[GM_427_Racer]

To All, I am glad you are all enjoying this thread. I have spent a lifetime drag racing NHRA events all over the eastern part of the country. This thread does not really touch NHRA yet, but Chapter 6 will. Sorry Crush, no girls in this chapter........

On to Chapter 5 and this will be my favorite because it will be about my Dad. I would guess that most of you have figured out I LOVED that guy, cause he was something special.

Chapter 5

When we left off, the Yenko is becoming more of a race car and less of a street car. I should mention that not only did I break the L/S axle, I also broke the spider gears in the positraction unit. When someone talks about "C" clip eliminators, that idea was born from the problems of broken axles and coming out of the car, I just happened to be lucky that I was at a slow speed when it happened to me.

At this point, I decided to make the Yenko a full time race car, no more street driving, so a good set of 2-1/8" Hooker Headers went on the car and all of the exhaust system rearward was removed. I also put on a dual electric fuel pump set-up (if you look at the earlier picture, you can see the fuel pressure gauge that was mounted on the windshield wiper cowl, directly in my view. I also decided that it was time for a really good racing clutch and get rid of the street/strip model. At this point I was pretty much on my own, no help from anyone, I was learning on the fly, but that was a good thing, but sometimes costly since I still made mistakes during this learning curve.

I will explain about the new clutch installation and if memory recalls this was also the same time I went to Michigan and bought a Doug Nash prepared Super T10, with all the good internals, it was time to retire the Muncie M21. The clutch, ----- believe it or not, I had an alignment tool to locate the disc prior to tightening the pressure plate (the spline on the disc, was the same as the input as on the Muncie and the T10) and checked the alignment quite a few times before I put the Lakewood bell housing back on. Time for transmission install and this is where the problems began, I had had the Muncie in and out many times by this point in time (I am guessing this is probably 1972 or early 1973), so I had a system to take out and reinstall the transmission and I was no rookie. Well, I had probably tried for two hours to get this trans back in and it just would not go and I was wore out. I should mention this was on a Saturday, so my Dad was home and walked by several times, but never said anything. I should mention that my Dad was in his early 50's at this point of his life, but he was a very physical guy, even at this age he had muscles on top of muscles, just from doing his everyday job. I guess he couldn't take it anymore, so he walked over and said you want some help with that, I said, "Yes Sir, I don't think I can lift it up anymore." He crawled under the car which was on jack stands (a story all in itself), while, laying on his back, he grabbed the trans with one hand, put it on his chest, grabbed it with two hands, lifted it up and forward in one motion and seated it squarely on the bell housing with a clunk as the trans hit the steel bell housing. He crawled out, which was probably less than a minute, looked at me and said, "You need any more help or can you handle from here?" I told him, "No, I was good and Thank You." I guess it probably took me about an hour to put the transmission cross member back in, put the shifter on, adjust the shift linkage, check the free play on the throw out bearing and install the drive shaft. I started the car up, open headers in a residential neighborhood and ran it through the gears (yes, it had gear lube in the trans), and it shifted fine. I put the car on the ground and put all the tools away. Dad just happened to be walking by again and I asked him if he wanted to go for a little test drive. He said, where are you going? (I should say that at this point, there was no license plate, and as I said, open headers and race slicks on the back and the car looks like the picture above at the drag strip). We lived on a circle that had one way in and the same way out and it is on a pretty big hill. I told Dad I was just going to go around the circle (but I really had other plans). He said OK, he jumped in the passenger seat and buckled up. I started the car and backed out of the drive and started going down the hill, when I got to the bottom of the hill at the stop sign, I turned left instead of going right, which would have taken us back around the circle to the house. He looks at me and yells (open headers ya know, kind of loud), "Where are you going?" I yelled back, "just down the street, I want to check all the gears." He looks at me like, what are you doing????? I get to the next stop sign and he yells, "When are you turning around?" I yell back, "I haven't put it in high gear yet" I made a slight right, and I go through all the gears, everything is working great. By this time, we are probably about a 1/2 mile from the house. I am heading towards a busy 4 lane highway and he finally looks at me and yells, "Turn this thing around and get it home before you get a ticket." I yell back, "OK Pop", I pull in a driveway and start backing out and he Yells, "You better get going, traffic is coming" That was all he had to say. I take the trans out of reverse and put the car in first gear, straighten it up, come to a complete stop, I look over at him and say "HOLD ON".............. I revved it up to 6000, drop the clutch, surprisingly, it hooked really well, took it to 7500, slammed 2nd gear, revved it to 7500, slammed 3rd gear, revved it to 7500 and slammed high gear, I am thinking, this clutch and transmission work really well!!!!!!!!!!! I would guess we had to be going well over a 100 MPH. The car still had the power front disc brakes, I start pumping them, slow it down to make the slight left, keep pumping the brakes, down the hill, make the left on to our street and go up the hill and coast into the driveway and shut it off. I look over and POPS has this smile on his face that I will never, ever FORGET. He was shaking as he got out of the car and that smile was enough to last me for a life time. It took a short while for him to quit shaking and start talking again. All he could say was DAMN!!!!! That was it, DAMN!!!!! Fortunately, the neighbors did not call the cops on me "that" day.

I have to tell you folks another short story about my DAD. Remember the jack stands, well this is the story about how I received them. Dad did not have a lot of car tools and the only jack he had was a scissors jack. One evening (this was not too long after I bought the Yenko, probably in 1969), I decided to change the oil and the filter on the 427. I have the car on the scissors jack, I have drained the oil, and I am trying to get the oil filter off, (at this point my tools are few, so I do not have an oil filter cup wrench). I am trying to grab the filter with my hands and just twist it off. I am not strong enough to do it, so I ask Dad if he would come out and do it. He said sure, he crawls under the car and I went in the house for something (don't remember why), but a few seconds later, I hear him hollering. I run out the door, and the scissors jack is laying on its side and the Yenko is on top of him. I back up to the left front fender and lift the car up high enough for him to crawl out, fortunately, the left front tire is still on, but he was definitely trapped under the car laying on his side. After he crawls out, I ask him if he is OK, he says, yeah, this thing is heavy, he kind of stretches and moves his arms back and forth and says he is fine. I ask him what happened and he tells me, I grabbed a hold of that oil filter and when I twisted it, I moved the car and the jack fell over. He is still stretching, trying to work it out and he says, "Well, I guess I should have told you sooner, but your Mother and I bought you a floor jack and some jack stands. I still use those jack stands and jack today, they were Hein-Werner 5 ton jack stands and a 1-1/4 ton Hein-Werner floor jack. They probably had to take out payments to pay for that stuff.

Whenever I look at those jack stands, I always think of him. He was my HERO and still is even though he has been gone over 12 years. What a GUY!!!!!!