1969_Mach1

Was the driveline balance when it was shortened?. I did not add this thumbnail! Why is it here? Its not even one of my pictures. When I try to delete it I get an "Action Failed" error message.

That's correct, the only difference is the 351W has a larger diameter distributor shaft. There is no difference in the distributor gears. One thing I would check is make certain the gear is installed at the correct depth on the distributor shaft. As far as the 302 firing order cam in a 351W. I have seen long term negative side affects of the 302 firing order in a 351W. The 302 firing order in a 351W tends to ruin the front crankshaft main bearing. I understand that is why, or partly why, the firing order was changed for 351W and later 302 HO motors.

I run the same distributor, MSD 8578, and never had any issues like you are experiencing. I've replaced the shaft when installing a steel dist. gear so I can honestly say the material is fairly soft below the surface treatment. So your shaft can be bent. Fortunately, the shafts are relatively inexpensive, about $30 from MSD. But you will need a press to replace it with ease.

Have you ruled out something wrong with the driveshaft itself? Out of balance, yokes not positioned correctly when it was shortened? I haven't seen a balanced driveshaft without any weights on it, but that's just my experience.

Just my 2 cents on pressure regulators. I've never messed with fuel pressure regulators. But, from an engineering standpoint, I don't see how a pressure regulator without a return line will reduce fuel pressure if the motor is not running and fuel is not flowing through the lines and carb. In other words, I would expect the pressure to be higher than the regulator set point if the engine is not running and the fuel pump is on.

I think the ammeter to volt meter conversion is a good idea. Eventually I want to do mine. Good Luck.

I have one question. Are these rubber bushing UCA's like other rubber bushing suspension items in that the pivot bolts must be tightened with the car at normal ride height otherwise the bushings can be damaged?

You're right, the original temperature gauges are not very accurate. In your case it would be simpler to have the original ammeter converted to a volt meter. The additional wiring to connect a voltmeter is much simpler than an original ammeter. The appearance is not altered just the functionality. Here is one place that can do the gauge conversion, http://rccinnovations.com/index.php?show=menu-volt-all . A volt meter is a better indicator of the charging and battery condition. If I had an extra ammeter I would do the conversion because the original ammeters do not work very well. Then install a temp and oil psi gauge of your choice in the console as you originally planned. I think this would be the easiest way to accomplish your goals.

I have rewired a 69 Mach to switch from a non tach IP to a factory tach IP. There are many differences. I would not attempt what you are trying to do. Have you thought of leaving the gauge setup as is and installing a mechanical oil pressure gauge and a voltmeter in the console? I would definitely leave the existing oil and amp warning lights intact and functioning because from my experience the gauges on the console are so far out of your line-of-sight you don't look at them. The console is a not the best location for gauges.

Make certain the door weather strips are installed correctly. I have one, its on the drivers door, the lower front corner is not positioned correctly and causes excessive needed force to close the door. It is slightly too short and that is why that corner won't stay in position. When I position it correctly the door closes fine. I need to replace it, just haven't got around to it. Have you repositioned the strikers to see if there will be any change? My trunk was hard to close with the new weather strip. It took months to loosen up and was very gradual.

I've read about a welding rod called Super Allow 1 for pot metal. It works like a solder and may be what Ridge runner used to repair the headlight buckets. The link jholmes217 listed above in his post talks about it also.

So far so good! I like the new interface! Thanks for all the hard work!

No, but since the pod is made with strange angles I was careful to place the speaker at the deepest portion of the pod. The only thing I had to do was to move the E-brake out away from the body 1/2 inch to easily clear the speaker grill. I simply installed 1/2 inch spacers where the E-brake attaches to the body. I will note, my speaker grills hang over the edges of the pods. But, I read a post where the pods for the 5-1/2" speakers have the same issue. It doesn't bother me. It's better than cutting up the doors in my case. These kick panels sat on my work bench a couple of weeks because I didn't think the speakers would fit. In the end, they worked better than I expected.

When I use to work as a GM tech and also at an independent shop, by the time carbureted cars and trucks came in for driveability issues, they were beyond simple tune ups so it was common to also have to rebuilt the carb. I prefer Fords but I ended up the GM route because at the time GM had 2 year training programs at colleges and not trade schools so it seemed like a good path. You alternated between work at your sponsoring dealership and school. Even though I didn't stay in that trade it opened up doors.

Ha Ha! Rochester not Motorcraft, stuff General Motors uses.

I installed Blaupunkt's 4" Blue Magic speakers in the kick panels that have pods for 4 x 6 speakers. These Blaupunkt's have a 1.75" mounting depth and they fit without any sheetmetal cutting. Most 4X6 speakers are for OEM replacement and don't have grills. I would look at a 4X6 plate speaker. They consist of a 4" round and a separate small tweeter on a mounting plate to fit a 4X6 mount. Everything I've read indicates these are better than a traditional oval 4X6 speaker.

