Freddie comes alive!

[MacDee]

Of course, because it is part of Freddie's back-story, the pyramids stay.

The pyramids were actually under the REAR seat when I got the car. I didn't discover them until I did the seat cover replacement.
I just put them back under the front seats because, by that time, I was too burned out to remove the rear....

The BEST luck will be had, I'm sure, with the pyramids under the rear seat!

[MacDee]

I'm going to rework the gas pedal. This is a cable setup, but for some reason it seems to be at a pretty extreme angle when you press on it. May use a stock pedal to push the metal part. Still pondering that. It does sort-of interfere with the newer, thicker, carpet.

That gas pedal came out of a mid-'70's Galaxie. I'm guessing the Galaxie had a shallower slope to the floorboard. I always thought it felt wierd....
It interfered with the old carpet too. On the "swap weekend" Pat adjusted the throttle cable and determined it was just reaching wide-open throttle with the pedal to the floor. However, the carpet was pulled back at the time. When we put the carpet back down, it wouldn't reach wide-open anymore....
And I never did anything about that.

[Luva65wagon]

That gas pedal came out of a mid-'70's Galaxie. I always thought it felt wierd....It interfered with the old carpet too.

I took the pedal back out and drove the pin out, flipped the pedal over after doing some underside mods, and it's perfect now - I think. Will know more when I have it all hooked up, but it's at a better angle to the floor now, and has the longer side down.

pedal.jpg

Have been at this now almost 3 weeks and am amazed at all the little things I'm fixing. Pure lack of attention I'm sure wasn't Gary (or hope not). Nearly every fitting, pan, plug, everywhere was leaking. The transmission was leaking in 3 places, so it got a new pan gasket and o-ring in the filler and a rather interesting leak caused by a torn gasket on the modulator.

fitting1.jpg

filleryuck.jpg (Really? This is how Pro's seal up a dipstick tube?)

mod1.jpg

What tore the gasket on the modulator (though I don't belive it was the correct gasket) was this little nubbin you see near the top of the machined surface. It was brass colored when I filed it away, so I think it was a brazing blob from when they brazed the can to the nut. It would have never sealed and was the cause for the steady drip onto my floor.

mod2.jpg

There was significant evidence of tranny fluid spraying back onto the exhaust, so I hope this is all resolved. When I pulled the pan gasket, they only (seemed to) have taken a sanding disc and used it to flatten the pan as opposed to using a hammer and dolly to flatten where all the bolts went in.

I also repaired the steering. All the nuts at the idler arm were loose, so I pulled it all apart, cleaned it up, reassembled with a really decent center link, and all tight now.

idler.jpg

When I pulled the motor mount to paint everything up, found one bolt was too long. Replaced all 4 with Grade 8 replacements.

toolongbolt.jpg

Getting a lot of the other parts going back on. New freeze plugs and header gasket shown. This picture doesn't show the mounts on, or the fact I added a belly bar underneath. Water pump, 180* thermostat instead of the 160* version that was in there, reworked all the fittings on intake and head, heater box installed, fuel pump and distributor body.

altbracket3.jpg

Tomorrow Gene's coming over to have a look at pulling/swapping the rear leaf springs using a set I got from Larry Smith - assuming they are the same. Fingers crossed.

[dhbfaster]

Holy CR@P that engine compartment is looking sweet.

[Luva65wagon]

As I mentioned, Gene was coming over today to swap out the leaf springs, but as it turns out the round body and square body hardtops used different springs. So will have to live with the ones in there for a while. I have a set of Monroe SensaTrac shocks with helper springs on it I'll probably throw in for now.

I then diverted Gene towards removing the exhaust system. I knew going in that it was a temporary thing, so will be reworking it somehow - if just to weld everything instead of 12 sets of clamps. But I really want this to have a more throaty sound, so I'm definitely getting new mufflers. I like the sound of Borla's, but they are expensive and don't do anything smaller than 2.25" pipe. So, we'll be looking around.

While crawling around down-under I noticed the rear brake hose/line connection, which is supposed to be on a hanger, was flapping around in the breeze. Almost looked like it was removed to clear either the exhaust or the rear seat belt mount bolt. Anyway, that got fixed.

