Don't know where I heard it years ago, but a few of my cars had issues with the "master bolt". That's the ONE bolt that once adjusted/replaced/tightened/loosened improperly causes maladies and failures in various other systems. It's not the same bolt from car to car either. You never know which one it is until after you've screwed with it. Problem is, you can't reverse course to get it back to normal as once you screw with it a new Master Bolt is designated. I have managed to find the master bolt on many cars I've had through the years.....
LOL! Now THAT is a great explanation of old car love right there... the invisible power struggle goes on and on and on. I just finished working on the old stepside chevy truck and after nearly two years and four rebuilds on it, i tossed the 650 double pumper aside, through on another carb and BINGO!!! Another 50 horses came out of nowhere. I am almost sick thinking about all of the things i have changed trying to make it run better and it was the carb all along.
****ing Johnny Sack. The heater core was leaking in my '68 F250 junk hauler so I replaced it. With a little pressure in the system my water pump destroyed itself within a half hour; the fan was wobbling like a drunk ferris wheel. Fixed that and the radiator hoses blew. Now all thats left is the freeze plugs and the radiator....
It's good to hear that others have the same experiences that I do with these damned old cars. Every time I undertake a repair or modification, there is always ONE thing that simply won't budge, sheers off or gets dropped and then ****ed into some alternate dimension.
Thanx for the replies.....I hear ya about replacing systems....it just makes sense. When my tired 265 mill blew a head gasket and died I couldn't imagine bolting up my new motor to the original powerglide so the ****** was upgraded to a 700r4 and the whole drivetrain and cooling system were redone. (down to the shift indicator...did those freaking goofball engineers really put reverse and drive on the same side of neutral? careful downshifting over bumps bro!) I see the silver-haired gents with their ground-up resto-mod's and ghost-flames gliding into their spaces at the local car show. It would be cool to conceptualize and design a complete build from A to Z (and be able to write a check for it) That said, we are a growing family and repairing and replacing in puzzle pieces is just the way it is over here. I'm cool with that. We get to experience the many iterations of the car and it kind of grows with us. My kids experience the feeling of laying across warm sheet metal partly cause my un-refinished car's cool this way but it's not a real choice since I haven't had the thousands for a re-paint anyway. (Goddam they were little when this car came home!) There's a list of cool **** my wife would love to do on this car but dough being what it is I will defer an upgrade till later when it seems like it will work. Just got my *** KICKED on the front end this time is all. Sure drives nice now though. I think I could hand a sandwich into the back seat and still be in my lane. Have a great day.
The Jalopy Journal
