Details 77....

Well after sitting for a week, I hooked up the battery and gave her a spin......

lit off on the first crank and took gas without hesitation! I hope she continues to light off and be as responsive as she is right now!

Another semi productive weekend. We got the corrected fittings onto the master cylinder to proportioning valve hard lines and got them installed...

the vacuum canister installed onto the driver side wheelhouse...

and got the parking brake cables partially installed. Need to get some hardware and brackets plated...

I have everything in place as shown in the Shop Manual, but laying there looking at it, it doesn't look like it would work smoothly... but everyone who has looked at it says it's correct, so I'll get her buttoned up once I get the plated bits back.

Next weekend I'll get back to finishing up blasting the hood and get started on the deck lid and driver side front fender so they'll be all ready for the guys at Far From Factory once it's back in their hands.

Stay tuned...

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 76....

Some progress this weekend... my parts arrived last week

so I was able to get the starter remounted and the blanket back in place...

 

the carb to PCV line and the distribution block installed.

Refired the engine to insure the chirp had not returned and all was good!

I also got the rearend filled with the gear oil and trac-loc additive as well as the vent line installed.

I started to install the master cylinder to proportioning valve hard lines only to discover Inline Tube Co had send me a line with the incorrect prop valve fitting, so that hamstrung that install until I can get the correct line.

All in all a pretty good weekend! Stay tuned....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

IT LIVES!!!!!

Several frustrating weeks...

After braking apart the engine and transmission, I had to wait for a buddy to send me a second motor plate so I could double them up for support of the starter without the transmission mated to the engine. While I waited on it to arrive, I blasted...

detailed...

and mounted the fresh air intake to the core support...

mounted the dual horns...

and the lower and upper rubber radiator supports (not sure yet if I like the bright fasteners??)...

When the motor plate arrived, my buddy Jim and I got the double plates, flywheel and starter mounted up only to discover we had VERY LITTLE clearance between the starter snout and the flywheel, so we pulled it back off and I filed away some material to gain a bit more daylight between the parts...

With the starter remounted, we gave it a bump to see how much deflection we were getting during engagement. Wasn't too bad, so we tried several different locations until we ...found the best location to brace the motor plate to minimize the flexing, then we gave her a good spin and noticed the starter gear wasn't fully retracting upon release. We played around with relocating the bracing without too much success, so we thought we'd try and light her off to see if the gear would retract under load.

We spent a long time trying to get her to start without success.... we weren't getting any fuel! Frigged around and finally determined the new fuel pump might have failed, so we reinstalled the old one to see if that would work, but evidently the diaphragm was shot in that one as well. We called several local parts stores, but none had anything in stock..... guess there's not much demand anymore for a three port, 460 Ford mechanical fuel pump! LOL

We pulled off the high torque mini starter to see how it operated compared to the original and the first noticeable difference was the WEIGHT.... the mini starter weighed nothing compared to the factory starter! We then applied voltage to the mini and noticed that the bendix gear had a slight dribble to it upon extension, but seemed to snap back as soon as voltage was removed.

The original starter seemed to be operating in slow motion compared to it's miniature cousin, so I'm guessing there is a misalignment between the starter centerline and the crank centerline causing the binding of the gear and flywheel.



I ordered a new fuel pump from RockAuto and the following weekend, we replaced the fuel pump, fed her some REAL gas and then lit off the engine without the tranny and the temporary shims in place and the noise was gone! So we proceeded to reassemble everything.

Lit her off again once reassembled and be damned if the chirp wasn't back!!! 😡 Jim suggested we put the temporary shims back in and see what happens, so we pulled the starter, added the two temporary shims and tried her again....

IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After several frustrating weeks, we have finally resolved the issue.... seems the snout of the aftermarket, mini high torque starter was a bit too deep and the flywheel was ever so slightly rubbing the starter gear causing the chirp. TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Before calling it a day, I temporarily installed the AC dryer to confirm it will clear the fresh air intake when mounted below the battery since a few members questioned whether I had it installed correctly...

everything seems it should be OK (perhaps a slight tweak here or there!).

I'll order the starter shim from RockAuto and install it when it arrives and that should put all engine issues aside... now to get back on track and get her all prepared for going back to Far From Factory for final bodywork and paint!

Stay tuned, it won't be much longer now..... (I HOPE!!)

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Backtracking...

Well a day of regression.... broke my heart to break the transmission away from the engine on Saturday, but we need to get to the bottom of the chirping.

No signs of rubbing/interference on the torque converter...

nor either side of the flywheel...

or the separator plate.

There was also no visible warping or cracks on the flywheel and the separator plate was flat as well.

Digging back thru pics of the engine when I first got it, I discovered it originally had a "spoked center" flywheel....

rather than the solid one pictured above that came off a later model Lincoln 460. I have another "spoked center" flywheel on the original 460 my Torino came with if that could be the possible source for the noise? Different balancing on the Lincoln 460 versus the Ford 460??

Need to break out the detective kit......

ZEBRA 3 OUT

IT'S ALIVE.... sorta

SUCCESS... well sorta. With the help of my brutha Jim Conley, we got the 460 brought to life on Saturday. After removing the distributor, wires and plugs, we primed the engine oil by spinning the the oil pump and turning the motor over by hand during which time we heard a squeek/squawk noise coming from the back of the engine. As we turned the crank, we were able to determine the sound was coming from the bell housing. I made a quick call to the guy who built the transmission for me and after a brief question and answer session, he too was at a loss for the cause and told me to go ahead and fire it up.

With his assurance, we rolled to engine over to the TDC mark on the cranks and reinstalled the distributor, wires and plugs. After connecting the battery, a fuel source and the remote starter trigger, the 460 rolled over for the first time in several years but wouldn't light off....

With no fire getting to the plugs, we located all the harness grounds inside the cabin and jumpered them together and to ground and I also jumpered the engine to firewall lead directly to the negative post of the battery and we tried again.... SUCCESS. We shut her off, attached the timing light to get her timed and lit her off again......

There was a very noticeable chirp coming from the engine, so we crawled under the car and removed the bellhousing inspection plate and rolled the motor over by hand to see if we could see any signs of the torque converter studs dragging on anything. Nothing visible, so we removed the started and spun her over again... again no signs of what was causing the noise.

With the timing set, we fired her up one last time before calling it a day.....

Hopefully we'll get some good pointers this week on what the source of the noise may be so I can address the issue and keep moving forward.

Until then.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Update 75...

Some progress the last couple weekends.

Last Saturday I repaired the ignition key reminder switch

and installed the firewall pad retainers for the driver side pad before moving on to a few major items. Installed the core support and the wheel houses, then clipped the wiring harnesses into position, then hung the starter solenoid and the ignition module...

This Saturday, I got pan bolts and drain plug tightened, transmission support and crossmember tightened up, fluids added...

battery cables and engine ground installed, (battery core used for placement)...

transmission lines jumpered together...

and old distributor converted to oil pump primer...

Next weekend I'll tighten up the motor mounts, pull the distributor, wires and plugs, prime the oil pump while turning the crank by hand, reinstall the distributor, wires and plugs, hook up a temporary fuel source, snag the battery outta the Fairlane and LIGHT THIS MUTHA OFF (fingers crossed)!!

Won't be too much longer before I'll be playing the BIG BLOCK BOOGIE!!

Hang in there...

ZEBRA 3 OUT