1967 Mercury Cougar XR7 - Project Green Kitty

[SeanP]

Still a significant leak out of the transmission. What a bummer. Im going to jack the car up tomorrow and have a look. If it is indeed the pan gasket failing I will drop the pan. Im going to get a new gasket on order today.

[SeanP]

Well as luck would have it, a pull-a-part approx. an hour from my house had a 68 Cougar on the lot so I went there to try my luck. The car was already picked apart, but there was lots of great hardware, dipsticks, and a perfect taillight cage. And best of all, it still had its frame mounts for the motor! I spent almost 2 hours looking at the car and picking away at it, but I finally got my frame mounts off of it (I had to unbolt the motor mounts from the frame mounts, remove the nuts from the transmission mount and then raise the engine about 3 inches). The worst part was having to wrench the bolts off the frame mounts a fraction of a turn at a time with the sun beating down on me. I was a sweaty boy. But it was all worth it considering I saved a bundle and was able to salvage some good OEM parts.

[DerekTheGreat]

Nice. Sounds like me yesterday, only you were more productive. I don't want to admit how much time I spent fighting with four fan bolts to remove said fan and fan shroud from my '71, only to put all that stuff back together in shame.

[SeanP]

Nice. Sounds like me yesterday, only you were more productive. I don't want to admit how much time I spent fighting with four fan bolts to remove said fan and fan shroud from my '71, only to put all that stuff back together in shame.

I'm ashamed to say the number of times I've removed and reinstalled my radiator fan and I'm still no better at installing it than the first time I did it.

[sly]

It's not an easy job as far as physical position and ease of access. It's only easy in how it's straight forward to work on and nothing weird to figure out. It's just tedious. Electric fan swap does wonders for the ease of access though, but then you gotta deal with the electric fan issues.

[SeanP]

It's not an easy job as far as physical position and ease of access. It's only easy in how it's straight forward to work on and nothing weird to figure out. It's just tedious. Electric fan swap does wonders for the ease of access though, but then you gotta deal with the electric fan issues.

I actually bought it with an electric fan installed. It was from a Honda Odyssey. It did not cool worth a good darn. I switched to a derale 17" flex fan and it moves appreciably more air. But I also upgraded to a bigger aluminum radiator and new high volume water pump and installed a new thermostat. All of that keeps it where it needs to be re: heat. I wonder if with the other upgrades the electric fan would do the trick now?

[sly]

I used a 2000-2002 panther fan in my 93. Moves plenty of air and is silly easy to get out. Just two screws up top and disconnect the wire harness and unscrew the coolant tank and move aside. Then just pull straight up. The 1990 4.9L F150 dual core radiator doesn't make much of a difference.

[SeanP]

New steering pump is installed. I also installed a new motor mount on the driver's side after installing one of the perches I got from a 68 Cougar at a pull-a-part. OE mount had some dry rot and a bolt sticking through a hole drilled into it... basically the mount was sitting on a bolt end approximately the width of a 50 cent piece (if anyone remembers those). Therefore, it was never sitting flat on the perch, which could explain some of my vibration issues. I have to put a bunch of stuff back together and replace my transmission pan gasket (she's leaky now... trying a different type and we'll see how that works). Once I do that I can start her up again and see how we did. Hopefully there's improvements!

[Arquemann]

I used a 2000-2002 panther fan in my 93. Moves plenty of air and is silly easy to get out. Just two screws up top and disconnect the wire harness and unscrew the coolant tank and move aside. Then just pull straight up. The 1990 4.9L F150 dual core radiator doesn't make much of a difference.

Completely OT, but what's the thickness on one of those 00-02 fan shrouds? As in from the radiator to the closest point to the engine.
I've thought about one for e-fan conversion, as they are the right size with a large 2-speed fan and cheap.

[sly]

Completely OT, but what's the thickness on one of those 00-02 fan shrouds? As in from the radiator to the closest point to the engine.
I've thought about one for e-fan conversion, as they are the right size with a large 2-speed fan and cheap.

7 inches for the shroud and 2 for the fan motor. 9 inches overall.

[Arquemann]

7 inches for the shroud and 2 for the fan motor. 9 inches overall.

Thanks!

It's under 6 inches between the rad and water pump snout on a box, so scrap that idea...

[sly]

Thanks!

It's under 6 inches between the rad and water pump snout on a box, so scrap that idea...

yeah... boxes like the cougar/puma/mystique/contour fans.

[SeanP]

Ok, back on track....

Installed new motor mount on driver's side, new transmission pan gasket, new power steering pump and fixed the loose weight on the harmonic balancer. Noticed the loose weight when I was under the car. Had a good view and decided to poke it and it moved around. Apparently having a loose counter weight on a harmonic balancer will cause vibration... because I tightened it back down and once the car was up and running everything was perfect in terms of vibrations.

Downside - my speedometer has decided to stop working. Also, I still have a transmission leak, but suspect that it's from my fill tube. May address this with a new o-ring and some RTV as others have done. Curiously, it only starts leaking once the car is cooled down, did not leak while running.

I also have very slight seepage from one of my transmission cooling lines, but it's barely a drop so that can go down on the list (it's so miniscule that I had the car idling in my driveway for about 10 minutes and there was not a drop of anything).

Anyways, good enough to get to the car show I've signed up for this weekend.

[SeanP]

Still haven't figured out my speedo/odometer issue yet. The cable seems OK, the gear in the transmission is good and the cables seems to be securely connected behind the gauge. Going to have to do some more investigating. Also I suspect I have a weepy wheel cylinder in my rear brakes. Lost all pedal feel on Sunday going to a show and shine. Car still stopped ok but was a bit sketchy to say the least. Popped off the lid to the master cylinder and had no juice in the rear brake reservoir.

Was nice to get her out though. Not much left this time of year.

[DerekTheGreat]

Lookin' good. Yep, another year is passing us by.