The Henry J had a strange driver today, I let my daughter's boyfriend drive it while I drove the 41 to Father's Day lunch. He and the car both did good, different type of car than he's used to driving, I told him to just pretend he's in his tail dragger with the nose up.... lol
3, count them, 3 Henry J's at the cruise night tonight ! All are members of the Gasser Gang of WNY and the cruise night feature cars were gassers and hot rods.
Do you have the specs on the middle one? I just got my 53 and I am working through some issues with the 134 but want to swap it.
New parts for Bad Moon, double adjustable shocks with a 130 lb spring to replace the single adjustable with unknown spring rate that seemed a bit stiff. Also got a new 4 way cutoff switch to hopefully fix the issue of the 2 way switch that wouldn't kill the car. The last thing was getting a full size crank pulley to replace the 25% under driven pulley I have on it, to speed up the waterpump at idle. Comparison of the 2 shocks Shocks installed Cutoff switch installed The crank pulley will have to wait, heat index is a thick 95 degrees today.
I dont know how much street this car sees vs track, but how do you find using rod ends on the shocks vs poly/rubber style ends? Any issue with those or the ladder bar rod ends, regarding harshness, banging, clunking, high wear, noisy, etc? The '60 Falcon gasser i'm putting back on the street has all rod ends on the rear suspension and shocks and i'm hoping that wasn't a bad mistake. it'll be a good while before she's a driver to find out. -rick
Are you running a telescoping wishbone track locator on those ladders or an X brace hiding in front of the pumpkin? -rick
I drive the car all over and I don't notice the solid rod ends, but I also didn't build the car to be a comfortable cushy mushy impersonator either. It's a legit street strip car that's void of any civil items. I run a diagonal link
Success ! The new 4 post battery cutoff switch cuts the car off, glad that's behind me. I couldn't figure it out back in 2011 so I cheated and put it on the negative side and nobody ever checked the actual routing, just if it killed the car or not. On the latest rebuild I wanted to get it right but it still didn't kill the car after I added the charging wire to the switch and adding a diode. I guess the moral of the story is you can't kill a car with an alternator using a 2 post switch.
12 years later me and the J tempted our fate by going back to the drag strip. First thing was getting it ready, bolting on my slicks that have now became a little stiff, not the original slicks but a used set I bought off of a friend. They are a little bigger at 29 x 11 vs. the 28 x 10.5 I had on before, was hoping to cut that 4.57 gears down just a little and the bigger footprint can't hurt right. Flushing the antifreeze https://youtube.com/shorts/kbJawrUUWII?si=t6dukYrHubnaL2PM Dropping the exhaust and a new set of plugs, time to pack tools, jack, air tank, what all did I used to take, man it's been a long time since I done this ! On the way I'm feeling a little nervous thinking about is the car going to launch straight, is it going to have death wobble, is it going to shake my filling out at speed, is it going to stop from speed and negotiate the short shutdown and sharp turn ??? How am I going to feel physically, is the ICD pacemaker going to shock me if I get to excited, I don't want to get shocked, if I do get shocked my days of racing are over, why am I thinking about all of this ??? Get to the track and my mind is back on track also, let's get unloaded and set up.
Devising my plan of attack .... I'll leave the shifter in drive so I don't have to think about shifting, leave at a very low rpm so if it shoots left or right I can get it reeled back in. If it goes straight I'll put a little speed into it to see if it shakes but not so much that I can't get it stopped, but enough to test things out. I've got to do a decent burnout to soften up these old slicks, hopefully the line lock works and the car can actually do a burnout. Oh yeah I better deflate those slicks, I had put 24 psi in them to round the surface out since they were off rims for a long time. The old slicks I had the best 60 ft with 13 psi, I'll take these down to 15 on the first pass to clean the surface up. Call to lanes ... I get in line for the right lane since it's a little wider, just incase I need the room to maneuver if it goes left or right. I decide to drop the slicks down to the 13 psi and of course they start the lanes, shit, I'm not ready. I jump in the car trying to get the brand new harness on which latches opposite from my old harness, where's the crotch strap, shit it's fell out of the seat and is on the floor. I'll go without it, get everything latched in and the right shoulder belt isn't, wtf, unlatch get it together and latch. Now for the brand new helmet, the strap ends are rubber and keep getting hung up in the D rings, cars are starting to go around, damn, I'm that guy ! The burnout ... It's a tight turn to get in the water box, am I straight, drop shifter in second, set the line lock, hope this all works ! I get the signal and it busts the tires loose right up to the 6200 chip in the msd box, why isn't my 6000 rpm shift light not on ??? I ease off the throttle for a few seconds, release the line lock button and roll out still under some power and it grips the surface, throwing my head back into the seat, boy howdy ! The launch ... I move the shifter back into drive, ease it up to light the top bulb, bring the rpms up to 1500 rpm so it's not to violent leaving, just getting a feel for the car ya know. Bring it in to light second bulb, now I'm thinking OK hit the gas on the last yellow ya dummy ! Lights drop I hit the gas and the damn thing stands right the hell up, I remember raising my eyebrows and thinking whoa hey now ! This got my full attention, it's a different feeling wheelie than 12 yrs ago, it's was a softer up and out, not the ol violent straight up and down as before. It feels like it's heading left so I lift a bit, it sits down and I'm back on the gas, you can see the rich exhaust in the video. About this time I'm thinking, hey it's a test pass get out of the gas so you can see how it feels at some speed, I've never had the car over 50 mph driving it on the street. It all felt really good, like old hat driving Miss Daisy kinda way, the ICD didn't shock me, let's ride it out. The only thing left to conquer is the top end, will it stop and negotiate that short turn off road, like a champ it did ! Overall a great first pass ! It still pulls the wheels after all the changes, it went straight, no death wobble, didn't shake my fillings out and stopped at the big end, I call that a success ! An out of practice 607 light, 1.52 60 ft, 7.34 at 92 mph, a great get re-acquainted run.
