My 1972 Comet GT Clone

Really? I have used tons of stuff from Eastwood with no problems.

 

Tough day at the salt mine...

Due to Ford's wisdom of using different size fittings on their master cylinders, I needed to adapt the original lines to the new master cylinder... I have a adapter with 7/16 male to 1/2 female which works fine for the front brake system, but the rear needed a 3/8 male to 9/16 female that apparently doesn't exist... So I knocked the dust off my best flaring skills(last used probably 30 years ago), borrowed a inverted flare kit from Brian and installed a 3/16 fitting on the original line... The tool did a good job, I have my fingers crossed it doesn't leak...

My bout with the passenger side suspension was somewhat tougher...

After installing the spring and lower control arm, I found the upper arm was hanging so low the spindle would not align anywhere closely enough to fit on the ball joint studs ARRRAGHHHH... Well after a little cussing, I reinstalled the spring compressor and pulled the spring up enough to get a couple blocks of wood under upper arm and everything lined up OK...

No I couldn't just lift the arm with the jack, without engine there isn't enough weight to compress spring...



I'm less than thrilled with these lower control arms, the ball joint just plain sucks... Pin is machined so that the spindle has to almost fully crush the boot(it's far taller than any boot I've ever seen) plus castle nut is below the cotter key hole... Yes i verified pin size and taper is correct, I'll have to use a couple grade 8 washers to locate the nut correctly...

I bought this stuff from Laurel Mountain Mustang(Brian had nice parts in his Laurel order of a year or so ago), I recommend shopping elsewhere...

NOTE... Laurel Mountain is now out of business. After research, as far as I can tell, arms are Moog but no doubt are not the same as years back. I did use Dorman arms in both my Cobra & Fairlane.

 

My kit came from them as well... The parts seem cheap to me... I should have just rebuilt with moog parts...

 

Yeah, for less than $90 you can get a pair of Moog lowers from Summit, I'm giving some strong consideration on doing just that...

EDIT

Actually the ones Summit has are Dorman, looks like the LCAs being passed off by ebay sellers as Moog are the same junk I have...

 

Gimme a Brake!!!

No time to do much today, did fit the 1969 Torino rotor and caliper on RF...

 

Bummer about the front suspension parts... disc brakes looks good though!

 

Well I have more tales of brake/spindle woe but I think it's all sorted through... I've found the spindles don't match, LH is the larger big bearing type('70-up), but has the small tie rod socket(pre '70), never knew such existed... I'm not 100% sure but it's possible it's a 1969 Boss 302 spindle... In searching the web, apparently there were three different Boss spindles used, from the std '69 to a interim spindle, while late builds got the '70 parts... The casting number is so weak I can't read it but it does appear to have a C9 number... Std '69 Stang/Torino spindles have a C8 number(my RH) while the '70 models have a D0 prefix... I do know the spindles came from a '69 Torino GT, apparently the LH was swapped somewhere in it's life...

Anyway all I have to do is use the '70 bearings and it's good to go...

Next I decided the back plate/dust shields were too far gone to be happy about, soooo I set out to use what I had on hand, which would be from my 1988 Turbo Coupe parts car... Well after some drilling and massaging with the BFH, they turned out fairly well... The mounting hole at 12 o'clock had to be moved approx 5/16 to right while the one at approx 9 just required elongating slightly... The hole at 4 o'clock didn't exist (orig is at 3, area now curved), I had to massage that area flat to be able to drill the hole... Once it was mounted, there was heavy duty massaging in several areas as rotor dragged badly in several spots... All in all they turned out pretty good but I'm sure something else more period would be easier to work with... At least they are good enough till the bank account is refreshed a bit...

 

Parts pile was thinning out so I decided to assemble the steering linkage... Still needs pressure & return hoses, a couple nuts tightened, cotter keys installed and she'll be ready to bolt in... Probably gonna wait till engine is in place so there won't be anything in the way of fitting engine to trans...



Here's disassembled P/S valve. No not one for my Comet, is from mojo's Comet, I installed this one on my Fairlane.

 

Nice! looks great!

 

I ran into the exact same issue with my kit from Laurel Mountain. I ended up machining 3/16" thick spacers for the lower spindles and 1/8" for the inner tie-rod to center link connections. Not sure why, but I also ended up having to cut a total of 3/4" off of the passenger side tie-rods in order to get the toe adjusted close to right.

 

I used a couple grade 8 washers under nuts on the lower ball joints... I did add a thin stainless washer on top of the boot to give something a little more friendly for the boot to mate with...

My outer tie rods are Moog for '68/'69 Stang/Torino, center link & inners are orig '77 Maverick pieces... I've measured tie rod pin to pin distance on the orig '72 linkage and came up with approx 44" which is easily obtainable with the new setup... Of course actual measurement necessary may vary due to differences in spindle arms...

 

My granddaughter has shown me how to get stuff done, work is progressing... I did tell her she needed some work boots before reporting for work again...



Excepting for wiring harness engine bay is mostly finished, still have to swap the torque converter(need to drain orig)... Somehow the front crossmember didn't look right painted body color, fixed that with the trusty semi-gloss black...



Steering linkage was going to wait till after engine install but after I mocked it up, decided was too much trouble to remove so went ahead and bolted in in place... I 've left the P/S cylinder loose can drop it for extra space... Stanley(tape) & I set the toe earlier today, it's close enough till I can run it over the Ouija board...

Since it doesn't leak, thinking I'll just cover the patched trans line with plastic snake skin, removing that line from trans is a total nightmare... Also I'm still agonizing on the P/S pressure line as well, got far more line than space...


Little things continue to pop up, can't open the master cylinder till I shorten this stud holding the pedal/steering bracket assembly...

 

I trimmed the above stud and bled out the Torino brakes... Had a leak at the flare I made in the line at the left brake hose but a couple loosen & re-tighten seems to have fixed that... Pedal height is good, looking forward to trying out these binders...

Other than swapping the torque converter I'm ready to install the 306, going to bring it home tomorrow and drop it in the hole...



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Converter is in place

Still need to make a couple repairs to the wiring harness, which I'll do after engine install... Also I'm going to modify the engine harness to better fit the 306(it's a mess anyway), and build a fresh harness for the 2G alt... Yeah I hear the boo & hiss now, but I have two fairly fresh ones and as long as the battery plug is good(it's new), isn't likely they'll burn up... Anyway it's easy to convert to a 3G from a 2G...

 

Very nice! it's going to look awesome!