That's good progress! Remember that those intake manifold studs are tapered and go into the water jacket, so you'll need a sealant to seal the threads, otherwise when the system pressurizes it's going to give you an annoying leak that's hard to track down. The Motorcraft 2100 is a good carb, and my 272 actually ran great with it, though I'd obviously prefer a better carb like a Holley or Edelbrock 4 bbl. It sounds like you're on the right track, keep it up!
Very nice Mild Kustom. You are going to have a lot of fun with this one. Kool to start seeing '55 & '56 Fords running around. They make great mild to wild Kustoms. At one time only @guthriesmith was the only one around. You have some very kool company.. Keep us updated with your progress.
Got her put back together, today, and all the vacuum leaks are a thing of the past. Waiting for the Electronic automatic choke to arrive from Mike's Carburetor and then it will be all squared away, well that part of it anyway! Still have to decide which way to go on the gauges... go this route with SW gauges... or rebuild the stock gauges? Plus I have the glass in both doors to replace. Glass in both wind wings is bubbled and both door glass are cracked so I'll need to go through both of the window****emblies with new glass, whiskers and such.
Take a look see with the valve covers off and make sure it's oiling right in the rocker shafts? Maybe check valve lash while you're in thar. Cool car!
Had a 1959 Ford F150 with an unknown replacement Y-block which I needed to drive to work (it was a very expen$ive divorce). No oil to the rockers. Local mechanic told me this trick, it worked for a year until I could get my $hit together and buy a better beater... 1. Remove rockers from one side 2. Screw a zerk fitting into the oil passage in the cylinder head. The zerk will self tap. FORCE grease into the zerk - you are attempting to force the crud in the passage backward. 3. Remove zerk and start engine on the remaining 4 cylinders. Bring up the RPMs to increase the oil pressure and hopefully push all that grease and***** out the oil passage. 4. Repeat until you get good oil flow. Then reassemble the rockers. 5. Do the other side. 6. Good luck and happy motoring. Russ
Another month has gone by but with "Honey Do's" and working on the oldest Grandson's off topic El Camino, I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on the '56. I have managed to squeeze in a few afternoons in the shop, though! Got the old heater****embly removed but I haven't decided what I am going to replace it with, most likely will be a Vintage Air heat, defrost and cool unit. I put one of those in the '46 business Coupe and was really happy with it. Got the new 15" chrome wheels and new tires on the front, I will eventually put some on the rear but for now, I'm going to run out the 14's since you can't see them with the Mercury side skirts anyway! Removed the old tuck n roll package tray upholstery and Sue reupholstered it with plain black vinyl. The old stuff was all dried out and cracking so this is much better. Got the trunk cleaned out and sprayed it with black undercoat. And added a new trunk liner. Found some 1960 Dodge Dart tail light****embly's on eBay and got them installed this afternoon. Still need to get new bulb sockets and get them wired up. The rear looks a lot better, me thinks!
Well, it's been awhile since I have posted anything on here so I guess I will bring this thread up to date. It's been cold out in the shop and I don't do well in cold weather so I have been doing more parts buying than parts putting on for the past month or so. I have been addressing the interior and steering for the most part... All the side glass is either cracked or bubbled so it's all getting replaced. While I am at it I will rebuild the window regulators and replace the door panels since they are water damaged. The upholstery is in good shape so I am going to attempt to remove it and put it back on the new boards. Since my steering box was completely shot, I decided to pick up this used steering box that was said to be in good condition and have it rebuilt. but as you can see, it wasn't. Being that this is a 3 tooth box and the sector shaft gear that I need is not reproduced, I am pulling my original box out in hopes that it can be gone thru...
Now that it looks like this cold and snow is going to be pushed out by warmer weather, maybe I can get back to the project and install all the stuff that I have bought. I have already replaced the vacuum wipers with a Newport electric motor, installed a new stereo system and am in the process of picking up a new Vintage Air heat cool and defrost unit, hopefully the deal won't fall thru. Beside all the interior work, I have a set of Aerostar springs to install and I still have to check out the rockers and make sure that the upper end is getting the needed oil. This ought to keep me busy for a little while!
Cool, let us know how they do with it. I looked into Lares doing mine since my '57 steers like the Santa Maria. If you buy the deal through Rock Auto it's like $200 cheaper than if you go to them directly. Crazy. Would be good to have options though
The one thing that usually goes bad in these is the worm gear inner bearing races. These are part of the worm gear and not replaceable. Ford machined the races onto the worm then hard-chromed them and final-ground them for fit. The plating wears and then starts flaking off. As the gear was welded to the shaft, it used to be you needed an exact replacement as the shaft length changed every year but they are making a kit now with a weld-on worm gear. 1956-1957 Ford Passenger Car Steering Box Repair Kit (macsautoparts.com) This kit is off-shore sourced (Argentina) but it appears the worm inner races are only flame-hardened. Do ask your rebuilder how they deal with this. I've always wondered why you couldn't find a separate inner race for these and machine the old races off the worm and press new ones on.
I had planned on buying one through Summit, they had the best price, but like Rock Auto they didn't have any in stock. I talked to Lares, they had one but said that they wouldn't accept my box for exchange because of the sector arm gear. I would have to pay the core charge plus the cost of the box, that would have run over $1000.00 with the shipping. Powersteering Inc cost is $279.00 plus the cost of any hard parts like the worm gear. They are only a couple hours north of me so there isn't any shipping involved. I have talked with them on several occasions and they strike me as stand up people. Told me if I didn't want that other box put back together that there would be no charge, $35.00 if I did. I 'll take the box out of my '56 up there next week and pick up the other one. Hopefully, there won't be any problems with that one.
That's really good to know. I can only imagine what my worm gear looks like, I measured 270 degrees of backlash in the steering wheel. I'll have to reach out to them.
Looks like you’ve been busy! Ended up with the whole week off due to the weather and got a little shop time but not as much as I’d hoped. Made a little progress on sorting bugs on the Chevy motor.....hopefully actually a driver by the SK. Lol
The Jalopy Journal
