Converting my 69 Mach 1 to Right Hand Drive - Australia

[Ash 145]

Time well spent on the engine, it looks very tidy. I love those rocker covers too, I once had a similar set on a 351C that had "CLEVELAND" embossed in the top.

 

[bigmal 225]

End of day 40. Engine and tranny in. Exhaust hooked up. Radiator in. Plumbing from steering to pump conected. Have had some troubles with the kick down rod. Will only allow the throttle to about 1/2 way.

Finished off the front suspension. Now trying to hook up the transmission cooler lines. They are going to need a bit of modification to get past the steering rack.

I bought a used tail shaft as mine was too rusted. It is 12mm longer than the  origianal and won't fit. Need to get another. I'm sure the place I bought it will exchange it without a problem. Just a hasle to get there.

Lost of little things causing grief. All solvable but they are slow going.

[MAC390 327]

Great work there Mal, there is always something extra to rework .

[Ash 145]

All looking very tidy, Mal. The time spent it showing.

[stangnet33 88]

Coming along great ! At least the metal is behind you.

[bigmal 225]

Thanks guys. It's all fun stuff from here.

[bigmal 225]

End of days 41, 42 and 43. Took another 3 days off work so I could finish it off. When will I learn. Got side tracked and tackled the rust in the rear chasis rails. It's been bugging me for a while so I got stuck into it and hopefully no more mess in the garage.

Fitted the Lokar throttle and kickdown cables. New speedo cable. Hooked up all the engine bay wiring.

Fitted an overhauled tail shaft. Bought a second hand one which was 1/2" longer and wouldn't fit. Had it shortened, new unies and a balance.

Went to hook up the braided steel power steering hoses and couldn't get clearence between the pump and exhaust mainfold. Solved with a 90deg elbow. Modified and fitted the transmission cooler lines. New heater and radiator hoses and topped up all the fluids.

Attacked the instrument panel. New circuit board, LED lights and KMPH decal. I find the LED lights which are very blue and a little dull. I may go back to white but will see how it goes on the road.

Attached a battery charger to see how the wiring worked. So far so good. Tested the lights and all seem OK. I still have to source the power for the rear blinkers which have been separated from the brakes. Will do that a little later.

Started to install the instrument panel. Bugger!!! The speedo cable goes directly where the steering column bracket is. I marked where I thought it was and cut a small section out. Got it wrong. Made a doubler and cut a bigger piece out. Now the cable hits the doubler. No alternative but to take the braket out and remake it completely. Another day.

Getting late and thought I would at least hit the starter and make sure it fires. Here goes.......................nothing. Bugger bugger bugger. Bypassed the solenoid and the starter works. Now to start trouble stooting. With so much work having been done it was too daunting to start last night. Maybe on Sunday. Very disappointing but all in all some good progress this week.

[Ash 145]

You've made a lot of progress, Mal. Nice work. Is that the end now of the rust repairs? I bet that feels great if it is.

[bigmal 225]

2 hours ago, Ash said:

You've made a lot of progress, Mal. Nice work. Is that the end now of the rust repairs? I bet that feels great if it is.

Yep, end of the rust repairs. And very glad to be.

[Ash 145]

Good stuff. I can only imagine how rewarding that feeling is.

[MAC390 327]

Lots of progress there, good to finish the rust.

How hard was it to set up the lokar kick down cable.

[bigmal 225]

53 minutes ago, MAC390 said:

Lots of progress there, good to finish the rust.

How hard was it to set up the lokar kick down cable.

The cable was very easy to set up. The bracket that attaches to the trany is at a right angle. Needs to be bent to align with the kickdown lever. As the bracket for the throttle cable was bodgy I didn't use the Lokar kickdown bracket. I found it easier to make a combined bracket.

[bigmal 225]

Wasn't going to touch it today but had a spare hour and really wanted to see why it wouldn't start. I had an epiphany last night and was sure it was the Selector safety switch (or what ever it's really called). So being confident I tweaked it and hit the starter. Bugger!!!!. I decided to disconnect the field wires from the solenoid and connected the battery charger and it turned over. I then hooked up the multimeter to the field wires and it turned out I had them reversed. Problem solved and it turns over. Having drained the tank and disconnected the fuel lines it took a while to get the fuel through but it started. Woo who!!!!.

