1980 Ford Fairmont Wagon. Family Cruiser.

ClemSparks said:

Oh...I think your wagon has progressed at lightning speed compared to mine, lol.  

Yes, this car had a column-shifted C4.  I have to cut a hole in the tunnel now for the T5 shifter.

At least for now I think I'll just cut the hole and go with as tasteful a universal shifter boot as I can find.  If anyone has any pointers on that front (shifter boot), let me know.  The hole is going to be roughly 4" wide by 6" long.

Today I managed to remove the Bench seat, rear seat bottom and carpet.  Next I need to find the pedal setup (with clutch pedal) that I have squirreled away so I can see what I need to do to get the clutch pedal all set up.

If your interested in selling the stock column shift linkages I can figure out PayPal! a screw up during my swap using the i6 K (guy who's write up I used 5 speed swapped) moved the engine forward so we adapted mine a bit. This winter I plan to put the v8 k member in to set the engine back and allow my shifter to work properly. I havnt started looking in earnest yet either way. 

I'm going to hang onto the linkage stuff for the time being but if you ever need any measurements or anything, just holler.

This evening I rolled the wagon back under the engine/transmission and set it in place for the long term (I certainly hope).

Startin' to look like a car, again!

I've been slowly plugging away at buttoning up details on the engine installation.  I have installed the Intake manifold and water pump.  I realized I don't have a power steering pump or bracket.  That's proving to be a challenge to source.  I'm also on the lookout for a set of factory stock tube headers for an '86-up fox body.  I should probably try to find a stock T5 shifter as well.

But...I have been sourcing other needed parts (Clutch cable, exhaust midpipe hanger, cooling hoses, etc).  With ChristmasandPropertyTax time coming up, I may shy away from much more spending on expensive parts for a bit (or I might not, lol, Merry Christmas Clem!).  This thing won't hit the road before next April no matter what (road salt) so I'll just take the time I have.

I scored a solid set of 10-hole wheels for it a couple weeks back, so that's nice.

I cannot adequately express how much I like this project.  11/10.  

I think you may have inspired me to start collecting parts for my own family truckster hot rod build.

In reply to psteav (Forum Supporter) :

You know you should not encourage me to enable you further by giving me a TARGET body style ;)

In reply to ClemSparks :

Oh, I've already got the wagon.  Just need to go get it from my friend.  (Actually, I need to decide which of his three wagons I want).  But keep pitching me potential LS donors.

At some point I will get the Mazda sorted out (it is mostly fine) and we can have a wagon gang spanning the 80s, 90s, and 00s of custom wagons!

In reply to ClemSparks :

What style bracket are you looking for? If it's the cast aluminum peice the pump bolts into I think I have a spare. My set up is peiced together from multiple sets

In reply to dropstep :

Hey thanks.  Fortunately, just this afternoon I found the one that I thought I had.  It was in the back of the wagon, lol.  I can't open the back hatch currently and I forget that I originally started storing parts for the project back there.  I was looking for something different back there today when I found the power steering pump.  Yay!

Headers have been acquired!

Last week I finally got around to starting the pedal swap.  After I got the brake pedal setup removed, I realized my pedal assembly with a clutch pedal is missing the original, plastic, self-adjusting clutch quadrant.

I've been waiting a week for the USPS to deliver my new aluminum clutch quadrant so I can put the pedals back in.  I was really hoping the pedal swap would be something I got finished up real quick before I forgot where everything goes.  Mostly, I'll just be happy to have that part of the project behind me.

aaaaand.  The pedal part of the project is finally buttoned up.  

Back when I last posted I was trying to get a few things done before it got too cold to really make progress.  But the cold came and the car sat.  Here over the past couple weeks I've been poking at it here and there now that the weather is nicer.

Here she sits, covered in dust at the back of the barn:

...behind the Wrongler

Things I've done:

• Bolted the pedal assembly in with new clutch quadrant (this is a pretty big operation since the colum mount and 423 wires all get moved around as part of the process)
• Ordered, received, and set the carburetor onto the intake manifold (with a spacer to mimic the factory setup)
• Installed the clutch cable and aftermarket cable adjuster
• Opened up the shifter hole to the final dimension
• Bolted in the transmission mount, transmission crossmember, and the h-pipe hanger mount.
• Installed the headers.  This required one custom-ground low-clearance 3/8, 12 point combination wrench and just a bit of hammer-and-punch dimpling of the primary tubes in 3 spots.

I learned that a C4 and a T5 take different Speedometer driven gears and driveshaft output slip yokes.  The reverse switch setup looks different as well but that should be a small/simple thing, I hope.

Here's a few shots of the engine with the headers and carburetor in place

Here are my hi-zoot header bolts.  I treated myself to some old stock ebay ARP bolts with safety wire holes drilled in them.  I know exactly what a pain these things are to get and keep tight (custom-ground wrench featured in this photo, too).  I figure I might as well try to keep them from backing out.

Nice to see this back up top!

I installed two new universal joints in the driveshaft over the past couple evenings.  At the same time, I changed the front slip yoke to the proper one for the T5, harvested from the red '85 convertible I parted out.

