29 April 2018 - Rear Suspension prep

Started collecting info about replacing the rear suspension hardware/components.

I think I will purchase all of the hardware from WCCC.

Here is a parts list...

337.37 pair    = (1) leaf spring pair competition
8.87 each      = (4) u bolt competition
43.07 pair     = (1) front eyelet bushings, polyurethane
12.47 pair     = (1) front eyelet bolt, nut
33.17 each     = (2) rear shackle
30.47 set of 8 = (1) rear shackle bushings, polyurethane
32.27 set of 4 = (1) leaf spring mid mount insulator pad

22 April 2018 - Radio

Finished installing the rear speakers and installing the wiring.  The sound is much better with the addition of the two rear speakers.  The wiring done at the radio may end up being a problem.  I used bullet style connectors.  They seem to have tight connections, but I have not used that style before so I will see how that goes.

21 April 2018 - Radio

Started installing the rear deck speakers - two 6x9 speakers.  Mounting the speakers is a piece of cake, running the speaker wires so there are no pinch points and doing it so the wiring looks good is a bit of a pain.  I was only able to run speaker wires for the passenger side rear speaker today(apparently the speaker wire pack is only good for one run - at least in my car).

I will see about using better connectors for the radio end of the wires.

After I wire the speakers, I will need to re-install the package tray.  I will have to make some cutouts for the speakers.

20 April 2018 - Radio

On the 15th of April I cut a 12"x6" piece of aluminum to use as a mounting plate for the radio in the glove box area.  Today I finally installed the radio onto that 12"x6" plate.  The radio is now more rigidly mounted than it was before and is still accessible from the glove box area.

19 April 2018 - Radio - Rear Speakers

I picked up a set of 6x9 rear deck speakers today.  I will be mounting them in the rear package tray soon.  The radio system already has a dual speaker in the front dash and I am hoping that by adding the two 6x9 speakers in the rear deck that the sound system will be a bit better.

15 April 2018 - spare fuse holder

I needed some fuses this weekend while troubleshooting the electrical system.  Glass bussman style fuses are becoming more difficult to find these days.

So far I have two SFE 7.5 amp fuses and four SFE 14 amp fuses.  As soon as I can find AGA 2.5 amp fuses I will add them to the box.

15 April 2018 - Radio Installation

Although on the 14th I installed the radio in a mostly permenant location, I wasn't quite satisified with the layout.

Today I decided to start working on a more permenant solution.

I cut a 12"x6" piece of aluminum and mounted it to the top of the glovebox opening.  There were already two mounting holes.  So I mounted the plate at those two points.  In the upper dash area behind the glovebox area there is a mounting point for the wire loom.  It just so happens to have two holes and one was unused.  In the unused spot I installed an L bracket that connects to the 12"x6" plate providing a very sturdy mount.

I had to cut a 1" deep by 1 9/16" section out of the plate so that the glovebox door could properly close and latch.

Now that I have that plate cut and installed I can work on a way to mount the radio to that plate.

Radio dimensions;

4" 3/4" deep by 7" wide.

14 April 2018 - Radio Installation

Re-installed the radio, and back in the glovebox.  This time around I installed a memory backup wire from the battery to the radio.  I also secured and covered all radio wires under the dash.  The way I used to have this radio wired was that when the keyswitch is off it would loose memory and I would have to set the clock and FM stations.  Now its properly wired and seems to be working good.

If I leave the radio in the glovebox I think I will install a plate then install the radio into that to be more stable/secure.

13 April 2018 - wiring harness/ignition coil/starter solenoid/ignition switch checks

The other day the car completely shutdown as if the keyswitch was turned off, while taking a hard left turn.  So I checked connections all throughout the ignition system, the ignition coil, ignition box, starter solenoid, ignition switch.  Everything looked good, voltages checked good as well.  Dunno where the problem is at this point...

