Tinkering with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

23. Momentum

March 20^th 2012  Thursday nite, before the Billetproof run, I messed around with a brake light problem without success. I noticed that the brake lights were not working the previous saturday. That wasn't a problem when the brakes and tires were bad and I couldn't stop anyway but now that that things were fixed, it would be good if the brake lights worked too. I tried a lot of different things including letting the smoke escape from some test wires. Nothing worked. I gave up after about four hours of frustration and put everything back together.

Got up early friday morning and detailed Deerslayer for the roadtrip. Packed up and arrived at the meeting place of the guys I was traveling with. I was first. I smoked a cigar and used the brake spoon on the adjusters one last time. I told the guys about my brake light problem. We got underway at ten. At one point, we all had to slow down quickly when we came up behind a woman doing about forty in the left hand lane. When we stopped for gas, Sam and Paul, who were following me, told me my brake lights were working. I was gobsmacked! My best guess is that the brake light switch under the cab had lost its ground and that my taking it off and putting it back on had restored that ground. Oh well, I'd rather be lucky than smart.

March 26^th 2012  On friday when I started monthly maintenance by checking the lights in the reflection of the glass doors at the Krash Lab, the brake lights failed to work again but by friday evening when I left they were working. Looks like I don't have this problem licked yet.

On saturday, at the BillyBob Shop, monthly maintenance was finished and then I went on to some Deerslayer spifin' up. I have my Dad's CBI Theatre Veteran's plate on the front of Deerslayer. At shows and cruise-ins, I have a pic of Mom and Dad on the dashboard so I can explain the plate if somebody asks about it. Some time back, I sandwiched the plate between clear plastic protecters to foil some ratbastard commie who kept mutilating the plate when sumbitch was in the Krash Lab neighborhood. I never caught sight of the perp but every so often, I would come out to find the plate all bent up. The plastic made it harder to vandalize and solved the problem. The new problem is rusted washers and moisture and friction between plate and plastic. It is looking scruffy these days.

I got some new stainless steel security connectors at the FLAPS to replace the the old ones. When I went to remove the old connectors, I found that the new "special wrench" didn't work. The old screws were allen head (with the dimple in the center) and the new ones were torx (with a dimple in the center). Damnation! I struggled with wrench and vice-grips for awhile but it was slow going. Finally, I went in search for the correct allen head special wrench. I found one in BillyBob's bolt collections. With the proper wrench, disassembly was quick. I cleaned the plate with simple green and bolted the assembly back together with all stainless steel hardware, this time, including washers. I left the plate exposed with both plastic protectors on the back side. It will still have the stiffness to discourage vandalism, but be easier to keep clean now. The "special wrench" went in Deerslayer's glove box.

In the swapmeet area of the Billetproof show last week, I found clamp-on door mirrors to replace Deerslayer's rusting ones. That task was next. These new mirrors weren't perfect but for five bucks a piece, they fit the bill. The old drivers side mirror was the worst. The mirror head had rust thru. Both new mirrors were a bit loose when the set screws were tightened up all the way. Channellocks were used to bring the clamp arms closer together but, then I couldn't get the set screws back in. Ended up pulling out the tap and die set to freshen the threads in the clamp arms before I could move forward and get the mirrors installed.

July 2^nd 2012  I lost my momentum after the Billetproof run. I haven't been doing enuf out in the sweltering BillyBob Shop to write about and I haven't been taking pics at the cruise-ins either. I've barely been keeping up with maintenance on the Deerslayer. The oppressive heat and humidity this summer "feels" much worse than past summers in the semi-tropics. I hope it is worse (and next year might be better) and not just another disappointment in the aging process where I have hit a "This is the way it's gonna be from here on out" milestone.

Yesterday, Murphy showed up to kick my butt around. After sunday morning coffee with my car buddies in Fort Lauderdale, I ran up to the Krash Lab to check the mail. On my way back to the BillyBob Shop, Deerslayer sputtered and lost power on the beach road just south of the Hillsboro inlet draw bridge. I managed to coast off the roadway with a dead engine. Three guys on Harleys stopped to assist. I knew one of the fellas, Bob, from the tuesday nite Delray Beach cruise-ins. They looked for spark while I cranked the engine. There was no juice coming out of the coil. I thanked them and sent them on their way while I called AAA.

The rollback tow got to me within the hour and I was back at the BillyBob Shop by half past noon. I palmed some beer money to the driver, Kevin, as I thanked him and he said it was a pleasure hauling the old truck in lieu of the commodity cars he deals with every day. Deerslayer is the only one of my four vehicles that runs and now it wasn't running either. Got the meter out and found that I had juice running to the coil. I had a spare HEI coil so, I swapped it in. No joy. Still no spark. My best guess is a failed ignition module. Well, I'll play with that later. I need to get the truck running.

Next, I swapped out the HEI coil and distributor. for the Jimmy points distributor and coil (the one with the condensor problem) I swapped out sometime back. Damnation! Still no spark! I think there might be a short in the dizzy wiring. Panic begins to set in. Meanwhile, the eight foot tube light fifteen feet above me burns out. Five minutes later, my drop light starts to flicker. ~!@#$%^ Probably doesn't matter much. I can't see well, anyway, from the sweat pouring into my eyes and splashing on the fender.

Necessity requires some innovation here. I pull BillyBob's 235 chevy distributor out of the pile of parts in BillyBob's pickup bed, slap the vacuum advance mechanism, cap and wires from the jimmy dizzy on it and install that in Deerslayer's motor . . . Finally, I have spark! It takes me another half hour to set the ignition and get a good idle, just in time to make the sunday nite cruise-in where I regale my buddies with the tale of my hand-to-hand combat with the electron gods.

July 30^th 2012  I'm gonna have to get out of the doldrums and get a log entry posted soon. Several of BillyBob's fans have e-mailed me, asking if I'm alright. The correct answer is that I've never been alright but that's not what they want to hear, I'm sure.

I'm trying t get back in the habit of taking a few photos at the various cruise-ins and shows that Deerslayer and I attend. Last nite, a friend, Dave Smith, showed up at the sunday nite bowling alley cruise-in with his hot rod MG. While I appreciate the tech achievements of imports, there are few that I would care to own. His '52 MG TD is one of those exceptions. It has a blown aluminium Buick 215 "nailhead" (there's that word again) hooked up to an aluminum case Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed. He doesn't open it up often but when he does, the 1900 pound ride really scoots along with a most pleasing rumble.

August 14^th 2012  In the past two weeks, I've gotten some maintenance done on Deerslayer but that's about it. Sunday, a week back, I went on a cruise with the Time Bandits car club to Cafe 27. This is a biker/tiki bar next to a truck stop out on the edge of the Everglades. There were about 27 rods, customs and vintage muscle cars. It was a great place with a band. People arrived by hot rods, harleys, mudder trucks, big haulers and on horesback.

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Issued Wednesday August 15, 2012

Updated Wednesday May 30, 2018

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