Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

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Well....I shoulda said that the car you’re having them appraise should be something they want...
Very true. Nobody wants family cars anymore. They all want an SUV that is slower, harder to park, gets worse gas mileage, and has less trunk space.

Looking at your truck options though, you would have :poo: your pants at what I basically just gave away just a few months ago. I sold it to my barber. Maybe he would take $6k for it.

Kurt
 
I bought the 94 F 150.

It’s “average”

It’s gotta rear main seal leak that’s gotta be dealt with. Fixing that saved me another 450.00 in the total price.
I paid 6500. For this truck in the end.

It’ll get the same gas mileage as the Titan it appears..it won’t have the safety features, the tech features, or the convenience features the Titan had,..... but when compared to the Titan
This truck won’t have a payment. It’ll still let me lug sht around, it’ll still pull the monster should I decide to buy a trailer as well.

It ain’t as pretty, and it don’t have four doors.

But it’s mine. Completely.

Oh wait .....:banana:
 
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I loved my 1990 F250, but you know how it is here in Iowa. Winter kills all old vehicles. It went to a home where it’s getting built engine, lift kit and repaint. Exactly what I wanted to do with it, but I need a year round driver. Don’t want to fall into that category of “multiple unfinished projects” guy.
 
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I bought the 94 F 150.

It’s “average”

It’s gotta rear main seal leak that’s gotta be dealt with. Fixing that saved me another 450.00 in the total price.
I paid 6500. For this truck in the end.

It’ll get the same gas mileage as the Titan it appears..it won’t have the safety features, the tech features, or the convenience features the Titan had,..... but when compared to the Titan
This truck won’t have a payment. It’ll still let me lug sht around, it’ll still pull the monster should I decide to buy a trailer as well.

It ain’t as pretty, and it don’t have four doors.

But it’s mine. Completely.

Oh wait .....:banana:
It has a rear main seal leak that has to be dealt with.
It isn't as pretty and it doesn't have four doors.

You better watch out as the grammar police officer is going to......oh wait, nevermind....
 
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And now we have the makings for a manually shifted transmission
25C858BC-07DA-4B21-9986-5155008A0B3B.jpeg

D4E26F10-0D49-4D93-B128-2088ADE59B98.jpeg
As I expected, this was a sonofabitch. This isn’t a stock fox pedal assembly. The clutch pedal is homemade, and has a shaft that operates a push lever on the opposite side that moves in the same direction as the pedal ( unlike the stock mustang quadrant/ cable operated system)You are supposed to try to achieve a 6:1 pedal ratio, which means that the master cylinder intersect point is about 2” from the pedal pivot point. Mine is actually closer than that, more like 1.75”.
While that’ll make the clutch disengagement super easy, the issue is it might not travel enough to move enough fluid to disengage the clutch.
(Which if things go like they always go with me, will likely be the case) After which I’ll have a full on conniption fit, because the only way to know that is to start it and run it through the gears. And that requires that I put it back together.......effectively burying all of that crap under the mountain of madness under the dash.
 
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Why don't you just hook up the slave cylinder on a line without installing it, and see if it moves it full swing?

Kurt
Well... I could do that. I have the t/o bearing, I have the line..I don’t know if the bearing needs pressure against it from the clutch diaphragm, or if the thing is already “ at rest”. I also don’t know if w/o that pressure it wouldn’t just move the full travel, and once it has to move the clutch it won’t.
 
Well... I could do that. I have the t/o bearing, I have the line..I don’t know if the bearing needs pressure against it from the clutch diaphragm, or if the thing is already “ at rest”. I also don’t know if w/o that pressure it wouldn’t just move the full travel, and once it has to move the clutch it won’t.

Pretty sure you could set up some sort of test. Get some specs of the pressure it's supposed to put out or something.

Kurt
 
And now we have the makings for a manually shifted transmission
25C858BC-07DA-4B21-9986-5155008A0B3B.jpeg

D4E26F10-0D49-4D93-B128-2088ADE59B98.jpeg
As I expected, this was a sonofabitch. This isn’t a stock fox pedal assembly. The clutch pedal is homemade, and has a shaft that operates a push lever on the opposite side that moves in the same direction as the pedal ( unlike the stock mustang quadrant/ cable operated system)You are supposed to try to achieve a 6:1 pedal ratio, which means that the master cylinder intersect point is about 2” from the pedal pivot point. Mine is actually closer than that, more like 1.75”.
While that’ll make the clutch disengagement super easy, the issue is it might not travel enough to move enough fluid to disengage the clutch.
(Which if things go like they always go with me, will likely be the case) After which I’ll have a full on conniption fit, because the only way to know that is to start it and run it through the gears. And that requires that I put it back together.......effectively burying all of that crap under the mountain of madness under the dash.
Much respect for how you just figure sht out, and make it happen! Definitely enjoy watching this car “evolve”.
 
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I went down this morning and bent up a recirculating line so I could “bench bleed” the M/C.
That allowed me to measure the movement of the MC pushrod. And that checked out OK. I’m confident that it’ll move enough fluid.
After that, I decided to check the thing under pressure, so I capped the outlet,and pressed down on the pedal.
It was weird to say the least. So I removed the thing and put the lever end in a vise to lock it in place, and pushed the clutch pedal.....

