Features Doing Falcons Right

HAMB'r "Drive Em" makes the LCA boxing plates and sells them on eGay, I think.

I beat the piss out of my Falcon and the stock replacement LCA's have worked fine.

 

I used Mustang on mine.

 

Ditto.

Got a kit from these guys: http://www.martinsvilleautoparts.com/suspension_kits.php

And some coli springs from EPSO:

http://www.springsnthings.com/

 

Of course! I like rubber bushings on the street. Steel and poly are track stuff.

Falcons '60-'66 can use all the '65-'66 Mustang stuff, except for the center steering link.

Falcons '60-late '61 have different, smaller ball joints (more expensive, too). In order to use the Mustang stuff, you have to change, or ream the spindles. Spindles, 6 or V8 are cheap. After late '61, the balljoint taper is the same, 6 or V8.

The bolt spacing on the radius rods is a little different, too, but simple die grinder work takes care of that.

ESPO, mentioned above, made my rear springs. They work super-well.

 

Vinyl cover over the dash, as in whole dash covered, or a dash pad? My '63 has a dash pad, but between it and the windshield is painted metal.

 

Yeah that looks like it, must be a pad. It's cracked so I will probably just dump it. Thanks for the pic

 

Dude, I'm sick of the East Coast/Virginia weather- I can't believe I got all wound up 'cause it was 53* at noon....We're due to get somewhere between four to eight inches up here after midnight (or ten feet, dependin' who you listen to)

Anyways, I took the car out for some fresh fuel 'n ta put some miles on it, mostly 'cause I could...

Here's a short HD GoPro clip-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VXPLMYtdAM

Tachometer/left: 5000 RPM = 12 o'clock
Speedometer/right 100MPH = 3 o'clock

 

Cool clip, I hear you on the weather. Longest winter ever

 

Sweet Clip!

 

OK< I sold the wagon and I'm picking up a 62 Falcon coupe on Friday, I am going the way of a gasser I think, do I have to use those twin spring dropped axles, or do you guys think the cars weight is lite enough to where I could run the mono spring with hairpins?

 

Depends on height, and weight. The higher it goes, the more the transverse spring setup will be affected by the weight of the Falcon. Of course the spring weight rating will also have some affect, and might need to go a little stiffer to avoid handling issues on a Falcon.
I have a friend who has one in his GTO, and runs coilovers for shocks, as he races it, and says it got squirrelly above 100 mph. The shocks solved that issue, and his car has been over 160 mph in the 1/4 and is stable. Of course he's not doing a ton of turning, just minor corrections.

 

I don't want to go high at all, I'm doing a "gasser" but not a "GASSER"! I want to have my version of what a street racer might of looked like if I could have driven in the 60's, I like the ride height of the black car, the white car is the one I'm picking up this Friday.

 

I think you'll be fine if you're going that close to stock height.

 

You can get the stance of the black car with just taller springs. That's about 2" to 2-1/2" over factory ride height. A Mustang V8 spring, from '65-'66 and a 1" isolator would put you there, for about $100.

 

I agree and the car will ride better and handle better with this set-up.

 

But it wouldn't say gasser like a real straight axle will! And after owning/building numerous straight axle cars, they can ride and handle well if you know what it takes to set one up.

 

Doing a 74 Maverick master cylinder in my 61 wagon with Granada front disc...

trying to find the proportion valve....

is there a difference in the valve from a 74 donor car that had manual disc vs power disc brakes?
thanks,

 

You don't need one.

 

Gimpy is right, you don't need one.... As long as the Master cylinder you bought is a non power, disc/drum unit.

The beauty of this cylinder is that it has the residual for the rear brakes built in, and the proper chamber volume for the discs up front. It also has the right depth in the piston to make the pushrod mess around very simple. Just bolt it in, plumb it and don't worry about a proportioning valve.

 

I respectfully disagree. Fords had "combination" valves as OEM equipment to mate with their OEM master cylinders.

In my book, if you use one, you need the other. I did.

 

Do you drive this Falcon, with this exact setup?

 

63 Falcon, Granada disc brakes, Mustang II manual disc/drum master cylinder, Ford combination valve, Speedway Motors residual valve.

You have to determine whether the master cylinder has built-in residuals. If you can insert a piece of wire or paper clip into the outlet port, then you need to add residual valve for drum brakes.

 

When I got my 63, it had a Granada Disc conversion (with the donor master cylinder) with no proportioning valve. The brake bias sucked.

I tried an adjustable proportioning valve the bias sucked a little less, but I still wasn't happy with it.

I found a used 1975 Granada valve ($20.00), installed it and I really like the brake bias now.

For a long time, nobody re-popped it- NPD has it now, and they're really proud of it:

http://www.npdlink.com/store/products/proportioning_valve_new_replacement_acts_as-148119-1.html

Here's a shot of the installation when the engine was out:



Shh, that paperclip test is top secret- the residual valve:

 

Parked out front. Y'all can come take it for a spin, if you like.

 

You can find a Ford combination valve on that evil bay place for $60-$80.

The Ford valve is a 70/30 split.

 

So I have a 1960 ford falcon, I just pulled the old 144 and auto trans out and put in a 200 and a c4 from a 1965 comet. The swap went well but I cannot get the starter to engage. I know that the components are good as both engines ran fine when pulled and I have done multiple test with a multimeter and test light.. I am convinced it is the neutral safety switch on the new c4. How do I wire the nss in the 1960 falcon that doesn’t have wiring for it? There was no wiring on the old transmission so I’m guessing that I need to run wires to the nss on the newer c4. I have searched a little but can’t seem to find anything that helps.
Wondering as well how the ford-o-matic safety worked as that would only start in P or N.

 

Make sure you have your battery cables on the right way. The starter will spin bakwards, but won't kick out.

 

Starters only spin one way, regardless of polarity.

Unless you're in Australia/New Zealand. Then they spin the opposite way, regardless of polarity.

Icpland:

I can't speak for the '60, but the '63 had the neutral safety switch in the steering column. The C4 has a combination switch for both neutral safety and reverse lights. They are color coded and like-colors go with like-colors.

 

Seeing is believing.

 

Respectfully disagree with me all you would like, but in the nine months I got to drive my wagon set up with the master cylinder I described without any sort of proportioning or combination valve before it's destruction, I put on over 10,000 miles with plenty of Phoenix traffic emergency stops. I have since done the same conversion and master cylinder for four other customers with the exact same results. If you feel that you need the extra plumbing on your car, go right ahead and plumb it in. By the way, My dead stock '71 Maverick with 35,000 original miles didn't have a combination valve either, It was simply a distribution block with a port for warning switch.