Finally Got a Henry J

Over the 1st few years of my car being on the road, I had to remake my pivot brackets for the tilt front end twice to correct the gaps between the fenders and doors. This told me my stub-to-frame joint was settling so I installed down bars from the sturdiest part of the body to the frame. I noticed right away the ride was stiffer so I knew there had been flex in my joint. I'm not saying your's is flexing, but changing gaps might show up in a good side shot video of your car carrying the front wheels. I'm just trying to help you have a safe car on the track.

Gary

 

Phil....built 3 cars with all the stuff health wise you had going on... and now wheels up.. fantastic!

 

Ah that's nothing, the Suicide King did it on the street. Can't remember if the steering wheel came off, or the steering came apart. Glad you didn't have a worse outcome.

 

All things considered, you have to be thrilled how well the car went, and extremely happy that you just scuffed the wall. Could have been a whole lot worse. I pin almost all my joints and drill a dimple in the D-shafts to make sure the set screw won't let the shaft slide out. I also have a collar on my Willys at the bottom of the steering column so no mater how hard I pull on the wheel, the shaft cant move. Glad your ok and the car is ok.

 

I remember that

 

Yes, even with what happened I'm really pleased with my little street car, runs on 93 octane and hikes the hoops, what's not to love.

 

After breaking and dulling way to many drill bits I got that diamond hard Borgeson joint drilled for the roll pin. I brought it up right through the set screw, so that one sits in the dimple and acts like a bushing for the pin.



I added a collar to the top, so the shaft inside the column can't pull up anymore



I dimpled the shaft a little deeper, ground down the bottom threads on the set screws so it's a tighter and deeper fit.
Gave it all a new suit of paint so I don't have to keep up with the bare polished shaft anymore.



I had to remove the steering box to get it all back together, this thing isn't coming apart on me again, enough of that shit !

 

You really dodged a bullet on this one! I've always been leery of those splined steering shafts, it's hard to understand how much 2 "fixed" points can move. I'll bet GM never engineered that column to have someone pulling on it so hard! Coming from an aviation background, I replace the set screws with safety wire drilled bolts and jam nuts and drill a safety wire anchor hole in the joint, but that probably wouldn't have prevented that kind of movement.

 

Glad it turned out the way it did for both you and the car.

 

Today I re-jetted the secondaries, I can't believe that no parts stores around here stock Holley jets, I must be a dinosaur or something lol
I ended up throwing 75's in the rear carb and 74's in the front carb, I don't think it'll make much difference right now and what I'm doing. My fastest pass with the old sbc was a 63 in rear carb and a 61 in front carb, of course carbs were inline and a bigger plenum.




Then I switched my harness lap belt side for side so it can load the way my old harness did, no more fumbling around.

 

Season is ending here and I'm not seeing any more test n tune nights on the schedule so I put the exhaust and street tires back on. I guess we'll pick track action back up next year, I'll put more street miles on in the meantime.

 

About a month ago I scored some original Champion stickers at a yard sale so I decided to put those on that MPH scoop I redid several months ago.




I had bought $50 bucks worth of stickers to possibly use on the scoop but once I got the Champions I knew they were the ones going on this scoop. As a teenager I had a photo of Big John's Willys with that Champion sticker on his Hilborn. I had cut it out of a magazine and carried it in my wallet like my secret love, I still have that photo too 40+ years later.



So I spent entirely to long today trying to get that scoop to fit on the Henry J ! The problem is the filters fit inside the scoop but the scoop doesn't fit over the filters.



Since I don't own a mill and didn't want to spend a full day with a sander making room I fought and fought it. I had to make perfect length air cleaner studs to barely squeeze a hold down nut between the scoop and stud. Put rear carb stud in, put filter and lid inside scoop try to drop it over stud, stick hand inside scoop and try to put the hold down nut on without dropping it, which I managed to do more than once.
For the front I had to stick the filter and air cleaner stud in the mouth of the scoop, lay filter on it's side as far as it would go slip the stud inside the air cleaner and blindly screw stud into carb. Put the air cleaner where it's supposed to go, squeeze the air cleaner lid in and try to get it over the filter, then squeeze the nut in without dropping it.
Now I have the spacers on the carbs to get the scoop to the height I wanted, so you have all these pieces slip sliding around while you're doing this. After all that the next two pieces need to slide up into the scoop from the bottom between the two carbs, the linkage is in the way of course. These two pieces are what holds the scoop to the bases so the scoop doesn't fly off, man what a total pain in the ass !
Once the scoop was on then I had to remove the 10 bolts holding the fiberglass scoop onto the hood.
But once it was done it looks bitchen and similar to my old shorter scoop I used to run. The ol girl is coming around back to her roots