Topics

On a Holly, a 600, what seals the vent tube between the float bowls? I started my '46 Chevy today for the first time in a couple months and luckily I had the air filter off to put some gas down the vent tube to fill the bowl. after it started I was checking things over and there was a steady drip at the rear bowl where the tube enters. Never had this before; maybe from sitting? I haven't had enough Hollys apart to remember what type of seal is there. Of course I'm hoping it will seal itself...

My neighbor just bought a '97 Pontiac Gran Prix GTP. When she shuts off the vehicle the engine keeps running. I thought the keyswitch would be bad, but her boyfriendsaid that all the rest of the power is killed when you turn off the key, no windows, sunroof, etc. They are pulling the ign. fuse to shut it off now. Someone has been into the wiring, to install a remote start and put different gauge faces on it. I don't know about remote starters, but I knda think someone screwed up with that.

A friend is trying to fix the brakelights on his girlfriends  '97 Chevy Venture van. We have traced wires and power from the battery to the brakeligt switch but still no brakelights. While testingthe plug or the brakelight switch we couldhear a relay clicking. He checked laterand found that he could buy a brakelight realy for this vehicle. The vehicle is now in a differentcity and i d't have access to i. He can't find the brakeligt realy on it. I know it's not in the "relay center" under the hod adnot visible from where we could see with the lower dash panels removed. He bought a manual for the van and i has no reference to  brakelight relay  all. Does anyoneknow if this thing even has a realy for the brakeligts and wherei's located? The wires coming out of he brakelight switch are really small so i think it must have a relay somewhere.

I am trying to get a speedo cable for my C-6 trans in my 46 P.U. The problem is I don't know for sure what year the trans is. It came out of a '78 Ford p.u. but it wasn't the original trans in that truck. I had the trans rebuilt and the builder said it is tough to tell exactly what year a C-6 is, but the internals are pretty much the same. (him talking) At the local NAPA we looked in their catalog and it seems there are many choices depending on vehicle year and type. The trans I have is a push in type for the cable with an external holddown clamp on it, the other end of the cable needs to be threaded for the speedo. Anyone ever have this type of problem before or does anyone know if there's a generic cable for this trans?

Anyone from Mi. or Oh. going tomorrow, (Sat.)?

I have just been using a long "rubber" line off my compressor to work in the shop/garage. I got a retractable reel to use in the garage to air up tires and such, it will reach out side the garage so that can be done in the driveway. What I want to do is run hard lines through the shop area with shorter flexable lines off of several outlets. My question is what do you use to connect the hard line to the compressor? I would like to isolate the hard lines with some sort of flex line to avoid problems and noise in the hard lines from the compressor vibrations....or maybe this isn't needed?

The brakes on my daughters car still are not right. It apears the one diagonal system is not working. The rt. rear and lt front won't bleed. This is not the system that had the original preoblem that i fixed with a new line. That wheel bled just fine. Some diagrams and text I have found say that this car has a proportioning valve on the left front strut tower; this car doesn't. One of the original brake lines from the original master cyl. goes right back to the firewall and over to the right front caliper. The other three lines run in a group down the left strut tower, I can see them almost all the way to the bottom of the car, there is no prop. valve there. The left front line splits from the group of three and goes directly to the left front caliper. I assume the prop. valve is built into the master cyl.? At any rate I cannot get the one diag system to bleed. I'm ready to take it to a friends shop, but I'm trying to save my kid some money as she lost her job on Tuesday!

I replaced a broken brake line on my daughters car today. the line to the drivers side rear had split and she was running on two wheel brakes. I replaced the line o.k. and bled that wheel cyl. The pedal was still low so i went to bleed the other rear wheel  and it won't bleed. When the bleeder is opened and the pedal is depressed it is just a little pulse and virtually no fliud movement. Several minutes of bleeding resulted in a thimble full of fliud being pumped out. Seems like I have read somewhere that the propotioning valve will over center or domething when you go low on fluid and has to be reset somehow. Any ideas? That wheel also seems to be dragging, maybe the wheel cylinder is bad?

