Wagon is fixed again and back on the road. I must not of gotten all of the air out of the lines when I swapped out the master cylinder. Had a great day Sunday driving the car with my family. We hit the early service at church, then drove to the first car show of the season, and after that headed to Tee Ball practice and dinner. Most difficult thing was getting all three car seats in the back seat. Big props to MO_JUNK who spotted my car and waited by it till I showed up! Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself.
Old cars always take a lot more maintenance than the new stuff. My dad always seemed to be working on our family car on his free time and I found out why when I became driving age. Great thread. I read it all. BTW...when I drove my 57 ranchero as a winter beater, I found out why ford installed the tin shields at the bottom of the stick bellhousings. After about 3 weeks of driving in the snow/salt, my starter wouldn't engage the flywheel. I had to pull it out, clean and lube the starter drive because the tin shield was gone. No matter what kind of lube I used, 3 weeks later I'm out in the snow doing the starter dance again. I was happy to see spring come!
Rocky - I appreciate you reading it all. This has mostly turned into a way to document my life with the wagon. I try to put notable events in here for reference later. It seems like I am never "caught up" on maintence, but that's okay. I just make sure I hit the safety issues as they come up and work my way down from there. Most work I attempt to do myself, but with three kids sometimes life and getting back on the road are more important than the money it takes to get things fixed. I'll make sure I keep that tin cover on, after my clutch issues a while back I don't want to see a flywheel ever again.
It was great to finally catch up with you for the short visit. I've attached a picture of my truck. Watch for me. We always have shade, cool drinks and conversation. Also, a picture of my 64 Belair wagon I sold last August. Sam
When I was growing up my parents had a '58 Meteor Ranch Wagon - two door. They wouldn't have a four-door after my oldest sister nearly fell out when the door opened going around a curve up a hill - she held on to the door handle and it swung shut again (IIRC). My brother got to drive it when my parents got a newer car- changed the clutch on it when it went but when one of the connecting rods went through the block it got parked and then sold to somebody who thought they could fix it.
Wagons are cool. Most of us older guys grew up with one or more. 58 Ford wagons seem really rare. Hi Rocky.
really love your wagon. The 223 is a great little six. Someone put one in my truck long before I got it. It sat for 15years before I got it back in 2007, I got it going without too much trouble, it seems to run better the more I use it. I'll never get a speeding ticket in it either!
MO_JUNK - I'll keep my eye out for you at the shows. We probably won't go to Springfield this year since we are going to be moving sometime in May and I just don't think it will be in the cards to leave for a few days. If you make it to the Pacific show again, I'll most likely be at the registration booth adding up scores. In all honesty, I had planned to pull the 223 and replace it with a 302 when I purchased the vehicle. I just can't bring myself to do it, the car just runs to good. It never fails to start, cruises the local roads well, and gets me decent gas mileage.
It has been a long time since I have updated this. We moved to a new house in the beginning of May, which kept me away from car shows for a lot of the summer. My car was at the NSRA Mid Western Nationals in Springfield, MO this year, but I wasn't. My Dad's hot rod broke down and he borrowed the wagon. We are also expecting another baby in January, which makes things a bit interesting with car seats. Maybe I should of found a 9 passenger wagon? I have had to rely on friends and service shops for maintence this summer. Shortly after we moved, the front U joint started giving me fits so I had that replaced. Also just had the control arm and sway bar bushings replaced, as well as another set of new front shocks put on a few days ago. The ones I put on a while back aparently went south on me, that's what I get for getting a deal on eBay. Even without aligning it yet, the car rides amazing now. While doing the front end work, my friend noted that the idler arm was shot, and my leaf springs have pretty much given up. Also, due to the poor front end I was driving on, and questionable life left, I am putting new tires on soon. I am going to get as much done as I can this month, but the leaf springs might have to wait a few weeks.
Got new tires, put on the new idler arm, and an alignment the other day. Really strange driving the car now with it handling so well. Also, the steering wheel is in the center now, which throws me off because I'm used to it being about 70 degrees off. Car has been dieing a lot lately, and just generally running poor. I spent my lunch break adjusting the lash on the valves, some of them were pretty far out, so I'm hoping that helps. I may need to pull the carb off again and clean it out too.
