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My daily driver 67 Coronet wagon

After I removed the defective fuel pump from the hybrid, I did some vacuuming of the area. After that I pulled my dollies out that I have the disassembled 440 core on. Went through the pieces and pulled out what's needed for the machine shop plus saving for re-use. I removed the oil galley plugs, with the help of the torch heating the block. The one by the crank didn't want to cooperate, so I welded an extra Allen wrench to it. Its now out too.

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I'm waiting for the new oil pressure gauge to show up for the hybrid, so I took some time to get more stuff ready for the wagon. Since I don't have the sway bar mounts for the K-frame, I made a pair. Put the bar into the dimpled area of the K, put some tape there to lessen scratches, and figured out what I needed. I needed two, 8", pieces so I looked through my metal selection. I had a 17" piece of 1/4"x 1.50 wide strap. Perfect. Cut it, trimmed the inner edges, marked out where to drill holes, drilled holes, mocked everyone up, good to go. I took all of the mill scale off the pieces, washed them down with brake clean, shot them with Ospho. They should be dry from the Ospho in an hour or so and I'll give them a coat of POR15 as a base to top coat with Rust Oleum matte black. There was one spot on the K I needed to whittle back for clearance of one bushing bolt. I'll dab some 15 on that, so the now bare spot has some protection.

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I'm loaded up and ready for tomorrow's road trip to Fresno. Car has a nice stance when there's some weight in the back.

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Took a little time to day to load the sway bar into the K-frame. One less thing to do for later.

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Who makes that type of sway bar?
( Carl does)
 
The money making hybrid project went home today. Did some cleaning under the lift then put the wagon on. Got the SFC's welded in. Will see what a difference those make when I do some driving tomorrow. After I get done with my Saturday cars n coffee with the homies, I'll put the wagon back on the lift for the rest of the under side work. Hopefully be done in a week. Then get it over to the alignment shop. I'm pretty stoked.

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I ran some errands today so I was able to see/feel the difference in the wagon with the SFC's only. Big difference, way more solid in how it handles dips/curves/driveways/underground utility plates/speed bumps. Can't wait to see how the rest changes. I put it up in the air to put another coat of POR15 to the weld areas and shot Kroil on all of the fasteners that will be getting moved. Tomorrow I get started on the main course.
 
Here are some of the items for the upcoming chassis improvements. FF Bilstein RCD valved shocks, FF 1.06" t-bars, FF tubular/improved geometry upper control arms, 70 k-frame with a homedone sway bar[ thanks KernDog for the info], General Springs XHD rear springs with added 2.5" arch, 11.75" front rotors, 11X2.5" rear drums, new shoes and pads, new wheel cylinders, new rear brake hardware, Timken bearings for rotors with races already swapped, Timken rear axle bearings with new retainer units from Yukon Gear, new rear brake hose. Stashed away are the rest of the front suspension bushings, joints, rods, arms, bumpers plus a new Lares steering box with pump along with an inline filter plus a cooler. Somewhere in my stash is the steering column pot rebuild package.

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Wagon is on the lift, started on the rear first. Got the axles out, Green bearings verified. The rh one was leaking to the outside, lh looked not far behind. The lh axle has been cut with a saw, must have been off another unit? Not sure just yet. I looked through the housing tubes and don't see the button or even a hole in the cross shaft for one. Hmmm! I got the center section loosened up so the oil can drain out. Tomorrow I'll drop it out, with the trans jack and see what else is going on in there.

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I was able to get the center section out. Had a look through the axle holes and see the cross shaft is not drilled. Further investigation on Doc Diff's site showed me he has two units listed. One for with Greens, one for with Timkens. Drat! I have the green one. There is a small package of goodies I can get from him to take care of that, plus I'll get a set of the lh threaded bolts. So...minor setback but not ugly. I kicked the inner seals out using some pieces of tubing from my metal pile. Used one of them to mop out the tubes, using an old pair of boxers, just like cleaning a rifle barrel. Scooped out the majority of the oil in the housing, then put the new inner seals in. My ball joint sockets came in handy to help drive them in. I'll scrape off the carrier gasket later today plus swap out the old springs for new and old shocks for new.

