Norma 1966 Galaxie

Norma66 said:

Update from the Ice Planet Hoth. No signs of the cold lifting

I feel your pain (it's -7F here as I type this...)

I want to see that Galaxie back on the road.  

Summit worked with me and new brake kit is on the way. Put the motor together enough to get to the machine shop. Can’t get the geometry right. Looks like it needs  stand machining to make it right. 

Motors dropped off with the machine shop. Brakes should be here Wed

I regret that I have but one thumbs-up to give.

Did some work on the radio today. You could get a fm/am in 66 but it was regulated to 7 liters and special orders. I have three am’s for the car. I will be sending the one in the best shape to get converted to fm/am and bluetooth.

 New brakes came in for the rear end. All safety wiring is done and ready for final assembly. Got the right parts and everything looks good.

Norma66 said:

Did some work on the radio today. You could get a fm/am in 66 but it was regulated to 7 liters and special orders. I have three am’s for the car. I will be sending the one in the best shape to get converted to fm/am and bluetooth.

I have one of those FM converters.    I bought it new 35 years ago or so, and never got around to installing it.  It's still in the box, stored away in the garage attic.  

Electro-Tech in Minneapolis gets pretty good reviews for their radio conversions:  http://www.turnswitch.com

Got the parking brake assemblies put on and torqued. Now just waiting for a second set of hands to finish putting the rearend back up.

Rear end is in. Brakes are next. Ready for this thing to roll again.

Got the tank dropped. Just need to find someone in town to boil it out and I can get the electric fuel pump put in. Tanks in surprisingly good shape.

Mistakes have been made.

So the brake rotor and the caliper are way off. The caliper needs to go back 1/2 inch to be centered on the rotor.

So my kit has a 2.66 axle offset hub. Turns out my axle actually has a 2.36 offset. Which Wilwood doesn’t have for small ford axle flange. Couple ways to solve this.

Option 1- Wilwood does have a hub with the right offset but it doesn’t have the right lug pattern. I could buy that hub and bring it in to the machine shop and have them put the right lug pattern in. Would work but then I have a one off custom hub that in a pinch would be hard to get. May also create clearance problems for the internal parking brake.

Option 2 - Go redesign part 13 to add the right offset (could have the machine shop at work make it cheap) scary part there is how much space I would create. I would add length on bolt 8. That bolt is already a cap head bolt and stronger than grade eight. Making it longer will allow a ton of force be applied. Making that whole assembly into a longer lever doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Option 3- route I think I’m going to take. I’m going to find a cut to fit axle with the right offset. That will allow the rearend to retain the Wilwood kit I already have and make everything work. This route is about the same expense as option 1. All I would have to do is bring the cut to fit axle in to the machine shop and match up the length from the current axle. 

Anyone have any different thoughts?

If it’s a 2-piece rotor as the pix and diagram show it to be, then for sure get the correct-offset hat and have it drilled to your lug pattern. 

Reason:  when would you ever have to replace the hat?  It’s not really a wear item unless your Park Brake hangs up.

Who said that might cause park brake problems, you or wilwood?

In reply to AngryCorvair : just from some basic measuring it will be close with the hub offset. Axels are about 50 bucks cheaper overall. Is there any negative to doing new cut to length axels?

Axle tubes, or just the axle shafts?

if shafts, I’d just be worried about unsupported length outboard of the bearings, although if it’s only 0.300” that’s certainly not enough to worry about.

You will be OK with making part 13 thicker by the necessary amount. Looks scary at first but with good hardware the load is not close to limit.

We will see. I will talk to my rearend guy this week. Would really to like to make this a roller soon. Need to start blowing the wiring apart.

Talked to the transmission shop. They can get me a cut to length axel to make everything clearance right without any custom machining. Axels will hopefully come out tonight. Little worried that I cant get the driver side axel out without dropping the rearend again. Cars to close to the garage wall currently.

Motors done. End stand machining had to get done to get geometry right. Axels are in the SHO. Time to start putting serpentine conversion on

Motors back. Rearend is out again and headed back to the shop. The axel shop doesn’t believe my offset measurements. More to come!

The excitement is palpable!

Things have gotten a little crazy around here. Wife and I bought a new house Monday. Going from in town, no garage, to out of town 2 2 car garages. Soon I will have my own two car garage all to myself!

Now I have to get my ass in gear on getting our current house ready to sell.

Put in some time on the motor today. 

Everything seems to be lining up. Everything is super well made in this kit. The instructions are a little lacking though. 

In reply to Norma66 :

That is a sweet looking power plant. You are going to love having more space.

Norma66 said:

Put in some time on the motor today. 

Everything seems to be lining up. Everything is super well made in this kit. The instructions are a little lacking though. 

I like how that kit is black - I've seen plenty of them that are polished aluminum or chrome, and they add too much bling that detracts from the engine itself.

Someone on here mentioned that restoring a car is just a bunch of ten minuet jobs. How right that guy was.

Rear end is back in. Got the serpentine conversion 100% done. Just need motor mounts then it’s motor dropping time.

Also got the remote power steering reservoir put together. Need to figure out where to put it.