Saving Granddad's Falcon

[dhbfaster]

Mannnn......good point Kenny. Thanks for that note!
I do have the 16 gallon tank (falcon aftermarket version). There it is again...change one thing and it leads to another and on and on...

I put the old muffler up in there this evening...and it is definitely very snug. I can see why you moved it forward and went oval.

I was actually thinking about using my old one piece pipe from the manifold to the muffler...and having it blasted and ceramic coated in the tungsten gray. (They have an air cure process.) I was thinking it would look awesome...be essentially original and actually costs less than stainless steel (and have more original sound.) I was going to order a stainless OEM type muffler and just clamp it on. So much for my bright ideas! Now...I'm not sure what to do. Even a 5" looks tight. Maybe I'll look closer this weekend in the daylight, or maybe I'll wait until it's running and go to a muffler shop and see what fits.

Meanwhile on the gas pedal front....if you recall the story...my original one is pretty icky compared to the new pedals and has a huge crack in the rubber at the bottom. So...I ordered the "exact reproduction" which was a light weight piece of ....well, it seems cheap. So, I called and they sent me out the other version at no cost...it arrived and it is a nice, heavy, original style rubber over metal...love it. Then I put it next to the old one...pics attached. It's a different angle. Looks like it will be totally misaligned with the throttle bar. Meanwhile, the cheap plastic one is the same angle. This type of thing should be simpler than it is. Is there an emotion of a guy gagging??

[Luva65wagon]

Don. It looks like the holes in the new pedal are offset whereas the original are straight and they angled the pedal in relation to the holes. Align the holes from old to new with a straight edge and it may bring the new pedal to the correct angle.

[Luva65wagon]

And I do have a single 'new' glasspack you can have for your car. You can try it and if you don't like the healthy sound of your new engine you can change it later.

[dhbfaster]

I might need that glass pack Roger...I'm being told 8 weeks to get a muffler in.

Man this time of the year is busy. I haven't had much time to do anything significant so I painted these under seat springs when I could squeeze in a few minutes here and there. I am surprised how well they came out. I thought it would be difficult to get paint to stick to a spring.
I soaked them in rustico for about a week and a half. Then scrubbed them with a red pad for a few minutes, then brushed some old paint off with a fine steel brush, cleaned it with the Eastwood Pre, stretched them over the nails for painting, then painted them with the Eastwood underhood black.
So far it looks like they came out great. I can stretch them out, twist them, or let them collapse an so far I have not seen any paint come off!

[Luva65wagon]

Consider it yours! You can get it when you have your starting party, or if you wanna do a midway pickup sometime before. Always willing to carry it all around in case you need it soonerer.

Also, I've had a Smitty muffler in my wagon for as long as I've had it. I like the sound.

[SmithKid]

You musta been eating your spinach. As I remember, those springs a fairly stiff.

[dhbfaster]

Ok, need some advice from the experts- I can't find a picture of how the small piece to the rear of the rear stuff plate goes in. See the attached pictures...I'm talking about the small aluminum piece with just one hole. Does it go in like I have it oriented in the picture but tuck under the stuff plate? There is a hole down inside where the black paint is, but it seems like it's very tight to cram this in there. A pic or good description would be most appreciated!! Thanks in advance as always:

Meanwhile...Jeff, you are the man. I heated up the back side of the edges with the heat gun and then put the weights on them...wow, it molded them even nicer than I thought. Thanks Jeff. Back in the thread the "before" pics showed about a half inch gap on the sides, and attached are the after pics with NO gap! Also...a pic of the wood pieces and the weights on them in case anyone else ever wants to do this. I installed the seat belts first so it held the carpet in place nicely.

Man...progress seems slow lately. Hard to get any time this time of year and about to leave for the holidays to visit family. No complaints on that, but just want to get to the startup.

[ew1usnr]

Hello, Don.

It look like the little piece needs to be rotated 90-degrees clockwise.

I noticed that one of those pieces was shown next to the front kick panel in the film strip that you posted a link to.

Mine does not now have that piece. If it ever did, it was lost before I got the car.

It is interesting that your 1961 skuff plates are different than those on my 1963 model. Yours have a diamond pattern.

I was surprised to see that you had painted your under-seat retractor springs. They do look nice, but I confess that I never would have thought to do that.

How/why did the floor of the car come to be painted black? I would have thought that it would be painted red like the exterior of the car.

