Morning coffee

[RICH MUISE]

Finally got my cooling fan issue figured out. Took me a while because the first thing I checked was the 60 amp fuse, which was ok. Next thing I checked was the fan connector, which I later found turned out to be the problem. This was an old connector that was reused because the Ron Francis kit did not include the new connector because "they were no longer available". I had an open connection on the power supply wire in the connector that apparently shorted out when I disconnected it and blew the fuse that I had just checked. Obviously the reason I was not getting a reading at the connector. A lot of checking power and ground paths trying to figure out why no power at the connector when I was thinking the fuse was still good. I even replaced the relay which I figured was the obvious culprit. Finally found it when I was tracing the power path and it ended at the fuse out side.
New connector on order. 35. at auto zone, same brand on ebay 14. delivered. I cut the bad connector off, hooked up a test light, replaced the fuse, and now have power. That manual switch I added a month or two ago sure made that check easy.
In retrospect, What Ron Francis was talking about not being available was probably an unwired connector, not one with a pigtail as I had to order. All of the connectors they supply are prewired with the full run of wires. I don't like splicing/connecting wires, but sometimes we just have no choice.
Once I get the fan working again, that'll clear the path to get back on working on improving my A/C. One thing I need to do is move the condenser closer to the radiator or build some air dams. Either way, the grille will have to come off (@#!&!!), and maybe the hood. At least with cooler temps here, there's no rush.
Next weekend is probably my last long roadtrip in the '57 for the year. "Run to the Inn of the Mountain Gods" in Ruidoso, NM.

[lalessi1]

Splicing wires is a pain for sure. I go to the trouble of staggering the splices (if there are multiples), cutting the barrel off of a crimp on fitting to use, crimping and soldering the splice, heat shrink tubing, and electrical tape or some type of loom... It takes forever but I have never had a failure.

[RICH MUISE]

Well, 1/2 the day was good. Got my Toro riding mower put in the front yard this morning with a for sale sign for the first time. It was sold 20 minutes later!

I got the replacement connector for the '57's cooling fan in this afternoon. Got it wired in, have voltage to it but......nothing, fan won't turn on. I don't think I've got a good ground at that connector. Just got back from the store with a new continuity checker............this one I'll try real hard not to check a live circuit with, lol.
OK. after finding continuity on the ground side is also good, I found the next problem.....when I blew the fuse when the connector shorted out, it melted away the male spade on the fan side of the connector. Sheeeeeet. I can replace the fan motor with a new one from rock auto or pull one from a salvage yard.
Good thing cool weather is here and I won't need the cooling fan.

[mustang6984]

Glad you sold the Toro. Those are good mowers, so not surprised it went fast.
And the fan...whew! That has been a lot of brain energy expended! I have a new bottle of aspirin...want a couple? LOL!!! Sounds like you are on the right path. Finally! 

[RICH MUISE]

It's been raining steadily here for days. My probably last car show roadtrip for the year is this weekend in Ruidoso, NM. As of this past weekend, the forecast was 40% chance of rain there for both Friday and Saturday. The actual car show is Saturday only, but there will be hundreds of cars there on Friday, and there is a planned cruise on Friday early evening. forecast changed to 50% and 20%, then yesterday 80% for Fri and only 10% Sat. So, it's a go except I need to decide if I want to drive 300 miles in the rain to get there. 
Got my oil changed yesterday, Made double sure there were no old seals on the filter mount,lol. Trying the Mobil 1 5-20 as recommended by Tom, Bill and others. Hope I get more than 4 miles out of this oil change. Ran it for 5 minutes, checked for leaks,checked the oil pressure. Don't ever want to go thru replacing that engine again.
I've got a new cooling fan motor on the way from Rockauto. This was the first time that I noticed they charged sales tax. That sucks, but I guess we could just consider ourselves lucky for the years we got away without it.

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich I like you often ponder the "wealth" of running through the rain to a show and always come off with "it's a street rod, not a candy cane, it won't melt" and make the run.  Have spent many an hour in the hotel lobby or under a canopy but always enjoyed every moment of the fellowship.  Can't buy that anywhere!

Had the same thoughts about the Nats, heat instead of rain.  AC is out on the 36, six hours to Louisville, wife happy/not happy, hotel has a pool, trip is on, great decision to go!  Meat and talked to a great bunch of folks!  Turned 140K miles on that trip......:<)

[Ecode70D]

I'm with Lynn 100% on how he repairs his wires.  That's how I have been repairing them for more years than I want to count.
Never have any problems,   

[KYBlueOval]

I do it the same way............a hold over from my Navy days keeping P2V's flying.

