I'm still fighting the clutch problem. I've gotten to a point though, I believe, where there's nothing else to be done but put the clutch together and just try some things with the adjustable pivot stud. No more dancing around the main issue (one of my favorite things to do with this car, apparently). I've been fighting a bit of 'rona/quarantine depression and lack of confidence for quite a while now. Pretty much I was dreading the possibility of not being able to find a combination/adjustment that would work so I could finally put it back together. Not knowing is one thing, but I was worried that to know for sure given my current knowledge level, and combination of parts that I "can't fix it" would be really hard on me. Depression/anxiety is a b***h.
Yesterday, I worked past it and got out there. I adjusted the pivot stud to 3 different spots and took some measurements. They still don't make sense for what they should be, which drives me insane, but it's data I can work with.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
I think you need to go back, what I mean is what did you change (fix) then you had the problem. wasn't it the quad/ cable?
2017 Ford Explorer Sport (DD) 1986 Capri 5.0 Silver/Red
1969 Falcon XW GTHO coupe (SOLD) went to Australia
Past 4 eyes-
4th. 1981 Capri "White" Black Magic I6
3rd. 1984 Capri RS V8 Black/grey
2nd. 1984 Capri RS V8 White/red
1st. 1984 SVO Grey/grey (traded it for a worn out 1970 BOSS 302)
Both '84 Capri's vin# were 10 away from each other
U.S. NAVY 1980-2009
I did go back some. I removed the pedal height adjuster I'd installed because I'd hoped it would take up some of the slop in the pedal. It didn't do that anyway, and I need all the pedal travel I can get right now. I really don't think it's the cable or quadrant causing the problem. Probably not the clutch fork either; the one I installed is of higher quality than the one I took out. Probably what it is, is that the clutch kit requires the pivot stud to be in a different spot (hence buying an adjustable one) than the original. Not really being a clutch/transmission expert, I would not have known that. I don't know if it's that unusual of a thing or not. I've heard of plenty of people installing new clutches, but I don't recall ever hearing about anyone having to do this. That said, there could be any number of reasons for that. 1) the poster didn't mention it because they themselves are an expert and therefore assume everyone knows about stuff like that. 2) I haven't read that many nitty-gritty accounts of new clutch installs. And so on.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
Transmission is back in the car for the first time in months. I think I've got everything all good to go. I'm definitely seeing quite a bit more travel at the clutch fork, and the pedal feels WAY better than it did.
I didn't have much time today, but the weather is CRAZY humid. All I really wanted to do was get the trans up in there and then escape into the air conditioning. I'm so sick of this damn heat.
I'm very hopeful though.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
That’s great news!
glad to hear you got the trans back in
79 Zephyr, 4.6L 4v/4r70w swap, with team z front and rear suspension, 8.8 and upgraded brakes and coil overs. Running Holley Terminator X Max.
I remember when I did my trans install I had way to muck slack on the cable, what I noticed when I was adjusting the cable it jumped off one of the arms on the quad. I loosened the cable on the fork and moved the other end to another quad arm, adjusted the cable on the fork and bingo works great
2017 Ford Explorer Sport (DD) 1986 Capri 5.0 Silver/Red
1969 Falcon XW GTHO coupe (SOLD) went to Australia
Past 4 eyes-
4th. 1981 Capri "White" Black Magic I6
3rd. 1984 Capri RS V8 Black/grey
2nd. 1984 Capri RS V8 White/red
1st. 1984 SVO Grey/grey (traded it for a worn out 1970 BOSS 302)
Both '84 Capri's vin# were 10 away from each other
U.S. NAVY 1980-2009
Thanks!
My quadrant only has the 1 hook. MM intends you to make the adjustment with a cable spacer, and with the firewall adjuster. Pretty lame that happened to you though. I HATE getting up under the dash.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
I use a box fan or two when working on anything in humidity.
They also blow away dust when sanding bodywork. Outside of course.
Mosquitos too.
Glad 79 has manual clutch adjust.
Quadrants seem to be a hassle for what they do. Seeing more setup adjustments.
Last edited by gr79; 08-24-2020 at 12:46 PM.
Yeah, I could do that. I have enough trouble though losing things like sockets and nuts mid-job; I feel like a fan would send them even farther into oblivion than without.
I've thought of putting a window unit air conditioner in my garage. There are just far too many too-hot days in the summer. I'm a heavy sweater so it just makes it miserable.
