Freddie comes alive!

[pbrown]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

[Luva65wagon]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

Hopefully. Thanks again.

I did some vacuum checking with a vacuum tool to see if I could pull a vacuum on the two holes that should have had bolts, but didn't. I could on the secondary hole, but not on the primary side hole, which means it, being where it is, was a source for a vacuum leak - a big one. And I think it feeds to where the power valve is too, so who knows the effect of manifold vacuum on that spot. So I removed the two bolts with the red X and left the others.

carb_bolts.jpg

I then moved to the shift lever at the transmission, which has been bugging me. I hadn't looked too close at it until today, but what I was seeing from above was confirmed; they may have extended it as Gary asked them to, but what a stupid mess. They were enlisting only friction to hold this lever in place - and though I have one nut off, you can see on the end of the lever they didn't tighten the bolt behind the Heim joint. So it was a sloppy mess. Just a mess.

shift_lever_yuck.jpg shift_lever_yuck2.jpg

So I used the extension they made and welded dog ears to it to wrap the edge of the transmission lever to keep it from ever rotating. And bolted it hard to the lever. I may shorten the bolt, but couldn't pull it out easily. It's not interfering with anything. I then used the shortest setup I could for the other hole. After a few adjustments, and new grommet in the shift lever on the column, it is working OK now.

shift_lever_yay.jpg

The extension was a bit too short so the lever was centered in neutral to offset the error somewhat, but it goes into all gears good. The pawl in the column and the pointer marker is for the 2-speed automatic, so it's all relative anyway.

What next....

[MacDee]

Wow, Roger! You have accomplished more in just a few weeks than I would have able to do for the rest of my life!! I am in awe...

The pawl in the column and the pointer marker is for the 2-speed automatic...

On swap day... seven years ago... you were so busy with other tasks that you probably didn't realize I swapped those out for 3-speed versions.

Go, Roger, GO!

[Luva65wagon]

Prior to starting the wiring I pulled the e-brake parts out and got them repainted and redone. The handle is one I made for the wagon, but swapped it out so I could keep it. Took me a few hours to make, made out of solid steel, so decided to keep it. Freddie is the new recipient.

ebrake1.jpg ebrake2.jpg

Gene came over Friday and put in some new rear shocks for me. I had a set of new Monroe SensaTrack shocks that have overload springs, which I pulled off the Ranchero. As you may recall I wanted to swap out the leaf springs, but the ones I got from Larry were too long, so because the whole 5-lug swap is on hold, maybe these will help with Freddie's sagging underside.

sensatrac.jpg

Then onto the wiring. I'm making a hybrid 63 and 65 wiring for this. Thankfully I save, and look for, wiring harnesses to scavenge from. You need lots of bits and pieces to do this sort of thing.

wiresgalore.jpg

There are some advantages to moving up a couple years in wiring. The main one being the better fuse placement - OFF the headlight switch! I'll use the 65 headlight switch. I'm adding in a couple extra power terminals as well as another remote fuse block on switched power.

Some of the other differences are that the horn on a 63 uses a under-hood switch, which I will maintain (horn button carries ground circuit, not being the 12v switch itself). Also the 63 turn signal wires use bullet connectors and the 65 use a Molex style connector. To maintain the 63 horn and the turn signal switch, I had to change all the wires going to the column. I also removed the pink resistor wire since Freddie has aftermarket ignition (mostly) and can use full 12v there. Also the 65 harness has the internal brake light switch connector, which I prefer.

wires1.jpg wires1a.jpg

So here's the finished harness. I also reworked the under-hood harness to feed the starter solenoid, heater motor, and sending units (if I use them). Not sure on the later.

wires2.jpg

So the next wires to do are the other under-hood wires going forward to the headlights and horns. With the one-wire alternator there will not be as many wires used in this - and I am adding the headlight relays I removed from the wagon too (stuffed into a stock regulator can). More on that when I put it all in.

wiresnext.jpg

Getting closer!

[Luva65wagon]

Quick 'it's been a week' update on Freddie.

I got all the wiring reworked during the week and am awaiting some of those wire harness straps so I can route it all and snap some pics of it all wrapped up. Sadly I know I have some of those straps here, but heck if I can find 'em. So for now I wait.

In the meantime I started putting all the bits in the dash I can. I'm going to put the original radio back in the dash, so I decided to clean it up the best I can and see if it works. It works as good as a 1963 AM radio can!

radio1.jpg

Also, one of my signature "Falcon" changes is to split out the turn signals. Easy enough to do except for the high-beam indicator. Learned from doing it wrong on Steve's car to make sure to use an LED for this so the speedo pointer doesn't whack into it at 42MPH.

dash2TS1.jpg dash2TS2.jpg dash2TS3.jpg

While I wait for stuff I'm clearing out the trunk to do look-over and apply more DynaMat back there. Going to convert to a trunk-fill for the gas, but want to make sure the tank is sound as well. Gary said it was POR-15'ed, but not sure if that was external or internal. I know using a Mustang tank helps with this conversion too, so as cheap and abundant they are - that may happen.

[MacDee]

Gary said it was POR-15'ed, but not sure if that was external or internal. I know using a Mustang tank helps with this conversion too, so as cheap and abundant they are - that may happen.

It was internal. I did it the first winter I had the car (2001-2002). There was a puncture from damage on the top of the tank, so it needed to be sealed.
Probably a good idea to replace the tank. No idea how long a Por-15 repair will last!

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Gary. I'm sure a new tank makes sense after 54 years no matter what.

Got the trunk all cleaned and what minimal rust there was has been addressed. Seems the drivers side had the most, but it was worse under than outside, so I had to patch a few larger holes on the inner left-rear wheel well. DynaMat back there is next.