smh00n

Been a while since posting. I have been copping some serious static from my wife for neglecting chores around the house so I took a weekend off to do some much-needed tasks like tree pruning, mulching gardens and pulling weeds. Let me clarify static - nothing is spoken or done, there is just this aura that emanates from her to me and the pressure waves go through your body. Y'all know what I'm saying. Progress so far has been one forwards, 2 backwards. The pulley for the Saginaw P/s pump arrived, but the offset was too deep and I couldn't use it. 96 bucks gone. Whilst waiting for the pulley to arrive, I hooked the power steer up and threw some fluid in it. The reason for putting fluid in it escapes me, as it is not ready to start, but lucky I did as the whole lot fell on the floor overnight. One reason was I didn't tighten the mount bolts on the rear of the can up, and as the bolts go into the reservoir the fluid found the path of least resistance. But, when tightening up the bolts I still had a leak. The interwebs seemed to favour the fact that as the kit was supplied with bolts and not studs like GM did, the seals behind the can were not sealing and leaking. So I started looking at studs. Down under, we get bent over by nearly every vendor and all I could find was a set for a Pontiac for 40 bucks. Plus freight. I found an old guy who did power steering and spent well over an hour in his shop. The first thing I learnt was Saginaw pumps are basic; when you pull the reservoir can off there are 3 seals that sit in recesses in the actual pump body to seal the reservoir. Well, lucky me, the two orings (square section seal actually) were ripped behind the mount bolts and that's what caused the leak. Next was the pumps supplied by Borgeson have some foreign matter in them and they are not clean. With new seals and a bit of hope I put the pump back on, put in about a half a quart of fluid and put a jug under it. After 2 weeks no red stuff so maybe I won that one. I am going to risk the smaller section pulley and hope it does not make life miserable. Next I got the driveshaft back. This is a whole new shaft with 1350 joints and a billet FMX yoke (which is what is used on a TKO, don't get ripped by buying a 'TKO' yoke). It's only money, but a weeks pay money hurts. The diff and axles went off to the diff guy for a rebuild, 3.55 gears and a True track, whilst the rusty wheel bearings will be replaced. I started to drain the housing of oil, and was not surprised at all when I felt chunks in it. Oh well, another amateur item in the 'rebuild'. So, I pulled the housing out to clean it properly. Along the way I will replace the brake pipes as they look original and have some corrosion on the ends. I hate tube nuts, they always seem to round off on me even with correct tube spanners. Whilst looking at the rear, I decided to take out the springs and get them reset and dropped. Good thing too, the front bushes were old and the clamps were all loose. A day later I have newly reset springs, no rattles and an inch lower than the day before. I think it will look how I want now, both tyres (tires) just under the guard lips. Next, the radiator. Rightly or wrongly I bought an ebay special radiator for it previously, which had clogged up with the crud in the old motor. This is 26" wide and quite tall - about an inch off the hood base) so are a big unit. As they are only $180 to buy, I bought another one. But when I go to fit it, they have a 38mm lower tank width (about 1 1/2") and a 60mm (or 2 3/8") top tank and no original clamp bracket will fit. I can space the original lower brackets out with rubber (or make up a new C bracket) but the top is stumping me. There's not enough material on the OEM bracket to straighten and re-bend to fit and the aluminium options here are not attractive. But, today in speaking with a work mate he has a small sheet metal folder so I may be able to knock something up on that. Mounting it on the side of the front panel is an option, but it needs spacer brackets which will look ugly, so I will try to stay with the upper and lower clamps. I then bought some 2.5" exhaust pipe to start making up a new exhaust. The shop had a pre-fabricated X pipe cheaper than 2 x 90° bends, so I grabbed that. But, the inlet and outlet are straight and not angled so I need to do some funky cuts to get them to line up. I left that for another day when I was in the mood. The plan for the exhaust is to stop it at the mufflers and use drop pipes. If it's too loud you're too old. Did some online shopping; new front spring bushes, front brake hoses with the correct brackets, red tracer wire for the reverse light wiring and a 90° cable end terminal to neaten up the starter motor cable, as the shorty headers won't allow a right hand terminal due to space. I put the steering wheel back on, to complete the dash. As I used a RH drive boss for the new wheel, the indicator cancel lugs were in the wrong place. I bit of fencing wire - true - and some precision measurements had it on the spare lug on the indicator switch and now my turn signals cancel at the same spot either way the wheel is turned. The registration ran out March 5, so I only have 3 months to have it inspected and re-registered without hassle.