Well Dang.

I finished up tightening and safety-wiring the header bolts last night.  Literally 60 seconds later, I remembered that I had forgotten to remember the Dip Stick.  D'oh!

Looking closer at the situation...the stock dipstick won't work with the second-hand, likely-ebay-sourced headers I have.

I don't think any dipstick is going to go in the original location with these headers so I'll see if it's possible to clearance them with a hammer.  I have nothing to lose at this point.  If these can't work, I'll get something else.

Don't ya just love when a plan comes un-together.....Happy to see progress, looking good.

I decided maybe I should do something to the wagon this week.

To facilitate the routing of dual exhaust pipes over the axle, it's best to change the rear brake plumbing in these "early" fox cars to match the later cars (that came with dual pipes from the factory).  Having done this before, I know it's arguably easiest just to remove the rearend to do this brake plumbing work.  So while I'm at it...right?  How about while I'm at it, I put a little better gear in there?

I have a 7.5" rearend out of the red mustang convertible parts car.  Somehow I was remembering that it has a limited slip differential and 3.27:1 gears.  I was half right.  Turns out it has 3.08 gears.

And when I opened it up here's what we see:

Yikes!

Well...that gear set is toast.  I'm not sure about the carrier and LSD...it might be ok.  But I'm not sure throwing new parts at a 7.5 is a smart move.

I don't think I *need* an 8.8 rearend in this car for strength.  But if I end up buying a ring and pinion (and bearings, and seals, etc) it would probably be a smarter move just to do that to an 8.8.  I have a couple of 8.8 housings (one is slated for the '83 Mustang), so maybe I oughta start cleaning one of those up.

Or...maybe a local deal will fall in my lap for another rear end (7.5 or 8.8) with good gears already.

I have a couple sets of 7.5 gears. 3.45 and 3.73

Not exactly local, but maybe we can figure out a way to get them to you?

I appreciate that!

I don't think we need to try too hard to make it work but I've pulled off much stranger stuff ;).  

I'm not so savvy on ford rear ends and if different carriers are needed for different gear ratios.  I know that's a thing with some GM stuff (and probably others)

Just want to say you are doing a good job, makes me want a wagon.... Think what i could do with all the extra space......

ClemSparks said:

I decided maybe I should do something to the wagon this week.

To facilitate the routing of dual exhaus pipes over the axle, it's best to change the rear brake plumbing in these "early" fox cars to match the later cars (that came with dual pipes from the factory).  Having done this before, I know it's arguably easiest just to remove the rearend to do this brake plumbing work.  So while I'm at it...right?  How about while I'm at it, I put a little better gear in there?

I have a 7.5" rearend out of the red mustang convertible parts car.  Somehow I was remembering that it has a limited slip differential and 3.27:1 gears.  I was half right.  Turns out it has 3.08 gears.

 

I don't think I *need* an 8.8 rearend in this car for strength.  But if I end up buying a ring and pinion (and bearings, and seals, etc) it would probably be a smarter move just to do that to an 8.8.  I have a couple of 8.8 housings (one is slated for the '83 Mustang), so maybe I oughta start cleaning one of those up.

Or...maybe a local deal will fall in my lap for another rear end (7.5 or 8.8) with good gears already.

You may be surprised how difficult it is to find 8.8s as compared to only a few years ago. Builders are snapping them up like crazy. On the other hand if you find someone that has had an 8.8 sitting around for a while and is unaware of this recent phenomenon...

Yeah.  They haven't been easy to come up with since I got back into fox bodies 8 or 10 years ago.  That's part of the reason I was just going to use a 7.5.

For now, I'll probably just plan to run whatever rear is in the car until I find or put together something better.  I can only assume that the wagon has the ubiquitous 2.73:1 gears.  And if it's anything but an open differential I would be blown away.

I do have a spare 8.8 housing that I could put in this car.  But that would be a full teardown and rebuild with all new parts (unless I find a deal on a good, used gear set).  And so, I think that can wait until I get the car actually running.

Oh...wait.  I totally bought an 8.8 diff and gears a couple years back and stuck it on the shelf and forgot about it until I'm typing this.  Lol.  I guess I need to go look at what I have again.  As problems go...this is one of the good ones, I guess.  I don't remember.

I went and checked my stash.  I purchased this gear set a year ago for probably $50 or $75, put it in the barn and forgot about it.

It's a 3.27:1 setup.  I have this same ratio and (I think) same 5th gear ratio in the '83 Mustang and it is probably fine for the wagon.  But if I'm going to go to the trouble of setting up gears, I feel I should probably be looking at something like a 3.55 or 3.73.  

If anyone has experience with fox bodies and gears, I would listen to your experience.  I want to be able to drive this car on the interstate comfortably.  I know from experience a 3.27 gear will do that...and would actually be geared a little high (numerically low) for that.  I have a stock T5 from a mustang.  Would 3.73s have it wound too tight?  Or would it be just right?  If I had a good, complete, used rearend with 3.27:1 gears, I'd put it in without hesitation and run it.