Morning coffee

[RICH MUISE]

Previous to me getting to Florida, my son had tracked down an old friend/client of mine who moved to Puenta Gorda from Colorado in 2000ish. Gabby opened a gallery there, and I visited her there in '03. I wasn't sure if she was still active in arts, or if she still had her gallery. It turns out she did, my son found it, so we went and visited. A girl I had a crush on since the 7th grade lives just 7 miles from my son, so I visited her a few times as well (with my wife's blessings. It wouldn't have happened 20 years ago, lol). Last time I saw Cheryl was at my first wedding in '67. It does my heart good to know I've got people I'm still close to after all these years.
An observation..............I found it easier to reconnect with some than others. Primarily because of physical appearance. Rick and his wife, and Gabby looked just like they did when I last saw them 30+ and 20 years ago respectively. In my mind, these were the people I knew. Cheryl, on the other hand, had changed so much I could have bumped into her anywhere and not realized who she was. Definetly not a bad thing, that's not what I'm saying, it just took longer for my brain to realize this "new person" was the same person I've always had a special place in my heart for.
OK, enough soppy stuff........
After I left Florida, I headed for Birmingham, Al. where Bill/FordBlueBlood lives. Still a day or two ahead of schedule. I had planned on spending most the day with him. Unknown to Bill until the night before, his family was throwing a surprise birthday party for him and his daughters flew in from Texas and Colorado with their kids the night before I arrived. Even with their family there, Bill and his wife Karen (?) were very hospitable. I got to see several of his cars, including the Ranchero. I love that color....looks great with the white interior.  Bill and I had some great conversation, and with his family there, I probably shouldn't have stayed there as long as I did,but it was a great 4 hours or so. If you recall, several days after I was there, Birmingham got hit real hard with tornados. Good thing I was a few days ahead of what little schedule I had in my head. Dodged a bullet there.

OK..enough on the trip. Back to my car. So far I had the mentioned taillight, a clogged gas tank vent tube (because I topped off the tank when I knew better), and the loose shock. The steering wheel issue was on again-off again for 3 or 4 days, and I finally confirmed it was happening when I was parking, that is, slow movement with the wheel at full lock. If I parked to the left, the steering wheel would "move" one way, if I parked the opposite way, it would move the steering wheel the opposite way. Really weird!! There was no movement in the wheel's position if I hadn't gone up against the stops.
It kinda kept me on my toes for the long ride home, but I made it with no further issues. I was convinced it had to be something internally in the rack and pinion unit, so I ordered a replacement when I got home.
My friend's shop was busy, so I made an appointment with another guy I've been using to replace the rack (I'm getting too old for this stuff) When I dropped the car off, I asked him to check everything in the suspension, steering, etc before he replaced the rack just to eliminate other issues. I told him I had the ball joints replaced last fall because the boots had deteriorated, and told him about the shock coming loose on my trip. He called me a few hours later to tell me how lucky I was to not have had a major incident. He found two ball joints completely loose, one was over 1/2" from the control arm and close to losing it. He also found two castle nuts loose with no cotter pins! GULP!! He thoroughly checked everything, even pulled the wheels to make sure the spindle nuts were done right. He recommended just not replacing the rack at this time. I went and talked with my friend to let him know. He basically took zero responsibility, Told me I must have issues with the suspension I needed to keep and eye on. I asked him if any of that old stuff was loose when he put the new stuff on. Those ball joints had 40k+ miles on them. He said no, but sida there was no way my car left with all that stuff not tight. My response was "Two loose castle nuts, with no cotter pins, and two ball joints loose from the control arms, AND a loose shock, and it's because my car has an issue???". He acted like I was trying so get something from him. I just wanted to make him aware of it, and a simple "sorry, I f#@!^&ed up would have been sufficient.
I'm sure getting wordy here, but I found out all that loose stuff was not what was causing my steering wheel to shift. My new mechanic installed the rack I had got last night, rechecked everything, but believes the wheel is still shifting. WTH? I'm not convinced it is, but 'lol' I blew a radiator hose last night on my way home from the shop, so I won't be able to test drive it until tomorrow myself and confirm whether it is or is not.
Enough reading for ya, Alvin?

