A tale of woe... -or is that WHOA?
there's a lesson in here someplace folks -see if you can find it.....
Hey ever'body we managed to put 5000 miles ( smiles ?) on Boogie Woogie this
year –but as many of you know it was’nt with out some troubles. Like
dropin’er off the jack onto the radiatorin late July.... and all the snafu
that created (–I created.) for instance. The other thing that’s been buggin’
me has been the ever increasingly pain in the keester starting problems.
Most of ya already know I’ve replaced the big block Chev starter with
another rebuilt one, installed a 990 cold crankin’ amp battery ( enough
juice to start the queen Mary ?) checked all the cables and connections…..
you know the drill. This has been plaguing me all summer. Well a couple
weeks ago, while doing some P.M.’s on’er on a Saturday nite, I might have
finally found it. The whole scenario reads like some sort of a weird
Hollywood script for a horror movie to me. See what you think……
Like most things that drive you absolutely nuts, it was a compendium of
events that came together to haunt me.
Clue # 1: It all happened on a dark and stormy night….-no wait; that’s
another story about when I met my ex-wife….. back to our “hero” -anyway,
about four years ago when I had just put Boogie Woogie on the road, cruisin
down th’ boulevard one day I managed to hit the pothole from hell.
Unbeknownst to me at that moment in time, we had hit so hard that the motor
mounts I had fabbed up for her bent and the 327 dropped down in the frame
about three quarters of an inch or so…..-and as a I said I did’nt know it
yet. So as time went on, the motor sagged a little more as time and mileage
went on that summer. I could’nt figger out just why I was having steering to
header clearance problems -you know how it is with a new car; you’re getting
adjusted to all the workings of it and nothing is “normal” yet. It hadn’t
dawned on me yet just WHAT TH’ ---- was happenin’….. Well anyway besides the
motor saggin’ down when I hit the pothole, the tierod that’s about an inch
and three quarters below the harmonica balancer ( Whore Monica ???? -sorry I
could'nt resist.) comes up to meet it……! And I gotta tell ya’ that it
happened more than onc’t before it dawned on me just what was happenin. Are
ya’ developin’ a picture yet ? Yup the tierod had hit hard enough to make
the outer part of the balancer stop momentarily –while the inside din’t…..
oops.
Funny thing though, at the time, I could never figger out “WHY” I could
never get my timing light to co-operate with me when I was tryin’ to time
Boogie Woogie….. - and it never dawned on me that the balancer had spun. (it
reads about 2” off with the light on it….) So bein’ the “great racer” that
I’yam, I figger “ Why, I’ll just time’er by ear” and that dear friends is
what I’ve been doing since then. Well duh, I was blissful in my ignorance.
Besides, I was doin’ such a great job by ear was'nt I ? So why worry ? It
had got us allaway cross country to Bonneville and all parts in between all
this time din’t it ?
Clue # 2: The problem is/was that it would only do it only every once in a
while, then she would act like the typical rotten hot Chevy starter –even
with the motor not up to operating temp. yet. You know how they are; grunt,
groan, and only very begrudingly turn over. It got so that I was carrying a
set of jumper cables and a voltmeter with me ‘cause I never knew when
“disaster” would strike. Well in mid July while up at there at the huge
streetrod thing in Syracuse NY, (hey don’t blame me…it was all Jungle Jim’s
idea…. You know I don’t like streeeeeeeetrodders) I drove out onto the
highway to go find some food, and was only moderately accelerating up to 30
mph, ( Ya I wuz….honest. Hey the cops were out…. ) when all of a sudden she
caughed up thru the carbies like we just broke the timing chain ( been there
before–done that, so I KNOW what THAT’S like…) And died. Just like that. All
of a sudden like. So I pulled off the road in the hot sun of afternoon to
see what it could be….. -well after pausing to get my wits about me, what
should I see but the distributor had spun “backwards” and stretched the
vacuum hose so you could play a tune onnit. Thought to myself “why that’s
weird….I wonder why that is…..” and proceeded to push it back to where I
thought it ought to be. Tried’er and she starts right up! -to my total
relief and gratitude so far from home. See, I had left the dizzy sort of
half tight so I could turn it to retard it so it could possibly start easier
(sub clue #2…) I’ve run Chebbies like that for years. Haven’t you ?