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Thanks for all the updates.
I enjoy them all.
Tilton engineering decal on lift made me smile. I bought some of there metal work benches when they moved.
 
I've had them before in my Duster many years ago, didn't last very long. Wagon has had a bearing noise in the rear from the get. Since the disassembly, it was most likely the rr, as its outer seal had let go and grease getting where it should not be. Old ones off, new stuff set on for my neighbor to press on at his work tomorrow. I already packed the bearings, put the outer seals in the retainers, teflon sealant and the adjuster threads. Got the u-bolts off before I stopped for the day. Tomorrow I'll switch out the springs and shocks, get as much of the backend stuff done that I can while I'm waiting for the Doc's package to show up. Plenty to keep me occupied!
 
I have thousands of miles on the ball bearings too. Maybe they will last awhile longer, maybe not. Looking at the physics of them, technically they are inferior to the stock design but mine keep on running.
Regarding frame connectors, everyone that installs them reports the same thing….. that the car feels more solid and rattles less. Count me in on one that said he same thing.
No offense meant by the following…..
I would really like to do a back to back on a car before and after without being told that frame connectors were added. I drove my cars right afterward and expected an improvement but was there really one?
I wonder how many of us just think that the car is better when maybe it isn’t. I’d love to see the data that XV Motorsports collected when they put cars on their chassis jig to test them for flex and shake.
I do think they help but I wonder if the gains are not as dramatic in cars with a full B pillar like all 4 door B bodies and A bodies.
I do have a car here that has no frame connectors so I could do my own comparison. I just haven’t gotten to it yet. The last car that I did frame connectors in is Jigsaw. I did lots of stuff to the car before it ever was driven so I have no back to back seat time for comparison.
 
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The SFC's made a big difference in how the car feels. Before, I could feel the car flexing on various road surfaces, twists, turns, speed bumps, trench plates[ underground is being done down the street from us] etc. Probably since it's a wagon, I feel the changes more. Since it was just them first, before any other changes to the suspension/steering etc, it impressed me with just them. Hopefully by the end of the week, or possibly next week due to circumstances out of my control like the diff stuff, I'll get the rest done and then transport it to the alignment shop. Unless I get close by eyeball here at home. The shop is less than two miles away, but I don't want to kill my front tires on the way there.
Another note to how it feels. Since this car is my daily driver, I have quite a bit of seat time in it so that helps in my for now evaluation.
 
Today I was able to swap out the old Monroe shocks for my FFI RCD valved Bilsteins. Getting to the nuts on the topside was interesting. On the rh side, the fuel line is in that area too. The flange on the crossmember is wide enough to not give any room to slip a box end wrench in. So...out came the Gearwrench set I bought many years ago just for stuff like this. The lh side was a breeze. So far I have the rh spring swapped. There is a little difference between old and new. Shocking! Had a set of shackle bushings leftover from the 65, so in they went on the wagon. Lubed all of those up with silicone paste. Put antisieze on all of the fasteners and the new one is in. I'll get the lh in later today. Taking a break.

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Lh spring is in. Done for the day. Man, I'm pooped from that stuff but happy it's finally happening. Something I thought about this morning when I was walking my dogs about the axle bearings. I went through the trash to get the ball cage and one half of an outer race out to do a comparison to the Set 7. On the ball units, there are 10 balls spread out with the cage to hold them in place. The 7 has 18 rollers. There is, to my eye, a much larger surface load area on the 7 as opposed to the ball. It seems to me that the manufacture could have increased the ball count by at least half to increase load capacity. Old cars and trucks from, say early 50's and back, were predominantly ball bearing for the front wheels. I remember some of the bearing companies had tapered roller conversions to replace the ball units. From, say late 50's/early 60's, Detroit went to tapered roller on the fronts and rears with some companies staying ball on the rear. Ford was/is big on ball for the rear axle. I don't remember the Fords having a bearing longevity issue, so maybe it was how they spec'd out the bearings for loads etc. Just food for thought.

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I just found this thread, I will be watching your progress. I especially like the way you did the subframe connectors. I did something similar to my old cuda, and tapered them to clear the floor. They don't have to be welded to the floor to be effective.

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