Ulu

Will not until the 58 Edsel came out.

The best part was when he tosses his snot rag in to the piano!

I watched some yo-yos trying to tow a Skiploader on a tandem trailer behind a Jeep CJ five. They had a little too much tongue weight so they move the loader back on the trailer until the balance was better. As they pulled out of the lot they went over a small speed bump very slowly. I watched as the rear wheels of the jeep came right off the ground, spun in the air for a second, and then burn rubber as they hit the tarmac. That caused the jeep to lurch forward which caused the second wheel of the tandem trailer to hit the speedbump. This time it bottomed out the rear suspension of the jeep scraping a big gash in the pavement with the hitch ball bolt. That actually loosened the trailer hitch and as they proceeded I could see them wobble into the distance. They probably wound up in the bottom of a canal somewhere.

? Again?

That’s actually the perfect jack for changing the Volkswagen engine too, and I was going to bring mine down the last time I came but it’s rather heavy. Mine will hold up the Kawasaki Nomad with full touring gear and gas.

I’m glad that you’ve made progress on the wiring. I haven’t touched the wiring on my car as I’ve been working on everything else in the world first. The weather has been desert hot as per normal this time of year. It does tend to divert one to indoor projects.

Well I know that Volkswagen and Audi both shared the five cylinder engine technology but I’m not sure which was the chicken and which the egg. Other than that I’ve never looked at any other in line 5 engines in my whole life.

One of the neatest cars that I ever drove was a five cylinder Audi, back in the 1990s. I only had it for one day but it was a real nice ride on the freeway, and for such a light car it really held the road extremely well. I wasn’t into sedans in those days so I never considered owning one. But the other day I saw something about a five cylinder Volvo and it started me wondering if there were any other companies that built an inline five cylinder engine? And of course, who among you has owned one?

He was lucky from my estimation. Quite lucky. And the wedding photo is lovely. My own was far less formal.

Wow! I would never have recognized Darlene from that photograph, but I spotted MrFlaming immediately. when I first met Darlene and Paul I thought damn he must’ve been much better looking when he was a young man but this is not true. She did not marry him for his looks. (That is absolutely Paul Flaming in a tuxedo.)

If reverse is locked out by the OD, the car will typically freewheel. No compression braking happens. The wiring can be done many ways. If that harness isn't designed for the OD trans, there will be about 6 wires missing that work the OD and ignition cutout. It's supposed to shift up and down like a 2-speed auto, when you work the gas pedal. (The cable is to lock it off physically, so you don't freewheel, and run burn up the brakes going downhill.) So, when you lift your foot off the gas, the OD should kick up when you're above governor speed (about 22mph on my old speedo.) When you mash the gas while in OD, there's a switch attached to the carb or throttle linkage that kills the ignition for one beat. When the gears unload, it slips out of OD, reconnects the ignition, and you've done a kickdown just like any slushbox, but faster. This confuses folks, because the source of your primary coil voltage re-routs! When the OD toggle switch is on, the speed governor provides the ground for the solenoid, when above 22 mph, so the OD can kick up otherwise the solenoid doesn't move. Extra contacts in the OD solenoid click when it moves. Ignition voltage comes from either that solenoid thru the kickdown switch on the linkage, or directly from the key switch, when the toggle is off. I never had a factory kickdown switch. I added a cheap sliding switch from Radio Shack on the firewall behind the carb, and drilled a little hole in the slider. I used a wire rod to run the switch from a lug I made, under the jamb nut of the carb linkage. There was a spring that returned the switch when you let off the gas a bit, and then the OD would kick up. The rod slid thru my home made lug and had a barrel clamp on the rod (from a VW accelerator cable?) so I could adjust the physical position where the linkage would pull the switch. As soon as you mash the gas, it pulls the switch radio shack switch, cutting the ignition (6volts) running thru it. Instantly, the solenoid slips loose, and clicks it's internal switch at the same time, restoring ignition voltage in only 1/3 revolution. Is this making sense? It's been over 30 years since I wired that. Anyhow I added a short wiring loom from the new sliding switch, OD switch, OD solenoid, internal solenoid ignition switch, and key. I also ran the governor wire which grounds the OD solenoid thru a momentary open push-button inside my shifter knob. This allowed me to prevent the OD from kicking up, if I wasn't ready for OD gear. Say it was wound up in second, and I was reaching for 3rd. I'm way over 22 mph, but press the button with the shifter hand, so it doesn't shift to OD as I'm slacking the gas to shift to third. In third, I can release the button, and it stays there until I lift the gas, finally kicking it up into 3rd + OD. Now around town with 40- 45 mph speed limit, I could easily start the car off in 2nd gear, then never put it in third. I would work it like a powerglide until I hit the highway, then finally shift to 3rd. This eliminated 75% of my shifting in town, and I never hit the clutch unless I had to take off from neutral. I would slip the shifter to neutral as I was slowing to zero without the clutch. I would shift to 2nd (1st if going up a hill) and once in 2nd + OD, it was unnecessary to touch the clutch except from a dead stop, and I could slip it easily from 2nd to 3rd without clutch at 40-50 mph, with just a feather of the gas pedal. BUT, the car was much faster off the line in a drag race with the worn out non-OD transmission, than the nice OD trans. Those extra parts add lots of weight and fluid friction in the trans. You're pushing more bearings and more parts thru the oil. Otherwise it was a joy and I didn't even have to change the drive shaft.

