Update on Harold 11/09/09

An update on Harold! Dan took him (and me) for a spin on Sunday afternoon. There were a lot of small things to be fixed; nuts/bolts tightened, etc., but Dan was able to drive the car down the street several times. The clutch needs to be adjusted, but that probably won't take Dan to long. We got an estimate on the top and will start working on getting the material for that. We'll keep you posted. As soon as I get the video of the maiden voyage, I'll post it.

Have a good week!

Kathy & Danjavascript:void(0)

Oil Pump Fixed!

Ok, so the oil pump was leaking like a sieve out of the generator shaft opening. Bates came through for me again tonight, as I found the old cracked original oil pump in a box of parts. In looking at it, it became clear that there was not an oil seal as we know it nowadays. In the same box as the oil pump, I also found a new box of rope seal packing. A couple of stands of that fixed the problem quite nicely. Now to fix the major oil leak that is coming out of the front of the engine. I will say one thing, that car started right tonight. It wants to run!

No Oil Pressure

Even though the car is running, it had no oil pressure. So, I took a look at the oil pump. It appears that Bates had one custom made out of a solid piece of aluminium to replace the original. Nice, but he made a mistake. There is no oil seal on the shaft that comes out of the generator to drive the oil pump. So after I packed the pump with vasoline to prime it, and started it up, oil started coming out of the shaft. At least I had oil pressure! Now I have to figure out how to seal it. No biggy. I am sure I will figure out something.

The car starts,.

I think Bates (Thomas, the fellow would worked so hard on this car) would have been proud. After putting a different coil on it, and working on the carbie, Harold fired right up. In so many respects, the car is just like a car from as lates as the mid-seventies. Nothing under the hood is really any different. But, at the same time, disassembling a carbie with a patent date of 1908 does give one pause. By all rights this car should not run anymore. How many other 87 year old mechanical gadgets do you have in your daily life? I sat down behind the large wooden wheel tonight and just pondered. Who was the orginal owner? How did this car survive the scrap drives of WW2? What was Bates thinking when he picked up this car in 1983 and decided that he was going to bring it back from the land of rust and rot?

Here I Am

Hello.

I am Dan, and this is the story of my 1922 Chevrolet FB 50. I plan on using this blog as a method to track the work I do to the car. I will also tell the story of the car as I know it.



Work Done Today:
Car delivered.
Fix stuck bendix. Car will still not start, but now turns over.