Bought a 63 ranchero - got some questions...

I just picked up this wee beastie today. it will be a low buck daily driver/shop truck. I have a few questions for you Falcon/Ranchero guys:

The original 3 speed trans - is it not synchromesh in all gears? I have to double clutch to get a smooth downshift into first.

What's a good place to buy repro parts?

The back bumper - is it common with the station wagon? Anybody sell replated ones for a decent price?

The front window trim - is this just assembled wrong, or am I missing some pieces?

I have to replace the exhaust manifold gasket - any tips or tricks to reduce the chance of breaking off studs?

That should get me started. Thanks for the help!

 

Were did you find it? Looks sweet!

 

Just a guess from the pic, but see if the windshield trim can be swapped side to side.

 

First very nice score !
The windshield trim needs to slide down some but you are missing the lower "L" piece .
The rear bumper looks to be pushed in some but YES you can get re chrome bumpers . You should be at the All Fords Show in Carsile Pa. next week . You could find everything you need right there . If you want I can pick up the flyer from the big outfit that sells re chrome bumper there every year . They are from down south someplace but always sells an awful lot of bumpers during the show there every year !
As for the trans it is suppose to have all syncro . Sounds like your's will need to have new ones installed or just look around and buy another used one . Parts are very easy to find !

Retro Jim

 

The rear bumper is the same for wagons and rancheros. I don't think the 3sp. trans was a syncro 1st at least the ones behind a 6cyl. Normal Norman

 

I love my 63! Yours looks solid!

 

Good source is Mac auto parts and Dearborn classics, lots of falcon parts. As for the manifold heat and PBS blaster is your best bet. I just broke one yesterday on my 170! The early three speeds are non synchro first gear. The post 67 (I think) trans have synchos. I just picked one up from a 69 mustang for $75. So they can be had for cheap. Lots of guys dump the inline stuff for the v8 swap. Go buy the ford falcon six cylinder performance handbook by David and Dennis schjldahl, it's cheap and has all the info on inline falcon drivtrains. Hope this helps good luck!

 

Bumpers for '62 and '63 are all the same. Hell, it's pretty damn easy to put a modern 5 speed behind these critters so don't fret the trans too much.

 

Thanks for the help, guys!

The car was an eBay sale from Western WI. It was originally an Arizona, so it has only the lower quarter panel rust. It does have a lot of crappy body work that I'll have to fix. The 170 runs nice, so I'll keep the it for the good gas mileage. Later on, I'll probably do a 289/T5/9 inch swap. And, just to get people guessing, I think I'll swap in a grille from a Canadian Falcon Frontenac.

 

Nice, now sell it for scrape and buy a El Camino!

 

Keep the 6! I just did The Vintage Torque Fest! 400 trouble free miles!+20mpg without a tuneup!

 

I finally took the Galaxie out of storage, cause I drive the Ranch EVERYDAY!!!

 

Get rid of the funky ignition, add a couple of carbs and shave the head a bit, add a real trans (think T5) with some nicely spaced gears and an overdrive and you'll not think twice about a V8 conversion.

 

I have a Mustang T5 - does it bolt right up?

Regarding the window trim.....it looks like the top piece is from a larger car - it is about 4" too long, so the top corner pieces overlap. I am also missing the lower corner pieces.

 

Yes, it reqires an adapter, and due to Fords being Fords there are a couple of ways to do the deal depending on when your engine was built. The shifter on the Mustang T5 is a bit far back with a bench seat, but some simple cut and trim stuff can solve that. Several manufacturers sell the adapters and mounts for about 250 bucks or so. If your interested I can kinda help you through the deal.

Where are you in Northern Minnesota? I spent summers as a kid at my grandparents cabin up on Lake Vermillion. The Cook end of the lake.

 

The top corner pieces look correct, but the side pieces look like they are on upside down. The side pieces should go over the bottom piece and have a gap at the the that the corners cover see attached pictures from my 62 Wagon. The early 6 cyl. 3 speed trans. all had non-syncro 1st gears.

