1973 MARK IV project

[hotrod429]

Mostly assembled.

All the major work is done, just small things left.

Things still to do:
Tighten some nuts/bolts
Install sway bar
Grease all joints
Bend cotter pins
Alignment

Should be drivable tomorrow evening after work, then Saturday she is going for alignment.

Stuff that still needs replaced:
Sway bar bushings
Shocks
Steering gear box
Pitman arm
Strut rod bushings


But that all is in the next few weeks. She will be just fine until then hopefully.

I can't wait till tomorrow evening! I'll be eagle eying the clock at work all day haha

[hotrod429]

Finished the Lincoln yesterday. Was supposed to take for alignment today, but other plans took presidence. Hopefully Monday after work I can take it down for alignment and start driving it to work next week! Feels good to have it on all four tires again!

[hotrod429]

Went for a couple short spins and adjusted alignment each time. She still "pulls" a hair, but I can at least drive to work and do the alignment later.

I gotta say WOW! I never knew how worn the old springs were. I just accepted that it drove like it did because that's how it was... But now, it feels SOLID!! When I go over bumps, there's no rattling feeling. No loose feeling.

I can't wait to get good/better shocks. There are Gabriel's on it now, but I can pull them in/out with little resistance. Even when doing it repeatedly (expecting it to toughen up after the first couple pumps).

Oh and the best part, is before, the tires used to rub on tight turns when the suspension would cycle. Not no more!!!

Can't wait to put MILES on this car!!

[action]

New springs bring the whole front suspension into the designed ride height. The rest of the suspension parts can now operate as designed. Steering too.

Do check rubber bushings. The springs pushed the vehicle up several inches. Worn bushings only impact fractions of an inch however that is enough to make a difference that can be felt. In addition a crushed or partially crushed bushing will give and allow suspension movement when movement is not desired.

>>>>>>>Action

[hotrod429]

New springs bring the whole front suspension into the designed ride height. The rest of the suspension parts can now operate as designed. Steering too.

Do check rubber bushings. The springs pushed the vehicle up several inches. Worn bushings only impact fractions of an inch however that is enough to make a difference that can be felt. In addition a crushed or partially crushed bushing will give and allow suspension movement when movement is not desired.

>>>>>>>Action

I'm not sure what bushings you are referring to. All the rubber up front is new besides the strut rod bushings and sway bar bushings. I ordered the strut rid bushings and they'll be here Thursday.


I went ahead and had the car aligned. I'm not sure not having new strut rod bushings affects it (though the ones on my car are LOOSE). I had it aligned because I drove it the 33 miles to work and it was WILD. As in it was grabbing all over the road. The alignment fixed that. I'll get the new strut rod bushings on there and then have alignment check again, since the car will be my daily driver for the foreseeable future. But I can say that the ride is a lot better. But it was more controllable with the worn out suspension. Go figure.

Shocks are getting ordered as well, so that'll be a big help...

[hotrod429]

Still have PLENTY of miles left on these strut rod bushings......


The new bushings took the looseness feeling out of the front end. The steering gear box and pitman arm are the only things that have play now (and it shows). Gonna order those new next week hopefully. I'm trying to spread out repairs so my accountant doesn't notice hahaha. That, and I only have from 2:30pm to about 6pm to work on the car during the week. Can only do so much....

Meanwhile, I ordered some KYB shocks for all four corners. The car does a side to side action when bouncing on the freeway. Hopefully these shocks help with that, along with new sway bar end links. I'll be ordering the end links next week as well.

The brakes are still sketchy. They pull randomly, though the drivers front side seems to catch sooner than the passenger. Both calipers are fairly new, as are the hoses and master cylinder. I bled the brakes AGAIN tonight, and clean fluid came out both front calipers. No air. IIRC, the passenger caliper gave me troubles when I put it on a few years ago. I was never really happy with it. Like it isn't "sliding" like it should. I may pull it back apart and clean the "tracks" so to speak.

It's never really done, is it?!?! Haha

[action]

You stated you were not sure what bushings I posted about.

You took a picture of some of them.
There are control arm bushings, sway bar end bushings, sway bar mounting bushings, shock absorber mounting bushings and may be some others.
ALL of those will have impact steering and suspension to some degree.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Action

[hotrod429]

You stated you were not sure what bushings I posted about.

You took a picture of some of them.
There are control arm bushings, sway bar end bushings, sway bar mounting bushings, shock absorber mounting bushings and may be some others.
ALL of those will have impact steering and suspension to some degree.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Action

And all are brand new now

Only thing not replaced yet is the sway bar bushings, only because it showed different sizes and I had to verify size before ordering.

So things not done yet:
Sway bar bushings and end links
Gear box
Pitman arm

But control arm bushings, tie rods, center link, ball joints, idler arm, strut rod bushings, coil springs, all new.

As far as the shock bushings, I'm getting kyb's and hopefully they come with bushings.

[hotrod429]

The KYB's came today.

I replaced all four corners. Both rear shocks (Gabriel's) were still "good". One of the front ones were "ok" and the other one was blown.

