Having fun in the shop

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Kern Dog

Kern Dog

Build your car to handle.
FABO Gold Member
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
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Location
Granite Bay CA
Sometimes your life is so busy, you don’t have time to just play.
Lately, I haven’t had anything pressing so I’ve been a bit aimless.
I do a lot better when there is a deadline or an obligation to meet.
Sound familiar to you?
I got a call from a guy that needed a 7 1/4” axle. He blew the spider gears out and needed a direct replacement.
He called the right guy. I have four!

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He needed a big bolt unit so that narrows it down to two. This one here in the middle is a Dart Lite, it came with a 4 speed so it had the 2.94 gear. In my experience, 90+% of the 7 1/4” axles had 2.76 gears. I pulled the D/L into the shop….

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The 2.94 axle is out but to keep this car a roller, I stuffed another axle in it.

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Just for fun….

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Yeah…. Axle flip!

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The car looks like it is 1979 all over again.

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Remember when these cars looked like this??

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I have no plans on doing this to any car that I care about. This was just for fun.
What did you do just for fun this week?
 
I made a 314 mile service call to fix the air conditioner at our camper at the beach. The drive took 4 hrs. & 15 minutes....and it took me 12 minutes to fix the AC! I came armed with a motor for the fan and a capacitor for the fan that blows cool air thru the ductwork. The capacitor was easy, so I tried it first and it fixed it! My brother in law is a top notch HVAC guy, and is who supplied me with the parts to repair before I left home. I called him to tell him it was just the Capacitor, and he told me I should change the motor too because 9 times out of 10, if you replace the capacitor and the motor starts back working, it will work a few hours and quit. I decided to just stay at the beach a few days to see. I've been in a Mexican standoff with the fan motor since Tuesday and neither one of us has blinked yet....lol. I'm going home on Sunday, so I will replace the motor before I go. If my wife comes back to the beach by herself and it quits again because I didn't replace the motor, I'll never hear the end of it! It's been fun to just hang out and do whatever, so a kinda fun week, all in all.

:thumbsup:
 

Kern Dog said:
Sometimes your life is so busy, you don’t have time to just play.
Lately, I haven’t had anything pressing so I’ve been a bit aimless.
I do a lot better when there is a deadline or an obligation to meet.
Sound familiar to you?
I got a call from a guy that needed a 7 1/4” axle. He blew the spider gears out and needed a direct replacement.
He called the right guy. I have four!

View attachment 1716460003

He needed a big bolt unit so that narrows it down to two. This one here in the middle is a Dart Lite, it came with a 4 speed so it had the 2.94 gear. In my experience, 90+% of the 7 1/4” axles had 2.76 gears. I pulled the D/L into the shop….

View attachment 1716460005

The 2.94 axle is out but to keep this car a roller, I stuffed another axle in it.

View attachment 1716460006

Just for fun….

View attachment 1716460009

Yeah…. Axle flip!

View attachment 1716460010

The car looks like it is 1979 all over again.

View attachment 1716460011

Remember when these cars looked like this??

View attachment 1716460012

View attachment 1716460013

I have no plans on doing this to any car that I care about. This was just for fun.
What did you do just for fun this week?
Click to expand...
You're mentally ill. Proud to know you.
 
Kern Dog said:
Sometimes your life is so busy, you don’t have time to just play.
Lately, I haven’t had anything pressing so I’ve been a bit aimless.
I do a lot better when there is a deadline or an obligation to meet.
Sound familiar to you?
I got a call from a guy that needed a 7 1/4” axle. He blew the spider gears out and needed a direct replacement.
He called the right guy. I have four!

View attachment 1716460003

He needed a big bolt unit so that narrows it down to two. This one here in the middle is a Dart Lite, it came with a 4 speed so it had the 2.94 gear. In my experience, 90+% of the 7 1/4” axles had 2.76 gears. I pulled the D/L into the shop….

View attachment 1716460005

The 2.94 axle is out but to keep this car a roller, I stuffed another axle in it.

View attachment 1716460006

Just for fun….

View attachment 1716460009

Yeah…. Axle flip!

View attachment 1716460010

The car looks like it is 1979 all over again.

View attachment 1716460011

Remember when these cars looked like this??

View attachment 1716460012

View attachment 1716460013

I have no plans on doing this to any car that I care about. This was just for fun.
What did you do just for fun this week?
Click to expand...
I’m jealous of your energy, and your space! I have to take mine apart for paint, and I have no where to put anything. :BangHead:
 
I find myself doing fun non-productive stuff in the garage from time to time. For instance, this week I was out there with intentions of finishing up the fuel lines on the '66 Dart and ended up firing up the '68 instead. I noticed it had a small hiccup in the way it ran and ended up pulling the carb that was on it and tossing on a new 750 Brawler I've had on the shelf for a while and took it for a spin. Turns out, it needs quite a bit of tuning. So much for making fuel lines on the other turd...
 
The guy came over and bought the axle that I pulled out. Back to the idle mind!
This car will get pushed back up the hill tomorrow or Sunday. Getting it down the hill was a small adventure.

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I’ve rolled cars down the hill numerous times without drama. This was not one of those times.
It has no brakes.
The steering column is held up with a ratchet strap that quit tightening, allowing the column to flip all over.
The bench seat I had in it was not bolted down.
The tires did hold air though.
Going down the ramp, it gained speed like usual but the hood flew open, blocking the view. At the bottom of the hill, I have to make a LEFT u- turn to both scrub off speed but to also avoid going into the ditch.

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This car rolled so great, turning hard left didn’t slow it down enough. If I kept in the turn, I would have hit the shop.

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I went from full lock LEFT to full lock RIGHT to end up in the back yard. I
Used the Power Wagon to push it into the shop.

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To get back up the hill, I’ll enlist the help of the wife. I’ll push it with the truck. To make it easier, I bolted up the column and put in a better seat.

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Just for fun I cranked the torsion bars UP.

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The alignment is off a bit…

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I clocked the tie rod sleeves to get the toe close to zero. I don’t care about the caster or camber.
This is a parts car since the 1976 model cars are required to pass emissions testing here in California. Maybe I could make a drift car out of it? The DRIFT Dart?
 
missing linc said:
Been driving my old cars to work this week, that's all the fun stuff I have time for.
Click to expand...
I did take the 89 Thunderbird Super Coupe on my vacation at the beginning of the month, put about 2000 miles on it without issue. That qualifies as fun in my books, plus I took in a couple of car shows, including an all Mopar event.
 
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