Phew. Super mind-bending day at work and just read this. I appreciate it, have not thought about keeping the NSS active but probably not a bad idea. The video is simples, nice easy bit of work. I'll digest it later when my brain is not telling to go to the fridge and take 3 beers in quick succession (like a Doctor says take some pills and call me later, beer fixes my issues)

My TKO sits right across on the passenger side too. Using all MDL mounts. Seems to sit well front to rear in the hole, but not side to side.

Thanks - they are in the same plug by the looks of it? I looked again the the hood turn signals. They have cut the original wiring... I have a couple of single connectors near the 4 way NSS/reverse plug. One has gray wire. One I remember went to the auto shifter. Is that just a light power switch?

Ladies and Gentlemen I am into the wiring for my TKO conversion from an auto, and just needed some hand-holding before I chop wires up. The car has been hacked up especially in the back so I don't want to spend nights pulling wires and hair out. From this thread I see I am looking for a black and red wire into a 4 wire connector (labelled "H") at the firewall to plug the back up switch from the trans into. Yes? I guess there is power into this switch from the 296 wire out of the fuse box? So I need to make sure 12V is on one side? And then, in back I have the same single red/black wire to power the reverse lights. Yes? Next, I have seen you basically jump the original neutral start wiring to bypass the original automatic gearlever switch. Can someone give me wire colours to jump? I have a single wire and also a block of about 4 that came off the auto. Last, can you buy the OEM moulded plugs? I have LED lights for the hood turn signals, but they have been hacked before from the harness plug, so I was going to make a new harness; but I don't have any of the original plugs used. I can use dodgy connectors but prefer not to.

Part 14 - Fuel line, power steering bracket, dash and diff As I had managed to trash the existing fuel lines when putting the box in, I bought more hard line. 25 feet of alloy 9/3/8" tube for 45 bucks. Not really wanting to run it back up the tunnel, I decided to run it down the side. The passenger side seemed the obvious, as my fuel filters were on that side. I used two filters for the Sniper, the first is a 40 micron and the second is a 10 micron, as per Holley's spec. These are made by Aeroflow, which is a brand owned by one of Australia's first top fuel drivers. I've used a bit of their stuff, mainly fittings and fuel stuff and it seems to be OK. I didn't quite get it all but what you see is the supply line coming out of the trunk floor into the first filter, looping around to the second and then exiting stage left to the new fuel line. The hose running across the top of the lower filter is the return line. What I realised afterwards is I should have started at the front and worked my way back, but I started at the back and went forwards. So the front pipes look a bit ugly and they are; too many bends and straightens. The radius needed to go vertical was more than most 3/8" pipe benders can handle. The only way I saw they would route without drama is through the torque box, so I made 2 x 3/4" holes. I wanted to protect the pipes from damage and planned to wrap them in hose (and the Borgeson return hose was just the thing to use). Measure twice, cut once right? My first attempt didn't take into consideration my bender would not fit so out came the drill again. I had thought initially of popping the pipes through the fender and crimping fuel hose to them, but I realised the wheel and tyre would probably hit them. Especially as there was an original hole I could use. Turns out the grommet was as hard as rock so had been there since day dot. I decided to use bulkhead fittings to keep the pipes tight and make them secure. Luckily Aeroflow has hard line to -6 AN fittings, so I bought two of them, and ended up like this. I know the angle are shiite but I had bent this pipe so much I was worried it would just crack. So ugly and bad it will stay. I did feel bad drilling holes into the original body, when I chipped back the sealant it has the original paint under there (I assume it is original). Moving on back, I ran the pipes along the sill join, tucked them up with the floor transition and up around the iner wheel arch and dropped them under the centre of the rail. I had some P clips I used but then found that Aeroflow have pressed twin line clamps that look pretty neat, so I bought some. At 8 bucks each I'm not going to use them everywhere but They are supplied with soft self tapping screws which strip when used on decent gauge steel, so I put rivnuts in with stainless button head screws. A little bot of new hose and the fuel line is done. I have to cut new hose to the carb once I put that back on and then fix them to the new line with -6 fittings. I'll also wrap them in heat sleeve as they go past the headers. That chore done, I started working on the power steering pump. The Borgeson kit does not impress; the return line is straight out of the pump and will foul the exhaust, the bracket supplied is low rent. It has 2 spacers supplier, a long and short. Well, the long is too long for a '70 and the short are no use at all. Plus, the pump hangs off and some weird angle due to the mount hole location. At maximum belt adjustment it looks wrong. At minimum belt adjustment it looks wronger. Who on earth thought this was a good plan? Plus, it is at least a 1/4" out of alignment The issue is the top bolt interferes with the can and you have to have it on an angle. My brilliant idea was to add a plate to the rear of the bracket, use a cap head bolt for the top mount and rotate the bracket around to keep the pump vertical, and not as close to the inner fender. A byproduct of this was the oil pressure switch now fouled the back of the pump. Originally I had a late model oil adaptor that put the sender vertical, but when I used one with the 45 degree angle, we had plenty of clearance. This picture has the tube fitting with a -6 fitting for the return line, the delivery hose and the oil sender. Now, the pump sits vertical at minimum belt adjustment All I need now is a new 1/2" grooved pulley to match the belt and we are done here. Some people have reported that the hoses Borgeson supply are too short. I have the V8 kit and I found the pressure hose to be slightly too long. Not by much but it does put a bit of tension on the fittings. I am also putting a cooler on as the hoses are very close to the headers. I got some heat sleeve from Aeroflow (15 bucks/3 ft) which is rated to 500 C so should be OK. To keep it neat I sealed the ends with heat shrink Without the return line being plumbed this is what they will look like That done I moved right along to the dash. I had been waiting for a new bracket to arrive and it turned up. Another 69 and 70 difference - the triangle bracket that supports the pedal box and column is different for both cars. Pictured below the 70 bracket is on the bottom and the 69 on top. You can all thank me later :) The 70 is also more of an even triangle, and the 69 is a bit offsided. With some new bolts I finally tightened up the column and reinstalled the dash. The crash pad with the car was some low rent reproduction with a fibreglass back, and it didn't fit to the windshield very well. In a fit of something I stumped up $850 for a dashes direct pad from a local supplier. Fits perfectly and looks like it was made for it. Which it should do, as it is made using a Ford die. Somewhere in the midst of this I also pulled the 3rd member and got it to the diff guy to install a True Trac and a set of 3.55 gears. I'm keeping the 8" as he tells me it will survive with the power I think I'll have. He does a lot of direct speedway stuff and has a good name so I will trust him. Until there's a Big Bang and we no longer move forwards :( I also took the old driveshaft to be modified. Looks like it needed about 1.5" taken off to fit (the car did have a C4 auto in it and I changed it to a TKO600). Well, when I get there and tell the man what I need, he looks at the shaft and laughs. So did I, this is typical of the whole car 'rebuild' So you have a 1310 diff yoke and a 1330 driveshaft uni. What to do? Meh, just make them fit somehow.... And that's todays random rebuild shot.