The greatest discovery of the day was my investigation into why one cylinder was not just sooty, but very wet/oily too. So I popped the valve cover and had a look. It appears that the valve stem seals on #2 were both off their guides allowing the intake vacuum to suck oil down the guide. As was the intake on #5. So I pulled the rocker rail and pulled the springs and pushed them back down and over the guide. I suspect this is going to be short-lived, but if it happens again I'll be replacing all of those. I think, or so it seems, the inner spring is too small for these to fully clear and they are getting grabbed and lifted up.

Spent the rest of the day working to get the new master cylinder in, but I need a new line to the passenger front after finding what looked like a deep gouge in it in the center. And I need to get a new 3-way tee as I'm converting to an inside brake switch.

The fun continues next week.

[MacDee]

...the inner spring is too small for these to fully clear and they are getting grabbed and lifted up.

Inner spring??
I had compound (dual) valve springs in it, and I think that may have contributed to the cam/lifter failure. I don't know what was done in the Long's rebuild, but I had assumed they had just put in conventional (single) springs. The receipts show new valve springs. Randy Long's machinist did the head rebuild. I don't know if Randy assembled the head, or if his machinist did.
In any case, if it still has dual springs... I would be very anxious about continuing with them... If I were you....

[Luva65wagon]

They're very light inner springs, so not so worried about that. I read about needing smooth edge .500 seals if using inner springs, but not sure these are that. I'm just going to watch them to see what happens. You need to have a certain amount of spring pressure and I'm hoping these professionals knew what they were doing deep inside, but based upon the stuff I can see outside... I'm not so certain about that.

I'm not freaking or anything. Just shaking my head often and thinking who else is getting this level of service from these guys. I'm thinking of doing this sort of work for my new job. Seems like there's a need.

[Luva65wagon]

Have been hard at it - though with a few interruption days mixed in. Mostly a lot of cleaning and painting things to prep them for reinstall. Here's a few pics with text explaining them.

Here's the steering column being repainted, and then installed with some major reworking on the turn signal wires - as it seems they had been routed into a much smaller hole up top. Once I redid those the rest went quickly. New rubber sheet at the floor made from an inner-tube I had.

steeringcolumn1.jpg steeringcolumn2.jpg

Also repainted the shift lever and turn signal lever.

shifturn.jpg

I then shifted to putting in the new brake lines and master cylinder. I'm converting to a pedal mounted brake switch to eliminate the hydraulic switch under the hood. It's in pictures like this I think I should have employed my firewall/engine bay secret weapon (AKA Gene).

enginebay2.jpg

I cleaned up the horns and one didn't work, so I studied it a bit and made the repair needed. Both work now.

enginebay1.jpg

Then I thought I need to fix that cutting torch hole in the shock tower, so I made it rounder to fit this plug.

hole.jpg

And I stripped the fan and gave it 4 coats of 7777 Satin Black. Not powder coat I know...

fan.jpg

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.

carb1.jpg

Mounted the dashpot and operated it with no "mechanical" issues. It functions as a dashpot should. Did seem the kick-down was set way early too, so that was adjusted. Need to run the cable to the pedal again and make a heater hose bracket and tower brace strap - as I'll be running the heater hose between the carb and valve cover.

carb2.jpg

You can now see from this angle the wedge plate keeps the carburetor level relative to the angle of the motor.

carb_level3.jpg

After I mount a few other items I'll be moving to the wiring harnesses and reworking all of them to fit the new arrangements being made.

[pbrown]

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.

I'll pull out my small carb tools and blanks so you can tune the idle circuit. You can use my wideband O2 tool as well. Gary had an O2 bung welded in for this purpose if I remember correctly. I think Gene still has the wideband tool.

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.

[Luva65wagon]

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor.

I guess I should have Googled. These screws are left out because they could fall out into the engine. Hmm!

[pbrown]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.

I have plenty of blanks. I don't remember the size. I have a set of tiny drill bits and a pin vise. I also have a set of Holley style reusable gaskets. Maybe they will fit that carb. You can check.

[Luva65wagon]

I guess I should have Googled my Googling. The screws that were missing on Freddie were those holes circled in RED, whereas the ones they say to leave out are those holes circled in Yellow. So I will pull the carburetor and verify what is really exposed. And, as you can see, the ones in RED are right in the vacuum paths and may have (I suppose) allowed for some vacuum leaks, or worse. Will need to study that more.

Image off Internet, not Freddie's.

remove_baseplate.JPG

[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....