Hot Rods BChrismer's Survivor '40 Ford Convertible

Sorry for your bad luck with the flatty, but you sure lucked out to get your hands on this beauty. Congrats! THat reminds me, I need a ragtop someday....

 

Well you're a traveling man! Probably a long one day trip for you. This has been a busy month for you. Hope your new flatty makes sweet sounds that make you smile

 

sweet

 

Here's a sneak peek. Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day.

 

Mike and I didn't get started on the car until around 1:30 this afternoon. Got the front sheet metal off and got the old motor pulled out.

The new motor will be going in tomorrow evening after work. Hopefully we can get everything buttoned up by Tuesday.

 

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry"

I made the drive out to Meeker's shop last night excited to get things put together and a motor set in the car. Things took a quick turn when Mike asked if I had other clutch options because the one from the original flathead won't fit the new flathead. I didn't even think to check the flywheel, but sure enough, it's a later flywheel on the new engine that requires the 10" clutch.

I pose the question about pulling off the pan and swapping flywheels, and Mike quickly talked me out of that idea, as he felt better not disturbing the existing gaskets and potentially creating leaks that we don't want.

I promptly go to the phone, call Speedway, and ordered a 10" clutch and disk pack, paid for the expedited shipping, groaning as I paid nearly $300 for it.

Since I was already out there, we gave some attention to the front end. We found some issues with the bolt on spindle arms and addressed those, removing the bolts, adding some Lock-Tite, and tightening everything up properly. As Mike said, it turned out to be a great distraction not having the clutch to be able to find some "unsafe" things that I am NOT about to tell my wife about. LOL

Not being happy with the amount of money I spent with Speedway, I got digging around on O'Reilly's website and found that they had a flathead 10" pressure plate and clutch disc in the local warehouse. With my FirstCallOnline account I could order it this morning and pick it up before lunch. The best part, the price tag was $172.85!!!

This morning, I called Speedway to see if I could cancel my order, but it's already shipped, so I'll be sending their clutch back once it arrives tomorrow.

 

We'll be there Friday for moral support!!!

 

Go man go!

 

Sorry for the delay of the clutch problem. I am running a 9 inch clutch on my flatty because I didn't want pull the pan again after discovering I had installed the 9 inch fly wheel instead of the 10" I had on the shelf. Haven't worn it out in 8 years. ....

I had a problem with my bolt on steering arms coming loose not too long after completing my 40.
The bolt came out while traveling at 60 miles an hour. You can see it's thread imprint at the bottom of this rotor. It stuck there started machining itself down. I was fortunate that I didn't wreck the car and kill some other people that were sharing the road with me at the time.






I reinstalled the bolts with copious amounts of thread locker and added safety wires to be certain they would not come out again.

I hope this is the last surprise of your engine swap and that you are ready to roll by Friday!

Sam

 

"This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head." ~ The Dude, you know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

As always happens when I figure I have an easy project, this one is providing me with quite an education in Ford Flathead parts compatibility and economics. Gotta love the depth of knowledge shared on the fordbarn.com and the HAMB! LOL

I was pretty excited to get out to Meeker's last night with my new 10" pressure plate and clutch. That balloon got popped REAL quickly. The dang holes didn't line up, but this time the 10" holes were too wide. After lots of pondering and wondering, and a call to C&G Ford Parts asking about their 9 1/2" pressure plate, the guy there told me that while it would fit the flywheel, the fingers are too long to work with the early Ford transmissions.

When Mike got back to the shop, I informed him of the situation and more pondering and wondering took place. Mike drained the oil out of the old flatty, which definitely had some nasty solid chunky debris in it, so we could pull the oil pan to remove the flywheel and use it on the new flatty. Then Mike called Pike to see if he might have a flywheel so we could avoid pulling the pan off that filthy motor. LOL

We called it a night, I left Mike's and stopped at Pike's and measured up a 9 1/2" pressure plate to confirm that it would indeed fit the flywheel on the "new" flatty, but the fingers were in fact too long to work with the early transmission. I did find a flywheel for a 10" clutch and threw it in the back of my truck, but since it was dark outside, and I didn't have my measuring devices with me, I didn't get to inspect it until this morning. It appears to be a 8BA flywheel, which according to @Mac VP will set the ring gear back too deep and cause problems with a starter bendix, due to the recess in the crank side of the early flywheels being deeper than the recess in the later flywheels. I wasn't ready for that plot twist!

