Still no fire in the AA truck. Had a bunch over on Friday evening to put the last pieces together. We all were stumped by a short in the distributer. There is an upper and lower plate and I had bypassed the special armored cable ignition lock and was real careful. The dizzy I was using I bought from a mechanic here for 25 bucks, because the short had eluded his efforts and since he charges by the hour, just substituted this distributor with a known good one, stuck this shorted one in a box and forgot about it. Well, 3 guys and (some Friday after work beers) later, we thought we had it a couple of times. Started raining and got dark and dinner was ready, so I got up Saturday morning at 5:30 and started tracing it again. Looking back we almost had it but there's a spring between the 2 plates and maybe that hit one of my ign lock bypass screws. Then we had to get on the ferry to measure up a dang job for work. Well I had read that someone re-drilled the breaker plate and used modern points and condenser. With this setup, there's no junk between the plates but the tp spring, and I had a plate with the bakelite insulator broken off, so I wouldn't be harming a good original part. I bought a set of points from a '70 351 and a condensor that I think was chrysler and this morning started drilling and tapping on the kitchen table. The spring I made the night before from inside a toilet paper holder......Tested for continuity and clearance and binding etc, set points at .020 and now I'm ready to try it out. All in all there is about 5 hours involved and when I came to the computor I just googled "modern points in a model A" and there is a kit from snyders with new special made 'modern' breaker plate with 70's ford points and condensor installed for 24 bucks. For 70 you get and entire dizzy rebuild kit with new shaft, bushings, choice of original plate or modern with all parts included. Last but not least, an entire new manufacture distributor with choice of original or modern guts for 120. But think of all the fun I had, and I get to try it this this morning with no gut wrenching waiting for the UPS truck later in the week. Ok, gonna get outa my bathrobe and hit the shop. we'll see about the

 

Looks like that should work. I'd be a dead man for doing that on my table... sorry, my wife's table...

 

A couple years ago I took apart the generator from my 37 sedan on the dinning room table. My girlfriend still gives me a hard time about having "generator for dinner".

 

Just typed my usual long winded post about how great it started and ran til I blew a head gasket and it took two different tow vehicles to get it home and back in the shed. My wife handled the kitchen table ok, but on her way home from town and switching vehicles to tow me she had a tough time because the AA wouldn't steer. I got a buddy with his one ton 4wd to get me home. Anyways after the long winded story, I highlighted it in blue somehow and then deleted it. Suffice to say the AA is home in the shed and it started right up after the tow, but hisses big time from the front of the head. The steering is REALLY messed up. One step forward, two steps back. And all I wanted to do was work on my '47......But tomorrow is Monday of a hell week at work. Oh well, my ignition worked perfectly.

 

Well that is good news at least.

 

Ouch... Well, at least it's a flathead! I did my first head gasket job 4 years ago when I was 16, I got the block clean enough to eat off of and did the same to driver side head. Somehow I forgot to scrape the passenger side head. Not sure what I was (or wasn't!) thinking. I got it running and it lit off with a big cloud of steam and coolant spraying from it. Oops.

What seems to be the trouble with the steering? Is it just froze up from sitting?

Sam

 

The head that came sitting on the bed was labled 'speed head' with a 4 digit # like 6060 and what appeared to be a date '7-18-31'.... Early speed equipment? What would make it a 'speed head'. How about High Compression. I didn't check it for flat, but did clean it and the block with a wire brush. I also didn't torque it with a torque wrench. Just by feel with a normal tightening sequence. Now I need a new gasket and it's a week out from our island napa store. I'm hoping to find one in Seattle and it would be here tomorrow. Any Vintage ford parts houses in the Pacific Northwest? With research, I'm hoping to find a felpro 7013c. About 4 months ago I posted about seeing a model a engine on the bottom of a load of scrap in the ferry line and I asked the guy to not leave it at the scrapyard and bring it back. He did and he wanted 25.00. Well it has a good stock head, so I pulled it last night and resurfaced it on my table saw. I have done this practice with heads, and all kinds of manifolds etc. Costs the price of a short stack of 5" 100 grit adhesive sanding discs. As far as the steering, it could be the steering box is binding. I jacked it up and started greasing first. Most of the zerks are this old type with no 'ball end. Just a taper like a volcano shape. Of course they are all stuck with old hard grease. Today I'm going to town so I'll get modern zerk fittings and heat up the joints a bit. Looking back, I feel like an idiot to hit the county road in that pos, but I was only going down to a friends driveway and turning around, but when the gasket blew, I had to get towed 2 miles each way as there was no loop to turn around. The towing was the hard part with insufficient brakes and that's when the steering felt the worse. So waiting for a head gasket will give me time to trace down the steering issues. Anyone know if the AA uses the same steering box as the A?

 

Amazon.com has 8 of them
Sam

 

Thanks Sam, but I finally thought about 'olson's gaskets' here in Western Washington. They had 2 choices and reccomended the graph-tite graphite head gasket. 25 bucks so I ordered 2 so I can put my other block together someday. It should be here tomorrow. Yay! I'll grease it up tonight with new zerks, and stay off the paved county road til I'm 100% fine with the steering.

 

Olson's, I'll have to keep them in mind! It's always good to know of another parts source.

Sam

 

so I pulled it last night and resurfaced it on my table saw. I have done this practice with heads, and all kinds of manifolds etc. Costs the price of a short stack of 5" 100 grit adhesive sanding discs.

When I was in college I worked as a mechanic for a dairy and worked on all types of equipment. More than once we "surfaced" a head or exhaust manifold by moving it around in a circular motion on the cement floor of the shop. Seemed to do the job when time didn't permit sending it out for a proper surface job.

 

Sounds like we took the same machinest course! 38 years on this island and there is no real machine shop. I have outlived two different machinists who retired here after their career on the mainland. They were both good guys and had small shops in their garage. Even when they were here, it's a 24 mile round trip to town and it's sometimes advantageous to just wing it on my mountainside. Saves time and gas, and I love to come up with creative solutions.