11 April 2018 - Holley Carb - possible lean jetting

Today I swapped out the stock primary 66 jets and installed 68s.  World of difference, I was able to adjust the idle, and the idle is much better, low to mid range acceleration is now smooth, no more stumble/miss.  The idle mixture screws are set to a bit more than 1 1/4 turns.

The 10 minute test drive went well, will continue to monitor this recent jetting change.

10 April 2018 - Holley Carb - spark plugs have white on plug tips

I adjusted the idle mixture for a richer mix but thats only on the idle circuit.  It looks like I will need to go up a jet size or two to resolve the white plug issue.  Currently the carb has 66 primary jets, so I will install 68 size jets, re-cal the idle mixture and then recheck the plugs.  Hoping to get that done on the 11th of April, 2018.

10 April 2018 - Radio installation

Today I installed a dash speaker with two channels and a more modern radio.  The dash speaker fits in the same location as the original but it mounts to the upper dash area where the vent mounts are located.  The fasteners that hold the vents in place are removed, dash speaker installed then install the fasteners.

The radio is a DJS-520(very cheap).  But it has USB, SD, BT options as well as AM/FM.  Temporarily I mounted the unit in the glovebox area.  I had to remove the glovebox shell, and mounted the radio to the glovebox door using high strength velcro.  I made two L brackets put velcro on them, put velcro on the radio sides where the L brackets will be in contact, and also put velcro on the glovebox door.  Surprisingly, the velcro setup works well.  Radio tunes in local FM stations and there is no static or interference.  So I am looking into a more permanent setup.

8 April 2018 - ignition issues

I picked up the two spark plugs today at the parts store.  I gapped them to .044 and installed.  I also removed and gapped the other six plugs to .044.

I noticed that the spark plug tips of all plugs was a white/grey color, which means the carb is set too lean.  So I adjusted the idle mixture a little bit more rich.  I'll monitor that over the next two days of driving and if need be, I'll go up on one size in jet size(stock for 0-1850S is 66).
 
I checked the MSD website for factory setup for an 8479 distributor.  The default advance springs are supposed to be two heavy silver springs and a blue advance bushing.  What I found was that two light blue advance springs were installed.  I removed them and installed two heavy silver springs.  I will see how the engine runs over the next couple of days

7 April 2018 - ignition issues - cont'd

I attempted to buy a set of 8 plugs for the ford, but the parts store only had 6.  So I bought what they had and gapped and installed the 6 plugs.  The plugs are NGK TR5 2238 V-Power.  Since I didnt have 8 plugs, the two that didnt get replaced were removed, cleaned up, gapped and re-installed.

I checked the gap on the plugs and they were .044.  So I adjusted that gap to .040, to see if that will reduce the load on the ignition system and slow/stop the carbonization on the MSD distributor cap terminals.

7 April 2018 - ignition issues - misfire/no fire

I have noticed now that the carb has been replaced that the ignition also has issues.  There is a miss at idle and probably all engine speeds.  I thought I would start with checking connections, voltages and resistance checks.  So far they are all good.  So I am considering replacing the MSD 6 Box or just removing it and going with a less expensive setup.  The MSD distributor and MSD 6 box were installed in 2002.  Today I installed a replacement MSD igntion coil.  The old one was an MSD 8222 unit, the new is the exact same unit just new.  I installed it but the miss is still happening.

7 April 2018 - Holley Carb Choke cable installation

I thought I would install a choke cable and see if it actually works on this new carb.

I bought a universal choke cable kit and had to make some adjustments to the hardware for it to work for my application.  I installed the choke actuator in the ashtray.  I only had to drill two holes to mount the bracket for the choke cable assembly.  The ash tray cigarette lighter assembly was removed long ago, so the hole for the cigarette lighter was a good spot for the choke cable assembly.

I had to test fit the cable assembly a couple of times to get the proper routing and cable length.  But after all that, the installation looks pretty decent and the choke works!  The old carb has some issues with a choke assembly being used/setup so I gave up on using it years ago.