Sick of leaks!

The rear main seal leak isn't getting any worse but the leak from the pinion area of the rear end is getting annoying.  I have a dark stain on the garage floor from the steady drip from the rear end.   Decided to do something about that leak until I can install a different pig/center section in the rear end housing.  Last Fri I put the car up on stands and removed the drive shaft exposing the area around the pinion nut that is leaking.  Then I sprayed that entire area with brake clean with a drain pan underneath to catch any debris.  Next, compressed air was sprayed to thoroughly dry the area.  Finally, I filled the area around the pinion nut with black silicone and pushed in down into the pinion yoke.  While it was drying, I reinstalled the driveshaft and put the car back on the ground.  It's now 4 days later and there are no new spots on the garage floor!  Success!

Art Wilson is a Road Rodz club member who owns a beautiful 1955 Chevy.  He had replaced the stock rear end with a 12 bolt out of a Chevelle and had the stock rear sitting in his garage.  We struck a deal a few weeks back and I finally went out to his house last week and picked up the rear end.  Once I had it disassembled, I could see that a ring gear had failed in that housing at one time and left score marks on the inside of the housing.  The pig/center section looked really nice and when I checked the codes on the ring gear, I discovered it had a 3.36:1 gear ratio made in Apr 1961.  Someone must have replaced the pig at one time after suffering a gear failure.  I've been concerned about the grooves and extreme wear of the carrier currently in the 41 ever since I installed it.  This "new" unit will give me another gear option and provide a more reliable carrier assembly.  I went to D&R Driveline here in Jenison last week and picked up all new bearings, seals, gaskets and small parts.  Here's the parts disassembled on the bench awaiting cleaning.

Once all the parts are cleaned, I'll take the carrier and pinion over to D&R and have them remove the old bearings and press on the new ones.  I think I'll reinstall the 3.36 gears in that pig and try it in the 41 later this year.  The T5 transmission has a 3.76 first gear so I'll still have plenty of accelleration with the 6 cylinder while gaining some miles/gallon on the highway. 

Sat, Aug 20 was the Danish Festival Show in Greenville and despite rain in the forecast, the Road Rodz make a strong showing.  Eight cars were in attendance with Kenny arriving too late to receive any votes with his Nova.  However, the other 7 of us all scored Best of Show/Top 50 plaques.  There were about 130 cars.

Road Rodz lined up

Rick, Dan, Rose & Cathie hangin' out.  Jimmy Dean in the background.

56 Ford truck with exceptional engine compartment.

The 41 showing her club colors.  Pic by Kenny Firlik.

We were all winners that day!

Rollin' fast to beat the rain!  It came down HARD on the way home!  Had to pull off for a bit due to so much water on the road.

Next up is the Road Rodz Party in the Parking Lot car show on Fri, Aug 26th at Park Center Lanes in Wyoming.  Thanks to all those who donated so generously.  We received some awesome items for the goodie bags, door prizes and money donations.  Every cent we collect goes to VanAndel Insitute for cancer research.  We even plan to have a raffle for a couple of very special prizes.  Join us starting at 3pm.

August is fading fast.

Got a little behind on posting here this month.  Had a family setback when Cathie's mother passed away on the 11th.  She was 95 and we knew she was failing but it's still a difficult time nonetheless.

Went to a second car show at the Gilmore Museum on Aug 6th.  This is the annual Red Barn Spectacular and over 1000 cars were expected.  I don't know the official final count but the place was packed!  We parked with some friends from Kalamazoo and their car club, The Great Lakes Full Size Chevy Club.  Herb Persons and I got to reminisce about our drag racing days in the 70's.   Here's a few pics of just some of the cars.

The weekend of the 13th was spent with family as the funeral was on Sat.  The Del Shannon show in Coopersville was scheduled for Sunday the 14th but it rained off and on all afternoon.

Fuel line change

Yesterday, I went to More Power and had Dick change the pump fitting on the new fuel line from a straight fitting to a 90° one.  We also shortened the line about 4".   Now the fuel line is routed thru it's stock location and held with an aluminum clamp to the top of the thermostat housing.  This is the pic before the fitting change but you can see how the line is clamped in place.

The man cave and placards

These pics were posted on my Facebook page so thought I'd add them here too.

I made up some window placards a couple weeks ago to put on the car when it's displayed at shows.  The details of the driveline retrofit are listed along with an area of thanks to the folks that helped.

1941 CHEVROLET SPECIAL DELUXE 2 DOOR SEDAN

We acquired this car in August 2010 in a nearly restored condition.  The original 41 driveline was quite limiting with the 4.11 gears, torque tube and babbit bearing engine.  With the goal of never cutting, welding or drilling new holes, the driveline was replaced with a 50’s era hot rod concept.  All the original parts can be bolted back in when desired.

