Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.
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Well, all that's' left is to do it.
What is in the well is a big adjustable crescent wrench, a multi-bit screwdriver, A scissor jack, a 4 way, a complete socket set, with a metric deeps set to get one of the band clamps off if I have to. Wire ties, black tape, a pair of wire strippers, a moving blanket to lay on, one of those really bright LED lights from HF ( the smallest one that requires batteries,...) Batteries, cleaning and detailing supplies, a can of fix a flat, a qt of oil, a gallon of water, a gallon of WW fluid (for the water/meth injection) and my umbrella chair. Whats missing is one small jack stand, and my towels and buffing rags...
Clearly, the higher pressure rad caps did the trick. They held pressure to 200 degrees. I don't know if those fans that are attached to those little radiators will pull enough air to add any cooling effect to the overall,....but when they're on, they'll hold paper against the G-Gills (what ever that means to anything)
I added overflow tubes to each radiator in the event that they decided to puke. Better than hosing down the whole trunk if something decided to fail I guess.
Tomorrow I'll take the thing off of the stands, and detail it. Then fill it with gas and count days.
What is in the well is a big adjustable crescent wrench, a multi-bit screwdriver, A scissor jack, a 4 way, a complete socket set, with a metric deeps set to get one of the band clamps off if I have to. Wire ties, black tape, a pair of wire strippers, a moving blanket to lay on, one of those really bright LED lights from HF ( the smallest one that requires batteries,...) Batteries, cleaning and detailing supplies, a can of fix a flat, a qt of oil, a gallon of water, a gallon of WW fluid (for the water/meth injection) and my umbrella chair. Whats missing is one small jack stand, and my towels and buffing rags...
Clearly, the higher pressure rad caps did the trick. They held pressure to 200 degrees. I don't know if those fans that are attached to those little radiators will pull enough air to add any cooling effect to the overall,....but when they're on, they'll hold paper against the G-Gills (what ever that means to anything)
I added overflow tubes to each radiator in the event that they decided to puke. Better than hosing down the whole trunk if something decided to fail I guess.
Tomorrow I'll take the thing off of the stands, and detail it. Then fill it with gas and count days.
Looking good Mike! Hopefully nothing but the water meth and detailing supplies are needed.
Man!
Am I glad I decided to put some miles on this thing!
( Cause if i didn't........I'd be fck'd)
I take the thing out for a random drive. I put it on the interstate, get it up to speed, engage converter L/U, and cruise. I get out the GPS app on my phone, and compare what my speedometer is telling me....Yep,...78 MPH. The engine is humming along at about 2400 RPM..The temp is staying at 180.....
I turn on the A/C, and roll the windows up,...It's not great, but passable.
I drive it 20 miles and stop at the Riverchase Galleria.
( I need some undies.....Calvin Klein Mens trunks)
I stop the thing everything sounds normal,..I shut it off,...nothings dripping from underneath....Perfect. I go inside and drop 100.00 on 6 pairs of undies.
I come out 15 minutes later,...still dry as a bone underneath. It starts on the first crank (as long as I barely press on the pedal). Off we go.
Traffic coming out of the Galleria was the first test.....were those fans in back gonna make a difference in water temp.
Nope......MOF the engine temp continued to climb to about 210 before the lights changed and allowed me to start moving.
Complete waste of time and energy.
I get it on the interstate for the trip back,...set in in the same cruise state,...and drive.
I hear a bang.
Like the kind you hear when a bolt hits the car. You wonder if that was a rock, or if that was in fact a bolt, and if it was,...what is coming loose you wonder more.
Nothing is degrading, everything is going OK........Right up until time to get off the interstate. I lift, and I hear a loud clunk coming from the RF wheel well.
I'm thinking I got a caliper coming loose. The brakes grind like there is no pads on that wheel,...Maybe the pin that holds the caliper together has broke.
I'm 2 miles from the house...I know that I'll never make it if I don't baby the thing home....
So I creep.
The front rotor sounds like holy hell and the car now chatters when trying to stop it. Fortunately, I got two stops left to make. I coast through one, the other is my house.....Only it aint happening....The caliper swings up and jams itself against the wheel like a stick in my spokes...and I stop dead..... In the cul-de-sac in front of my house.
How freakin bad would this have been?
I go down the drive way and drag my floor jack back up. I remove the wheel, and there it is..( or isn't in my case) one bolt barely holding on, and the other.....(remember the loud bang?)
So,...knowing that I wont have a prayer of having that bolt, I go back into the garage to find the next best thing....an SAE 7/16 bolt out of a bellhousing be'd my guess. I put it back together finger tight, put the tire on with three lugs, and get it into the garage.
