Saving Granddad's Falcon

[Luva65wagon]

Yea...on the strut rod nuts...the nuts from both new kits were too big.

I tend to remember one set too big (sloppy big) and one set not quite starting, but smaller. Regardless, both sets were unusable. Only the bushings were made to work.

June 19th? You have plenty of time to finish if you get to stay around. In "Roger" hours you have maybe 8 more to go.

[dhbfaster]

Roger hours 8....Don hours about 64!
Well, maybe not that many...we'll see if we get any more road blocks.

[dhbfaster]

Ahh....the small pleasures of getting one little thing done.
Both mirror installed tonight.

[ew1usnr]

Your car, unlike most cars, has only vacuum advance. Most cars have mechanical and vacuum advance. Ford's better idea was the Spark-O-Matic system, or some such name as that. This is only a vacuum advance and uses a special carburetor to feed the correct vacuum to the distributor to advance your timing.

Hello, Roger and Don.

You guys made me wonder what a Load-O-Matic and "Spark-O-Matic" (Spark Control Valve) were all about. I found this link: See: http://classicinlines.com/Loadomatic.asp that explains it well.

But, he says that Load-O-Matic was used "on all V-8s until 1967" which is incorrect. V-8 Falcons came with distributors with centrifugal and vacuum advance in 1963.

[MacDee]

Of course, ClassicInlines deals (dealt?) strictly with the inline six!

[Luva65wagon]

I spent some time addressing this a couple years ago too. Here's at least one post I made on the subject.

http://www.rainierfalcons.com/forums...&postcount=424

I don't know of any V8 lacking mechanical advance, but know of many without vacuum advance. But I'm no expert - as the post linked above proved.

[dhbfaster]

Just a quick update, work has been more relentless than usual lately, but....

last weekend Jason and I got the master cylinder and brake system bled. Sprung a couple leaks on the lines, but I think we caught it and got it cleaned up without damage to the paint and nothing seems to be leaking now. Now I need to get around to adjust them all.

Then we started it up and let it run for a bit..noticed a little mist in the air...and found a leak at the top radiator hose that quickly got worse, so I shut it down. Haven't had a chance to get back and check it out yet. Hopefully it was just loose!

Now that I got the transmission linkage hooked up "exactly" like it was before...it doesn't shift from inside the car. (of course...) so, time to figure that out.

I don't expect to get much falcon time this weekend...but, step by step I'm getting closer!

[Luva65wagon]

Oh the joys of car restoration.

Hopefully you remembered I only ran the lines but didn't get them all tightened up as I was running late. If so new brake lines I've found really need to be cinched-up good. As you recall on the carburetor line (same kind of flare fitting) that thing just wouldn't seal without unreasonably extra effort of compressing the fitting.

But glad it is all working. You should post a picture of the Master Cylinder lines now that it is all done.

Radiator hose leak? Something we messed with with the heater hose??? Hope not.

Does the shifting occur when the car is off, but not when it is running? You should be able to cycle through the gears with the engine off. The levers you set so meticulously to the original points may not be good points for all the new tight bushings, if any. These levers are normally set and tightened with the transmission in neutral (rods removed so you can make sure the transmission arms are both neutral) and the levers on the column set at equal places. Often there is a hole to shove a pin through to lock the column levers together in neutral. Then, with those big nuts loose, you stick them in the column lever holes and then you tighten them. If everything is shifting fine engine off, then make sure your clutch pedal adjustment is correct.

Getting close to a drive on the boardwalk! Well, on the road next to the boardwalk.

[dhbfaster]

Shifter- Jason came over for a bit Saturday and while he was looking at the shift linkage I worked the shift a bit...and now miraculously it seems to work perfect (without the car running.)

Clutch - The clutch seems to have little (almost no) spring return tension. I added the spring underneath that goes to the belly bar which it didn't have before...inside by the pedal should be the same spring (and it also had this problem before...but it is worse now.) I didn't get a chance to get my head under there yet...is this something that is adjustable? I couldn't tell from the book. I plan on trying to get under there tonight.

Hose leak- It was the upper radiator hose (that goes to the pump). I snugged it up and put a new clamp on there...haven't had a chance to run it again yet. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow. I hope it's not the fitting on the radiator, but hard to tell by just looking.

Brake lines-- I DID know that they were not all tightened. I went around and snugged them up good before bleeding- except I missed one at the back hose. It was one of the lines at the front T fitting that leaked. I loosened them, then realigned the line and re-tightened and couldn't get it to leak again. I will post a pic.

