Sunday, May 29, 2011

Countdown for LARS trip

My son Rodney and I leave for the LARS in CA on June 10th. As of now I have less than 20 miles on the RPU. I spent the better part of two days last week at Walt's Rod & Custom fixing little things. Thanks Wally for the help!! The big thing was the wrong throw out bearing, the clutch was slipping like crazy. Easy to fix....except we could not get the tranny out without raising the body up 3 inches or pulling the engine. We opted to raise the body. After removal of the floorboards, all the body bolts,and steering column, the body could be raised up enough to move the tranny back. After a few adjustments on the linkage and walaa............the thing shifts and drives like new. We fixed a few more brake leaks, a steering shaft adjustment, re shimmed the body to get the doors to fit again, added a vac advance to the dizzy, replaced the dizzy with a new one, reset the timing, modified the shifter (because it broke off), replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets with some new super ones......thanks again Wally FOR ALL THE HELP!!
Now the plan is to get some miles on it.....like a few hundred in the next 10 days. Oh yea, gotta program the speedo too. So far I have used the GPS to check speed. At 70 the tach shows 2000 in 5th gear, that's good. The 4.11's should be just fine. I have been wondering about the gears.
Tomorrow I am going to drive it to the show at Jack and Jims, a few miles there. Tuesday it will just be cruising everywhere.
Tune in again soon.....June 10, it is off to CA. We will be driving across SD on state 14, into the Black Hills, then onto Denver, visit a friend of Rodney's and Monday meet with 8 other rods at Rocky Mtn Street Rods for the drive. I can't believe its almost time to go. I'm getting excited.