Did a few small things to the CV today. I had meant to crawl under and hammer the floor pan, but just didn't feel like doing that. So I worked up top with some odd and end stuff. Installed the Painless 70A fuse for the fan and ran power to where the battery+ terminal will be. I finally got sick of looking at my battery tray/tool tray/trash tray and cleaned it up.

After that I moved over to the upper radiator hose and wrapped it with heat shielding in the area that contacts the fuel hose; also wrapped the fuel hose as well. That should keep the heat away.........hopefully.

Since I work slowly, the sun had set at that point. As I was packing up, I found my eyes looking at the old charge cables and signal wire (yellow/white stripe wire). So I stopped and grabbed the box cutter and cut a ton of electric tape off of the wiring harness in order to separate those wires. It was getting dark as I wire loomed the remaining wires. Just got in 45 minutes ago. Sometime this week I will get a look and see what kind of progress/damage I made.

 

Put the exhaust back up a couple weeks ago; nothing new or exciting there. I did change the collector and cutout bolts to 3/8"-16 x 1.5" allen bolts. Also swapped the front and rear header bolts to 3/8"-16 x 1" allen bolts as well; since they are much easier to work with; especially the rear driver side header bolt.

I found the battery for the Crown Vic on Saturday. I was rummaging through the uncrushed portion of the garage and found it under the Lincoln SA-200. My Dad must have put it there along with the Ranger battery. So I took the CV battery and put it in the battery tray in order to measure, cut, and assemble the battery cables. And to run the power cable for the electric fan. In the pic below from right to left; battery + to starter relay; battery + to the power distribution block on the fender; and battery - to engine ground. I was sidelined by sinus issues yesterday; so I only managed to heat shrink the terminal ends on the battery cables. If I have time after work this week; I will start looking everything over and prep for the 1st start. And yes, I sometimes work off of the kitchen table

 

I sometimes work off the dining room table in my house. It's not like we use it on a regular basis anyway. LOL

 

Sometimes I work in the garage.

It's damn near impossible to tell if anything is happening at all due to the excruciatingly slow pace at which progress is involved.

I'm not good, but I'm slow.


Flower Power, dude.

Circa 1974. Reminds me of my kitchen wallpaper growing up.

 

Dollar General table cloth/plastic. Flowers and birds usually adorn that table. On a related note; I have a gray catbird that may have made me a buddy or part of its territory. Last year when I really started working on the project, there was a small bird that would hang out in the evergreen tree next to the car. For whatever reasons, it became comfortable with me and would walk/hop around and under the car while I was working on it. It would follow me around the yard and hang out next to the grill when I BBQ'd. I noticed last weekend that there was a catbird hanging out on the eave of the garage the whole time I worked on the car. Last night I went out to BBQ and look over some things on the car and it flew over and started singing. I looked it up and these gray catbirds are said to live for several years and return to the same spot they were hatched year after year. Kinda cool.

On the project side of things; I am going to temporarily hang the exhaust with a couple of the long aviation clamps stuck together. Then I will clear out the debris (dead leaves and twigs that were blown under there) underneath the car. There is a possibility that the missing piece of the shift linkage is in the dirt. Looking at that picture; I can't believe I was stoopid enough to let that go.

 

I got a little time yesterday to start finishing up this project. I took the said aviation clamps and hung both mufflers. The clamp on the passenger side stripped out on me and isn't tight. I will cut it off and replace it with one from an industrial hardware store. I removed the jackstands that I used to hold up the end of the exhaust. After that, I raked the ground of debris underneath the car. Now it's nice and clean (as dirt can get) under there; and less of a fire risk. When I get home today; I will get the thread size of one of the timing cover studs. I am going to run the engine ground through that stud. If I'm feeling spry, I will start going through the wiring and make sure everything is connected to power and grounded.

 

Did you find that missing piece of shift linkage under the car?

 

No, but my man from L.I. gave me that piece off of the '89 Crown Vic he is parting out. Just got it yesterday. That will get installed over the weekend. I might clean and paint it before then.

 

Sounds like a plan. Glad it worked out for you.

 

Me too. I kinda want to get the car moving soon after the 1st start. I forgot that I have some work to do with that as well. My passenger side caliper is seized in the closed position. And one of the caliper bolts on the driver side broke off when I took down the front suspension to replace the engine mounts.

The best I could tell, the timing cover stud is a 5/16"-24 thread. So my Mom took my Dad to his buddy's place to get hex nuts in that size and heavy-duty aviation clamps. If the predicted storms hold off a little after I get home; I will install all of that.