My New 1978 Ford LTD

[Salty Dog]

I would re-build that carb before you put it back on. It will run alot better. Is that a 2150? Should be a piece of cake. This guy has really good kits and how-to videos if you need em. http://www.carburetor-parts.com/

[Salty Dog]

http://www.cjclub.co.il/files/motorcraft_2150_carb.pdf

[DerekTheGreat]

...Not sure if i'd go late '70s LTD but I definitely want a barge Lincoln. Time will tell what happens with that but it sure to shit isn't in the cards now. If I had a large driveway and a good amount of spare cash, i'd have one of all of them, or two!

Last year for the true Lincoln dash in a barge TC was '77. That's what I'd want.

[slack]

I've been slacking on following this things progress! You've been a busy dude. Nice job on the brakes btw, you replaced all of the offending garbage and that's the way to do it in my book.

As for the heat, I'd say that's probably spot on. It's just a dinky looking heater core but when you think about it, the more time the air has to pass through the heater core, the more heat it will pick up and deliver to you. Same holds true with the A/C. So in the winter with any car if you really want to sweat, turn the fan down to medium or low once you get the chill out of the air. Same with the A/C.

Sounds about right. When the heat is on a lower setting, it will roast you to death. The car isn't really ever going to see any winter driving so the heat shouldn't be an issue. It was just one of those things that I felt should be fixed as it was some what cheap to do. (Also, might be nice to have in the later fall/early spring)

Think you've got this one figured out.

I hope so. I still have to get under the car to figure out which one to order. RockAuto has a whole selection for the C4 trans in these cars.

I would re-build that carb before you put it back on. It will run alot better. Is that a 2150? Should be a piece of cake. This guy has really good kits and how-to videos if you need em. http://www.carburetor-parts.com/

http://www.cjclub.co.il/files/motorcraft_2150_carb.pdf

Holy crap! Thanks for that PDF! It's exactly what I would need to rebuild the carb. I haven't had a chance to run it after the engine cooled down yet to see if it's still running wonky when cold yet. I'm hoping it's "OK" for now as I would like to get working on some rust maintenance before the winter comes and worry about driving/performance next season. I saved it so if the carb rebuild comes this summer or next, I'll definitely be referencing it. It's been a few years since I rebuilt a carb. (Last one was a QuadraJet for my '82 DeVille I swapped a 307 into)

Last year for the true Lincoln dash in a barge TC was '77. That's what I'd want.

Yep! The Lincolns got switched over early, I guess like the end of the box panthers and the 302. I wish I had more space at my house. I would definitely love to have a parts car just in case. I think I might start hording glass in my basement if I come across it.

[slack]

Long time no update... lots of updates

Well, it's been a long time since I've updated. Life and stuff, yadda yadda yadda.

Back July, I replaced the vacuum modulator and I ended up having to replace a good chunk of the vacuum lines. Once the transmission fluid gets them soaked, they expand and keep weeping transmission fluid. I actually had the vacuum line plugs on the vacuum tree fall off because they became so loose.

Here's some pics of the old modulator and the new one I replaced it with:

Old modulator, there's one bolt that holds the retainer on.





New modulator:



After installing the new modulator, I stopped getting transmission fluid in all my lines, the car shifts better but still has a 2-3 shift flare which stinks. I readjusted the intermediate and rear bands hoping it might help some. (It didn't.)

If anyone's wondering how to adjust the bands on a C4, here's the instructions from the service manual: (more or less)

Front/Intermediate Band:

• Loosen 1 3/4 turns out from snug and torque down retaining nut.
• Located on driver's side by shift linkage.

Rear Band:

• Loosen 3 turns out from snug and torque down retaining nut.
• Located on passenger's side rear of transmission.

In September, I replaced the two front window crank handles with new ones. The original ones were cracked and very brittle, I didn't want to break them so I figured I would put some new ones on while storing the original in a sealed box. The new ones look pretty good and are actually metal so they have the same feel as well. I left the rear ones alone as those are used much less.

New crank handle:


Also in September, I had some pretty bad rust forming on my hood that I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to this season so I sanded it down and gave it a coating of POR15. I wanted to take care of the rust now and seal it, while still giving me time to figure out the whole paint situation later. Not the most elegant choices, but it works. I also ended up doing the driver's side header panel by the headlight bezel as well as it was starting to get rusty quick as well. (Can't see in pictures, below, it's the lower half under the head light)

[slack]

Continued...

