What Next? 1973 Ford Contry Sedan

Discussion in 'General Automotive Tech' started by Slidemanic, Oct 11, 2016.

  1. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    I copied the pages in the Ford shop manual and showed them to the Ford service dept. people. The elder statesman there is going to look up the time the job is supposed to take,then I hope I will have an estimate. They say they have techs who know this stuff. There are parts of the job I don't want to do myself--if it were just the balancer,OK,but not the whole deal. So. It was suggested I should look harder for vacuum leaks because of my jittery idle. The strange swishing sound when I rev the idling engine with the hood up and my head stuck in there,I realized must be the chain rubbing the case. I think the chain is way loose,but not jumped,and there are no particles visible in the oil (that could change),and that the harmonic balancer hasn't slipped. So I am going to assemble the rest of the carb.,make the adjustments needed,and check for vacuum leaks such as: Climate Control system,tomato juice can,& firewall tree. If I can afford the job and I do it,Ill have a new balancer anyway. And,of course I still have to do the "7 Degree" test!
     
  2. ALFATAR

    ALFATAR Active Member

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    If you think that the timing chain is that bad with the car running take a long screw driver and place one end to the timing chain cover and one end to your ear and you should clearly hear it rubbing. Also another test to see how much play is in the timing chain is to take the disturber cap off and turn the motor back ward and see how much play until the rotor turns. I would think doing a compression test would show if the timing chain jumped as all the cylinders would be low. Imo a car with a jumped timing chain would be low on power
    Find someone with a smoke machine and put the car on it. Any vacuum leaks will show up.
     
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  3. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    The wheel went all the way to "8" before the rotor moved. I am still waiting to hear if the job can be done at a reasonable cost.
     
  4. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    The one thing I am not figuring out is: why does it sometimes barely start and not run well enough to check it;and sometimes runs well enough to drive it? (Based on the same settings). When I'm ready to have the engine work done,I'll have to have it towed in if it runs the way it is now.
    So anyway,I received the window roller part which came with the ball attached. I had to pop that out (not easy) so I could pop it on to the ball at the end of the regulator arm.Then I had the roller in place,but no way to reach its channel,so I took everything apart in the door so I could move the glass forward,got the roller in its channel,and reassembled everything. That was when I realized I had to do all the glass adjustments again. That's not even mentioning the drilling out & replacement of one rivet that became loose when the glass dropped into the door in the first place.
     
  5. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    Yeah, I feel for you. Ford must own a rivet production plant. If you can, replace with suitable threaded hardware. It's one of the few things that Ford engineers do that makes my stomach churn.
     
  6. Leadslead

    Leadslead Well-Known Member

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    Fun fact: Henry Ford was the inventor of the modern charcoal briquette, which is where you get Kingsford charcoal. :cool:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsford_(charcoal) link for further reading.
    Guess that means every time I bring out the Weber I'm honoring Ford... and burning some of his inventions in effigy?
     
  7. Grizz

    Grizz Are we there yet???

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    How this one: Ransom e. Olds was making and selling cars before ford, and Peugeot was doing it in France before the both of them. This is new knowledge to me I'm reading a good one image.jpg got good photos in it too. Ain't real gud wit werds an such, I do like a readin dem pictures tho
     
  8. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    So maybe if I turn the distributor enough,the out of time 400 will run well enough to get to my Ford Service Dept. I've decided to go for it! I was going to do more tests,but it's snowing...and dark out...
    The '04 Mustang GT at 140000 miles has a no clutch left,and they want $800.00 in labor to do that (not including flywheel @ $262.50),so if the drama of the '73 Country Sedan turns out well,I'll offer that 'Stang GT to whomever,with the new clutch in the trunk.
    As to the window on the wagon,I had two loose rivets,but I only drilled out the rearmost one of the three,& replaced it with an appropriate bolt with two lockwashers and a nut. The middle rivet can't move. Everything is slopped over with white lube,now it is just the door panel/watershield/handles/etc. that have to go back on.
     
  9. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    Yeah,so I put the door back together & had the wagon towed to the Ford dealership. We'll find out what the problem is, but probably really is the timing chain/gears. Fingers crossed that it all turns out with a 400 V-8 running like it should.
     
  10. OldFox

    OldFox Curmudgeon

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    Be sure to tell them how much money you've pissed away trying to fix it yourself; and don't forget to mention your internet consultants. Mechanics need a good laugh once in a while too.
     
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  11. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    Follow it with "I need it as soon as possible." That'll really get the mirth flowing.
     
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  12. OldFox

    OldFox Curmudgeon

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    Well, it's been a week tomorrow since your car was towed to the dealer. Timing chain is a half day job so your car should be fixed by now. So. what's the prognosis?
     
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  13. Grizz

    Grizz Are we there yet???

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    "Well sir, we gotta lotta cars in front of ya, and "O'Really's" had to ship the parts from California and when they got here they were the wrong ones so we had to send them back. Also, we got Jimbo working on it and he was born in 1999 and has never worked on a car this old but he is really learning a lot. Should be done by tomorrow."
     
  14. Silvertwinkiehobo

    Silvertwinkiehobo "Everything that breaks starts with 'F.'"

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    Dude, you hit the nail, square on the head!
     
  15. Slidemanic

    Slidemanic Well-Known Member

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    They say they have the greybeards working on it. They first tried to start it late Friday,Monday they wanted to put points & condenser in it,those weren't in until Tuesday,Wednesday they completed their diagnosis,concluding that the engine did indeed need chain & gears. I gave the go-ahead on the tearing down,and there we are. I am praying for a good conclusion:that this mill be smooth,quiet and torquey (it's never been smooth!). They want eight hours to do this job. And then there's the waiting for the parts to come in. I suppose it could be ready next week to commence the wallet extraction process.
     

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