Turnabout and Out

Well, last week I was able to dig in and clean up the garage so I could spin the car 180* on the Harbor Freight wheel dollies it's sitting on. Was able to do I myself but sure had a sore back for a few days thereafter. Got it positioned under the beam and relocated the chain fall to give us some room to work around the front end.

I used my reproduction K.R. Wilson engine pulling fixture (you can read more about K.R. Wilson tools in my previous post here) that I got from Specialty Ford Parts in Rosemead, CA (no website; not sure if they still carry it).  It can be positioned two ways, depending upon if you're pulling just the motor, or the motor and trans.  We just pulled the motor and left the trans bolted in the frame with a jack under it to keep it supported (note to self: replace jack with adjustable jack stand, to save the hydraulic jack seals!).  (As a disappointing aside, I asked my friend to identify the other K.R. Wilson engine stand parts I show in that other post, but he didn't recognize them and chalked it up to them being military.  I don't think that's so, but have yet to find other information on them.  I'll have to keep looking.)

We unbolted the pressure plate to find to my disgust that the clutch disk had lightly rusted to the flywheel and the pressure plate.  My old-timer friend found to his disgust that apparently I had not run a tap down into the pressure plate mounting holes in the flywheel and they had rust in them, so he ran the tap into them using the taper tap I had.  It should've been a bottoming tap (straight sided), but I didn't have one.

He also said that his old boss (at the Ford dealership) would've slapped me across the face for leaving gunk in the pan below the clutch.  I think I thoroughly cleaned the oil pan but didn't realize that the hardened gunk can heat up and end up on the clutch disk, causing slippage.

We concluded the night with him providing me directions to compare the 9-1/2" pressure plate with a 9" to see if I'm lucky enough to find they use the same mounting bolt pattern.  Since that night, I've already returned the pressure plate to the friend I got it from and have gotten some leads on new and used pressure plates, and some dimensions to check my flywheel this week.

I appreciate my old-timer friend's advice to begin in the center, deepest section of the car as it's the most difficult to get to if something goes wrong.  Based upon his advice, I think we'll continue in the middle and work our way out.  With that in mind, this week I hope to continue working on the clutch and brake pedal assembly, looking at parts I'll need to purchase to complete the clutch linkage and checking out the various options I have for mounting the master cylinder, as well as checking out the used master cylinders sitting on my parts shelf.

If we continue diligently on the chassis, I think I would benefit from (once the motor's back in the chassis) relocating the car in the garage so I can pull off the body and set it on some former camper shell stands I have.  That way we'll have full and unobstructed access to the chassis to begin plumbing it and finishing up welds and body mounts I'd kind of forgotten about over the years of inactivity.

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