1962 Mercury Monterey Project

 The car is buttoned up and ready to go It took me <2 hours to get the heads, valve lifters, valley cover, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, carb and fan on. I tried to put the thermostat housing / expansion bottle in place, but I realized I had to drill out one of the bolts and so I didn't have enough to hold it in place. The other one was pretty gacked anyway. It took me another 30 minutes to organize all the stuff I had for the car inside the passenger space. I tried not to shove too much into the trunk, since it still doesn't open. While I had it up, I used some "green slime" to stop the leak in the one tire that wouldn't hold air. I tested this morning and it seem to be good to go. I had to zip-tie the E-brake cables to the frame so they would stop getting tangled and dragging. I also zip-tied the clutch pedal rod to something that was sticking out of the transmission - otherwise it was hanging straight down next to the fire wall. The tow truck will come

I set out this evening to put the transmission back in the Mercury. I had a plan - which held together for about 1/2 the experience. Then I had many many alternate plans and a fair amount of winging it. I jacked the car back up as high as it would go and then went through about 4 or 5 iterations of 'how do I balance the transmission" on my floor jack. The first plan started beautifully and then came undone within seconds of rolling under the car. I tried in vain to reset without crawling back out from under the car, but I was not strong enough to lift 100lbs and scoot the jack in place with my foot while laying on my back or side. So I dragged everything out and tried several configurations. I learned many lessons in these experiments - including how to operate the jack with my legs while I used my arms to weasel it into position. Eventually I got the spindle into the hole - I tilted the transmission and the engine several times and got it to seat all but the last 1/2 inch. I

Are you familiar with that SNL skit where the guy pokes himself in the head and says "kidneys kidneys" as if he wasn't thinking well.  Speaking of idiot proof instructions - did you know there is a sticker on the clutch plate which says "this side to the fly wheel". That was handy. Unfortunately, there was not a sticker on the motor mounts which said "face the open 'C' toward the back" or on the engine hoist that said "extend the arm ALL the way so you can get the engine over the cross member". I have pictures documenting these configuration details - in the case of the motor mount, I checked AFTER I installed them backwards but before I removed the block from the stand. That was nice. In the case of the hoist ... I figured it out after I had 650# of iron swinging 2/3 of the way to where it is supposed to go and I realize the hydraulics are hitting the front bumper and that is as far as I can get. At this point, I ha

I'm throwing parts together on the Mercury so that it can be transported up to my daughter's school. She is taking an automotive elective this year and they have decided to take on that beast as a project. Here is what I told the course leader about the car: Mechanical State Engine / Transmission / Drive Shaft are out of the car Engine is disassembled down to the block - but the balancer / crank / cam are still IN Heads are off, but the valves are still in Exhaust headers = yes ... exhaust / muffler = missing Wheels / Front Brakes / Master Cylinder are off the car E-brake is off and cable is broken Fuel Tank is off the car Radiator is missing Body State RUSTY!! Trunk is locked / lock is broken missing chrome trim No keys Back seats are out of the car  "carpet" is gone (so is most of the rodent house & refuse) Rear glass is missing Wipers are missing Front fender is really crunched Hood / Front bumper is somewhat less crunched - hood hinges are seized 3 / 4

 I am fairly sure that ZEP engine degreaser is a gallon of soapy water. The ingredients say it has some chelating agent that binds metals to it and drags them into solution (I think other forms of EDTAs are using as anti-coagulants in medicine). Whatever it is - it works. And smells nice. Of all the degreasers I found at home depot - it was the cheapest. Step 1 - drop a piston is a small plastic tub that used to hold diswasher tabs with enough ZEP to cover the rings Step 2 - come back tomorrow Step 3 - wrap connecting rod in some carboard and cinch it up in a bench vise Step 4 - break off any piston ring pieces that are easy to grab with your fingers (do this so that the snapping action is pointed away from your face) Step 5 - tappity tap tap with a screw driver + hammer on the grimey stuck ring parts that are left until they fly out (see note on pointing the action away from your face). 2 minutes of set up and 5 minutes of tapping and the job is done. Should take me 7 more days to do

"Brakes are off" is what people say when they are ready to move forward on something. It is a metaphor for taking action after being stopped. For me it was a long holiday hiatus which got rolled into some delays to progress after the holidays (I mean - it IS after Groundhog Day and Constitution Day in Mexico). Speaking non-metaphorically, front brakes are off for this rust covered beauty. As others of you pointed out - when I tried this last time, I needed to remove the spindle nut to get the drum off. I used a pair of channel locks to remove the dust cap and a some needle nose pliers to get the cotter pin out of the way. I don't know what you call that ridged cap that sits behind the pin and wraps over the top of the spindle nut, but that thing just sort of slides off. The spidle nut was not very hard to remove. It was pleasantly oily. Based on the general crud covered state of everything else, I had been worried these pieces would be dry and ground up - but there was a