The hard line I ordered did not fit, and the bender was useless. I will make my own line and get a better bender. In the meantime, I moved the fuel filter down to before the pump and plugged the hose right into the carb.
It drove pretty well today. No hiccups, but it was in the mid 70’s instead of the 90’s like before. I got groceries with it, filled it up with some fresh gas, and we took an evening cruise. In total, I put about 40 miles on it today with no issues. I’ll be getting the new brakes ordered this week, then I’ll whip it all together this weekend.
This doesn’t make sense to me, but I will keep it in mind. I’m not sure what the factory temp is. The car still holds a steady 190-200F once totally warmed up and on the highway.
Thanks, will do.
Brake shoes, wheel bearings, and grease seals are ordered and on their way. My fiancée will be out of town for a few days, so I’ll be jumping right into them!
I can’t echo the advice loud enough. Replace the fuel tank and neoprene lines. The problems with fueling will drive you crazy, if you don’t. I would also recommend buying your fuel lines from a marine supply, to insure you get ethanol proof lines.
Overall temp will be a function of the cooling system heath and capacity and not the t-stat. You may look into swapping a 24" radiator rather then the 20".
Ok, gotcha. That will not be a this year thing due to my wedding coming up in a month and a half. Unless WCCC does registries The coolant has remained a bright green through all the driving I’ve done, so far. A bigger radiator will go on my list of parts to get.
Mechanical fuel pumps are good at pumping fuel. They are not good at sucking fuel. That’s why fuel filters need to always (always) go between the pump and the carburetor.
Agree with Royce. Also a safety issue with those clear plastic or glass fuel filters, especially when installed where not visible.
I would go back to factory fuel setup which had the pre-formed steel fuel line running directly from fuel pump output to a short piece of clamped rubber hose that connected the steel fuel line to a metal can fuel filter that screws directly into the carb.
If your measured temps are accurate, your engine is not overheating with 190 - 200 deg coolant temp. Factory thermostats (at least on the 69-70) opened at 190 deg.
I finished the brakes this morning. I replaced the shoes and hardware last weekend, adjusted everything, but barely had any braking power. I put it away and remedied that this morning. Stopping power is back to mediocre, but the big difference now is that it brakes in a straight line. We’re due for storms this afternoon, so that’s about all I’ll take care of, today.
I found the ball joints and tie rod ends are all very tight, but the rubber ripped on everything. I greased everything, and I will gather parts over this winter.
I did bend up a hard line from the fuel pump to the carb after my last post. The filter I got did not fit the threads of the carb inlet, so I still have the metal fuel filter placed before the pump. It’s been running fine that way.
Two weeks ago, we finally got married, and the Cougar made a number of appearances in our pictures!
I finally got the Cougar out of storage for the summer! She started right up and made the 50 mile drive to our new house without a hitch. The next night, we drove 25 miles to A&W to find it closed, so we sat in the DQ drivethrough line for 20 minutes. Temp rose to 210F, but a light hold on the throttle cycled enough coolant to bring it back down to 185F. Tonight, we took a short drive with our new pup, Willow.
Premium non-oxy gas was $4.799/gal, so the cat may not see as many miles as last summer. It’ll be a good summer for tearing stuff apart.
The coolant has remained a bright green through all the driving I’ve done, so far. A bigger radiator will go on my list of parts to get.