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
I use shallow tool caddys or black plastic trays food comes in.
Not the pot pie size but bigger and deeper. (like for 5# of ground beef).
Double up for strength.
Or old 12" x 9" metal baking pans
Cut down boxes from Aldi.
Usually have several empty ones on hand for the take off bolts, nuts, parts, tools.
Good for pouring a bin of nuts into for swish and pick.
Anything square, rigid, without any middle handle and slot that tools get stuck or fall thru.
Rarely lose any parts or tools now.
HD has nice plastic totes with folding handles around the holidays. Have them too.
Brother just picked up a serious pedestal fan recently. Tall, stores easy, adjusts for tilt and height.
He had a drum fan but was too low to move upper air.
Said it was 100° the other day in there. Garage is new, so no insulation and all the good stuff yet.
Epoxy floor with clearcoat in progress. I asked if the sprinkle chips would make little dropped parts harder to find.
Ha the Pug won't walk on it by choice yet. Is not slick when wet, but down dog level low the clear shines like water.
Last edited by gr79; 08-24-2020 at 11:13 PM.
Haha nice. Not bad ideas though. My wife bought me this magnetic mat for Christmas last year, but I keep forgetting to use it. It's pretty nice because when you're under the car, you can stick it to the bottom of the car, and then stick your nuts and bolts to it. So I do have options. Just have to actually use them.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
Yah a/c or dehumidifier. Hard part is keeping garage door closed in nice weather. Less light and fresh air.
Now i dont feel that bad about no garage and not being able to work on car outside in afternoon. In or out= hot.
Brother has most items in storage while getting replacement garage set up. Plenty of tools- limited access to them.
No rolling toolbox, compressor, bright lighting, workbench, vice, grinder, fridge, cabinets, drywall, tv, nat gas heater, decor.
1st garage was set up all the way, caught on fire, had to be torn down. Takes years to recover from that.
No more large rubber floor mats under cars. Ground the old concrete, epoxied, Detroit Red Wing theme color sprinkles.
Broke the floor in other day moving a large jack stand. Dropped it. Put a little dent in the floor. Shoes can leave black marks.
Sockets, bolts. they like to fall into pans with old fluid. Then its fishing time.
Or roll away further than one would think. Or just out of reach. Or get lost in grass. Or fall into oil dry.
Or down onto the frame somewhere needing to get out the telescoping magnet tool.
oh forgot about magnets. the magnetic tool strips. never seen a magnetic mat.
have them but forget i have them. hanging from nails over in house workbench.
have kitchen knives stuck to one strip stuck to a metal cooktop backsplash wall panel i added. Works perfectly.
also have a hd rolling tool tray. Comes apart in 3 pieces. tray with upper post, wheel base and wheeled lower post.
Great for under hood work. awkward to store disassembled because of the posts. No garage.
problem was storing it out of the way in 3 pieces. so it always got buried in the shed. Handy tool, not handy stored.
finally found a way to use it, when not using it, by stacking frequently used items on top.
now its front row, tray upside down on top of small portable table saw, which the mower is parked under.
Have to spend 5 minutes to unstack to get mower out. Not a problem this year because lawn is burned up.
The air isn't fresh anyway when it's too hot, haha. My garage is a clusterf***. It's way too small. I joke with my wife the 3 car garage we have now is smaller than the 2 car garage at my old house. She built the house before she met me.
Spent some time in the miserable heat again today putting stuff together with the trans. Just about everything is done except the h-pipe and the interior. I'm a bit worried the trans didn't seem to want to go all the way in easily, so we ended up pulling it in with the trans to bellhousing bolts. Maybe I'm just not used to installing the trans separate from the bellhousing. The bellhousing goes and sits nicely on its dowels before you finish tightening the bolts and gives you a warm fuzzy everything is lined up. This way, you don't get that. Anyway, I thought I would try cranking the engine before actually starting it to make sure the input shaft snout is sitting nicely in the pilot bearing and everything before I actually started the car. I've already turned the crank by hand, and that's all good. The starter just clicked though. I've had the battery disconnected since I've been doing this work. My charger says it's in good shape, but when I hook up the battery tender, it claims the battery needs charging. So, who knows what's going on there. I know, I know... I should have left the battery tender on it the whole time. Anyway, I had to quit for the day after that. It will get addressed next time.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
I have a similar garage
it’s like if an oven and a cave had a really small baby
79 Zephyr, 4.6L 4v/4r70w swap, with team z front and rear suspension, 8.8 and upgraded brakes and coil overs. Running Holley Terminator X Max.
