66 Coronet 500 Driver, Light Resto

[HawkRod]

Today I made big progress, finally. I replaced the wheel cylinders, tightened all the fittings in the rear and got the drums back on. Did I mention it was 100* with 70% humidity? I moved up front and installed the grease seal using my bearing race and it worked great. I got the rotor on and had to grind about .080" off the bottom lip of the dust cap and it went on flush. The new ones they sell won't go flush unless you grind it off some. I got that on and moved to putting pads and calipers on. Here's where I dropped face first into the suck.
The rotors are thicker than stock and the pads are thicker than stock, typical if the current chinesium rotors and pads. I used 80 grit and then 60 grit airfile paper to lay on a 2x4 and slid the pads back and forth until finally, the skies parted, the angels sang and the darn thing went on. I looked up the 73/4 repair manual and figired out what the Orings in the hardware kit go to, and how the retainers and anti rattle clips went on. The rotor spun and everything looked good. Having learned my lesson, I grabbed my calipers and measured the pad thickness and then went on sanding until I took .020" off each pad. It slid right on. Thank God something went my way today. There were a lot more things that just planted me face first, but I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I did 2 hours worth of work in 6 hours. One thing after another. It sucked.
Got both front rotors and calipers on, hoses into the brackets, and retainer clips installed. I grabbed the metering block(after searching for it fo 30 minutes, it was in the trunk with the rest of the lines), and figured out which holes it went into and what orientation it needed to fit. Sat down with the lines and figured it out. Mounted it to the frame rail and got the driver's caliper line attached to the metering block tightened into the hose. Got the line to the rear tightened into the metering block too. Can't wait to get this finished. Going to use Dot5 in the system. It's really taking shape now. I can see light at the end of the tunnel and I don't think it's a train, this time.
View attachment 1879797View attachment 1879798

It's looking good!

I just put the same calipers on a Dart and I fought with the pads a lot longer than I should have had to. Luckily I didn't have to remove material from the pads, but I did have to make sure the pistons were pressed all the way back in the caliper!

No rush, you still have a few more days until Carlisle!

 

[Nxcoupe]

It's looking good!

I just put the same calipers on a Dart and I fought with the pads a lot longer than I should have had to. Luckily I didn't have to remove material from the pads, but I did have to make sure the pistons were pressed all the way back in the caliper!

No rush, you still have a few more days until Carlisle!

I put the caliper in a vise and tried to compress the piston more but it didn't move. It's not the first time I've come across this woeking with performance afrermarket parts. But I got it and it looks great. I can't wait to feel how well these brakes stop over the old ones.

 

[ckessel]

The dust caps on my wagon have that same issue. Will be investigating the material removal.

 

[Nxcoupe]

The dust caps on my wagon have that same issue. Will be investigating the material removal.

It worked for me. I may do the driver's side but it is already installed. But, my OCD is causing an eye twitch that may go away with grinding that lip down. Lol. Got a lot done today, too tired to write it all and really don't have pics yet.

 

[Nxcoupe]

A recap of yesterday is in order. I started by installing the outer tie rods into the spindles and tightening them down. Put the cotter pins in and done. Got wheel cylinders in and lines tightened into them and brakes assembled, put on drums, one was too tight, so had to work the drum back off and loosen adjuster, then slid the drum back on. I'll adjust those today. With that, the back end of the car was done. I'm running short on time so the parking brake will just have to wait. I was really surprised to see all the new parts on the back drums, yet the original, worn out hardware was resused. Strange.
With that, I decided to move to the front of the car. I lowered it and started assessing the situation of remaining lines to be installed. I decided to start with the hardest one, the one that runs behind the engine to the passenger side front wheel. Uses a screwdriver and loosened the clips holding it to the firewall. I had already cut it loose from the distribution block and it was removed from the old drum brake hose, so it was loose and I was able to maneuver it out. I was really surprised just how easily that worked. I took the new one and it just didn't look the same as the old one I removed. Little did I know that someone who packed it had bent it out of shape. I figured that out after I got the passenger side of it through the rock hard rubber splash shield and into the new hose. I tightened it up and moved to the driver's side. I got the line back into the 2 clips and secured them to the line. I raised the car and started to install it i to the metering block. That's when I realized the line was bet wrong, but I straightened it out and it went into the top rear side of the block. I then installed the 2 master cylinder lines and tightened them up into the metering block. I then slapped on all 4 tires and they cleared! Yay! I lowered it down and that's when it hit me, what I had forgotten. I forgot to adjust the torsion bars, so back up it went, I adjusted the bars and it sets great now. I just need to adjust and final tighten the front end on 4 post rack. Once on the ground, I then rolled the car back and got under the dash to removed the what I thought were 4 nuts turned into 6 nuts to remove the master cylinder and backing plate, since I am going with power disc now. It took a while with some breaks, as it was 100* in the shop.