[Luva65wagon]

There is a big return spring that is part of the pedal assembly. One end of this spring is attached to a threaded adjuster to add tension to this spring and the other end is hooked over the pedal. It's adjusted up near the dash-side of the spring with a wrench. There is an instruction regarding this adjustment in the manual, as I recall, and I've done it before a couple time, but can't recall the exact tension. It will add a good amount of feel to the pedal you may not be feeling if too loose. The spring below (at the bell housing to belly bar) is really only to keep the push rod engaged to the lever as it moves forth and back. It is the pedal assembly spring, and pressure plate that offer the tension at the pedal.

Here's what my pedals have had (bad picture off the Internet). You can see the adjusting screw and nut at the end of the spring.

pedal-setup.JPG

Here is something from a later Mustang and you see there is no adjuster on this one. Because a 60-61 Falcon is a oddball from 62 and newer Falcon (meaning they had first-off designs that got changed in 62; like, the smaller strut rods) you'll need to look and see what you have.

pedal-setup2.jpg

[dhbfaster]

Ok, got home for lunch today, got all untucked from work and got my camera under there-and then I did find the instructions and specs in the book. Here's a pic of what's there (which now clarifies what I was seeing in the book) and now hopefully I can figure out those instructions tonight. Thanks Roger!

[Luva65wagon]

You can already see there is some pull on that spring. I'm not so sure you're going to gain much more here. Spring might be growing weak, but I can't image why.



It is an 8.5" clutch, which never had much leg-power-need to work it. So if everything checks out, you may have to wait and see how it feels driving. You can increase the spring-strength down yonder. That can't hurt much, but you will want to make sure you have lube in the joint where that push-rod goes into the lever. I have see many of these wear a hole all the way through for lack of lubrication.

[dhbfaster]

Yes...I did notice that on the spring...and not much room left to adjust.
It's so weak, at the moment, you have to pull the pedal back up with your toe...we'll see if it tightens up enough. If not...it's yet one more $13 wear item available from falconparts.com. but on the other hand, glad they have it if I need it...
I did lube that push rod end...and it seemed pretty well lubed before...if you remember how much grease was down there.

[Luva65wagon]

The way that spring and pedal work is odd. The spring both resists your push and aids your push. This all depends on the adjustment of the pedal stop and clutch rod adjustment. When the pedal is up, this spring is to aid keeping the throw-out bearing off the clutch pressure plate with the aid of the spring down-yonder, but when pushing on the pedalit is supposed to aid pressing the clutch as the spring contact point goes over center. The Pressure plate springs, now, should be enough to push the pedal off the floor again and then this spring going back over-center the other direction and brings the pedal off the floor and against the stop again.

I found a good site where a guy named "Joe" shows this process in pictures:

http://www.joesfalcon.com/page26.html

You'll see the series of pictures and further detail with this series of pedal movements near the bottom of the page.

Though this is a good set of pictures describing this function, there are issues still with his pedal assembly. There is a plastic spring bushing missing on one end that needs to be there or things will not move smoothly. And pivot at the right time.

Also the adjustment of the pedal side and clutch push rod work hand in hand. You need to have enough pressure against the pressure plate to overcome the tension of this pedal spring. Too much tension on the pedal spring may keep the pressure plate from having the force to push back.

[dhbfaster]

Not much time this week, but three small steps forward and only one step backwards.

Muffler...dialed in. As you may recall, it was pointing towards the gas tank and bumping against it at the rear. I took it off and was able to put the end into the vice and tweak it the right direction. Then I customized the bracket in the rear a bit and tightened it all up and...low and behold it seems perfect and doesn't seem to move a bit.

Engine - I roughed up the inside of the pulleys a bit and then re-tightened the belt...no more squeak when you rev it.

Radiator hose leak- replaced it with a modern clamp and problem fixed. Replaced the others with new clamps too. Have run it twice now for about 15-20 min and no leaks.

Locks - I still have to finish the locks...but I found one of the 2" buttons I needed on eBay and ordered it...so at least that is on the way.

Door Panels - So, when I should have been working on the clutch adjustment...I got distracted on the door panels. I did the plastic on two doors. Got the rear passenger side panel out and held it in place...low and behold it's about 3/4" too tall. So, no big deal, but it's going to take a little customizing. Meanwhile, i got the drivers door panel out which looks like it will fit perfect but ran out of time to put it on. They both seem very snug in the channels. Can anyone point me to a tutorial somewhere online on how to put these things on without messing them up? I swear I've seen one before but searched the forum and youtube and can't seem to find anything now.

Oh...here are some pics of the dual master installed.
Now I still need to adjust the clutch and the brakes.