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Fred's new ride is now street legal - title, tags and insurance.


Speaking of, the commonwealth allows one to register his/her antique with a good plate from that year. I hunted one down on eBay, cleaned and repainted it, and used that. The commonwealth has had two plates for every year ever except for 6, and 1946 was one of them. So was 1945. I'm guessing that the war had something to do with the price of steel for anyone not building Garands or Shermans. The 1947s were aluminum. I think the 1948s were, too. They came in pairs, so business as usual.

Ordered a set of the "positive ground" LED bulbs for Fred's new ride. Got the back lights done in the waning sunlight. I was testing them and they didn't work, and then it dawned on me, the sockets have to be reinstalled in the housings to create a ground. Felt kinda st000pid but took pleasure in deducing the issue. How does the new crap work with all of its plasticity? Probably witchcraft.


Took Mom to brunch late this morning in Fred (actually, Black Fred Sedan II). They had not met. She complemented Fred on its lack o' noise.


Speaking of, changed the oil in Petunia, the newish truck/tow vehicle. First time, and it took a hunk out of my right forearm. The oil filter is hiding behind the front end drive bits for the 4WD, which I doubt that I'll use much at all, if ever. Trying buying a big truck without it.


I have a cat tree to assemble for Fred's sister, Ethyl. She'll love it.

New Fred runs decently for the most part. But it stumbles and surges a bit, like maybe the carb ain't quite gettin' her done. Also, it's hard to start when cold. Like, I have to saw on it when it's sat a week. Then it'll fire and crap out. And then it finally goes on and runs adequately, with the above complaint.


It seems that Kanter has NOS Carter WDO 512s in stock for $575 without the starter switch. A NOS starter switch is another $145. Add about $35 for shipping and handling and that's over $750. But it seems to be the surest way of scarfing a carb which hasn't been monkeyed with.


I don't know. I have some other crap which needs money thrown at it right now, like the little truck. Damned in-tank fuel pumps.

Why not just get a carb kit and rebuild it?? Probably just needs a good clean and the passages clean.

I could, but when I do it on the kitchen table, I don't have a wife to bitch at me for it. The cats won't care, but they will help.


And I may need a spare.


Besides, the last carb I had apart never did work quite right before or after.

Struck out ordering the carb yesterday. Did get a new hotter coil ordered. It should be here tomorrow or Monday.


Got to work this weekend, so I'm not making much headway on the front bumper experiment. That would consist of getting it off to remove those heavy damned adornments (the license plate holder and the end extensions) and to see what's involved in getting the metal shield out. It's a quest to make things appear simpler and to knock a few pounds off the extended front.


As I research the whole transmission thing, I have discovered that I think that I know a bit more about manufacturing than a lot of folks who "know". Why redesign the wheel? It's been done. So I use the existing design, or perhaps a subcontract my needs to a specialists, by parts he makes, and build my own wheel.


If I'm trying to learn about ducks, I look for similarities in waddles and listen to a lot of quacks.

NOS carb is on the way.

Here's a sketch of the bolt holes and pilot hole on the bell housing. I am not aware of any other trans that will bolt to it without adapter or mods.

OOps, the missing dim to the bottom hole is 6.656.

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Thank you. The Celestial Planning Chicken laid an egg in Wat's head as he slept last night, and a plan is beginning to form.