Dennis.

[dhbfaster]

Hi Dennis, I think I see what you mean about turning it 90 degrees. I took a look and found a screw hole that I missed because it was covered in black paint. I'll give it a try tomorrow (after the paint dries.)

The floor and all of the fender inside the car was originally red. When I first redid the floor we took off all the paint and tar, cleaned all the rust, treated it, and then painted gray POR product on it, including up on the fender a little ways. I left it gray. But, when I installed the back seat, I found the seat covered ALMOST everything-leaving a little gray peeking through that didn't look good. You could see just a little bit of the gray on the edges, and you could see the last bit behind the scuff plate left open...ah ha...then I remembered those little pieces go there. Anyway, I took the seat back out and then just painted a black strip there because black matches the rest of the inside of the car. I'm not sure what it's going to look like yet- it was covered with gray vinyl before. We'll see. If it looks good I'll leave it, if not, I'll try something else. Thanks for the help!

[ew1usnr]

I see what you mean about turning it 90 degrees.

Hello, Don.

I am guessing, but you may have left and right pieces that are switched around. For this piece in the picture, move it to the other side of the car and rorate it 90-degrees clockwise.

Dons carpet bracket.jpg

It might be that the flat end will then be against the door jamb and the slant end will be pointed to the interior (and not visa versa).

Or maybe not. It would be worth a try.

Dennis.

[dhbfaster]

Here's a couple pics with a better angle and one in the position I think it is supposed to be in...as you can see there is a screw hole behind there that something is supposed to screw into, but it still doesn't seem to fit just right- but it could be I just need to trim the end of the windlass a bit.

[dhbfaster]

Guys, the shop manual says the (3 on the tree speed manual) tranny should have 80wt fluid. It seems like 80wt is only used for motorcycles today?
Should I use that? Or use standard 80w-90 gear oil?
Advice appreciated as always!

[dhbfaster]

I did find this 75w80 oil below. Seems like it may be the one to fill up with. Any thoughts?


http://www.amazon.com/Liqui-Moly-442...productDetails

[ew1usnr]

I did find this 75w80 oil below. Seems like it may be the one to fill up with. Any thoughts?

The viscosity ranges that you mention range between 75 and 90 with an average of 80. It probably does got make any noticeable difference for the viscosity to be 10 below or above the average.

But, ... I mentioned to a mechanical engineer that I work with that I get gear whine from my differential at around 55 mph. It has been drained and re-filled with standard gear oil. He said that "Liquid Moly" would make it run quieter.

The Amazon description says the same thing: "Reduces transmission noise, low manual shifting effort."

The Moly might be better for that reason. It does cost $22.50 per liter (2 quarts). How many quarts does your transmission hold? Probably not much because your three-speed manual is not very big.

[dhbfaster]

Back in my Lube n Go days ('78-80)...I'm sure we put 80w90 in almost every diff and manual tranny. However, part of the reason I question this at all is that my son has a Nissan Xterra with a manual transmission. We had the transmission fluid changed, when it came back it seemed kind of "sticky" when going into 2nd gear. It didn't have this problem before the change. So, I checked the manual vs what the paperwork said was put in and the manual required (going by memory...80 vs 90). I took it back. They changed the fluid and put in an 80, and it worked perfectly. Also, keep in mind, the temperature is pretty cool here..rarely going over 90F for a few days in the summer.

The falcon always seemed to shift a little "sticky" when going from 1st to 2nd. This issue with the Nissan made me think about that and wonder if it might be related to the fluid. I already have plenty of Valvoline 80w90 limited slip gear oil on hand...but I checked the book and low and behold it says to use 80. I assume the 80w90 will "work" but I wonder...will the 75w80 be better. (It only takes 2.5 pints- so one quart is plenty.)

By the way....although it doesn't completely answer my question on this...I found this article enlightening... http://www.lubetrak.com/newsletter/jan10html.html
Now I know the difference between hypoid and non-hypoid and the EP rating. (None of which seems to be required for this tranny, but doesn't hurt.)

Now I have also found this Castrol 80w: http://www.castrol.com/en_au/austral...l-vmx-80w.html
Have also found a couple others...but they only seem to be available in australia and new zealand. http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/onl...ecommendations

Look forward to all thoughts on the subject...doing honey-do's most of the day so little real falcon time....