Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Webb
Interesting the way these stories are amusing in retrospect.
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Keith..
It brings back memories of days gone by..of wasted youth(Youth is ALWAYS wasted on the young)..long before there were so many rules and laws and law enforcement..
and we were racing them old flat head Ford's in beat up body's on the dirt tracks of the late 50's and early 60's...
Stock car racing ..it was called..
Not like Nascar of today.but real dirt tracks with real dirt under our nails and every where else it could get in the forms of mud or dust..
The shattered cam story from Mike C. reminds me of getting ready for a race and re jetting the carb and testing it out with some pretty fine revs when there was a sudden bang and dead silence..All the lads immediately dived under the engine to see if where the oil was coming from..I should say "Expected " oil..but there was none..Pulling the intake manifold off and tear down soon revealed the cam shaft shaft disintegrated into individual lobes..just like they were cut with a hack saw..!!
Amazing..all the lads wanted a piece ..never saw it done like that before or since.
And then there was the time the lads were revving up the old girl to hasten the engine to heat up..and the fan threw a blade under high RPM and the broken blade hit the frame and came roaring right out and hit one of the lads that was gawking into the engine compartment at the time..It caught him right at the front of his hairline fair in the middle and split his scalp front to back for about 6-7"...left a permanent scar so that his hair parted in the middle for the rest of his life..or til he went bald..but it looked pretty gruesome..
and then there was the time I was racing with one of my buddy's leaving the race track and (If you can imagine) winding up my old Mercedes 180D way past the red line when the smashing sound of metal caught my attention right at the top of my shift into second gear..The engine was still running so I shut her down and crawled under expecting to see oil but nothing.....but I got in and tried to start it and the clutch felt funny..so I got under again and looked a little closer and noticed a hole in the side of the bell housing that was not intended to be there...Turns out the throw out bearing exploded and came out through the side of the bell housing...
I drove it for about a month like that until I got a new bearing and a chance to install it..It was funny to watch her buck and jump ..in gear..to start away from a stop light or any stop for that matter..To start of..engine off ..put transmission in low gear...Ignition on..
Crank on the heaters..crank some more for the starter and give 'er some throttle and I was away,shifting the old girl by engine RPMs....to stop..gear down and kill the ignition and fire her up into neutral.
Who needed clutches in those days..
Oh wasted youth..
I relate to all the stories here so far and am waiting for the transmission..diffs...spider gears..snapped axles..and twisted drive shaft stories before I tell and more bedtime stories..
