[DesertXL]

Pandoras Box - Cooling and electrical, well mostly, continued

Here's another example. The wire for the compressor clutch is about 12" long. In that short span, it's been spliced together twice and has a scotch lock thing attached to it.

Here's the other voltage regulator that was still connected.

That "other" voltage regulator is spliced into the charging harness with the factory non-stick tape. This was done a long, long, long time ago. What's the point of 2 voltage regulators?! I also do not recognize the front case of that alternator. Could be just coincidence. I know there was a 65 amp Leece Neville alternator option, but that's neither the correct alternator case style nor voltage regulator case style.

Back to engine "FUN", err I mean ROT

Oh god, if the rest of the engine looks like this on the inner cooling jackets, no wonder why it has all sorts of problems. There is a thermostat in there, however it's stuck open. So either it's a regular thermostat and it just failed, or it's an all crudded up regular thermostat, or it's a fail safe thermostat locked in the safety position (open). My money is on the crud option.

And this is precisely why I ABHOR aluminum radiators. I have replaced more aluminum radiators for this reason that I ever had to replace brass copper ones. This radiator has more corrosion than the entire car does.

And it's in stereo.... Both lower sides are rotting away.

Oh goody I can't wait to take off the coolant pump, I bet there's all sorts of unpleasant things in there.

I should mention that's not antifreeze, it's some kind of additive that guy used with water. It doesn't smell like antifreeze (glycol) nor feel like it. It feels like water, plus it stinks. Probably is just water with food colouring for all I know.

The adventure continues...

Cheers

 

[rickyracer1983]

I lost a set of keys in Albu, NM long time ago, if you find them, give a yell.

 

[DesertXL]

I lost a set of keys in Albu, NM long time ago, if you find them, give a yell.

lol, I add that to the list

 

[DesertXL]

Malfeasance - Yup, that sums it up

Here's more oh my gosh pictures.

This is the radiator, it's a Griffin but because the radiator is directly connected to the transmission via the steel cooler lines it's electrically connected to the chassis/body. So when a little moisture with minor salts sits between the aluminum radiator and the steel mounts, it acts like a galvanic battery and the aluminum dissolves and the current flows.

Now this is interesting it looks like it sprung a leak a while back at the top and someone tried to seal it with JB Weld or something. Well it didn't work and that was leaking too. So this cooling system couldn't pressurize.

Someone put layers of rubber on the lower mounts, but you can see the corrosion from the aluminum radiator. Now if they would have painted the radiator in a thick enamel or such around the perimeter, it might have survived.

I found the receipt for the Griffin radiator and said direct fit. But yet they had to bash and flatten the lower mounts.

Direct fit my butt.

They had to bend one of the upper mounts too and also add layers of thin rubber. Yeah sure direct fit...

And the fan and shroud that was on the car. Now the shroud is the correct shroud, but it's broken. The fan is about 2 sizes too small and way to flex-o-matic for my liking.

Another high quality Edelbrock product... Did I just type that

I will say this it is pretty clean on the inside.

Here's the disassembly so far, is this the extent? Nah, I'm feeling like Al Pacino --> I'm just getting warmed up!

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Malfeasance - Yup, that sums it up - Continued

Well the heater hose nipple is just disintegrating.

The coolant sensor is the corrosion master and the guts rotate in the case. Stick a fork in that, it's done.

The fuel line is routed very poorly, there is a compression fitting on it and there is no fuel filter between the pump and carb. Isn't that special.

On the carb you'll notice it has an electric choke, but where o where have they connected power for it.

Found it. It goes to the 'I' terminal on the starter relay and if familiar with the wiring diagram we know this is the same as putting it on the '+' terminal on the coil and this places the electric choke after the resistance wire and at 11 ohms it draws the coil voltage from about 9 to about 5 in 'RUN' position.

The hose for the PCV valve was draped behind the engine and left there. I guess they figured road draft tube as it was clearly too much effort to connect it to the front port on the carb base. Something tells me I'm going to wear the poo emoji out on this post.

Because it's an Edelbrock carb, they bent the crap out of the throttle bracket and the throttle clamp is barely hanging on and the electric throttle kick up for the A/C is hitting the coil. So I decided not to use this thing and go back to an Autolite 4100.

There's so much bad eye candy I didn't even catch this till the carb came off. I mean why buy one thick spacer when you can stack the deck with several thin ones. <-- see here it is again.

For giggles I grabbed the crank pulley and tried to move it, I could move it eerily easy for a scary portion of rotation. I oscillated the crank back and forth and starred at the ignition rotor and the crank could spin 20+ degrees before the rotor would move.

So I removed the timing cover.

<- sums that up.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Malfeasance - Yup, that sums it up Continued

Even the ignition coil was leaking oil. It's just dripping out of it.

But it's chrome and says high performance so it must be good? Chrome does not get you home. Plus the wiring harness just falls apart when you handle it.

I knew this had a lot of miles on it, the equivalent of driving to the moon and starting it's homeward journey again, but it wore out the sleeve n seal. I've never seen this before, the black ring is worn and you can definitely feel it, the picture doesn't do it justice and the front of the engine was plastered with oil and mud as this was slinging it out.

