ask how I “imagined” that happening).

Yeah, if there was an actual tool you could buy to hold the Harmonic balancer while you loosened it on an automatic (easy on manual cars, just put it in gear with the e brake on) I would have bought it, but there isn’t. I watched some Youtube vids before attempting it and everyone was using that method, so I figured it was pretty safe. Tightening is another matter, I made an attempt to make a holding tool to re-tighten it to 90 foot pounds but of course it didn’t work as well as I’d liked, so I wrapped the broken belt around the pulley and tied it off to the frame rail and tightened it as much as I could. I used blue loctite on the bolt as recommended and 100 miles later it’s still on, so that’s a good start.

Don, it could well be your harmonic balancer has sh1t the bed, just take a look at it with the engine running, if it moves back or forth or appears to wobble, it’s time to replace it.

I think there might be a way to safely lock-down the flex plate in your bell housing,if there's access to it on your automobile/truck under a pan below the front of the transmission?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, I did see one vid where a guy crawled underneath the car and jammed a screwdriver into the flex plate, but I have plans to make a better holding tool so I don’t have to crawl around under my truck, it’s pretty low so lots of farting around with jacks and stands to get to the transmission, then unbolt the flex plate cover, lock it, then reverse the process once you’ve tightened it. It’s probably pointless to make the tool now as it’ll probably never get used again, but I like making stuff.

[Kelly E]

I have a tool to hold a flex plate or a flywheel by the ring gear teeth. It prevents bloody knuckles.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I had a minor brainwave while attempting to stay awake at work today, so when I got home I grabbed an old oil cooler adapter for a CB750 that I stuffed up but kept for future use, and made an adapter for my Harmonic Balancer tool, which works fine on the old one, so I'm hoping it'll do the job on the car.

It's a reasonably tight fit in the inner hub of the balancer pulley, with a hole thru the centre big enough to get my 22 mm socket thru. It'll rest on the front frame rail while I crank down on the balancer bolt. Or at least, that's the theory.......... (pardon my mess, one day I'll clean it up.... probably.

Harmonic balancer holding tool 26 July 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Harmonic balancer holding tool 26 July 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Harmonic balancer holding tool 26 July 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Looks real good Terry.

[dave500]

well a p76 update,my neighbour has another one bit shabby with a stuffed BW35 auto,its a V8 aswell,he wants to make it a 4 speed single rail which was a factory option,hes got a 4 speed away being rebuilt and sourcing bits and bobs to make it all fit,he bought used for 200 bucks a bloody decent hardly used 1000 dollar transmission jack,he has a hoist the car is up on so i said lets pull the auto ready for the swap out,had to remove the driver side exhaust header to move it as the entire pipe is welded no flange joins?was fouling on the pan,once that was out the way 45 mins later we have the dreaded dead auto out,#$%*ing easiest transmission ive ever pulled out,up on a hoist on a proper jack was luxury!was so easy i said lets put it back in and do it again!

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Dave, I remember ripping out the stuffed C4 in my XA Fairmont (302 Clevo) and installing a single rail box with twin plate clutch, in my inlaws driveway. Dropping the C4 onto my chest and wriggling out from beneath the car was agony. The guy I bought the manual gearbox from said he’d only give me a warranty if I filled the gearbox with ATF, and he was right, did many trips from Melbourne to Brisbane over 2 years without any problems and then sold it to my brother in law who drove it for another 10 years.

[BenelliSEI]

Dave…. Having the right tools always helps!

[Don R]

 While troubleshooting the distributor on my Hot Rod, I noticed the coil is getting 12V+ all of the time. The big Mallory coil has two ballast resistors in series because it wants less voltage to run on the street. There is one red wire going to the + side of the coil, I'm unsure what happened to my original wiring but the coil should get lower voltage during running and only full 12V during cranking.
 I'm going out to discover my error, last year I rebuilt the starter so it might begin there.
  Edit: I followed the wiring and it appears to be correct, further testing finds everything working as it should. Voltage after the first ballast resistor is just over 6 and after the second one is over 3 and that's what the old magneto style coil wants and what it's getting??? When starting it gets a full hit of 12V.
  My conclusion is either conditions have changed, or I'm just stuuupid.

[Don R]

 Has anyone tried a spreadbore Holley carb? I got one free, it was caked with grease but all there except the choke plate. It's a 4175 with vacuum secondaries. I believe they were made to help California Hot Rods pass a smog check. The primaries are tiny but it flows 800cfm when the back barrels are open.
 I traded a bike for a 350 + .040" four bolt mains small block with new in the box ported Vortec heads and plan to assemble it and sell it running on my car clubs running engine stand.

[dave500]

i think they were qjet replacements because most guys dont understand them?

[Don R]

 

  I think they were q jet replacements because most guys don't understand them?

Probably true, I made a sheet metal pan for my Quardajet rebuilding friend so he could take them apart without losing any parts. The guy was a whiz with them but we had another friend that held an NHRA Stock class record with one on a 65 Z11 Chevelle. He held carburetor patents.

[grcamna2]

  I think they were q jet replacements because most guys don't understand them?

Probably true, I made a sheet metal pan for my Quardajet rebuilding friend so he could take them apart without losing any parts. The guy was a whiz with them but we had another friend that held an NHRA Stock class record with one on a 65 Z11 Chevelle. He held carburetor patents.

They have the largest mechanical secondaries of any carburetor I've ever seen;I had one on my stock Buick Gran Sport GS400 in the 70's and it was great.