Hello all; the TMH Chicago Cat project

Cougar Community The Project Forum
101

Pulling the axles is not hard at all. You just need a slide hammer, which you can get at Autozone or O’Reilly for free or you can try the junkyard trick and pull the axles out by installing the brake drums backwards. However, removing and replacing the bearings and seals requires a press. I would take advantage of the shop time to do this.

Rebuilding the power steering stuff is a piece of cake with all the information on http://stangerssite.com/. Just keep everything super clean.

Everything you listed just takes time and patience (and a shop manual :wink: ). Concerning the hood pins, I agree with Bill.

102

Adam when you say “rebuilding the power steering stuff” do you mean rebuilding the control valve from a rebuild kit (the aforementioned one that includes hose seats), or removing and reinstalling the components (rag joint, control valve, pump/reservoir) or both?

The PS rebuild is something I want done ASAP, along with the tank and line replacement. I’m not happy with either of those being in the state they’re in at the moment.

I’ll order the remaining parts for the PS rebuild in a heartbeat. It’s gonna be another 3.5 weeks before I’m going to the nice garage, so probably have time to buy parts and may or may not have time to rebuild the control valve myself if it’s really that easy.

103

The power steering control valve isn’t that many pieces. You can do it yourself. Keep everything is order and have a diagram to reference and you will be fine. Also, when you remove the control valve, count the number of turns so it goes back on the same way.

The power steering pump is not as simple to rebuild. The shaft bushing was a bit of a pain and you need the right bushing tool to install it. Again, keep everything clean, clean, clean.

When you drill the holes for the big block power steering bracket, you will have to remove the lower control arm or the engine. As you can imagine, the lower control arm is a lot easier.

Hooking up the hoses is simple too. Use fitting wrenches and don’t over tighten the hoses. Make sure you have the control valve hooked up correctly. If you have the hoses that go to the ram hooked up backwards, you will create a negative feedback system rather than a positive feedback system. This will cause the steering wheel to oscillate back and forth very aggressively. Don’t try to hold onto it when you start the car. You can be injured if it goes nuts.

Once you have everything assembled, you need to bleed the system by turning the steering wheel back and forth with the wheels in the air. Keep track of the fluid level as you do this. If the steering wheel drifts away from the center once it is bled, you can adjust the control valve a little to fix it.

One last thing that threw me. I bought a Goodyear gatorback belt. They whine when they are new. I thought it was my pump.

That’s it (I think). Study Randy’s web site. It has tons of great information.

104

Thanks Adam, very much. I read Randy’s write up about the pitfalls of rebuilding control valves and how many things one can expect to be messed up. That’s a big part of what made me feel like this task is beyond me.

The control valve really doesn’t look bad at all though, and I’m guessing all the issues he mentions with rust or fluids getting trapped in there aren’t likely to be problems for me since my car grew up in the desert. Hopefully, anyway.

I’m thinking I could always take a stab at rebuilding the control valve and if I can’t get it right, then send it off to be used as a core. But (knock on wood) so far I’ve been able to tackle every project I’ve taken on with my cat. So maybe I can pull this off too.

The pump/reservoir I don’t think I’d even want to try. And the cost for having it rebuilt isn’t so brutal anyway.

The more I think about all this, it’s becoming apparent that there’s no way doing all of the PS rebuild is a few-hours kinda job. That means doing it at home, by myself.

Hey Bricklyn, what’s your favorite beer again? :wink:

105

That’s the spirit!

Bricks favorite kind of beer is “free”…

106

That’s the attitude! Good luck, Scott.

107

LOL. You beat me to it, T3.

108

So after pulling off the first wheel to embark down the road of rim painting, I figured I might as well snap some pics while that’s all opened up and all. Get some feedback on what looks like trouble. :wink:

So without further ado!




Some things jumped out at me.

Not sure what they’re called but those adjustable brackets on the coil-- on the passenger side wheel they’re installed like I woulda thought, used to keep the coil slightly compressed in one spot. On this side, driver’s, it’s installed reversed, so it would prevent the coil from compressing in one spot. It’s not even in there tightly, which I assume is because it’s on jack stands so no weight on it. So is that in any way reasonable? My gut says no. Then again the car does seem to sit level, so I dunno.

Another thing, the disc looks kinda haggard. There’s that one really ugly spot you can see in the pic. I ran my fingers all around on the disc and it feels totally smooth everywhere. But visually it just looks scored. The brakes work great as far as I can tell. Totally happy with their performance. Any issue here? And you can see the thickness of the pads, which looks plenty thick to me but what the hell do I know? The way it sits, the hub doesn’t rotate totally freely, though with just a tiny bit of muscle I can rotate it just fine, but there’s clearly some drag of the pads on the disc. That proper?

I see some bushings that look a little crackly on the edges but felt solid when I squeezed them with my fingers. Probably a case of “replace em and be blown away by the improvement in handling” there? Necessary, a “nice to have”, or no big deal?

And then you can’t see this in the pics, but the vacuum tank (which looks really nice) doesn’t even have a line running to it in the first place. No cruise control or tilt wheel, just PB and dist vac advance in play. No need for the tank, right? Should I pull it off to save weight? Sell it if it tests good on the mityvac? Run a line and hook it up? Forget all about it?

How’s that rust up at the underside of the top of the shock tower? Not so bad? Seems inconsequential to me but I know rusted shock towers are an issue to keep an eye on.

Anything else? Anything jump out at anyone, something that could stand to be addressed or especially anything critically important?

As always, thanks a million for spending your time edumacatin’ a noob.