It's like its not falling out of OD when the RPM comes down? The speed governor is maybe stuck closed or binding. I rebuilt mine in 1986, so tough to recall how it's shimmed, but be sure it's smooth. I took mine all apart by bending the tabs. Where does your speed governor wire go? Just a switch? Or do you have kickdown setup?

I'm impressed, and I'd be super impressed if you snuck a vacuum gage in there.

We had a cage of course, and a clip-on chuck with a hose so you could stand back. This was a big rental lot, so trucks and trailers came back with flats all the time. All kinds of rental equipment had 16" split rims. In those days most of it had tubes as well. I patched a lotta tubes. I was often putting on the 4th patch on a tube only a year old. Construction sties were murder on tires.

I learned to drive in No. Minnesota in the 60's and it was a constant thing. Every morning you drove slow until the tires warmed up. When it was well below zero, you could hear the car creak as you drove slowly off, because all the body mount rubbers were no longer soft.

I do remember seeing the Bandag truck in the magazines. I don't remember super singles. Are those like concrete truck tires? I remember Duplex tires. You had to buy their Duplex wheels, because they were 1/2" bigger than standard wheel sizes. I've mounted quite a variety of tires when I was young. Tires from a 8hp lawnmower to tires for heavy trucks and tractors. Everybody was scared of split rims. I never saw a problem with them once, but I always inspected them for damage and cleaned the rims. Most shops were loathe to spend one minute cleaning a rim. Because of this I hate to have other people mount my tires. I don't let anyone else mount my bike tires. I'm too paranoid. I've had the 1500 Nomad for 16 years, and nobody else has laid a wrench on it, once it was assembled. I've owned 7 motorcycles, and not one was ever wrenched on by others. Motoparanoia...I got it.

I remember thst from the 1960’s that Bandag was famous for their cold process retreading, but I do not know how they do it nowadays. Back in the old days they were the only ones that did cold process retreading. Because of this you could do a Bandag retread more than once, as it did not unduly age a used carcass by overheating it. It probably costs as much to retread a truck tire nowadays, as it is to buy a brand new passenger car tire of modest size. My experience with retreaded tires in the early 70s was uniformly bad. I would try to buy a matching pair but one of the carcasses would always turn out to be defective. This happened on my very first car. I was only 17. Dad told me after he drove the car it was the most out of balance tire he had ever seen. The shop put several ounces of weight on both sides of the rim and I drove it from South Dakota to Utah before it started to come apart and I had to buy another tire. I remember friends telling me that their car started shaking in the morning on the way to work, and they have no idea why because it was smooth the day before. Cheap retread tires were delaminating right where the cap meets the sidewall. This would cause the tire to bulge and wobble. I think this was a big problem across the country back then. Tires were starting to go twice as far and it was harder to get a good retread.

I ride a motorcycle. I've had 7 now, since 1968. The most rattletrap hotrod car is normally still safer than motorcycling. (Though it all depends on the nut holding the wheel . . . grips, whatever.) I say this having crashed a bike many times, in many ways, been hit by cars, nearly hit, and knowing how easily it could kill you. Myself, I've never suffered more than minor scrapes and bruises . . . one serious bruise . . . never needed medical attention, and I basically rode home every time with a bent fender or a broken light, but I have a few little scars. I am also lucky as hell to be here, and clearly living on borrowed time. I will someday document all my mishaps in one spot, if I continue to survive. Anyhow, folks, it's all relative. That guy in a Desoto might be much better off than the guy he hits.

