It's always something!

[Mike Blanche]

As some of you know, I sold the Tub T and bought a 1926 Tudor from another member. We knew it would take some updating, most specifically re-wiring, so that's what I've been busy doing.

It had an SBC with a small B&M blower. It was...interesting, I guess you could say, but not my cup of T. Its fate was sealed when I ran the numbers and found it was a 305, not the 350 we had all assumed. Not too surprising; that was a popular combo back when this car was built. I contemplated all sorts of options, but ultimately a member of our El Camino club offered me enough for the engine and blower to pay for a brand new 350 crate motor from Jegs. I ordered the motor, and 3 of us pulled the 305 and installed the 350 in an afternoon.

The GM steering column had lost its lower bearings, so I got a "garage sale" chrome steering column from Speedway, along with a 20-circuit wiring harness. We drove the Tudor to one NTTB meeting, then got busy on the re-work.

But, as all hotrodders know, very little goes according to plan. There were the usual glitches. While I was at it, I installed some soundproofing on the floor, removed some old carpet and installed new (cheap and temporary) stuff, raised the seats a couple of inches (we felt like we were sitting in a well), built a new dash, etc.

So, you know how the big moment is. Time to flip the master switch and see what happens!

Well, as soon as I turned on the master switch, the left turn signals started flashing. Checked the turn signal stalk. Nope, centered up. Started checking wires for something crossed, maybe in the steering column/harness connector. In the meantime, I finished up installing the tilt lever and hazard button. Found the button partially pushed in. Pulled it out, and the turn signals worked properly! Whew!

Couldn't get the nuts on the dash bolts. Worked for hours on it. Gave up and did it another way that only took about an hour.

While I had the dash back out, I checked the dip switches on the VDO tach. I believe they were set wrong. My math said I should see just over 2,000 rpm at 60 mph. I was seeing 3,000. I think it was set to the 4-cylinder setting.

Put in LED tail, brake, and turn lights. They stayed on, dimly, all the time. Gave up and went back to incandescent bulbs; "leaks" and residual voltage seems to be common problems with after-market LED's.

Had trouble with the brake lights flashing with the turn signals. I believe this was due to the harness being set up for "shared" brake and turn signals. Cut one wire, and it works right now.

What I'm saying is, I live by Paul Harvey's motto: "There's no reason to worry. Nothing is going to turn out all right."

[Ron Pope]

Sounds like a typical hot rodding experience. It will all get worked out.