Battling Betty!

Whew, what a night! This would be a lot easier if it wasn't 100 degrees in my garage. Anyway, I replaced the spark plug wires, which were a mess, and then replaced the points with an electronic ignition from Pertronix, which was easier than I thought it would be.

Not sure why "points" are called that, especially since it appears to be just one "point" which looks like a little telegraph clicker thing. It clicks away under the distributor cap sending current to each of the spark plugs in turn. The Pertronix Ignitor (tm) is just a little black box (computer) with two wires coming out of it. It replaces the points and handles the ignition timing electronically instead of mechanically.

The fun began however when I tried to replace the coil with a new Flamethrower (tm) coil, also from Pertronix. The coil stores up the power that is then sent to the distributor and then on to the plugs. The Flamethrower coil is supposed to generate more power than the stock coil, and my stock coil was rusting around the electrical contacts, so probably needed to go anyway. Plus, how can you go wrong with something called "Flamethrower"?

The problem was due to my own inexperience under the hood. From where I was standing (and with the poor lighting I had to work with, plus sweat stinging my eyes, it looked like the coil came out by loosening a nut on one side and sliding it out of the bracket the holds it. To slide out though, it had to go through space occupied by a hose. Not even thinking about what kind of hose it was, or what might be inside it, I loosened the clamp connecting it to the thermostat (hint, hint) and pulled it off. Anti-freeze immediately started shooting out of it and getting all over me, the engine, and everything else. I managed to get my thumb over the tube the hose had come off of and my other thumb over the end of the hose, but was then out of hands and not sure how to remove the coil anymore.

At that point, with the hose out of the way and a better view of the coil I was able to see the bolt on the other side that allowed you to take the bracket off and lift it out without having to go through the hose. I got the hose back on without spilling too much more anti-freeze, got some paper towels and soaked up as much fluid as I could where it had pooled on top of the engine, and then refilled the radiator from my garden hose. Finally I got my socket set out and removed that bolt which allowed me to get the coil out, then loosened that first nut and put the new coil into the bracket and tightened it back. Next I connected the wires from the new electronic ignition and connected the wire that goes into the top of the distributor and started putting everything back in place. It took a little adjusting on the angle at which the wires were attached, but I got everything back together.

Finally, I was left with another wire that went to the positive terminal on the coil (but not going to the distributor). This wire had been loose even on the old coil, apparently because it used the wrong kind of connector, and really wouldn't fit at all on the new coil. I pinched it a bit with a pair of plier and got it on good enough to test, but not good enough to drive with. Tomorrow I'll go buy some connectors and fix it properly, but for tonight I reconnected the battery cable and replaced the air cleaner, cleaned up my mess and then gave her a try.

After all that, Betty fired up stronger than ever - no hesitation at all. Definitely an improvement and worth the money and time spent. Tomorrow though I'll need to pull Betty out and mop up some anti-freeze!

Spark plugs, etc.

This post catches me up to the current date. The other two posts were written today, but deal with stuff that's happened over the last week or so. Anyway, I got home and decided to tinker. Betty runs OK, but sometimes is hard to start and sometimes idles rough at low speed/low throttle and even stalls on occasion. I had checked under the distributor cap the other day and the points and rotor are new. The spark plug wires are terrible though (mis-matched, different colors, etc., insulation peeling off in places, just bad), so I wasn't sure about the plugs.

I went by Sears on the way home and bought a spark plug socket set, came home, removed the air cleaner and started taking out the plugs one-at-a-time. They look brand new, right out of the box. So for some reason, a prior owner changed the points and plugs, but not the wires in between. I'll get a set of those tomorrow and do it myself.

While I was in there I started documenting some problems I had noticed while at the mechanic earlier. There are hoses that go nowhere, places where there should be hoses that are missing, hoses that go to the wrong places, etc. Here's an example:

On the left you can see I'm holding a hose that comes out of the thermostat that's been cut off. Not sure where it should be going, but it's clearly not getting there. Above that, there are two more hose connections with nothing attached.

Also, towards the right, below the distributor, there's a connection with no hose. I think that one's supposed to have a hose back to the carburetor, but I'm not sure. There's a big hose coming out of the intake manifold that just ends with a bolt stuck in it. There's also a hose coming off the passenger side valve cover that's cut off (sucking air into the engine), and a hose coming from under the carburetor that comes around and goes into the driver-side valve cover through the oil cap. I think the first hose originally went under the carburetor, was cut for some reason and replaced with the second, but it's all very strange.

