Projects Gasser on Maui..... but it's just another '55

Got the tranny rear mount made and bolted in. Will add some gussets and red paint before it's all said and done...


More pix HERE...

Aloha,
Willy

 

Thought I should mention that when I setup the Lakewood blow bell on the motor back in 2011, I did check the runout on the hole ID and on the bell surface. The hole runout is 0.005", and the surface is 0'004", both numbers are acceptable. Discussed it with my supplier, SST, they saw no reason to have to go and recheck it. That work is shown HERE if you would like a look.

Got the shifter and shift lever installed without having to cut the floor boards, it seems to work great, but need a real road test....

This is the 4th gear position.
Willy

More pix HERE, (scroll down)

 

Pulled out the spare ford 9" third member, counted the teeth, 4.11, so think that will be the first street test with the new Tremec.
First I have to count the splines, and check what's in Patches, I think 35 spline, but have messed around with different rigs with 31 and 33 splines, so need to check what's what...
Willy

 

As everything is ready to go, if I want, with the 3.50 rear end gears still in there, decided to put it back down on the ground and take it for a ride, just to see how it feels with those gears in there. I suspect I'll have to slip the clutch a bit to get going from a stop in first.
Willy

Check This Out:



UPDATE:
Just got back from a ten mile run or so, felt pretty good really, the new organic clutch disks I put in are quite smooth compared to the ceramic ones that were in there. I do have to slip it a bit more than I did with the 3.28 first gear in the DN, with this TKO first gear being 2.87, about 13% higher gearing, if I calc'd that correctly.

So, I'm going to leave it that way for awhile, see how I like driving it this way.
Aloha,
Willy

 

2nd update:
Put another 25 miles on, it's like driving a good highway oriented 4 speed, but with a massive overdone OD (0.64!) !!!
At 50 in a 45 mph speed zone (most of the "main" roads here on Maui), I find myself just using the "4 speed", 4th is a very good cruising gear, and it is 1:1, and if I put it in 5th, at 1000, rpm, the motor (and that doggone Detroit Locker) start "talking back" to me, sort of a very mild "buckin' bronco"....

So, unless I go to deeper rear gears, mostly I'll be driving a four speed around here, which ain't that bad a deal, really, it's an easy tranny to drive, shifts are crisp and exact, downshifts also, and I'm obeying the suppliers edict to "keep 'er easy, Willy for at least 500 miles...."

But, knowin' myself as I do, I betcha I'll get the "itch" and put the 4.56 in there eventually....
Well, just gotta check out the difference, right??
Willy

 

UPDATE
Have about 80 miles on now, running back roads at 20 to 40 mph, using the 1st four gears, OD at 0.64 ratio is too much for those speeds, so I'm driving a very nice four speed on those back roads. Running up and down through the gears, nice crisp shifts, both up and down. At 50 in 4th cruising at 1800 rpm is quite nice. (see chart above) At 50 I can downshift to 3rd at 2500 rpm and hit it if I want, 2500 is a real sweet spot for this motor.

But I now wish I had opted for the 0.82 OD instead of the 0.64. It would fit Maui's driving conditions much better. If I wanted to make that change in this gearbox, I'd need to swap out the countershaft as well as the 5th gears, as it is different for that 0.82 gearset. About $600 in parts.

Video Soon....
Willy

 

UPDATE...

About 250 miles now on the TKO, no problems so far...
Can't get the video to upload to my computer, don't know what that's about...
Got a speedo from a buddy, it's an Auto Meter electronic unit, but I need a gear
for it and my local Napa guy doesn't know how to help me out,
so am searching for "what do I need" to make this work...
Here's a pic:

Aloha,
Willy

 

Howzit Willy

Looks like you gotta head over to Bonneville...

I betcha that motor can pull it...?

Aloha
Tommy

 

It'd be like pushing a brick uphill against a waterfall !!!
But it'd go fast enough to scare thehelloutame......

 

Got an 18 tooth (yellow) driven gear for this speedometer sender and will calibrate it out on the road, as it is electronic, so I am told. We shall see....

 

The speedo parts arrived and fit on no problem...




Now to mount everything in the car and see how well it works...

 

Sounds like you're getting everything under control. Considering the roads on Maui, I'd be sticking those 4:56 gears in. I ran my '33 with 5:14's in it for about 5 years without any troubles including freeway cruising in the US. My overdrive is .65. I did eventually take the 5:14's and the locker out and changed to a traction lok and 4.11's which is just fine if you're not on the strip. We're down in Maui now, so will keep an eye out for you if you're cruising. Are you coming down to Lahaina tomorrow night for the gathering? Bill

 

Probably not, have a birthday party to go to, plus there's a headlight problem I haven't gotten to yet, so just driving in daytime for now...

