This morning, I took off to head to Ozark (about 15 miles from the house) in the ’37. About a mile or two from my destination, it’s very obvious that I have an exhaust pipe coming loose from a header.
I picked up my customer, and we headed back to Springfield, for lunch. On the way back, the noise is getting louder, and now it’s to the point where I am pretty much just running an open header on one side. I tell him that we’re going to run by the house and swap cars!
We drop the ’37 off at the house, jump in the ’40 and take off back to his office. He asks if I can run him up to a place in Springfield on the way back to his place in Ozark, but it’s not anywhere close to on the way. “What the heck, I’m driving a hot rod and having fun” is my thought, so we make that stop and I finally get him back to his business.
I realized that I was just about out of gas, so I decided to run over to the QT station and fill up. Jump back in the car and hit the start button to hear crank, crank, CLUNK! What the heck??? Starter won’t budge now.
I get out and look at the starter, and it’s stuck, and lying below it is what is left of one of the bolts that holds it to the block, sheared off. Guess there’s a reason that they sell “Starter bolts” versus the grade 8’s that I used when I put that together 9 years ago!
I called Doug, told him what happened, and he jumped in his car, stopped by his shop and grabbed a box of tools and a floor jack, and came up to help me out. We raised the car up, moved the starter around, got the car to start, and I drove it home.
The ’37 is fixed for tomorrow, but the ’40 is going to have to wait until probably Saturday, before I can drop the starter, extract the portion of the bolt that’s still in the block, and get it back together.
Little stupid things, but two in one day???