Worden18

Okay thanks man ?

I can't seem to time this car by ear. Call it operator error, inexperience, or whatever. I talked to a friend about what some of you guys have mentioned: timing it with a vacuum gauge. He said that's all he's ever done. I need to buy one first. Biggest question I have concerning the gauge: where do I hook it up? The car has electric wipers so I can't go there. I've never used a vacuum gauge before but I want to try it. My friend had mentioned hooking up to vacuum wiper line... I forgot I had electric wipers until long after we hung up ?

5-3-20: I reset the float. Not quite sure how far off it was, but my manual only gives reference to Stromberg carbs, mine is a Ball and Ball. I watched a video on YouTube from Mike's carburetors. Now I got that pretty close. Test drove the car. No misfires, etc. Ran much better than before. Has some chugging to it now; you can barely feel it. Maybe the timing is too far retarded now. I'm going to mess with it some more. But no doubt the timing was far advanced, and that was the biggest problem.

Wow that's beautiful! Excellent work ?

One more for you guys ?

5-2-20: I was over at my old property to mow and take care of some things. I still have a lot of stuff there, including my loader and the '48. I hope to transport it to our new house soon. Then I can actually work on it. I did start it today and let it run for 15 minutes. When I get the truck roadworthy it's going to be extra sweet....

Looking good man!?

Wow that is awesome!! Congrats to your family and the bride's as well ?

5-1-20: Okay fellas, I checked all connections to the coil, distributor, pertronix, etc. All were tight and looked good. I unhooked the vacuum advance at the distributor because that is a hard line that doesn't move very easily. Then I was able to loosen the distributor and move it. It was pretty much almost all the way advanced. I know that I initially had it slightly advanced, but not that far. I don't know if it worked its way to a farther advanced position. It must have. Anyway, I don't have a timing light. So I just turned the distributor back about halfway. The car started right up. I discovered I did blow my muffler, it was pretty loud even at idle. But the engine sounded great! I let it run for a little while with the choke slightly closed, and then with the choke fully open. It ilded nicely, then I shut it off. It started back up with no issues several times. So I'm happy with that. But I'm not going to risk driving this dragster sounding jalopy in the dark and wake all the neighbors. I'll give it a test run in the morning. I suppose I should give it a good run even with the crappy muffler? No sense blowing out a new one if the problem isn't solved. After all, it was under a load that it misfired like an A-bomb. ? But yes, so far you guys were right in saying the timing was far advanced.

To everyone whom replied and gave advice: THANK YOU! I will do some checks and inspection and let you guys know what I find. Hope to get out there this evening...

I have not checked the pertronix connections; should have been the first thing I did. Dang fool I am! Also, I wonder if the wires/ground inside of the dizzy are loose? Answer this Keith, do I need an extra ground strap from engine to frame? Tomorrow I'll follow up on your suggestions. Thanks

4-30-20: Guys, I really messed up the Meadowbrook. It was running kind of crappy, like it was fouling the plugs...it even died on me once. Eventually I had to rev it at stop signs to keep it running. I changed plugs 500 miles ago. Ran fine up until yesterday. I hadn't changed the dizzy cap since the engine rebuild 4 years ago. So I changed the cap and cleaned the plugs with a brass brush. Plugs weren't terrible, but definitely on the rich side...some black sooty buildup. Took it out for a ride. Idled awesome, but under a load after shifting to second gear it was mildly backfiring. Limped it home. Took off top of carb, adjusted the float hoping to make it run a lot leaner. Put it all back together. Got out into the street and accelerated in first gear and she backfired like an A-bomb. Damn near blew my muffler apart (see pic). Also, you can see how bad the old cap was. I just don't know where to go from here. I'm super frustrated. I'm starting to wonder if the pertronix kit/coil are not putting out the spark they should? I haven't had any problems thus far with the pertronix system. It's been in there 4 years. Shed some light on me fellas. I'm not that good at this stuff. Ball and ball carb by the way. Also, my multimeter died so not sure how I would even test the coil. Guess I better buy a new one.

4-27-20: Went out again later to fetch some bottled water. Behind my car you see what's called Sugar Loaf of Winona, MN. You can look it up on Wikipedia; it's interesting. A guy was admiring my car when I came out of the store. We chatted for about 10 minutes. He was happy that I took the time to show it to him. It was a good night.

Thanks for the well wishes. It is very urban. Smack dab in the middle of the city. It's a nice neighborhood with kind neighbors.

4-27-20: At Lakeview Drive-In waiting on sundaes. Our boxer likes the floor. We have a blanket down there for him.

Monday, 4-27-20: Warming up outside our new house. Getting ready for an ice cream run?

Keith, my car suffers from fuel percolation despite having a multi-layered aluminum heat shield, and a pertronix kit with a 40,000v coil. In those un-magic moments after engine shut off when you know there's going to be trouble restarting, I push the accelerator all the way down and let it crank... she's always fired up. Same as Merle just mentioned, but full throttle in my case.

4-25-20: Spent most of the day moving things to our new house. Wasn't fun. Capped off the night with a cruise around Winona. Here we are at Kwik Trip getting a snack. Perfect weather for a cruise; clear skies, 55F and no wind.

Congrats! The car looks great. Keep us posted ?

the new garage is a lot smaller, but I have room to expand two more spaces and also go up! I haven't had time to work on my 48. But with this move I will be closer to work and I will have time. The first thing I will do is finish the tune up and start on the brakes. You will see me post in the truck section under "me and the B1D" ?

Supposed to be a fantastic weekend here. I hope to get the car out at some point. Here's it's new home. We'll be moving this weekend, and I hope to organize the garage so I can get the 48 B1D in there too?

4-23-20: The Meadowbrook hopefully got its last interstate drive for a while today. We'll be moving to town (where I work), so the car will stay in the garage at our new house. Gloomy drive in, and also a close-up of the clock. Small hand is bent...need to get that fixed. It still works! It has a calming "click-clack" to it. ?

Been looking forward to a video of your '38 in action! Thanks for sharing. I lost a headlight ring off my 51 last winter. Luckily I had 3 spares ?

Rear window (Jimmy Stewart) Star Wars Gone in 60 seconds (1974) The Terminator Goodfellas Honorable mentions: Indiana Jones series

4-19-20: Final pic of the night. The distorted blob on the amps/fuel lens is my face ?