1973 MARK IV project

[Dan Szwarc]

Subject: Private messages

Outbox is where the message goes when you send it; sent is where it ends up when the recipient opens the message.

[hotrod429]

So after a couple year hiatus, I'm back. Code enforcement, parking enforcement and the California franchise tax board frowned upon my Lincoln being insured but not registered. So I brought the registration current, took the edelbrock off to use on my 4x4 and put the original carb back on, and threw in a used battery. Idea was to just have it able to fire up and move under its own power, but it is put back into daily use.

I'm back at square one with the carb issue. When I first attempt to start her, she will run for just a second. Then stall. Crank away, and she will eventually fire up and run on 4 cylinders. Ease into the gas and she will smooth right up and run great. When I get more money I will buy a factory replacement carb. The edelbrock was nice while it was on there, but other than smooth running, there was no noticeable power gain but there was a MPG increase of about 1.5mpg.

Unfortunately since she sat, even covered, water got under the new top. I suspect because it has a foam/material backing, it wicked water up/in resulting in rust under the top. So the top will have to come off to assess damage.

But other than that, she drove great! I just can't floor it or it sputters. I have to ease into it.

[LCont72]

Welcome back,Kevin!

The "parking Nazis" are such a PITA. Non-descript cars can be parked for weeks on end and left alone, but have a distinctive car, and you will be picked on constantly.

If you need a Motorcraft 4300 for your Mark IV send me a PM.

-Charles

[hotrod429]

Welcome back,Kevin!

The "parking Nazis" are such a PITA. Non-descript cars can be parked for weeks on end and left alone, but have a distinctive car, and you will be picked on constantly.

If you need a Motorcraft 4300 for your Mark IV send me a PM.

-Charles

Thanks for the offer Charles. I'll have to take you up on that offer in a couple months. I have to head out to Utah for a couple few weeks, then I'll be back in California for a few months. So maybe September or October?

[hotrod429]

Sit back and I'll tell you a tale about how a $20 water pump turned into a $200 bill.

The water pump was making noise, and wobbled if grabbed/wiggled. I had to leave to Utah for 2 weeks, so the car sat at home. I bought a $20 water pump at oreillys. Went to put it on, and snapped a bolt even with the timing chain cover. I knew the timing chain cover had to come off, so I ordered a double roller timing chain off summit racing, and all the gaskets I needed. The car had to sit for a few days, as I got busy with other affairs. Once I was able to pull the timing chain cover off, I noticed it had a rot hole but not in a crucial area. I decided to replace it anyway. Ordered a new one. After that arrived, and reassembly was initiated, I realized that the water pump was missing the backing plate. So I ordered it, and new water pump bolts too.


Took 2 weeks to get all the parts together, and get running again. I should have just pulled everything apart and seen what I needed, but I was hoping to JUST do a water pump haha

The car runs better though. The old timing set was taken off, 1 tooth off of straight up. I do not know if my grampa did that, or if the incident with the distributor was it jumping time.

I'm still having a carb issue. Light throttle, it hiccups and sputters a bit until it catches. Later tonight or tomorrow AM, I'm putting a timing light on her and also a vacuum gauge to tune it just a bit more. I'm betting that with the new chain, it'll time different. I had 20* of play with the old chain before the distributor rotor cap moved. I went from 10* before to 10* after moving the dampener back and forth. Now, it's instant. Now, as soon as I go back or forth on the crank bolt, rotor cap moves instantly.

I'll try to post pics, let's see if it works.

[hotrod429]

Ok. May have "solved"(?) the stalling issue. Or it's on it's "I'll be good, I pwomise" phase.

Decided to "T" into the manifold vacuum and attach a vacuum gauge. My gauge rests below "0" so my numbers may be off unfortunately.

I tuned the idle air mixture screws until I got the highest vacuum reading. Turned until the motor stumbled, then back the other way, then met in the middle. 3 turns out each side. Then I adjusted idle until the highest vacuum was achieved. Then, I adjusted the timing, and this is where I think I may have "solved"(?) the problem. I had been setting the timing to 10btdc (my grampa made a white mark there). While searching for highest vacuum, I had to advance it tremendously according to the dampener. I adjusted the choke while the car was cold, and adjusted the idle while hot. I noticed the throttle lever would not return to rest all the way. A quick push and she would go all the way to rest.

So 1 of 3 things could have happened....

1) the outer ring of the dampener may have slipped.

2) this could be the dampener off the 1970 429 and not the 73 460. Not sure if they're different, but I'll search later when I have a spare moment.

3) the throttle sticking slightly open, then suddenly snapping shut (though the sticking open is maybe 1/16 of an inch or less), starving the carb for air momentarily causing a rich condition and a stall out. This may be caused by a worn throttle return spring on the cable. An additional spring may be installed to see if this is the problem. If a new cable is available, I'll go that route (preferred).

I'm thinking the wrong dampener, means it was being timed wrong. I SHOULD see where TDC is and where it lines up with the marks. Something I should have done when doing the timing chain, but since there were doubts about how accurate the old chain alignment was, it was not a concern at the moment.


All I know now, is I have smoked tires on demand! I still have a "slight" stumble off idle as I accelerate. But if I drive spirited, or mash the pedal to the floor, it's smooth power like a hot knife through butter. It's friggin amazing. As far as stalling, it didn't give any signs of wanting to stall. When I pull up into my driveway, I go to the end of my street to turn around before heading in. That's when she would idle low and want to die.

