Love is.......The Feburary Banger Meet

Gaters,
It is very cool that you have a car that has history at the lakes. It is even better that you have photos and you share them with us.

I think I can answer question # 1

I am 98% sure that the mag is a Wico JEM 1509.
I down loaded the picture, enlarged it, and isolated the mag.



Below are the three different mags that I know of that drop into the stock distributor hole.

The one on the top left is a Wico XV 1509. The one on the bottom is a 4 cyl. Vertex / Scintilla. The one one the top right is a Wico JEM 1509.



To me the one on your car in the picture is square and not round like the Scintilla. And it is not off set like the Wico XV. If you look close there is a tag on the mag that looks just like the tag on my JEM pictured above. To the best of my knowledge, the Wico XV mag wasn't available in the late 40's.

.

 

Sorry,
I do Tom, unfortunately I was so mesmerized by the cars I did post pictures of that I ran out of battery in my camera by the time I got to your car.

.

 

Here's one I saw at the GNRS...

 

I was just a little blown away, with the fact that nobody showed any pics of our race car in any of their posts. Everyone that showed the race car room missed our car????--TV

 

Which car was it? I might have a pic.
Is this it?

 

The Black 27 Modified Roadster, Thanks.--TV

 

CDO,
Thanks!
Perfect! I knew someone like you would have a good idea of the make and model. The photos are a great line up to compare. As a part of my restoration of my roadster, I'd like to get around to recreating this set up.

The motor in the picture is a B motor with a Smith Cam, Evans Manifold (I still have), dual 97s, Riley 2-port, drilled for pressure. A guy in Texas had a similar set up that was beautiful. He wanted $10K for a running motor with 150 miles on it. The mag was the only piece I didn't have nay information on other than it was running a mag.

Any ideas on the head? What year?

We had the head at one time. It was cracked when Kenny and Wally Parks drove the roadster out to an El Mirage meet according to my dad. I don't know that they started out without any water in the motor but head overheated and cracked. I was dumb to have sold it years ago, even dumber not to have contacted Wally before he passed to ask him about the Gaters, Ray Pyle, my dad and my roadster.

Thanks for the info. Wanna sell the 1509? Tee hee!

 

TV,

Is this you? If it is you SUCK!! This is one of my favorites. You shoulda had the hood off to show the muscle.

Just a beautiful, beautiful roadster.

Gaters -

 

The head is a 2 port Riley. The repops are about $2900. Originals in good shape are a little more. I don't know what years they were made. Just plain Bill probably does. I'll P.M. you on the mag.

.

 

So, i got the switch out, now I feel like an idiot cause it was pretty damn simple. I guess I was expecting the clip to be bigger? Who knows... I got the switch out and the rod looks good, but it only wants to go down so far. The bottom of the switch is hitting the top nut on the steering wheel so I guess its as far as its going to go.

Now, I have the wiring all set up correctly, but im not getting any power for my headlight wires. Headlights are all new and work, but I dont seem to be getting any power from the actual wire from the switch. Could my cutout on the generator be bad? The switch recieves power from the wire going from the cluster to the cutout, right? Im trying to get this thing done wired tonight, any help is appreciated fellas.

 

disregard last msg. I just test-lighted all the way back and the ammeter(sp?) is inop right now. Thanks for listening!

 

Ya, thats us, and your right, we shoulda had the hood off. I'll see if my son will post a pic of the engine.

 

Its probably not worth drilling the crank at this stage but i would recomend that you contact graeme@macsspeed.com re an adapptor for your gearbox swap may save you a lot of work say rusty skerten sent you hes worth talking too

 

tv thats one great looking car look forward to seeing the motor as well looks a million miles an hour sitting still well done

 

TV

If it were mine and I wanted people to know it's a banger It'd need a display motor and a gray plexiglass hood with a strobe light inside flashing
just so people didn't miss the whole thing.

Maybe a sign 4>

 

DADDY O...hell brother we're all a little crazy! while i'am not into the banger thing. i do understand the appeal, and appreciate your effort's. and i understand the OZZIE'S are into this sport BIG TIME! I love ALL hotrods, and would fight to the death for your right to have them...POP.

 

Thanks Bill, it's probably the funnest car I've ever owned, well I went to the swap meet Sat and bought me a Snyders police head new, got it for 265.00 so I felt pretty good about that, also bought a Mallory dist and a model B dist, spent 70.00 on those two, the mallory is missing the condensor, anyone know where I can buy one? hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'm gonna get the little T&A in to work on, I've not had the motor apart so I'm anxcious to see whats in there, and as far as I know its original, anyone have any suggestions on any thing else I should do while she's down? I plan to change the head, check out the valve trane, mill some degree marks on my pulley, come up with some sort of pointer, I've also built a hand pump and gonna try putting 2-3 lbs of air pressure to the fuel tank, does anyone know where I can find a B cam or something a little hotter than an A? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Jeff.