I have to sleeve the sleeve! Well not really just a funny thought. I'm starting to think this thing drove to Mars.

What started out as quick cooling system refurbishment, turned into when do I stop taking it apart. This was my stopping point, until I happhazardly spun the A/C pulley and that bearing is bad. Then I spun the power steering pump and the pulley wobbles as it's bent like someone tried to install it with a hammer. Good grief.

This is the disaster, err I mean wiring on the back of the alternator. So the brainiacs that worked on this removed the fusible link on the alternator and it's just a ring terminal now and that B+ line is almost rubbed through by abrading on the engine block. 1/2 mm more and that B+ feed wire would turn into a red hot toaster element without the fusible link.

--> appropriate.

The bearings are done in this alternator, they are terrible, feels like an earthquake in your hand when you spin it. It doesn't look that old either. This engine ran extremely hot in the summer. Between the extreme retarded cam timing and the previous owner boasting about he sent the distributor to some place to have set back to 1968 emission specs (equates to abysmal mechanical advance) the dynamic compression was so low it basically was a Ben Franklin pot belly stove with a crankshaft sticking out of it.

I do find the alternator case intriguing. The rear half looks like a typical later 1G but I've never seen a 1G with a rounded front case half. The early 1G's had a rounded rear case half and a squared off front case half. Interesting.

OK now I'm done, well for now. I think I can finally start to put this back together properly.

More to come.

Cheers

 

[rickyracer1983]

Hey matey, you have more rust and barnacles then some Navy ships I've gone into the drydock with. RRRRRRRRR

 

['66 LTD]

I'm eager to see how you deal with that alternator wiring debacle. Mine looks similar at the moment, thanks largely in part due to my grandfather's (the previous owner) handy-dandy wiring skills. Electrical tape, crimp fittings, and cracked wires as far as the eye can see.... Keep on keeping on!

-'66

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out

Back to it.

This is the cam sprocket that was in there, the pin is all chowdered up, lord knows what they were doing when they were installing this.

Again having a parts car really saves the day, here's a clean pin.

That sprocket was worn.

Clean up the front of the engine best I could. The new timing set is coming, so off to work on some other part.

The thermostat was in there and it was closed when I removed it. However when manually trying to open it, it's really grabby and sticky. So it makes sense it was sticking as the engine took forever to barely warm up.

Here's the carb that will be going on the car. It's a 4100 with the 1.12 venturi for a decent sized engine. The 1.08 is usually for small blocks. For those who think the Autolite 4100 is a performance carb you may wish to read this with a grain of salt. Autolite 4100 . Even though it doesn't flow high numbers it does seem pretty darn good at metering fuel with its annual boosters and it pretty responsive for a stock FE.

There's where the size it located.

We had rebuilt the car several years ago and a few years ago it was used for this fine apparatus. However whilst this '68 LTD has a Z code 390, it's been chugging on 7 cylinders for the last 2 years and the secondaries weren't opening due to lack of vacuum. As a result the secondaries became seized.

But some penetrating oil and a little heat to lower body and it freed right up. I removed the blades and shaft and polished the base bores and shaft.

The body after being disassembled received a thorough cleaning and the small jets like the enrichment system were cleaned with wire.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

Same thing with the accelerator pump. I like the small bleed off hole at the top, any liquid fuel that turns into a gas bubbles back out into the main bowl and allows liquid to enter without forces fuel out the accelerator pump jets.

To peen the screws in the throttle blades I supported the heads of the screws with a socket.

Like so

Then just peened the edge of the screw so it can't unscrew and fall into the engine.

New power valve in the kit on the right.

Installed.

The idle mixture screws cleaned.

The idle mixture screws were lightly seated and backed off 1-1/2 turns.

New accelerator pump parts.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

Accelerator pump finished.

This carb was rebuilt just several years ago and you can see what the ethanol did to the rubber parts. When that diaphragm is compromised fuel can leak right atop the engine and it doesn't take much imagination what can happen with fuel on a hot engine.

The jets are cleaned and installed.

The boosters were cleaned and all air bleeds checked with a small wire for obstructions.

Taking time and inspecting every little part can save hours of aggravation later on.

Accelerator pump check ball and weight rod.

Primary booster check out.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

The secondary diaphragm was changed several years ago and this is one part not in the kit, but it was still good.

Secondary system actuator connected.

New needles and seats.

Now float settings are really dependent on type of float and fuel pressure. But I found setting the floats level with light pressure on the seat usually results in a good float level.

Choke system cleaned.

Ready for assembly.

You can see just how wide the Edelbrock carb is compared to the Autolite.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

I ordered an electric choke conversion for this, but for now the stock choke element can be installed.

Splash guards for the cross over passage.

New gasket for the hot idle air bleed.

The little dust guard for the choke lever.

The choke connector was broken and is not included in the kit and had to be ordered separately.

This is the correct fuel filter as it has the flare on the inlet to seal. It does not seal with the gasket.

