Page One: The Artifact

You gotta wonder when you take on a new derelict vehicle project, why was it parked, in this case, some fifteenish years ago?  (Actually, fifteen is what Ronnie told me the guy he bought it from said, but in truth I have no idea how long he snoozed in that barn.  I suspect after tearing it down some, that he sat longer than that.)

I found out why he was relegated to a corner in the barn.

Why The Ramper Got the Barn

After jacking and cribbing The Ramper’s butt in the air, I dropped the drive train and started stripping it to pieces.  As it turns out, the #2 piston was a wee bit loose in the cylinder, in fact it clicked as I pushed with my finger.  That must have sounded bad.  Also, after removing the heads, I could tell the #2 piston was replaced as it was a different brand than the other five. 

That was enough for barn confinement, but there were other problems. 

The transmission, differential and engine block looked like a swarm of dirt daubers (aka mud wasps aka potter wasps, but here in the South, we call ‘em dirt daubers) were making it a home.  The drivetrain was preserved in a ceramic case of baked-on oil and dirt.  Both good and bad, the oil prevents rusting – good – the dirt plus baking, means tedious hours of scraping, picking and wire brushing to get it off - bad.  So why so much oil?

The oil pan suffered a crack large enough to see light through and a cracks and holes in the transmission dipstick tube, almost at the low point, plus sixty-year-old leaky seals.  Keeping oil in it must have been challenging because it mostly ended up on it.

Patch Work Drivetrain – Some of The Ramper’s Story

All car guys want to know the “numbers,” the engine block, heads, transmission, and differential numbers.  They tell us a lot about our vehicles.

The Ramper’s engine block number has an “RM” suffix, which tells me it was highjacked from a 140-horse, 4 carb engine in a 1969 Corvair with a manual transmission.  The Ramper only had two carbs, so the head numbers told me they were from a ’65 – ‘67 95-horse engine so 95 ponies were pulling The Ramper around.

The Powerglide 2-speed automatic transmission number is stamped on the pan, telling me that it was taken from a ’64 – ‘69 car, maybe a van or rampside.

The differential is the original.  How do I know?  Because it still has the weird little metal tag they used to denote the gear ratio bolted to the diff cover – see the pic.

In 1963 & 64, Chevrolet used these tags
to denote the gear ratio of the differential.
(The cover is powder coated too, bling!)

A chart of the tags and their meanings (source Corvanatics website)

Pistons and Cylinders

For the uninitiated, Corvairs are air-cooled, like VWs, airplanes, dirt bikes, lawn mowers, weed eaters, you get the picture - and each cylinder is its own thing, easily removed and swapped unlike a normal engine block.  But it also means that few machine shops are equipped to machine sixty-year-old cylinders that only Corvair and VW geeks still mess with.  What was the most cost effective (I’m squeamish of the term “cheapest”) way to fix this?

Stripped to the bone - I didn't split the block.
(Like the Bonehead I am, I forgot to take pics
of the oily mess I dropped out of The Ramper.)

The #2 piston - new piston, new Clark's cylinder, old rod

I called the folks at Clark’s Corvair in Maine and asked them that very question.  After calculating shipping old cylinders, honing, fitting new pistons and rods, we decided that buying a set of Clark’s own “full finned” cylinders and a set of pistons that fit them was best.  Yep, Clark’s have their own cylinders cast to their specs.  Not a cheap way to go, but I know that the pistons fit, that cylinders are honed and the rotating parts will all play well together.  The Ramper will run better than it did 60+ years ago!

Assembled with the 110 hp heads - note the spiffy chrome oil fill!
I had that in the attic for years, didn't think I would ever use it.

As for the rest of the seals, gaskets and such stuff, the attic supplied those, well, except I got some new Viton O-rings (I wanted to be absolutely sure they were Vitons), the pan gasket (I wanted a new rubber/cork one) and silicone valve cover gaskets.

Powder coated oil pan (I welded the crack)
and Eastwood High-Temp coating on the exhaust manifolds

Just another pic

I picked up a high-volume oil pump,
maybe 30 years ago, so The Ramper gets it

Corvairs came with factory installed leaks, but we can still dream of a leak-free Corvair engine.

Other New Stuff

The Ramper got an Ignitor II magnetic pick-up ignition and the matching Flame Thrower coil.  Lots of fire with dead-steady circuit-controlled dwell.  A new engine wiring harness.  The old one had been violated to add an alternator, and it was crunchy.  I’ll call the spliced connections “subpar” to be generous.  Never use wire nuts on cars!  I’m going back to a generator because 1) I have three of them, 2) I don’t want to cut up a shiny new harness, and 3) I’m not running any electronics that need a gallon of juice.

Transmission and Differential

The little Powerglide didn’t need much more than thorough cleaning.  A new vacuum modulator is the only new part.  All the replacement O-rings and gaskets (except the pa gasket because I wanted a rubber/cork one) came from the attic.

Powder coated pan and if you squint, you can see the date code stamp.

Shiny with a new vacuum modulator.

Other side - I painted the govenor cover.

The differential got a thorough cleaning too, plus some new U-joint seals (the attic didn’t have any) and a new torque converter seal, rear input shaft seal, but a new diff cover gasket because the one in the attic was dust.  Add some cast iron paint (there shall be no rust), and it’s back in the game.

Spiffy differential!
(I took the pic before I seated the gasket, don't worry.)

New torque converter seal in place

The drivetrain is ready, but I need to refresh the rear suspension and paint the engine bay first, which will be the next post.

I'll mate the engine and differential and transmission when I'm ready to install it.  For now, it's easier to store them separated.

The whole shabang!
(I'll add the tranmission dipstick tube after I put it back under The Ramper.)

The other side.