1957 country sedan build

[1930artdeco]

Well, I had the control arms blasted and am painting them now along with the MC and new spindle. I installed one upper ball joint today and will do the other tomorrow along with new bushings. The lower will probably have to wait until next week as it has to be straightened out a bit more on the press so I can get the ball joint in. Tomorrow I will hone the MC out and hopefully paint it up so I can rebuild it next week.

I adjusted all of the valves in the Y today using Tim McMasters method and it worked great. So tomorrow I am going to separate the tranny. Anything I should look out for? If I remember right, I put the bell housing bolts and it should slip off. Then unbolt the converter, drain and set aside. I drain the tranny fluid  and it was mostly purple, but I could see red as it poured out. How do I know if I need a new flex plate? Starting to add things back to car

Mike

[1930artdeco]

To get my Auto tranny out, do I have to remove the cross brace that it is connected to? Right now it is sitting on the cross pipe for the exhaust system and needs to come out so I can put the new one in.

Thanks,

Mike

[RICH MUISE]

yes, at least 95% sure. I did, but that was so I could drop the tail of the tranny being pulled with the engine. Not a big deal to remove anyway. Undo the bolts then use a BFH to tap towards the back.

[mustang6984]

BFH...Big Friendly Hammer   

[1930artdeco]

Well got her off and set aside. Everything, even the ring gear is in great shape. I don?t think the tranny has ever been apart from the engine. But how do I get the flex plate off without destroying it? I hit the bolts with an impact gun and it didn?t even budge.

Also, this was at the bottom of the housing. To me, that is rear main oil leakage. Which is the main reason to get the flex plate off. So I can replace if need be.

Mike

[1930artdeco]

Why do I have holes in the side of the block? The center one I think is for a dipstick in the future. But what about the other two?

Mike

[1930artdeco]

More progress. Since I manage to always find the obscure items to buy/restore/fix this should come as no surprise that the MC is a Ford oddball. The vendors sell a MC that is 2? measured vertically bolt to bolt. My car came with one that 1 7/8? bolt to bolt-not sold by the vendors of course. But I managed to have the local NAPA track one down so I can finish my brake system finally!

Got the upper control arms done! Are the bushings OK? I swear there just about 1/4? gap between the shoulder and the arm. So that is what I did not realizing the other one would be out so far. Is there going to be safety/alignment problems?

The ring gear is pretty chewed up. Is there a way to replace it or rotate it so the starter engages some good teeth?

I figured while do a compression check I am going to move oil around so might as well have a good filter on her. This is the one I took off-notice where it is made?..that is how old it is.

[glr7533]

The bushings should be in the arm an equal amount on both sides. There should have been some raised spots on the bushings to show how far into the arms they go. I don't have a picture of what the bushings look like on the inside of the arms but this shows how far they stick out on the outside of the arms.

[1930artdeco]

Well, crap. Guess that they are coming back out and I have new ones on order. A friend who helped me press in the lowers ran them up flush does that mean they will be coming out too?

Mike

[lalessi1]

Ring gears are available and they can be removerdand replaced. I googled "Ford Y block ring gear". Multiple vendors come up. I had the one on my FE flywheel replaced.

[RICH MUISE]

x2 what GLR7533 said. raised bosses to provide a depth stop.

[gasman826]

On a manual flywheel, flip the ring gear.  For an automatic flexplate, replace the flexpate.  '57 FOM has the ring gear welded to the torque convertor.  Time for a new or reman torque convertor.

[1930artdeco]

Ok, since I will have to do these things twice now let me see if I have this right:

Upper bushings-there are no stops but should be equally spaced between front and rear in and out. The one I did I left about the same amount of space as the one in GLR?s pic and the other end sticks out way to much.

Bottom bushings-use the raised portion of the bushing as a stop guide.

Is this correct?

Mike

[RICH MUISE]

Something isn't right on the arm with the bushing too far out on one end. Any chance your friend put the arms in his press full height with no support between the ears to keep it from distorting/bending the arms?
I just looked at my uppers and they are about 1/4" space under the flange. I can't remember if there were stops on the uppers or not. It was a loooong time ago, but I believe I used the bolts into the upper arm ends to pull the bushings in. For the bottoms, I'm sure I used a 5/8 threaded rod with 3/4" sockets big enough to clear the bushing OD on the inside and a strap or other socket on the outer flange. That way there's no way of distorting the control arm in a press.

[1930artdeco]

I would swear that the upper bushings had 1/4? or so gap under the ?heads?. Which is what I did on the one I installed. But there is no way to do that on the other side with the shaft installed. So, I am wondering if the bushings themselves are to long to do this.

In other words, I wonder if there is going to be say 1/2? under the head on each side? I did not measure the original bushing length.

Mike