Great job . You need to relax a bit and let that bad J EAT! You are doing great, and the car looks awesome on the launch. Well done my friend.
2nd pass .... Since the first pass was pretty good I decide to bring it in at 1500 rpm and leaving the shifter in drive again. The only thing I'm doing different is that I'm not going to lift during the wheelie. They call for lanes, I check the air in the slicks and bleed off a couple pounds that the sun put in, put my jacket on and head up. I'm directed into lane #1 so I'll be in the narrower left lane, but easier to get into the water box. Burnout is the same, still no shift light, nice pull leaving the box, captured right when this photo was taken, nose high and a little wrinkle in the slick. Put the shifter in drive and ease in and light the top bulb, bring it up to the same 1500 rpm and try to leave sooner this time. Go man go and don't lift !
The big Oh Shit moment ... All was going good ... until it wasn't. I stayed in the gas through the wheelie and it picked up a tenth in the 60 ft clocking a 1.42, oh yeah ! The car started drifting towards the centerline so I put a little left input in the wheel, still going towards center so a little more left input. It was right about that time I realize the left input isn't working because I ain't got no damn steering, the steering wheel is free floating ! I throw it into neutral and gradually apply the brake, do I jam on the brake and take a chance the car darts left or right, I just keep pressure on the brake. It crosses the center collecting a cone, the white thing above the blue 55 All this time I'm actually pretty calm, it's not making any sudden moves, nothing to get excited about. It keeps going towards the wall and I'm at a point I know it's hitting the wall regardless so when it's close I jump hard on the brake. Nothing like the grinding sound you can hear over open headers, the crap flying around outside the window and the sudden jolt of the stop up against the wall. I get my harness off, climb out while getting my helmet off, right across from the approaching safety team. They yell what's wrong, I grab the steering wheel and spin it like a roulette wheel and yell back, no f'n steering ! I look in the space above the front tire and see the steering shaft isn't where it's supposed to be, came out of the lower Borgeson joint. The safety guy is on repeat "I don't know how I'm going to tow this" I interrupt and say let's push it back so I can flip the front open and I'll drive it back ! We do that, I put the shaft in the Borgeson joint as far as I can, close the front, fire it up and drive off towards the return road. Once on the return road I pull over and open it up to access the damage and try to understand what the hell just happened, that's when I noticed the steering wheel is out of the column about an inch. The dimwhit bulb goes on, I pulled on the steering wheel during the launch and somehow pulled the shaft right past both set screws ! Thankfully Brian's 55 is a lot faster and I scrubbed a lot of speed off, things could of been a lot worse, I got away lucky on this one. Here's a short video from the stands https://youtube.com/shorts/VwTFtTiAOT8?si=iOaHEPQCa-_j9xog And one from the burnout box How about that 1.42 60 ft though, this thing should get down when on full send
Oh man that could have been so much worse. Sorry to hear of the mishap but thats racing. Glad you are Ok.
You handled it well...I hope the damage isn't to extensive and as mentioned glad you weren't injured...
Everyone stopped by asking what happened and for a look see and also offering advice Some ill advised put it back together and make first round suggestions too lol I had marked the shaft by the Borgeson joints when I first put it together to watch for any movement. Hard to believe it pulled past the set screws with the divits I put in the shaft Currently I'm trying to install a roll pin through the Borgeson joint and shaft to prevent this from happening again. That Borgeson joint is some incredibly hard stuff, I've broken about 8 drill bits so far and dulled just as many. Taking it really slow and using plenty of cutting oil but I finally got a hole through it. The other end I'm thinking about tapping the shaft so the set screw threads into it with some lock-tite, I've broken to many drill bits already.
My shaft to the steering box is long enough that I have to take 2 bolts out of the steering box and let it rotate down to get the shaft out of the joints, but I've never pulled the front wheels like you did. Gary
Damage is cosmetic only, I really don't see anything mechanically wrong, but of course I'll be going over the car with a fine tooth comb. Photos from the track And a closer look at home
I really don't see how the wheelie could cause it, other than me pulling on the steering wheel. The body is attached to the frame and steering box is attached to frame, it all moves as one. In this photo the gap between the top Borgeson joint and steering column is how much it pulled up. Once the Borgeson hit the column it couldn't come up any further but was enough for it to slip out the the bottom Borgeson. Somewhere in this build thread is where I built the column, I used the lower part of a chevelle column to get the bearing and retainer. I also used the chevelle shaft, if my memory is right there was some kind of snap ring that prevented the shaft from sliding up or down inside of column.
Wow, you handled the pressure of that little trip like a pro, very glad you came out of it safe and healthy. Whomever took the photos at the track gets a pat on the back too.
Yeah I was lucky, I was more than happy to sit out the rest of the day LOL I still think it was a successful day, I didn't get a chance to run the car all out but I found out a lot about the car. Once the steering is finished I plan on going back out and getting a full pass in. I'm also happy with my own performance, other than the slow lights. Lol I didn't get to excited, it's been a long 11 years with the heart issues and wondering what will happen if I try to race again. Now I know and can move forward ! The photos are from friends and a couple video captures, glad they cought the action. I've gotten a couple more trickling in I'll post, now I can prove I'm not just a poser lol
I noticed in those videos that I'll need to take a few jet sizes out of the secondaries or maybe remove the air cleaners to introduce more air. I'll concentrate on getting a full pass in first, then start looking at optimizing the current combo for a faster pass. Like a little more tuning, more rpm at launch and shifting manually.
The Jalopy Journal