The fcking thing is flexing like mad. I guess my decision to use 3/8” threaded rod as an inner shaft, that was forced through a piece of 1/2 steel tubing as a “ sleeve” for the bushings to ride on is a fail.

V2.0 will be a piece of 1/2” solid bar stock that I’ll replace the 3/8” threaded rod with the 1/2” steel tubing sleeve “ dumb-assed idea” with.
The good thing that has come out of this is that I know my pedal will properly actuate the master cylinder, and I was able to tell that the pedal was flexing before going any further. The 1/2” bar that I’ll put in next has to work, or I’ll be faced with a total redo, as the bushings that are in the outer tubing won’t go any bigger.
 
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Awesome to hear you were able to find the weak spots before putting it back together. Measure 10 times and cut once I guess. As for the bleeding, I highly recommend spending the money on a motive brake bleeder. You can skip the bench bleed. Clutch are a bitch, and you usually have to at least bottle bleed them. You won't regret buying this tool.


Kurt
 
The 1/2” shaft was way better. No discern able twist given the same amount of force as before. The only thing now is that the solid bar isn’t quite .0500”, and there is a little slop there now. I think i’m going to weld a fitting that will let me put a grease zerk there, and pump that thing full of grease so that the shaft will ride on that film for whatever difference that’ll make.

I have one hell of a hectic day off tomorrow.

At 9am, i gotta have the Titan at the Carvana drop off location downtown. They are supposed to electronically send the 5500.00 to my checking account, and that is supposed to be instant. After they take the truck, they’re supposed to bring me back home.

Lets just assume it works that way.

The 94 F150 is sitting on a lot 49 miles from my house. The owner said that he would consider picking me up, and taking me out there to exchange monies, title, and possession of the new/old truck.

If...that works like im describing, my best hope is that I’ll be back home sometime around 1.

In the new/old truck.

This Saturday, is the day i’m supposed to have my rear end to the mechanic that will swap out the gears for me at BMW..and that means, when I get home, i’ll have to drain, and drop the rear out of the car, cause i won’t have time to do it after that, and if i don’t get it to him this weekend, it’ll have to wait a couple more weeks for him to have a free Saturday to work on it.

I think that’ll kill the rest of the day.

The clutch has been finished, paid for, and ready to pick up at Spec for over a week now, but Spec is about 30 miles from my house, and since i still have the For a Lady installed currently, it seems like having that part in my possession isn’t such a big deal right now. I was thinking that maybe I’d have time after dropping the rear to go pick that up,...but in reality, that isn’t even gonna be viable.

All of that is predicated on certain pieces falling into the right place, at the right time.

In the back of my head, i’m thinking that the money transfer isn’t gonna be as instant as they are saying, and my bank is gonna slow that down. That’ll leave me with no car to get to my credit union to take out a short term sig loan, and require that I call up Enterprise to rent a car to get there. If THAT is the scenario, it’ll be after noon, before i even get to a point where i can think about picking the truck up...and 50 miles one way is an hour, and 50 miles back home is another..

The whole day could be shot to hell just trying to get that truck squared away.

And I still gotta get the rear end dropped.
 
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I bought the 94 F 150.

It’s “average”

It’s gotta rear main seal leak that’s gotta be dealt with. Fixing that saved me another 450.00 in the total price.
I paid 6500. For this truck in the end.

It’ll get the same gas mileage as the Titan it appears..it won’t have the safety features, the tech features, or the convenience features the Titan had,..... but when compared to the Titan
This truck won’t have a payment. It’ll still let me lug sht around, it’ll still pull the monster should I decide to buy a trailer as well.

It ain’t as pretty, and it don’t have four doors.

But it’s mine. Completely.

Oh wait .....:banana:
I beg to differ on this one. That truck is far prettier than anything on the market right now. Trucks these days are far too ostentatious.
 
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Don't you have Uber or Lyft out there? They're convenient when you just have to get from one place to another. No rental to return, just a one way trip.
Very likely he does, but it could be a scenario where you put in for a pickup and the nearest driver who can get you will take 30 minutes to get to you. Happens all the time where I live in the suburbs, but if I drive 20 miles south I'll have no problem getting an Uber at all.
 
mid day....

The Nissan is gone, the ford is home. They instantly transferred 5500.00 into my account, and I turned right around and paypal‘d The Ford guy 6000.00. Added to the 500.00 I gave him on Sunday as a deposit, I’m into the new/old truck for 6500.00.

But, if you consider that my payoff on the Nissan was at the point it was after only 3 payments of 550.00...This Ford really only cost me about 2650.00 so far. The rest of it came purely as profit from the nissan truck.

Its gonna need some work, as there are a few things wrong, ( The primary being the rear main seal leak).

It has dual tanks, and the front fuel level sender don’t work.
The horn don’t work.
Trim pieces are broke, the rear view mirror is cloudy, the driver side mirror is cracked, and something is loose enough on the passenger side of the dash to allow it to jiggle and vibrate at 70.
Where there is a noticeable out of balance/ worn suspension/ bad shock situation going on.
The paint on the hood and roof is shot,...I think I’ll have those surfaces wrapped satin black though.

Other than that, it’s about what you’d expect for a 100k mile 27 year old truck.

I was also able to pick up the clutch, I’ve added the grease zerk, to the clutch shaft, and i’m getting ready to go down there and start back on getting stuff going.

I’ll see where I end up.
 
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