Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[RestoRod]

I stand corrected, Dave. I would much rather drive than watch any day. Check out this cool old video of racing roadsters from southern Cal in late '40s:

[Hot Rods, Southern California, 1940s] : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Great video. Too bad that the technology of the day didn't include sound....it would have been fantastic to hear those cars. Safety was also minimal, it looks like some of the roll bars were made of 1" conduit. I'm sure they wouldn't have been much help in a rollover.


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[stovens]

Jim thanks for the video. Very cool to see the old hot rods on a dirt track, simplicity at it's best ompared to today mass of technology! Amazing to watch them slide around the turns, and eat mouthfulls of dirt, with just goggles and what looks like a modern day construction helmet! I think your track style T is right on with the spirit of those old video races. Nice job!

[J. Robinson]

I'm glad you all enjoyed the video. I wish I could find more... Jim Rathmann was the only one that I recognized. He won Indy in 1960 and later, after he quit racing, owned a big Chevy-Cadillac dealership here in Melbourne, FL until he retired. He just passed away about a year ago at age 83.

I have both of Don Radbruch's "Roaring Roadster" books about the era. They are jammed with pictures grouped by states - very interesting stuff. Although they ran all over the country, California, Indiana, and Pennsylvania were the big hotbeds of roadster racing back then; cars were state-of-the-art for the time. The same is true of Sprint Car racing today. I was born (in Indiana) in 1948, about the time that video was filmed. By the time my parents started taking me to the races (about age 5) the roadsters were all gone. They had already been replaced by Sprint Cars and Midgets. Therefore, I never got to see the racing roadsters in action.

I have tried to keep the overall look of this car pretty true to the old track roadsters, hence the bumpers and side nerfs, but under the skin it's a bit more modern.

[J. Robinson]

IT RUNS!! Hooray! I finally got all the induction and ignition pieces in place and put "fire in the hole" today. I have been screwing around with the carburetor for a couple of weeks. First, when I hooked up the electric fuel pump I had a virtual "waterfall" of gasoline pouring into the intake. That was last week. Two carburetors later and a change of needle valve & seat assembly I finally got a combination that works. I eyeballed the distributor timing, hotwired it, and "kicked" the starter with a screwdriver. It fired immediately. I didn't keep it running long because I don't have the cooling system hooked up yet, but it won't be long now until I do the "test drive around the neighborhood".

[Dave Severson]

Yippeeeee! The first fire up is always a great day!!!!!!

[stovens]

Way to go Jim!

[rspears]

Good deal! That's the stuff that puts the grin on your face for a few days!

[34_40]

Did you use the log manifold you were making?

[J. Robinson]

Yes. Didn't have it running long enough to find out anything about throttle response, etc, but it at least works.

[stovens]

Jim we all have faith in you on this one. Time and again on here you've rose to the challenge with creativity and hometown enginuity. Heck it's why I love reading your posts!

[34_40]

That's so cool! Thanks for the reply Jim..

[J. Robinson]

Well, in order to keep this thing running I need to have the cooling system working and to do that I need to have the alternator mounted so I can put a belt on... Is that a run-on sentence? Anyway, to accomplish this I had to make a couple of changes and fabricate some bracketry. First, I had to swap the '87 water pump for an '86. The '87 S-10 used a serprntine belt and the water pump runs backwards to the engine. The '86 and earlier S-10 used a v-belt system and the water pump runs the same direction as the engine. I couldn't find a 1986 or older S-10 in any of the local salvage yards, but I did manage to score the crank pulley off a 1985 Pontiac Fiero. The water pump pulley is one I found in my spare parts pile; I don't know what it came from, but it's probably from a small-block Chevy as I have parts from a few of them in the shed.

Near the bottom of the block on the driver's side, there is a protrusion with two threaded holes. There's plenty of open space on this side of the engine, too, so this is where I decided to mount the alternator (the opposite side has the bottom radiator hose and water pump inlet in the way).

[J. Robinson]

I used a piece of heavy duty (1/4" wall thickness) 1 1/2" angle iron cut and drilled to fit the boss at the bottom of the block. The length of this piece was carefully measured to place the alternator so that the pulleys all line up. I made two tabs from 1 1/4" x 3/16" flat stock. I found a spacer that was the same length as the bolt boss on the alternator and used that to hold the tabs at the proper distance apart for welding. I also welded a 3/8"-16 nut on the rear tab.

After welding, I dressed the welds to remove any slag, shot the finished bracket with a coat of Krylon primer, and painted it with "As-cast Aluminum Silver". The top adjuster arm is another Chevy part that I cut, reshaped, and welded to attach to another available threaded hole on the front of the engine.

Of course, the stupid pictures never load in order on this crappy progam, so I hope you can figure out what you're seeing...

[Dave Severson]

Clean and simple, ought to work great Jim!!!!

[34_40]

You make it look easy Jim! Nice.