hey guys, just came in from a little show and shine at a church a couple miles away, figured its be a good short shake ddown sort of drive for the ford. anyways car runs great all the way there, i get there and have to park slightly uphill--just enough that it would roll in nutreal so i stick it in reverse and leave it as its stuck in overdrive for the time being. --dont know if any of this is relivant to my situation but it could be i guess anyways its time to leave and i pull out and everythings fine, i drive down the 4 lane going about 40 for a couple miles doing just fine, decide to see if the hardware store is open so i snake threw down town just fine,there closed, turn around to go home and its gridlock for about 5 blocks, wtf?! i look up at the corner building and notice it says 94 deg, great its 2 pm its 94 and im sitting in traffic with a flathead v8 in a totaly inclosed engine bay. what the hell is going on!?! i look way away and see a cop holding traffic at a stand still. and i see a giant neon green 52 chevy 2 ton truck go FLYING buy with some stainless looking spaceship thing on the back with a couple tucks with cameras all over then following in toe. i guess the were holding up traffic to film something i guess???? nice. i drive slightly forward and it feels like im trying to leave up hill, like the brakes are holding me back or the cluctch is just being weird. i sit back almot a hole car away from the car in front of my hoping to get more air movement threw the rad and wheni can go forward i go to get into second gear and as soon as i hit the clutch the motor drops all the way to idle and almost flops when i let it back out, acting like i put it into 2nd way to early or like its just slipping or something--could be because of the overdrive? i finaly make it out of the 5 block hell, leaving it in first because of the aquard second shift. get it backonto an open road and make the second gear shift just fine, make it to the parking lot and pop the hood. its not over heating but i can here the fluid in the rad bubbling, not puking yet though. i dont see any smoke other then the normal wisp out the oil fill tube...maybe a little more then normal. other then everything being preety warm it all looks fine. but i definatly smell something that to me smells like burnt clutch. not overwelming, just enough to smell it when your going what the hells going on here?? ive drivin the car about 230 miles with no transmission/clutch/shifting troubles. absolutly zero not evne a hint of one chalk it up to it being realy realy hot out stuck in gridlock stop and go 3 feet stop and go traffic? it was fine till we were sitting in traffic like that forever. thoughts? ill wait till its dark out and not so damn hot out to take it around the block and see how its acting tim
have you changed the thermostats in that car since you got it? just wondering... nothing to do with what happened... what did you temp read? curious... if its boiling its hot- my flatty runs low in the rad- its about 3" below the top of the cap... if I put more water it it it'll boil like that, kick out some water and then be totally fine. its a NON pressurized system... remember not to put anything more than a FIVE POUND cap on it. You'll may have problems if you do. When I bought the hex it had a 15 pound cap, it was overheating all the time-, changed the cap and instantly solved all the problems. your clutch now... if you were riding the clutch it would heat up
another thing is how low is your idle? If you have too low an idle in traffic like that the water pumps wont be moving fast enough to move the water and it'll get hot quick... if you bump your idle up it'll help the circulation and chargeing... I know its fun to drop the idle on a flathead- cuzz they run so damn smooth. if you don't have thermos in it thats bad too... you need thermos to keep the water from moving all the time, it'll allow the water in the rad a chance to cool down a hundred degrees before heading back in the engine. Tuck
answers floow questions, no idea how to change colors of the font i think thats the answer, i wasnt intentialny riding it but moving 3 blocks 12 inches at a time probably did it. seems to be fine now. should get into the cities around 11/12 you gona be around? tim
no tach in the car,but sitting in traffic i tried to keep it up a bit from normal and get some air blowing threw there with the fan turning faster
Sounds like you just heated up your clutch plate some. Next time Pull over and shut it down until the traffic clears. I've gotten burnt bad screwing around in traffic with a flatty. From now on I'm just patient. Give your block a good Vinegar douche and she'll be happy.
yeah i was looking for a spot to pull in , nothing open for the whole 4 blocks on either side of 4 lanes of traffic. looked like everybody else had the same idea by pulling over tim
Was the car stuck in overdrive the whole time? If so, you probably overheated your clutch and maybe burned the disk as well. With it stuck in overdrive, you'd have to slip it quite a bit to get going again . . . all that adds heat to the whole clutch ***embly. Your disk may be okay -- if it was mine, I'd check it out and potentially replace the disk. Stop and go traffic and multiple start/stops probably fried your disk a bit. Let us know . . .
The Jalopy Journal
