bigmal

Wow, these cars are absolutely stunning! Australia's classic car scene is a hidden gem, and it's incredible to see the popularity of U.S.-made classics down under.
 

Too late for that. Had an upper left crown come unglued last night, my dentist has had 3 emergencies already this morning so I'm booked for tomorrow. And this morning when moving a couch pulled it back over my left toe. Afraid to look at the toe, that's blood on my sock.

 

Glad the site is back up n running!
 
Happy New Year everyone!

The man said 20% loss was typical so I’m guessing 420 at the crank. The cam is rated to 6,600 and it drops power at 6,000 so at least I have a reasonably low-stress engine. 
Never built a small block so I don’t know if this is ok, awesome or out of the ballpark for power. 
 

Try running with the gas cap open/off. This will eliminate fuel tank venting as the cause.

Try running with the gas cap open/off. This will eliminate fuel tank venting as the cause.

Try running with the gas cap open/off. This will eliminate fuel tank venting as the cause.

I made a set from aluminum long time ago for a set of wheels I had. And made a set from steel for the Magnum 500s I currently have on the car.
Can't remember the alloy I used (6061 possibly) but aluminum was fine. Used whatever material I had laying around.
If you find the right size of steel tubing, you do not need to remove a lot of material (especially from the inside) and should be able to machine it on a mini lathe with small passes.
Or you can get 2 different sizes of tubing and slip and weld them before machining. That is what I had done with the Aluminum one, the lip was welded/machined.

Definitely interested in these!

something kinda like this?

As someone who was chasing a vibration for almost 7 years I learnt that for me it was multiple sources. Makes if very hard to troubleshoot. I changed lots of things, sometimes more than once, and found each of the following made and improvement.
Full engine balance Rebuilt tail shaft (3 times). Each timer it was out of true. Bent axles Rear Drums badly corroded. (I know this is odd, but it made a difference) Pinion Angles. For me 0deg difference did not work. Had to be 2 deg down at the front of the diff. I experimented with 1, 2, 3 and 4 deg shims until I got the best results. I have to be very careful bolting on the Magnum 500s to ensure I tighten the nuts in sequence, a little at a time or I will get a vibration. The holes appear worn. Will be replacing. While I still have a very minor vibration, it is almost completely gone.

Hi Vic,
   I am planning on using the RTX gauges. I ran the 2 ground wires one from the sender & one from the fuel pump to one of the gas tank bolts.

Been working on it when i get the time ,so not a lot ! I sanded down both doors ,the hood ,trunk lid and both front fenders ,got them primed and block sanded ,one more primer coat and a good block sand and they are ready for paint . Still have the front and rear bumper ,the side skirts and a couple of smaller pieces to sand and prime and i can start on the body . It will be painted in pieces because its black and i can do it that way so it will be painted in three stages ,body first,then the doors ,fenders ,hood and trunk lid  ,then the plastic pieces . Using a new clear that cuts and bufs real easy so painting in pieces will allow me to take extra care with each piece .

Mal, I agree. Volt  meters are a much better instrument for this, because you can be charging a degraded battery and your amp meter will still deflect to show it is charging.
 
For me, being able to monitor voltage is the best method of detection that gives you time to take some action if you’re driving.  Especially if you’re running Fuel Injection, for instance, with my system, if the voltage to the EFI goes below about 10.5 volts, you are in trouble. Same goes for ignition systems like a modern MSD box.
Alternators and modern charging systems are extremely reliable, much more so than batteries. For cars like ours, likely not driven that often, a battery failure is much more likely than an alternator failure.
 
The real weak link in all of the original equipment is the voltage regulator. Pretty sure that Ford did not go from a mechanical to an electronic voltage regulator until 1973 or 1974.  This is what keeps your alternator producing that 13.8 or so volts
 
 
 
 


 

Exhaust finished.
Spent a day re welding the pipes into the existing system. As the FPA are long tube it was a matter of cutting off the down pipes, shortening the S bends and welding. I will be glad once I have a lift, crawling under cars trying to deduce angles to make cuts is hard.
I also bought better lap clamps for the joins. If y'all are not using these already go and buy them now from Summit. 11 bucks each, so easy to use and clamps well. These cost at least 40 bucks each over here so we are getting ripped.

Pretty happy with the result - the headers just come under the rails and sit nice and high. I went through and re-did the rear muffler mounts so they sit higher as well.
    
The sound to me seems different inside (although, I also fitted sound mat under the rear seat to try to kill some drone).

NO CHUFFING which makes the darn cost worth it.
The only beef I have is the clutch cable is too close to one pipe. I had some left over header wrap so I wrapped both pipes all the way up to near the curve near the port, and also wrapped the clutch cable too. At $146US + shipping and taxes, no way I am melting that bad boy intentionally. The positive is they are further away from the speedo cable and rail.
   