[RICH MUISE]

More on the steering issue. For the newbies here, I do not have anything steering-related that is 1957 Ford. I have rack and pinion steering coupled to a '97 Mustang steering column and wheel. Under the dash is all Mustang, everything from the firewall to the rack is all 3/4DD stainless with two support bearings.
I do not have external mechanical stops (yet) for the steering. It uses the internal rack stops. The position changes I'm getting are not random, they are very consistent and I'm guessing about 10-15 degrees. My gut feeling is something on the rack internal stops is allowing the pinion gear to get past those stops and is jumping a tooth.
I had mentioned earlier that Lynn had commented my steering wasn't as touchy as the Borgeson box he has in his. I hadn't realized how sloppy my steering had become over the past 6 months because it was so gradual. As soon as I got in the car after Josh tightened up all the loose stuff he found, I couldn't believe the difference. Felt like a totally new car, and I think Lynn would now have a different thought regarding the comparison to his.

[alvin stadel]

Rich you were lucky. This just goes to show that along with a lot of other crap, NO one wants to take responsibility for thier screw ups. Things just aren't the same any more.

[mustang6984]

"Friends" like that...who needs an enemy!

[RICH MUISE]

Yeah, he's done a bunch of good work for me on my '57 and my Outback. Everybody screws up one time or another, it's how you handle it, to me, that makes the difference. As I said, all I was looking to do was make him aware of it, but totally wasn't expecting the denial. A simple, "sorry, I screwed up", and we'd have been good to go, at least as far as staying friends.

[hiball3985]

Rich, that is just so scary. This is one reason I don't let anyone put a wrench on my cars. I understand the problem of our age and health conditions may limit us to what we can do, I struggle all the time and don't know what I will do in the future. My oldest son is the only one I would ever trust but I don't want to depend on him but it may get to that point. Even the first ball joints that needed replacing at that mileage doesn't sound normal. How often to do lube them? I don't put the mileage you do on mine but I still lube everything every 3000 miles or once a year which ever comes first. The recommended mileage for lube was every 1000 miles back in 57.
Glad you had such a good trip and made it home in one piece.

[RICH MUISE]

My old ball joints were still good, but 3 of the 4 boots on them had disintegrated. I guess I could have just replaced the boots, if I could have found them, but with 40k miles on them, putting new ones on since the labor would be the same or less seemed like a no-brainer.
Yeah, someone was watching out for me, but it got me home. Even though the steering wheel position issue wasn't caused by all the loose stuff, if it hadn't happened I never would have found the issue the easy way.
The radiator hose that came loose Friday is the same one I had problems with before I left for the Florida trip. Really hard to get back on since it needs two hands and I can only get one down there. I'm going back to the worm gear hose clamps. Hopefully will get that back together today.
I've also got a bit of my car apart because Josh found one of my power steering hoses was leaking, and it was the one going to the cooler behind the grille. I removed the driver's side half of the grille before I brought it to him to install the rack. He pulled that hose first, and called me so I could make a replacement hose. It is one of the braided ss /Teflon lines, and I needed the fittings from the old hose to make the new one. I found out the hydraulics shop a 1/2 mile from me stocks that line. Josh called, and I had the new hose back to him in less than an hour.
I'm thinking as long as I've started taking some of the front-end stuff off, I may just go ahead and pull the passenger fender so I can get in and fix some coolant/heater hose leaks at the bulkhead on the side panel. In retrospect, I should have just put that bulkhead on the firewall for accessibility.
I guess this stuff is gonna happen if you drive them. Did I mention that after I got back form Florida, I took the '57 to New Mexico for another 600+ round trip.

[hiball3985]

Strange the same hose is blowing off. does the radiator outlet have the raised area (don't know what its called ) that the clamp won't go past? Maybe excessive pressure? Bad cap?

