I remember an old 50 Merc I had to replace a water pump on and after wrestling with it for half a day I figured out there was one last %$#@*&?* bolt up inside the water pump before it could be removed.

Water pump was good for maybe 10,000 miles. Now we bitch when they go out at 200,000.

Yeah, and the water pump had a flimsy cast-iron motor mount sticking out and bolted to the frame, first thing to break in a collision on the track. One time it caused the throttle to go wide open, exciting for a bit.

Actually the 49-51 Mercury water pump/motor mount was quite stout. Much more so than the early Fords.

you're right O. M. and the distributor was lots easier to work on.

"willitrun" wrote:

you're right O. M. and the distributor was lots easier to work on.

Sat right up front where the water from a mudhole would drown the sucker out!!

Back then they didn't have very good seals on the plug wires if any.

Hi Team,
after much struggle and bad language working on Ford V8 distributors in place in Bren Gun Carriers as a teen, it was a revelation to find they were designed to be easily removed and re-fitted and so be worked on on the bench.

Re-timing was easy due to the same offset drive tang system as Cat uses for most early Injection Pumps.
memories of days gone by and skinned knuckles--lol.

Cheers,
Eddie B.

Speaking of flatheads here is one I dressed up for my buddies 36 pick up.

Nice old "flattie". Thanks for posting.

"oldbeek" wrote:

Got out today to roll some dirt with my 12. Wish I knew how to resize pics.on my I phone. Rebuilt a 1/4 mile of dirt road. Moisture content was just right. Didn't come in contact with anyone. Didn't touch anything but the controls. I live out near nowhere. This is the road to Rodgers house. He was my right hand man getting this old 12 running again.

Looks like good work and I am envious of your scarifier. Wish I had one. Picture below is my driveway I was working on with the 112 a few years back but of course less a scarifier!!

The black gizmos on the windshield are "camper levels" so I can tell when the machine is level and also angled ones to use when building terraces to get the correct slope.

Yep, quarantined here too.