ENGINE:  All machine work and technical support from More Power, Sparta, Mi.

·       1953 235 cu in Chevy inline 6 block with 1961 “848” cylinder head

·       Bored .030” over with new cast pistons and Speed Pro rings

·       Head machined .100”and intakes sunk .100”

·        Comp Cams specially designed hydraulic camshaft

·       Rocker stand shimmed and lash caps put on exhaust valves to correct geometry

·       Block drilled and tapped for full pressure, external oil filter with braided stainless lines

·       Polished Clifford intake manifold with 390cfm Holley 4 bbl carb

·       Braided stainless water lines feed intake manifold under carburetor

·       Fenton cast headers, Smithy’s glass pack mufflers & custom dual exhaust

·       Original 6 volt electrical system with foot starter and 6v generator

·       Stock 1954 distributor with Pertronix electronic ignition & coil

·       Stock radiator with Derale 15”, 6 blade, SS fan

·       Moroso “carbon fiber look” air cleaner

·       Chrome rocker cover and lifter cover

·       Custom pcv system replaces road tube

·       All stainless steel fasteners

·       Lokar gas pedal & ss steel throttle cable

TRANSMISSION & CLUTCH: 

·      Stock 9” flywheel & pressure plate – pp machined for disk clearance

·      Clutch disk for S10 pickup

·      1986 Borg Warner T-5 5 speed transmission with 3.76 1^st gear and .72 OD

·      Transmission rebuilt with Hanlon Motorsports rebuild kit

·      Hurst Competition Plus 5 speed shifter & Jeg’s shifter boot

·      1948-52 Chevy truck bell housing

·      Street Rod HQ transmission crossmember modified by Ray Hansen

DRIVESHAFT,  REAR END AND WHEELS:

·       Southwest Speed driveshaft – Ft. Smith, Ak

·       1957 Chevy rear end with 3.55 gears

·       Moser axles with stock 1941 6 lug x 5 ½” bolt pattern

·       2” dropped spacers from Jamco Suspension

·       Custom fabricated, 3 piece, bolt in shock mount crossmember

·       Monroe-Matic Plus rear shocks

·       Superior Industries 15” x 6 7/8” slotted aluminum wheels – black chrome lug nuts

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

·       More Power, Sparta, Mi – Dick Esch & Duane Parker

·       PRS Inc., - Dennis Kowalczyk

·       Maksim’s Safety Service, Grand Rapids, Mi – Tom Dawson & Rob Hentschel

·       Ray Hansen (my brother)

·       Hanlon Motorsports, St. Peters, Pa – Bob Hanlon

·       Micro Belmont Engineering – Gary Golden & Jim Jolliffe

·       Lentz USA, Jenison, Mi

·       Mitch Hansen (my son)

·       Very Special thanks to Cathie Hansen (my wife)

Today I got a phone call from Gary at Micro Belmont.  A friend of his had stopped by his place last night after attending the Grand Haven show and had seen Gary's name on the side of my '41.  Gary was tickled pink to think that someone would take the time to say "thank you" for lending a hand.  Funny how things work out.

Another weekend of car shows & a fuel line upgrade

Dick at More Power made up a new fuel line using AN fittings and braided ss line and I got it installed on Sat.  Had to put a 1/2" spacer under the air cleaner for fuel line clearance but all is well.  Should have used a 90 degree fitting at the pump.  That will get changed this week.

Sat morning I checked out a show I'd heard about at the Chicago Drive Pub in Grandville.  It was close by so I figured I stop for a bit before heading to the Byron Center Days show with the rest of the Road Rodz members.  There was only 1 car there when I arrived and only 6 total when I left a couple hours later.  Seems their promotion left a lot to be desired.  The Byron Center show was a free entry, no awards type of show at a local church.  They had a nice hamburger/fries/pop combo in the fellowship hall and about 30 cars showed up.  Nice relaxing afternoon.

Road Rodz cars.  L to R, Jimmy D., Dave, Jim B., Rick, me, Steve, Don's new 32 Duece Coupe.

Phil the Prez & Mike

Sunday started early as the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival car show was about a 40 minute drive and the registration opened at 7:30am.  Ken drove his Nova up from Holland and, since the other club cars were running a bit late out of Grand Rapids, I decided to head over on my own and join Ken to save some parking spots.  The main street was filling up fast when Ken got there so he grabbed a spot on a side street just opposite of the registration booth.  We had 10 club cars in attendance and the show total was right at 300 according to the sponsoring club.  Got pics of some great cars at this show.

The Road Rodz cars

Cars lined the main street on both sides.

Awesome cars

Phil's bucket T reflected in the side of Don's 37.

None of us won any awards this time but I did manage to pickup a new banner for the man cave in the garage.