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

and be careful sliding the axle back in. You do not want to knock/drag loose the little spring in the seal.

 

i can only imagine the carnage that would happen if it were loose in the axle...

 

by the way, i couldnt center mine and make marks. the bushings kinda just fell out before i could. do you have any tips for that? should i measure the overall?

 

Naw, it is like a ball point pen spring only wound up. I have never broken one putting an axle in. Coming out, sure when using the axle as a seal puller.

 

Not a worry on the '57. They simply press in. Bottom them out and you are good to go. The ones like mine ran from '58 to '64.

 

nice, thats good to know. i have them both set exactly as the old ones were, or about a 16th inch gap

 

i fixes the carb last night and added a power valve protector. no backfire is ever going to ruin my day again! i also realized its because my choke isnt adjusted properly.
my float could also be a tad low.

 

forgot to post this before going to bed, im getting to work installing some upper suspension components, gonna get the spindle off the lower by tapping it out with spring tension, should work.

 

a bit more progress tonight. definitely need to remove the spindle from the lower a arm and replace the seal.

replaced one axle seal, realized i dont have the other gaskets!

the bushings feel super tight, i think itll handle like new...

 

Mine took a fat sway bar to make it handle decently. I did have the rhetorical aerostar springs in it, but it was too low for the bigger 15" tires. I took 1" off the OG springs and put them back in. The next time I dive into the front end, I will take a little more off the springs.

Taking 1" off will stiffen up the spring rate, it may be worth a go for you.

 

the front suspension is coming back together, man those bushings squish a lot when torquing, my old ones were rock solid and came apart in pieces. everything greasable is getting greased once this is back together, none of the bushings should be blocked now.

now for the axle, i popped the other seal out (which someone installed backwards!)
other side didnt have much sludge, but the drivers side is super sludgy, any tips to clean this out? nothings hard to the touch, should i run a little atf for a trip to the gas station once the roads are clear and back then come back to drain it?

there was some dirt in my fuel bowl, but nothing in the line or above the needle and seat, my thought process? comes from the secondary bowl vent, dabbed a little liquid electrical tape on it, aswell as installed some rubber air cleaner seals to hopefully keep the carb isolated from anything unfiltered.

 

for right now, im keeping it stock. with how easy it is to pop the spring out i can come back to it at a later date.

remember what you said, get everything right before you modify

 

also, i think at some point in the future i will need to rebuild my steering box. theres about 3-5 degrees of play between the pitman and the wheel.

hm, maybe i am restoring this car...

 

Make sure that the drag link is properly adjusted first.

 

the play isnt at the draglink unfortunately. its somewhere above it. i'll try adjusting it, as my dad has a tool for it.

 

nevermind, i forgot to retighten the worm gear when i checked the tension haha, no wonder it was loose.



getting everything together and tight, when suddenly... POP the bolt broke, i didn't even have it tight yet

 

i should have done this a while ago, theres some a pillar rot letting water inside the car, i think i need to pull the windshield to fix this.

 

Be very careful with those springs, don't your head separated from your body-that would be a very bad day for you. Yep, looks like the windshield is coming out for some welding and a new gasket. Make sure to cut out all of the gasket so there is nothing holding it in place before pushing and make sure the little chrome corner pieces are removed before pushing. Ask me how I found out about all of this $$$$.

 

springs are in and safe shouldnt have to take them out again, see that chain in the coil? that's a tip my dad taught me.

the gasket is coming out with the trim... its so rotten

 

The chain in the coil spring would get you fired in a couple of shops I worked in. We did so many coil springs it was old hat to us to get the old ones out and the new ones in fast.

My gl*** guy told me to take the old one out and look at the firewall and channel before he came to set the new one. You should give it all a good cleaning and at least priming it all. Maybe POR 15? Mine we primed and shot some Wimbledon White all around the opening.

The new one, the gasket and lower trim piece go onto the gl***, then it went in. The gl*** guy (now retired) did the old rope trick to get it in place... it was nerve wracking to see him whack it with his palm to get it seated.

 

getting this to properly torque my bushings, apparently clickers dont like bushings.

 

I have never torqued a bushing install. I give them 2 grunts and call it done. You really should tighten the bushings after the arms are back on the car and had the weight of the car on them.

 

i moved my jack stands so the suspension is holding up the car now, not the frame.

the manual specs 70 foot lb, which sounds tight but i think im setting the bushing.

also, should i use lock***e?

 

I like the full weight on the car to secure the a-arms after after I install new bushings. I did most on the alignment rack when I worked in shops. Do I always take my advice... noooo... I wound up tearing one on my car, one of the lowers. It will have to come out.

70 ft-lbs sounds good. I have never used loc***e on suspension parts. I don't recall how much had a lock nut on them in my past.

 

Not only just with weight on the tires, but bounced a couple times and maybe even rolled a bit. Anyone who has worked with lifts knows how 'off' a car that isn't solid axle lands when set down.

Always worked in the southwest, so mileage may vary. But suspension stuff is designed to handle lots of stress and load, along with suspension movement. Never used loc***e on them, and with the rust issues I see in the NE, I'd be slathering antisieze on stuff or a good coat of paint on the bare threads. Anything to prevent dealing with rusty fasteners.

 

I do the bounce thing too. Fresh front end work, I would drive the car around the lot before it went for the alignment.

 

random question, my cars spindles are angled back a few degrees, arent they supposed to angle forwards?

 

I didn't find the wheel alignment specs with a quick search. They should have them at the place with a rack. I won't even go into OE bias ply VS modern available tire differences in specs.This has been debated for decades.
This should explain why the spindle is leaning forward or (should be) backward. Your 57 has upper and lower control arms sort of like the Ranger he is using for an example.It uses eccentrics instead of shims, but the idea (Caster) is the same.

 

so it leaning back is positive caster angle, meaning its actually set pretty close to right.

i still need to align it but thats a good sign.
the valve stems have always annoyed me so i will have those changed out aswell, they stuck half inch long ones on it