I drove it down the street today to see what it would do, it sure feels like it has short gears! It was in 3rd gear by the time I hit 20 MPH. Got home and the rad sprung a leak, fixed it with some solder and a 7 LB rad cap. Also one of the trans cooler lines was rusted and it blew out, so I fixed that.
We meet up at the beach on Tuesday nights in old cars, so I took the Valiant (about a 20 min drive at 50 MPH). It ran great! No issues, no more stumble, and drives really straight! No wandering from the front end. It sure gets a lot of attention.