Projects Building for The Race of Gentlemen...someday

1ve been following .. first off Nice car and good job. I have been to trog in ww for many yrs.. My suggestion to you as far as performance goes on the sand is . " he who gets to second soonest, comes in first",
(this is my coin of phrase)the transmission is more important to me than the engine. the first guy to smoothly and quickly grab second gear is usually the winner.." lol.. Get or spend as much time as possible making sure your trans/clutch and gear selector work perfectly.. this includes if the chassis is a little twisted, running over the sand moguls... and your clutch linkage doesnt bind.. if you get all this working ..youll have an advantage.
This being said that means ive seen more powerful engines put a car in the lead/hole shot ,,only to be passed by a lower powered car who was able to cleanly shift through the gears.. Happens on just about every grudge run "gotta beat you run". you watch the hot rod jump out then just stall.. scramble and falter cause he just cant find second in the sand.!!. And the slower car motors on bye...(honestly this is the best part of watching the racing.. because it puts it all at the finish line)
Next I have been seeing alot of guys showing up with non road tires.. I wasnt sure this was allowed but i am seeing it in competition so i suppose its copa. I would,, if it were me (and i hope it is soon) have a 2nd set of special tires mounted and waiting when i get my rail in this show. If they tell you no. then just put the road tires back on.. I was gonna post a set of fronts and rears with my explanations.. but i cant find the picture file. to post it.
I realize your just getting started. and I agree with everyone here its mostly about smiles and the fun of leaving every night with sand in your britches.. that is what is all about.. but we all have that competative spirit.. and nothing wrong with a long term or grand goal . so as to aim high..
sending you a fist full of "git er duns" for good measure.

 

this would be my rears

and these would be my fronts..

i would remove the center rib on the front tires. (this 3rd pic was just to show tire tread groove. this sidewall doesnt come in the proper size) but i would cut the center rib out so you have a concave front tire to stay on top of the sand and still steer ....and not plow/dig into the sand like most all other front tires do....especially road tires. fwiw.

 

didnt want to side track. but the topic covers a lot and often you only get one chance to make the event as they dont often let you enter the same car yr after yr. So showing up ready for your best shot helps. ..you will know/learn a lot your 1st time.
best regards

 

Holy crap, thank you for the words of encouragement and the tricks of the trade Mr cheapstreet!!!

In regards to the tires, I initially wanted to get something more aggressive than I have currently, and for obvious reasons....but the rules say specifically no aggressive or knobbies. So I went with traditional. I like the idea of bringing a pair with me to try to run but if they say no then swap out. The ones I wanted were $400+ each though!!! I might need to get a second job to fund this!

I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that I get picked up for the race but I still have a good amount of work to do on the car, including getting that transmission in (with a cling's adaptor) and a higher compression head (6.0:1)...as well as some windshield glass, some floor boards, and riveting in the floor pans behind the seat, seat springs, a 5 point harness....and smaller odds and ends.

But your words are very much appreciated, once again. I hope you have a happy new year and maybe I'll see you up in wildwood in September!!

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i am pretty sure ill be there.. ill follow to see how your going.. if you make we will surely meet up ..

for the record i have seen cars on the sand in the event with these tires..

 

Great dog, awsome picture! Facial expression reminds me of my ex-wife, when I spent too much time in the garage.

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You talkin ta me?, are you talkin ta me? There’s nobody else here so you must be talkin ta me.


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You already said it could be returned because it didn’t fit, 65 is a lot of money to me for a shift knob that needs work to fit then falls apart in my hand when screwing it’s in. The whole experience has been bad and I would like to return this thing and get my money back


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I can’t imagine how pissed I’d be if I would of bought one of your knobs that over $100 and had this happen...


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Huh?

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It's been a long time since I've updated. I hope everybody is covid-free and working on their rides if they have to stay home. I've had to continue working...even more, unfortunately. But I've still found time to get some things done. I'd love to post a video but couldn't figure out how. Our little racecar sounds like a BEAST!!!! It runs great, drives great. I'm hoping that TROG goes off without a hitch but man, the way things have been worries me. Plus I still have to get accepted to race. Fingers crossed.

Couple questions: has anybody tried to put deluxe wheels on a model A and were still able to put the hubcaps on? I wanted to see about purchasing a set hut they're quite pricey and if they don't fit, or if they're not deep enough, I'd kick myself for buying them. Maybe, does anybody have the internal depth dimensions of the dog dish style??

My second question seems to have escaped me at the moment.

Maybe I'll remember it later.

Again, many thanks to all who've helped me with this project. Couldn't have done it without you!

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Was this supposed to go to me? I'm confused.

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OH, I remembered my second question. First, a story...so I was doing a couple hot laps up and down the road...there's speed bumps...my throttle stuck a tiny bit and I hit the speed bump a little hot. While incredibly funny, loud, and a little embarrassing at the same time because I damn near hit my head on the top wood, it made me wonder....does anybody run an A without shocks? I currently don't have any, new or old style. Does anybody run just the leaf springs? Am I being dumb right now? Yeah, the leaf springs are a little...springy. And the absorbers would soften that a tad, but is it also a little redundant? ORRRRR, am I an idiot? Any and all criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance.