For the record, I did call Fort Wayne Clutch and did confirm that they actually make a 9 1/2" pressure plate that has the fingers shortened to work with the early Ford transmissions. They do have them in stock at a price of $475. I did not order one of those until I determine if the measurement from the starter mounting surface to the backside of the current ring gear the same distance as the same measurement on the '40 motor? If not, that is a hard no on the Fort Wayne 9 1/2" clutch.

Sorry for the long story without any real progress, but figured it might provide some entertainment for you all.

 

About the way my projects typically go.

 

Guess it won't be at the Gathering this weekend huh?

 

Sadly, I believe you are correct.

 

Dude! You will come out on top eventually. Hang in there!

 

That was just a long post to say that I am thankful for the amount of knowledge that has been shared on the HAMB and the FordBarn, and this guy still has a LOT to learn.

Due to the time and effort into trying to problem solve, last night, we really didn't get anything done except drain the oil out of the old flatty. I sent Mike a text a little bit ago to see if he was good for me coming up to the shop this evening so I can pull oil pans and swap out the flywheels. Putting a '40 flywheel and the 9" clutch in it is the cheap solution that will be plenty fine with me. As a bonus, I can return the 10" clutch kits back to O'Reilly and Speedway and use that money to fund a 12v conversion. Something about brighter headlamps and an easily replaceable alternator just gives me a little more comfort when I drive them further than "tow truck range".

 

Got the flywheels swapped and was able to set the flathead in. Hopefully I can sneak out early tomorrow and get it together enough to fire it up. Won't be ready for the MidWest Forty Ford Gathering event this weekend, but should be good to go for The Gathering at the Roc.

 

The roc in a rag top 40 would be awesome

 

Everything I do turns into a major project.

 

All my projects adhere to this:



Your 40 is getting to be in a similar fix.

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

could you please post the O'Reilly part numbers
Thanks. Dan

 

Dan,

If you're looking for the 10" clutch kit, it is
Power Torque Clutch Kit
Line: PTQ Item: K0505-01

 

Oops.



So...it's been over a week and I am finally ready to talk about it.

When I went back to town on Thursday, I stopped by the hotel to see @Weedburner 40, @Crocodile, and Jonny. I told them "unless a miracle happened, the convertible wouldn't make it to the Midwest Forty Ford Gathering", to which Jonny replied, "What time are we heading up to get it together?

So, we all headed north to Meeker's shop, complete with a new 12v battery, some wires, and other stuff to make magic happen. When I went to find my 12v coil, I realized it was back at the house, so Jonny says, "Hey, bring your coupe back and I will put the new glass in the doors, since we have more guys to help than we have space for."

So Lyle and I head back into town, find the right length 5/8" V-belt for the new alternator, and the stuff from the house (including the coupe) and haul butt back out to Meekers.

About 5:30ish, we've got the convertible all back together and purring like a kitten. That's when I messed up.

I decide that despite having no gauges, other than a manual oil pressure gauge, I'm gonna drive the convertible back to town, with Jonny driving the coupe, and Lyle in my '03 F150, and Dale in his '40 delivery.

We made it into Springfield when things went "pear shaped", as my buddy Wayne would say.

Apparently the driver's side water pump wasn't doing it's job and I smoked the #6 piston, and wound up riding home on the back of a rollback.

After a week, I finally drained the oil to see how much carnage was evident in the oil. Surprisingly, I think the lower end is good.

Current plan is to wait until I'm in "vacation days buring mode" in November, have Meeker come down and load the convertible up on his trailer, and have a week of yanking the flatty and putting new pistons and rings in it, putting another water pump on the driver's side, wire up my gauges to work, add some manual temp gauges, then putting it back in and following MUCH more careful procedures once I get it running again.

 

Oh geez that sucks man.

 

LOL. Yeah, my "send it" mentality got me again.

 

Wow, bummer man!
Long live flatheads!

Dave

 

Crap!! Flatheads can be a test of loyalty!

 

Oh man that had to hurt..... Now you have plenty of time to fix it right.

 

Yeah, I am pretty committed to keep a flatty in the car.

 

And if you're not, you probably should be