It's now back up,....nothing was hurt..there's just some scoring where the caliper jammed itself against the inside of the wheel.
Time to take off all the wheels, go and get the bolt, (or at least a high strength version of it) and some red loctite.
Every bolt that holds brake hardware is getting the dose.
Am I glad I decided to put some miles on this thing!
( Cause if i didn't........I'd be fck'd)
I take the thing out for a random drive. I put it on the interstate, get it up to speed, engage converter L/U, and cruise. I get out the GPS app on my phone, and compare what my speedometer is telling me....Yep,...78 MPH. The engine is humming along at about 2400 RPM..The temp is staying at 180.....
I turn on the A/C, and roll the windows up,...It's not great, but passable.
I drive it 20 miles and stop at the Riverchase Galleria.
( I need some undies.....Calvin Klein Mens trunks)
I stop the thing everything sounds normal,..I shut it off,...nothings dripping from underneath....Perfect. I go inside and drop 100.00 on 6 pairs of undies.
I come out 15 minutes later,...still dry as a bone underneath. It starts on the first crank (as long as I barely press on the pedal). Off we go.
Traffic coming out of the Galleria was the first test.....were those fans in back gonna make a difference in water temp.
Nope......MOF the engine temp continued to climb to about 210 before the lights changed and allowed me to start moving.
Complete waste of time and energy.
I get it on the interstate for the trip back,...set in in the same cruise state,...and drive.
I hear a bang.
Like the kind you hear when a bolt hits the car. You wonder if that was a rock, or if that was in fact a bolt, and if it was,...what is coming loose you wonder more.
Nothing is degrading, everything is going OK........Right up until time to get off the interstate. I lift, and I hear a loud clunk coming from the RF wheel well.
I'm thinking I got a caliper coming loose. The brakes grind like there is no pads on that wheel,...Maybe the pin that holds the caliper together has broke.
I'm 2 miles from the house...I know that I'll never make it if I don't baby the thing home....
So I creep.
The front rotor sounds like holy hell and the car now chatters when trying to stop it. Fortunately, I got two stops left to make. I coast through one, the other is my house.....Only it aint happening....The caliper swings up and jams itself against the wheel like a stick in my spokes...and I stop dead..... In the cul-de-sac in front of my house.
How freakin bad would this have been?
I go down the drive way and drag my floor jack back up. I remove the wheel, and there it is..( or isn't in my case) one bolt barely holding on, and the other.....(remember the loud bang?)
So,...knowing that I wont have a prayer of having that bolt, I go back into the garage to find the next best thing....an SAE 7/16 bolt out of a bellhousing be'd my guess. I put it back together finger tight, put the tire on with three lugs, and get it into the garage.
It's now back up,....nothing was hurt..there's just some scoring where the caliper jammed itself against the inside of the wheel.
Time to take off all the wheels, go and get the bolt, (or at least a high strength version of it) and some red loctite.
Every bolt that holds brake hardware is getting the dose.
Man!
Am I glad I decided to put some miles on this thing!
( Cause if i didn't........I'd be fck'd)
I take the thing out for a random drive. I put it on the interstate, get it up to speed, engage converter L/U, and cruise. I get out the GPS app on my phone, and compare what my speedometer is telling me....Yep,...78 MPH. The engine is humming along at about 2400 RPM..The temp is staying at 180.....
I turn on the A/C, and roll the windows up,...It's not great, but passable.
I drive it 20 miles and stop at the Riverchase Galleria.
( I need some undies.....Calvin Klein Mens trunks)
I stop the thing everything sounds normal,..I shut it off,...nothings dripping from underneath....Perfect. I go inside and drop 100.00 on 6 pairs of undies.
I come out 15 minutes later,...still dry as a bone underneath. It starts on the first crank (as long as I barely press on the pedal). Off we go.
Traffic coming out of the Galleria was the first test.....were those fans in back gonna make a difference in water temp.
Nope......MOF the engine temp continued to climb to about 210 before the lights changed and allowed me to start moving.
Complete waste of time and energy.
I get it on the interstate for the trip back,...set in in the same cruise state,...and drive.
I hear a bang.
Like the kind you hear when a bolt hits the car. You wonder if that was a rock, or if that was in fact a bolt, and if it was,...what is coming loose you wonder more.
Nothing is degrading, everything is going OK........Right up until time to get off the interstate. I lift, and I hear a loud clunk coming from the RF wheel well.