Just read on the HAMB the the red '60 Nash with the Ferrarri drivetrain won the Riddler. That car was of course, outstanding, the engineering had to be mindbogling. while I was looking it over on Friday the owner or builder was there explaining thing to some folks.  Personally my pick would have been the '55 Chrysler wagon, but that's just me...

Nothing too dramatic; today I went out to the shop to start my '46 Chevy for the first time since las Nov. I reinstalled the battery and reached in my pocket for the keys...and froze. I realised the key was hanging on a hook  in the bunkhouse at my deer camp.... 552 miles away!!!!! I realised after i got home from hunting last Nov. that I had left my house keys up there, no big deal, I jst had new keys cut from my hidden spares. I never gave a thought to my '46 key being on the same key ring as my house keys, I keep my DD keys separte from all my other keys. I finally remembered that we had made an extra set for the '46 when we went to the Nats' in Louisville in '99 and 2000. After a search I found the extra set and started her right up. That was one of those "OH Sh*T" monments.      :oops:  

I have a Ford that's not charging. A 70ish three wire alt.  It was fine but I took it off to grind a touch off the cooling blades because they were slightly rubbing the frame. I put it back on and now it won't charge. If i rev it the idiot light will fade but then come back bright when the revs come down. All the connections are back where they came off of and they're tight, at both ends. Do these need to be polerized? I don't think they do, but if i really knew I wouldn't be posting here would I???  

Is there a way to tell if a torque converter is bad when it's out of the car? A friend said to try to turn it backwards (?) and if yout could it was bad.

Which older two barrel carbs had three hold down bolts? Did the Stromburg 97's have three? The reason i'm asking is that i have an old Nailhead intake that someone wants to buy and i'd like to know what carbs can be used on it as it has the three bolt pattern on it. I see one on E Bay that looks like the same intake but it has four bolts per carb.

I went to a local carshow today and there was a whole row of import "tuners" there. Out of curiousity I went and looked under the opened hoods. It was mostly cosmetic add ons, but one guy had a small blower attached to his Scion "box" I asked about it and he said it was a part directly from Japan, not available domestically.  He pointed out to me that the blower had a clutch on the front, much like an air conditioner clutch. He said it could be set to engage at a preset RPM, controled of course by his computer.  I have never seen a blower that could be turned off and on, is this new, or did i miss the boat on this?

I tried to buy one there yesterday, the guy, who I know is knowledgable, said they didn't handle them. i asked if he could order one fro me. He said they don't sell them at all, can't help me!! I tried a smaller B.M.I. store down the road  and they had a converter for me today at 3:00 p.m. I thought it was odd that a NAPA store wouldn't sell torque converters......

I have a line on a C-6 trans to replace the one that I can't get to work. Problem is it's quite a distance away and the guy that's selling it doesn't know much about it, and neither do I. He says it came off a '68 390 truck. I assume it would be a C-6 on that? He also says it has the "short" tailshaft. I don't know about Fords as far as short and long tails shafts. I Think mine has a long tailshaft, it measures 14 1/4" long. The guy is going to make some measurements when he gets off work tonight to see if we're on the same page. Any info relating to this would be helpful!   :?

I posted earlier about my C-6 trans not shifting. It still doesn't shift and now the engine stalls everytime I put it in gear. There is a strange noise when i put the truck in gear and it just stalls. The noise sounds like a "squishy" sound ( My wifes description) I think it's a grinding sound, but it does remind me of a liquid, or air escaping sound. I think the trans is pooched. Could this be the trans pump?

I'm having trouble making a C-6 shift. I bent the original modulator when the trans was out of the donor vehicle and replaced it with a new one. The new one has the screw adjustment in the end of it. When i first installed it the trans would shift to second, but rather reluctently and very late. Who knows which way to turn the adjustment screw, in or out, to make it shift earlier? It's under a really low vehicle, in a hard to reach area, so I'd like to make as few trips under there as possible....

