Hi, Bob -- Thanks for the kind words. But it's not "guys" any more, it's just me. JD's wife developed some major medical issues several months ago, and he's been taking care of her pretty much 24/7. It has to be a pretty special occasion for him to get away. His daughters and granddaughter can cover for him when it's necessary, but that's not nearly often enough. He's totally devoted to her, of course, but the situation has really put a crimp on his other activities. JD is a very special guy and I owe him a lot.
Hey LTTP: I'm very sorry to hear about JD and his wife's health issues. You and I have had exchanges about this before--friends like JD are precious.
Superb car and it definitely could not be mistaken for a 'Fad T' you have skilfully avoided that look. Any chance of recent pictures? All good wishes to your friend and his
Mike, It's good to see you are still working on this project. I'm sorry to hear about JD's wife. I hope things improve for him in the near future. Get that clutch sorted out and take that T for a spin! You deserve it, my friend. Ted
Very nice construction, I have not gone thru the entire thread but back a ways there was a shot of the headlight stands with the front radius rods/clevis ends, just a FYI don't forget the Jam nuts to keep everything nice & tight, You have a lot to be proud of!
Thanks for the compliments, Guys. I'm sorry to say that I have no progress to report. I have been working on other folks' Model T's lately. That helps to pay the bills, but my "fun" work is put on the back burner when that's going on. I don't have space in my shop to do both. The larger volume of T work does have its upside though; when I get back to working on my Hot Rod, I'll have some $$ to put into it. Hopefully I'll have enough for an interior.
I would like to see a pic of you sitting in the car and how you fit with all of the changes you have made. Sent from my SM-N910V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Well what a fantastic read! I don't even recall what I was looking to find on the HAMB when I run across your build...and because this site being so much bigger than it was years ago, I left your page up until I was able to finish the entire story (to date). Fantastic build thread, and a very kool Hot Rod! Hats off, Greg
Thank you, Outback. I'm not sure what "grouse looking" means in Ozzie-speak, but I'll take it as a compliment.
W hile reading thru this thread I noticed several comments on wrapping the wires with electrical tape. I remember seeing a lot of friction tape in the 1950s and thats what I use
Manyolcars -- I believe you're right. Friction tape would be more authentic. I see it's still available, so I ordered a roll from Amazon. Thanks for the tip. Mike.
The roll of friction tape came in and I removed all the visible plastic tape from my wiring and replaced it with the friction tape. It's a tiny detail which most folks won't even notice, but it looks much better to me. Thanks for the post, Manyolcars. Tiny details do add up to make a difference.
I stumbled onto your build thread and I'm only 1/2 way through your post....just had to say.....Amazing work for a couple of Ol' guy's like myself!!...Lol I'm like most of us on here...do the best ya can with what ya got! besides, it's more fun to be creative and diy then just "buy" a bunch of parts and put them all together!....keep up the fantastic work!, follow this pne for sure! Sent from my LGMS210 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Well, it has been a while and I have no excuses. I had a busy winter with Model T work for others, but that was good for the local economy. As a result of that, my Hot Rod just sat and waited patiently for me to have time to mess with it again. It seems that I just lost interest for a while. But I did tie up some loose ends when I had a few minutes here and there, so today I decided it was time for the maiden voyage! I drove around the neighborhood for a while this afternoon, and of course a few "issues" reared their ugly heads. So I have a few things to deal with before I drive it again, but at least I found out that it does pull itself, and it sounds great! I need to finish building a Model T engine I've been working on and get it back into the car, but it won't take long to do that. So then I'll get back to those pesky little "issues" on the Hot Rod and hope to have it on the road "for real" very soon. Here are a couple of pics I took while the car was outside.
Sometimes we have to take a break and recharge our "batteries". But I find it always feels good to get back at it! Good to see you back.
