Seems like you're having alot of trouble with this, being stranded, outta gas, points messin' up. I've been stranded in my A before, coming back from a show once raining hard. The air filter got soaked,(no hood) in a hilly area. No cell phone signal. Had to wait an hour before my buddies figured out I wasn't behind them.Don't know how to use a rear view mirror I guess, damn Okies. There was one truck that kept circleing like a buzzard. Goin' down the road a coupla miles then turning around, waiting for me to walk, or leave it. Sure was paranoid that night. Told my buddies from then on they better watch better than that cause next time it could be them. Anyways old cars sure are fun to drive even if they screw up once in a while. Good Luck in the future. It'll straighten up.
I think it's kinda funny that he was stranded on the side of the road and fixed the HAMB first. Glad all worked out ok. Bryan
That's why my pals and I now use CB's...keep in touch all the time...and a few of my pals do not watch their rear view mirrors either... Got stuck on a Kansas back road on the way to the HAMB drags at about 9:30 at nite...took them 45 minutes to notice there weren't any headlights in their rear view mirrors anymore...fuel pump took a crap...don't carry one of those...!!! R-
It was actually a really good experience for me... Believe it or not, I had never been inside a crab style flathead dizzy... That said, I should have listen to Keith and avoided the issue completely!
I haven't had a car break down on me in a looooooong time. Maybe it's 'cause all my cars I've built myself and I KNOW them so well... Or maybe I've just been lucky
I know how you feel, my car has had a lot of little problems coming down from Denver (5,300 feet ) to Texas. Just gotta hang in there and keep puttin' the miles on it.
Prolly luck Sinister...if you put as many highway miles on your cars as I and my pals do (and I too build my own cars)...sooner or later things will break, take a dump or just plain quit from wear...anything built by a human is subject to failure...!!! R-
I had a primer black 39 plymouth 4 dr sedan. We were driving to Guthrie one day and the rear suicide door opened going down the road. The people behind us said it looked like a Buzzard landing. So the name stuck.
Points, cap, rotor, condensor in the glove box makes for some CHEAP insurance!! I went so far as to make a crummy air filter shroud for "wet weather" - it's NOTHING to look at, but during a down pour I can slip it over the open element air filters to divert the rain. Came close, but never used it yet, but it's in the trunk - just in case.
Word... I actually had to order more points to keep in my box... good idea for a post.... hummmm.... Best shit & tools to cary in your hot rod...
Yeah, I've put over 100,000 miles on my *ahem* musclecar with no MAJOR breakdowns...never had to WALK......I take that back.....ONCE... when the tranny started slipping and finally gave up But that was YEARS ago. I try to keep my vehicles maintained to AVIOD problems.....maybe I'm just different....but I'll work on my car when there really isn't ANYTHING wrong with it........hahaha!
if youre gonna roll old iron , always carry extra points, a match book to gap em fast , extra fuel filter and possibly a set o plugs. they dont take up much room and its the kind of stuff thatll save yer ass on some dark and lonely road.also if you really want to be "traditional", a cb radio is far superior to both those new fangled cellair phones and lap top thingies. just my thought!
My experance when we organise cruses we can expect about a 10% breakdown rate. So if 10 of us are on the road at least 1 will break.. 20=2 breakdowns. Most guys have a spare part or two so there is usually a fuel pump, generator etc between everyone and enough tools. It doesent do much good if the guys running up front dont watch their mirrors like you said. I perfer to be up front anyway. In the back your eating the fumes from the rats burnning oil and running rich.... But it is kind of funny watching their wheels wobble and wandering in their lane.
the spring part of the points had lost its "spring"... They could no longer be gapped... I guess this is pretty common with the repro flathead points...
Do they happen to have any Petronix inserts for those . . . or would that be an untapped market? You can still have the vintage look, but for cripes sake, get something reliable in that cool old car. I guess that's part of the thrill . . . do I have enough gas . . .will it run . . . can I stop it . . . unfortunately this isn't 40 years ago . . . too many cars and bozo's for my tastes of dealing with things.
BULL SHIT! I had one of those "far superior" things about 10 years ago when the clutch linkage gave way right in the middle of an emergency lane change. I coasted to a stop under an underpass to work on the car . . . CB is not very effective. I would have given my left nut for a cell phone back then . . . instead I sat out there in the blistering heat (rolled under the bridge for a reason) trying to bail myself out of that situation. I finally found a bracket on the carb that I could use to make a clutch cable end out of. Like my earlier post on the subject . . . some concessions to technology aren't necessarily a bad thing.
git rid of the points ! mallory unilite & a msd box !!!!!!! ? mine has worked great for 16 or 18 years. every time there is somthing wrong with a motor it`s , the points ? it`s one of the things to get rid of on a flathead ! and the unilite makes them run cooller , allso because of the advance . I have never had to touch my set up , other than to replace stuff that still worked fine ! to make it run better at the drags cap- rotor !!
Sounds like a good idea. I keep a small soft bag with hand tools in the trunk of my "A." Inside the soft bag are smaller soft bags, one with combo wrenchs, one with a 3/8" rachet and sockets, one with different pliers, and one with screwdrivers. It's a heavy little bag, but it's quiet and it's gotten me out of a jam more than once! As for points, does Pertronix make something for the flatty dist.? Ya got to have reliability man! It helps to keep the thing running clean too! By the way, the "A" is cool! Ya just need to work out the bugs!
Ryan, I suggest getting a set of Blue Streak points, as well as a spare condensor. I have the same set in my 34 for 9 yrs now, doesn't miss a beat, but I can tell when the condensor is taking a shit, because the car progressly begins to runs like shit. I could kill the points if I didn't recognize what is going on when it happens. Another ? is When Keith built the car, did he covert it to 12 volts of leave 6 volts? The reason I inquire is because when I attempted to drive this 34 repeatedly after I had converted it to 12 v it would begin to crap out, after a short while. I tried an experiment by using a condensor from a late 60's Dodge product that looked visually correct on the side of the crab cap distrib. I ended my problems right there & I have 2 sets of spare points in stock just for good measure. Before I did the change of the condensor I ordered up a $300.00 Mallory Pointlesss Distrib from Patricks. It came with plug wires & recommended using a new coil. I decided that I didn't really like the way it would look on that cars engine so, it still sits in its brand new box with the plug wires in another location on the wall still in their box. From what I understand,these Mallory units have a controversial history of operation. Pertronix is here in San Dimas, You might want to give em a call & see if a pointless unit would work with a 42-48 distrib. I'm not hip on these that's why I can't offer up an info on it, but I have used many in small blocks & dig the fact that you get HEI type reliablity w/o compromisng the looks of the engine. Good luck drivin the a-bone!!!!
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