I am really enjoying having the glass bowl on my carb. It helped me diagnose what was going on. After I got to work the other day, I noticed the fuel level was very high. I also noted that the carb was leaking fuel from just about every joint. This weekend, with the help of my six year old, I pulled the carb off to clean it out and tighten everything up. It was leaking at the fuel inlet fitting past the valve seat, which was causing the flooding condition. I bolted everything back together and after some minor adjustments (see below) it is now running better than it has in a long time. I did have some issues at first where the car was dieing when I would accelerate. After a lot of head scratching, and praying I found the idle mixture screw had somehow come almost completely out. Adjusting that by ear seemed to do the trick. No issues on my way to work this morning.
I just finished reading everything which is unusual for me, I usually give up halfway through and just look at the pics. lol I'm glad I did. You are very inspiring. I can relate to your journey, I have a '60 F100 with the 223. I have headers (Patriots for a '56 but they fit fine), pertronics and a later model carb (70ish?) Other than the occasional valve adjustment I rarely need to do anything to the motor. It needs some suspension work but never fails to start and get me 'there and back'. I like seeing the talented guys blow everything apart on their build threads and do amazing things but it's good to see guys like you who wrench and drive them. Best wishes Dave
hubcap - I appreciate you going through it all, it has definately been a journey. Life has gotten in the way of things here these last few months and I have had to farm a lot of work out to local shops. I'm not really a big fan of paying someone else to work on my car, but sometimes I just don't have the time to do it. The car gets used to much for me to not have it an extended period of time. My wife purchased a Pertronics unit for me a while back that I have never gotten around to installing. Do you think it made a difference for you? Do you have any reliability issues with it? I agree with you the 223 is a pretty solid motor. Orignally I was going to replace it with a 302, but it just runs to good to pull it. The original 1904 carb is a little goofy with the way the fuel inlet fitting holds in the valve seat, but now that I have taken it apart a couple times I think I get it.
Still wrenching and driving. Car has been fairly reliable for me over the winter months. Had some issues on my way into work this morning, it just didn't want to stay running right. At lunch I adjusted the carb a bit and that seemed to work at least for the parking lot test. Unfortunately, I found a couple of issues that are going to need some attention. It looks like my thermostat housing is leaking again. Good thing I bought an extra gasket the last time it happened. Also, the all thread I used on my alternator bracket broke. The alternator is still pretty solid, but I am not going to put many miles on the car until I get it fixed.
Allthread is only about grade 2 at best, you can get better stuff at some specialty bolt stores, but a grade 5 long bolt will be better.
Crazy Steve, I think I used 7/16 when I first rigged it up. I noticed McMaster Carr had a 7/16 x 7" bolt in Grade 8. I'll either do something like that, or just fabricate a new mount all together. Thanks for the tip.
See what Ace Hardware has for bolts, you may luck out. I know the selection varies from store to store.
After checking every hardware store in the area, I ended up using all thread again on the alternator mount. I'll continue the search and likely order something from McMaster Carr if I can't find anything soon. Had to get the car back on the road over the weekend so the kids could get to school this week. Also took apart the thermostat housing and resealed. No issues on my way into work this morning, and the car ran cool.
7/16 isn't considered a 'standard' size, pretty much being used only in automotive applications. You almost never see it in industrial uses. A large specialty fastener store may have it locally if you're lucky...
That explains why there isn't much selection. I used 7/16 since that was the size hole already in the generator bracket I modified.
It is a bit difficult to see in the photo, but you can see how I used the all thread to give me a way to offset the alternator while using the generator bracket.
If you can, drill it out to 1/2", you'll have no issues finding that. I was stuck with 7/16" on mine because it threaded into the cylinder head and it would be a PITA to drill/retap...
Good news! Just passed state inspection again (after some work), good for another 2 years. However, I now have new upper and lower ball joints to get me to that point. Lower ball joints were a bit of a pain to locate, but I ended up getting some from Kanter for a decent price. It was either Kanter at a decent price or going with the ones from Rare Parts which would of required a 2nd mortgage. Uppers came from Moog. Fun fact, the ball joints that I was using up until a week ago were original. So, 58 years out of your lower ball joints doesn't seem to be a bad life span. More evidence that this car hasn't really been driven much before me.
The Jalopy Journal
