1952-59 Ford my 4.6 dohc powered 57 Custom, aka, doing it the easy way

Wow.... luckily it all turned out okay and you or the car was not hurt. Was the tire old? under-inflated?
I had a blow out once in a 63 Caddy.... ripped the fender about 8" up from the wheel well. Luckily that was it

 

Hope you had a spare, what brand of tire, how old?

 

Stupidly, I've got all the wrong answers for your questions. The tire in question was the one I had talked about a few weeks ago having a slow leak, I hadn't checked the pressure for a few days, so it could have been low, but not visually. The car needed a front end alignment after the Aerostar installation, but since I was anxious to drive it and keep getting a feel as to whether or not the suspension needed to be changed again, I was trying to save some $ and wait til after the changes to get it realigned. My guess is the alignment was off enough to affect the tires.
No, I didn't have a spare or jack in the car. Why in the world would I need a spare with 4 new tires on the car? (yes, I'm being sarcastic).
One nice thing about driving a cl***ic....The first person to stop was a young couple in a BMW conv that was watching my car drive past them back down the road. I had a cell phone, but they had a smart phone with internet!.....quickly got a number for a tow. Two more folks stopped, then I watched a Highway Patrol car drive by. A few minutes later they pulled back up from the other direction. They told me they weren't going to stop since I didn't try to flag them down, but they decided to come back because they wanted to check out my car, lol. I was there less than 30 minutes before the tow truck arrived. Fortunatly an older guy who was really careful with the car. The tow was about 15 miles from the house, and he only charged me 50 bucks...I honestly was expecting at least double that. I got a bunch of his business cards!
A little under the weather yesterday, I'm feeling much better today, and it's gonna be in the high 60's, so I'm gonna get a spare put on, and one in the trunk, and check out my wheel to see if it got toasted. Then pull it around into the garage and leave it til next payday.

 

Not much to update on....I ordered two new tires yesterday for the front. It definetly was an alignment problem...both tires were down to the steel belt showing on the inside. Stong example of having my head buried in sand! Anyway, I wanted to go one size wider (up to 215's)on the front that the ones I just managed to F%$@ up, Discount Tire didn't have them in stock, but they special ordered them. Should be here my Friday. In the mean time, I'll get the wheel s****es repaired and polished up. I ordered a set of 1" lowering blocks for the back, and after alot of calculating by a '57 forum member, arrived at a dimension to cut the coil springs that were on the car before the Aerostars, and got the them cut and ready to go in. With any luck, the front should be 2 1/2 - 3" lower than where it was before the Aerostars, about 1 1/2 higher than now. This time I'll get it aligned before I start running all over N. Texas!

 

I saved my old 6-cylinder springs just in case the Aerostars weren't the answer. I'll find out once it goes together. Looks like they may not be the '49-'59 one size fits all we all thought they were. Or I'll just dive into my Moog catalog and see what I find.

 

They may work for you. because I've got dropped spindles as well. Even though many had posted the combination of dropped spindles and aerostars was getting their cars too low, I thought it might work for me since my drivetrain was so light. It didn't, at least as far as my tastes...I don't like the slammed look. Had I not had the dropped spindles, the Aerostars would have been fine. I wished I had kept my old springs...threw them out long ago.

 

Ohhh.. that makes a big difference. My spindles are stock and any picture I've seen of a '59 with the CC850 springs, they look fine. With no drive train, this is my before and after.

 

Finally have a ride height I can live with. I like the looks alot and the handling seems so much better than either the too-low stance, or the too-high. It is just a tad on the high side, 1/2" lower would be perfect in my eye. I suspect the settling will bing it down at least that much.
The car now has a 2" rake along the rockers, is 2 1/2 higher in front than with the Aerostars and spacer, and is 2" lower than when it sat too high. I'm not going to lower the back unless the front settles a full inch.

 

Now that looks much better, to me anyway.

 

Looks good!

 

Is this a before/after without the drive train? The reason I ask is that I'm rebuilding the front on my '54 and put the CC850 in (only have one side done so far). The car doesn't have the engine/trans in it yet and now sits at the height it did before WITH the engine in it. My concern is the lower a-arm travel. I only have 3" without the drive train installed. With that concern, I took to the internets and dug up the Moog universal spring chart and went to comparing some of their offerings trying to come up with an alternative to the CC850. I pulled the measurement on the stock spring, 15", and the CC850, about 12" and looked for something in between. I kept coming up with the CC851. The only thing that might prevent it's use would be the diameter being about 1/4" bigger but I don't personally see that as an issue.

