Another update, I got a 2 carb intake from the estate of my aunt's uncle, which isn't direct relation to me but it's close enough that I had to use it on this car. Rob Paul set up the intake for me, along with adding shocks to the car (finally) and reworked my wishbones to give them a bit more triangulation, in hopes of smoothing out the bumpy ride a bit. Then I got a set of chromed headers for $39 off of Amazon (see this thread for that story https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/cheap-flathead-headers-39.1293194/) and I still had the lake pipes I got for Christmas when I was 15, which were on my first car, a '53 Ford, and at the time, also was flathead powered. So I reworked the pipes a bit to be the new exhaust for the T, along with the bargain headers. It turned out really nice and sounds amazing. Had to relocate the battery into the trunk to clear the pipes, which is OK because I never liked the battery hanging under the floor how it was. Unfortunately, during this round of fixes and improvements, I've discovered I have a bent rear axle shaft. I've got a hub puller coming, and I'll be buying a spring spreader too, I really should have both of those things anyway. But I don't want to pound on it on a race track now that I know the axle is bent (I originally thought I had a bent wheel), so I'll probably only be spectating at the Sanford Field race this year.
Will you at least have the car there? I'm hoping to make it this year and would enjoy seeing it. It's one of my favorite builds here.
Thanks. My current plan was not to bring the T, I was going to drive my '57 Chevy down there instead, so I wouldn't have to drag the trailer all the way there. I don't want to bring it and not race it, and I'm afraid to pound on it anymore, in case I would damage something or make things worse. It's bent bad enough to get some visible wheel wobble and I'm afraid I'm going to make the repair worse by pushing it. I've been following along with your build as well and I've been impressed by the incredible amount of machining and lathe work in it. With that much attention to detail/precision on that car, you can see my hesitance to push a car with an axle 1/8" out of whack.
I bought this style. Should be here tomorrow according to the tracking. I liked the idea of the whole circumference of the hub being in contact with the puller instead of just a half moon like the old cast ones were, hopefully it works well. I'm also going to have to buy a spring spreader, or make one. If you or anyone else has any thoughts on where I should get one from, I'm all ears.
You should come, it's pretty fun. It's not huge, which is kind of a good point for me. They do have a class that an early Olds powered car like yours could run in, but they don't get enough turnout yet to really fill out that class, and I'd like to see that change. I know there's a few guys building cars specifically to run in that class, I'm hoping to see some of them this year. It bums me out not to have the T there to race this time, but it is what it is. I'll get this axle replaced and maybe swap in my good '39 trans and come back even stronger next year.
I haven't seen an axle puller like that before. You'll have to report back how it works. Who makes it? I've never used a spring spreader. On my springs I just put big c clamps on the spring on either side of the center bolt. Then I've cut the center bolt and replaced it with a long piece of all thread so I could relax it. Did the reverse for assembly. A spreader would be handy though I'm sure.
Here's the axle puller I built. I didn't have it handy but there is a piece of steel that's tapped to screw on the end of the axle. The big bolt pushes against that so the axle threads are protected. I also have an old original one with the dog bone deal you hammer on. I think I prefer that one.
That custom made puller looks BEEFY. Well engineered. Mine came in but I haven't even taken it out of the box yet, got some other things that have to be done before I can play with the T again, but I'll report back on how it works.
Didn't make it to Hillsboro today. Hoped I would but we had our third kid born on the 4th so I figured I better stick around to help with the other kids. Maybe next year I'll be able to check out the T!
The Jalopy Journal