Anyone have any tricks for removing the exterior door handle from a 40-46 Ford pickup? I know that you have to take out the exterior screws and then hold the interior handle  all the way "open" and rotate the exterior hadle and it will come out. I have one that refuses to come out this way. At some point someone broke off the exterior handle and left just the square shaft sticking out of the door. I have tried and tried to get the shaft out and it won't budge; it does turn some and slides in and out a little but won't pull out! Hope fully someone has had this same problem and knows how to get it out. The glass is still in the door so i can't see what's going on in there either..... :?

When talking about lengths of shocks, does the term refer to overall length, or to the eye to eye length?

Today I was adding a relay to my electric fan, but I can't get it to work properly. Once i start the fan with the switch it won't shut off using the switch, I have to turn the key off and let the fan stop before it will stay off. Sounds like it's back feeding, but how and where? I got frustrated and left it alone. I hate wiring...while i was installing  the relay I managed to unwire all the lights.... :evil:

Does anyone know if a frame from a four door '68 Chevelle is the same as the two door frame? What other G.M frames are the same as the Chevelle? My brother had a '68 SS 396 given to him that needs a frame and he has access to a four door  frame but we don't know if it'll fit. TIA

When i make a pattern for a bracket, mount, etc. I like to use clear plastic, like Lexan. I found that I can make a pattern more quickly than with a piece of cardboard or tin because you can see through it and see whhere you have to cut or drill. You can rough it out quickly and do the fine trimming when you get it close. It also can be hung on the wall afterwards for future use without getting bent of soggy. Kinda lame compared to the rest of the tech stuff, but it's all i got!!!  

Will it hurt a Ford C-6 trans to run without the kickdown linkage?

O.K. just 'cuz Dave asked for more posts I'll ask this question that i have been thinking about lately. On a four bar rear suspension do the shocks need to be straight up and down if they're not coilovers? I have air springs on the rear of my 40 pick up that are vertical, but the shocks are on about a 20 degree angle. Will they cause binding? since the bars will want to move straight up and down. If it makes any differance the shocks lean towards the center of the truck.

Just got this in an E Mail from a Canadian friend,


MODERN PARABLE - SAD BUT TRUE



Perhaps this helps to explain why Ford lost $12.7 billion last year.

A Japanese company (Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors)
decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River.  Both teams
practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate
the reason for the crushing defeat.  A management team made up of senior
management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person
steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person
rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a
consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second
opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the
boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent
another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was
totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering
superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1
person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called
the "Rowing Team Quality First Program", with meetings, dinners and free
pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes
and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor
performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was
distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's
racing team was out-sourced to India.

Can anyone I.D. these wheels? I know they are Ford, but i am curious about what year. they are 16" with a 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. I just got them from a friend who got them many years ago to use on a farm trailer! They are in pretty good shape, especially for Michigan, looks like original paint on them. A little sand blasting and paint and they'll be good to go. I hope to put them to use on a four banger modified project I am collecting parts for.

Hi, Remember me? I just got home from the big deer hunt in the U.P. It was quite a bust this year. Just two deer in a camp with eight hunters...and the same guy got both deer!!! This was the worst season I've ever experienced, as least as far as hunting goes, I saw just six deer in seven days of hunting. Six deer sightings in one day used to be a bad day! Our hunting area is getting over populated with wolves and coyotes. The deer were extremely skitish and stayed mostly in the deep swamps.  On the other hand it was WAY better than a week at work, I got to see a wolf, several coyotes, a Fisher, an ermine, eagles, a couple rare pileated (sp) wood peckers, and happily the partrige are back in good numbers after an absence of several years. We took a trek to a set of rapids on the Paint River that would be a huge tourist attraction if they were accessible by any type of road; it's really nice to see these things in a real natural setting. I told my hunting partner that the 550 mile drive is worth it just to sit by the rapids totally alone!
I might drive 25 miles to my brother little patch of land and shoot a farm feild deer on Friday, I have eaten all the venison from last years deer