I also noticed that one of the wires attached to the coil is really lose, just barely touching, so that may be part of my start-up and low-idle problem. I've ordered a Pertronix Ignitor to replace the points in the distributor, plus a new "Flamethrower" coil, also from Pertronix. They should be in tomorrow or Wednesday and should help, especially if I can get the connections tighter.

Anyway, after all of this, removing and reinstalling the plugs, etc., I put everything together and the car still worked! Woo Hoo!

Look Ma, no brakes!

The day after getting Betty home I drove her to my mechanic for an inspection. We changed the oil, lubed everything that could be and checked the brakes, which looked OK. After getting home and driving it around for another day or two I was reminded that the brake lights didn't work. Since the turn signals did work, and those use the same bulb, I started tracing the problem back to the brake pedal, where there should have been a pressure switch to turn the lights on.

Laying in the floorboard and looking under the dash I found a mess. Not only was the switch just hanging there, but the brake pedal arm was barely connected to the push-rod that goes through the firewall into the master cylinder. In the picture, the switch is the little black box with the blue and red connectors attached:

Just above the switch there's a connection point between the brake pedal arm and the push rod. There should be a bushing in there, plus some spacers and finally a cotter pin holding it all together. On Betty, there was no pin and the connection was loose and wobbly. In fact, had the push-rod slipped off the connection while I was driving (easy to do with no cotter pin), I would have been left with no brakes at all!

Glad I caught that before something bad happened. I don't have the bushing or spacers yet (working on it), and I've just got a small finishing nail stuck through and bent to hold it in place, but at least the brake lights work and I'm not too concerned about a brake failure anymore.

It's becoming clearer that with an old car like this, it's not good enough to take it to your mechanic and have it "checked", you really have to become an expert on the car yourself.

A long story...

OK, here goes: A while back my mother's cousin had to move into a nursing home leaving behind four old (junk) cars needing someone to take care of them. Not knowing if they were worth anything or not, my Dad and I went down to Atlanta and had them towed back to Dalton before the bank foreclosed on the house where they were parked. There was a '42 Ford pickup that's in pieces. All that's left is the cab, doors, hood, frame and the old flat-head v8 engine (which is rusted up and needs to be rebuilt). There was also a '78 Mercury Zephyr that's in descent condition, although not a particularly collectible car.

Then there were two Ford Falcon's, a '62 and a '67. The '62 is rusted out around the bottom and the engine is in pieces, so it's not much good except as a parts car. The '67 on the other head was technically capable of being restored. Sure it was a straight 6 with some rust issues (OK, the floor pans are gone), terrible paint and a trashed interior, but nothing that can't be fixed, right? Anyway, I liked the lines of the car so while I was looking for buyers for the other three, I was studying up on what it would take to get the '67 running. Here she is:

Actually, she did have front tires, but we had to put them on the '62 to move it as one of the '62's front tires was dry-rotted and flat and the other wasn't much better. I'm not sure that anyone else could see what I did in this car, but there it is. Oh, and it took some time to even figure out that it was a '67. One distinctive feature of the '67 Falcon compared to the '66 and '68 and later Falcon's which share the same body style is that the front fenders have little vent-like indentations which this car is missing. I think the fenders got replaced at some point but from other clues (front grill, etc.) and finally from some numbers we found stamped on the radiator support, we determined that it was in fact a '67.

So I'm going back-and-forth on whether or not to sell it or restore it and during a "sell it" phase, I started checking for other '67 Falcon's for sale on-line to try to figure out what it was worth. I found one about 50 miles to the south that looked interesting. Unlike my first '67, this one wasn't a base model, but a Falcon Futura that had originally come with a 289 V8, plus nicer interior, more trim, a vinyl top, etc. Oh, and it was running, relatively rust free and with a good interior.

I went to see it a couple of days later and bought it:

My wife thought I was crazy and started calling the car "Ugly Betty." It's starting to grow on her though, so it's just "Betty" now. Betty came with a 289, although at some point that got taken out and a 302 installed. The main thing is that it has the beefier drive-shaft, rear-axle, etc. that you need with a v8. On the first '67 Falcon, to upgrade to a v8 you'd have to upgrade a whole lot of stuff beside just the engine. It would have easily cost me more to get the first Falcon up to this level than it cost just to buy this car, plus I have the first car for spare parts as needed.

So now it's home and the real work begins. The first step will be to make sure it's safe to drive (check brakes in particular). Once I get it running more reliably and make sure it's safe I'll take it to a couple of shows or cruise-ins and then when the weather cools off, I'll start stripping paint, removing the vinyl from the top, getting rid of the rust, etc.

It appears to have originally had midnight blue metalic paint (which shows through where the baby blue paint is flaking off) and probably a dark blue or black top. That sounds pretty good unless I think of something better between now and then.