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dino.
kevin-higham
pete, thank’s for taking the time to call Don to find out what he ran for a gear box.
have you had a chance to recall him when he was not so busy ?
maybe you could see if it would be alright if i called him or have him put a list together telling what was on the car
thank’s for the help
Kevin
dinoThink I got It :
Kevin Has Car…Pete just a ‘contact’ to Don.
usmule
Hi Kevin, Dean, Pat, et al:
Don has indeed offered to provide a list of Mule stuff. He also likes to shoot the bull about the cars and his career(s). He did ask me to find out if anyone has pics of his dragster that followed the MG (US Mule III). He has none. I once drove Don to a South Glens Falls Dragway reunion and got a lot of info from him. Like, I never knew he ended his competitive involvement with tractor pulling. He was at a Cobleskill country fair when he first saw it and it was love at first sight. Massive power, scary stats. A bit slower than than the previous Mules, however.
I am reluctant to divulge Don’s phone outright on this Forum. If you would like his number, please send me a PM and I’ll respond.
I feel sort of like I am stealing valor, using USMULE as a nom de plume. Yes, I was there in the thick of it and had a hand on many, if not all, aspects of the MULE. While I can respond to many issues, Don remains the man. Don is also eager to help however he can with the restoration. I do intend to remove all confusion and change my FORUM handle for something a little more in line with my overall exploits. This will be adequately announced.
One question I haven’t directly answered yet is the type rear end used in the MULE. It used a 50’s Ford station wagon/T’Bird rear, I believe loosely defined as a Dana differential. Loved them in my ’56 B/MP T’Bird and in my current Latham-blown ’56 T’Bird. You can get great gears for them, depending on the original ratio used, from International Harvester since they were used in the Divco milk trucks (remember them?). I was aware of gears to 6.12 but both Don and I stopped at 5.86:1. Talk about an incompatible highway gear!
Not sure if I ever ran my ’54 Lincoln at Dover. I usually used it as a tow car but it was a legal D Gas car. I won the NHRA NY State D Gas Championship at SGFD in ’62, or thereabouts. Gotta dig that trophy out of the attic and confirm the year. Ron Scott taught me how to modify the Hydro for manual shifting, it had 4 Holleys on a log manifold that was also used on Ron Minch’s model A roadster pickup. I got looped into Minch’s efforts because I was running Lincoln Y blocks already so had something to offer. Lincolns also used the “Dana” style differential, albeit larger and stronger than the Ford/T’Bird variety. That car used a 47/11 gear set.
Minch later pulled the Lincoln and built a 292 Ford Y-Block…but not standard dimensions… and put it into the roadster. He also was a record setter with that car (AHRA). So, the Albany crowd didn’t do too badly on the international scene (Abbott, Noyes, Scott, Minch and probably others later on). As we all know, and witnessed by this and similar sites, it was a heady and exciting time. We’re lucky to have been around to appreciate and participate in it.
Pete Shields
dinoPete said ” if anyone has pics of his dragster that followed the MG (US Mule III). “…Pete …got 4200 of Dover….Get me some details on the rail from Don…what to look for…color ..features and I’ll hit All the ODF files and others available.
found this for ya way back in 2006:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134113
masoPete…
Tell us about his three four barrell set up that he ran on the blower of U.S. Mule I, the roadster and again in the beginning with U.S. Mule II, the MG. I have never seen that before. How did that work out for him…?
kevin-higham
help, how do i PM
kevin
patinaKevin click on the user nameb you want to send a PM to, or go to the user control panal and follow along to new messages. I think 🙄
Pat
dinoKevin… Pats correct…Click on user name of recipant -you can E-mail OR Private message at Their profile .You ‘can’ go to your ‘User Control Panel ‘ and do it by clicking on ‘Private Messages’ BUT you’ll need to know thge guys exact user name to type it in.
