New 28 ratster owners here

P

Pantodd74

Junior Member
Greetings all my ol' lady and I recently purchased a 28' Ford roadster on a 32' frame. It's a steel body survivor that was built to it's current state back in the 60's in Texas. Then was living it's life in Chicago up until last year when the fella we bought it from brought it to Indiana. I'm a muscle car guy so this is new territory for me. But the working parts I'm familiar with to a point. It has a 57 chevy rear end, 350 sbc, 327 double hump heads. Has a nice cam with an offy tri power intake and 3 Holley 2100's on G2 bases. T10 4 speed that shifts buttery smooth. It's flat black with some pin striping. Juice brakes up front with drum in the back. Pete Jake front end.

The day we took possession I drove it 25 miles to the house without issue. The next evening I took my 10 year old for a ride into town and that's where the trouble starts. I pull out of a parking lot onto the main 2 lane each way road and no throttle. I managed to stab the pedal to the floor to get a high rev response and dart through an intersection into a parking lot. Press the pedal numerous times with no response. I get out of the car and can operate the throttle without issue. I'm scratching my head and with dark coming fast and candles for head lights I managed to do some good burnouts and rip through traffic to get a mile from the house and it went back to normal. My kid was freaking out but we make it home. I park it in the garage and tell the wife what happened. The next day the wife wipes down the leather and takes it for a few spins without issue. The following weekend we attempt to get gas down at the corner (it has a 6 or 7 gallong moon eyes fuel cell) and the throttle hangs up again! I get it to stay revv'd up about 2500-3K and get it home.

Since I have rebuilt the carbs with kits from Speedway, full tune up, new starter. I did have flooding issues with the dumpers until I added a gasket to the seats. Flooding so bad I had to drain the oil 3 times to get the gas out of the motor. I did finally get it to start and run for a few seconds yesterday after work. I forgot to turn the fuel on at the cell. The battery is new and on the fritz or the HF cheesy charger is living up to its name. I will take the battery to work tomorrow and test it and charge it. It's been a treat trying to weed out all the issues. There is a mess of spagetti under the dash so I'm going to build a new wiring harness from scratch at work and get rid of the mess.

If anyone can point me to some good info on the tri-power systems about linkage set up and anything else that would be great. I think I have it set right getting the front dumper adjusted to the center and then linked up the rear dumper. We just want to drive and enjoy this beautiful nearly 100 year old machine. Still have some bugs to work out. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot but didn't see the normal newby spot to post. I will post pic's soon.
 
You will get far better info at the HAMB

this is a site for people that collect As and Fords in general, in their pure form of production.
 
I've been a member there since 2008 and don't remember my login. But I did see a post that the rat rods are not allowed on that forum. But I will try and get back in. Thanks man!
 
@Pantodd74

Just do a password recovery and get logged back in on the HAMB.

From the description as a "60's survivor" I don't think it's a rat rod, so you don't need to call it that. It's a '28 on '32 frame which is a very legitimate approach for a real hot rod. Assuming it's not covered in iron crosses, crying kid dolls or has a Pabst shifter...they will help you out.

A lot of HAMBers are over here too, but you won't get much help on a non stock car here. Which is just fine, because this place is sacred too...just in another way.
 
There are folks on here that can and will help but like any custom built automobile, it's all about information about how the custom is set up and photos when all else fails to get ID on the situation at hand. When it has a modern engine then it is getting outside the realm of the model A world since it likely fits somewhere in between 1928 and the modern era.

The HAMB is more in tune with hot rods and customs but not necessarily street rods even though they aren't all that far apart. It was set up to get into the more traditional ways of building hot rods and custom cars from years gone by.
 
Raaf it is more a roadster than a rat rod. Non of the traditional rat rod items are on the vehicle. It's a bare bones fun car. I will attempt to revive my HAMB status.
 
The term "Rat Rod" is now viewed as an insult in many traditional car circles. The HAMB being one of them. If your roadster is not modernized you should be fine. Just don't use that phrase to describe it.
 
So I pulled the point's dizzy to upgrade it to a Pertronix electric ignition. First bought the MSD kit and when I dissassembled the dizzy I realized the MSD kit only works with MSD dizzy's. So I returned it to the parts store and bought the Pertronix set. My issue now is I removed the block under the points plate and can't find it. So I kinda screwed the pooch as the plate is free moving. I'm looking for a new dizzy that I can convert to the electronic ignition with mechanical advance. All the new dizzy's have vac advance. Anyone know what dizzy I need?
 
The stock GM HEI ignition that came out in 1975 was a very good and robust setup. I think it had 20 deg. mechanical advance, but Mr. Gasket and others make different springs to change mech. advance. You may find one in a GM wrecking yard, or there are GM HEI knock-offs made that are new. Check Ebay.
 
Forgot to mention there is no room between the firewall and the rear dumper carb for an HEI dizzy. Barely enough room for a regular dizzy.
 
Pantodd74 said:
So I pulled the point's dizzy to upgrade it to a Pertronix electric ignition. First bought the MSD kit and when I dissassembled the dizzy I realized the MSD kit only works with MSD dizzy's. So I returned it to the parts store and bought the Pertronix set. My issue now is I removed the block under the points plate and can't find it. So I kinda screwed the pooch as the plate is free moving. I'm looking for a new dizzy that I can convert to the electronic ignition with mechanical advance. All the new dizzy's have vac advance. Anyone know what dizzy I need?
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just keep the points, they will always get you home, i am not a electronic guy, when the electronic ignition quits you dead in the water. get your throttle issue fixed before you get hurt
 
Brendan said:
just keep the points, they will always get you home, i am not a electronic guy, when the electronic ignition quits you dead in the water. get your throttle issue fixed before you get hurt
Click to expand...

I agree about the points. As a teen, I owned a '70 Camaro RS with a SBC 350 and I put a high voltage coil with blue streak points...never had an issue. The cool thing about the GM distributors is the the dwell can be adjusted without removing the dist. cap. Sometimes the "K.I.S.S." principle is best.
 
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