Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Randall although it was a pain in the ass for you , I thank you for posting the problem with the distributer gear. What working experiance I have had with roller cams motors revolved with off topic 5.0 mustang stuff. I never gave it a thought that I might have an issue with a brand new { even though I bought it at a swap meet a few years back, long term project ! } msd drop and play unit. But the new gear from Summit showed up today. But even though I love giving you guys grief , its why I always follow you and James , Jackson, Norb and sadly my long loss buddy Scott. Because you always post more about the F----K ups than patting yourselves on the backs and bragging how great you are. And all of us learn from it. James and I have a good natured race planned at fallout to celebrate my 66th birthday the 17th . But even if he is half way up the return road when I cross the finish line, after the race he and I will have a beer and he will tell me how to be faster. Just remember I only pick on people I like and I think all you guys are great! Now get that car on track and make Jackson cry like a little girl!! lol Larry

 

Good to hear, glad we got you squared away with a correct gear. My gear came in too. To be honest I sort of hate to stick it in there, it is so light, it feels like something from a toy store. AND believe it or not, it showed up with some assembly required. It didn't come with a new roll pin and it only has one hole. AND according to my calipers and reported MSD replacement pin size, that hole is too small.

So I guess I will find a .125" x .75" roll pin somewhere today and a new 1/8" drill bit. You would think for what Comp Cams charged for that little beauty they could have at least included two holes!

 

I also finally found out where we got instructions for installing the distributor the first time around. I knew there were a bunch of steps and I had recollection of a few of them but no idea where I found those steps. I ripped through instruction drawer in the tool box, nothing. I went back through the thread, nothing. I have been Googling the holy crap out of the words that might bring up instructions or videos etc., nothing.

Then last night I opened up the FAST software to have a look at it and it all started to come back. Under help tab was the official, FULL instruction and installation guide to the system. It included everything I need to reinstall it.

 

Slightly used Cobra for sale cheap. Lol
I swear someday it is like a Hee Haw sketch around hear. If it weren't for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

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Hang in there! Many people feel just like you. Keep giving us inspiration!

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LOL DD...I had a young guy (new truck driver) come into the shop last week for unit numbers and USDOT stack on his rig. I would say he was about 25 years old. Any way I was writing down his USDOT number and VIN etc. I asked if he needed a unit number on the truck? He said yes BR549. I laughed out loud and he said what? I said you must be a big fan of Junior Samples. He said who? I said BR549 from Hee Haw. He had heard of it but had never seen a single episode. I said so where did you get your unit number? He said his name was Brian Richards (BR) and 549 was his favorite volume of Marvel Comics Amazing Spider Man. LMAO.

 

That is forkin' hilarious!

 

Okay here is the scoop. We started this morning making our standard Saturday morning run to Springfield for breakfast. After we ate I headed over to a farm supply store where I get the majority of my nuts and bolts to snag a roll pin.


When we got back I double checked the roll pin size in both the shaft and the "one" hole in the gear. It appeared to be the right size. The gear is tight fit on the shaft as expected. I oiled both up a bit to assist with the install. I eyeballed the holes in each and got the gear started on the shaft.


With it on as far as I could slide it by hand, I took deep well socket and very carefully we tapped it on and up the shaft until the holes aligned. Knowing we had to be absolutely perfect with the alignment, I sacrificed an old 1/8" drill bit.


After the gear was on, my "bit tool" would not slide in. No way we could align the holes perfectly the first try but we were extremely close. I ground the end of the drill bit tool a bit making it sort of a rounded point. Then I slipped it in the gear hole and lightly tapped it until it slid all the way in and aligned the holes.


I took a pair of vise grips and worked the bit tool out and replaced it with a brand new 1/8" bit. After gently tapping it all the way in, we carefully chucked it up in the drill and made quick work of the other side of the gear.


I started the rollpin with a light tap and then used the vise to simply press it all the way in being careful not to hit any of the teeth etc.


