Jimjific

I agree with Thunderscrash but for another reason. I've been doing some research on the 69 Chevy truck that I just got and I found a big discussion on the message board there about using silicone on body panels. Most people seemed to agree that silicon traps water between it and the panel and causes it to rot the panel out. One guy backed up his opinion with photos of his firewall where a previous owner used silicone to seal the A/C and blower. It totally destroyed the firewall. Jim

Danno, With the headlight switch in the open/off position and the fuse removed from the the fuse block the downstream circuit is broken and the instrument/heater/clock lights should have no bearing on continuity. Yet, when I probe either terminal it rings out to ground. The "down stream" one makes sense since it could be going through the heater bulb to ground. It is the "up stream" one that has me confused. If it is grounded when the fuse is removed why don't I see sparks when I energize it by turning on the headlights? I think I need to take the switch out and see if there is an issue there. Thanks again, Jim

Ok, I guess I must have not stated things well. I have the instrument panel disconnected while I've been doing my recent debugging so the flex circuit is out of the picture for now at least. All of this is with NO fuse installed. - With the switch off both fuse terminals read 0 volts. - With the switch on I see voltage (~11V) on one of the terminals (good) Here's what I can't get my head around. - When I check continuity between terminal it rings (Again no fuse) - When I check continuity between either terminal to ground it rings also. So this means that when I turn on the headlights the instrument panel lights are sending ~11V to ground. So why isn't anything burning up? Also, with the lights on and checking voltage, as I turn the switch shouldn't I see the voltage drop? Right now it seems like it bounces and then settles back to 11 but not always. If I turn the it all of the way to the low light position it goes to very low voltage. I printed out the schematic. I will check if the heater control lights works tonight. I believe it is out though. The shift select works but from the schematic it is on a different circuit. Thanks for the help, Jim

Coupe or Fastback?

Thanks for the replies. I will have to try the battery charger idea. One thing that is really confusing me is, why does is there continuity between the fuse terminals when there is no fuse in it and the flex board is disconnected. Also, the fuse terminal rings out to ground. Would this indicate a bad headlight switch? Just so you know, this is the only thing that doesn't work on the car. Jim

Ok, I've got a weird one here. I've been doing a bunch of interior stuff so I figured I'd look into why my instrument lights don't work. Here's what I know: - Lights never worked from the day I got the car. ~1.5 years - When I first looked into it the fuse was blown. - I replaced the fuse and they still didn't work. - Since I have dash apart I tested the connector. - At the time, I found the contact that lights the lights and it worked with the switch and I could see the voltage change as I rotated the switch. - I could get a bulb to light by hooking up leads to it. - Finally got back to working on it last night and couldn't get anything to work and couldn't find the voltage from the switch. - So I checked the fuse and it would ring out with the meter. - I check the terminal on one side of the fuse and I see 12V - I check the other side and I don't see anything. - At this point I'm like what the hell? I check the fuse again and it rings out again. - So I pull the fuse and it is blown. - I check the terminals again and 12V on one and nothing on the other. - So I put the probes on both terminals and check continuity and it rings out with the fuse gone. How can this happen? I hate electrical problems. Jim

Like the sign say's "Speed's is just a question of money, how fast do you wanna to go?" - Mad Max Bill Thomas, a ford 9" guru from CA used to tell me that his customers would always complain, "Man I broke something when I really hooked up well". Well of course you did, that is when you put the most stress on all of the parts and it is looking for the weakest link. Build for torque and HP will follow is the rule I try to use. Jim

I'm not much of a fan of seeing the other engines in cars. But let me devils advocate for a second. Do we or true blood Chevy guys get upset when we see Ford 9" rear ends in their cars? On a side note, I just bought a 69 Chevy short bed side step C-10. In my researching I've noticed a bunch of C-10 guys will put late model step side beds on the 67-72 trucks. To me, it really kills the truck. But they also slam these trucks and put hot wheels tire/rims on too which in my opinion looks equally bad. Jim

el70gato, PM Sent. Jim

Here is a Marti-Report of the cougar in case anyone was interested. Jim

Sven, How much of the Raptor did you use? I just bought a 69 C-10 that is coming from UT to the Northeast and I was thinking of doing an undercoating on it since it will be my driver for all seasons. I wonder how hard it woudl be to put on since I wouldn't be using a rotisserie and the truck will not be as "prepped" as your car was. Jim

Thanks for the comments on the truck. I set up shipping yesterday and if all goes well I should have it by next Friday. I'm excited and a little nervous since I'm buying it without seeing it in person but the guy seemed legit on the phone and it comes with a really cool pheasant sticker on the glove box. His father in law who was the original owner was a big pheasant fan. Now I just need to find a Cougar fan. Jim