And a better day tomorrow. Today on the way to a friends farm to sight in our rifles we stopped by a friends house to pick up a tire he mounted for us for use on our trailer up at deer camp. While we were there I saw that my friend had a couple old wire wheels on a trailer in his tractor shed. When i mentioned that was looking for a set of them he took me back to his big barn and showed me the set of 16" '35 Ford wires, complete with the V8 caps. He told me to cime up with a price and they'd be mine!!!! Then we went on to sight in the rifles; my .35 Marlin was right on the money so I started sighting in the .300 Savage i inherited from my Dad 11 years ago. i had a new scope mounted on it and it was bore sighted so i tried it at 50 yards and was close using factory ammo. I put one of my dads handloads in it and it was WAY off....when I ran the lever on the gun no shell ejected...hmmmm. it had split the shell about 1/4" above the primer end!!! That was the end of shooting that gun for the day. i won't shoot it again till i can get some more factory ammo. Then we proceded to go through an entire box of shells for my seven shot .357 revolver!!! All in all a fun day! Tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. we head for the great white north ( MI. U.P.) for a week of deer hunting. This to me is about the same as heading to the Nats in Louisville. weather looks good, lows in the 20's highs just over freezing and some snow  predicted for the first four days! See y'all in a week or so......

Is Parklane still here? Or has anyone heard from him lately? I tried to contact him via E mail about a mutual friend that recently had a medical "event" and I haven't gotten any reply. The I realised i haven't seen John post here for quite a whilt. I hope all is well with him.....

Well, we have gas under $2 a gallon here, $1.95 at one staion, and most places are at $2.05 a gallon. How is it other places?

We "laid off" (fired) 13 guys today at work due to lack of work in the forseeable future. It was hard to shake hands and say goodbye to guys I've worked with for years, especially the young guy that just found out Monday his wife is pregnant, or the one that just had a baby. I know it's juat a matter of time till we are history, we just can't build a product in Michigan and ship it to Mexico and expect to make any money. We are competing against ourselves in Mexico now, and we can't beat $40 a week. for wages.

You never know what's going on in anyones head. There has been a rash of bank robberies in my local area for the past several months.  They have gone unsolved till yesterday; the police came to my place of work and arrested a 29 year old guy for doing two of the robberies!!!! This guy is the LAST guy you would suspect of this type of activity. He is the son of plant manager, who I have known 30 years. This guy graduated high school with my oldest daughter.  The F.B.I. was at work today looking trough his locker and his truck that is still park in the lot; they even took pictures of the pneumatic air drills we use. I still can believe that he could or would do this. Apparently he didn't wear any disguise and he is a person you couldn't miss in a crowd. He is about 6'4" tall and well over 300 pounds. I can't understand what would make anyone do something like this, I'm baffled.

I'm looking for info on putting an '81 Camaro front clip under a '47 Chevy. I'm sure that we have been over this before. Anyone got any pics or info?

I took my '40 Pickup to a little car show here yesterday and I doesn't shift out of low gear. Only about two and a half miles in low each way, so not a big deal there. I was told that in addition to the vacuum line on these trans the  kickdown linkage has to be hooked up to make it shift. There's no way that the stock kickdown linkage will work with the firewall in the  '40. I have seen a kit for a cable kickdown for  these and will probably get one. In the mean time can the kickdown lever on the trans be wired to the proper position to let the trans shift? If so, what is the porper position? BTW, the truck ran well on it's maiden voyage, even though it wasn't strictly "legal" (no plates etc.) but it was a D.A.R.E. show, so i figgered the cops might cut me a break if i got stopped. On the way home it tossed a cap off the rear universal and i had to limp it a few block home at a fast idle.

I've had the C6 in my truck project unhooked so long that I can't remember where to attach the vacuum line from the trans to. Do i need manifold vac, or just one of the ports on the carb, or doesn't it matter. First C6 I've ever had.

I need a relay for the 'lectric fan on my '46. Seems the switch alone will melt if you leave the fan on long enough...  Anyone have a favorite relay they use for this application. The parts places around herewant to know if what you want a relay for has A/C, rear discs, the 2.0 or 2.4 liter motor, tinted windows, etc. so they can look it up on the computer......

John, check your reg. E mail, your package is here.