...and easy as pie, we are in and ready to drop the distributor back in place. I snagged the special priming tool and we headed back over to the Cobra.

 

We primed the pump. Just about burned up the old Dewalt cordless trying to get the 20/50 racing oil moving on a fairly chilli day. But after a bit, we finally got it all the way up through the push rods so we stopped and stabbed the distributor.

Now for you guys that have followed for a while, you might remember how amazed I was when this distributor just dropped right in time after time the first round. But that seemed to have ended today. No matter how I held my mouth, it simply would not drop. After looking at the situation it became obvious the pump rod was up much higher then when I had primed it. So apparently I had unwhittingly pulled the rod out of the pump when I pulled the priming tool up and out.

Now this should not have been possible. There is a clip on rod that should only allow it to come up a fraction or two before hitting the bottom of the distributor shaft boss. I got the tool back on the rod and spent 20 minutes trying to manipulate it back in place. But there is a lip where it enters the pump and I could feel us hitting all around it. I just needed to lift the rod a bit and then I might have a chance. I tried a bit of axel grease on the tool to see if it would hold it....but no good. We tried several tools but nothing.

Finally I got my small extendable magnet with some neoprene tubing on the side of the magnet to keep it from sticking to the block. I snagged the rod and lifted it just a bit and made several attempts at squirling the end back in the pump. Finally I lifted it up more and the entire rod started to come up and out of the hole. It came all the way out until the before mentioned retaining clip hit the bottom of the boss. No way it slid all the way down there. But what was painfully possible was the rod is in there upside down! I am just leaning there (slightly pissed off) contemplating what the next step would be (when that step was decided for me). The magnet let go, the rod dropped and I heard it rattle a bit and then hit the bottom of the pan.

 

So the pan is coming off again, not something I am very happy about but no way around it. But it is down right cold today. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and over 70 so we will wait until then. In the mean time we decided to finish taking the white letters off the Hoosier and get them back on the car.

They looked great. However after installing one of them I noticed it was actually touching the inside fender well. Just barely, but touching non-the-less. I honestly never thought about them not fitting. I mean we have the 10" crusts on their on the knock-off wheels. But the wheel offset between them and the steel wheels is the issue. No problem on the smaller slicks we took off but not quite enough room for the new ones. So that is where I left things in the shop. We will have to install a spacer. Plenty of length on the wheel studs for it but still a pain in the backside on a day that seems destined to break my back anyway. LOL

 

Been there.... Done that.

The distributor gear. Ford sent all of theirs out with only one hole as did all of the aftermarket ones I had used. You do just like you did... Get that one hole lined up ( a punch works better than a drill bit) and drill thru to the other side. Makes everything line up perfectly. If you ever take that gear back off... Mark its position because more than likely if you rotate it 180... It ain't gonna line back up.

 

And you have to love Ford oil pump drive shafts... been there and done that with a couple of my Y-blocks and FE's years ago.

 

Randall, You must not drink because by now I would be passed out intoxicated! I get a kick out of the fact that you got a Comp gear and I got a Crane and they came in the same black boxes, just different name tags! lol Larry

 

Randall you do know you don’t have stupid issues like this with a mopar or a Chevy for that matter lmao


Chrome don’t get ya home

 

Has the dist housing seating area to gear face dimension been checked? Dist body O ring?

 

Jesus this one is fighting you every step of the way.

 

Sorry for all the little drama brother. You'll get that snake up and running in no time. You got this!

Ain't it fun being a hotrodder!

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Well we are back together again. We took the morning off to visit Jackson at the custom car shop where he works and sort of clear our head. Besides we had a few parts to deliver his way any how. When we got back it was really nice outside so we had some lunch and then set about removing the pan...AGAIN.

We got the car all jacked up again, high enough to move around a bit under it. We drained the fresh oil into a very clean container and then took pan off. Of course the rod was submerged in what oil was left in the front drop area. I pulled it out and wiped it down.