[RICH MUISE]

The same hose, but the other end this time. I'm using the 1 5/8 stainless flexible radiator hose because it makes a loop to connect the two. The problem is I have to use adapters because the thermostat housing is a different hose size than the radiator outlet. Had I to do over, I'd have a custom radiator made with a matching hose size and a different location for the bottom outlet. Currently, they are just too close to one another for a simple bend in the hose....thus the loop. I was also trying to change the worm drive hose claps to hydraulic hose ss clamps that are the t-bolt style.  Those aren't working so well because of the limited range. I'm going back to the worm drive even though I hate that extra material sticking out.
I'm pretty sure after I get this hose put back on and take it for a drive to test the steering wheel issue, I'm gonna take the right half of the grille and the passenger fender off. That way I can move the A/C condenser closer to the radiator where it should be, replace my horns, and fix a leak with the heater hoses. I'm using aftermarket horns and they're just not loud enough. I pulled the horns off my Mark VIII donor car because they're a nice neat compact unit.
Radiator hoses and coolant hoses have been an ongoing issue for me since the beginning. Mostly because the engine is meteric, and everything they're connecting to is sae, so adapters everywhere.
One of the things I replaced when I put the engine in is the water pump. I did that just as a precaution cause it was easy to get to with the engine on a stand. Now I'm wondering if they have different 4.6 waterpumps and if I now have a pump that is putting out more pressure than the original.

[hiball3985]

I'm no expert on Physics but I don't think a pump that would increase volume would increase pressure. I wonder if the hose being looped is creating an air pocket the becomes super heated and increases the pressure. But regardless of anything that would increase pressure it shouldn't increase past the rating of the cap I would think.

[Ford Blue blood]

Those "fancy" stainless hoses are known to blow off.  I know of at least two hot rods here that have had them come off more then once.  After helping a good friend with his we finally figured out that the rubber adapter was heavier and thicker then regular radiator hoses.  We took a regular hose of the correct diameter and cut off a couple of inches, clamped them in with worm clamps and his stopped blowing off.  One other thing we did was re-tighten after the engine was hot.  I know Rich that will be difficult for you given the lay out of your engine bay.

One of the things I do to get rid of the "tail" on those worm clamps is put them on, tighten them down snug, make the tail with a marker, pull apart and cut the tail off at the mark.  After re-installing the tail just barely sticks out.

[RICH MUISE]

I've eliminated them where I could. This one is at the bottom and not too visible. I've ordered another section so I can change the shape and make it easier to get put on. This time I'm going to try to redneck it and after it's on, add some wire, making use of the corrugated design.

[djfordmanjack]

Rich, you have a lot going on at the same time.

I have some additional ideas.
Do get your front tires balanced ! maybe they have gotten out of balance severely from wear.
I would replace all the rubber bushings in the A arms ( the ones Mike is struggling with). That stuff is bubble gum rubber and simply doesnt last anymore these days.
Something is causing excessive vibrations in your car ( even if you don't heavily feel them), rattling loose stuff. Still, missing cotter pins is a no-go, you are correct.
I have been trouble shooting the MII frontend on my streed rod last year, it had excessive vibrations at certain speeds. It felt like rattling loose or blowing of fenders and hood. there were several things at fault. tires out of round and out of balance. brake rotors out of balance. and most of all - old - hard rubber bushings in the control arms. they weren't even cracked that much or mechanically damaged or any visible damage. just light spiderweb cracking from age. when I pulled them most of them were either disintegrated internally or hard like stone. they were probably 25-30 yrs old.
So I would highly recommend you replacing those. I can't tell you where to get a decent set. I replaced them on my refreshened and powder coated Del Rio A arms 5 yrs ago, car was never on the road and A arms not mounted. always stored cool and dry, out of daylight. the bushings are now already cracked .....all of this stuff is disgusting.
Hoping you find the cause of your steering problem.

[RICH MUISE]

For now, I am going to assume the obvious and figure he just got distracted and never tightened all that stuff to begin with. No vibrations at all, and very even tire wear. I remember Bill even commenting on how evenly my tires were wearing when I was at his place in Birmingham. My new mechanic checked the alignment after he tightened all that stuff, and once again after he replaced the rack. No adjustments were necessary either time. I hate the thoughts of already replacing bushings and stuff. I'll have a look at them though. I sure wish RUBBERMAID would get into the car parts business!!

[hiball3985]

If I was about 30 years younger I would be making my own out of polyurethane 
I was lucky and had old Moog bushings and ball joints that I bought back in 1970 to use, the rubber was and still is good, the new rubber crap sucks.