[Joshbarts]

Time for an update.

I have put some work into the old’ 36 this spring. I rebuilt the fuel pump. Rebuilt the carb (had a friend do it.) Rebuilt the distributor. Dumped all the old fuel and blew out the lines. Removed the old heater hoses and plugged the hole in the head. Removed all the old wiring and replaced with a new harness under the dash and on the engine. New plugs and wires. Removed the old coolant lines and hoses and replaced with new. Cleaned up what I could. Put in a new battery. Pushed it outside, had a fire extinguisher on standby, put some fuel in the carb, and pushed the starter.

Guess what happened? It started right up. Then it quit. I put some gas in the carb again. It started right up and quit. I took the fuel pump off and realized it wasn’t connected correctly to engine rod thingy. Pushed the starter button again and it started right up and…. Idled.

That was very exciting… for two reasons. One, it started and idled! Two, I watched my 11-year-old son start an 85 year old vehicle that belonged to his great grandfather. That was a pretty cool moment.

I couldn’t contain myself. I knew it had fluids and was lubed all around. So I said to my boy “Lets go for a spin.” I live out in the country with no traffic. What the worst that can happen. Well, nothing happened. We drove around for a while. Put on maybe 5 miles total and brought it back home.

I used my phone GPS and we could run 35mph comfortably before it started to shake a little. I didn’t want to push it. I have new tie rods and shackles to swap out. The tie rods are in pieces and you can see through the bolt holes on the shackles since they are so worn and rusty.

This doesn’t mean I am done by any means it just means I can move on to the next thing. I noticed a small spray from the passenger water pump. It doesn’t leak just a little spray when the fan is spinning. Those are on the list to replace now. Brakes need a lot of work. I need to get it registered if I plan on getting ice cream yet this year. It seems like a reasonable option now.