Neal you’ve done a wonderful job to this point. Well done sir. I can’t wait to see your finished pictures.
Steven
Awesome progress, Neal! Can’t wait to see it in person 
The new wheels and tires came in today.
15X7 U. S. Mags with 225 60 R15s all the way around.
I like the flashy Chrome finish with the Blue paint. The new tires are about a half inch shorter then the ones I took off. She is getting close to the trim in to the alignment shop.
Looks really nice, Neal.
Sharp!
Attach the rocker mouldings and this Cat looks ready to drive! Nicely done Neal.
I need to do a few more things then just the rockers. The grill trim, tail light trim, the hood and hood hinges and the alignment. May be a few other small items. But CLOSE!
About 10 days ago my brother came by. He has been out of town for a couple months. He left before I put the engine back in to this Cougar. So I was going to start it for him. Thought is would be cool. Well, it would fire but die as soon as I let off the key and let it return to the run position.
I hot wired it and it ran fine. So I started trouble shouting it. I started at the coil. Voltage on crank but non in run. Moved back to the connector at the fire wall, same thing. So under the dash I went and checked at the ignition switch connector, Same thing. So I ordered a new switch. It came in today. So I went back to the car, hooked back up the battery and cranked it over. She fired up and ran…
Thoughts? I have not installed the new switch.
Intermittent tach failure issue?? Or is that not applicable to a '71?
I don’t recall if the tach was reading when it fired or not…
Jumper the underdash harness to the tach (male/female 2 prong plug) and then see if the car starts. If so, your tach may be bad.
But it is starting and running g now…
Then it probably is not the tach!
I’m going with a flakey ignition switch, like you already troubleshot it down to. I’m guessing if you wiggle things just right (wrong), you’ll be back in a no-start situation. Either that, or you resolved a high-resistance issue by reseating a bunch of connectors.
We played musical cars today. I needed to get this car off the lift so we can get the hood back on and get it finished up. So first we pulled the Yellow CJ car out. It is not a runner at this time. Then I hooked up the battery in this car and went to start it… It fired and died. I tried again and as it was dying I slightly turned the key back toward the run position. It came back to life. So the ignition switch does have a problem, it does not want to always return to run. Any way it now has officially moved under it’s own power for the first time since the early 90’s.
[/url]
As I don’t plan to work much on the CJ car until maybe next winter I wanted to put it out of the way in the shop. So we had to work my convertible out. After we pushed it around to get it around the lift I put the battery in it and fired it up and drove it out. And took a few pictures of 3 ofmy Cougars.
With the sun to the right…
I hope to have this in for the front alignment by the end of the week. Then I need to put some miles on it. I hope to take it to her first show in early May.
I now have the convertible on the lift so I can re-seal the transmission and the power steering in the next couple months so we can get it out for some summer cruising.
Glad you got to use that new ignition switch, now that you know what the run problem is.
I’m looking forward to seeing you and the car in Port Angeles.
Keep your fingers crossed that I can make it with my yellow 68 XR-7 (if not, then I’ll probably drive the blue G).
It’s nice to see those altogether! Nice work!
It was a nice day here on the Moss and dandelion farm today; so I put time in on this Cougar again today. I got the hood on and adjusted, Hood bumpers adjusted. The under hood light hooked up and the washer plumbing installed, Center grill is now on and adjusted. I need to repair the XR-7 emblem as it fall apart when I removed it. A little epoxy I think will get it back together. I also get the rockers on. Here are some before and after pictures, Before pictures are from when I brought her home the now pictures are from this afternoon.
Aug 20 2015 from above
Aug 20 2015 front 3/4
Aug 20 2015 rear 3/4
Apr 22 1028 from above
Apr 22 2018 front 3/4
Apr 22 2018 rear 3/4
Lookin’ good!
That is one fine specimen there Neal. Nice Job. I’m going to be working in Portland OR for two weeks starting tomorrow. I’m guessing it would be too far of a drive to come take a peek?