So long story short (some of you know it) but Dad wrecked his hot rod and I settled with State Farm and got him a new one. Bought it right here in the HAMB Classifieds. Killer, roller 32 Ford Three Window Coupe. All we had to do was drop the wild little 327 I had on the stand in it and he would be back on the road (...best laid plans of mice and men)! After several stupid issues and having the engine and trans in and out 4 times in 4 "freakin" days it was finally on the road. It ran like a banshee and looked awesome (but you know there is a but coming right?) It had a strange ringing noise when it was running down the road. It sounded like it was dragging a chain on the ground. It would start with a jingle and then work its way to a ringing sound. Sometimes in low, sometimes in high, there seemed to be no pattern to help explain the noise. I laid under the crazy thing for two days: tapping things, shaking things etc. I put it on jack stands and ran it but could not duplicate the noise. Then we pulled out of the driveway and there it was again. From the cab of the car it sounds like it was coming from the rear. After pulling the axles and center section and finding nothing suspicious etc. we put it all back together. But no sooner than we hit the road again, sure enough....ring ring! We were doing about 20 miles per hour, it is ringing and I have basically had about all I can take. I told Dad to grab onto something and he says what are you going to do? I said BREAK IT and kicked it to the floor. It broke the tires loose and tossed us back in the seat. My plan was just hold it to the floor until what ever was ringing broke and fell off or out etc. But no sooner than it kicked us back in the seat, there was a loud thud behind us. I let off and pulled into a church parking lot and this is what we found. The original TCI Chassis trans mount was now in view. Apparently it had worked its way under the seat. In its absence, we had fabbed up and installed our own. It had two bolts with lock nuts still loosely hanging in the mounting holes. I picked it up to show dad and it made a very familiar sound. When I shook it the bolts danced around and sounded like a chain dragging etc. etc. etc.
Excellent story! LOL And I love how you decided to just let loose to see if the problem presents itself...which it did! Cool!
Glad no one and nothing got seriously injured by the loose trans mount. When you said the phrase "BREAK IT" it brought back to mind an incident I had a while back in my own car. I was on my back home from the in-laws in my Shoebox and I felt a slight vibration from the rear of the car. I figured I was losing a u-joint or a bearing in the rear end, so I held it steady and continued on (after all I was only about 5 min from the house). When I parked, I got out and walked around. Didn't take me long to realize that I had lost 3 of the 5 lugs on the driver side-rear wheel. The 1/2" holes had been waddled out to approx. 7/8". Shame on me for not checking something so simple before taking my new purchase out for a spin. I learned a valuable lesson that day: always inspect (or have someone inspect) work or modifications performed by the PO.
Your solution to the problem seems to have worked out much better than you had anticipated, easy fix! HRP
I want to know who doesn't look under all the seats, in glove boxes/etc, for "treasures" one could find when they bring a new ride home?
OT, but I spent 2-3 days trying to locate the rattle in the engine / transmission on my Harley only to find a loose snap on the visor of my helmet. Set up a vibration noise when the wind hit it.
Just so you know why and what kind of state of mind I was in when I decided to just air it out: We installed the motor and trans the first week it was here. Fired it up and broke in the cam just before leaving for a big car show (probably the last time it will ever see a trailer). Anyway we get back and I decided to change the oil and then finish the break in....MILK SHAKE! I can not believe it. No way it sounded that good and had that much compression with a head gasket failure or crack etc. Had to be the intake. But to take the intake off you practically have to pull the motor. The distributors is in an alcove in the firewall and can not lift straight up. So you have to pull the engine mounts and lower it a bit but to do that you have to pull the headers etc. etc. etc. We get the intake off and sure enough it was the crossover area both front and back. Not sure why because everything was new etc. So completely back together and ready to finally put some miles on it. Hit the starter and all hell breaks loose. Sounds like it is eating the flywheel. After a bunch of head scratching as we had not even touched the starter, we decided to pull it off. After trying another gear reduction unit with the same results, it is obvious it is all coming out again. An hour or so later the engine and trans are back on the floor. The flexplate is pretty chewed up. Dad says he had issues before with it. Had I known that, I would have spent $35 for a brand new one the first time. I am talking with a an old racer friend the next day and he says he can answer the question for me. Go with the smaller 153 tooth flexplate and a 1986 Corvette Starter (Nipendenso) Straight bolt. I decided to give it a try. I came home and Dad lined up the two flywheels to make sure we had all the right holes. I installed the starter and flywheel and then spent a ton of time checking and double checking how it would engage etc. Then we put the trans back on and back in the car. I felt so confident we put it all back together, radiator, shell, lights. All I had to do was install the torque converter bolts and we are back on the road. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You guessed it. I must have spun that converter around twenty times but there were no holes for it. This is a 400 turbo and it uses the outer most bolt holes. Being unable (from the crash) to get down and really work on the car, Dad didn't realize which bolt holes I needed. So....out it all came again. After we finally got it on the road, the stupid thing started the ringing. So by day three of chasing the ring and with all the other craziness, you can sort of understand where I was mentally when I decided the hell with it, lets just air it out and see what breaks!
Glad it was an extra part and not a part of a part...you know what I mean...I went to hook the battery up in my car and noticed the cables sparking; wait nothing is on? Spent days checking the wiring and finally got pissed off and told my buddy to stick his head under the dash and if something starts burning yell..I hooked the cables up and waited, and then heard a sort of click..Then I heard the words: your cigarette lighter just popped out....
I had to road test a new car for a lady who complained about a noise while braking. Sure enough you could hear an obvious squeek under the car somewhere but it only lasted for a second each time. Start off again and stop...squeek! Anyway I found the problem on the road test and told the lady it was an axle but it wasn't covered under warranty. Before she got over the shock of hearing that and started getting upset, I showed her the small toy truck that I had found caught under the front seat! It could roll back and forth but not out...and it only made the squeeking noise in one direction. She got a great laugh out of it once she knew I was talking about the axle in her childs toy truck and her new car wasn't actually falling apart! LoL
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