While I don't think I need over 100 HP in a grocery getter, I typically own 200 HP cars. BUT, Since I sold my Cadillac, my inclination has been to eschew large engines and just shave weight. I've owned light sporty cars and big porky ones. The P15 was right in the middle, but after I bought it I started adding weight. Eventually I reversed course. I hope to remove a lot of weight in the future. I've owned several rolling divans from the big 3, and I got over the want of that sort of luxury. I own a sports truck and a sports sedan. I fully intend to sporterize the P15. It's a different sort of luxury, not having to haul what you don't need.

I hope you get the trans mount painted & installed soon. By rolling it on its wheels with the trans mounts out, it's trying to rip the front mount in half, as it shoves the trans up thru the fork bridge. If the mount is weakened and you find the rubber cracked thru, the engine and trans must come out again.

Thank you for all of this. And for reminding me to get out and change my brake fluid. I have not read all of your exploits but at some point did you not replace the proportioning valve?It seems like a sticky proportioning valve could cause poor brake action. I gave up on buying rebuilt parts back in the 1970s because they were getting horrible back then here in the west. I think that’s because what we were getting were 200k+ rebuilt cores from worn Mexican vehicles, that had been already rebuilt once in Mexico when they came from the United States with 80,000 miles. I remember one fiasco where I went through 5 different Ford 289 starters from Kragan auto. Eventually I decided anything I could not rebuild myself I would have to buy new. Then I started working on the P15 and realized that the OEM parts for that car which had been sitting on the shelf decades were much better than Ford & GM parts from the 70s which I had been buying. As an aside, virtually everyone who buys a Toyota Tacoma thinks within the first few days that they have been rear ended in traffic. The powertrain on that truck is very light, and so when the huge air conditioner clutch kicks in the whole truck jumps a little bit like you’ve been bumped on the rear bumper. The engine is slightly increasing the idle speed at the same instant it kicks in that clutch, just so the engine doesn’t stall at its normal very low idle. Instead the truck seems to jump forward on the suspension but does not slip the brakes. But exactly how hard that he feels will depend on the exact condition of idle speed as your truck is decelerating to a stop. This of course changes on whether the weather is hot or cold and whether the engine is hot or cold and so you could have many different conditions and drive the truck for quite a while before this happens to you.When I sold the 2009 and bought the 2012 I thought they had fixed the problem bit but it still happens on occasion. I think that the 2012 truck is just a little heavier and you don’t notice it as much. So why do I bring this all up in a thread about brakes? It never snows here but people who live in icy conditions have reported that when this happens as the truck is engaging and disengaging it’s AC clutch in defroster mode, that your brakes can lock up on the ice when you do not expect it. This was reported to cause several accidents in very slow down hill conditions when people should normally have been able to stop. In the middle of their stop the braking action would change because of the change in engine RPM, Initiating a skid. BMW motorcycles also had a big problem with anti-lock disk brake systems on motorcycles, were if you were coming to a stop at even moderate to slow speeds, and your rear wheel went over a sharp dip in the pavement like the edge of two slabs that did not quite meet level, the antilock brakes would release pressure thinking you had reached the lock up condition. Having them release and actuate rapidly like that on the margin of some greasy gas station pavement was nearly the bane of a couple BMW‘ers who ended up smacking into gas pump islands. Of course this had to happen about 10 times before BMW quit blaming the riders and changed their program.

I get ads for dog toys, Hawaiian shirts, and industrial saws and sanders. 4 years on social security and google doesn't know yet.

@Los_control In California, this law is "Display of Speed" and you can be charged regardless of the actual speed you are going in MPH. But if you burn rubber on a public street, you are guilty. I got busted for peeling out at Pep Boys Auto back about 1985. Anyhow, I think this is white lie territory. Clearly he knows you're a car guy. I might walk across the street and tell him in the friendliest possible manner that you heard Ol' Miz Jones down the block was furious and said she'd call the cops next time she saw such. If that doesn't appeal to you, maybe just print a little copy of the relevant law, and put it under his windshield wiper like a ticket before he wakes up tomorrow. That would be the absolute limit of my physical involvement with his property. If he can't take the hint, Just speed-dial the cops on the phone while he's racing his engine in the street and let them take care of him. The cop will not have to witness the incident if three neighbors will say he did it, and you have video. Legally it might not be enough for an arrest, but it will get them to give him a serious lesson in the law. Chances are he will knock it off once the cops come and talk to him.

If a valve is stuck open you will not be able to get a good leakdown test. I would do that before suspecting broken springs. If none of the cylinders leak fast at TDC it's not likely valves. But if one does leak, you will know what 2 valves to look at once you get the cover off. And which cover to pull.

We don’t have any frost line. Frost is something in a freezer. Our soil heaves for different reasons. Heavy soil-soaking rains are infrequent, plus too much silt and clay. We did a lot of soil conditioning