I bought a worn '67 GTO in Alabama (Maxwell AFB, 1975) for $300. It didn't run, so I had it towed to the barracks parking lot. It was going to be my first-ever muscle car. I rebuilt the Rochester 4-barrel in my barracks room. I had previously rebuilt a VW bug carb so I figured I was well versed in the carburetor rebuild world and took on the task with gusto. There was a small ball bearing and some sorta tiny springy thingy left over from the rebuild kit that I couldn't figure out where they went, so I thought, "oh well, who cares." Saturday eve, while the rest of the barracks was out cavorting at the NCO club, I installed the shiny new rebuilt 4-barrel on the motor, hooked up all the linkages, put fresh gas in the rig, and went to bed. Early next morning I was out in the parking lot ready to fire the baby up. Mind you, most of the barracks was still sleeping off the NCO booze from the night before and the parking lot was full with cars on both sides of my GTO. I primed the four-barrel, made sure all the cables and whatnot were connected and gave the gas pedal a couple pumps. The day was here!! I turned the key and with a new battery the starter cranked the engine over and it fired right up. In less than 3 microseconds, the RPMs of that 400ci motor went from 0 to red line and stayed there! The noise was deafening!! In shock, I jumped out and wiggled all the linkages thinking something was stuck - they weren't. In a growing panic, I flailed around trying everything but to no avail. It stayed full bore wide open throttle and guys started popping their heads out of barracks windows shouting, "that POS better not blow up next to my car!!" With the engine still at max rpms and roaring like a dragster punching off the line , I flew back into the cab and turned off the key. The engine didn't stop! It slowed down for sure but kept bucking and snorting like half the cylinders were fried. I ran back to the front and finally got the engine to quit by stuffing my t-shirt down the carb thoats. This was all in maybe 50 seconds - but it seemed like hours. Finally, it was quiet except for burbling and wheezing noises as black oil was seeping and bubbling out of just about every gasket. And things sure stunk. Well, that was my one-and-only attempt at having a real fine muscle car. I waved goodbye to it as the same tow truck driver hauled it away to the nearest junk yard. Later on, I was told that the engine must have gotten so hot that even with the ignition turned off, the cylinder heads kept re-igniting the fuel and that's why it kept turing over trying to run until I smoothered the carb. I 'spose that little ball bearing and springy thingy was important, but I never did find out. Ahhhh.... those were the days!
