I did that to my Falcon years ago. That and adapting a rack and pinion steering made that little thing a lotta fun to drive. Right now, it suffers from a loose rear end .
I got the new thermostat housing modified and installed with a 90 degree fitting from my old boat. The bungs I bought were just barely long enough for my application. Man, I miss my lathe. That let me finish installing the temp gauge. I put it where the heater hose used to be. I also got the new fuel lines at the carburetor made and installed, the first step towards getting rid of all of the rubber hose. I did a few test bends with the various benders that I have and none would put a clean 90 in the 3/8” fuel line. So I coaxed a piece into a reasonably decent 90 and went with it. I can always make a better one later if it bugs me. Our local auto parts stores only stock the green coated lines now, no more silver lines. I just couldn’t use that in the engine compartment where it’s seen. So I used the few pieces that I had in stock. Now to mount and plumb the 427 style fuel filter….
I got the fuel lines cleaned up. From this…. To this…. No more rubber hose. That will do it for a little while, it’s running good so I can get back to other projects that need some attention. I’m going to gather up some suspension parts like sway bars and stuff for the next phase.
Thanks. I’m going to have my current valve covers chromed. I’ve got a pair of Moon finned aluminum covers that I can put on to keep stuff out of the engine while the stock covers are at the chrome shop but they don’t have any breathers so I wouldn’t want to run them for any length of time. I’ll be able to move the car around if I need to. I’m thinking of modifying my air cleaner to look like this: Going to the big Turlock swap meet next weekend, I’m hoping to run across some interesting FE parts. I’ll be looking for an Edelbrock intake manifold or something. I’ll be selling so I might have limited time to shop around.
Memories of working on ‘50s and ‘60s Fords are flooding back…. It turns out that the Ranchero rear springs are Ranchero only. Definitely different dimensionally than Mustangs and even Fairlanes. So getting lowering springs from conventional sources is pretty much off the table. So I dug out some 2” lowering blocks from upstairs and set about to install them. We have a local spring company that can make me some springs in the future but the blocks will do for now. When I removed the U-bolts I found that Ford uses a much different leaf spring center pin and the pads on the housing have about a 1 1/8” hole for the pin, much larger than the lowering block pins and holes. Ok. So I bore out the female side of the blocks to fit the springs and made some bushings to fit the blocks to the housing pads. I sorta wanted to keep the big rubber isolators but that just wasn’t happening. Everything went back together nicely and it’s noticeably lower. I’ll get a picture when the rain stops and I can take the covers off.
I ordered some sway bars hoping to make the Ranchero a little more sure footed on our twisty roads. The factory front bar is laughable, about 3/4”. I ordered a 1” front and a 7/8” rear bar. They arrived while I was messing around with the lowering blocks so I installed the rear one. I had to make one new brake line and reshape the other. The factory brake line clips were welded to the housing right where the sway bar brackets needed to go, so I removed them. I also had to cut and reroute the tailpipes. But the sway bar fit well. Sorry for the glare-y photos.
My luck changed when I went to install the front sway bar. It obviously interfered with the oil filter but I thought that it might fit other than that so I went to the parts store and got a short filter. Well, that wasn’t enough. Even without the filter the bar is too narrow where it goes around the frame. Dang. The listing showed that it fit the Ranchero. It’s an Addco from Summit. Helwig and Scott Drake don’t have one that fits the Ranchero. Anybody got a Ranchero with a bigger sway bar on the front? Any other sources?
I thought about that and I dug out a remote filter assembly. I didn’t see a place that would be a suitable place for the relocation underneath. I suppose I could move it to the inner fender panel ahead of the spring tower but it would be awkward and messy to change the filter. Our weather has been various combinations of rainy, windy and cold. I have the Ranchero on the hoist outside with a cover and a big tarp on it. To be honest, working in the rain and cold, I didn’t try the bar with the oil filter completely removed, just with the shorter filter. Of course, once I put it all back together, cleaned up and went in the house I thought, “I shoulda tried that”. It’s been pouring rain all morning, if it lets up I’ll pull off the old sway bar and give it a look without the filter. But I think that it’s more than just the filter, I think the middle span is too narrow. I could hold one end in the proper position where the frame bushing goes, but at the other end the bushing was 1 1/2” or so inboard of its location and the bend in the bar prevented the bushing from sliding out where it needs to be. So far, the Ranchero doesn’t seem to share anything with its cousins. I can’t wait to get into the front suspension…..
I braved the cold and rain this morning to remove the old bar and oil filter and you were right! It does fit without the oil filter. It is tighter around the frame corners than the factory bar, but it does fit. Thanks for making me reevaluate this. I guess next I’ll try bolting the bar in with all of the hardware. It was raining so I just put the bushings and brackets on the bar and held it in position.
That’s what they tell me. From the firewall forward they are the same. But I’m learning to take the info out there with a grain of salt. When my sway bars arrived they had gnawed a hole in the corner of the boxes. Thankfully, they packed the installation hardware in a separate box too big to escape through the holes. Unfortunately, I think the instruction sheets for the front bar did escape. It might have specified that the oil filter must be moved on big block applications. No big deal, just more entertainment value for your automotive aftermarket dollar.