Which now finally brings us to:
Clue #3: After goin’ out on a cold northeastern day to a gas station to fill
up Boogie Woogie for the trip up to Ballston Spa, NY for a trip to an end of
summer HOT ROD barbie, I went to leave the station. No go. Get real mad
attit. Look at temp gauge; 130 degrees…..what th’ ---- So I shut off
ignition circuit (got secret switch ) and was able to make’er start
–begrudingly. So I drive home, ponder the thing for a while and decide that
it sure acts like “ignition” -actually been slowly coming to that conclusion
for a while now…. Hey I’m slow. Anyway, While tryin’ for the umteenth time
to use the timing light, I notice I can get NO change with the timing light
whatsoever from the vacuum line…. –or by reving the motor from idle up to
say 3000 R’s….. Time for a closer look sez I. So I pull the cap ( it’s a
1969-72 Delco single point type –with the door. I’m triggering an MSD 6A box
and coil thru the points ) Truth to tell, I’ve been wondering for a while
now if just possibly something inside the MSD box was going wacko on me
–there’s no way to ever check what going on INSIDE one of them…….( -or IS
there ? ) Anyway I’m in there diggin’ around and I notice I can’t even
wiggle the rotor. “No movie”, no mechanical advance…. Right ? Hmmmm. -And
the points plate can’t be moved either with a screwdriver …. -And that’s
gotta move when ya got vacuum. Right ? Hmmmmm What th’ ---- So I decide
som’pin’s rotten in Denmark so the things comin’ out to the bench for a
closer look….. So it does, and what do think I found ? Now I had’nt had one
of these things apart in a long while so I took my time –“just in case”…
Well what do ya’ know what’s this ? the main distributor shaft won’t come
out ? Why’szat ? Why it’s stuck ! Okayyyy…. Pull harder….and twist. Finally
out she comes. What’s this ? That don’t look right. Whyzat bushing stuck on
the shaft like that ? Suffice it to say what I found was’nt pretty. The
upper 1 ½” long hardened steel shaft bushing had welded itself to the shaft
–breaking loose from it’s press fit in the aluminum housing in the process (
Say,….remember that time back in July in Syracuse when the
distributor......) When the bushing married the shaft, the thing had forced
itself upward to fully jam the mechanical advance mechanism as if we’d TIG
welded it …. And because the breaker plate is designed to turn freely on the
same bushing, when it seized, it also somehow took all the vacuum
capabilities with it. So I had been operating for a long while with NO
advance of any kind, -had been “ timin’er by ear” -and had been setting it
so she “ran good“ ( roughly at highest RPM at idle…..) What’s this tell us ?
Well,
#1 -Ol’ Dirty Doug ain’t as schmardt as he tinks he iz…..
#2 -When ya can’t time’er with a light som’pin’s definitely wrong
(‘specially since we DID degree in the cam and set and mark exact TDC when
she wuz built…. duh.)
#3 -When your minds gone and you don’t realize that your dizzy’s over THIRTY
years old, ( “why hell….I ‘member when they wuz new “….) ya’ really gotta,
oughtta’, should’a take it apart and change all the dried up grease that’s
in there for some nice new stuff… Sure I had “worked’er over” when I built
the engine for proper advance, and everything, but it never occurred to me
to freshen the lube. Don’t you be a “victim” too. Fix yours before it
happens to you.
#4 -no advance is gud for -4 mpg That's right 4 MPG!
Hope this helps someone to learn from my mistakes -so you don’t pull a
copycat someday. You can bet I’ll be getting a new balancer soon. A “New
Distributor is already in the works. If it was’nt for the “spare” I had
stuffed away, I would’nt have gone to the barbeque that day.
I’m still “timin’ by ear” –but only till I get that balancer.
I’ve LEARNED my lesson.
Thanks to all of you who tried a while back to help this knucklehead fix his
car. -Tom Bryant especially for spending so much time e-mailing me trying
to explain electrical stuff to this bone head.
Tom, “I owe ya’” -Someday out at Bonneville…..
Dirty Doug still stuck in New Yawk........
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