Daily Log
March 15, 2010
Next I tackled the slow leak I had
on my Ford 9” pinion seal. I could
have taken apart just the pinion carrier from the 3rd member but I
took the whole 3rd member off.
I’ll won’t do that again!!!
I installed a new pinion seal…I
don’t think the other one was bad…
…and I installed a Readi-Sleeve on
the yoke surface that rides on the seal.
It wasn’t grooved but I thought the slight build up in thickness
couldn’t hurt. Here is the sleeve and
installation tool…
…and here is the sleeve about to
be pressed on.
I’ve got everything all bolted
together again….
All that is left is charging the
AC and upgrading the stock radio…
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February 21, 2010
I have 1085 miles
on the Comet and I fixed, as far as I know, my cooling problem by installing a
24” wide alumimum radiator meant for a 68 Cougar with a 302 Boss motor.
Here’s a picture
of the new radiator next to the old one…
I had to modify
the radiator support and enlarged it by 3” on each side…I also installed two
12” electric fans to keep the air flow moving…
The next step is
to get my AC charged and the radio fixed…
I also removed the four point seat
belts on the front seat and replaced with simple lap belts. I braked hard once and the seat back rest
pivoted forward and this showed me that the four point belts did me no good in
the front.
I also replaced one of the rear
four point seat belts in the back because it was faulty. That was a pain since I couldn’t get the
bottom rear seat to latch in place. I
don’t think I ever had it completely latched in place because the padding
prevents me from pushing it back far enough…
I also got the front end
re-aligned and my final measurements as follows:
left right
1.52 2.2 caster
-1.4 -1.4 camber
1/16 1/16 toe
I got the caster I was looking
for…
………………………………………………………………
January 17, 2010
I have about 900
miles on the Comet! I had gotten a
front end alignment and the tech was not able to give me any positive caster
(-.2 and +,2 degrees). He ran out of
room on the upper hat adjustment and if he gave me any more caster, he would
have started to give me negative camber.
I’m going back to another shop and
will ask to trade 2 degree of camber for as mush positive caster as they can
give me with that trade.
Even with the neutral caster, the
Comet tracks well on the freeway but I want to feel the difference. Within the next week, I’ll decide on the
radiator I’ll be getting. Either a
three core radiator that bolts rigt in or a 68 Cougar radiator that will
require some radiator support modifications…I’m leaning to wards the harder, funner
solution….
I also went to the Vista Burger
Run last week. Over 550 cars that were
amazing. I was fun bringing the Comet
out for the first time.
Here’s my car at that show…
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December 16, 2009
I’ve got about
200 miles on the Comet. I still need to
get a bigger radiator to hopefully solve my heating problem when in an extended
idle. I installed my heavier springs
from RCMotorSports and that didn’t fix my height problem. They also sent me the brackets to weld
together my own upper shock mounts. I
did that and the most I could modify those was an inch, otherwise, I wouldn’t
be able to install my shocks. Well
together with the heavy springs, I now have 4 ¾” below my cross member.
The last things
to do include a bigger radiator, getting the radio fixed and modified, get the AC charged, and replacing the right rear
seat-belt…
Before, there was less than an
inch above the tennis ball. I haven’t
driven it yet but this week-end, I hope to get the front end finally aligned
and then I’ll go for a longer rode trip down to San Diego and back…up to LA and
back…
…………………………………………………………………………………
October 27, 2009
Well I replaced
my thermostat with a 180 degree thermostat and all is good again except when
I’m stopped and idling. The temperature
still continues to crawl ever so slowly.
But when I’m driving, the temp stays at a rock solid 180 degree. Not sure what to do next.
Next I replaced my tail
pipes. Here is my home band bend over
the axle as compared to what I should have bought to begin with…
These are for a 65-67 Mustang and
because my mufflers were not in the exact same place they would be on that car,
I needed to cut the pipe and slightly clock it one way for it to fit perfectly…
I did this to both sides and now I
have lots of clearance over the rear axle…
…also I changed my Monroe shock to
KYB shocks and those made a big difference.
RCMotorsports also sent me some
heavier duty springs around the front coilovers.
When I pulled those springs off, I
discovered that one of my Aldan Eagle Shocks had lost its charge. I sent those back to the manufacturer and
they rebuilt them for free and sent them back to me in less than one week! I bought this Mustang II front end from
RCMotorsports five years ago and they didn’t charge me anything to get me
fixed!!!
Now I got to fix my overheating
problem while in idle…
……………………………………………………………………………….
October 2, 2009
I got my tags, my
insurance and drove the Comet around the block several times, then around the neighborhood,
and once I felt good about all the nuts and bolts I tightened, I drove around town with my neighbor
John. We drove for two hours down the
freeway and through the city and the water temp and AOD temp held steady.
I even cruised
the beach!
I went home, checked a few things
and the shake down run yielded a few things I need to fix. When I went over bumps like rail road tracks
fast, my rear axle hit the exhaust. When
I built the exhaust over the axle, the gas tank was empty and I had the false
sense that I had a lot of clearance.
Also, my passenger side exhaust is too close to the forward leaf spring
bolts and it vibrated against the muffler.
I made an appointment with a local
shop to have my front end alignment done.
15 minutes into my drive, my water temp was climbing fast towards 250 so
I had to stop and hang out for about an hour before I could drive back
home. Halfway home, I was back to 250
so I stopped for another hour and finally made it home.
What the hell happened! I thinking my thermo stat failed…
More to come…