On the other side, the starter is touching the pipe so I may have to see if I can rotate it a bolt hole to clear

The service FPA gave was outstanding. He was super helpful, did what he said and most of all the headers fit the heads and the car and I hope not to ever pull them off.
Today Fedex delivered me a new speedo cable and axles seals from Rock Auto. It's sad when I can get all this stuff delivered to my door cheaper than I can buy one speedo cable here.    
The no-name cable came without the rubber grommet and o'rings, but for 11 bucks I ought to just shut up.
EDIT; I will not be shut up. The end to the speedo head is a natch too long and it won't clip on. I should have bought the 17 dollar cable not the 11 dollar one. And I have a spare, as I bought two of them.

Bots are hitting the site and causing the issues.  I am working with tech support still to try and fix it.  I thought it was already resolved.  There is another issue with upgrading the forum software I need to take care of but it currently crashes the entire forum so I am unwilling to do so until I have ample time to devote to it.  I am hoping to have the bot issue resolved by the end of the week.
Just a little update for you guys.  Bandwidth upgrade would only be a bandaid and not a full solution, so do not feel obligated to donate any more money.  And thanks for your donations so far that should cover the monthly losses for the remainder of the year.

Well, not into a car, but into Texas Ed at the Mustang Steve Bash in New Braunfels Texas on Saturday. What a great guy he is. Wish it was earlier in the day instead of as I went to my car to leave, but we had a great chat. 

Thanks God you're back! I just emailed Midlife to see if he had heard anything.
The Aussie forums are too negative. This is so much better

New parts fitted and new parts failed.
After my trip to the US, I arrived home with a set of FPA headers. I have to thank Stan - he built these in about 8 weeks and shipped them to my motel 2 weeks before I got there.
Before I fitted them I made up new, solid rear mounts for the mufflers. They are not pretty as I'd like so no shots, but they have 2 insulation rubbers each side and oth to the floor pan so I am hoping that issue is fixed.
I elected to go with the dark gray ceramic coat and grabbed a spare set of exhaust gaskets. Total cost in local $$$ over $2,000.




The quality is nice - neat welds, mandrel bent bends and thick flanges that have been dressed.
Only question I have is why the join on the #1 pipe.
The old set had been leaking on the #8 port on the drivers side. The RH bank never leaked at all so I'm stuffed why the LH one did.
The design of the pipes is also much better for access; all of them go down where the Patriot set went across the top on the driver side.
Resulting in having to bash a huge dent in the lower pipe to clear the Borgeson box.


Fitting the new ones - super easy. Both had to come up from underneath but they fit in well.
Cleared the Borgeson box no problems. But, I have concerns about the proximity to the clutch cable, steering idler and starter. 

The clutch cable is $146 from MDL so I will have to wrap it pretty well with decent wrap (my Chinese sourced stuff failed on the speedo cable and it has melted through). The idler is a roller bearing unit so all I can do is grease it regularly. The starter although it has wrap and is a small one (no way you'd get a standard one in there) will need to have the wires wrapped as well. 
As promised, the bottom of the headers are level with the frame rails, so scraping might be gone for the future.
Next steps are to do the pipes from the headers to the X pipe.
When I jacked it up, I noticed an oil stain under the LHR wheel. Having a good look, the axle seals are leaking and have spat oil all over the drums and inside of the wheel. Both are like that so I will need to pull the axles and check the seal, and probably replace the brake shoes. Dammit, you get stuff supplied that should be correct and it's not. Or, I fitted the seals wrong.
Also when looking underneath I found the reason for the banging on the floor when giving it some gas. Initially I thought it was the exhaust as the previous owner made a hash of the mounts and one broke. But, the driveshaft has been hammering on the floor due to axle tramp. I need some advice here - I have adjustable Koni on it so will ramp them up harder to try to stop it. I have fitted 1350 uni joints and yokes to the 8" so I wonder if the 9" cars had a longer diff snubber rubber off the body. I can't see any marks on the rubber so it seems the diameter of the yoke is allowing it to hit the floor before the snubber is reached. Can anyone advise if the 9" car snubber rubbers are longer?
Last, the old headers also were too close to the speedo cable and it has now melted and jammed. Only 26 bucks in US, $85 over here. I tried buying one in the US but no shop had them and I didn't go past a Summit or Jegs.

Ding Ding Ding!  Free beer for Mach1 Driver tomorrow!

More progress pictures. You can follow me on instagram for mor pictures at https://instagram.com/red69mustang?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng== or @red69mustang
 

Got my headlights installed.
Tested out the AAW wiring I installed three years ago, and fired the horizontal LEDs up. Works as designed.
 

Got all my front powder, coated, trim install, and also my powder coated custom grill.
Next is to install the headlight buckets and headlights
 

Generally speaking for an original system; the curved arm is for a 69 and the straight arm is for the 70.  The brake switch fits onto the brake pedal post. The switches can be for manual brakes or power brakes.  Brian