 

Nice looking car and motor. I haven't looked at the old photos of my Riley 4Port, but this one looks somewhat different. Is it a reproduction, or a later alumiunum head? The top edge just looks too squared off compaired to how I remember my cast iron Riley. I should post a photo of the old car someone has it in California now.

 

I believe the head was/is chrome plated, not too uncommon back then. The filler neck is usually inside because the shell has been filled meaning the opening for the radiator cap in the top of the shell is covered and blended into the contour of the shell.I can't quite make out the ignition but on rare occasions people ran a "dead loss" ignition settup meaning they ran a distributor off the battery with out the drag of the generator. The point type ignition did not draw very much and if it ran down you just borrowed your friends battery.

 

Hope this isn't a dumb question. Are you guys running El Mo? I'd been out a few time this last year and don't recall seeing your roadster. I woulda remembered it and taken pictures! I had to go back through my pictures and I didn't have any.

If you're out there this year, I'd have someone to cheer for. What are your running out there (MPH)? I wanna see this baby go!

Gaters -

 

Fellas, I've got a 28 radiator that needs a little work. I'll be mounting it in my 20 T shell for my roadster which is obviously shorter and I've been contemplating having the radiator shortened to make it easier for fitment. My question is how much will shortening the radiator to make it fit effect the cooling on my banger? Any advice?

 

Riley 2 port heads just cracked because of flaws in the casting in most instances. Most have been welded. I would have to look it up to be sure but I think Riley started the 4 port about 1931 and made no more 2 ports after that time. He did make a lot of 2 ports (3 variations listed) and most of the early ones cracked usually in the center of the water passage on top. Mine is stamped 4 8 30 and is a very porous casting and has the typical crack welded. It also has a lot of "pin holes". A lot of the cast iron heads, not just Rileys, that were chrome plated were plated to cover the fact that they had been welded. Chrome was cheap then. I had the primary (clutch) cover on my 48 Matchless single done for $13.00 in 53 at a big shop on Mission by the LA County hospital.

 

JPB,

We found the Riley head in a pile of sand out in the back yard of Ray Pyle's house in Lancaster, CA after he passed sometime in the late 80's. He still had the block too. It had a giant hole in the side where the piston came through. We left that there and I kick myself as I think about it. It still had the Smith cam and drilled B crank! Idiots! I don't recall the head being chrome for some reason. I always remembered it being aluminum but I could be mistaken. It was cracked as my dad remembered it. We sold it back then for $175 I believe, UGH!!! I remember an older gentleman came to pick up. I wished I had it back.

Ray must have loved racing because he only had an old beat up Ford p/u, hardly any furniture in the house but he still had the parts my dad didn't buy from him about 1964 when he purchased the roadster. His WWII Purple Heart was sitting on a shelf in his house too. Not much else.

You bring up an interesting thought. See the attached image. The ignition description does not call out what type it is. When you can plainly see what others were running. I always found that odd. It could be that they just didn't have the detail info other than it was a mag.

With the example CrazyDaddyO lays out with the Wico mag, it makes a interesting conversation.

I appreciate your description. It is something I would have never known or considered.

Gaters -

 

I dont know if your suspension design would allow but I used a full sized 30-31 radiator with a T shell by chopping the crossmember and using 2 T shells. the lower is upside down.

 

I have never heard of an Al. Riley 2 port but I can't say it would be impossible. After all, we have seen the "A" "B" Ardun!

 

I have to be mistaken then. It's been a while since we had it and we didn't have it for that long. As I recall, the crack is just as you describe above. It was still exposed and hadn't been repaired.

 

Yes we have run ElMo, our best time out there was 106 mph. We have run a lot faster at Bonneville but broke the motor. We broke on the first run at Bonneville last year, it was by far our best combination. My son will put an engine pic in the morning. We plan to run in May at Elmo.--TV

 

Anyone ever have the bracket on the transmission shaft for the clutch pedal shatter??? It's a stock 30 model A. I wasn't doing any abnormal driving... Just all of a sudden boom pedal to the floor. Freak accident I assume just curious if it's happened to any of you guys.

 

sounds like one of those nice reproduction parts!

 

Ussually I'd say yes but in this case it was an original one.... Like I said last thing I ever expected. I'll take a pic this afternoon to show you guys what I mean. Easy fix though. My friend Rob is going to machine a new one for me.