Scott

109

Those spring clamps are dangerous. Get rid of them. My guess is the PO cut the driver side coil too short and used those to patch their mistake. You will probably need new coil springs.

If you have brake drag, you can try to grease the slide pins. I use this stuff. If that doesn’t solve your problem, you can try new brake hoses or you can rebuild the caliper. When you do that, grease the wheel bearings also. I like to use one of these when I pack wheel bearings. That rotor looks okay to me.

I would replace the tie rod and your spring perch is shot. IMO, roller spring perches are worth the money.

It might be hard to tell, but can you take a look at your lower control arm bushings? If they look like mine, they are beyond gone. From the look of your spring perch, I would bet they are. It looks like your upper ball joint has been replaced (rivets were cut and the new ball joint was bolted in). What does your lower ball joint look like? Does it have any play in it?

The vacuum reservoir is for your head lights. Distributor vacuum advances will never be buffered by a reservoir.

110

I agree with ahunt191, but check the dark spots on the rotors. If you were to tap on them with a screw driver and they chip out, it is rust, then replace your rotors. I would also check the minimum thickness of the rotors as well, looks a little thin and may have been turned/cleaned up in the passed. The minimum thickness of the rotor may be stamped on the rotor. Your vacuum canister may be hooked up, the line is on top of it I think.
As for the spacer for the springs, take it out and see how the car sits, you may be fine or like said before, replace the springs.

111

You Sirs are correct :beerchug:

We can always round up the guys and get a pit crew together, was thinking of doing that soon anyway.
Been busy with my masters project but if you need a hand with something gimmie a call and we can figure something out.

112

Yep that brake rotor has definitely seen better days. Replacing it now while the wheel is off if how I operate. Get one for the other side too.

Ditto what was said about the coil spring helpers. Those are in there as a crutch because of either a sagging spring or other malady. You’re going to need new front springs soon if not now.

T3 can give you a tutorial on how to change out the front coil springs. :poke:

113

Looking at that rotor again, I agree with the other guys. That thing is thin.

Removing coil springs can be dangerous. The cheap spring compressors with four hooks you can rent for free, but they are prone to slipping. I got one to work by clamping all four hooks to the spring with vise-grips. Tighten it slowly. If it becomes uncentered at all, start over. Here is a “home made” coil spring compressor that uses the same concept as the one specified in the shop manual. There are better designs, but they are expensive. This might be a good thing to do at the shop you mentioned.

114

With that spring compressor, how do you compress get the spring out after, the compressor is in the way?
Do you compress it with the tool you have, then clamp the external one on it after to take it out?

115

You have to unbolt the spring perch from the UCA, compress the spring, unbolt the UCA, swing the UCA out of the way, then uncompress the spring. It is similar to what they tell you to do in the shop manual. The only difference is the ford coil spring compressor doesn’t use the spring perch as a base. You can leave the spring perch bolted to the UCA. It seems kind of dumb to me to have to take it all apart like that, but it also seems to be a good balance between price and safety. The spring compressor will stay centered and you get to tighten it from the other side of the wheel well (the safe side). You don’t have to squeeze a wrench in between the coils like you have to do with other designs.

116

Nuh-uh, not this lil black duck…my advise, pay somebody else to do it! (Or get a proper compressor, like Adam linked to)

I did see somewhere recently where someone had torched the old ones through in a couple of spots to “make removal easier”…but you’ve still got to compress new ones to get them back in!

117

When doing mine, I think I “started over” about 20 times. Finally used safety wire to keep it from slipping. Spooky, those J-hook things…ended up taking mine apart so I’d never even be tempted to use it again.

118

Well in the interest of adding even more things to the list of stuff that needs addressing (though this is revisiting an old one) here’s a pic with one of the drums removed:

Both sides are pretty much the same. There doesn’t appear to be any signs of leaking up at the cylinders, but it seems to be from the axle downward. At the bottom is a pool of goo that to me seems like oil and definitely has a green hue to it.

Is that indicative of bad seals at the axles then?



Oh and I measured the rotors, they’re 7/8" which is right at the min spec for '68 right? So they do need to be replaced. I’m not gonna do em in the next few days, the wheels will have to come off again soon. But here’s a question, for anyone to chime in on but maybe directed at Adam cause of the earlier explanation and plus I know he’s not busy at all these days. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I don’t understand the solutions to the brake rub up front. I’ll learn more about how the whole disc brake assemblies really work and it will make more sense then I’m sure. But for now… If my pads are already rubbing on the rotors (and both are) how would I even be able to put new rotors on if they’ll be thicker and there already isn’t enough room as-is?

Ok, back to the wheels then!

119

If the wet spot you say is oil, does it have a pungent smell? if so, it is definitely time to change the rear seals. You will have to drain the rear end oil and you will see four nuts located behind your wheel lugs. The flange that your wheel bolts to has a hole in it. This is how you will get to the nuts in behind. Once you have taken then off, you will be able to pull your axel out and replace the seal. After replacing your seal, put a coat of rear end oil on the seal and axil and reinstall. If you have to loosen off the rear end gears to get the oil out, it’s probably a good time to change out the seal around that as well.

120

Front pads always stay in contact with the rotors. There just isn’t any clamping force on them until you press the brake pedal.

When you put new “thicker” rotors and new thicker pads for that matter, you need to push the brake piston in the caliper BACK inside the caliper all the way. I use a large “C-clamp.” This gives you back the room you need to put it all together. Oh and if the master cylinder is already full, expect some fluid to leak out of it during this step. No worries though, that’s normal. Then before driving, you pump the pedal to push the pads back against the rotor. The piston self-adjusts as the pads and rotors wear. But you do ocassionally need to check the fluid level in the master.