Driving hard + huge pothole = finding weak components
 

Saturday night I had to go pick up a bed for my sons room, since my regular truck had a ton of stuff in the bed I figured I drive my 49. I fired the beast up and started across town. The old truck is so much fin to drive and that big Caddy engine makes so much torque that sometimes I find myself pushing things a bit hard....lol
I was hammering on it pretty good and moving along at a pretty good clip when I hit a huge pothole. The danged thing came out of nowhere and tried to swallow my truck. It was huge!!! I felt the front suspension bottom out and after that the truck felt wonky. Here is the result;
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...174531.520.390

Looks like I get to spend some bucks on some new spring packs for the front of my truck.
I've been saving money trying to scrounge up enough pennies to buy all the MegaSquirt components so I could start on my fuel injection....once again I have to push that to the back burner.

Thanks for letting me rant
Bobby

ouch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

OOOHHH..*****..Now I know what to look for when my rig starts feeling"WONKY!!"..LoL There"s your excuse for some "smoooth" new parts!! Good Luck there Bobby!

Bummer, sorry to hear about another set back.

hmm, at least you had the 4 extra leaves...

I guess I can chalk it up to lessons learned.

Somebody, who for the time being will remain nameless, neglected to re-install the bump stops on the front suspension when they put it all back together. When I bottomed the suspension, I guess I REALLY bottomed the suspension. I doubt I would have broke a spring if I had the bump stops in place.

Sometimes life isn't easy when you are a complete bonehead!
Bobby

The bump stop would have helped but tired old springs are prone to breakage.
Of course you`ll have a much better ride with an up grade. :)

Bobby, does your town havea Public Works Coordinator ? I once blew a tire/mag and had the documentation to prove the pothole was on the city street and others had blown tires too. The city paid me for the damages. This may be a good time to get the Posie's dual mono springs. I think it is good that it happened in town and not far from home on a longer cruise. Sorry either way, 5 forward and 6 back seems to hit us all.

Jon

Ouch!!! Sorry that happened. I guess bondo is out of the question. Duct tape?

Gil

A reason to install a Jag front end, not that would have faired better but it's a good excuse to go for it. :-D

OUCH!!!:mad: That stinks Bobby!!

Bobby, I have a like new set of front springs for the F-1, come on down! For some reason I thought you were running some kind of clip on your truck.

PS -- where is the pothole?!

Bobby -

Would bump stops have kept the axle from putting that huge ding across the bottom of your oil pan? Am I seeing things? Are you leaking any oil? :eek:

Bummer. :-rip

BTW, that's what my rear springs looked like when I bought my truck.

What Ross said. :-X22

:-X16 That must have been one heck of a hole! I'd go down the street and get that NEW set. Can't beat new. Or go for the guuuustooo, Find yourself a JAG. You have the excuse now. You got to fix it. I see DISC brakes RACK&PINION, IT'S CALLING YOUR MAME. :-D:-D :-missingt:-missingt:-missingt:rolleyes::rolleyes:

heck yeah go visit ross ! if not duct tape. i once finished a night of racing by duct taping the right side of the cage back together after i got freindly , really freindly with the wall ......................i woulda never done that that's unsafe , got first that night }>

Dahlgone Boy, Ya coulda Hurt that Truck sumor if a telephone pole had jumped up just after that Ol pothole.

Go get Ross's springs so you can get that Megasquirt. I wanna hear good things about it.

Bobby,
My first thought was the same as everyone else.... OUCH.....

Thanks guys!

Ross, I think I'll take you up on that, Thanks! (the pothole is out in North Hills)
I'll try to get with you next Sunday (I'll be quail hunting Friday and Saturday)

Randy,
Its an optical illusion. The pan has a couple of indentions in it to clear the original drive axle (the pan is from a FWD Caddy)

Nope my truck isn't clipped. I had originally thought about some kind of independent front suspension but then I figured my truck wasn't ever going to be a daily driver. Its more of a "drive it a couple times a week and thrash the tar out of it" type vehicle. So I figured I could suffer through with the original straight axle. I do have power disc brakes and power steering though.

Dick, so far everything I've read about the Megasquirt is good. I'm hoping to find out soon.

Thanks again everyone
Bobby

Bobby, you might want to order some new pins, mine were really eaten up. Unless yours appear to be pretty new, they are likely in similar condition.

Bobby
What are you using for the injection system, throttle body, port?

I want to modify some 2bbl carbs to act as throttle bodies with the injectors hidden in the float bowls.

C'mon Bobby.... I figure between You and that Caddy Motor, you're already exceeding Henry's design limits by 50%:-missingt

Need to step up to the Big Job Springs.... Hee Hee !!!

At least he didn't remove every other spring to lower his. He would have broken all the way through and wrecked the truck.

Watda"ya sayin??,. go down the street the other way ,make the otherside match???..Bobby ,you know we're just having fun!!

Dick,
Cadillac actually had a port injection system that came out on the 500ci in 1976. The computers were primitive, expensive, and junk. Last summer I managed to find a port injection manifold complete with fuel rails, regulator, throttle body, etc at the local pick-a-part (cast me a whole $50)

Before I found the port injection manifold I had toyed with just building a plenum box that bolted to the original 4brl intake. I was going to experiment with running mulitple TBI throttle bodies...now I don't have to.

I've seen pics of the modified carbs with injectors in them....NICE!!!!

Bobby

no crap they had fuel injection that early ? i got a 500 and transaxle over at a freinds lot sitting in the remains of a 76 eldorado 'vert , but i think it's carbed .:-huh

I am thinking about doing this EFI conversion on my 460

http://www.retrotekspeed.com/

the throttle body/injectors in a carb bolt on

Sam

oh just weld it itll be fine. lol least thats what my previous owner thought.

Bobby,

I have a 48 and 52? frame with all springs if you want to drive north a ways!

Danny

I`ve got a 52 frame/springs and I`m a long way further north.... :-D

LOL....

Thanks for the kindness gentlemen. Ross is only a mile or so away so I think his generous offer is the winner.

Kevin, yea, I think it was in 76 that they debuted the EFI, They even had air bags around the same time (Not a popular option) The main EFI system was on the 350ci (modified Olds engine) in the Sevilles but they did make it an option on the 500's as well.
While the 76 is still a good engine it is considerably detuned from the previous years( 8.5:1 compression). The best of the lot is a 500ci from a 1970 Eldo (10.5:1 compression).

Bobby

Let us not forget the "fuelie" from the fifties in the Corvette with a 283 CI. My 58' had it and I went to a Carter AFB so that I could drive the car. The system is hi bux today.
FI was still new so the system was junk, but FI none the less. Just more worthless trivial snippet. :-X15
Jon

PS: Bobby, if needed, I could take the stuff from Danny since I go back from time to time. Never hurts to have extra's. Plannin' a trip March.
Jonj

Jon,

Thanks, I'll let you know by next week. I'm on the road this week and won't be able to get to truck stuff until Sunday. I used to go back and forth to Denver several times a year but havent had a chance for awhile, now I'm stuck going down to El Paso (thats where I am now....ugh)

Bobby

Well Bobby, I do need to thank you for the mishap. It reminded me I still needed to order new bump stops for my front axle. Mine were all tore up and I kinda forgot about them after I got everything else together.

2 new ones on order today.

PS: Glad Ross is hooking you up.