 

Measure up what the stock springs are, I doubt a 1/4" would hurt things. This is the car just after the engine & trans went in. I'll have to get the car outside over the week and take a side on shot.

 

I like it T57. Reminds me of the way a lot of guys did it in the '60's

 

We need a side shot and you need a larger garage!

 

2.5 car garage and parts of it, 2 people can't walk past each other... excuse me, I need to use the Bridgeport, ya gotta move...
I may have the car outside over the weekend. I get claustrophobic working under it in a tight garage.

 

We've all got those space issues, some more than others, but I'd be extra carefull about welding or grinding inthere or closeby. Remember the 45 min rule.

 

And don't fart too close to the kerosene heater.... sorry your post got hijacked Texas....

 

Didn't mean to hijack your post Texas....

 

Drove it a little today just to settle the springs in before I had the front aligned....dropped another 1/2", which puts it exactly where I was hoping. If it settles any more, I'll add the 1" lowering blocks to the rear.
Any electrical experts here? Came up with a new issue today. After normal position for about 15 seconds, my volt meter is going all the way over. I also noticed if I have the heater/AC fan on, it stops blowing, so I know it's not just a faulty gage. The gage moves over whether or not the fan is on, so I wouldn't thinkm it's a problem with that system. I'm thinking what I need to do is start pulling fuses one at a time until the gage returns to normal, pinpointing the problem circuit? Up until today, the gage was indicating exactly as it should.

 

BTW, had a great 10 days in Phoenix...lots of cruises and shows, great sidetrip to Sedona. I've got lots of pics of our era Fords to post when I have time.

 

Time to get out the multi meter and check and trace wires, tedious work but not rocket science. Id start at the alternator, battery, check amperage, voltage before crawling under the dash

 

Also check grounds, bad grounds can cause weird **** like you said to happen

 

Grounds worth a look at first. Check for anything chafed by the brake pedal, shifter, etc. Pulling fuses one at a time should tell you what circuit to look at.

 

Checked the voltage at the battery. With engine off 13.1v, with engine running 17.2 v! I pulled the alternator and brought it to a starter/alternator shop for a total rebuild. I'll know for sure tomorrow afternoon.
What little driving I was able to do after picking my car up at the alignment shop was really good. Best the car has driven/handled yet.

 

17.2V is a bit much... good idea to get it done over. I had my alternator (63 amps) and starter rebuilt ahead of time, tried a new shop. So far so good.

 

Motorcraft alty? Hopefully a rebuild does the trick, as for the blower motor which prolly pulls the most amperage, I'm stumped especially if it's an intermittent problem

 

Yeah, The blower stopping is kinda puzzling. Surprisingly, the alternator that I pulled out was a rebuilt unit. That surprised me because of the low mileage on the donor car. The alt. is a 120 amp unit.

 

Blower switch, blower motor maybe?

 

Old age memory is a *****. I got the rebuilt 120 amp alternator installed and everything is working just fine...except I forgot to check the blower. The Volt gauge holds at 14. I do need to confirm that with the multi-meter, but that's what the repair shop said it checked out at after rebuild.
With that fixed, I was able to take it out for a good ride since having the ride height changed and the front aligned. This is the best the car has handled and rode. I'm really happy with it.
I'm working on a horn problem now. The horns are blowing all on their own until I pull the fuse. I've got a short somewhere in the steering column or wiring coil in the steering wheel. I've got it isolated to the top of the steering column or wheel. Tomorrow I'll pull the plastic cover off the column so I can get a look at the wiring. On my system the horn ****on completes the ground circuit, so somehow that circuit is being closed on it's own. It's not a sticky relay or sticky contacts.
The Mustang steering wheel has a connector at the top of the column before going into the back of the steering wheel. Disconnecting that connector shuts the horns off, so I think that's telling me the short is not in the wiring panel to that connector, but inside the steering wheel. Possibly a bad wiring ribbon coil?

 

Had to go run an errand, took the '57.......my blower motor is working just fine. Reminds me...I still have to run 2 A/C vents and ducting. Also need to add the halogen relays Jeff's been talking about. My headlights are a bit dim, and also need adjusting.