Technical 63 Country Squire late 1/2 2/3 shift

A stuck kickdown valve isn't a common problem, but it would sure cause your problem. Glad you found it.

 

Nice looking wagon.

 

Thank you, I got it pretty recently from another forum member here. He did a lot of the preservation and mechanical work, Ive just sort of picked up where he left off. It's a nice straight mostly original car, lots of character and I really love it.

 

Alright now for this weeks problem! Maybe I'll just make this my country squire thread.

Put about 30 or so really smooth miles on this thing but today about midday it cranked like the timing was way advanced. I let it sit there and cough for a minute then it seemed to smooth out. Getting on the throttle it started hesitating and pinging hard, too much advance down low. It smoothed out again, enough for a home depot run tonight. Pretty much the whole drive to home depot and back it pinged under moderate throttle, idler high but ran well wide open. When I got back home it was still idling high so I got out the timing light to see where my advance was at idle. Sure enough I was sitting about 20 degrees. Not enough time to dig into this tonight but I'm assuming the plate is sticking or I have a broken spring. Any other guesses? The distributor looks clean inside but maybe it's due for a real rebuild, can anyone recommend a distributor guy? Any off the shelf points distributors that are worth a crap? I don't mess with any chinesium hei or pertronix stuff on my cars.

 

No broken springs just appears to be lacking lubrication as evidenced by the rusty powder around the shaft. The little sponge thing was missing in the shaft as well so I know it hasn't seen a drop of oil in a long time! I'll get it cleaned tonight and check timing again. I think this is probably why the mechanical advance was hanging up.

 

How did you get the circlip/wire clip out of the top of the shaft to get the cam off? I’ve really struggled with that.

 

I have a really slender pair of needle nose pliers that got it out, theres definitely not much room to work with though!

 

There is supposed to be a round felt piece just under the rotor at the top of the shaft. That is supposed to get a drop or two of oil at each tuneup to keep the shaft lubed.

 

This is what I use.

 

Well I over thought this one but found a few things along the way that needed attention so that's always nice.

The breaker points plate felt really tight so as I was reassembling it I found someone had stuffed two wave washers under the flat washer where the manual only called for one. I removed that and it felt much more smooth. I cleaned the shaft and put a little oil on everything and reassembled. It started up nicely and idled well for a couple minutes but then started running like ass again. A closer inspection of the points revealed the root problem here. I'll let the photos do the talking! Time for new points/ condenser.

In the first photo you can even see a couple blobs of melted plastic from the points.

 

Yes, I'll fashion a small piece of felt to put in there and add a couple drops of 30w.

 

I'm happy to report the distributor cleaning and lubricating along with the new points/condenser and a little timing work made for one nice running old FE. Looking forward to putting a new front u joint in this weekend and seeing if that cures my vibration.

 

Killer 63 I saw tonight

 

The yoke on the trans side of the driveshaft was pinched inward so I think the joint was sitting slightly off set to one side. I whacked the yoke back out and both clips went in smoothly but I'm still going to send this for balancing while it's out and put an output shaft seal on it. Looks like it has the wrong one installed.

 

What makes you think the vibration is the driveshaft?

I’ve got one that starts at about 75, I’ve balanced the wheels twice at two different shops so don’t think it’s that.

 

It's just a starting point really, it did it exactly the same before the new tires and I marked the wheels and moved their positions when I mounted and balanced them. It sort of starts around 40ish and varies from there, the seat of my pants diagnosis is driveshaft but I'm not sure. I'll get this thing balanced and at least can rule that out.

 

Got the driveshaft back today, invoice says it was straightened and balanced. I might be on to something here. While it was out I found an NOS tailshaft housing bushing Im planning on putting in as well as a new seal. There is a lot of slop between the slip yoke and the bushing so obviously it needs replaced. Now I just need to figure out how to get it in/ out!

 

I tried to wedge a very narrow drift into the slot in the extension housing to sort of distort the bushing enough to loosen it and pull it out but it was lodged pretty good. I ended up removing the extension housing which was probably what I should have done in the first place but I was trying to not have to drain this trans for the third time. Type F is pretty pricey these days .

I made a huge mess of trans fluid on the floor and after removing the parking brake cables and loosening the down pipe it came right out. I beat the bushing out with a 30mm socket on an extension. Waiting on my NOS bushing but should be here tomorrow. Looks like an original bushing? Lots of play there, small fluid leak at the output seal.

 

NOS bushing was wrong so had to wait on one from Ecklers. Luckily it was right and everything went back together smooth. No more vibration or tailshaft seal leak but I've got another leak that may have been there from the start, somewhere around the extension housing/ pump gasket. I'll have to just pull the tranny and seal both at this point. Anyone got a 4 speed/ console/ buckets laying around? haha

 

I got up under there with a mirror and there is a drip drip drip coming from where the rear pump/ extension housing gasket is. Next weekend Im going to pull the trans and just take care of this on a bench rather than curled up on the floor!