PS, frame welds held great even though I'm fairly confident that I got more than 12" of air time in the car!

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I ran my Speedster without shocks for a long time, but it's a real light car, so maybe not a good comparison. I ended up mounting some old British lever shocks just to deal with some wheel hop I was getting at highway speeds. I don't really notice much difference on the bumps, but the wheel hop is pretty much gone. Your car is looking real nice. Good luck with Trog.

 

Nice, thanks man!

 

Ok, here we go. Problem has come up and I'm stumped. I'm hoping somebody will see this and be able to drop some knowledge.

I installed a '39 Transmission, put on a 6.0:1 Head, had to remove many things and put it all back together. Car ran great after the head install....finished the transmission and now it's blowing fuses left and right. Won't even start. As soon as the battery disconnect switch is turned on, the fuse blows. I've got a safety fuse kit from Snyder's, 30A fuses....all worked great before the tranny install.

My wife was checking threads online and came across one on Ford Barn where people recommended isolating by disconnecting lights from the cutout on the generator....lights aren't even hooked up, but I disconnected anyway, blew a fuse. Then they said to disconnect the horn. Horn hasn't worked..yet...but disconnected, blew a fuse. Grounds are all tight and cleaned. One ground from frame to motor, one ground from middle crossmember to disconnect switch to battery. It's 6V, positive ground, optima battery. One person suggested that the brake light switch was the culprit, so I disconnected and even removed the switch, blew a fuse.

At first, I thought that maybe it was because the ground strap was connected to the cast aluminum adaptor for the trans, so I cleaned off a spot and attached it to the block in front of the cast aluminum. Nope, didn't work. I even switched the cables on the battery disconnect switch thinking that was somehow the issue, blew a fuse as soon as I turned it on. There's gotta be something I'm missing, and something so easy that I'm going to kick myself over.

Anybody out there have any suggestions? I'm stumped and very open to any and all.

 

If all was good prior to the tranny work, it sounds like you introduced a direct short somewhere in the system during the transmission install.

Go back and undo anything electrical you changed since it last ran properly.
Trace out the wires to see if you can locate one not connected properly, or maybe pinched or cut shorting out.

Remove the ground strap and see if that is the culprit.

 

Update...I found what I thought to be the culprit, a broken positive battery cable. It was broke at the post but looked fine until I removed the floor. Went to autozone, grabbed a new one, installed, threw in a new fuse....blew again. As soon as I turn on the switch, it goes. Still at square one. Going back under the car to see if anything is pinched or broke. What a pain in the neck.

 

Ignition switch is bad
Starter is stuck and shorting out. Try rocking in Second gear
Cutout is stuck and shorting out gen is shorting out. Disconnect the generator wire to the starter and try just using the battery.
I've had all three problems.

 

First, unless those fuses are free, you are just wasting money.
Disconnect the main circuit at either battery post and put a 6V test light between the disconnected parts. Does not matter if it's power (negative) or ground (positive).
Turn everything off and make sure, then turn on the disconnect. The light should light and the fuse should not blow (low amp). This would be the same as putting the test light across the battery terminals to check function. It should not burn up the bulb and wires and should not pop the fuse.
Disconnect feed wires closest to the power side of the battery (starter, ignition, light switch, horn, anything that has power at all times), one should make the light go out. It will be a bit more time and energy to check the bulb each time, but will keep you from burning things down and wasting fuses.
It should be a 'constant hot' feed circuit that is causing the problem, but in rare cases, it could be a switch that is bad (closed) and the switched circuit is shorted to ground. By checking the feed circuits, even this should be found pretty easily.

Here is a video of a modern car using this type of check. Since your car is much older and simpler, you need to disconnect the feed wires rather than pull fuses.

 

Update: finally found the problem. I ordered a 'new' generator with cutout installed. Epay ad that said it had been professionally rebuilt. Sounded good. What I got was less than professional. But it does work. The problem is the threads on the cutout that hold the horn, light, and main wire....loose/stripped, including the screw. I didn't notice, hell maybe I cross-threaded them myself (I kinda don't think so....that's a huge pet peeve of mine). But just that little bit was causing my short. Now I'm no electrical engineer....I've stated multiple times here that I'm terrible at it....even on a model A with very few wires....so like RodStRace said, I wasted some money. Went through 10 fuses before I found the problem. But even though it made me scratch my head for too long, I'm glad it's over and the little ol' girl starts right up and purrs again. Small price to pay I guess. On top of some more money to get another cutout. I don't even know what a cutout is or does. Time to google.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm always amazed at the knowledge here and the willingness to help.

Ps, the transmission performed well. Synchros are way better than double clutching. I have some fine tuning to do but I'm happy thus far. I'm not sure my neighbors are all too happy, it's a little loud. But a LOT of people smile and point when they see it scootin' down the road....maybe it's the parts and tools I leave behind me, I don't know.

 

Glad to hear it's back to disturbin' the peace!
Cleaning all those other connections can be put down to 'preventative maintenance' and make future troubles stay away.

 

Hahahaha, check. Preventative maintenance complete.....I think 5 times over.