1962 Mercury Monterey Project

I started with the idea that I would remove the speedometer cable. I rolled under the car with a flat screwdriver. Once I found some purchase under the flange on the cable end, it came out about a 1/4 inch and then I was easily able to pull it by hand from there. I was glad it did not sling oil in my face. I rolled a little forward to get rid of the shift+clutch interlock. This bracket came off easy enough. So - feeling confident - I went to delete the master cylinder. And, as we know, pride always cometh before the fall. I mean technically fall was a few day ago - but it certainly came before fall 2022. I layed under the dash and managed to smash some locking pliers on the square nut inside against the fire wall. That did not work - the nut holding the master cylinder in the engine bay still spun. I went back and retightened it. And still nothing. So again I crawled under the dash. and so on. and so on. Some where in there I kicked off a piece of trim that I will never be able to repl...

Not that long ago I thought I was going to have motor runnning in 2 weeks. That of course was contingent on being able to turn the motor with a wrench on the crank-bolt. That did not happen (not even a wiggle). So I am just working my way through taking the engine down and out. So today turned into remove the starter day. The car came with a both an "extra" starter and an "extra" generator. Considering the service manual describes in very clear detail how to rebuild both these things, and the cost of a core charge for either, I am surprised to have spares. Gosh this thing is oily. And the gear is carbon-y. I bet the clutch plate is smoked, but I hope the flywheel is solid. I also wanted to look at the front of the flywheel and the ring gear. More oil and more carbon but I was really glad I didn't find a dead mouse or more housing material. So, then I crawled under to try and prep everything to pull the transmission. I was not going to pull the transmission witho...