[djfordmanjack]

Very interesting, I reckon it would be mandatory for a Navy plane that has to withstand moisture and sea water dampness.
Our cars can only benifit from that. I can only second what all of you said. crimp and solder and double wrap in shrink tube. I even add a third layer of protection with old rubber hose from a local restorers business. It is the type of insulation that the old crimped terminals would have had in the 1940s/early 50s. it looks very period correct.

[mustang6984]

I'm with Lynn 100% on how he repairs his wires.  That's how I have been repairing them for more years than I want to count.
Never have any problems,   

Me too...I was taught to do it that way by my grandfather for house electrical repairs. Sorta just seemed sensible to carry it over into automotive stuff.

[gasman826]

I don't solder.  I use seamless crimp connectors with a quality crimp tool.  I dip each wire in dielectric grease.  OEM hasn't soldered for over 60 years.  Even highly sensitive computer control connections are not soldered.  Soldering is slow, dangerous and yields little or no advantage.  Aftermarket harnesses are not soldered.  Quality soldering requires skill.  Unskilled soldering does more damage than good.  Most of the terminal repairs that I have repaired are from corrosion, poor quality connectors, and poor quality solder damage.  If soldering works for you and helps you sleep at night, continue!  I'm not saying you are wrong and should change...just sharing my methods.

[RICH MUISE]

"Quality soldering requires skill.  Unskilled soldering does more damage than good." My thoughts as well, and I sure don't feel I fall into the skilled solderer category.
There are very few soldered joints on my car. Battery cables for sure, but can't remember any others. The connector I had problems with was one that was cut from the donor car never expecting to have to be used. It had less than an inch of wires to work with. I had a better fan assembly that I accidentlly gave away when I sold the Mark VIII carcass. At that point in time, I didn't even know if I could use the fan assembly.
My replacement fan motor came in while I was gone. I can't remember what my thoughts were on the connector when I wired the car, but that splicing was for sure not my usual careful approach,nor the weathertight connectors I would normally use so I'm thinking it was just meant to be a temporary connection until I found a new replacement.....then promptly forgot about it.
700 mile roundtrip weekend to Ruidoso had no issues on this trip except my drive out there was 100% rain. Never a real heavy downpour though. I do have some new leaks I need to address sometime soon. My car never got over 200* even with no cooling fan! I knew that would be the case, or I never would have made the trip.
The Run to the Inn of the Mountain gods was a great time. Not a cloud in the sky Saturday!, and a great turnout. It did rain most the day Friday, so that put the dampers on most of the pre show stuff they do, like the cruise they had to cancel and early parking down on the grass area at the Inn. I'm going to guess at least 75% of the cars there were trailered in. Two others I know for sure were driven in......Pat Fleishman and his dad! Pat has his Ranchwagon, and Ralph had his '58 retractable. There was one other '57 there, a '57 black Fairlane 2dr htp. I'm not good at guessing how many cars are at a show, but maybe there were 3-400? If Pat reads this, maybe he can give his estimate.

I don't know how he knew to find me, but I was out in the field looking at the cars when a guy approached me and asked if I owned the dark silver '57 Ford.  He introduced himself as the New Mexico Goodguys representative, and told me not to leave before the awards ceremony because he was giving me an award! That put a big smile on my face! I had no idea what the award was for, or how many he was handing out. Turned out, he was only giving one. At the awards show it was announced as the Goodguy rep's favorite car of the show! No way in hell I would interpret that to mean "best of show", there were many many  top notch cars there, but to have someone around as many cars as a Goodguy's rep to pick mine as his favorite made me very proud!

[Ford Blue blood]

Congratulations Rich!  Really great news!  Very happy for you.  You're going to need a bigger hat?

[RICH MUISE]

Nah.........like so many cars that are different from most others, just the right person at the right time that happened to be giving the award. New Mexico is big time Chevy country, esp. with the Hispanic crowd. This guy happened to like Fords, and his preference he told me was sedans over hardtops. Like I said, just the right guy at the right time. But, with that said, it sure makes one feel good when ya got a car that was home built in a one car dirt floor makeshift garage and it gets that favorite award over the show car jewels/trailer queens.
I must add however, I think this particular show this year had more cars trailered in because of the weather that normally would have been driven in.

[RICH MUISE]

An observation.....most the parts I've been buying for my '57/Lincoln Mark VIII drivetrain are made in China. All of the parts I've bought for my dd Subaru outback in the past year have been made in the USA! Weird.