Now the issues start. No oil pressure. I had filled the filter so wasn't expecting other than an indication error. Put a meter on the sender and there is PX, so a gauge issue. Turns out none of the gauges are working. This will be fun to trouble shoot as I have changed the circuit board and moved so much wiring.

Now to check for leaks. Yep. Steering line. Just a nip and it's good.

Tried selecting gears and nothing. Suspecting low fluid and that was it. I had my foot on the brake and the brake light came on. Got out and a puddle under the car. My worst fear is a leak from somewhere I can't get to without removing the engine. Turned out to be the flare under the master cylinder. Shouldn't be to hard to fix but a pain in the arse.

Oh, and not charging. Will look into that shortly. It turns out I have never had a functioning 'Alternator Fail' light. No idea how to look into this one as I have never had that issue before. Maybe another day, or month.

Well at least it started. So now to fixing the bugs.

[MAC390 327]

Just teething troubles,and fun and games.

[bigmal 225]

Attacked the brake leak. Was able to re-flare the line to the master cylinder without too much trouble abd problem solved.

I had a look at the charging and found there is no power to the alternator field wire. I also found there is only 4 volts to the coil. I can't beleive it runs with this. I have'nt looked into it too much yet but thought I would change the regualtor to start with even though it has nothing to do with the power to the coil. Happy for any  suggestins on this.

[Ash 145]

Is your engine ignition still wired up originally? Is the pink wire still in use as a trigger or has it been bypassed to get a full 12 volts? Off the top of my head originally it only got 5v(?), not 12v, which could explain why yours is running on 4v.

[bigmal 225]

6 minutes ago, Ash said:

Is your engine ignition still wired up originally? Is the pink wire still in use as a trigger or has it been bypassed to get a full 12 volts? Off the top of my head originally it only got 5v(?), not 12v, which could explain why yours is running on 4v.

Hi Ash, I have'nt changed any of the wiring for the engine other than the routing. I will have to check about the pink wire. Talking about it in the office the concencus is that there is a resister in the system and the 4 volts is normal. That explains why it runs OK.

[Ash 145]

That's sounding like it then. The wire itself is the resister.

This is the hurdle when swapping to a later ignition that requires 12v, it wont work using the original wire. You need to run a direct 12v instead.

[bigmal 225]

I gave up on the instrument circuit board. Still unable to get the oil, temp and fuel gauges to work. Spoke to Midlife and he is sending me his hard wired replacement. Once I get this i will get back to it.

I did sort the alternator problem. Was checking continuity of the field wire and found it broken at the regulator cannon plug. Was not expecting ot to be that easy.

Yesterday I backed it out to give the garage a good clean out. Sick of working in filth. Felt good to have it move under it's own steam.

[RPM 1,190]

25 minutes ago, bigmal said:

I gave up on the instrument circuit board. Still unable to get the oil, temp and fuel gauges to work. Spoke to Midlife and he is sending me his hard wired replacement. Once I get this i will get back to it.

You certainly won't regret that decision. 

[Midlife 814]

What's with all of the cabling in front of the car?  And is that a striped cable on the left side of the outside cowl (Just forward of the A pillar)?

[bigmal 225]

7 minutes ago, Midlife said:

What's with all of the cabling in front of the car?  And is that a striped cable on the left side of the outside cowl (Just forward of the A pillar)?

The cabling at the front is for the lights/blinkers etc. Until I fit the guards I won't know where I need to secure them. I am not sure I have the routing right at this stage.

On the cowl that is not wiring. I have moved the wiper motor to the outer end of the cowl to facilitate the changes for the aircond unit and the RHD wipers. Rather than weld the cowl in place i wanted it removeable so have used bolts.

[MAC390 327]

Looks great, i am hanging to get mine to move under it's own power.

When you clean out the garage it's amazing how much crap you have been rolling in.

Getting close now, well done.

[bigmal 225]

Amazing the little things that need to change when swapping from left to right. The heater cable works in reverse direction so I had to change it. I made a bellcrank setup which seems to do the job. The best part is the cable length has worked out that I only need to shorten it about 1/2" which is easilly done. Great to have a simple fix.

[MAC390 327]

Nice work there.