back from a long ass weekend! here we go!
we got out to my dad's mid day friday, and ran around to pick up some parts. we didn't get much done, but got some stuff picked up from a few places.
the next day we woke up early, and got right down to business. i wheeled the motor outdoors, and you can see in the next pictures, the nice lifting setup my dad made for this:
i took some pictures of stuff we picked up:
rotors, with brand new timken (made in USA) races in them, as well as bearings, which added around 50-60 dollars to our excursion.
the calipers.
organic pads, so that when i stop it's quiet, and hopefully they won't destroy the rotors like semi metallic do. 20 dollars
brake hoses
built to last. duralast. 70 dollars?
new motor mounts, 20 dollars.
trans cooler which i ended up taking back, but ended up being around 40 dollars.
premium wire set. i think 22 dollars? i also got spark plugs for free, thanks autozone dude!
copper exhaust gasket, 30 dollars.
we got the motor up in the air, and started piecing everything together:
the plate was originally cracked, my dad ended up welding it. thanks dad!
we got the flexplate on, and started torquing it down.
we put a bar on the harmonic balancer so that we could turn the motor and get the torque converter on.
if you are reading this, you are probably laughing and on the internet.
torque converter on!
next we got the bellhousing put on:
put the new motor mounts on:
next we lowered the motor in!
now the reason we did this was to fit test the radiator, and figure out what sort of fan/spacer we would need:
as you can see, not much room there!
couple of glamour shots:
we ran out and picked up some parts, including a flex fan.
50 dollars or so.
with the fan and no spacer, this is how close the blade came to our alternator:
not much room at all!
we solved this in two ways. we moved our radiator back about 3/4 of an inch or more, as well as by cutting out the rear firewall, to allow the motor a lot more room to move back.
patched in firewall.
with the tube moved back, now the tubes of the radiator hit on my dad's support he had built, so he had to cut out and modify that. lots of work, and i'm glad he handled it:
next we welded the bracket on the top back in place, to move the radiator back like mentioned earlier.
now we could fit the radiator, and a fan+spacer
that was the end of saturday, and i passed out.
sunday i woke up and was so groggy i moved the transmission 20 feet without noticing i had fluid spilling all over me.
we got the transmission on my dad's truck and then started pulling it apart.
we pulled the pan off to get the filter out, as well as clean the whole thing up.
while my dad was lolly gaggin, i got the b&m shifter brackets mounted on the tranny:
we removed the front and rear seals, as we figured it was a good time to replace these:
here you can see the chrome pan i got for the transmission with a drain plug. worth the 20 dollars completely. i had wanted a deep pan, but i understand you need to make some modifications i didn't feel like doing.
we ran to autozone and picked up some more parts. they are getting to know us and our "frankenstein" by now. it's pretty funny.
new filter installed, 10 dollars?
spraying the pan gasket.
installing the pan.
now something that has stunk for me, is being i have to take most of these pictures, i never show up in them working! julie came out and took pictures of dad and i, while installing the transmission onto the bellhousing:
"clocking" the transmission to accept to our torque converter. just a little bit of a pain:
well dude, uh, there you have it.
my dad mounting the starter:
dropping the motor and tranny in:
with the motor and tranny in, i had to get under the car and block it up, etc....
blocked up, and the rear seal.
now my dad started playing around with a transmission mount, and while he was doing that, i got down to business and mounted the shifter:
julie helped me with it, and we got to rip carpet, drill, etc...
my dad also decided against my wish of mounting the battery in the trunk, and cut a hole where he wanted to mount the battery.
at first i wasn't feeling it, but later you will see it came out pretty nice, and fit well.
the next morning, yesterday, my dad woke me up at 5:30 am and we went out to build the battery box/mount. we also picked up parts from autozone, and it escapes me what we got, aside from dust caps and a transmission mount.
when we got back, i started getting the rotors on the spindles, while my dad worked more on the battery box/mount:
my dad putting the box in:
once the box was in, we mounted the starter solenoid, and began making the cables:
we shoved a header up in place to make sure we built the cables right, as well:
i took sometime to take pictures of the old trans mount for the 6 cylinder, and how we adapted it to work with the c4:
i am not completely sure, but i believe my comet has the old style mount, that you cannot buy a bolt in replacement for from a website, so to anyone wanting to figure out a similar type of situation, heads up:
e brake cable moved down.
pieces of tube steel to give us a little bit more room.
you can see the header tube and the transmission in this picture. i just took it because it made me happy.
we shot some rubber undercoating on the inside of the fenders, it looks a lot nicer now:
next we mounted the calipers, which isn't exactly easy, and the hoses/etc...
we got the tires up in place, and dropped the car:
as i had suspected with the mustang springs, they are TOO heavy duty, and the suspension would barely react, even with the motor/tranny in, and me/dad jumping on the bumper.
my dad ran out, got the spring compressor, while i took the original comet springs and cleaned them up/painted them aluminum color.
we put these in after much screaming and yelling, and the suspension appears to be a lot better now. note to self: it is always easier to put a spring in without the upper control arm in place.
with the car on the ground, this is how i left it last night:
while everyone was fooling around with the springs, i installed the gauges (hah).
next weekend:
- remove engine one last time
- fix steering box
- finish steering setup
- reinstall motor/transmission
- install headers
- install accessories
- install brake lines/master cylinder
- finish wiring
- fill fluids/etc...
- fit driveshaft to trans/rear end
and hopefully, hear this thing fire up/drive it around.