I'm thinking I got a caliper coming loose. The brakes grind like there is no pads on that wheel,...Maybe the pin that holds the caliper together has broke.
I'm 2 miles from the house...I know that I'll never make it if I don't baby the thing home....
So I creep.
The front rotor sounds like holy hell and the car now chatters when trying to stop it. Fortunately, I got two stops left to make. I coast through one, the other is my house.....Only it aint happening....The caliper swings up and jams itself against the wheel like a stick in my spokes...and I stop dead..... In the cul-de-sac in front of my house.
How freakin bad would this have been?
I go down the drive way and drag my floor jack back up. I remove the wheel, and there it is..( or isn't in my case) one bolt barely holding on, and the other.....(remember the loud bang?)
So,...knowing that I wont have a prayer of having that bolt, I go back into the garage to find the next best thing....an SAE 7/16 bolt out of a bellhousing be'd my guess. I put it back together finger tight, put the tire on with three lugs, and get it into the garage.
It's now back up,....nothing was hurt..there's just some scoring where the caliper jammed itself against the inside of the wheel.
Time to take off all the wheels, go and get the bolt, (or at least a high strength version of it) and some red loctite.
Every bolt that holds brake hardware is getting the dose.
I had exactly the same thing happen to me in my Mustang, scared the bejeezus out of me. Come to think of it, it was the right front as well. Talk about a code brown! But thats what shake down runs are for.
Damn, thats intense. Im going to check mine now, lol. Lucky you didnt somehow break the brake line.
You need shrouds on your rear radiators. My Ranger was the same way. When I took off the flex fan and shroud and replaced with an Efan (no shroud) it struggled when standing still.
You need shrouds on your rear radiators. My Ranger was the same way. When I took off the flex fan and shroud and replaced with an Efan (no shroud) it struggled when standing still.
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Well,...I'm back in business. The bolt that fell out was "dealer only". If you've got the 12mm 12 pt bolts on your drive shaft, then you know what I'm missing.
No obstacle for me...I bought 2 socket head versions, lubulated them with red loctite, and literally pulled the things tight till I made grunting noises.
I checked the rears,...the Hulk must've tightened them, cause they were so tight I couldn't loosen them.
( Wait a minute,.....I tightened them originally,.....maybe I'm the Hulk?..)
You won't like me when I'm angry....
The front brakes are back on, I'm back in standby mode.
This brings me to this.....
I'm starting to consider changing out the wheels...I'm thinking that the Monster needs to get some bling..
That is till I started checking into what's out there...
What the hell?
Has anybody priced a set of custom wheels lately?
Centerline is out of business,...American Racing will not sell direct. And every wheel made to order cost between 600-and 1200.00.....each.
I'm here to tell ya.....There is no way in hell in gonna pay 2400.00 for a set of wheels...We don't even have to talk about anything above that.
Looks like the Monster is stuck in Chinee Wheel World.
No obstacle for me...I bought 2 socket head versions, lubulated them with red loctite, and literally pulled the things tight till I made grunting noises.
I checked the rears,...the Hulk must've tightened them, cause they were so tight I couldn't loosen them.
( Wait a minute,.....I tightened them originally,.....maybe I'm the Hulk?..)
You won't like me when I'm angry....
The front brakes are back on, I'm back in standby mode.
This brings me to this.....
I'm starting to consider changing out the wheels...I'm thinking that the Monster needs to get some bling..
That is till I started checking into what's out there...
What the hell?
Has anybody priced a set of custom wheels lately?
Centerline is out of business,...American Racing will not sell direct. And every wheel made to order cost between 600-and 1200.00.....each.
I'm here to tell ya.....There is no way in hell in gonna pay 2400.00 for a set of wheels...We don't even have to talk about anything above that.
Looks like the Monster is stuck in Chinee Wheel World.
What style of wheel do you prefer? Do you like 5 spoke types, or a mag wheel look? I too am stuck in the chinee market, at least until my kids are out of the house and the house is paid off... The good news is that there are a lot of "affordable" options that will fit your car.
Not from what I'm seeing. All of the wheels available for a SN Mustang will fit ( potentially) but I have to have an 8" front, and a 10.5 rear. Most sets have 9" fronts.
Chrome TRX replicas. There's the bling!
So, do you think you didn't tighten the calipers up or they just randomly came loose? Never have had that happen. I always tighten my caliper and wheels by hand and make those grunting noises!
So, do you think you didn't tighten the calipers up or they just randomly came loose? Never have had that happen. I always tighten my caliper and wheels by hand and make those grunting noises!
This is what I'm thinking....The only problem is that everytime I see a set of these on a car, I hate them. These are a little different in that the donut holes are polished.
