I guess the thread has served its purpose now, we identified and fixed our problem. So if the production year police come at me it’s fine. I know the wheels are stupid, Im working on it. Use your imigination and picture they arent there. And it has some awesomely 90s pinstriping I gotta take care of. I already have replacement wheels, but Im planning on painting the spokes to match the hood. So I havent put on tires yet. Oh, and the shaved door handles irritate the hell out of me. Its a 66 Fairlane with a 503 CI 429 based big block ford and a 6 speed. Its going to be called the "Toxic Relationship" Yeah on the late side for a g***er, but its a different look for the cl***, and is legal for all the drag n drive series rules for Gas/B. Thats the goal. Drag Week. I love early novas and tri fives as much as the next guy, but do we really need another one in the g***er staging lanes? So here is a little different flavor. Still needs a cage, and a stronger trans than the stock T56 etc. But its running and driving. We are in the "getting to know each other phase" after 2 years of me putting it together in the garage. I bought someone elses partial project and turned it into a g***er. It was originally intended as more of an autocross build. Of course taking over a derilict project always comes with comprimises. It has some really nice parts that arent decisions I would have made. Like it has an external wet sump oiling system. I thought about just putting in an internal oil pump while I had the engine out, but at the end of the day I couldnt bring myself to spend a bunch of money on a nice pan and all when I had working parts. But man it limits space in front of the engine with the belt driven pump.
I know they are an eyesore at the moment. But I had them with good tires and it lets me shakedown the car. I dont care enough to edit the photos. If mods want to delete the pictures its fine. I purposely only talked straight axle tech until someone asked for photos. I just bought a set up Rader/Radir type tri rib wheels locally on marketplace. Which again, a little bit different than the slots everyone runs. Here in a couple weeks I’m going to flake the hood, cowl, and spokes of the wheels to match. Just got the copper flake I want to use in the mail
I'm with you on toe in. When I did my axle everything was fine except in trying to go strait it had a wander issue. A friend worked at a Ford dealership and during lunch got a guy to check it out on the alignment rack. Way too much toe out! Caster at 6°, I don't know how I missed toe by that much. Put the toe to 1/8 and never looked back. Just to note that I had put a steering stabilizer on when first built, after many years and miles I opted to make a heavy duty tie rod as with power steering I noticed some flex. Of course I had to see what was left for dampening; it had nothing, flat wore out! Don't know when it left the scene. Point being that if all the other stuff is in spec you ready don't need one , I replaced it anyways as I run reversed wheels with some extra scrub radius.
Working on my project I wanted to check the steering box like you suggested. With the steering disconnected I get 4 full turns from left to right. If I turn it slowly I get a tight feeling that starts at 2-1/4 and goes to about 2-1/2 turns. I tried it multiple times to make sure I was feeling it correctly. So the tight spot is not perfectly in the center of the number of turns the box can do. Would you still use this area as the center point for the steering? I have to double check but I think the steering stopped at about 3.5 turns with everything connected.
Got the wheels, hood and cowl flaked. Will sand the texture out of the hood and add some leaf this weekend.
Yes, use the tight spot for dead center, it will make it drive better. The farther away from center you go, the more clearance there is in the gear mesh. Align the steering wheel to the tight spot so straight ahead both are correct.
When I built my '63 Falcon Futura I did a lot of frame work to handle the .040" over 454 BBC engine, straight axle, and late 70's Ford Ranger steering box. I added a 1"x3" heavy wall box tubing to the bottom of the whole frame rails up front, and ended them where my subframe connectors welded to the box tubing behind the firewall. This allowed me to build all my motor and steering mounts, plus axle mounts to that box tubing and have something more than the thin unibody metal to weld to. I had no way to bend the rectangle tubing, so I made numerous cuts through one side to allow it to bend, and then welded the cuts closed after I welded the tubing to the unibody.
K. Nice looking g***er & not same belly ****on everyone else. Two comments: my local track not let you run without door handles - salety to get you out in case. You typed external wet oil system - external I think you mean DRY SUMP oiling system
Thanks for the help. I am going to mark it and put things back together and see where everything is in relation to the tight area. I am curious if it was set this way from the factory?
No it is an external wet sump. Again, nice parts, but not the choice I would have made. It does give rock solid pressure, and isnt RPM dependent. Im going to put door handles on. I already have externior handles, but I gott figure out if any other guts were removed from the doors.
Yeah. So normal oiling, pump and oil storage is in the pan. external dry sump would be the exact opposite your oil storage and pump are external. You’ll have an oil tank somewhere. external wet sump is the middle ground. Your oil capacity is in the oil pan but the pump is external. The only real problem in my case is space is tiiiiight. It’s a 429 based engine in a car not designed for it, and now hang an external oil pump on the front.
The Jalopy Journal
