Big Thrash continued
I noticed the QA1 Stocker Stars front shocks and new torsion bars were still laying in the front of Dale's shop. The current torsion bars are about 9 turns apart to get the same ride height, so you are limited to about a 3/4 inch gap to bottomed out. The shocks are toast.
"What the heck, Dale?"
"Not gonna happen, your old shocks have the nuts welded on at the top, and we have to pull the fenderwell headers to get to them." Dale replied, "Pull those fans off and re-clock them so all the wires will exit to each other, and then to the side of the radiator..."
"You're kidding! I'm riding on a junk front-end but the fan wiring has to look good??"
"Priorities", he retorted with a smile.
When pulling the 8" Derales off thier brackets, I noticed they had a nice little instruction decal which explained the two I had wired previously, the two that never seemed to do much, had been wired backwards! While I grimaced at my own stupidy, it did give me hope that we could keep it cool on the road.
Boone was attacking his damaged wheel. It was decided that since they had a washer slot for a shank type lugnut, we simply needed to drill out the damaged acorn bevel, and resize the holes to accept the lugnuts...simple, but daunting, and time consuming with a few worn out bits, and a hand drill. Upon completion, he moved it to the rear of the car.
As we worked through the lists of needed work on all 3 cars, Darren continued to call with issues of his own. He was dressing the engine for installation when he discovered the 67 440 block had bosses for mounting the power steering, but they weren't drilled or tapped. Boone decided to go help him, so we drew up plans for parts runs Saturday morning, and cut him loose.
Dale and I called it a night at about 11 pm, deciding a good night sleep might be at a premium at this stage in the game.
Saturday, Topeka -24 hours.
7AM, quick shower, and back at it. We got the 67's hub turned by an overzealous kid at the parts store who left it woefully thin. Stretched the hole in my hood under the scoop to allow for the small diameter breather that was our only option. Installed the Nitrous bottle brackets and line in the Valiant. Wired the fans, nitrous, and alternator through the firewall, installed tranny cooler lines on both the Valiant, and the Satellite. Boone was the runner most of the day, making trips to parts stores, speed shops, and of course, Pizza Hut. We continued to get updates from Darren, "When are you guys coming over to help me??".
We fabbed the shifter bracket mount from a motor home shifter peice, hooked it up and tested many times to get it right.
The hours just continued to tick by, and I started lobbying for an early departure. "Tech is 8-2 tomorrow..I don't want to show up at 2, we need to be there early.."
"It's a 5 hour drive" Dale says, "We still have alot to do".
"We need to concentrate on getting to the track, and getting through tech! Then we will have time to work on making a decent pass, then we will have time to hit the open road."
I was starting this argument early because I know how Dale is. Always the last guy to show up at the track, the last to tech, the last guy in the lanes...drives me insane.
Sometime around 9Pm, we get a call from Darren..seems a fully dressed 440 with deep 8 quart pan and 727 won't slide into the engine bay without hitting the K-member. After a brief discussion, he decides to separate the tranny, rather than dropping the K-member. At midnight he calls, and admits defeat. Engine is in, tranny is not, fuel tank is not, fuel lines are not. He's going to bed, wake him up when we are ready to roll.
We make the decision at that point, that Boone will drive his car to Topeka, and Dale and I will haul ours on the open 2-car trailer. The Valiant fires to life for the first time since Nov. 09 about 20 minutes before we start loading. Boone helps us load the cars, then heads home to pick up Darren, shower and pack. Dale and I load half the darn shop in the truck. None of us are talking, just going through the motions, bone tired. Good decisions give way to just moving..we shower, pack and are ready to hit the road at 6AM.