I have a locker 3rd member all set up on the shelf with 4.11's, so thinking to just stick that one in, easy and quick. Would have to take apart that one or the 3.50 in there now to setup the 4.56's, and I'm working on a couple of other projects that are taking all my time, so will just put the 4.11's in at the first opportunity. Meanwhile it's not that bad driving it with the 3.50's, a lot of fun actually, and I'm driving it a little every day, chasing parts, running errands, chasing the well known "Honey-Do" list....
I've just finished rebuilding the front steering parts for another '55 I'm working on, a body off BA hardtop I put a 396 LT1 and a T56 in it....
I've already completely redone the frame, 9" rear narrowed, new relocated rear suspension, caltraks, minitubbed the body, relocated the shifter on the trans, it's coming along, now I need to work on fuel system and start the wiring before I put the body back on.......
Willy

Take a peek HERE if you want....

 

look like quite a project. It's great to see someone do so much "hands on" I'm the same, half the joy of owning the car is in the build, the driving is just a bonus. I've just finished up the chassis for my '37, just waiting to get the engine on the dyno to seat the rings, check for leaks and do a tune up. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208493366829655&set=pcb.1169741146370298&type=3&theater not sure if this works, not sure how to copy links. It's an original frame that I've modified pretty heavily, only the outside rails are original.

 

Yes, that link worked, very nice work on that frame....
My '55 HT frame was pretty rough when I pulled the body off, but is a "california one piece" frame, so I wanted to save it. Lots of welding and grinding and smoothing it out, but it came out quite nice. It's just supposed to be a nice cruiser, but I kind of got carried away with the motor, it will have some power when I finally get it running.

 

Your '55 looked pretty clean when you got it, not too much rust. I bought a '55 hardtop when I was 17, back in 1965 and it had way more rust than what yours had. My floors were gone, rockers gone, front fenders had already been replaced and the rear quarters were rusted out along the wheel wells, but at 17 it was a pretty cool car. I think it came from eastern Canada, where they used a lot of salft on the roads back then. It had the 265 with a three speed manual. I did fix up the body and paint over the few years I had it, then sold it in '67 to buy a new '67 Camaro RS/SS that I still have. I never saw my hardtop after that, not sure where it went, but I had a couple more after that, a real nice tudor with factory A/C and power windows and a '56 H/T as well. Lots of great memories in the '55 as my wife and I were dating in that car.....and went on our honeymoon in the Camaro a few years later.

 

I hear ya, I always wanted a '55 way back when, managed to buy a wrecked '54 ragtop and fixed it up in'57, drove it through high school and college, and sold it in '67 to buy a new El Camino, 327, 4sp, 4.11 posi, it was a very nice rig, and I brought it over to Maui when I got hired to work for the sugar plantation over here as their field engineer. Fun years...
But I always wanted a '55, now I have two....
plus a '55 stepside...
I'm a lucky guy...

 

That was a couple of years ago, and I re-bolted both ends of the panhard bar with new grade 8, 5/8 x 2" NF bolts and lots of lock tight. Wanted nylock nuts but could not find anything over here larger than 1/2" back then.

So this last week, driving to lunch, the rear end suddenly is loose, and the rear tires, which run pretty close to the inner tubs anyway, are bouncing off the inner tubs. One end of the panhard bar came loose, the bolt is completely gone !!!

The tail end was waggin' around quite a bit, bouncing the sidewalls
of the rear tires off of the sides of the tubs (inner fender wells)....



I'm lucky I was going slow, 20 mph, when it happened, so was able to stop,
get help, and put a new 5/8" x 2" NF grade 8 back in w/ locktite...
Am looking for 5/8" NF nylocks to put on now, hard to find
here on Maui....





On another note, my year old TKO600 is getting harder to shift...
Particularly from neutral into any gear, and downshifting
through the gears, 1st is often a real bear....

Upshifting is still pretty good.
Will be checking that out, am thinking that maybe the clutch
linkage I adapted from the original '55 has too much leverage,
and not enough travel, and maybe I need to decrease the
leverage, increasing the travel, in order to I get more travel clearance
when the clutch pedal is all the way down.

