Ladyhrp and I met up with my pal Dave to go to Pigeon Forge around 10:30Am Wednesday morning and the drive to Cherokee,North Carolina was uneventful and we stopped there to top off the tant before heading over the mountain. we cranked up and pulled out of the station and all of a sudden the truck started missing,,,Damn! I pulled back in to the station and lifted the hood,,noting jumped out as wrong,,cranked it again and it acted the same,,so I played with the timing and it ran a little better but still had a miss so in my on simple way of thinking I had fouled a plug,,so we preceded on our way winding back and fourth through the mountains and eventually arrived at the motel. We decided to let it cool off and go find a set of plugs. With the new plugs in hand Dave and I started replacing them and noticed the R45 AC plugs that I just bought and the R45 AC plugs in the truck are entirely different and because the new plugs were about 1/2" longer they wouldn't fit. After we check to see if we were getting fire we decided to see if I had compression,,,nope,,double damn!!! We removed the valve cover to discover a broken exhaust valve spring,,it's almost 9:30 PM and Deuce Roadster takes me to Advance Auto and we lucked out and found a spring and a valve spring compressor,,got back to the motel and it was raining and getting late so we postponed trying to do a parking lot repair until Thursday morning,,,guess who didn't sleep worth a **** Wednesday night! Thursday morning we awoke to rain again,,We didn't have a way to put air to the spark plug hole to hold the valve but my pal Deuce Roadster had a plan,,,Rope!,,huh? I'm not really happy right now but I ain't gonna hang myself! We pushed the truck under the covered entrance at the motel as Randy explained that we would get the piston up to it's highest point and start stuffing rope in on top of the piston and that would keep the valve from dropping,,,about this time Barry ratrodO showed up and helped out. After about 45 minutes the job was done and I was a happy camper again,, Luck was on my side,,,I didn't drop a valve to could have wiped out my engine and good friends like Dave,Randy and Barry,,not to mention a lot of people around the motel offering tools. HRP Yeah,,broke top & bottom. o
wow, that could of been so much worse.. luck was on your side my friend. hope you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip. its all good till something blows up i say.. rock on chris.
Great story! Sorry about your luck, but one of the amazing things about this hobby is everybody pulling together to help a brother out. Hope it held together after that.
Well Danny, That'll be one to remember. Sorry to hear you had troubles. Good to hear that you and the team figured it out. I'm leaving at the crack of dawn to drive over for the day. Hope my trip isn't as eventful as yours. See you guys tomorrow morning. Looks like we're in for a spell of good weather. -Tom
Wow-lucked out on that one-good old school repair tip too. get the rope from your bathroom " soap on a rope"? (Ha!)
Glad you found it, that could have been WAY worse. Looks like good weather all weekend. Hopefully we will be there tomorrow.
Good deal... I fixed a buddy's 350 chevy with a broken valve spring. He flamed my 56 Pontiac while I fed a length of cotton/nylon rope in the hole, replaced the spring and he was amazed...took me about 40 minutes and he spent a lot longer on my primer flames. Use that "slippery" pliable cotton/nylon mix rope so it doesn't get tangled inside the hole..
Good deal... I fixed a buddy's 350 chevy with a broken valve spring. He flamed my 56 Pontiac while I fed a length of cotton/nylon rope in the hole, replaced the spring and he was amazed...took me about 40 minutes and he spent a lot longer on my primer flames. Use that "slippery" pliable cotton/nylon mix rope so it doesn't get tangled inside the hole..
Well ... what we really did was get the piston @ dead bottom center ( it's lowest point ). Then remove the #4 exhaust rocker arm and push rod. Then feed in the rope and then rotate the crankshaft ... by using the harmonic balncer bolt. When the #4 piston was at almost top dead center ... the crankshaft would not move any higher ... I knew that the valve COULD NOT DROP ... So then the spring retainers can be removed... then the spring. Reverse the prodedure and HRP is up and running again. Danny and I have talked about this ... and he is going to change out all the valve springs when he gets his pickup back home ( where he has compressed air ) . That will make him feel better but we all know ... the remaining 15 valve springs very possibly would go another 100 thousand miles .
Good to hear you got it back running.I been here at pigeon forge since Monday im glad it finally quit raining and we got some good weather
Broke a valve spring in Pidgeon Forge going to the old Gatlinburg run. We used a bent screwdriver to hold the valve up. Made it the three hundred miles back home with no problems, but decided to put in a fresh 327.
It is ALL GOOD !! I just would not want a HAMBER to put the piston @ Top Dead Center and then have to try and get the rope in The wife and I enjoyed our Pigeon Forge weekend ... Over 100 DEUCES, hanging out with GREAT friends and the good weather. Could not have been better. .
Makes you wonder why that one let go... How many miles do the springs have on em?? Nice save, -Abone. PS. HRP I thought I might see you at the Columbia thing last weekend...
They probably are but I am gonna replace them just for piece of mind,,BTW,thanks for the help. Glad I got to meet you finally! I have roughly 18,000 miles on the engine and they were new springs when the engine was built. HRP
thats a good ole trick.glad it worked for ya, i bet the folks at the motel were looking at cha kinda funny.
Glad yall got your lil pick up back going ! Saw your ttruck at the show was gonna stop by and introduce myself but the new wifey was rushing me thru the show Saturday so we could go to Dollyhell (Dollywood) . - Mayor
That was some fine work you did, Deuce Roadster! Guess it helps to have built a few engines yourself.
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