If I get them w/o the polish, they're like 1600.00 shipped.....If I have them upgraded to the above pic......I don't know yet,...they were waiting on a quote from American racing.
Ah, I forgot about your 8" needs up front. I like those American Racing ones posted above. Different and sleek.
stangboy
Founding Member
I'm not a fan of black wheels. I'm not stuck on chrome like I was in my 20s but I can do without black. I like satin silver or that machined look. 
One day and a wake up..then it's on. Never before have I been apprehensive about my chances of actually making my intended destination like I am with this car... But then again, I've never had a car like this.
I just checked the event info...the thing is huge...Stuff going on in about 10 places along the coast daily, with bands rotating out every couple of hours in several locations all through the day. At night, the Casinos all have additional entertainment itineraries going on till Like 2am. Actually, there's so much junk going on, I don't know where to go to do the junk that's going on.
I'll figure it out I guess.
I added freon to the AC system with one of those trigger can systems.....big mistake. Now there's so much freon in the system, the compressor is struggling....guess I'm releasing some of it back out into atmosphere. Or maybe I'll take it to work, and have them recover some of it. I gotta get the front tires back on it to do that.
Tomorrows the big day. Google maps shows it to be about 4 hrs, 40 minutes, driving mostly interstate until I get to Meridian, Ms. Then it's highway ( 2 lane blacktop?) straight south from there. It'll be the reddest of redneck for about 150 miles.
( Maybe I should get a dump trump bumper sticker for the Monster,.........Whatdya think?)
I'm thinking neither me or the car will ever be found again...
imagine me being chased by a bunch of yeahoos piled in the back of a 49 Chevrolet step side all waving their clubs and bats....
On second thought,....I'll limit my political opinions for this trip I think.
I just checked the event info...the thing is huge...Stuff going on in about 10 places along the coast daily, with bands rotating out every couple of hours in several locations all through the day. At night, the Casinos all have additional entertainment itineraries going on till Like 2am. Actually, there's so much junk going on, I don't know where to go to do the junk that's going on.
I'll figure it out I guess.
I added freon to the AC system with one of those trigger can systems.....big mistake. Now there's so much freon in the system, the compressor is struggling....guess I'm releasing some of it back out into atmosphere. Or maybe I'll take it to work, and have them recover some of it. I gotta get the front tires back on it to do that.
Tomorrows the big day. Google maps shows it to be about 4 hrs, 40 minutes, driving mostly interstate until I get to Meridian, Ms. Then it's highway ( 2 lane blacktop?) straight south from there. It'll be the reddest of redneck for about 150 miles.
( Maybe I should get a dump trump bumper sticker for the Monster,.........Whatdya think?)
I'm thinking neither me or the car will ever be found again...
imagine me being chased by a bunch of yeahoos piled in the back of a 49 Chevrolet step side all waving their clubs and bats....
On second thought,....I'll limit my political opinions for this trip I think.
stangboy
Founding Member
One day and a wake up..then it's on. Never before have I been apprehensive about my chances of actually making my intended destination like I am with this car... But then again, I've never had a car like this.
I just checked the event info...the thing is huge...Stuff going on in about 10 places along the coast daily, with bands rotating out every couple of hours in several locations all through the day. At night, the Casinos all have additional entertainment itineraries going on till Like 2am. Actually, there's so much junk going on, I don't know where to go to do the junk that's going on.
I'll figure it out I guess.
I added freon to the AC system with one of those trigger can systems.....big mistake. Now there's so much freon in the system, the compressor is struggling....guess I'm releasing some of it back out into atmosphere. Or maybe I'll take it to work, and have them recover some of it. I gotta get the front tires back on it to do that.
Tomorrows the big day. Google maps shows it to be about 4 hrs, 40 minutes, driving mostly interstate until I get to Meridian, Ms. Then it's highway ( 2 lane blacktop?) straight south from there. It'll be the reddest of redneck for about 150 miles.
( Maybe I should get a dump trump bumper sticker for the Monster,.........Whatdya think?)
I'm thinking neither me or the car will ever be found again...
imagine me being chased by a bunch of yeahoos piled in the back of a 49 Chevrolet step side all waving their clubs and bats....
On second thought,....I'll limit my political opinions for this trip I think.
Are you staying at one of the casinos in Biloxi? My club members and I are renting an Air BNB in Bay St. Louis.
HotFox
15 Year Member
Can't say I'm a fan of those wheel, too solid in the center. What's with the slots? Are the convenient grab handles for easy removal? Anyway not a fan.
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