Here's the show flyer for Lillington, in case any of you are in the area & want to come by and check us out. I spent a few hours yesterday waxing the 55 Chebby, she hadn't been waxed in about 3 years and was definitely needing the attention!

 

New dizzy, dropped it in to check fit, all was lovely.
Pulled it out and the oil pump drive shaft stuck in it, lifted up so far then fell down into the sump/oil pan.
So, when I'm not ready to throw hammers I'll pop the sump off and retrieve it.

 

Like that Chevy. Had one like it years ago. 6 cyl, auto. It was a Florida car with no heater. When I went to college in Oswego, NY (on the shore of Lake Ontario) I bought a 55 wagon for the heater set up.

 

Thanks; mines a 265 (2 barrel). Survivor car! Great cruiser. Always leaves tranny fluid on the floor of my garage though
On the way home I saw this light blue & white "bullnose" Ford at McGees crossroads, at first I thought it looked like Kurt's but it turned out to be a LWB. We gave each other a wave & thumbs up

Tarheel Blue?

 

It does look like Kurt's. Wonder how he is doing. It's about time for @TarheelBlue to check in with us again. Give us an update on how his project is going.

Still not much work to report. I hooked up the big truck to the trailer again, and ran out to FV to grab the civic. There is not enough words to express how much more enjoyable driving it is with the steering shaft and the master cylinder that Dustin gave me. I really need to start gathering together the items I need to finish off the exterior, like the body molding, the bedliner, and then continue gathering items for the interior. 200 is a lot I think for the headliner, but it is the right color, and does have the insulation as well as the color, so I guess I will bite the bullet. I can't remember if that was on Bronco graveyard or on Amazon though. Guess I'll figure it out. Then it's just sorting out the center console, and finding something to cover those front seats. It's that over plush 90's seat (from a conversion van) so the fabric clings to grubby jeans. Not that I ever have dirt on my jeans, right?

Alright. Ya'll slide on over to the dinner thread. I wanna figure out what we're going to do for grub this month, as we are running out of time.

 

So I've about calmed down enough now to talk about it....

Last sunday I sat timing, carb close but still a little rich at idle, so we set out to make a couple test passes. Backed it out of the garage, had no brakes, got that sorted out and it in the trailer. Got to the track, unloaded it and was creeping to the line and it just died. Tried a few things, noticed my MSD wasn't registering like it should. Popped cap on distributor and it wasn't spinning... so we drug it back on the trailer and headed home. Got home and pulled distributor thinking it had broke the roll pin in the distributor, but that and gear was intact.... my heart literally sank.

So I started pulling it apart, and found exactly what had happened.



Rookie mistake... I used a single roll pin on the cam/gear. With the seat pressure it has, I should of had the cam gear drilled to use a second one.

At that point I started digging into it to see any internal damage. I used a camera to look down cylinders to see if valves made contact with pistons and didn't see anything. So I put some air to cylinders today and didn't find any that were leaking out the valves. So looks like I may of dodged a major bullet there. I sent the gear off to be drilled today, hope to have it back in a week or 2 and see about getting this thing back together and double pinned.

 

Got my little lift unburied & setup... now i need something to put on it.... also ran into a little problem with it... 1. no oil in the hydraulic jack.. so had to put some in... took a bit to get it bled out... 2 when i was greasing the zerk fittings for the pivot points one of them snapped off just below the surface... we were finally able to find an ezout to get the remainder outta the hole... then had to find one to put back in because theyre odd sizes...



after getting it outta the box too i discovered it was sitting there backwards... the end your supposed to drive up on was supposed to be on the other side..



so now its orientated the right direction....



now its fully assembled and leveled on the floor... well almost fully assembled... the ramps not attached because i dont have the room to put it on there... but whenever i get a bike (or assemble the one thats in the shed) ill clear the stuff out from behind it to put the ramp on...

 

lookie what i found to put on my little liftie... lol.. 444cc engine... pulled the air filters outta a box too because i was trying to get the PN for them... unfortunately Discontinued... so either gotta go with what theyre calling rim pod filters or use a repro part from an earlier model... the company that has the repros for the earlier model says they wont work but another site says they will they just wont have the extra little shield but never had issues with that... they factory ones are supposed to be reusables where ya just blow them out when they start loading up like ya do with like the K&N's and other washables for the vehicles today... but those are so old and crusty they need replaced...

and to use the rim pod things id have to rejet the carbs as theyre not as restrictive as the factory filters were... so they cause issues with the carbs..





think that last angle makes it look grumpy lol....

 

Lookie like a rice burner to me Shawn. You won't need any ethanol

 

its closer to a thumper really... 444cc motor... right now im more wondering if i can even get it going again... last time i played with the kick starter lever it still turned... now it feels like its locked up... We put some WD-40 down into the cyls to see if itll free up... just waiting to see if it works its magic or not... im still betting itll need torn down to replace the seals as it hasnt run in ages...

another problem ill have is im finding alot of parts have been discontinued... so people are having to MacGyver parts from other things to keep them running... with the exception of your 54 there that motors older than all your trucks lol..

 

tried after breakfast... still frozen solid... so today i took everyones suggestions i got yesterday and mixed them into a cocktail...



1 pt Off road diesel.. (they didnt specify off road but it was easier to get it outta the tractor than the truck..).. 1 pt Acetone... 1 pt Tranny fluid and 1 pt PB blaster... stirred it then poured it into the cyls.. will see what happens...

 

You might have to let it sit for a week or even longer, don't get too impatient!

 

unfortunately patients is not one of my virtues.... least when it comes to projects...

once its free dad just wants to throw it into the frame... but i want to pull it apart and clean off the caked on oil and refresh all the seals as its sat for over 20 sum years... im sure those seals have dried out and rotted by now... ntm would also be able to put some assembly lube on all the connecting parts so that its not turning over dry before the pump kicks in to feed the engine... im already finding just from researching that parts for that engine are hard to find or have to be retrofitted from other things as the last company that was doing replacement parts stopped many production many many years ago...

 

Better to learn patience now than to f--k up the engine! It'll take a while to seep through everywhere but eventually it will free it up.

 

Motors still not free... even dad tried to get it to budge and it wouldnt move... so definitely gonna be getting torn down...

stopped at the local motorcycle dealership's service center to see if they could do the rebuild for me.. they asked what kind of bike it was and all i got out was "I have a 1973.." "BYE!!!! Nope we dont work on anything that old..."

so looks like ill be rebuilding it myself... yay.. guess that means i get to buy new tools... most of the work i can do with tools i already own... but theres a couple spots this thing requires some other special tools i do not have... like apparently despite having a set of valve spring tools for car heads they wont work on this thing because of the design so i have to get a different style to take it apart and put them back in.. and the socket to remove the mechanical oil filter nut that is designed similar to the spindle nuts on super duty rears but MUCH smaller.....