Call me crazy - Ranchero's (again)

**Luva65wagon** · July 10th, 2011, 10:17 PM

Have made pretty good progress the past couple of days - though Saturday was cut short. Gene came out yesterday for a couple hours and we got the upper and lower control arms on. I spent today and finished up the brake lines, the fuel line to the back, and mounted the rest of the steering components... and a few other bits. It's nice to see the parts bins emptying out...

**BillP 98201** · July 11th, 2011, 07:03 AM

Looking good Roger! Nice duel master cylinder. Looks like its coming along great!

**BadBird** · July 11th, 2011, 08:19 PM

Looking fantasticamonious. I can't believe how much you get done in such a short period of time. Larry

**Luva65wagon** · July 12th, 2011, 12:43 PM

I can't believe how much you get done in such a short period of time.

No honey - no do. Simple as that. Sad, but true.

But last night I did finally decide I better clean those gutters or I would have trees growing out of there instead of just weeds...

**doghows** · July 12th, 2011, 02:13 PM

I say slap up a sign that says "Back to Nature" and let them grow!!!!!

**Luva65wagon** · July 12th, 2011, 11:20 PM

Gene lent a hand getting my front and rear springs in tonight. Had to cut one coil out of the front springs, but they are V8 springs and I will have a I6 in it for some time. I hope when the V8 eventually goes in, it'll be just about the right ride height. I tried everything I could to get them in before deciding the cut the coil.

Next comes the rear-end assembly and installation... got to get the red wheels with some rubber on them very, very, soon.

**doghows** · July 13th, 2011, 08:14 AM

Must be getting excited to see it back on the wheels. No more teeter tauter!?! I found me a set of 14" steel wheels I think I will coat red to go with my ratchero look. Now I need to find a cool set of hub caps for them. I think that will work well.
So it looks like this weekend won't be happening for the "flairchero". I will look at all the car shows over here and see what else is coming up in a few weeks. You could always drive over here on September 17th for the sprint boat races. It will be the first race at the new track in Port Angeles.
Anyway keep us posted on the car and pics are always fun too.

**Luva65wagon** · July 13th, 2011, 01:19 PM

No... "Flarechero" ain't going nowhere this weekend - or next, for that matter. I'm even losing one day this weekend for a "work thing."

Still, by the end of this weekend, I hope to get the rear-end in, the brakes on and bled, and down on all 4's. Then I can finally roll it back against the barn-door to make room so I can lift the motor onto the engine stand for a little detail work and inspection. I'll be pulling the pan and valve cover to inspect and re-gasket and look at general condition.

When done with that I can lift the engine into the engine bay. Then I'll spend a couple days making another "as good as they can get" Dagenham 4-speed to put back in. I now have 4 of these, so I will take the best parts of all of them (sort of like I have done with the various Rancheros and Falcons that have been sacrificed for this cause) and, hopefully, make one good one. I have a new gasket kit and seal for that too. Then I can slide that in and measure for the drive-line.

Should have no problems getting all that done by Monday.

**SmithKid** · July 13th, 2011, 03:15 PM

Was going to leave you a PM, but saw no way to attach a pic. This is the passenger side (obviously). So.... my rear springs measure 2.528" as measured with my new caliper. The shackles appear to be the same as the ones on Flarechero.

**Luva65wagon** · July 13th, 2011, 03:58 PM

Thanks Gene.

Your picture shows me one thing (after you left) I concluded must not be right and kept me thinking long after I should have been sleeping. See how your bracket is supported along its entire length (especially the eye) above it where it bolts to the frame? When you flip the ones I have toward the rear, like yours is mounted, the eye of the bracket it hanging over the ledge of the support. As in - they are NOT supported. So I may look and see whether if I drill new holes I can move the eye toward the front of the car more. Better supported and less apt to flatten as we saw when the springs are unweighted because the eye will be more directly above the eye in the spring. Your bracket is also clearly wider too, to match the spring. But that might not be too big an issue.

As usual, you are the man!

"New" caliper...

**doghows** · July 13th, 2011, 05:07 PM

Well hopefully once it is back on all fours you can bring the wagon home and save that $ for more parts. Keep on keepin on it will be done before mine.

**Luva65wagon** · July 13th, 2011, 11:17 PM

Well, I don't know exactly what is different between yours Gene, and this year, but the most I was able to shift the hanger forward was about 1/2" and no more. It does now bring the eye partly under the rear frame extendo (I'm sure that's the correct terminology). At least now, when you raise the leaf-spring, it wants to push the shackle backwards.

Then I pressed the new bearings on the rear axles, cleaned up and painted the punkin, and then put the rear-end together. So that will get lifted in tomorrow. Then, onto the brakes.

I forgot to bring the camera out, but will take some tomorrow before I put it in.

**SmithKid** · July 14th, 2011, 12:59 PM

Want me to measure from the end of the "rear frame extendo" to the eye of the perch?

**Luva65wagon** · July 14th, 2011, 01:07 PM

Just looking at it in the picture - the entire length of yours seems longer than mine. Like they made it longer to support the eye. Your eye is clearly rearward and supported fully by the extendo, but mine isn't.

So using those nifty calipers, maybe you can measure from the forward edge of the extendo to the first bolt center, then bolt center to bolt center, then rearward bolt center to the end of the rear edge of extendo.

Gosh, that sounds as crazy as I am...

**SmithKid** · July 14th, 2011, 01:37 PM

My "extendo" is 5.3" long. Frontmost bolt is 1.7" from front. Rearmost bolt is 1.7" from rear. Bolt to bolt is 1.9".

Disclaimer follows:
There is quite a bit of parallax involved while taking these measurements, so the actual measurements I gave are a close approximation.