One of the reasons I always try to give in-detail answers to some young rodder who is struggling with some problem is because when I was younger, I made every costly, painful mistake when learning. If I can save somebody else some of that torture, it is worth the trouble.

One of my earliest engine builds was a 389 Pontiac I built for my '63 Bonneville. I had spun a bearing, so a buddy and I decided to rebuild it, and add some upgrades while we were at it. We had never done one, but we moved into his barn and tore the engine out, had it machined, put new bearings and rings in it, and added a 421 cam and tripower from a '64 GTO.

While we were at it, we found a Catalina with a 3 speed stick setup, so we switched out the automatic. The only part missing from the Catalina was the flywheel, so I dug up a 1960 Flywheel.

After about 3 weeks or screwing around (and his Dad threatening to throw me out of the barn) we got it running, and it actually fired up and ran pretty well. So we opened a couple of cokes, toasted our success, and sat back in our chairs to celebrate.

Then we started hearing the noise. At first it was just a slight rap, then it got louder, and then louder still, until it was a definite knock. Our celebration turned to "Oh S#@# !!" Our worst fear was that it was a rod knock, or something else internal.

To make a long story short, found out the '60 flywheel was totally different than '63, and it was shaking itself loose from the crankshaft. We got a '63 flywheel, and problem solved.

But everytime I see some young, or not so young, rodder struggling with some mechanical problem, I remember what those times felt like, and how you could see what little money you had being spent to fix the problem.

Cars can be great, but they can also be a pain, sometimes, especially when it is your daily driver.



Don