Wife got a new car today. Her old reliable Stratus turned ten so it was time for a new one. We got an '07 Saturn Vue; after shying away from G.M. due to some bad experiences with the last few vehicles from the General we decided to try once again. I hope I don't regret it. We got the top o' the line "regular" Vue, not a RedLine. It's AWD with a 250 H.P. V6. Seems like it'll stay up with traffic o.k. Of course I couldn't talk her out of the sunroof, heated leather seats, six disc changer, and all the other stuff i wouldn't want.The side curtain airbags make me feel better as does the AWD for the winters here. It's really weird to see the salesman walk up to one and hit it HARD with his fist on the door and not see a  mark on the plastic panels. No rust problems on those things! And he showed me how they can be replaced with a few screws! Supposed to be able to tow 3500# too, might be handy, save some gas when i find some old iron to drag home rather than use my 5.9 liter (360) Dodge truck!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I see that Charlie Chops and Ken (Ohio Blue Tip) got their props in the Street Rodder article for the sweet '27 T Lakester. Looks like the pics were taken at K-Zoo where I saw the car; it is as nice a lakester as I've ever seen. Congrats guys!

I have been seeing a puddle under my '46 for a short while now; I finally got time today to check it out. It appears that a freeze plug is leaking, of course it's one of the rear ones on a SBC. I'm gonna go through the car this winter, it's been together for 14 years, and fix a lot of little things this winter. For now i'd like to try a "fix in a bottle". Does anyone have any reccomendations for additives to cure coolant leaks, somthing that realy might work? I did see the Myth Buster guys stop a radiator leak with eggs!    

My neighbor has a '96 Neon that won't run. He gets spark at #2,3, none at #1,4.  A Two liter SOHC motor. He has been through the ignition system, ei. Wires, a known good distributor "module" (or whatever it's called) but still no spark to #1,4. It's not putting out any codes, but the check engine light doesn't come on with the key....... I'm thinking computer..

Has anyone ever swapped the drums brakes off a "70 ford 1/2 ton pickup to discs? My brother is wanting to do this on his. He has the Twin I beams with discs from a '75 and was wondering if it would be easier to swap the entire beams or if the discs would go right on the '70 spindles. We would check, but the '70 truck is here in Michigan and the '75 beams are with him in Alalbama.

...about the Siamese twins from the U.S. that vacationed year after year at the same English hotel. The hotel manager got curious after a few years and asked them..." Do you keep coming back here for the sights?"  "No" replied the twins, we seen everything there is to see here" "Well then it must tbe the great pubs in the area that bring you back every year"  
"No, we don't drink" said the twins. "Ah, must be the fish and chips then" asked the mamager.
"No" they said, "we prefer burgers"
"well then, just what is it that keeps you coming back year after year?"
"well",  the twin on the left replied, motioning to his brother, "its the only time he gets to drive...."  

Stupid question....What's involved in swapping an altenator to a car that had a generator, wiring wise that is? A friend of mine is doing this in a '65 Mustang, it has the stock harness in place.

Just heard on the HAMB that "Just Steve", Steve Hendrickson, is Ill. Probably why we haven't seen him on here for a long time. They said he had cancer and MS. He's too good of a guy to deserve anything like that...

I replaced a ruptured rear brakeline on my daughters car this morning, when I was replacing her rear tire i noticed it said "Make in Turkey" on it; it's a Goodyear tire, does that seem weird, or is it just me?

I'm helping a friend change ball joints on his  '90 F250 4X4 the problem

on these is the cambers adjusting sleeve that the upper ball joint passes through. It must be removed to get the upper ball joint out. The book calls for a Ford tool to remove it. We tried a gear puller but that won't work because the flats that the jaws clamp to aren't parellel to the top of the ball joint that you'd have topress against with the puller; and the ball joint would probably press down before the sleeve pulled up! Does anyone know what the proper ford tool looks like for this? I'm thinking it's a picklefork type tool. Any other suggestions from someone who has done this (or not) would be appeciated too. TIA

Finally got my two "babies" side by side outdoors. (pardon the mud, it's spring in Michigan   )

I need to know if it is o.k. to run a 12 volt DC motor  that pulls 7 amps at 6 amps. Will it hurt the motor?