Well, those "pesky little issues" kept me from doing much of anything on the Hot Rod for several months. This is my first offense at hooking up a hydraulic clutch, and it turned out to be a bear for me to deal with. The clutch slave cylinder kept "pumping up" and wouldn't release unless I opened the bleeder valve to let it relax. I didn't know it had to have some "slack" in the pedal, so it took some help from a more experienced friend to sort that out. And I had to take the car to another friend who has vacuum bleeder equipment to get it bled. Thankfully, all that seems to be taken care of and the clutch now appears to be working correctly. But I'm not out of the woods yet and I need some help. When I take off in 1st gear, the tranny doesn't want to slide out of 1st gear while those parts are moving. I have to stop the car to get it to release. This has me mystified and I haven't a clue what to do to correct it. And there's another glitch in the tranny. When it feels like I've shifted to 2nd gear, it's not in gear yet. I have to push the lever farther up to get it to actually engage. I suppose that could be a bent shifter fork, which should be easy enough to check for. Other than that, I don't know what to look for. The tranny is a '39 box with '48 gears in it, behind an 8BA Flattie. I had read that the later trannies had better gear ratios, and that the gears would interchange. Besides, the gears in my '39 box didn't look very good and I had a spare nice '48 lying around. So a few years back I took both trannies to a friend and mentor who was an older mechanic and had him make the gear swap and check everything out. He worked as a professional mechanic since he got out of the Army at the end of WW-II, so he knew 30's and 40's cars inside and out. He said it all looked good, so I went with it. Now that I have the car running and realize that some things aren't right, he has been deceased for a few years so I can't ask his advice. Obviously, I am hoping not to remove the tranny if I don't have to. It contains the rear motor mounts, so pulling it will be a major job. But I'm also aware that I might have no choice in the matter, depending upon what is going on in there. I have the floorboard out (for the umpteenth time), so it's easy to remove the top of the tranny and look inside. To my uneducated eye, everything looks as it should. I can also take pics of the gears and such inside there, if that would help in making a diagnosis of the situation. Hopefully someone here has encountered these problems before and can advise me on what my next steps are. Thanks in advance for any help.
Photos always help, my first thought is that maybe you don’t have the correct forks. The older cases came with a wide and a narrow and I think only the wide set work with the gear swap.
Okie Dokie then -- I took some pics. I can see that the 2nd-3rd gear shift fork has been ground on to make it wider. This is probably due to its being the smaller size mentioned by Tim above. I don't remember now whether I did the grinding or my mentor who did the gear swap did it. Maybe that has something to do with the problem of not going into 2nd gear, but it seems like it should work. The shifter forks don't seem to be bent; they are at a 90-degree angle with the housing. The heavier one at the center of the pic is the 2nd-3rd gear fork. Here are some pics of the gears. First pic is in neutral, 2nd pic in low gear, 3rd pic in reverse. I don't see anything obvious which would cause it to "stick" in 1st. The low-reverse sliding gear moves easily and smoothly by hand, or using the shifter, as long as the gears aren't turning. But when driving, it doesn't want to slide out of 1st gear unless I bring the car to a stop, which stops the gears from turning. I need someone smarter than I am to 'splain to me what's going on here.
Hey LTTP--nice to see you posting on your build thread again! I'll share what feeble transmission input I have to offer. Your forward fork appears to be the correct version. You can verify this by looking for part number 91A-7230 on the fork (not the tower, the fork). You'll find it here: The gap in the forward fork should measure just under 3 inches (~2 15/16"). The rear fork is considerably smaller (1 7/8"). But there's another issue here: You appear to have an earlier tower; it does not have provisions for detents. Compare here (there's a corresponding one on the other side): These double-detent towers have the numbers 81A cast into them. I'm not an expert by any means, but the lack of detents on your tower might be causing or contributing to your shifting issues. That's all I got. You might get better results posting dedicated thread on this--one of our many resident transimission experts will be more likely to see it. Good luck! One of my winter projects is to pull my '39 trans for a bit of fine tuning--yes, that would be the one I installed just last winter.
Clark -- Thanks for your input. I'll check the things you mentioned when I'm at my shop tomorrow, then report back on what I found.
The Jalopy Journal
