Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

Ok. I always find it amusing when we work on cars, something is wrong, and you have to tear a whole bunch of sht up to get the thing apart, and when you find the fcked up sht...You're somehow happy?

Spose this would cause a leak?

Fortunately, I have the gasket to fix this..I should be able to go forward putting it back together, and back in right after I eat

And put it back in place with my new high speed trans jack secured with a strap.

Finally!!!

lemosley1973 said:

You'll wear that jack out before you're done with the transmission

Is your new trans-floorjack setup going to remain that way permanently, or will you cut it and reweld it when needed?

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the whole thing just sits on the inside of the jack pad. it lifts right out.

I got no leaks.

I still have a vibration though..in neutral that starts at 2k, and is seemingly gone at 4k.

The engine tune has gone to hell,...it runs ok till it gets hot, then the surge starts..then it stops, then it’s back..

Did I mention that I got no leaks?

The vibration could be a number of things that don’t have anything to do with the transmission, So i have to deal with it from easy to not so easy. Firstly,..this could be harmonics....aka engine vibration....transmitted to the chassis as a byproduct of the solid mounted engine. The fix ( or the attempted fix) is to remove my solid mounts and mount them to a jig. Once I get a jig made, I can add a set of Poly engine mounts in between, and marry my existing motor mounts to the poly units. Then I bolt that sht back in and rev the engine.

If i still have a vibration, I’m down to two possibles...

When I had the engine apart the first time, and because I added a new harmonic balancer, and different flexplate to the mix, I had a machine shop balance the recip assy. When I put the engine in the car, that flexplate turned out to be bent, the converter hub wasn’t penetrating the crank. There was a vibration there too but not as noticeable in neutral, but definitely noticeable in drive. This time around, I get the correct flexplate ( albeit from a different engine) and have the converter modified to fit that flexplate. I research to see if these engines are internally or externally balanced, it appears that they are internal, but.....the flexplate i’m using is drilled full of holes. So maybe not.

That fix is as devastating as you can imagine,....requiring that I pull the engine, pull it apart, and have somebody check the balance.

The other path ( which I‘m not walking down anytime soon) is to blame driveline mismatch as a result of my adapted transmission, and the vibration is a byproduct of a wobble that’s going on ( ever so slight) related to a shift between the trans and the back of the engine when building that adapter. I do NOT believe this is what’s happening.
If it is, the fix has been beaten to death here in the previous pages..requiring that I convert over to a GM trans, since there are actual adapters properly machined to mate the two together.

Either way it’s bad...I’m only kidding myself thinking it’s harmonics...I’d have noticed it with OG monster engine, cause it was also solid mounted,.....but I can’t say that I did.

droopie85gt said:

Have you tried disconnecting the converter and just starting the engine?

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No,..but i could I guess..it’s 6 bolts.

90sickfox said:

It's a shame there's no good machine shop around you. They could resurface your adapter and square the face on the transmission.

I had a 700r4 in an Astro van that I drove for a while before the pulling the engine...( the engine was running on 5 cylinders...barely anyway ) Found out the transmission had been done before and wasn't all the way seated on one of the dowel pins. It didn't vibrate and it was definitely not lined up right. The spacer plate made noise but I thought it was the exhaust. Some of the bolts were missing too.

Not saying to just drive it....just saying that in my experience an alignment issue doesn't always cause a vibration. Unbolting the TC would help diagnose the issue though. If it still vibrates you know it has nothing to do with the transmission adapter.

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Yeah,..I got that down to a science now, I could have all six converter bolts out and the converter pushed away in 30 minutes now, except i don’t believe that’s the problem. But,..just to eliminate it as an issue, It’ll be next on the WTF list of stuff on this car.

i’m sitting here thinkin.’ ( Which I do too much of admittedly).

I am gonna drive it for a while.. I need to try and narrow down what i’m feeling, and see if the thing makes any power. The next time it goes up up in the air, I wanna know what I have to do. Believe it or not, if it turned out to be the engine balance, I’d prefer that to the transmission..I can fix the engine balance for 2k or less, and have a forged bottom end as a result.
The trans requires a redo of everything in order to get it to fit, and im not liking any of that,...So i’m giving the whole thing a “ shake down” ( pun intended) to try and figure it out.

HotFox said:

Didn't some dimwit suggest that a few pages back?

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I don’t know,..Did I call you a dimwit?

HotFox said:

No...I was referring to myself...and I believe your response was it only does it in drive not neutral.

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I remember.
I did say that in this last update too. That i thought it only occurred in drive..but now it’s definitely “feel able“ in neutral.Not noticeable at idle, but between 2000-4000 rpm, then gone again after 4k.

There is a third possibility.....Maybe it isn’t a vibration at all...maybe it is what it is, and I just think it’s wrong....