72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

Real nice, Thomas

 

Nice Article Tody:
Is that you standing next to the car ? Looks like a nice spread . Congratulations , your Comet looks great.
Cometized
(Chip)

 

thank you, chip! yes, that's me right next to the car...

 

and here's another fine shot of the car:

 

Your Comet looks really nice Thomas! I love them rear window louvers you got!! Congratulations on the magazine article write up!

 

Started on my T5 swap today.
I sorted my Mustang out - it now has the original 65 drivetrain with the tiny 2.77 transmission, but that's ok for a convertible. The OZ 2v engine is gone, sold off to a friend.
So I now have the T5Z transmission available.
Gearbox is in place, shifter is placed perfectly. The T5 adapter plate slightly clocks the transmission to the driver side, giving it enough room to perfectly come out of the shifter hump on the tunnel.
Wasn't able to finish the swap today, welder is broken. So I couldn't sort out Frank's crossmember yet. Need to fix the welder first, might have the car back together again next weekend.

The next project will be revisiting the rear end. I will swap out gears and need to check the axle bearings...

 

still no welder. we're going to have it back in the garage on tuesday.

meanwhile, i sorted some more things out:
- bought a used march performance pulley set a while back - underdrive, v-belt. installed it this weekend, need to get a shorter belt, though.
- bought an msd ready to run distributor fairly cheap. ditched the duraspark distributor, msd 6a box and tach adapter, removed a whole lot of wiring. much cleaner now.
- bought an 100amp tuffstuff alternator on ebay. pretty cheap again. it's an externally regulated alt, so i sorted out the wiring.

still need to weld up that transmission crossmember, sort out the speedo cable. will try to finish this for next weekend.
rear axle is postponed, will tackle this in another step.

 

Forgot to mention one thing:
Got some nice heim joints for the clutch linkage. That will go in with the crossmember. We managed to weld it up and paint it yesterday.

 

Here's some pics of the finished as well as installed crossmember, thanks again to @71gold.
Linkage for the clutch bent accordingly, upper rod is already mounted.
Still need to sort out the speedo cable, I have a shorter one for the driver side. Toploader went in from the passenger side.
Also, it seems that the exhaust might be touching the 3" aluminum driveshaft, we'll see how it works out when the car is back on the ground. But due to the new pinion angle, i might need to sort that out.

 

damn, that rear end needs attention.
i took the car for a quick spin with the t5 - runs awesome, even with the 2.75 gears.
but the rear end made some noise, so i took of the wheels, only to find this on the driver's side.
that seems to be axle bearing grease...
the axle housing is worn, i can slide the bearing in and out without any pressure - the outer ring can be actually turned in the housing.
so i guess i need to find a shop that can weld in new bearing housing ends

 

so i sorted out some of my rearend problems.
before welding on new housing ends, i would need some kind of fixture for it. i saw the prices in the states, would have been able to get them via jegs, shipped internationally - but in the end it would be too pricey. so i bought a precision ground bar, some aluminum and had a friend mill the necessary sleeves and spacers. i soon figured my rear was bent pretty good, so i had an offroad shop fix it for me. that's work they seem to do on a regular basis, as they showed me some examples of REALLY bent axles.
also, i bought a new set of skf wheel bearings. they fit better than the moog/national ones i had on the shelf, so i will give them a try.
and i will still need to set up the differential with new 3.50 gears.

here's some pics:

 

At first, I thought u meant the axle shaft was bent, but It looks like the housing is/was bent. Can't say I have ever seen the housing bent. Like u said, this must be pretty common in some circles cuz the guy welding on that housing seems to have jig made for the purpose. Interesting posts. Thanks and Happy New Year...

 

Lots of housings are bent. With an open diff, its not as much of a problem to have a mild bend. With a limited slip, it will wear out the clutches quickly because the axles are cock eying the side gears so the clutches dont have even load on them. Also persistent axle seal leaks will happen. This is what Tody has been dealing with. It looks like this shop uses heat to straighten the housings. We use a special fixture to clamp and press the housings straight. On really bad ones we may have to use heat also.

Glad to see you are getting it all sorted out Tody!

 

I have been told to not use a jack under the pumpkin for this very reason. The thinking is that you could push the axle into a slight upside-down V. I can't tell you how many times I have yanked a car around the garage with the rolling jack under the pumpkin, too. Better to put the jack under where the spring bolts to the axle.

It is pretty cool to see an axle straightened.... just one step away from blacksmith work.... very crude, and yet needs to be precise when done.

Glad to see you getting this worked out.
3.50 ratio .... is this a 9"?

 

the ratio is 3.50, and it is a 9". a lincoln versailles with disc brakes, actually. being close to 40 years old, it surely must have seen some abuse - so getting it straightened was surely a good thing.

i set up the pumpkin today, that's what the tooth pattern looked like. i think that's pretty good.
it's a new dana svl gear set for which i couldn't find any specs. also it did not have any signs of being a timed gear set. so i just set it up the normal way, with a rather tight backlash of .009 to .010: