Projects All The Twos: 1962 Mercury, 352cui, 2bbl, Too Many Doors.

That sound is not uncommon in these old cruisomatics.
Im pretty sure its coming from oil pump cavitating and so far i have not notice it to be any sing of broken parts.
Atleast two of my mercs do it pretty often when start in cold and been sitting some time.

 

Thanks. It sounded like something bouncing off gear teeth. I was properly worried! I couldn’t really work out what I could have done

So far so good



Thought spring was here but they gritted the roads the last two nights so maybe I was a bit optimistic getting the Merc ready.

 

After my generator started making a nasty noise and I then messed up the commutator whilst removing the front bearing and then the recon generator I ordered arrived damaged and it’s replacement arrived damaged I finally got a working generator.
Blipping the throttle when warm caused it to almost die, closer investigation showed the damper had last its dampiness. Fortunately I’d got one lying around as they seem almost impossible to find.


And now we seem to have a functioning car again it decides to snow and drop below freezing so the gritters will be out

 

Washed the Merc and went for a drive. New larger front sway bar seems like a huge improvement.
Nice to be in an old car again after 5 months of crap weather.

 

Filled the tank today, first time since fitting a phenolic spacer to try and improve the hot starting issue. Fired straight up after paying, so pretty happy with that.

Found a little friend, if it wasn’t for the modern pumps it’d be a nice pic

 

The bush between the shift lever on the transmission and the rod has disintegrated. I can’t find one specifically for the 62 Cruise-o-matic. I’ve been told that B9AZ-7343-A for a C4 fits but it looks different and the book says 1965 on. Any ideas?

 

Think outside the box a bit about thingss like door hinge bushings, cluch and brake pedal bushings, manual trans shifter or throttle linkage bushings. Or maybe even some generic hardware store bushings.

Were the originals rubber or plastic with a metal insert, or bronze, nylon, delrin or some other funny plastic matrial?

 

Thanks

The original was rubber but it’s really thin, maybe 1/8”, perhaps I could just go with a sleeve and penny washers.

 

Changed the steering box in an effort to remove the slop from the steering.


And popped to the pub to see what it’s like. Definitely better. Think I need to do an alignment on it to dial it in better.

 

Having a bit of a heatwave here at the moment, think it hit low 90s yesterday. Took my Dad to a local cars and coffee which meant crossing town in rush hour. It sat in stop start traffic with the AC on for 30 mins, temp gauge went almost to the end of the scale but didn’t overheat which gives me a bit of confidence in it for the rest of the summer. The AC is icy cold too, don’t know how I coped when I had cars without it!


De Dion from 1903 I think.

 

"The AC is icy cold too, don’t know how I coped when I had cars without it!-"-so" mad dogs and englishmen -etc."--is a lie??!!

 

No but usually involves beer or gin!!

 

Decided to get on with hopefully the last bit that’s causing the woolly front end, lower arm bushes. The Merc ones are silly money so copying @FrozenMerc and replacing the complicated double front bush with a single one.

Managed to get a splitter that fits the truck sized lower ball joint without buggering it as it’s new.



Arm removed.


That’ll explain the wandering and nasty turn in then;



Need to get the other side off, then weld a sleeve in to take the round Galaxie bush.

 

Inserts welded into both arms to take the single round rear Mercury/Galaxie bush. I went for the rear instead of the front Galaxie bush as it takes the larger bolt used by the original bush.

 

Bushes pressed in