Yesterday was a tough day.
So, it turned out, I had forgotten the trigger wire on the starter. Hooked it up, cranked just fine, started it with open headers and scared the hell out of my daughter. I decided it was okay to proceed with reinstalling the h-pipe. With that done, I started the car again. It immediately resumed rolling idle. Maybe even worse this time. I guess the replacement MAF made no difference whatsoever. I don't remember what I left the timing at, so I thought I would warm the engine up to operating temp so I could check it. Ran for a while. Then I noticed some smoke under the hood. My heater core failed.
I don't think it came out of nowhere though, which would have possibly indicated the car is possessed, otherwise cursed, or has a personal vendetta against me. I left the heater hoses hooked up to the heater core while the transmission was out, so the engine was leaning back all summer probably putting uneven pressure on the heater core. What can I say, I just didn't want to drain the radiator again for the bajillionth time so I guess I rolled the dice and lost.
I think I got one of the last copper core Motorcraft units the last time I bought one. The can't be found anywhere now, which p***es me off as much as anything. I guess I'm stuck with one of the insta-fail aluminum units.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
Maybe see if you can see if you can get your copper core repaired? I see NOS ones on Ebay from time to time but it has been a while.
67 Mustang Coupe
96 Tangerine GT
86 Saleen #179
Yeah, maybe. I don't know. No experience with that. I ordered one from LMR in the hopes they at least offer a decent one. I've heard too many horror stories about parts store Fox heater cores. Ugh. I guess maybe I'll hold on to my old one and see about having it fixed at my leisure. Only so much non-Winter in a year....
It's looking like I'll be losing my damn refrigerant too when I do this. So that blows too. Hopefully I didn't f*** up my A/C system too.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
Current FEP:
1980 M81 McLaren Carb Turbo 2.3T #003P ... IT'S ALIVE after a 22 year slumber thread!
Past FEP:
1986 Capri GS 5.0- very missed but in goods hands
1985 LTD SSP- quick little fox 5.0
Well, I'm just a good citizen of Earth today. I had the A/C company come and reclaim my refrigerant. It was worth it too for another reason. He was able to tell my system is intact, so I don't have to go nuts wondering if I need a new evaporator or have a leak elsewhere in the A/C system.
You know, the heater core job doesn't intimidate me that much. I've had my dash out so many damn times, it won't be bad if I have to do it again down the road if the aluminum one I bought fails. I'll keep my Motorcraft one like I said though. At this point I wish I'd kept my original.
I submitted a product suggestion to LMR for a copper heater core. There's a real need for a quality alternative people can rely on. With more and more high dollar Fox body builds happening as time goes on, people who've spent tens of thousands on their perfect Foxes aren't going to want to have to deal with substandard replacement parts.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
well I think LMR only thinks in the past, as they come out with new wheels oh sure they are in 17" and 18" but still in 4 lug?
2017 Ford Explorer Sport (DD) 1986 Capri 5.0 Silver/Red
1969 Falcon XW GTHO coupe (SOLD) went to Australia
Past 4 eyes-
4th. 1981 Capri "White" Black Magic I6
3rd. 1984 Capri RS V8 Black/grey
2nd. 1984 Capri RS V8 White/red
1st. 1984 SVO Grey/grey (traded it for a worn out 1970 BOSS 302)
Both '84 Capri's vin# were 10 away from each other
U.S. NAVY 1980-2009
79 Zephyr, 4.6L 4v/4r70w swap, with team z front and rear suspension, 8.8 and upgraded brakes and coil overs. Running Holley Terminator X Max.
Brad, sorry I did not post this sooner, or you already know about this heater core workaround.
Never have to lose your A/C refrigerant again. No heater box removal necessary.
Remove the 2 front bolts holding the heater core cover in place.
Use a Dremel to cut the top of the cover off as far in as you can reach.
Remove old core, vacuum out and clean out core mounting space, install new core.
Glue 2" aluminum strip to the heater core cover leaving 1" exposed that will slip under the other side of the cover.
Replace 2 front cover bolts. Seal crack with silicone.
Next time after removing the 2 bolts, the silicone will just break free to remove the split cover.
Sorry i could not find all the pictures. And I posted these out of order.
Lots of FREE F/Z info on my site.
http://myzephyrs.com
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
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