 

[HawkRod]

A recap of yesterday is in order. I started by installing the outer tie rods into the spindles and tightening them down. Put the cotter pins in and done. Got wheel cylinders in and lines tightened into them and brakes assembled, put on drums, one was too tight, so had to work the drum back off and loosen adjuster, then slid the drum back on. I'll adjust those today. With that, the back end of the car was done. I'm running short on time so the parking brake will just have to wait. I was really surprised to see all the new parts on the back drums, yet the original, worn out hardware was resused. Strange.
With that, I decided to move to the front of the car. I lowered it and started assessing the situation of remaining lines to be installed. I decided to start with the hardest one, the one that runs behind the engine to the passenger side front wheel. Uses a screwdriver and loosened the clips holding it to the firewall. I had already cut it loose from the distribution block and it was removed from the old drum brake hose, so it was loose and I was able to maneuver it out. I was really surprised just how easily that worked. I took the new one and it just didn't look the same as the old one I removed. Little did I know that someone who packed it had bent it out of shape. I figured that out after I got the passenger side of it through the rock hard rubber splash shield and into the new hose. I tightened it up and moved to the driver's side. I got the line back into the 2 clips and secured them to the line. I raised the car and started to install it i to the metering block. That's when I realized the line was bet wrong, but I straightened it out and it went into the top rear side of the block. I then installed the 2 master cylinder lines and tightened them up into the metering block. I then slapped on all 4 tires and they cleared! Yay! I lowered it down and that's when it hit me, what I had forgotten. I forgot to adjust the torsion bars, so back up it went, I adjusted the bars and it sets great now. I just need to adjust and final tighten the front end on 4 post rack. Once on the ground, I then rolled the car back and got under the dash to removed the what I thought were 4 nuts turned into 6 nuts to remove the master cylinder and backing plate, since I am going with power disc now. It took a while with some breaks, as it was 100* in the shop.

That's good progress.

I find all this crap takes way more time than it should. Parts missing, don't fit or need to be adjusted, old stuff won't come off, etc. Honestly, I'm still not 100% sure my front/ rear brake bias is set right. My car stops awesome, but I have never had someone watch and then locked up all wheels to see how it behaved. One day....

 

[Nxcoupe]

I got the old mc and backing plate off the firewall and started installing the power brake booster. That's when the crap started to fly. Booster would NOT go in. No matter what I did. I put the provided backing plate against the firewall, and sure enough, the hole was not large or round enough. I marked the diameter that needed opened up and hit it with a carbide and my porting die grinder. It took a couple minutes but it worked. Booster fit better but still wasn't going in as it should, so Neil was inside and loosened the pedal bracket. I drilled out the top holes in the bracket a bit larger and the booster slid in and we tightened it up. Then Neil tightened up the brake pedal bracket.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I bench bled that the master cylinder but the ftont port really wasn't putting out much fluid. I went ahead and started the lines into the master cylinder and then slid it onto the booster studs.

 

[Nxcoupe]

That's when I climbed under the dash to install the booster linkage. No bueno. Crap! Bolt won't fit left to right through the booster pushrod because of the U shaped pedal support. So out came the booster AGAIN! I assembled it outside the car and then we fed it through the hole in the firewall and plate and it slid right in, no muss, no fuss. I told you if we did this again, it'd go right in, just didn't think It'd be this soon! I then got my daughter to help me bleed brakes. We tried, but NOTHING was coming out of the rear brake bleeders! I yried loosning the fitting and rebleeding the master cylinder. I loosened the fitting on the line coming from the master cylinder to the metering blick, no fluid to speak of. Finally, exasperated, I called my buddy Mark. He talked me down. I had worked on this trying everything under the sun for 5 or 6 hours in a 100+ degree, 80% humidity shop to no avail. It was frustrating. He pointed out the obvious. I was right, the master cylinder was bad. Well, have to wait til Monday to call O'Reilly's.

 

[Nxcoupe]

So today I called O'Reilly's and they ordered in 2 master cylinders, one he looked up and one I cross referenced from a raybestos number I found in my searches Sunday night. They both came in and only one was right. It was also aluminum bodied and I wasn't thrilled but oh well. I called my buddy Cam and he came over and helped me bleed the master and the brakes. This thing puts a stream out of the wheel cylinders bleeder that would make a **** star blush! FIXED! I had contacted Inline Tube, and they were nice and understanding but couldn't get a replacement to me in time. So on went the aluminum one, and it worked.
I then set about putting in the dash. I looked and looked for the steel plate that slided into the plastic fingers of the cluster bezel. I found it where it belonged, on the cluster. Lol. Really mentally exhausted. I got the tach hooked up to a harness I made and tried both an LED and conventional bulb in the tach illumination hole and it seemed way too bright, so went back to the conventional bulb. The harness goes from the tach out to both sides of the coil. I use POS side of the coil as an activation point and the NEG side as rpm pick up.
The LEDs look fantastic. I like them a lot. I hooked up the speedo cable, plugged in the rotory plug and hooked up the ammeter. Then, I installed the cluster, radio, etc. Looks fantastic.

 

[Nxcoupe]

And the gauges work! Almost forgot. Fuel and temp work as designed now. It looks really good. I tried the ac and it is still blowing cold. Got a ton of stuff to do tomorrow, so I'm gonna hit the rack for now.

 

[eldubb440]

that tach is way cool...... is that a 66 thing?

 

[Nxcoupe]

that tach is way cool...... is that a 66 thing?

Actually, it's an aftermarket gauge that is a direct fit for 66 and 67 coronets. I like it. I'll give more of my opinion on it after I get to drive it. It seems really accurate tho and quick to respond.

 

[HawkRod]

This thing puts a stream out of the wheel cylinders bleeder that would make a **** star blush!