Another boring old story from the old days

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67Dart273

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"Around" 71 when stationed at NAS Miramar, my good friend Gary (RIP) had a bought new 70 Chev K2500. He thought it would be cool to have an "8 ball" shifter ball, but the place he went to had none, so he settled for a cue ball. I thought this was such a great idea, I bought one too. So he took them to work and drilled and tapped them.

Soon we noticed an odd noise, kind of a "sussssing" sound in some gears. After about 2 months of driving my 69 Road Runner and his Chev, we decided IT WAS A SMALL AIR SPACE in the ball from drilling the hole a bit deep that somehow caused the sound.

The problem? For him, none. He first thought the transmission was getting noisy, but it was the shift ball. He removed the ball, finally, and that was that

The problem? I KEPT my ball, and it turned out THE BIG BALL BEARING between the main and tail sections of the case was failing, and it REALLY WAS noisy!!! This, coupled with noisy tires, the radio, and loud exhaust, made things that much harder to "detect." The bearing finally "lost a ball" (or three) which trashed part of the transmission.

It allowed the main shaft to "walk" fore and aft some amount, which tore up the pilot end into the main drive gear (input shaft/ pinion). This ended up destroying BOTH the input shaft AND the main shaft. The dealer would have to order a mainshaft. "San Diego Metalspray" talked me into "we can turn down the shaft and press a hardened sleeve on there and it will be STRONGER THAN NEW."

WRONG. The sleeve turned out to be "not so hard" and ate up ANOTHER input shaft as well as finishing off that mainshaft.

NOW THE THING goes back together with another new input shaft, a new mainshaft, and a VERY SMALL CHIP out of one tooth on the cluster.

THAT CHIP LATER FAILED!!!! AND DESTROYED!!! ANOTHER!!! input shaft!!!!

I had that 833 out of there FOUR TIMES before I got it right.

Not one photo of the old girl, anymore.
 
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By the way I pulled this out with a floor jack out at the RADAR shop. Original RR exhaust is welded which makes that a huge PITA

Before I joined the Navy I could not afford a 4 speed in my 57 Chev, I used to collect 3 speeds cheap. The 55-57 as you probably know, had no rear crossmember. I could swap out a 3 speed in about 15 minutes. When I joined the Navy in the spring of 68, I had an even dozen first-reverse "sliders" in the trunk of a parts car.......all broken.
 
Everything we did when I was a teenager we did on the ground. Didn't know what concrete was. That includes a complete slant six to 383 swap in my brother's Duster. K member, 8 3/4, leaf springs to frame rails, everything. Put the jack stands on concrete blocks. Now that I think about it we use some big old fence posts at one point.
We did whatever the direct connection book said back in those days. Late 70's. Lived on my grandfather's farm. We thought we were the Duke boys.
My brother was surprised when my great aunt let me use her one car carport to put on my headers and dual exhaust on my Charger I scavenged from a wrecked GTX. Tons of B bodies in the junkyards round here then. That was the first thing I ever did on a concrete floor.
First Navy base Auto Hobby Shop I ever saw, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
 
I'm sure some of you remember this old photo, of the parking lot at our RADAR shop. It is not there, anymore. The 69RR got pulled apart about where the 64 Dodge (mine) is parked. This was taken when I owned the 70 440-6RR, limelight to the right. The shaker hood Cuda belonged to a friend of a co-worker, I don't know his name. The brown car was a "Nova" that is a Poncho Ventura

I've also "lost" the owner of the 68RR with the hood up. He became an overpaid bank president, and abandoned some of us peasants, and traded in his perfectly good wife for a younger model

This photo would have been taken somewhere between 72--73 or thereabouts

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That 68RR by the way is the victim of the very first failed "welded splice" in the ammeter circuit that I found. His electrical system was acting up, and the ammeter jumping around. I ran some tests, and ended up pulling the cluster out in his apartment parking lot, and some of the harness. Found it and fixed it, soldered it back together with a bunch of extension cords borrowed from the neighbors. He had said at one time in the long afternoon, "I hope you can figure out how to put this back together." I'm sure I told him, "so do I".
 
First Navy base Auto Hobby Shop I ever saw, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I was in Navy auto hobby shops at Treasure Island (Electronics Technician A school), at NAS Glynco (GCA RADAR tech C school) and of course NAS Miramar, where I had a part time job.

I have lots of "horror" stories of near misses and almost hits from the Miramar shop, as well.

When I was at TI a friend at the amateur radio club (K6NCG)

K6NCG - Treasure Island Radio Amateur Club 1969-1970

"wanted to know if I wanted to make a few bucks." He had a friend with a Ford full size, 3 speed, needed a clutch. "Sounded easy." I had no idea (after Chevy 3 speeds) just HOW DAMN HEAVY a Ford 3 speed WAS!!!! I can still remember wrasslin' that thing in there
 
The K6NCG amateur radio club building when I was at TI. I was up that tower MANY times, perhaps as many as 8, lost count. In fact that 120ft tower is the first "real" tower I climbed

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I remember lifting those big heavy transmissions in buy myself on my back. Now I need help holding the pressure plate up while I start the bolts standing up under a lift .