I went for a short spin, and it rides a heck of a lot better! Between the whole front suspension rebuild, an now new quality shocks, she now rides like I remember as a kid. I can't wait for the drive to work tomorrow!

[hotrod429]

Well, that took the wind right out of my sails.

Got the original 460 back from machine shop, and noticed that cylinder 4 still had pitting. It was supposed to be sleeved.

So Monday, it's going back and he says he will make it right.

But man, what a bummer...

[hotrod429]

Schweet. The machine shop is taking care of it. And they're going to even machine the deck!

Blessing in disguise. Had I not had the machine shop work on the block, I would not have gotten it home and need to tear down another motor to make room, I'd still be storing a junk motor. I pulled a motor out of a friends truck after it threw a rod. I was going to stroke it if it cleaned up well. Well.... Turns out it would have needed 2 sleeves at $220. For $220 and a little more, I can get a good running motor out of the pick a part. So I ended up scrapping the motor. Now I have room in my shop to do some cleaning before the 460 comes back and gets put on a stand. I guess everything happens for a reason.

[hotrod429]

AAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNND it continues haha

The car has been running GREAT! Been driving her to work....A LOT.....

But just the other day, the windows stopped working..again..... When power applied via alternate source at the switch, windows work. So probably the relay again... But here's the kicker.. The "inoperable for years" power locks, now are working... consistently..

[hotrod429]

So now that running and driving reliably has been accomplished, I'm going to start on body/paint. I painted the Lincoln in 2009. It turned out great for a first time job. I never got around to really cutting and buffing it. The Lincoln sat unused and other priorities took over. Well, there was some bubbling under the vinyl top. So I decided to go ahead and remove the top to see what lurked underneath. The longer I waited, the worse it would have gotten.... So now that I'll be addressing the rot on the car (some in the fenders as well), the car will be receiving a new paint job. I've learned a LOT since painting this car in 2009, so hopefully the paint job will be far superior to what it is now...

Back to the rot, I am actually pleasantly surprised. I was expecting worse! The reason I say that is, I have a windshield leak when it rains. I contributed it to cancer/rot. But after removing the top, that corner of the windshield is not bonded to the car. And I know why. We put that windshield in in the 1990's. I can guarantee that the sealant used was not the correct stuff... But the sheet metal on that corner is solid for what it is. Only one pinhole in that area....

So over the next few days I will be prepping the roof and getting at least the rust cleaned and primed. I am leaving out of state for work, so the proper repairs will have to wait till after I return. But I can at least STOP the cancer from spreading....

[hotrod429]

Long time, no post!

Lincoln is still running, and that is amazing haha

I have ran into a couple issues as of late.

One is the carb. I switched to a 600cfm in hopes of better fuel economy. The Lincoln is my daily driver right now, and 5.9mpg was getting EXTREMELY tiring (and expensive). The 600cfm is running very poorly, so I ordered a calibration kit to fine tune it. It is brand new, never ran, so I don’t know why it is running so horribly. The 750 I dialed in that has been on the car for a few years, runs FLAWLESS. But this 600 is making me pull out my hair...

Another is the power window switch. Both drivers side windows only work in one position. I can only open the drivers rear, and close the drivers front. I haven’t had a chance to pull it apart to investigate yet.

The rear brakes. Holy crap! As seen previously in this thread, I rebuilt the front brakes a few years ago. New hoses, calipers, etc. But I have never touched the rear brakes since about 15-20 years ago. We rebuilt the cylinders, found out that they were 2 different diameters (according to the parts guy back then, one was a 1972 and one was a 1973). The brakes got VERY sketchy VERY quick. It seems like I was only stopping with the front passenger wheel... So after wheel cylinder replacement, a full flush and bleed, the car stops RIGHT NOW again..

Power steering leak went from a “drip” here and there, to empty after a week. It’s the gear box and the pump. The pump leaks where the high pressure line is threaded in. I haven’t had time to investigate as of late, but this weekend I should be able to investigate/order appropriate replacement parts..

Other than all the above, I don’t hesitate to take this car anywhere now. That is a stark difference from when I started this thread. It has been a long journey, and I’m not done yet....

[hotrod429]

Yesterday was a productive day..

The other day ago I put on the 750 carb after not being able to tune the 600. I sent it back and summit sent me a new one. But in the interim, I put the 750 back in, and used its corresponding calibration kit. I went for a drive and my trip odometer decided to crap the bed.... soooooo...

Yesterday I tore the dash apart. I had a spare speedometer head, so I robbed the trip odometer gears out of it and put them in mine. I haven’t gone for a spin yet...

And while I was in the dash, I decided to fix a burnt out bulb in the AC controls, finish wiring the radio to hold memory (I know it’s been a while haha), I also did some work to the Cartier clock to get it going again (2nd time)...

Then, final task was to fix the trim panel. In the one pic, you can see it mostly falling off. Some double sided tape, sharp razor blade, and some patience, and it is back on like it should be. Looks 1000X better!

The longest/hardest thing was waiting for the JB Weld to cure on all the pieces I broke Hahahaha