That's impressive work. Hopefully the Kid is getting hands on training as well? The export brace and firewall mods are smart. My car had manual drums and has been converted to power disc. The firewall is pretty thin and the holes are all over the shop.

Well that would have to do your head in. Lucky you had both pumps.

I think you are right as I saw that in a few posts. I ended up buying a new one from ebay - $28 bucks + shipping. Has the the right specs so will see what it is when it gets here.

You piqued my interest so I went lookin': https://terlinguaracingteam.com/pages/history And there is a town called Terlingua - right down on the border of Texas and Mexico. Like 6 degree's of separation to a 70 Mustang :)

I have a Saginaw pump supplied with the Borgeson power steer kit, but the pulley groove size is 3/8"and not 1/2" as it should be. To save me hours on the interwebs, has anyone got a lead on what pulley will fit the press on shaft and mate with the 1/2" wide belt? I don't really want to change all the pulleys as I spent hours and dollars getting them correct the first time.

As far as I can tell, both Cleveland and Windsor pulleys are the same after 1970, in reference to the depth/offset. I have a D1AE-8509-AA water pump pulley on my 302, which decodes as a 72 302 Maverick with P/S but no A/C. The pulley diameter is 5 15/16" OD. Your D1AE-8509-BA is for a 72 Maverick with a 302 again with P/S but no A/C. The diameter is 6 61/64" I'm sure I have the same D0OE-6312-BA crank pulley, and it matches the water pump pulley. The rearmost groove is for a 1/2" belt and should match both the p/s and water pump pulley. My research indicates the p/s goes over the w/p but the alternator runs direct off the crank. You need the matching D0OE-xxxx alternator bracket set to match the LH pump offset on the 1970-on cars.

Thanks, glad someone is getting some benefit. The T5 was a consideration with the GForce gearset, but the TKO was cheap, even when I bought it, so that's how it ended up. Now it is in and done, I'm happy with the decision. I lived in Queensland for a year or so. But them Queenslanders are weird, they don't like daylight savings and they can't spell beer, they call it XXXX. At least I have my Don't mess with Texas fridge magnet from my trip to Dallas in 2020.

