knuckleharley

It doesn't have enough power for your car,but IF you can get it at a really good price,it might be worth buying as future trade goods. IF you can afford to spend the money and just sit on it. You never know who you are going to meet that might have something for sale you need,and they just happen to need a 25 inch 218 for their restoration project. If you get it at a good price,the worse thing that can happen is you end up selling it to another Mopar guy that needs it for what you paid for it. Or at least that is a theory I am working on,anyhow.

I know this. My post was in no way critical of you, As a former soldier,I was just pointing out what seemed obvious to me. Chances are the photographer that originally took that photo didn't know the difference.

Rollers with the same parts number,but a different size? Trying to figure out something like that is like trying to roll boulders up a hill. Congratulations!

Those are WW-1 uniforms,and I am not trying to be snotty,but soldiers are not what comes to mind when people think of "UM" students. Especially during war time,when college students are exempt from the draft.

They look more like WW-1 soldiers to me. The WW-1 Army uniforms are pretty much a giveaway.

The politics in the regular army from O-3 to GO are so bad I refused the chance to go to OCS and become a SF team leader when offered the chance. West Point officers ALWAYS got priority for promotions,and that made it even tougher. In SF it was a little different because it didn't start until O-5 because there were so many O-3 and O-4 slots,but back then there was only 1 GO in all of SF,so the competition for O-5 group leaders got pretty brutal. O-5's were the Group Commanders,and there were only 7 groups in the entire army. When you add outside of the army political influence to the list of group leader contenders,it became unbelievable. For example,I knew of two Group Commanders who got those positions without having ever served ONE single day with SF. Both came out of reserve units,and one wasn't even airborne-qualified when he got the eagle and the assignment. He went through the special senior officers jump school,and landed on Okinawa to take over the 1st Group with a total of 5 parachute jumps. The infamous "Splash" Kelley from Boston. Kennedy family connections got him his AD eagle and assignment. I know of one of these reserve political appointee clowns that actually committed several felonies white trying to get a MSG kicked out of the army for being caught for drunk driving off-base while carrying a concealed weapon. The MSG had a NC CCW permit,but this newly minted LTC SFTG Company Commander was also from Boston,and hated the idea of anyone legally carrying guns,and stated to the whole company when he took over that anyone in his command being found in possession of a privately held weapon would be court-martialed. When notified the MSG had been arrested,he ordered the company SGM to go with him to the man's house,and literally broke into the house and stole all his weapons and ammunition and dumped them in Lott Lake. I was working as an advisor for SFTG at the time I heard about this,and almost slapped that silly MoFo in the mouth one day when he forgot I wasn't in the army and started to get mouthy with me. People got between us,or I would have. Instead of being given the boot for the felonies,the MSG agreed to drop the charges if he were given an immediate honorable discharge with full retirement benefits,so the charges were dropped and he was sent to Tawian instead. I heard later that when he came back from Taiwan,he was promoted to full bird and given some sort of administrative command. IMHO,the SOB should have been shot.

There HAS to be community colleges in your area that teach machine shop as well as auto shop students. Pay a personal visit to a few and talk with the head instructors about having students sleeve and rebuild your engine. Chances are they will jump on the opportunity to do this because it is work they would rarely get,and sleeving a OHV engine is the same as sleeving a flathead engine. All it will cost you is materials. No labor,and chances are you will get a better job than you could expect to get from an commercial auto machine shop that doesn't know you from Adam.

I stand corrected. I finally found time to get out to the shop and dig my stuff out this afternoon,and both the 3x1 Edmunds Racing and the 3x1 Nicson I have are for the 25 inch blocks. I was thinking the Edmunds Racing 3x1 was for the smaller blocks,but the tape measure proved me wrong.

I LOVED the army the whole 5+ years I spent in SF. It was after getting medevaced from VN on permanent physical profile and because of that no longer being able to remain in SF that I started hated the army,and got out. I spent my last 6 months or so in a conventional airborne signal battalion,and I was no longer a combat leader NCO. I was a combination of babysitter and prisoner chaser. I had no idea people that stupid existed outside of institutions,but they do. This was when the draft was still going,and about half the people in that unit where borderline retarded. It did no good at all to tell them to do anything unless you stood right over them and supervised. That wasn't what I joined the army and re-enlisted to do,so I got out. I honestly have no idea how anyone else was able to tolerate it for long enough to put in 20 years. My best guess is that once you hit SFC/E-7,you almost never had any personal contact or discussions with anyone not an NCO,so I guess that made it tolerable to most people. It wasn't for me,though. Prior to that assignment,I don't think I had heard the words "that is a direct order" since basic training. If something needed to be done,whoever spotted it did it. If he needed help he would ask people to help him and nobody would ever refuse. Officers would help fill sandbags if that's what needed to be done. I've flown in to the local airport at Kontum and called up the camp to tell them I was back and needed a ride,and had a O-3 show up driving the jeep to pick me up. Not because I was special in any respect,but because someone needed a ride and he was the only one handy not doing anything else. It's amazing the things you can get done when everyone is working together.

I will. He just might be stupid enough to try something like that without considering the consequences if/when he loses his new job.

I was never undercover about or with anything. I was always right out there in the open,and if you didn't like it,you were free to leave. There may have been some people that didn't appreciate that. In 1981 I realized it was time to either quit getting loaded,or turn pro. I quit,and haven't gotten drunk or high since.

I hope so,too. The bike got stolen in 76,so that one photo is all I have. Been looking for it for a while,and thinking about maybe making it my avatar. Might not,though. I was living kind of wild at the time,and not sure I want anyone from that time being able to recognize and locate me today from that photo.