The present setup has so much leverage that the pedal effort
is very light, several of my buddies who have driven the car
have commented on that, as I managed to get a very nice
balance between the over center spring on the clutch pedal,
and the clutch pressure plate springs....

More Later....
Willy

 

Is that your panhard bar coming down from the frame on about a 45 degree angle? Maybe it's behind the rear end and I can't see it. If it is on a 45 maybe it's getting too much pushing around and working the nuts loose. I suspect I'm not seeing the actual bar or wouldn't the travel in the suspension be trying to push the rear end to one side? How is the hardtop doing? I'm coming down to our place in Kihei next month for a few weeks.

 

Look closely at the photos above, and this closeup:

I put the panhard bar up high for several reasons, lots of clearance over the banjo, and kept the articulation of the top of the tires pretty well at a fixed spacing from the inside of the tires to the frame rails. The panhard is as long as I could fit in to keep the arc as nearly flat as possible, and is parallel to the axle and the ground, and is 90 deg. to the centerline of the car. The frame attachment end is on the passenger's side at the top of the frame loop, here's a closeup, the end of the bar is dropped down on top of the exhaust about 6" from the attachment point...

The axle attachment is on top of that tall triangle of tubing on the driver's side of the axle. This setup works extremely well. The axle articulates very well, and stays quite flat in cornering due to the relative rigidity of the ladder bars towards body lean.

As this pix was shot from the rear, the coil-overs hide part of that, but I think you get the idea.
I'm just surprised that the passenger side bolt got so loose that it came out, particularly with the amount of lock tite I had put on it the last time !!!
As soon as I find them, I'm putting nylock nuts on, again with more lock tite !!!

Here's some original posts from when I narrowed the rear axle housing and set up that suspension system....
LINK to a home page....

Lemme know when you are here....
My '58 truck is usally down at Kamaole 1 Beach Park when I paddle my outrigger canoe, early am's...

Willy

PS, Nearly 50 years ago I built a "chopper" out of my '62 HD panhead, rode it for about 20 years, then stashed it in my shed, it was like totally worn out...
Couple years ago pulled it out and put it next to the '55 hardtop, kind of a mistake, as now it's been getting most of my attention, and is almost complete, total rebuild, motor, tranny, wheel bearings and spokes, new paint, same color though, it looks nearly like it did way back when, slightly different shape gas tank, but all the rest is from way back when....

 

If you can't find your nyloc's down there this week, let me know and I'll check around town and bring them with me if I can find them. Does it matter if they're stainless or not?
PS, nice looking bike. I've never ridden a bike, but there's a big following in Maui alright.

 

Just had a look at home here. I have some 9/16" fine thread nylocs but no 5/8". Tomorrow is a holiday here, but I can check with our supplier on Tuesday.

 

Thinking about the nuts coming off. Could you drill a through hole behind the nut and put heavy cotter pin in to stop the nut from backing off?

 

Yes, thought of that, am thinking of doing that as well, put the nylocks on, drill and put a cotter pin, probably overkill, with with it coming loose twice now, am a bit nervous....

Let me check one more local source I just heard about, probably Tue if they are closed tomorrow...
But thanks for offering....

 

Safety wire them it will take a nice smaller hole than a cotter pin

 

Found some nylocks, and the bolts I have are long enough to put them on as a second, jam nut, going to do that, I should be good with that setup....

A fellow I know here who works in a shop that does a lot of rear end setups, says they always use a double nut "jam nut" in applications just like mine, and have never had them come loose.

 

Probably with lotsa LockTite on it, Im partial to blue, lots of it, but the others come in handy also....

 

UPDATE:
I've been just driving it everywhere, not racing anymore, and enjoying the heck out of it....
But that TKO600 is getting harder and harder to shift, particularly from neutral into gear, any gear,
and it doesn't make any difference if it's cold or warmed up, and if the motor is running or not, it's
just plain hard to get into gear !!
Now the shifter jammed up internally in 4th gear, luckily I was close to home and managed to nurse it back home and got it parked where I can get under it and pull that tranny out. Going to have to pull it apart and see what's what inside there ....
But the blown Olds 425 has been a dream to drive since I tossed the Demon carbs and put a pair of Holly 600's on there.
I'll post what I find inside this tranny.

 

Thanks for posting! We were in Maui in 2017 and I was looking out for your car driving around

 

Hope you get the trans sorted out. I took the tko,5sp out of the wagon a few years ago when my left knee got really bad. I saw a video about shifting issues and they redesigned some parts. Will see if I can find it again. Good to hear your still enjoying life.