I Hate My Darn Car

I was out today driving my Rampage.. making
sure that it shifts ok... well after about 8
miles I came back home... as soon as I pulled
into the driveway.. the upper radiator hose
blew off.. this car hates me.. and I hate it..
damn thing wants t fight me EVERY step.... oh..
it was shifting fine

At least a radiator hose is easy to fix, better than more tranny problems, although I have to admit Ive been frustrated enough at times with a car I could bite a nail into. Keep plugging away, it'll finally come around.

The Tractor Pull crowd use a small amount of hair spray on their hoses, it melts the rubber to the join very well - too well if you use too much and needs to be cut off

So dose a couple of cartons of beer for your car sound good?

Congrats on getting it out. You will get the bugs worked out. If it was easy everybody would do it.

Yeah much easier than ANOTHER trans.. it ran
REAL strong today... sorta had a hard time
staying in a straight line when I hit the pedal
from a 30mph roll.. the hose has come off once
before.. this time its getting changed.. the
fancy end on it has the clamp right at the edge
of the goose neck

WELL!!!! congrats??

Well thanks for the moment... I only put a few
miles on it.. but I am confident with the trans
at the MOMENT... LOL.... lets put it this way..
I am a little gun shy

At least this was relatively minor, and it did wait until you made it home to poop.

good deal on the trans mr. p. i was holding my breath for sure on that issue, as i think i maybe going that rout on my humpback, only with a jw bell for the bb. as for the radiator hose, did it blow off the wp. neck ? if so, what brand of neck are you using, and what is the hose material ? if the hose material is silicon, i have heard you need special clamps for that material, as it is tougher to get a good grip on the neck and radiator. if it;s the neck, is it because of the retainer ridge location or height ? maybe a pic ? i'm sure you will fight to the finish and be victorious !

This is used by the diesel truck guys as well and works great.

Its the fault of the hose... the end of the
hose has fancy ends(braided stainless cover
over the hose) and the clamps are back 3/4"
so the clamp on the goose neck is on the bead
of the goose neck.. if the hose isnt on ALL the
way the clamp is on the outside of the hose bead..
its just too close to be safe.. I'll fix it today

Dont even get me started!!!

i understand now mr. p. i'm not a fan of those stainless covers and ends.

At least I was happy with the trans... and yeah
the hose at least waited to blow off at the
driveway.. my buddy came by after the hose let
go and he made comment of the stripe going up
the driveway of my fresh coolant

Its why I run AN fittings on mine, no worries of them slipping off. Glad the trans worked good.

Gunna fight you till,,,,,,,,,
And hitting it at 30mph you spun the tires and makes for an exciting ride!

No kidding............the more they fight us generally but not always, the better the end results. I thought I was simply going to swap gears and run but apparently it don`t work that way so now to make the wrong axles(blessing)work, I get to upgrade to bigger brakes(thankxxx sgcuda)but it`s all part of the fun I guess.............You`re gettin closer Mike...........

Every fancy radiator in my area has blown off, including mine several years ago. Now I just use a regular stock rubber hose. AN fittings will be on my next race car for sure.

That is my FAVORITE saying when there is trouble!

Or " it wouldn't be any fun if it was easy!"

Mike you are in the home stretch my friend.When you get in off the waiting list you will be totally ready!
Don

'bought time!!!!
Don't sweat the small stuff.



Tim

I cut the fancy ends off and got it to fit up
nice now.. all clamped in tight.. its back
together and running.. now I have a couple of
other jobs to do on it.. install the power inverter
and align the front end.. I do the alignment myself
so thats no big deal.. right now I have too much
caster on the right wheel

hang n there. better to get all the issues out of the way now than on Drag Week. You will tame it.
Jerry

Yeah I know this is just a minor issue but its
something all the time... I sure hope I get it
sorted out soon... I'd like to drive it instead
of working on it all the time

that thing wasn't green before was it ? my folly was a green car will fight you mercilessly until you tame it, then you will not be ably to kill it. every green car i owned in my entire life was like that, and in the end, i couldn't kill 'em no matter how hard i tried. all lasted until sold or dying of old age/body rot. you are on the home stretch for sure now !