 

build a street gasser out of it

 

Bob Allen Ford (Kansas) 913-381-2999 has OEM parts (duh, he IS a Ford dealer). But, he has not a way to look them up, nor does he want to spend the time (nice guys, but they ARE a Ford dealer, not some antique shop). I got brand-y new FORD motor mounts from him just a month ago for my '61. Mac's and Dearborn are two others I've used, but the Dearborn mounts failed in two days, which is how I found B.A. Ford.

Nice car, BTW.

Cosmo

 

Just for an FYI, 78-80 Fairmont had a 200 cid six and 4 speed over drive from the factory. I don't know if that bell housing will accept a 5 speed though.

 

This is interesting. That 4 speed would be a huge improvement over the three speed and it should bolt right in. The T5 swap sounds like almost as much time and cost as a V8 swap and I'd still have the gutless motor. I really hate the non-snychro trans, so I'll looking for the a Fairmont trans.

By the way, I fixed the windshield molding. The side peices were indeed upside down and swapped side to side. The top corner pieces were backwards too. Thanks for the tips, guys.

 

Check out the Falcon's Done Right thread on here. Lot's of information and links.

 

After tinkering with these cars for years now (bought my '62 62C coupe in '82) I can tell you in my opinion the bigest thing they suffer from is horrible gear spacing, just like most early cars. Now I like damn near nothing about modern cars, but the one thing they have figured out is tourque mulitplication and gear spacing. That's why a 100hp Civic (or something like that) that weighs almost 4000lbs can get out of it's own way very well. If you go to the Fairmount trans (and depending on what block you have migh not be possible), other that overdrive your really not gaining anything. With four nicely spaced gears that keep that little engine at as close to it's "happy spot" as possible in all driving conditions, plus the overdrive for long distance free way flying, you would freak at how much more powerfull it feels. That's why the T5 would be the much better option.

The stock ignition systems in these cars sucked the day they walked of the show room floor. They use carburator vacuum to supply all of the advance, period. At this time these car's lifes, most have had a carb rebuild or just plain swap, and it no longer matches the ignition- no advance. Feels like a tractor motor. Grab a Dura spark II out of a post '74 small six along with the box, spend an afternoon installing everything and it'll feel like double the horse power. Simple and efective.

Want more? Now call Offenhauser and order up the three carb kit, scrounge up a couple more carbs, drill six holes and bolt that on... Hoo Doggy! But, if you drive it respectfully and use the center carb for most of you driving, you still get to pull fuel milage figures in the mid twenties.

But wait there's more! Pop the head off and shave about .070 off of that puppy, clean up the bowls a bit, and scrounge a post '68 exhuast manifold and guess what? Feels like you doubled it again!

Want to really go nut's? Grab a turbo off of an old Thunderbird super coupe and hang it off the side with a J pipe and blow it through the carb. There is a guy here in AZ that was running a very mild 250 six with a turbo that routinely ran in the mid 11s without too much crazy. Since then he has pumped it up and now runs mid tens... and still hit the occasional cruise night with it. You'll find him on "classic inlines" web sight.

I realize it's your car and you can do what you want with it. But these little cars are a ton of fun that were very cleverly engineered at the out set, and very well matched for their intended uses. Honestly, about the only things they do lack for modern use is enough well spaced gears to deal with todays traffic, and a bit better brakes. Take a look at not only the thread above, but another on here called "Doing Falcons Right", that's more of the technical thread on these and see what's going on with these cars before you decide "you just gotta have a V8".

 

How about a Pertronix ignition?

I've been researching the Fairmont 4 speed. The same trans was used in Mustangs up to 1984. The Mustang trans should be way easier (and cheaper) to get. Will it bolt right up to the 170's bell housing, or do I need to get the exact bellhousing from that trans in the 200 in-liner application?

 

The pertronix will help with the spark, but the problem with the pre 68 falcon stuff is that the distributer has no mechanical advance whatsoever. It's all vacuum. The carb gets changed out for what ever is on the shelf, and the advance goes away, car runs slow and pokey. You could easily grab a distributor out of any post '68 small six and run points if you want. '68 is when a mechanical advance was introduced into these engines.