Part 13 - New heart and lung transplant done We have Australia day here Thursday and I am simply following everybody else and taking Friday off, so a 4 day weekend. Time to stop the oily greasy jobs and start doing clean stuff. Wednesday afternoon I decided I would drop the engine back in. As it came out so easily with plenty of clearance I decided to put the motor on where it has been sitting and then put in the gearbox from underneath. First, I wanted to make sure the box would mate to the engine without struggle as I am one man and no assistance. Trial fit on the ground, and the box mated up nicely. Having dealt with cars that have bellhousings attached from the inside before, external bolts are most appreciated. I put on new engine mounts, which were needed as the ones that came out of it were cracked and made in India. At least the new ones are made in the USA. Onto the engine crane, lifted it up and down it went. I probably broke a few rules whacking it in from the side, but to get it to a garage where I can put it in from the front is a hard push up a slope and I'm too old for that shit now. It dropped in easy, sat on the mounts and it was done in an hour all done. I left it overnight to finish the next day. The next day, in went the gearbox. Was a bit of a fight doing it alone, I ended up picking up the rear of the box with a ratchet strap through the gear lever hole and then using a floor jack to ease it in. It went in easy and mated up to the bellhousing. I saw a video on you tube where doofus pulled the box in with the mount bolts and it destroyed the front mounts after it gave up having too much tension on the box. But this slipped in smooth. Again, the MDL crossmember just fitted nicely. No tension on the bolts, the mount is centered and all is right with the world. The great news is there is nowhere it is hitting on the tunnel, and it has good clearance all around. It's not huge clearance where you can put a hand around but nothing is hitting/rubbing/causing grief. The gearlever is slightly offset to the passenger side and is a bit close to the floor edges but that looks like the only concern. As far as I know, this box is straight out of Tremec with no modifications. It is the Ford-specific box. I read somewhere that MDL machine the top plate tower down for clearance but this as far as I know has not been touched. Next, I started on some little chores. I had left the steering all loose whilst I waited for the Open Tracker roller bearing idler arm, which turned up during the past week. I bolted the steering box down using the original washers from the original one, then went to change the idler arm. The difference I can see in the manual to P/S idler arms is the length of the top bush to the drag link - manual steer cars have about a 1/4" shorter pin through the bush and that's it. But no one sells the bushes so I paid AUD$200 for a new idler. Supposedly it will last a long time. First problem - for reasons I don't comprehend, the lower mount bolt fouls the pin for the actual moving arm. I'm like what the heck? Surely this is known, and why is there not some sort of fix or even advice to buyers? When I say I don't comprehend, I do comprehend the clearance but I don't know why it is sold like this. They could offer a half nut or something along with it. I found the nut would just fit in when placed against the bracket but it would have a slight misalignment. But not happy with that, I got the die grinder and trimmed the pin/stud back a little bit. It's hard to see in the pic as it is just a poofteenth needed. That done, next chore was the headers. These are JBA shorties, with ceramic coating. I bought these years ago as I had heard problems with the full length ones and Borgeson steering box. The passenger side fitted in easy as expected. I did find the ceramic coating had filled the bolt holes a tad, and caused a misalignment, so I ran a drill through them to open them up. Problem solved, LH side bolted up. The driver side was not as bad as I thought. The did touch the steering box on #3 but only just. So I beat on them with a Universal Clearance Tool (aka hammer) They eventually needed a little bit more beating on the downside (rh side of the photo) as there was like 0.010" clearance in this photo. But they are in, not touching and ready for pipes. There is plenty of clearance around the rails and if you kept the Ford steering box I think they would go in without issue. If you want to use shorties then these would be a good choice. The only downside is they are a 1 5/8" primary which the experts say is too small for a 347. One issue I found was the brake pipes from the master cylinder made it hard to get the bolts in but that's an issue only us Aussies will face. The MDL clutch cable is plenty long enough to clear without touching. I have ordered a heat sleeve to put over the full length anyway as a precaution. I also test fitted the power steering pump supplied with the Borgeson kit. The pressure line looks like it will be long enough to clear the headers but I'll have to confirm. I will be using an aftermarket cooler - which I think would have to be a mandatory thing with the box, as it is so close to the headers it's going to get hot - and it will need new hose to fit, so I might tweak the return pipe out of the box at the same time. They are too close to each other for my liking. I will also put heat sleeve over hoses as well. I did crush the fuel lines in the trans tunnel when putting in the box, so I will need to replace them. Probably a good thing - I was always dubious that having pressurised fuel in the tail shaft tunnel might make for exciting times if a uni let go and we had sparks and fuel introduced to each other. I'll run it along the outer sills this time, like I should have done the first time. Today's random rebuild shot: The result of a 3 bulb conversion sold by Drake (?) I put in. After naff all use it started to melt the lens. D'Oh

Spoke to the vendor this morning and he tells me the one he has is 4.5" which is what I think I need. See how I go when it gets here.