Finished putting my rear axle together. Going to keep the 2:79 gears for now. Looking for economy more than anything. If its too much of a dog I will change them later. Stripped it all down, cleaned and painted. Put new pinion seal and axle seals and bearings. Bought some adapters back in 2004. I don’t think the company is still in business anymore. Using cadallic calipers and Lincoln 11” vented rotors. All that’s needed to hook the Maverick emergency brake cable to the calipers is cut off the return spring. Then they hook right on. Used Seville front brake hoses and fabbed up some mounts. Ready to install.
Going with a keyless ignition system. Modified the column to accept the push button where the key would go. Removed the key and lock tumblers. Ground out all the cast in rails and bored a 1/2" hole in the bottom to pass the connector and wires. Also filed off the cast indexing arrow on the outside. Then had to make a sleeve to fit the push button snugly in the column.
I love seeing the picture of the barrel in the lathe. I always thought the lathe was the most fun I had in metal shop.
One of my favorite tools. I've used it on quite a few different projects for this car. AC, trailer hitch, R&P steering, and the clutch linkage. I'm using stock mechanical clutch linkage but converting it all to roller bearings. I installed Mustang Steve's clutch pedal bearing kit, bought small diameter rods with heim joints for the connecting rods and modified the Z bar with spherical bearings. I found these spherical bearings which have a 1" OD and 1/2" ID. Perfect for this application. I pressed the shaft off of the mount and chucked it up in my lathe. Turned the surface down to 1/2" and cut a new groove for a 1/2" E clip. Pressed the shaft back onto the mount. Welded the backside just for added strength. Cleaned, painted and ready to go. The engine side was done the same way although there is no bracket to deal with.
Dennis I can bring my car up so you can drive it. I have a 5 speed with a 279 gear, 70MPH at about 1800 RPM...
Just be careful about lugging the engine with those long gears and overdrive, especially if you're towing. There's a reason so many 5.0's with T5's and low numerical gears go through main bearings...