| I've been driving the car around now
for the last two months and to say the least, I've been having a great
time. I've put over100 miles on it and can't wait to put on more.
When you
build a car from scratch, your going to have a few adjustments and
tweaks that need to be done because there's no way to get everything just right
the first time so this is a process that most people, if not everyone that
builds a car, has to go through.
One of the things that had to be adjusted right
away was the idle on the carburetor. The engine idles just fine while it's in the garage
but when your stopped at a red light, the engine wanted to idle down a
ways. The
reason for this is because I have a mild stall torque converter (3200
RPM) that the engine wants to try to fight. The quick cure for this was to crank up the idle a little which was easy. Now that the idle is up, I
have to apply the brakes harder when I'm at a stop light or a stop sign. I've
tried putting the transmission in neutral (which works great) but I don't
want to do that every time I stop. This is just something I'll have
to get use too. Speaking of the carburetor, I need to
tweak on it a little more than just turning up the idle. What needs to
be done is for me to optimize the way it responds when I hit the pedal.
It has a slight bog as soon as the throttle opens so it's time to break
out the vacuum gage and do some adjusting. One of the other
things that needs to be addressed is the 4-link suspension. The reason is
because when I'm going through the gears, the car wants to dance around
instead of going straight. I never adjusted this when I put the car back
together so this will have to be checked out. The last thing I need is
me to wreck the car. I have to say though, it sure is fun steering it
when I'm on the gas but I can feel it wanting to get away from me. The
front end still needs an alignment but the car seems to go down the road
really straight. It doesn't follow cracks in the road or dart around at
all, and it handles great so I must have gotten it close but it will
still need to be aligned soon. The
transmission still needs tweaking a little too. I want the shifts
between gears to be quicker when I'm up on the RPM but this is
adjustable through the computer that controls the transmission. I need
to do this adjustment while I'm driving so I need a passenger to help me
out that knows how to push a few buttons. Do I here any volunteers? Other
than those minor things, the car is so much fun to drive. It's hard not
to whack the throttle when your in it but when you do, your adrenaline
kicks in which makes for a fun ride. |
