Projects Northwest Vintage Dragster Group Build.

Last night i stsrted shaping the cover for the gauge panel, my body saw punched it's ticket so I didn't get it fitted into the cowl cover.


Then Satler and I worked up a alternator bracket. That also serves as a support for the bell crank for the carbs. (Still needs welded on)


Then a good portion of the throttle linkage was worked out. Went with an old Moon pedal I had as the Nicson was just too bulky.

 

Last week Randy knocked out 90 percent of the wiring, he came up with a cool plan for the rear battery kill switch, more on that later.

 

It was good to meet everyone at the Woodburn race this weekend. Fun to see other peoples take on the same mouse trap. Picked up some good tips and found some things that we need to correct. It was good for the motivation. Wish I would have taken more pictures.

 

Rob - Glad you could make it to Woodburn. We've saved you a spot in the line-up for next time when your car is ready!

- Walt

 

Thanks Walt for the new wall paper!

Worked on the alternator mount a little yesterday. It is doubling as support for the end of the throttle bell crank. I found an extra bushing from a 90's GM pickup door hinge in my toolbox that worked perfect.




The black portion of the mount is a modified original and definitely doesn't qualify as dainty, but does wualify as done....


A cheap cad program and the plasma cam sure make things a lot easier.

 

Tank on for good.

 

We had a work night last night getting the dragster ready to run. We got everything filled up with fluids and pulled it outside and wouldn't you know it the brand new fuel pump didn't work, undeterred we decided to push the fuel through with the air hose this worked okay unless you push too hard and it pushes fuel pass the float and starts one of the carburetors on fire but you'll get that. We did get it to fire I know the timing looks like a little bit late but that makes for a good show at night. Haha

I was really hoping for a burn out but I couldn't talk Randy into sitting on the front of the car with the air hose while I tried it.

 

That video made my night thanks. it sounds great

 

It's alive!

 

Little here and there.

 

Loving this thread, can't wait to see it run in anger!

 

how about left side of motor, would love to see how you did the linkage on those carbs

 

That makes two of us, getting real close.

Soooo,... for future reference the fuel pump on a six cylinder goes on this way not lines down like a SBC.

I still say it looks better upside down!

 

This picture pretty well tells the tale, a cable runs up to each carb to pull the throttle open.

 

Wayne and I worked on the dragster last night. We made up some carb adapters for the Imperial Speed and Custom scoops. Re-made the fuel lines for the new fuel pump location. Wired in the park neutral safety switch, installed the longer wheel studs, and a myriad of other small jobs that needed to be done.

We pushed it out and gave it another go, the carbs seem to be working good, it starts, idles and throttle response is very good. The fuel pressure is too much for the carbs and pushes past the needle and seat so we will have to make a change there, there is a race next weekend at Walla Walla with a test and tune Friday night so we are going to shoot for that.

 

So I pulled the carbs apart to see if everything was matched, glad I did. One of the carburetors didn't even have an accelerator pump diaphragm in it and another one didn't even have a main jet in it. I searched around town and found three matching main Jets, 3 matching slow Jets and three matching needles, at least now we should have a good starting place. I went over and begged a bunch of parts from Texas John at 8th day cycles here in Lewiston and he really set us up pretty well with some spare carb parts so we can make some adjustments once we figure out where we are at.

 

Hey Walt, what was the 8th mile index?

 

Still planning to make the Friday night Test & Tune?

1/8th mile index is a 7.65 second ET. Under "Eliminations" at the bottom of the rules:

 

I'm interested in building a car for this. To many projects!

 

That would be perfect, we need about 7-10 guys on this side of the state with these cars to run at Spokane and Walla Walla, then we could have some sort of a championship race at the end of the season with those westerners.
We have been talking to Andy at Hells Gate Hot Rods, he has been developing a CNC tube cutter that works with both round and rectangular tubing, we think we may have come up with a design that really only requires two bent pieces and the rest can be CNC notched. If we can get this to work out where it keeps the officials happy I believe that a guy could weld one of these together in a few evenings.

 

All else fails read the rules, haha. Yes we are still planning to go to Walla Walla tonight for the test and tune unfortunately the current Administration has other plans for me for the rest of the weekend so we won't be able to be there during the eliminations.

Are any of you heading to the Spokane race this weekend?

 

Just two NW Vintage Dragsters (Scott & Debbie). But there is a whole contingent of NW Nostalgia Tour members going. Looks like a full 16 car field.

 

Any particular reason you went with a vacuum gauge?

 

I wanted to use that cal custom gauge panel, and it had three holes, temperature and oil are a given and that leaves a amp or volt gauge, or a fuel level gauge, or a vacuum gauge. I am using one of my stealth alternators they are pretty reliable so I'm not too worried about voltage. I figure that seeing the vacuum could potentially help solve an issue sometime down the road.

I have all three ports teed together, and figure that I could block off two of the ports at a time and potentially diagnose which cylinder I may have a problem on.

 

A few weeks ago we went to an aviation show here in Lewiston and there was a bunch of old Stearman biplanes there. There was an early twenties Stearman there that had its body panels held on in this fashion I fell in love with that idea and thought I would use it on the dragster.


My version...


Wheel studs done.


Puke tank


Dad had made up these cool adapters to screw repop Model T dust caps onto the Harley wheels





Push rod setup to kill the power

 

So then off to the races



It was just a test and tune/street race night. Walla Walla's track is in some beautiful country and has a great low key feel to it.











The car runs pretty good overall, the slides in the carbs are bouncing just off idle ehich foules the the fuel mixture. I think it either needs a low speed jet adjustment or a little stiffer springs in the slide diaphragm. But it idles good and throttle response as well as WOT seem REALLY good! The car hooks up decently for a 1 legger. But we have a problem with the trans as we couldn't get it to shift out of 1st gear. Glad it is an 1/8 mile track, it would have taken a long time to drive to the end of the quarter in first gear

 

Great news to see it on the track! Congratulations - I'm raising a beer to toast your efforts right now.

I'm sure you'll have the minor teething problems with the trans figured out in no time.

Any chance of you heading back out here with the car (Woodburn Hot Rod Nationals hint hint)?


- Walt

 

Don,t know what you have done to your engine but when you line it out you should have some pretty impressive times. Many years ago one of the engines (many) in our 23 T altered was a 292 with stock pistons and bore with a Crane Zip 600 cam , Vertex, home ported head and 5 Holly 94,s second and high 2 speed and 7 inch racemasters and a 4.30 gear went 11.78 and 114 in the quarter. That was near 50 years ago. Only advice, have fun and run a fluid balancer of some sort.

 

Congratulations on a beautiful build and getting it out of the shop. Sure wish I had your dad around here, he does nice imaginative work.

Warren