Glad it helped. So you are replacing the 302 as well?
I understand driving things you can get parts for. My son & I made several round trips to Texas during his college years in his '54 Studebaker station wagon. Biggest problems were an overdrive solenoid and losing the supercharger. I did a 4000 mile week in my '53 pickup with a GMC 270 with no issues. Here to Ventura CA- Austin TX-Ventura-& back here.I do carry parts that I know I won't find that I could replace on the side of the road. ( water pump, starter, distributer) Under the seat is packed!
Yeah, all the mechanical running gear needs a replacement at this point. If we were keeping the 302 we'd still need to do some work to it after all these years and it just doesn't have the power or parts availability.
We've got big goals of getting it to Alaska, which will be it's 49th state and sourcing parts for stuff that's still on the road is likely to help that. Fuel economy is a big consideration too to make driving it around more wallet friendly.
You're smart to carry spares, even if it was something less old school! Something always fails... Had a water pump pulley on the small block in my Nova explode while driving to reno a few years ago. Never thought "oh, I should pack a spare water pump pulley" but there I was. Ended up with a billet one way too nice for the car because no one stocks pulleys for short water pump small blocks except the local speed shop lol...
Lost the belt too, you should have seen the person working at the auto parts store trying and help me figure out the belt. There's a system for the naming that I just couldn't remember and clearly their training didn't help. They were just grabbing everything and anything they could. I'd get handed a belt that was 8 inches long, and then one that was 30. No rhyme or reason for it. What a day... Finally got the right one and had a dozen wrong belts to return to the store... haha good times.