About twenty years ago now, I had mine set up with the stock dist. and a precourser to the Pertronix set up call an "Allison". I had a chance to buy a Mallory double life distributor when Speedway was cleaning up their shelves of old stuff. I didn't really understand how spark advance and such worked back then, just that I had read in the old mags that this was the distributor of choice back when. I gambled my 40.00 (!) and received the brand part, slapped it in, set the timing and what a difference! I understand now that the engine was struggling because the complete lack of spark advance originally, and that improving that was the gateway drug!

To know whether the Fairmount stuff is gonna bolt up is where we need to know exacly what engine you have and from what year. In the mid sixties Ford did all sorts of minor changes of it's engines leaving us with a legacy of things like 5 bolt and 6 bolt bell housing 289s. Kinda like that, the Falcon six did the same thing in mid '66. It went from a small bell and 9" clutch that they had used to that time, and went to a larger bell and 10" clutch that carried through to nearly the end of small six production in '82 or so. To confuse matters more, about '80, the 200 got yet another different bell pattern in the Fairmonts and Mustangs that doesn't interchange with the earlier. Not to mention the 250 six, which from '69 always shared the small block bell pattern.

Still with me? Ya gotta know the secret handshake with all things Ford before you do some swappin'! What you need to do is look at the side of your engine block right where the exhaust pipe connects into the manifold on the passenger side. Mine says C6DE, for example. That indicates C which means 1960s, and 6 which indicates 1966. My 170 with that casting mark is what is called a "dual pattern block". This is ultra cool, 'cause not only will it take the 10" clutch and bell, but it is drilled for the pre '66 9" stuff as well.

So, if I wanted to put the Fairmont trans behind mine, (and with a T5 sitting in the shop Iwouldn't even consider it!) I would look for the '79 version of the Fairmont 4 speed and it's attending bell housing to put on my engine. The downside is that the Fox bodied stuff is all cable opperated, so I would have to do something with pedal assembly to make it work (which would not be a bad thing at all, I've done this deal on few cars over the years). The other downside is, after all that, I would still end up up with a clunky, wide ratio three speed trans with an even steaper drop into over drive, so my little engine would have to start way down bellow it's powerband and work up to it after every shift...

In contrast to all of the above, you could type in say falconparts.com or moderndriveline.com and order an adaptor and crossmember kit for which ever year bell you have, take the T5 out of the garage and spend a weekend under your little trucklet, maybe have the driveshaft shortened a bit at the most and be done with it, plus end up with a batch of close ratio gears that will take advantage of the engines powerband at every shift but allow you to hop on a freeway and run 75 to 80 all day.

Whew! Let me know if you need some help decoding your block numbers, 'cause with these you can't know what you need before you know what you have.

 

Looks like most of your questions were answered. Regarding your exhaust studs, soak the heck out of them with a good penetrating oil for several days. Give several applications and also run it a couple of times to get a some heat cycles in em. Clean the exposed threads the best you can, soak them again and good luck.
The best Falcon parts source I've found is FalconParts.com.

 

Need louvers.....thanks for spending the time to write in such detail. I am learning a lot and it seems the T5 is the way to go. I will do the distributor change ASAP. My engine is a 63 according to the good records I have, but I will check the numbers. Thanks again and I may PM you once or twice when I get into this in the next few months. For now, just call me double clutch Larry.

 

Cool man! Just let me know if I can help, I'm happy to do it.

 

Wow needlouvers? That was a killer amount of info! I feel like I should buy a ranchero jut to take advantage of all that. That made me seriously consider one as a year round driver!

 

T5 with a S10 tail shaft will cure the shifter being against the seat problem... well, it does in the f100's.

 

my wagon had a 170 2spd auto in it i swapped for a 66 mustang 200(6) and c4 3spd also put in a 2.91 9" rear i can cruise down the highway now. i found that the small bell c4 would not bolt to my 170 so i bought a whole motor and tranny off a guy doing a swap. you can find them cus most all the mustang guys are swapping for v8s!

the back bumper looks identical to my 62 wagon

check out the tffn web site its all falcons and lots of info!!!!