Technical A Kid's First Project: 1957 Fairlane 500 Town Victoria.

I can't recall if you cleaned or replaced the tank. On mine, the sock inside the tank was calcified, someone routed the fuel hose out what was the drain. Put a clear filter soon after the tank, that'll tell you if you have a sediment thing going on.

 

bought a whole new one.

 

"new" fuel pump and it works perfectly. then my starter solenoid broke...

 

been a little bit since i got the chance to work on the '57. finally able to change the axle seal and make it drivable. the gear oil that was in it was... sludge to say the least. it came out clumpy at first. but i put a little gear oil in it and flushed it out best i could. letting it drain overnight.

Also, i finally put my drain plug tool to use, works very good!

 

Nice to work like a human on a solid driveway . I replaced my square drive plug with one that takes a hex key. If I had the fancy tool, I would have left it. I used a 5/16" lathe tool blank to remove mine.

 

got the drive shaft popped off, going to repack the u joints while im here

 

i got the bolts loose, and wire brushed all the random crap off of the axle. thing still has the factory primer on it. then it started to rain a little. id rather not leave the sensitive axle bearings and ring gear exposed to the elements, especially when its thundering. itll have to wait for tomorrow. this car would have been REALLY nice if the previous owner parked it inside his barn instead of on his yard.

 

got a break in the rain, decided to grease every single grease zirk.
this included cleaning them out and the area around them

 

remember when i said it was a break in the rain? evidently the rain just stopped, so after dinner i went down and got it out. was surprisingly simple to remove. i tapped on it with a mallet until it turned, then gave it a hard yank and it popped free.

tomorrow morning im changing the seal and reinstalling it.

 

I don't know anything about Fords, but I do remember from other 50's cars that some had vented tanks, and others did not. Those that did not have a vented tank, used a vented gas cap. I'm to understand if a non-vented tank and a non-vented gas cap cross pathes, a vacuum can form in the tank not allowing the gas to flow. I mention it if only to cross it off your list of possibilities.

Thanks for a good read, and have fun.

 

this was the chinesium fuel pump failing after only a few months

 

bearing preload is 1-2 inch pounds

its supposed to be 8-12... very confusing

 

Looks like it has the leather pinion seal? Make sure to soak it gear lube for about a 1/2 hour before you install it.

 

new one is rubber like a newer 9"
i see why the old one leaked. there was no seal material left. at all

 

That would be your leak!!!!!

 

my dad had a similar reaction. he said "hey remember when i said you could probably just drain it, flush it, and the leak would stop? i think i was wrong."

 

and the seal is too big... great

 

so there are 3 different kinds of seals. and the one i recieved is not for a 9". maybe for a ford truck? Internal diameter is the same. i bought the correct seal. then i cleaned each part of the pinion and drained my transmission. there were a couple hard pieces but i scooped them out via the drain hole, a couple of them crushed, and a couple didnt. im going to assume its just oil deposits. the clutch and flywheel look AMAZING for the conditions they sat in.


i also ordered transmission oil, specially made for older cars with brass synchronizers, an o ring, new crush washer as the old one had loosened and i dont know where to retorque it to. for having 96k miles and being 66 years old, this axle is pretty good.

 

I am always amazed when decades-old parts are still in serviceable condition. Very few fasteners on my car gave me a fight, only some fender bolts.

Do you have the shop manual? This is not as easy as it may seem. There is shimming involved and you need to get the pinion depth spot-on and check the ring and pinion pattern. I just helped someone do this on a Ford 8.8 rear.

 

the shim that came with it was perfect, the nut had actually worked itself loose. so the pinion was too far back slightly. i think with the stock shim, and tightening it to the 8 inch pound preload will work.

plus my father built a dozen of these in the 90s

 

posting pictures here aswell to make for a clean read through. I got the old transmission seal out, ready for the new one. aswell as polished the transmission yoke with a scotch brite and steel wool to remove imperfections.


now im trying to install these bump stops ive had since last year... man they are hard to install.
tried popping it in by hand, that didnt work, so now im trying a clamp

 

Use some Kentucky Jelly (KY) on them and they’ll slide right in. You’re girlfriend will like it too!

 

i tried grease, vaseline, etc.

my dad came home, grabbed a BFPOP (big fn pair of plyers) and a socket, had it on in a couple minutes.

i have much to learn still haha

 

i also thought about doing this until i looked up how much a new '57 ford hubcap is.

5-20 bucks per for almost new ones, not even worth safety wiring it.

 

seal arrived today, going to assemble the pinion

 

the new seal sunk really far in, i only gave it one smack. hopefully its fine.
8 inches of pre load feels like a LOT compared to what it was before

 

i went ahead and tried to install it on the axle. i used a torque wrench and once i got it seated, i went a little bit tighter and snap the head snapped off the threads. i had enough meat to just use vice grips to remove it.

so now i need 5 new bolts, i dont trust the others to not follow suit. as they were very tight removing them. hopefully the hardware store has them. its a 3/8-9/16 head NC grade 5 bolt.

 

I assume the NC is National Course, a 3/8-16 bolt is pretty common. I'd be surprised if a hardware store didn't have them.

 

What was the torque spec?

 

40 foot lb. it felt like 60 coming off