[hotrod429]

A lot has happened since the last update. I thought I had the stalling issue figured out, but I guess not.

She started frying points. Put a new set in, gapped right, and she would run great and then want to run on 4 cylinders. So I got a pertronix flamethrower III and installed it. All I can say is WOW!! I've put about 100 miles on her, trouble free as far as ignition goes. I've driven her to work for a week straight, and she's fired up every time and gotten me there and back.

Just topped off the gas tank again, and I went 93 miles on 15 gallons, so there's some left to be desired there. I may need to readjust the carb again. I know I need to do a tune up, so that may help.

Now I'm confident in doing other (much needed) repairs.

More updates to come, and more frequently now too

[hotrod429]

Also forgot to mention I went back to the edelbrock 750 and am also using the pertronix flamethrower III coil.

[lucas2696]

Enjoyed reading your thread, made me appreciate my car behaving so well since I got it! Lol
Looking forward to future posts!

[hotrod429]

Quick update...

I've been driving my car everyday to work, though today I drove the 65 c10. I felt bad for the c10 because it sat so long, the battery died, and cobwebs were anchoring it to the ground!

I still have a slight "miss" at part throttle, that goes away when I depress the gas pedal just a hair more. When time and funds allow, I'll drop the original carb off for a rebuild and take the edelbrock off.

The Lincoln and I came to an understanding. She behaves, I fix more of her. Next on the list is the passenger door latch, which I'll be doing Sunday. If that goes successful, then I'll be replacing the rear suspension next paycheck. The drivers rear spring is from a mark v I believe and the spring rate is different (we had to cut a coil off for it to fit).

Then front suspension since I have a significant shimmy at speed which is the reason for the passenger door latch I believe haha....


All in due time......

[hotrod429]

Another semi update. The Lincoln still runs amazing. I don't hesitate to take her ANYWHERE now. I do have a front end shimmy that I'll be addressing in the next few months, since the concrete is taken up by my impala while doing a motor transplant.

Which leads me to this update.

My Lincoln has a non original 429. I stashed the original motor in my grandparents shed maybe 15-20 years ago after disassembling it.

The motor in my 2004 impala (3. spun a bearing so I pulled it out. I had to take the block/crank/rods to the machine shop and figured I'd pull the Lincolns original 460 out from under the workbench in my grandparents shed. Squirrels burrowed under it, and kicked up dirt into the motor, but other than that, it was just as I left it, just a hair rustier.

She's getting magged to check for cracks, bored until it cleans up, hone cylinders, line hone the mains, and new cam bearings.

I have the original crank, but not sure how I want to go with this build. Right now, she's a blank canvas. Mild stroker, or just a basic build.

I'll know when the machine shop calls to let me know how much she had to be bored. This'll be fun!

[hotrod429]

Long time since update. Finally got around to doing the suspension on the Lincoln. I ordered all moog parts, still waiting on the rest of the front end parts to show up. So I started on the rear.

Got the old springs out. One is the original with lowering clamps courtesy of my grampa. The other was what we put in there after the original snapped. I'm fairly certain it came out of a mark v. We cut part of a cool off to lower it, and cut another part off to fit the car "nubs". I was never really happy with it, but the car didn't run/drive for a while, and it was a long forgotten "repair".

I ordered the moog heavy duty. I'm hoping for a slightly stiffer ride, though I'm sure any new spring would have accomplished that haha. So for now, it sits 3" higher from how it was. I'm sure the difference wouldn't have been so dramatic had the car not been "lowered". I'm hoping it settles just a hair. Even 1/4" would be nice. Looks like it's a 4wd! Haha

Once all the front end pieces show up, I'll be doing the front end and putting the car back into daily driver (between rains).

The motor still isn't back from the machine shop. One cylinder needed sleeved, so I opted for that. Should be back in the next couple weeks. I'm in no hurry. Still have to figure out rotating assembly. (520 anyone?!? Hehe)

New spring next to original next to mark v(?)

How car sat with old/wrong springs

After new springs

[hotrod429]

Parts, parts, and MORE parts.

Got the front coils today. Then, since the parts were taking up some kitchen bar space, moved the parts to the trunk until Saturday.

Still waiting on a few parts that will be here tomorrow. Then I'll be having fun on Saturday! I'm hoping it'll ride a lot better. Before, when you'd go over a speed bump, the rear tires seemed like they would "JAB" up into the under body. And the front steering is SHOT. I can wriggle each tire side to side while my hands are at 3 and 9. The idler arm has a LOT of slop. I had to park the car because she became unpredictable when stepping on the brake ("will she go left?!? Will she go right?!? LET'S FIND OUT, KIDS!") And there was a noticeable clunk when coming to a stop, and again when starting to roll again. AND when I was backing into my driveway one time, it sounded like the drivers side wheel went KATHUNK. So definitely somethings up!

[hotrod429]

The rest of the parts showed up today, so tear down began....

Just one of many things needing attention. Drivers upper control arm bushing...

[hotrod429]

Got the control arms back from powder coat. Assembled them since this pic was taken, but no pics.

Hopefully tomorrow after work, I can assemble the car completely. Hopefully....