1957 country sedan build

[1930artdeco]

I temp installed the PS components today and it looks like everything is going to function properly. I just need to know how to tell which long tie rod goes on which side? I know they are marked left and right but I don?t know which number goes on which side.

Mike

[1930artdeco]

Well?.I was going to give Tim McMaster my cam as a core when I pick up the heads next month. Now I am going to give home the whole engine instead. Went to pull the cam out and it jammed up on me. Looked at the lifters, nope all down, looked around a bit more and found that the center cam bearing came out cock eyed. And in more than one piece I think. Sooooo, the engine is going in😢😢😢. I wasn?t planning on doing a total rebuild of the power train yet. But I guess I am.

mike

[1930artdeco]

One wheel down one to go tomorrow and then the front brakes and suspension will be done-minus the sway bar. I put self adjusters on both fronts and eventually the rears as well. Question, I bought a new tank from Auto city classics and it is a bit smaller dimensionallly than my original. Is there supposed to be this much slack in the straps or should they be tight all the way around. At this point I am planning on adding some rubber to take up the slack.

Mike

[mustang6984]

Sadly I have done more tanks than I ever wanted to. UGH!

They need to be more tight than that. And the idea of putting rubber between the straps and the tank is a good one. I actually had one that had worn a bit of a leak in the corner of the tank where the strap had rubbed over years. I have used heavy duty inner tubes from trucks and made my own.

The brakes look great! Nice and clean and colorful. Progress!!!   

[RICH MUISE]

Yep, should be really tight and with rubber in between the tank and straps. There should also be something between the tank and the trunk floor to prevent possible sparks The OEM stuff was like tar paper. I used the self adhesive insulation sheeting leftover from insulating my car's cabin. worked out great.
Also, couldn't tell from the pic if your straps are new or just sandblasted, but when I ordered my Tanks Inc tank, I also ordered ss straps from them, and they came with the rubber strips.

[1930artdeco]

Thanks Rich, forgot about the car type paper. Those are the original straps and kinda banged up from moving them around. It will come back out when I pull the diff to change out the springs. Then I can add the paper to the top.

Mike

[1930artdeco]

Just got my new McVeigh leaf springs for my wagon. Do I need to do anything to them lube or spacer wise before installation?

Mike

[hiball3985]

There is a rubber isolater that may need to be replaced, I got mine from Rubbertherightway. The springs will have new front bushings but not the shackle bushings and should probably be replaced.

[59meteor]

The fit of the gas tank is interesting, maybe the wagons are different, but the new gas tank from Auto City for my 59 2 door sedan, was actually on the tight side. When I ordered the tank, I also ordered new mounting straps at the same time, but they were quite different , and would not work, so I cleaned and reused my original straps. For the top, and along the inside surface of the straps, I used a fairly thin section of foam rubber, and cut pieces to fit. Also, on my sedan, the front of the straps hook into slots in a crossmember, with threaded hooks that attach at the rear. Where the hooks clipped into tabs on the rear frame crossmember, the end of the hook wanted to dig into the top of the new tank, so I had to trim the ends of the hooks shorter to gain some clearance. Also, my filler neck , which is welded to the tank on the regular car models, was nowhere near fitting in the center of the gas door , so I had to use a long bar, to bend the neck up, and more to the center . It is centered now, and 1 1/2 years later , has been working great. My tank did not come with a gas cap, and since my old cap was pretty rusty, I tried local auto parts stores to find a new cap, with little luck, as the angled "ramps" on the old Ford tanks was deeper than the 60s Fords, I was able to find a locking gas cap that kind of fit, but required excessive pressure to make the tabs lock into place. I did by a new cap from Dennis Carpenter that fits properly, although I believe it was for an earlier model Ford, maybe a 56?
As for the leaf springs, I bought my springs from a local spring shop, but they came with McVeigh stickers on them. They did have the new front bushings pressed in, but no rear shackle bushings. Since they were so inexpensive, I ordered a pair of new shackles, which came with the bushings, from Carpenter as well. The springs came painted with the plastic like insulators in place, so I just installed them with no additional lubrication. Also, since I will be racing my car on occasion, I did not use any insulators between the leak spring and the axle housing, just metal to metal, with new U Bolts. Works just fine.

[1930artdeco]

Got the springs and the diff out today. Everything cam out easily😱. Only issue is that one U bolt had stripped threads so will need a new one. Now I just need to figure out a way to secure the diff so I can pop the axles out and replace the seals. Then back to the front end to swap backing plates and put two new tires on!

Mike

[hiball3985]

Wagon/Ranchero seals are different from passenger cars, I had a hard time finding them. Everything else is different too, bearings, backing plate, shoes, drums etc.

[RICH MUISE]

59 Meteor reminded me.........on the fit of the gas tank.......I had to massage the filler neck also to be centered, but a very easy chore. I also remember the rear hooks digging in and needing some shortening. I did something different on the front hooks though that worked out quite nicely regarding the slots that the J hooks fit into. I didn't like the J hooks actually. Those slots are in a double brace an inch or so apart if I remember correctly. I made a setup using eye bolts that pivoted on a spacer made from heavy wall tubing. The spacer was cut to fit snugly inside that double wall bracket and ran a bolt thru the spacer with the eyebolt slid on. It seemed like when I tried to reuse the J hooks, they were fighting me in that they wanted to pop out of the slots. The eyebolts swinging on the spacer eliminated that.
I also can't remember if I just used the slots for the spacer/bolt (if there were in fact slots in both sides) , or if I had to do some drilling.

[1930artdeco]

Hiball, how are the seals different? They should be the same since ford went to the 9? diff that year. The brakes I know about. I got seals from Napa but won?t know if they work until I pop the axles out. I am trying to figure out how to crib the diff so that it doesn?t slide on me when I start pulling/banging away with a drum to pop the axle out. Any ideas?

Mike

[hiball3985]

The axle ends are larger for the larger bearing the best I remember and require a larger seal. I used National 51098

[1930artdeco]

Yes there are two sizes and I think I got the correct larger size at Napa. Will find out as soon as I pull an axle.