We are close, very close to firing up Jimmy's real fine 409 small block Chevy in the J&J Speed and Machine "Jumping Jack Flash" nostalgia front engine dragster. Plan B is almost done, all we need is two fuel bowl fittings and the vintage tunnel ram with the Holley classic carburetors is all done! Needless to say, I am extremely excited! Before you know it, I'll be at nostalgia drag racing event tearing up the dragstrip in old school cool style! But for now, I need to keep my focus on getting this project done, fired up, tested, and ready to go!
Horsepower, the music of my people. How do you make horsepower? Well, you need air, fuel, and a spark. Air and fuel are covered, 114 octane racing fuel and a pair of classic Holley 450 cfm carburetors. Now all I need is spark. That is where my friend Brian from @brracing7861 comes in. Brian is sharp, really sharp, he really knows his stuff when it comes to pretty much everything automotive. Not only that, he as some really awesome cars that include a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix and a 1970 Pontiac Trans Am Ram Air IV with a four speed. So, you are probably wondering where Brian comes into the picture in relation to spark. Simple, he rebuilt and setup my Vertex magneto. A few months back, I purchased a vintage Vertex magneto and immediately got ahold of Brian. From there, well he took charge. I got him the magneto, ordered some parts, and let him do his magic. Some of the parts I had didn't quite work out right, but Brian had the ones we needed on hand!
The magneto I bought was in great shape, just needed a little TLC and some parts swapped to convert it from a locked out to mechanical advance. I'll be honest, I knew very little about magnetos and Brian has taught me a lot. After he rebuilt the magneto, he spun tested it on his Sun distributor machine and got it all polished up. If you want to see the testing, go check out his channel, it is really cool!
In this video, Brian installs the magneto, helps me get it all setup, and shows me how to use a special timing tool to get the points and timing all in sync. That tool is really neat, it used to be called a buzz box and has been around for a very long time. In my opinion, it is the best way to set up a Magneto! Once it was all setup, we tested it for spark, and it sparks HOT! This is a huge "to do" item to cross off the list, we are so close! Stay tuned, things are about to get really exciting at 2 Hacks Garage, be there or be square! Once again, thanks Brian, your help has been much appreciated!
#ignition #dragracing #speed
23 авг 2024