While the wind rearranged the patio furniture and the rain took a much needed break, I bolted the sway bar in place and took some pictures and measurements. The top of the bar is only 2” below the gasket surface of the factory filter adapter. I found a filter bypass plate on eBay that replaces the factory adapter and has two 1/2” pipe inlet/outlets straight out and bought it. I also ordered a Trans-Dapt relocation kit that uses the factory adapter and features an oil filter replacement fitting that exits at 90 degrees instead of straight down. So I have some parts to work with to get a nice installation. The weather should improve by the time it all gets here. I’m not thrilled to have to relocate the oil filter, more junk cluttering up the engine compartment, but these are the little diversions that I’ve learned to expect when I horse around with Fords. It’s still a great car and I’m excited to drive it lowered 2” and with new sway bars.
Is it the same size as the factory sway bar?....just fatter?! A shame you need to go to a remote filter just to get a decent sway bar. Any chance somebody else has one that will fit? (I mean IF its the same size only fatter...) How about an adapter to drop it a couple inches ? 6sally6
The end loops are the same distance apart but the area for the frame bushings is just barely wide enough. The little factory bar took advantage of the space available and wasn’t close to anything. The new bar doesn’t follow exactly the same path. The straight part of the factory bar where the frame bushings go was much wider. The new one seems to have bends in slightly different places and is a little closer to the frame. So far that was the only company that said that their bar would fit a Ranchero. I have to admit that I’m not a big phone guy. I do internet searches from several angles and compile the info. So often theses days when I do call, I get a sales person with no practical knowledge of the parts they sell nor any possible applications outside of the product application data that they have. Some of the Mustang parts guys can give you a dissertation on Mustang applications but clam up when you mention Ranchero. I held the new bar down a little to see if I could make spacers to drop the frame bushings but it looks like it would take about 2 1/2” or bigger spacers. I’ll take another look when the weather improves. I was fortunate to get a few minutes this morning but it’s been raining and 18-36 mph winds most of the day. I can always return the kit to Summit if I don’t need it but I wanted to have everything on hand to get it back together. I’m getting good at returning sh!t since my steering wheel fiasco.
Nice and clear today so I decided to try one last ditch idea concerning spacing the sway bar down to clear the oil filter. The reason I gave the idea the ki-bosh was because the dip in the center of the bar got too low with the 2” spacers required to clear the filter. But I hadn’t considered shortening the links to the lower A-arms to rotate it back up. This is the normal position, no spacer…. (See my lame green arrow) This is where the bar sits with the required 2” spacer. Substantially lower….. Shortening the links didn’t make much difference, it was still too low and looked goofy. Dang. So I moved on to finding a place to mount the oil filter in the engine compartment. I found a reasonably good place and made a bracket to mount the filter to the inner fender panel. I won’t drill any holes until I get the relocation kit and see what fittings and hoses I have to work with. Sorry to bore everyone with these mundane tasks but I enjoy writing them up and hopefully someone else will benefit from this information.
THANK YOU for sharing stuff like this, especially with the clear pics and comments. These are the type of things that I stare at and overthink for hours and then get nothing done. The transformation from where you started is already amazing.
I got Wix p/n 51068 (?) from another site and went and bought one. It too is 2” shorter than the FL-1A. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. I’m just hoping that the new adapter fitting that comes in the kit that I bought will fit. The kit retains the factory oil filter adapter and provides another fitting that screws on in place of the filter with hose connections. That will leave my oil pressure gauge line and idiot light sensor in place.
It’s cold, windy and raining again today so for now I can’t work out on the hoist. I did go out to the shop to see if I had some 2 1/4” tubing and bends in stock so I can remake the tailpipes that I had to cut off to make room for the new rear sway bar. It looks like I have everything I need so if the weather clears up a little I can maybe start on the part of this project. I’m looking forward to moving the exhaust all the way to the back instead of exiting behind the rear wheels. I’m hoping it will be a little quieter in the cab.
I didn’t wait for the weather to clear up, I figured most of the tailpipe work was under the car out of the rain so what the heck. I made brackets to support the new tips where I wanted them to end up and clamped a 45 degree bend on each side. That gives me a target to go for with the rest of the pipe. I got one side cut, trimmed and tacked together and the parts for the other side roughed out. Kind of a pain marking it, taking it in the shop, cutting it, taking it back out, marking it, back in the shop,tacking the parts together, taking them back out and checking it be sure they are right. Getting my steps in. Usually I roll my welder out there but not in the rain. With one side figured out, I called it a day. This morning I welded up the first side and reinstalled it. I fitted the pieces of the other side, tacked it together and welded it up. With both sides in place I figured out the necessary support brackets and got them welded on. I wanted the outlets to be all the way in the back. I decided on the extreme corners with the outlets pointing down and out. (Note the nice weather today!) There is a good chance that this will all be temporary, I’m looking at several nice stainless exhaust system kits. The trouble is, as usual, they are listed for Fairlanes but not Rancheros. Maybe the Rancheros and station wagons have a longer wheelbase? More research needed. I took photos, cleaned up and went in for a late lunch and some much needed hot coffee. I still need to scuff everything up and shoot some black heat paint on it. I didn’t have enough in stock to do it today. Here’s what I got so far, all stuff I had in stock upstairs. It would have been easier if the fuel tank was centered, I could have run both pipes inside of the springs. Oh well, this way the tips are out in the corners. Maybe that’s why they don’t list Rancheros with the regular Fairlanes. I’m trying to find work-arounds to do while waiting for my Summit order to arrive. I guess all my oil filter stuff is coming from their east coast warehouse - by wagon train. I’m spoiled, usually stuff comes from the Nevada warehouse just over the hill. Sometimes, if I order in the morning, it arrives in the afternoon the next day!
The Jalopy Journal