The sealing seat on the carb.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

No gasket.

The rest will have to wait till the parts arrive.

I will need to connect the choke pull off air inlet into the nipple leading to the air horn clean air port.

The carb kit used.

The PCV base plate and gasket. This was from the donor car.

You can see the distribution ports.

This intake was supposed to have that long tube that connects from the rear of the intake to the front (pipe plug) where the PCV normally attaches but that is missing, so this base plate will work just as well. More than one way to skin a cat.

The original oil-air separators are full of junk and disintegrating.

Whilst you can very carefully pry the old separators apart, clean and repack them with stainless mesh wire and re-crimp, you can also buy them reproduced.

Continued in next post.



Nice metal elbow and practically a billet PCV valve that is cleaned.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

misc bits needed.

Had to play Chinese fire drill with the grommets.

Much better, now it will have a functioning PCV system.

Installed the carb and the C6 kick down linkage. It was missing the white bushing in the end, so donor car to the rescue, once nicely fitting I adjust the kick down so the carb had full throttle at 95% of full kick down movement.

Then I attached the throttle cable and adjust that so I have full throttle and low idle cable throw.

This is still the 2 jet throttle cable as only half is in the clamp, but it's a whole lot better than with the Edelbrock carb.

Linkages done and adjusted.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

New double roller timing set.

There is still a little slack in the chain, slid the balancer on eyeballed a reference and it looks like 2 degrees of play, but it's better than 20+ degrees of play. The cam bearings are probably so warn the cam is sitting lower in the block.

Geeze this stuff is baked on.

I had this nice thick timing cover gasket, but it was too thick and ended up using the Fel Pro.

Some new and refurbished bits.

Slowly going back together.

New sleeve and seal.

Oiled the chain.

The OIL lamp never worked, so it does have a bad sender, I had a used spare.

That will work.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

I prepped a donor damper as this is a '68 damper and the car had a later year one on it. Turns out the timing marks were still in the same location, so the pointer was the same as well. But doesn't hurt to the have the correct year part on it.

Timing cover installed, spacer installed and key.

Donor pulley cleaned and painted.

It's a whole lot easier to read the timing marks now.

Since everything was baked on this car, a new fuel pump was in order, that and someone strong armed the fitting on and I rounded the fixed fitting on the old pump trying to get it off.

15 hues of an ugly blue

I test fitting the new coolant pump to measure the bypass hose, it's silicon with stainless steel clamps.

Coolant pump installed.

Since they jacked the original radiator mounts these are from the donor car. I just picked the best rubber mounts to use.

New 160˚F fail safe thermostat.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

Making progress.

The choke connector arrived.

Installed and adjusted.

Electric choke arrived as well.

Power steering bracket.

I installed the bracket and set the power steering pump to it's minimum belt setting. I needed to do this to determine where the fuel line would route as not to hit anything. Making this fuel line was a bear but it turned out decent.

There's not much room for error with the '68 FE front dress.

I use stiff wire to get a rough pattern, then I bend using the wire as a guide and fine tune as I go.

Since the bender has a radius, you have to plan that into the line, where the wire guide is ideal, it's not like that on the final piece so you have to compensate.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued

The critical dimensions are the same, just have to deal with bender radius.

I'm happy with the line up and it's all stainless including the nut so no worries about internal rust.

I put a new inlet line to the fuel pump as the end was rock hard but the rest of the hose was soft as a wet sponge. I can only surmise it's the ethanol doing that.

It's so squishy, I'm surprised it didn't collapse.

Upper compressor and tensioner bracket.

So I found this, I mean why not, nothing surprises me on this car. The shoddy workmanship is aplenty. The power steering pulley looks like it was pried on in 3 placed and the axial run out is about 3/16" which is way too much for a belt. The belt was not happy.

Plus it was pinched here. <rolling eyes>

Donor pump.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Sorting It Out - Continued.

You can see where it was pried on.

Donor pulley stripped painted and installed along withe A/C idler and tensioner pulleys.

I rebuilt this alternator several years ago and it's been on that parts car sitting outside as it used to run, but is now getting parted out and going away soon. One less eyesore.

This works seemingly well in the parts car, even a low chugging 500 RPM it would hold battery voltage at 14.5 volts. But I want to go through it even though the bearing feel like brand new.

I was going to use the entire harness but rodents attacked it, so I'll make a new harness for the XL.

The XL's and parts car both taken apart for inspection.

The one I rebuilt still used the '66 stator and there isn't much insulation used originally, the stator in the XL's is a better stator. However the rest of the XL's alternator was not so good, the bearings were dry and galled, the plastic insulator just shattered like glass and the rotors slip ring is heavily gouged. The only other good part is the radio frequency interference capacitor was good.

Original '66 stator.

The newer stator from the XL has better insulation and I will use this along as it passes the short and inductance tests.

I'm going to use the main bridge rectifier from the one I rebuilt as the XL's insulators just broke apart on its. However I feel the need to enhance the copper traces for higher current by applying and building up solder on them.

Continued in next post.