I have no experience with this swap and I realize the 8.8" is popular, robust, and common. What I don't understand is if you are going through all this trouble to install an 8.8 inch rear axle, why not simply install a 9 inch that is already correct for a 69 Mustang?

I'd leave the float at the stock setting and see if you have any issues. Lower it if you have any of the problems barnett468 mentions. If you have any issues, it probably won't be until the summer months. I've rebuilt probably 1000 carbs in my time and always set the floats at stock specs. To be fair to barnett468, most of those were GM carbs. So he probably knows more about the Autolite carbs. Vapor lock is when the gas in the line between the fuel pump and carb starts to boil. As the fuel pump operated the gas vapors compress preventing fuel flow through the line.

With 73 deg overlap you are going to have some rich smelling exhaust fumes. 214-224 deg duration at 0.050 lift isn't bad. That's a pretty old cam grind and is no longer available. I think its in one of my old Ford Motorsports catalogs.

Here is my personal experience with an RPM Air Gap manifold on a 351W in my 1969 Mach1. 1) Manifiold by itself fits fine. 3) With a Holley 700 CFM DP carb there was only 3/4" from the bottom of the hood to the top lip of the choke horn. Will it fit? 1) If your carb has a choke horn ---- no it will not fit. By the time you get an air cleaner to fit under the hood with enough clearance to not hit the hood, there is not enough clearance between the air cleaner lid and the choke horn. Holley recommends 1" clearance from top of choke horn to air cleaner lid. 2) If your carb has no choke horn you should be able to get an air cleaner combination to fit. I tried it when my carb had a choke horn and never drove the car because I was thought the air cleaner would hit the hood. Summit Racing was kind enough to take back the RPM Air Gap manifold. I've heard some people run it with a choke horn on their carb and let the air cleaner bump into the hood occasionally. I have since removed the choke horn from my carb but left the choke mechanism in place for fast idle and I may try an RPM Air Gap again. If you want a dual plane intake for street use. The Weiand Stealth is hard to beat. It works better then the Performer RPM.

First of all, typically the torque converter stays on the trans when the trans is removed. Otherwise, you may have a lot of trans fluid all over your floor and most importantly you can damage the front pump on the transmission. From the starter opening or from the sheet metal inspection cover on the lower front of the bell housing remove the 4 nuts holding the torque convertor to the flex plate. You will have to rotate the crankshaft to get to them one at a time. Then if you have all bolts removed attaching the bell housing to the block and separator plate to the trans (the plate sandwiched between the block and bell housing) it can simply be stuck on the two locator dowel pins. In that case it will take some force and shaking to loosen it. You try some type of penetrating oil in the dowel pin holes. I've had them work loose in a few seconds of shaking the trans to stuck so bad the alignment dowel pins that are pressed into the block came out and stayed in the bell housing.

barnett468, He might have been comparing using a chain attached diagonally to the cylinder heads with two bolts vs. four bolts when using the carb position lift bracket.

The plate typically works. I've never heard of it failing. With the chain method you are using either a 3/8 or 7/16 diameter bolt depending on what hole you select. Plus the load applied to bolts with the chain method is predominately shear. With the lift plate on the intake manifold, the bolts are in pure tension. And, if you are using a grade 5 or stronger bolt, the weak link is going to be the threads in the intake manifold. They work, I personally don't trust them.

Most likely it is dropping at least one cylinder when under a load. The most common cause and easiest to fix is something in the secondary side of the ignition breaking down. For example: 1) a bad spark plug 2) bad spark plug wire 3) bad dist cap or rotor 4) bad ignition coil 5) only had this happen a couple of times on an old car, the top of the ignition coil is covered in grime and grease, enough to conduct electricity, causing intermittent short between the terminals Worse conditions that cause shudder when under load is a cylinder with slightly low compression. I've seen that many times on old motors with a lot of wear. One time specifically on a motor home, a valve is not sealing completely and one cylinder had only 80 90 psi compression compared to 120-130 psi in the others. Idled and cruised smooth, but under load it would shudder a little. FYI: A quick rough check for any motor integrity is to disable the ignition system by removing the coil wire from the distributor cap and grounding it. DON'T just pull off the coil wire and let it dangle you can damage the coil as it tries to created enough electrical energy to jump a huge gap, or start a fire as everybody can imagine. . . . . Then crank the motor and listen for a steady consistent even rhythm in the cranking sound. Crank long enough to hear the rhythm pattern. Sometimes they will initially have an uneven rhythm then even out. If the rhythm stays uneven there is most always a cylinder with low compression. I've always seen the two go together, uneven cranking rhythm and a cylinder with low compression. If you rule out dropping a cylinder (missing or misfire) and the motor integrity is good. I have had incidents where a bad motor mount caused a strange shudder, and when a bad driveshaft u-joint caused a strange shudder when accelerating.

Fix the fresh air vent. Some people remove them. I thought about removing mine for front speaker mounting but then realized even with A/C there is no fresh air setting on the HVAC controls like on modern cars. So, I left my fresh air vents in.