Lahti35

Sucking pretty colors out of my '68 F250's master cylinder... Pretty stale in there!

I'm off this week so it's time to get to all those annoying projects I've been putting off... This often misunderstood little red light on the dash, like most, was burned out and the lense melted from being stuck on. It's often mislabeled as a emergency brake indicator but it has nothing to do with its neighbor below and to the right... I replaced the actual bulb and socket with an LED a while back to prevent another melted lense but the heart of the issue is that the brake pressure switch under the cab is stuck. It's basically a pressure switch, if a brake line gets a leak the piston inside is forced to one side or the other activating the red light in the cab. It won't go out until it's reset by either taking it apart or bleeding the brakes to center the piston, some government regulation hoo-ha from back in the day causing Ford folk trouble decades later! Here it is disassembled with the arrow pointing to the piston and the nifty tool you install in the center to keep the piston immobile while bleeding the brakes circled. Unfortunately the piston comes out only one way, it's home is a blind hole. I had to get a little creative, I tried blowing it out with compressed air but that failed. I found my box of junk and closed off the necessary holes, installed a grease zerk and pumped it out of there with a grease gun. I cleaned the parts and installed the new seals with a light coat of vaseline so it wouldn't bind. Once the piston is in you take the cool tool and screw it gently in where the pressure switch goes... The nub at the tip acts like the actuator on the switch but is fixed. Pison locked and loaded, I said stay! Once back together and reinstalled under the cab it was time to flush the brake fluid, It had kind of a two tone master cylinder thing going on... Neither color looks very appetizing. I picked up a vacuum brake bleeder some time ago and it's made life much easier. It just sucks that junk out of there while I keep the master full. More pretty colors... I did the SOP and started at the furthest wheel cylinder away working my way around. A little comparison of the old and new brake fluid: I finished by filling the master cylinder to just under 1/2" to the top and snapped the cover back in place. I ran a whole big bottle of Dot3 through the system so I feel pretty good I got all the nasty tea out of there.

I have this switch and pair of levers that I think came of a mid-late 20's Buick, can anyone narrow it down and tell me what the switch is for? I'm sure the levers are spark and throttle...

Lucky duck! When I did my '26 axle last spring everything needed attention, it was even bent, lol. Luckily we have a local guy Don recommended that has the tools for bushing repair and axle straightening. She's looking good, you'll be on the road before you know it!

I have that exact unit, bought it in nearly new condition of ebay years ago. Works a treat! Very handy!

Poogle horn I believe...

Thank you! Is it just the speedsters that had that panel? I see some of the same year sedans also have an oval panel but with more gauges...

Come and get it! The weather in Michigan has been unseasonably mild and Holland is a nice town to visit...

The light above the gauges in the housing does have a Studebaker look to it... All the Studebaker clusters seem to have more gauges through the mid-late 20's. The ammeter and oil gauges on this are patented for 1918.

Brillman made me a cable for my old Nash. Looked period correct with cloth cover and was heavy 2/0 welding cable. I would recommend them any day. Don't go cheap here, you'll be glad you got the good stuff when you roll that starter over.

I ran across this Instrument cluster with no ID. Looks like its out of the 20's anyone know the make and year?

Looking....

I've used a nearly identical process with an air impact gun on exhaust studs/nuts... I just turn the air down low until the gun just shocks the fastener and they seem to break loose fairly easily. The goal is to just shock at first, not back it out.... Think slow firing machine gun... Once they start to loosen I run the impact forward and reverse until I get it moving 360 degrees good and then back them out slowly.

100%... If you're electrical system is not in good shape you're better off with points. Pertronix will not cure bad grounds, faulty equipment, corroded wires.

Michigan. If it's the same Newberry as JJ Newberry they were a chain started around WWI. The one local to me burned down in the 60's and was never rebuilt. FW Woolworth's was right around the corner from Newberry's and lasted until the 80's when it was demolished to make way for newer businesses.

Success! My NOS spacer showed up today. The seller's measurements were off however, and the bolts I had purchased were too short! Third time's a charm so it was off to the store to get some 3 1/2" fasteners and put this turkey in the oven for the final time. Install went ok with no issues and there is still enough clearance between the fan and radiator despite the spacer being a tad bit longer. I'm glad to get the fan installed, it was really bugging me!

I knew a guy who drove a vintage VW bug year round in Michigan, he would take it and have it undercoated each season with a Fluid Film type coating and the bug was still looking great. I use it on my newer cars both having spent their life in Michigan, each over 12yo, and have yet to see any corrosion beyond the exhaust system which is uncoated for obvious reasons. If I were to pick up another Falcon and daily drive it all over again I'd coat it with Fluid Film and skip the copious amount of car wash visits, lol!

My grandmother worked at JJ Newberry in the 40's. After she had passed and my family moved to a new location in the late 1990's it turned out our new neighbor had worked there also about the same time. While digging through newspaper articles saved in a family scrapbook I found a newspaper picture from 1948 of the JJ Newberry staff in front of the building... There was my grandmother and our new neighbor in their teens. Grandma worked at the lunch counter for some time before heading off to be a nurse.

Up until the engine threw a rod 5 years ago I ran a '61 Falcon year round as daily transportation in Michigan. It would go through foot of unplowed snow just fine with the skinny tires. I just kept it hosed off at the carwash and never noticed any appreciable deterioration in the years I ran it. Heater was great, lots of hot! It was in decent shape to begin with but no queen that's for sure. I still miss it, most reliable car I had until the rod went on the little 144 six.

I got the water pump back in place and this time I used Permatex #2 on the small bypass hose between the pump and block as well as on the heater connection and the block gaskets and the bolts where they thread into the block. I hope all the boogiemen have been contained! It was a busy week but I did get a chance to monkey with the fan spacer... The original was quite long, almost 3" but since the clutch fan has a shaft sticking out the back the old spacer was too long... I had just bolted the clutch fan directly to the water pump for break in but it needed to get back closer to the radiator for real world driving. The new fan was one of the compromises I made to quiet down noise while "daily" driving but since we haven't done a lick of that yet I'm wondering if it's really even worth it.🤪 I needed a spacer just over 2" so I thought I'd just cut down the old one... The problem was that when I got it finished the walls were so thin around the nub on the front that centers the fan I was not comfortable with using it. In hindsight I should not have cut the nub diameter down to fit the supplied spacer, there was no need for it as I could have just turned it exactly to the size required and skipped the spacer altogether. Sometimes you can't see the forest through the trees! Plan B was to run next door to my neighbors house who is also is a car gun and who specializes in Ford stuff. Amongst his treasures I found a spacer that would work and proceeded to cut that one down and skip the spacer... This one fit the the fan great and I was headed towards success but when I tried to put it together I realized I had bought 2.5" bolts the day before instead of 2.75" bolts and had cut the spacer for use with the shorter bolts making the spacer now much too short. Jeepers! Anyway I did some looking around online and rather than go another round cutting down spacers I was able to find a NOS one from the 80's that was made to fit a big block FE. It's just over the length required but within acceptable tolerance so I licked my wounds and snagged it. Mama said there would be days like this!

Yes it is! So is the Permatex #2 that I used this time too I hope!

We can't see the shift knob but with that gas pedal i'll bet it says Hurst!

That's between an individual, the good lord, and the IRS. I just thought it was an interesting update in the continuing adventure that does touch our hobby.

Yabba Dabba Do!

I would guess under the dash on the passenger side or somewhere near!😁