Never Be Afraid

[Dave Gantz]

Originally Posted by Dirk Olson

I was15 years old and had a 64 chevy pickup decided to do a tune up so I put in the points set put the dwell meter on started up set the dwell ran great! but I wanted to put so neat wires and cap on (colored) pulled the wires and cap, reinstalled per the Motor Manual and it would not start, backfired and I am wondering what the hell I did wrong. looked at the book checked and rechecked still did not run. after a couple of very frustrating days i walked up the street to talk to a older guy that worked at one of the dealerships and the first thing he asked was where was number one/ I went HUUUU, WHAT? then he explain that someone may have have the distributor out and they wire it to work, meaning number one can be anywhere on the cap. My young brain had a hard time wrapping around that but he explained what I need to do. I went home found top dead center on number one, pulled the distributor reinstalled, wired per the Motor Manual, worked like a charm. Was a valuable lesson I have never forgot.

I had a similiar experience. I had a 69 Impala when I was 16 or 17; I was in auto shop in school at the time. Anyway, I tuned up the 350. Plugs wires, cap rotor, points, condenser. No start, popped out the carb. Checked everything. My shop teacher (who sold me the beauty), was also flummoxed, to the point that he came to the house after school one day. He found it; someone had put the distributor in 180 out and "fixed" it by butchering the rotor so that the square peg fit in the round hole! So, I had put the new rotor in and, bingo, 180* out! My teacher was a used car guy who flipped the Impala to me and had no idea what the buddy he had gotten it from did to it.
Although that's where I learned what an out of time distributor sounded like, I learned more about shady car guys that day. (turned out, the Imp was a 300 hp 350, and the heads were swiped and replaced with whatever Chevy heads were cheap. I'm not a Chevy guy and don't remember.) The car did run smooth as glass though, until I seized it in cold weather running straight 30w. But that's another story.

[Henrys Toy]

Originally Posted by Marty Knox

A chain fall hung from a chain wrapped around two 2 x 4's sitting on the garage door rails won't support a 55 Chevy 235 and Powerglide.

The long straight limb on the apple tree wouldn't hold up the Hemi, so we sured it up with 2"x4"s. got it just high enough and had to let some air out of the tires , tough to push but got it in!

[Henrys Toy]

Originally Posted by Marty Knox

Christmas Eve 1973 - pulling motor from my 55 Bel Air in my Mom's garage. The 2 x 4s broke, hit me on the way down and knocked me out.
I don't know how long I lay there.

Geez Marty , I wish I knew you then!

[Jeff Stout]

My first car. 55 Chevy 210 Hardtop. put a 327 and 3 speed. Kept breaking trans. Put a 4 speed in and starting breaking spider gears from wheel hop. Bought a set of slapper bars and had to elongate hole. While under car with grinder I had metal get into my eye. I was 16 and dad took me to emergency room and they numbed the eye and drilled out metal.

[John DiBartolomeo]

Stories... What else have we got!

[Jack Matyas]

Originally Posted by John DiBartolomeo

Stories... What else have we got!

Johnny - Guys our age don't have much racing left but have plenty of stories .......

[John DiBartolomeo]

Originally Posted by Jack Matyas

Johnny - Guys our age don't have much racing left but have plenty of stories .......

Come on man... Whaddya mean "not much racing left?"

[modelman1960]

These stories bring back so many memories of my youth, that I had to reply. My Dad and I started drag racing when I was 14 years old(1968).
We'd been racing his drive to work '66 chevelle, and he didn't want to risk a failure and have no work transportation. We bought a 1960 Impala w/ a 305 horse 348 "W" engine and a powerglide. We brought it home and the only place to pull the engine was in the back yard under the big Maple tree that was strong enough to hold the 1,1/2 ton chain fall and the engine/ transmission. We were able to maneuver the engine out of the car and down to the ground, but how to get the engine into the garage which was 125 feet away. My 1st attempt at brilliance(I've had many failures since) was to remove the tranny and mount the engine on the engine stand. Fine, but it won't roll across the grass. I got 2 4x8 Plywood boards and rolled the stand onto 1, move the board, roll again, move the board. You all get the idea. It's now in the garage and I'm learning how to build a Jr. stock eliminator engine. Cool? Well it was if I knew than that the pistons have to go in a certain order, because the cylinder is the combustion chamber and there are valve reliefs that are staggered to match the valve in the heads. I installed the pistons wrong, and although the engine fired up and ran, it bent a couple of intake valves when they hit the piston tops. So imagine the whole process of board moving, installing, running, and then repeating it to re-build the engine again. My father was none to pleased. I never did that again, even after pulling the engine each fall to "freshen" it. To quote the late Dan Fogelburg: "Lessons learned are like bridges burned, you only need to cross them but once".

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and remember why we celebrate the day.
God Bless,
Walt

[Jack Matyas]

Originally Posted by John DiBartolomeo

Come on man... Whaddya mean "not much racing left?"

Don't know about you but I'm sure I won't be racing ten years or less from now .

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Originally Posted by Dave Gantz

I had a similiar experience. I had a 69 Impala when I was 16 or 17; I was in auto shop in school at the time. Anyway, I tuned up the 350. Plugs wires, cap rotor, points, condenser. No start, popped out the carb. Checked everything. My shop teacher (who sold me the beauty), was also flummoxed, to the point that he came to the house after school one day. He found it; someone had put the distributor in 180 out and "fixed" it by butchering the rotor so that the square peg fit in the round hole! So, I had put the new rotor in and, bingo, 180* out! My teacher was a used car guy who flipped the Impala to me and had no idea what the buddy he had gotten it from did to it.
Although that's where I learned what an out of time distributor sounded like, I learned more about shady car guys that day. (turned out, the Imp was a 300 hp 350, and the heads were swiped and replaced with whatever Chevy heads were cheap. I'm not a Chevy guy and don't remember.) The car did run smooth as glass though, until I seized it in cold weather running straight 30w. But that's another story.

Ever see anybody accidentally put a Chrysler V8 rotor in a Ford?