As you can see it is an aftermarket ARP unit with an arrow on it showing which direction goes up...LOL. I made sure it was pointing correctly this time around. We removed the oil pump, reinstalled the shaft and then put it all back together. However before reinstalling the pan, I decided to try and drop the distributor. LOL

Unfortunately, nothing changed. It still only dropped to the same depth as before and that was it. There was nothing obvious going on this time so we took a closer look. The depth of the boss is 4" from the top the intake. After measuring the distributor, that is exactly how deep it was stopping. I could only assume the shaft, for some reason was not going in the hole in the boss.

To be sure there were no other issues, we decided to take the gear back off. With the gear off we got the same results. So we removed the shaft. I dropped the distributor body in and it easily fell straight down etc. Then I took the shaft, by itself and a flashlight to watch and sure enough, it would not go into the hole.

So this was quite a mystery. There is no way the hole could have gotten smaller. I could see it might get bigger, wallowed out or something but no way it shrunk. As for the shaft, there is no way I can figure it could have swelled up...LOL. I thought maybe there was a bur on the shaft (which to be honest would not surprise me). But it would have had to have been microscopic. I couldn't really check the hole in the boss as simply. I took a drill bit the exact size of the boss hole and taped a ratchet extension to it. I put it in top area of the boss hole and it went right in and turned freely. So I felt there was no bur there.

I tried the shaft again same thing. It would not go it. So I grabbed some emory cloth and went after the last inch of the shaft a bit. I tried putting it back in and it actually started but was a bit tight. So I went after it again. After a few more attempts, the shaft dropped right in the hole. I have no idea what could have caused it, but we put the distributor back together and it dropped right in, you could feel the gears engage etc. So we went ahead and reinstalled the pan before calling it a day.

 

Possibly a burr got raised up from when the gear teeth failed?

 

So now to the slicks issue. Just looking at the wheel studs it appeared I had all kinds of room for a spacer. I figured at least a 1/2" one. But after trying it out, 5/16 was about wide as I could go and feel comfortable with the amount of threads showing through the wheel. And I am not comfortable with the backspacing. Not interested at all in cutting a slick like it was on a lathe at 130 mph.

Zoe suggested putting longer wheel studs in it, which is a good idea on any other applications. But because of the Knock Off system on this car, that is as long as they can be. The pins that hold the mounting apparatus on and sink into the wheels obviously depend upon those studs. So...

I double checked Wheel Vintiques and a couple of others manufactures. If I want to keep with a steel wheel, I will have to order a custom backspace. While the price doesn't really reflect anything crazy custom, the wait time is prohibitive. So I guess I am going to take the "crusts" off the cool factory style knock off wheels and put these new Hoosier slicks on them. I mean it makes sense right?

Honestly, I really only have the Radir's for looks. I hate giving up the optional black steel wheel on the rear look but like Jackson said yesterday, the car will look better in the Halibrand style wheels anyway. No plans on dumping a brand new pair of Radir Crusts on the market, I will just hold on to them and maybe get a set of steelies for them to run on in the future! Or maybe even put them on the next project which is Dad's wrecked 27' RPU.

But for now, my tire guy is going to think I have totally lost my mind when I roll back in there this week. LOL

 

Get a pair of steel wheels the right width and cut them apart, move to the back space you need and reweld. You welded roll bars, you can weld wheels.

 

All I know is if you don't hit the track pretty soon, your lap belts will expire again! lol Larry

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

So don't buy your belts yet Larry
You gotta get going on that Merc, so I can race you with the 64

 

Well I finally broke away and got the slicks mounted again. So for better or worst, they are on the car.









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So Saturday we will run the valves, set the timing, drop the distributor, phase it, install new plugs and fire the old girl.

That is the plan.

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Looks way meaner that way anyhow! Larry

 

Better Better Better!!!

 

Fat Bottom Girly Snake