I think this is my next project car

Where I spent a lot of my miss spent youth. It was the cool place to be for gear heads in Portland. You were nobody unless you were at Radkes on Saturday night. We'd choose each other off and run on Columbia Blvd. My 55 chevy back then had a 302 engine out of 69 Z28 camaro and 5.38 rear gears. I usually won unless I broke. My car was primer gray. People would ask me why I didn't paint my car. I told them I did but every time I dropped the hammer my paint moved back 1/4"

Unfortunately Merlin Radke passed away and Radke's is closed now.

RIP Merlin
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Well the 55 is a runner again. Was running but died. The pertroics ignition went tango union on me I called pertronics and they sent me 4 pages of tests for it. Made my head hurt reading it. So pulled it and put an HEI in it off ebay. The distributor was unbelievably cheap ($67) but had good reviews and he sold over 1600 of them. When I got it I was blown away. The machining and finish was incredible. Even had very little shaft end play. Cap and rotor has brass terminals. Put it in and it fired right up. Not sure how long it will last, but hopefully til this winter. I'm thinking about increasing the spark plug gaps to take advantage of the hotter spark of the HEI setup. I still have some more cleaning up stuff in the engine bay. Trying to make it look as good as I can.

I'm going to try and get the heater and ac wiring and cables hooked up next. Then I'm going to work on the right fender put on and wire up the cooling fans and right side lights. Then get the grill back in. I have the front seat out to let an old fat guy get under the dash easier. The new differential will be in Friday, that's if fedx doesn't destroy it like several other parts I've ordered.

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Awe man, I had a 55 Chevy Nomad my dad brought back from France way back when...Gave it to me in '83 but I couldn't give it what it needed. Miss that car.
 
alloy said:
Well the 55 is a runner again. Was running but died. The pertroics ignition went tango union on me I called pertronics and they sent me 4 pages of tests for it. Made my head hurt reading it. So pulled it and put an HEI in it off ebay. The distributor was unbelievably cheap ($67) but had good reviews and he sold over 1600 of them. When I got it I was blown away. The machining and finish was incredible. Even had very little shaft end play. Cap and rotor has brass terminals. Put it in and it fired right up. Not sure how long it will last, but hopefully til this winter. I'm thinking about increasing the spark plug gaps to take advantage of the hotter spark of the HEI setup. I still have some more cleaning up stuff in the engine bay. Trying to make it look as good as I can.

I'm going to try and get the heater and ac wiring and cables hooked up next. Then I'm going to work on the right fender put on and wire up the cooling fans and right side lights. Then get the grill back in. I have the front seat out to let an old fat guy get under the dash easier. The new differential will be in Friday, that's if fedx doesn't destroy it like several other parts I've ordered.

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Fed Ex could tear up a 100 pound anvil with a rubber mallet.... Hey you might consider changing to a colder plug, pull it up in the head a bit further provided your timing is advanced a little.
 
pontiac428 said:
All limited slips will launch the car sideways unless they are tuned for minimal engagement. Gear (helical gear) limited slips do a better job of controlling the movement in my experience, which includes front wheel drive applications where torque steer will ruin your day. Clutch types offer the most adjustability if needed, but in my experience clutch types also resonate and shift power back and forth between the rear wheels. Drifting to one side is fine, but jerking suddenly opposite is a bit scary. All limited slips lock when the power applied to the carrier through the pinion overtakes the locking mechanism. The tuning has to be done on the car, because power, weight, and acceleration all work together to dictate the locking or unlocking points. I'm sure you already know all of this. When I drive my lockers and posis, I have to coast (or soft throttle) the corners and hammer the straights.

I bet "Speedy" Bill Smith would be rolling in his bunk at the convalescent home if he knew what's become of his customer service. How much you wanna bet that kid could have got up from his chair and given you a measurement with a steel rule if he had the sense to.
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How are you loading the suspension? You can stop the Limited slips from launching side ways by preloading your suspension.
 
alloy said:
I try to buy the best I can afford. Like my fuel injection I got for the 55. I went with the holley sniper. There are less expensive versions like FI tech and there is another one out there called Aces. I'm sorry, but just the name Aces turns me off to them. You would think they would come up with a better name. Anyway I guess in my mind when you think of fuel I think holley. And on this 3rd member I could have gotten a stock 3rd member case that's rebuilt, but it doesn't have the extra 4lbs of material in the case, or the big pinion support. I'll deal with it being 1/2" longer if necessary thanks to pretty smart friend of mine on here's elegant solution. (Thanks again)

I had ordered a fuel pump gasket from amazon (instead of driving 60 miles to get) it for $2.99 and it was supposed to be here in 4 days. A week and a half later I get "sorry it's late but..." So unplanned we find ourselves in town and I went to autozone to pick one up. Web site says they had it in stock. So I went in, gave the girl the part number. She asked what it was and I told her a fuel pump gasket. She says "Sir......In case you didn't know fuel pumps use o-rings not gaskets. About then my wife started laughing because she know what was coming. I not so politely showed her in my phone a pictures of a fuel pump gasket and that they had it in stock. She didn't look happy and after abut 5 minutes she came out and got the manager (a 20 or so year old) and the 2 of them finally found it.

I remember going into a place called Radke's and asked for some rocker arm lock nuts for a rat motor. The guy went and grabbed them and in 5 minutes I was out of there. I'd place a rather large bet that you can't walk into ANY parts store and find someone that knows what a rat motor is. Much less a mouse motor, or an elephant. How about a wedge, slant 6, cammer, FE engine, flathead....................how about a 6 pack.

Sorry, reliving my misspent youth. I think I'm hallucinating. I better go lay down for awhile :p
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I'm thinkin Hilborn personally, I have fought Holly peculators for years, My brother likes the Sniper system though.
 
alloy said:
It is leafs. I checked and there is no way to push the yoke in further, or pull it out more.

I hadn't thought of doing that. I have 4.5 deg shims I made under the axle and I can move the axle back by drilling a second hole in the shims.

Great idea. Thanks :grin:

Edit: I was also looking at this 3rd member also. It's a gear type. They say it will never wear out. and is only $70 more. Back in the day (20 years ago or so) SLP engineering was upgrading the 3rd gen camaro's with some power adders and a better posi unit. The ones they pulled were Zexel posi's. They were great in a straight line, but sucked on corners or if one wheel lost traction.

Does the helical posi in this 3rd member act the same? I've been searching and not found an answer to this question yet?


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Have you looked at Strange or Currie?
 
verbotenwhisky said:
How are you loading the suspension? You can stop the Limited slips from launching side ways by preloading your suspension.
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You're right, this isn't launch behavior, it's what you get out of a mid-speed romp with a much smaller weight transfer (power out of corners, freeway burnouts, etc.). On launch, at least in the 4-link cars, it's easy to set it up to put the weight over the rear wheels and keep it there well beyond the 60 foot mark. The more weight over the rear, the better limited slip works. It's when you decide to uncork it when the wheels are already rolling that makes it a white-knuckle experience.
 
pontiac428 said:
You're right, this isn't launch behavior, it's what you get out of a mid-speed romp with a much smaller weight transfer (power out of corners, freeway burnouts, etc.). On launch, at least in the 4-link cars, it's easy to set it up to put the weight over the rear wheels and keep it there well beyond the 60 foot mark. The more weight over the rear, the better limited slip works. It's when you decide to uncork it when the wheels are already rolling that makes it a white-knuckle experience.
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All I can say to that is.... Steer into it man....

PS, Track bars and a Pinion snubber will work also...
 
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