[heckinohio]

Donna's '63 Ventura was rescued from the back lot of a trucking company in '02. I knew where there was a '64 four-speed car in a junkyard nearby. Another local had taken on the job of putting a freshly rebuilt '76/400 back into its Firebird car.
After installing that engine, he coudn't get it to turn over with the starter or a wrench on the balancer bolt. Bought a junk yard replacement engine, sent the car on its way. Rebuild sat in a corner until I got it from him. They had put one std shift flywheel bolt through the flange into the back of the block, locking eveything up. Quicky check inside with the pan off revealed everything shiney new.

At this time, '02, Donna had both feet. I had built a '61 wagon for her, but she said it was too shiney. I was to get her some junk to drive. She wanted a big engine and a four-speed. After losing her foot in '011, she can no longer drive it. Special occasion car now, occasionally to church and grocery. Her sister won't ride in it because of no seat belts. Sister is older than Donna and has ridden 50 years in cars w/no belts. And, sooo......

Last month, the starter solenoid engaged, but starter motor didn't run. This is a '63 style starter using a '76 style flywheel. A bit incompatible. To do this, I used a 1/2" long sleeve on the motor shaft and the shorter late flywheel driving gear. Sleeve stops the gear from going too far. I also have 1/8 aluminum plate between the starter and the bellhousing. Everything has worked well since '02. So.....starter off, solenoid apart. No visible issues. Happens that in the starter pile in the back bld. was a starter w/new looking solenoid. Looked inside, shined up the disc and the contact ends of the bolts. Getting the starter back up between the steering sector, exhaust pipe & oil pan was a real trick. I tied an electrician's wire-pulling tape to the end of the battery cable, tied it to the hood hinge, put additional jack stands under the car and used a 2.5 ton floor jack to get it up to where I had to take over by hand........ all up and running now!!! Church this week if not raining.

'63 car and '61 wagon picts. We have several bigger, mounted machine guns from WW 1 that we put on the tailgate of the wagon for local parades. Probably the only such in the whole country.

PJH