October, I finally rebuilt the carburetor! It was actually much easier than I thought it was going to be. The last carb I rebuilt was a QuadraJet and the Motorcraft 2150 was much simpler.

Taking the carb off, only took maybe a total of 15 minutes. It's a super simple process. There a few vacuum lines, trans and gas linkage, choke plug and heater line, gas line and four nuts to unbolt the carb from the spacer.

Here was my workbench set up:


Here's the kit I used:


Just some pics of the disassembly and some pics of the nastiness inside:








I also was missing the "weight" for the check ball in the venturi cluster assembly. The new kit came with a new check ball, but not another weight. I had to order that separately from another carb website. The site was www.carbs.net and the part number was #32-49 if anyone else ever needs the same part.

I picked up one of those carb/part cleaner paint can buckets and soaked all the parts in there for about an hour or so easy. It did a really good job at cleaning everything up. The brand I used was by Gunk.

Here's the finished product all re-assembled:

[slack]

Continued....

I also ended changing the fuel filter while I was at everything. The one that was on there poured out rust flakes like sand. It was sort of amazing that the carb wasn't worse inside than it was.

Here's a pic showing some of the nastiness flowing out:


After the new filter, carb rebuild and a quick tune, the car runs great! (Well, except for that 2-3 shift flare).

Last week I had a muffler shop weld up some new exhaust. Nothing fancy at all, just basic stock replacement as it was the cheapest option. He did a pretty good job and the car is dead silent which I sort of like.

The other night I took it for a 60 mile round trip (~1 hr) and the car ran fine the whole time. Drove straight and didn't act weird. That was the longest trip the car has traveled under it's own power in over 25 years! Used the car again tonight to run some errands after work. I'm really happy with how it's coming along. It's a shame that winter is coming and I'll be putting it away for the season pretty soon.

More updates to come as they come.

Thanks for reading.

[DerekTheGreat]

Nice work dude!

It's amazing what a proper carb rebuild job will do for these. Pretty much all that ails them, that and EGR. If you can, either run stabil or run the carb dry over the winter. I run stabil through everything when it sits but when I went to move the Fury which had only been sitting for about 8 months the float stuck and flooded the engine earlier this year. Last time I let the carb sit with gas in it.

[Grand1]

Regarding ur shift points...you adjust that new tranny regulator...you can mess with how far the pin goes via the screw...I did this in my 78 GM it worked wonders

[slack]

The carb rebuild has been great. Starts up right away and doesn't stall out on me anymore. I've actually been driving the car pretty regularly lately. (Trying to get as much as I can get in before snow and salt comes)

I did have a weird incident where I was driving in the rain and the whole cabin smelled of burning of something. I'm guessing something in the wiper circuit is shorting out getting close to it... Will have to investigate.

Thanks for the info on the modulator. I'll have to give that a shot. I think if anything it needs to probably be spun in a little as the shifts feel a bit loose. It could also just be the trans on its way out too..

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[DerekTheGreat]

It's always something until everything has been addressed it seems. I've got some weird electrical issue in my Plymouth where it won't run the lights any more. They'll turn on for a second and then everything dies, doesn't blow the fuse, just kills the lights on the car & dash. Was told to investigate the connector on the firewall.

[Mainemantom]

It's always something until everything has been addressed it seems. I've got some weird electrical issue in my Plymouth where it won't run the lights any more. They'll turn on for a second and then everything dies, doesn't blow the fuse, just kills the lights on the car & dash. Was told to investigate the connector on the firewall.

The firewall connector on the Chrysler products seems to be a problem spot. Lots of green stuff grows inside.

[DerekTheGreat]

Heh, I'm hoping it's something simple like that. MoPar buddy was telling me it's the ammeter, always said to watch for it and when it starts to wig out, that's when you replace it. IIRC it does wig out when the lights dim out and all that but no time anywhere else. I also gotta get rid of those shitty 3 dollar battery terminal connectors, could be part of it.

[slack]

I really need to update this thread. There's been more work done here since the last post. All of 2017 has been missed. Last summer I ended up repainting the header panel to combat rust and it came out pretty decent. (Much better than my attempts on my Crown Vic). I'm sure there' s been a bunch more and will have to go through my pics and give an update. I've driven the car a ton in 2017 and it's been extremely reliable. *knock on wood*. I think with the weather changing now, I might have to stop for a few months until the "salt season" is over though.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yes, give 'er a rest for as long as the salt flies and permeates the road. I still see that stuff seep from cracks in parking lots for months after it has stopped flying ::shudder::