Hello All, Well, I know it's not a Mustang or even a ford but I bought this from a guy in UT and getting it delivered. It's a 69 C-10. It has p/s, p/b and A/C. Less than 82K miles, less than 1500 miles on a new engine and is a one family owner. I currently have a 2001 GMC Stepside with 160K and it is starting to get unreliable and the my wife has been bugging me to get a new truck. So instead of having a payment, I got an old one that is easily fixable should a problem arise. So, part of the deal of getting this is I think it's time to sell the Cougar. It's a Green 1968 XR-7 GT "S" code. The body is super clean with zero rust issues. Original block was busted (Someone let it freeze) but I have a block that is ready to be built. The only parts that I believe I don't have are, steering wheel, console and brake booster. Here are some pics: They aren't the greatest pictures but I don't have many. It came with a bunch of extra parts. I hate to get rid of this car since it would be really cool to have. My plan was to stroke the 390 to 427. I'm not sure what to ask for it. I don't want to give it away but I also am not looking to make a killing on it. I'd prefer not to use e-bay so that is why I post it here to see if there is any interest or if anyone knows who might want it. I'm near Albany, NY Thanks, Jim

The second one could possibly work since the "u"-shape opening is .870". The heim plus the two seals comes to .850 so you would have .010" on a side which should pinch quit easily. My only worry is that hopefully there is a radius where the shaft meets the face of the clevis. You don't want a stress concentration here. Remember that this part is under tension in most situations. The 1/2" Bolt is nice though. Here is a quick CAD model I did of the new clevis. I had to guess on quite a few dimensions since they only give some of them from the site. If you get one and can get me more accurate info, I can update the model. Jim

I will check the part to see if they geve me the right one. Thanks, Jim

So I bought a "Power Brake" switch. I installed it and knew before I pulled myself out of the car that the brake lights were going to still be on and they were. Then I got to thinking that maybe if I took out the plastic bushing that was in the master cylinder plunger (This was on the brake pedal when I took to old one out.) it would give the pedal some play. The brake lights still were on. So I switched back to the non power switch and now it all works fine. So I guess I wasted $22. So the question to you you guys running power brakes, do you have a plastic bushing that slides over the brake pedal peg? I did throw a seat in quick and went for ride. It's going to be nice having the power brakes. Thanks, Jim

I'm not sure what mrpete222 is. Keep me posted on your progress. Jim

Without doing a stress analysis on the export brace it cant be said what exactly it does in the up/down motion. But looking at the design and what/how it attaches to the body, it will do little to prevent the shock towers from movement in the up/down. Testament to this is when you install one, attach the brace to the firewall only and then try to lift the brace upwards at the shock towers. You will find it relatively easy to do this. The reason you can do this is that the brace flattens out at the mounting points and only mounts to a lip on firewall. The moment arm is just too great to for any brace to stop the up/down movement. The only thing that the brace does is triangulate the shock towers to the firewall to help ward off inward flexing. The ridges/contour of the brace stop it from buckling between the mounting points. I made my own straight bar that attaches directly to the shock towers with heim joints. The Maier bar attaches to the shock tower which is good but, it has a slight bend at each end which will result in vectors that don't point at each other which could result in causing the bar to flex. They being said, the Maier bar should work just fine. Jim

So I spent the better part of the weekend putting in a power brake booster. I switched out the pedal also. I have hooked everything up and now my brake lights are always on. SO I looked to see if Mustangs Unlimited listed a different switch for power brakes and sure enough they do. So I was wondering can anyone tell me what difference is here or why they would be different? Now the venting. This is the kind of crap this annoys the hell out of me about Ford, it seems anytime you switch anything, there is are a million little things that seem to have to be changed too for apparently now good reason. It's like going to the DMV, you never seem to have everything you need. GM did a way better job at interchangability. Done ranting, maybe it's the daily flooding rain we've been getting here in the North East. Jim

One of the things that I like about the GT's is that they don't have the blacked out hood. To me, it looks a little cleaner. My Two Cents. Jim

One of the things that I like about the GT's is that they don't have the blacked out hood. To me, it looks a little cleaner. My Two Cents. Jim

Flanders, It is a taper fit so it will be tight. I find the best way to loosen any taper is by delivering a blow to the side of the hole. I just took apart my old front drum suspension this way. I usually take the castle nut off and flip it over and thread it back on. Then I hit the joint from the side and then tap the upside down castle nut and it usually will break loose. Jim

Flanders, It is a taper fit so it will be tight. I find the best way to loosen any taper is by delivering a blow to the side of the hole. I just took apart my old front drum suspension this way. I usually take the castle nut off and flip it over and thread it back on. Then I hit the joint from the side and then tap the upside down castle nut and it usually will break loose. Jim

My original one is hard to tell what color it is due to age and sun. It is either black or a dark blue. My interior is light blue. Maybe someone repainted it at some time or it is super dirty. Jim

Quick question for you all. I just got a new fastback package tray for mounting speakers. What color should it be? Should I paint it my interior color (Light blue) or should it be black? Thanks, Jim