They were the good old days. When I could piss over the hood of a car. Now I have a hard time getting past the tips of my shoes. Shines up up pretty good though. LOL
 
I still say life was harder, life was better, life was simplier, life was more affordable,.. take away a few wars and no doubt life WAS better back in the day.
I told the wife the other day, if she finds me on the floor and I can't get up, just hook the cherry picker to my belt and raise my *** UP! She asks what floor? , your shop is under a big pine! and ya know I can't roll the picker thru the sand!
 
I got my drivers license in 1976. Bought my first car....in 1976. I knew I wanted a 1971 Challenger R/T 340 at age 13 and mowed lawns for three years to save up my money. So I buy my Challenger for $1600 from a guy my dad worked with. That guy had a son the same age. Greg was his name and he too bought his first car. 1969 Nova 396. We became friends and still are. I get a call from him one Saturday afternoon from Greg asking my help to replace the oil pan gasket because it was leaking. It really was the rear main seal. So I said "of course...I'll be right over". So I get to Greg's house and I notice he had the front of the car jacked up. But not by jacks stands on the frame. Or those ramps that you would drive up on(and would skid 5 five feet). He had the car jacked up with a floor jack....attached to the oil pan. It was obvious that the oil pan was trashed. So was the oil pickup. I was so stunned I was speechless. And he had no idea what he had done wrong. I stuck with the hobby. Greg got married and picked up a new hobby. Getting yelled at everyday.
 
I changed my first transmission when I was 13, and it was a 727 in a 1958 Chrysler Windsor. (push button trans)
I had never had any experience with one before that, and had no one to help me with it.
No concrete, just decomposed granite and no power or air tools or jack.
We did have a road grader I was familiar with, so I got in that and cut a ditch in the back yard.
Then I used a 2x4 behind the tires to pry/roll the car over the ditch.
2 days later the car drove under it's own power.
My Dad was a bit annoyed about the ditch in the yard and made me fill it back in by hand.:D

Not very long ago I changed the rear main seal in our front driveway (all gravel) in our Winnebago RV right where it sits in the top picture.
12 foot 2 piece Driveshaft out, turbo 400 out, engine jacked up flex plate off, oil pan down and change the seal.
Put it all back together, ran it enough in the driveway to burn off any junk on the exhaust and took off the next morning for an out of town Thanksgiving weekend to one of my favorite riding places.
Did it right where it sits.

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I had a Ford I was good at snapping the input shaft off. By the end of the summer of 77 I could drop the trans , change out the shaft and have the car back on the street in less than two hours. No trans jack off my chest, can't do that today.
 
Had to swap clutch and pressure plate out of my 72 cuda when I was a teen. Drafted my 11 year old brother to help. Had the car up on 4 jackstands to make it easy to work under. Once the trans was loose we lowered it down with him holding it on his chest while I grabbed his legs and drug him and it out from underneath the car. We still get a good laugh talking about it.
 
I had a big old tow truck that I used to tow and scrap cars. I needed to get a truck and a VW beetle to the scrapper. The tow truck was a twin boom. I would always tow two at one time. This day when I got to the scrap yard as I was entering the scale I looked back and the VW was gone. I rushed back the way I came looking for it.

I couldn't find it. As going through the city there was cars lined up at a red light. I went 6 miles back to where I remembered seeing it on the truck, No luck , So I turned around and headed back to the scrap yard. When I got to the city I saw a bunch of people where those cars were lined up at the red light. They were staring down the road .

There it was wheels up on its roof parked perfect as if someone put it there between two parked cars. One of the people standing there said it slid in there spinning and kept spinning for a while like a fan blade.

We drug it on the truck and were ready to pull out and the police pulled in. He made us sweep glass the whole block while he watched. We had to find all the owners of the cars and asked them to move. We would haul two at one time quite often . My wife took this picture when we pulled in for lunch one day. If you would get caught doing this today You would go to prison

I sold the blue 53 not long ago. The last picture is of it leaving. I owned many old tow trucks back in the day. We would go out with two at one time. That 56 had a 327 installed. Every one wanted to drive that one.

I can tell you all some stories with pictures of stupid things we did that would put you all on your knees laughing.

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That photo you posted with a Duster body chained on top of another running one was pretty funny

Once I needed to pull and haul an engine, all I had at the time was a Ford Courier with a dock bumper. Made an A frame that hooked to the outside rear of the dock bumper with some pins. Chained it to the front corners of the bed, and pulled the engine, a stock 6 out of an old landcruiser. Chained it to the hitch to keep it from swinging and just hauled it off to the new owner

That same truck I scored some 20' lengths of 1" black pipe free. Didn't have a top rack and no way to build one, so I just slung them under the truck and slowly hauled 'em home, about 10 miles on a county road.

Many years later I had another Courier with a front tow bar. A then friend of mine scored some pulled out wood poles along the sides of his county road.. We lashed one end to his hitch with a come-a-long and lifted the other end up from the raised tow bar, chained in place, and hauled 'em up to 5 mil down the road to his place. Some of the poles rubbed on the high spots!!!

Never thought to take photos LOL
 
Over the years I have done more work outside in the dirt, gravel and grass than I care to remember. Made a tripod out of 3 4x4s and a chain to hold it together. Used a come-a-long to r&r many motors and transmissions. Even in the snow and wind in the winter time at -30 and 40*F. Man, I had ambition back then.
 
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