Looks like exciting progress Wawazat…
It is kinda funny how in Oz I am the weirdo with the Windsor (the land of the 302/351 Clevelands)…
Such a point of difference in US fords…
That’s an interesting take on the differences Jaymo! Clevelands are much less common here though in the Motor City you can still find them out and about-at least when the weather is good!
Got to work on the car today. Simple tasks-draining engine oil, trans fluid, rear axle fluid-and starting to pull down the exhaust and driveshaft for an exciting new addition. I’ll post up more details soon but it’s really exciting to me.
Still working through the details on the new addition.
In other news, it appears that Trans Am Race Engineering, the maker of my Superlite wheels, has ceased operation. I found a few remaining wheels at Classic Industries and bought a pair of 17x9.5” for the rear and put them in storage. I need to button up the exhaust, replace a brake line and bleed, and then track down what I think is a clutch system leak.
I really like the look of the standard dash with this tach conversion. He does such fine work.
I’m really excited to get it in the car this year! It looks exactly like what I had in mind for the dashboard and is a lot less expensive than a dashboard full of new custom gauges.
I really like those wheels. Its a same they discontinued them!
Thanks DieselD. I love the classic look but modern sizing! It’s too bad they’re no longer available. If I can find one more 17x8 in 5x4.5”/114.3mm I may buy it. I’ve got a matching spare in my car now as the 14” steelie with 70’s era bias-ply spare wouldn’t fit over the brakes. One more wheel and I could equip a second Cougar in the future, say if I got divorced for buying it!
That Tach!
I have bad Rocketman tach envy… I am looking at an XR-7 tach amongst my classic gauges and it kills me… but I have blown the budget getting the thing back on the road… can’t justify the tach + core + landing this tach in OZ when my current tach works…. Maybe back half of the year…
I got excited when I thought mine had failed, but it was just an early symptom of my big short circuit event.
Pretty sweet, isn’t it? 
Same here-XR7 tach in base dash-but mine has never worked. Not a big deal in the past but I’m excited to have it available.
With the upcoming Woodward Dream Cruise getting closer I’ve been doing some more stuff to the car. A quick polish of the steering wheel spokes was first. Today I mounted the new rear wheels and tires-17” x 9.5” with 275/40-17 Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 tires.
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With the current rear leaf spring suspension I could probably fit a 295 tire. The new rear suspension from Street or Track is a coil over suspended three link so I should have even more clearance on the inside in the future.
Been a bit. I drove the car through late October and then stashed it away in the garage. Today I have some time to work on it so I headed out to the garage and it fired up with the first key switch to the starter. Backed it out so I can get the steering column dropped in preparation to pull the rack as it’s leaking and I want to modify the rack frame for better access to make camber adjustments.
Unfortunately the Unisteer rack has been leaking pretty badly for some time now. I was reluctant to return it to them for a rebuild as I have been less than impressed with the organization during previous contacts. During my research I came across Turn One Steering in Saginaw, MI which is the home of GM/Delphi/Nexteer steering systems manufacturing. Unisteer uses GM racks from the J/K/L body cars in their kits for the Mustang and Cougar. Turn One does a variety of HP steering products and services including PS rack rebuilds and are close to some of my customers so I dropped in for a tour and gave them my rack for a rebuild. I was joined by none other than my friend Shaun, owner of Street or Track. We toured their facility, talked (aka geeked out) about PS steering bits and their capabilities and what I saw convinced me they’d do a solid job rebuilding the rack. Fast forward a week and the rack is finished and ready for pick up! They found leaking seals as well as some poorly machined areas which were take back to factory spec and then tested the rack on their hydraulic test dyno.
During the rebuild, I wanted to modify the Unisteer rack mounting bracket for better access to the camber adjustment plates so I had a buddies machine and fab shop blow open the holes for easier access. That job got wrapped up yesterday so I grabbed it and headed off to the powder coat shop for a blast and recoat which should be done in a couple of days. I ran the mounting bracket bolts through the ultrasonic cleaner and cleaned up the aluminum mounting blocks in anticipation of the rebuild. I hope to have the car back off the lift and on the ground next weekend. Pics to follow soon!
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I picked up the PS rack last week and got a call that the machine work was done on the bracket Friday. I was in the area on sales calls so I picked it up and got it to the powder coater. They finished it yesterday and I picked it up today. Perfect!
Rack going back on today. It’s down to final few bits under the car now-one fluid connection to tighten then the steering shaft. With that done it comes off the lift so I can get back under the dash for column fasteners.
Great success! Rack went back in and works well with no leaks-wish I could say that about the engine now! I did have a slight binding that I finally determined to be caused by the steering shaft. I did a poor job following installation instructions back in 2017 and didn’t cut the steering shaft quite enough to clear the u-joints though things worked fine back then. In the intervening years and all the column in/out it contacted the upper u-joint slightly causing the binding. I pulled the column out and apart, made a quick cut and put it all back together which fixed the binding.
I got fed up with rear light issues and dug in to them yesterday. I had one brake/tail light that was out and my turn signals were non-functional. They had been fine in the past so it was an investigation in to what had changed. Brake/tail light was easy-cleaned the socket contacts and reinserted the bulb. Fixed. Turn signals were more challenging. I have WCCC LED bulbs and all the corresponding LED cans and controller. I ran through the troubleshooting guide and determined I didn’t have voltage at the sequencer. I found the ground connection from the LED flasher was loose so I pulled it and cleaned everything then bolted it back together. Good to go now.
Next is investigating why the cancel cam isn’t working with my aftermarket steering wheel and how to address that issue.