Projects Progress on Rocky's 34 coupe..last update 9/30/2020

Wha the hell, Simon? I can't believe you scheduled a trip to the U.S. and didn't include time for the HAMB drags. Reschedule immediately!

 

Wayne that is all your fault as you should have told me when they are on when I told you of my travel plans. Plenty of Aussies will be at the 50th NSRA Nationals and what I believe is the 60th Bonneville event. Now you used to attend Bonneville. I will be catching up with plenty from both the HAMB and the Garage Journal.

 

OK, today the car gets put on jack stands and it won't get put back on it's wheels 'till I get a laundry list of repairs/improvements completed. Everything from replacing leaky seals, replacing some rough bearings to installing lock nuts on the tie rod ends on my wishbones. The springs have sagged as well...have a plan for that.
out.

 

Though I like the maintenance/ updates/ tuning posts because it lets me know your driving it. I also dislike them because I know how much I hate doing that stuff because I’d rather be driving it lol.

 

This time last year, you had POR 15 on your head and the little car had not even been around the block yet.
Now, it is a seasoned veteran of the HAMB Drags and beyond.

See you soon.

-Abone.

 

There's probably still some POR 15 up there.

 

Now you tell me it is going to be up on jack stands.

 

You guys kill me...relax, Simon, it'll be off the stands in a short time and today I did see something black on my hairless noggin...was only a smear of grease from the wishbones' end. New grease boots, lock nuts and plenty of never-seize on all the threads...made a nice little 3/4" top-of-spring spacer for the front spring and brandy new front U-bolts to replace the Menards hardware-store jobs. Great forward movement today I'll take the car into work for a real 4 wheel alignment on the laser machine when I get my new front tires...and a nice, new 4 wheel balancing job too.

 

I’ve always been curious how they do a four wheel alignment on a car like yours. Guess you’ll find out!

 

I hope that now means I will catch up with you some where and if not Oh well .

 

Ends of the rear ladder bars are adjustable to get the rear axle pointed straight ahead. Ends of the front wishbones are adjustable to get the front end in line with the rear end....tie rod ends are adjustable to get the toe-in correct.

 

I was mostly curious about what they would be able to do with the back on a car with a solid rear axle. I’d be curious to find out how close or far off it is.

 

The onliest adjustments with my setup [Pete and Jake's bars] are each side--forward and back and the pinion angle.

 

Need more picatoors. You going to BTT50s? Intro you to my girlfriend iffin you are.

 

Swapping hiway gears [2.71s] in for the trip to Joplin. Also replacing some bearings and seals. No plans to attend BTT50s at this time as I'll be going road racing with my kid the week before Joplin and then attending the HAMB drags.

 

Dang 2.71’s you gonna cruise down to Joplin going 90mph in third? Lol

Have fun man! Love when you share your kids stuff

 

No, Tim...110 in 4th

 

At that rate you should be able to run with nick and Jason just fine

 

Got the hiway gears in place, went to Northern Tool for new cut-off wheels and cut that hokey ass pinion brake rotor off the drive yoke...cleaned the yoke all up and slapped a new pinion seal in...checked and lubed the u-joints and installed the driveshaft. Began filling the rear axle 'till I ran outta 90 weight.
My new front tires and new Vega steer box arrived today. Forward progress!!!!!!!!!!
The queen of Visa will be out of town this weekend so I should have the car together to attend my favorite Friday afternoon cruise.

 

Got my new front tires mounted but my wire wheels have a little runout. When we tried to balance them the imperfect wheels totally put the high-tech spin balancer into a melt down! The guys at work tried their best to balance the wheels but after driving it, the balance is even worse than it was. I finally tracked down an old time bubble balancer and I'll pick it up tomorrow. The old balancers don't care if the wheel is a little wonky.

 

Get balance?

 

Do yourself a favor & get some dyna-beads. No mo balance problems? Ya hear!!!!!

 

They solved my problem with the old Kelsey-Hayes. HRP

 

I've got dyna beads but forgot I had 'em...no problem though as I picked up my buddy's bubble balancer and balanced all 4 wheels...test drove and it stopped all the shaking but still pulled to one side a bit and wandered a little. Today I got the toe set and caster and camber checked [caster is exactly where I set it at 7 degrees] and test drove it down the interstate up to about 85mph.........smooth as butter and no wandering or pulling to one side.
Also, Friday the carb got a little hunk of dirt in one of the needle/seat and I drove it home, sputtering and missing. Fixed the carb and yanked all the Autolite plugs out and replaced them with new NGK's...WOW! What a difference. The engine still has a nice cam-lope but nothing like it did with the autolites......smooth power!..I'm 95% ready to hit the interstates for Joplin!

 

Are you coming to Des Moines this weekend?

 

Not planning to at this time.

 

Ok...I'm supposed to be getting the car ready for the HAMB drags in about 10 days but I've had so much fun driving the car, not working on it. I DID get the seat belts in it yesterday but I still need to bolt in my coolant recovery tank. Damn! I can't find a good place for it.
I've noticed the engine has been low on power after about 2500 RPM. This evening on my way home from the local cruise the engine began running a little rich. I know what that is! It's happened before. It seems there's some tan looking powder that gets between the needle and seat. I have to remove the AFB and clean it out and then it runs great 'till it happens again. I bought a fuel filter for it long ago and as soon as the damned engine cools off I'll take the carb off, clean it, install my new filter.
I found why the engine is sluggish at high RPM. I operated the carb [engine off] to see the secondary's are not opening! I suspect the butterflies are hanging up on the gasket. It's a lot easier to sit here on my computer and type about it than it is to actually go out in the garage and fix it!
Ok, ok....by now the engine should be cooled off enough to work on it. Here I go.

 

Go man go!

 

Didn't find much crap in the carb so I put it all back together with a new mounting gasket that clears the secondary butterflies. Still seemed "fat" but I busted it through the gears and it pulled like a freight train then began running rough....popping back through the carb at full throttle/low RPM.... Drove it home and parked it. Gotta work at 0'dark thirty in the AM. Maybe I'll have a little time to work on it after work..
I forgot and left the key on this afternoon for about 1/2 hour...dual point Mallory with a Pertronix conversion. Maybe I hurt the coil/resister/module. I dunno but I have another distributor I can try. All new parts in it. Damn!

 

...fingers crossed @Rocky