LOL... no.. it was silver.. I have never owned
a green car

My car is green .

Green car and green bike. can't kill either, no matter how hard I try

I do the alignment myself
so thats no big deal.. right now I have too much
caster on the right wheel


^^^Mr.P how hard is this?^^^

Real easy with struts and a inclineometer(I
use a magnetic digital one) and a tape measure
for the toe... this is really one of the only
times I wish I had a platform hoist... but I set
it up on blocks so its at ride height but up on
blocks so I can get my base numbers.. then its just
move the heim joints on the lower arm to get my 6*
caster and 0 camber.. I like about 1/32 to 1/16 toe
in.. I have to borrow the wife to have her sit in the
seat while I get the base numbers and when I think its
done to re-check
EDIT
I KNOW my shop floor is level from when I built
the shop.. I used a transit when I layed it out
and after it was done I poured water on it and
used levels and the transit to verify it was

Thaxs... i'll be installing one of the Bob's frontend here in a week or two and I hate to drag it to a alignment shop to have it aline, and thought how hard is this..

I have the old magnetic gauge that you put on the spindle
but I dont use that with the struts
EDIT
I welded up a little bridge that the inclineometer
mounts on and that slides in between the coils of
the spring so its resting on the strut body itself
to get a good reading.. I do it in both directions
for the camber and caster... the hardest part is the
toe in.. Laying on the floor and turning the heims
for the toe in

I found this video on YouTube, he makes it seems not to bad
http://dragrace.academy/front-end-alignment/

[/quote]
I found this video on YouTube, he makes it seems not to bad
http://dragrace.academy/front-end-alignment/ [/quote]

That did give me the idea of using the steering arm as
my caster check.. I use the rotor also for the camber
thanks for that vid.... and I use the Strange struts

Mr.P do you do the 1" above race height on your alignment? Or do you just set it at ride height?



And also do you set it with toe-in ?.....Thax.

I dont set it up the 1" on the street rod.. just
on the race car... and yes on the toe in... if you
go toe out the car will tend to dart around and will
get very weird handling... like I said I like 1/32 to
1/16 toe in on all on my stuff... but if you run a
a A-arm you would most likely run 1/16 or even
a bit more toe in... unless you do a toe curve on the
car to see if it goes toe out.. it can be corrected
if you read the Mopar Chassis book

OK.....Thaxs I have one of the old Mopar chassis books I'll take a look and see what it says.

I had to change the springs on the fronts so
I had to pull the front end apart and I know
I moved the heim on the front arm but when I
put it back together I forgot to re-check it..
thats why I have to do a re-alignment now..
stupid on my part but I was more concerned with
the trans and forgot it... so its just more work
for me... like usual

Mr.P that car has been fighting you for years,you been hanging in there hope you get all those gremlins out of it and enjoy it the summer.

Hey, sorry for the troubles. At least you have your car out and about. That's a plus. Mine will finally be coming out this spring after a 6 year lay up. Not as bad as Brad h,s 10 year lay up or so.

Most guys would have quit or burned it to the
ground... I'm just to stupid to quit.. my cheapo
build sure wasnt a cheapo in the end

You essentially built the car from the ground up. Not many would have even taken on a project like that.

I messed with mine all weekend. Not everything went smoothly, but still better than being at work!

Dang mabey thats it.ive heard it was bad luck to have a green motor cycle but a green car?might be sumthin to it though.

Yeah I did built it from the ground up.. I did
everything from bending the chassis to the paint..
it was fun till all the trans issues.. then having
the engine fall on the front of the car... by then
it was getting pretty old

So that is what's wrong with my New Yorker. .

And here all this time I just figured it was cursed.

Kevin

I want to thank Doug(DVW) he gave me a pair
of the plugs that I was looking for to hook up
my power inverter... plus he gave me a good
long length of cable(the right size I need)
thanks Doug..