Already happened. He only worked 4 hours the first day and then came to the house and told me his mother had called him and wants him to come home to help her. Said he would be back the next day if his mother didn't need him again. Didn't come back the next day either,and when I called him on the 3rd day to get him to return my needle nosed pliers I lent him to cut the whacker string,he told me his mama would need him again that day,too. Guess I worked him too hard. Since he had told me he had his own grass-cutting biz in high school,I showed him how to start and reload my weedwhacker,and went into the house. Went out to check on him maybe a half-hour later,and everywhere he had cut he had left the grass 4 or 5 inches tall. When I asked him "WTF?",he told me "Oh,I just cut the high at first,and then go back later to get the low stuff." I told him,"No,when I am paying you by the hour,you cut it all right down to the dirt right while you are cutting it. There are no "go backs". You do it while you are standing over it. Went back to check on him later,and he cut it to the ground in places,but then he either forgot or purposely started leaving it 4 or 5 inches tall again to sandbag the job so he could get more hours in and get more pay. Also,I caught him running the weedwhacker at maybe half-throttle,which means it didn't cut the thick stuff worth a damn,and was taking a lot longer. He even insisted he was running it wide open until I took it away from him and pulled the throttle trigger and ran it wide open. Then he started saying he was running it slower to keep from ruining the engine. On a 2-stroke week whacker. Regardless,he heard his mama calling,and hasn't been back.

Ok,now we are getting somewhere. Am I correct in assuming you have not cut any away or made any additions using modern plastic-covered wiring? No. In these old 6 volt positive ground cars,the big post (which is the positive post) is where the positive battery cable goes.

No,the original wiring in your car is covered with either a cloth or a plastic wrapping,and THAT was what you covered with black electrical tape. It also will have straight lines of different colors running the full length of it so technicians can look at it and identify which circuit it goes to on the other side of the firewall. This is important because the wiring on these old 6 volt cars is a lot thicker than the wiring on modern cars,and if you use modern wiring of a lesser gauge to connect to the original wiring,it can get really hot. Sometimes hot enough to catch fire,but often hot enough to become brittle and resistant to passing current.

First question,is the wiring you are asking about covered with plastic or cloth under the tape?

Yeah,maybe you and Don are right,but there is one truism that can't be denied,"You can't fix stupid.",and anybody in this day and age that considers being able to read and write is a waste of time is "two ooh" Stoopid. Let me ask you this,given the advantages and opportunities given the typical teen of today,how many do you know that have never been on a computer and think computers are "stupid"? I know this because it came up when he was dogging me to let him sell engines,transmissions,and whole cars for scrap and I tried to tell him it's foolish to sell stuff for pennies on the dollar,and he snorted and said "You ain't never going to find anybody to buy that junk,so you might as well sell it for scrap." When I told him I could sell it all on the internet,he got a puzzled look on his face and said " Maybe. I don't know nothing about no internet,but who buys scrap but the scrap man?". He is untrainable. Worked for a friend of mine in a commercial garage for a few weeks,and he had to let this kid go because he kept making the same mistakes over and over,and no matter how many times he told the kid to do something a different way,the kid kept doing it the same way and screwing things up. Stupid stuff like putting lug nuts in the socket on an impact wrench and trying to start threading them with the impact on a customer car. I know of at least two times he did this and got the nuts started cross-threaded after doing it the first time and being told to not do it again. BTW,he has also already been let go by a local GM dealer. This is supposed to be his first week with another GM dealer. Should be interesting to see how long it takes him to come back by needing money,and offering to haul my "old junk" off to the crusher for half the cash.

At 6 foot 6 or 7,he is his daddy's little boy. Where do you think he got it from? Recent high school graduate that claims to read at a 3rd grade level. He seems to think that's all he needs. His goal is to get a job as a mechanic at a new car dealership,and just draw a paycheck the rest of his life. If he gets one,he is going to end up being the guy that washes the cars,delivers customer cars,changes oil,etc,etc. Since he doesn't read he has never learned how to even sign on a computer because "computers are a waste of time". Seems like his genius father,who drives a dump truck,would have told him all new cars have computers and you need to be able to read to test them and to find out what is wrong with new cars. Basically,he is not trainable because he smugly thinks he already knows everything he needs to know.

Yeah,there is a lot to be said about that. I have ONE photo left of me sitting on my 40 Knuckle chopper in 72,and can't find it for the life of me.

And it will always be a old car. To some people it will be more,or less,depending on their POV. I personally know people that think any car older than 5 years old is junk. Give one a nice original 32 Ford 3 window coupe,and they will sell it to the crusher without even thinking about it. I had a 19 year old kid here weedwhacking my back lot last week,and he was wanting me to let him haul off all my parts and project cars to the crusher,and offered to do it and split the money with me. This includes my 33 Plymouth coupe,my P-15 coupe,my 42 Dodge coupe,and my complete and original 49 Chrysler Windsor coupe. He was especially hot to haul off my 50 Ford tudor 100 percent complete parts car because it was already on my car trailer. Said he would "do that one today and get it out of your way and free up your trailer for you if you let me use your trailer." He did want to buy my 37 Dodge 1 ton 4x4 with the modern chassis and drivetrain,though. Offered me 100 bucks for it. Wanted to turn it into a mud race truck. His father just paid right at 50 grand for a new half-ton Ford 4x4 pu,and he thought that was a good buy.

Don,it has got to be said that you post the most informative photos of anyone I have ever seen. Someone should contact you about possibly publishing a book of your photos with text explanations. Seriously. Also,the piston in post 1 doesn't look much like the piston in your photo,so chances are it is an aftermarket piston,and of poor quality,which contributed to the destruction?

Chances are neither the previous owner or the guy he bought the car from had any idea how rare it was. It was probably just a "old car" to them.

Judging from the steering column,the previous owner was hot rodding it. What drivetrain is in it?

Good choice!

Photos! We need to see photos!