Ownership Verified: 1967 Ford Fairlane 500

All I have to say is you are awesome. And, that rust sucks, but if it makes you feel any better my rust is way worse. I'm going to need a full new floor pan.
 
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Just so you don't freak out too much, running 220 isn't too bad. These engines run at peak efficiency at just over 200, so putting a ton of effort into making them run sub 190 just isn't worth it.

As far as mileage, my mother reports when she was in college with my Mustang, it had a 2bbl carb and managed 22mpg+ on the highway easily.
 
Yeah, I know 220 is not too bad for these engines, my real worry was that the radiator was already in bad shape (had a crack that needed brazing when I bought the car, and was crazy corroded inside) and could not deal with the heatsoak.
Car would be running 190, and i would hit traffic, jumps up to 210. Get moving again, and it wouldn't cool back down, it would just stay at 210. Hit traffic again, jumps up to 220/230ish. Get moving, doesn't cool back down.
Not a pattern I liked very much with a 100 mile commute and lots of traffic on the way home.
Only reason i got the 3 core is because the 2 core I ordered was not in stock, and I managed to talk the seller into a sweet deal on the 3 core. Cant really overcool with this thing. I put a 195 thermostat in it, and that's what it runs. Always.

I do intend on putting an overdrive transmission in the car, and as soon as I can actually. Preferably a manual, although if I find a good auto overdrive transmission, for the right price (free? :) ) I will put it in.
I have actually seen 20 mpg before (almost 21 actually), but its not too consistent, I probably drive it too fast to get 20-21 consistently lol
 
Well, it took about a week and a half worth of fabrication, welding, and fixing all the stuff that broke while it was parked, but its fixed!

I neglected to get any pictures of the progress, and I seem to have left the ones I took of it finished at home, but theres really nothing to see. Its just a simple U style bracket on both sides to replace the factory splayed U bracket. all the patches were made out of either 16 or 18 gauge steel, (I cant remember which) which made it quite difficult to weld into the 22 gauge floor hehe, but its much much beefier than it was even before it rusted out.

I also found out that apparently while the car was parked over the winter, my front passenger side wheel cylinder gave out, so that had to be replaced along with both the front brakes.
Another thing I found while tooling around under the car was that the inner tie rod end on the passenger side was super loose, and of course, the threads on it were completely trashed, A new one of those was ordered in and installed. I did the alignment myself by jacking the car up high enough to put some huge ramps under the wheels, and lowering the car onto the ramps before removing the old inner tie rod. I also took some measurements for the toe in/out before i removed the tie rod end. I then removed the old tie rod end, and put the new one in while there was weight on the tires. It did not really help a great deal with keeping the alignment (the wheels settled into dips in the ramps while the tie rod was off) but it made sure my measurements were taken at ride height when i put the new tie rod end in.

anyways, most of it was rather boring stuff, although it was my first time welding in 6 years, and my welds looked terrible... no matter, they are holding hehe ;)
and, while I don't have pictures, I did borrow my dads GoPro to get some video of a drive I did a day or two after finishing hehe

The videos are from a place called Huntington/Eccles scenic byway, specifically Huntington Canyon.
this is an excerpt from the whole video, which shows going up Fairview Canyon, and all the way down to Huntington. Going up Fairview is not terribly interesting since its quite a steep pull, and since my car has such long gearing, its a bit of a struggle to get up at a reasonable speed. the elevation does not help..

so, anyways, these videos start at the top of Fairview, around 9,000 ft, and end near the town of Huntington
(map)

the first and second videos are just going along the top of the ridge, rising from ~8,800 ft to nearly ~9,800 ft, dropping down into Upper Joe's Valley, ending near the descent to Electric Lake.

The third and fourth videos are more interesting, they are where the road begins to get more twisty, but is open enough to take the corners at some speed. I don't think I drop below 50mph in the third video, and I don't go much below 60 in the fourth. I don't go much above those speeds either for that matter, the Fairlane handles fairly well for what it is, but the chassis was designed in the 60's, and it was designed for comfort, not speed. These videos end near Bear Creek Campground, ~6,600 ft.



 
What a cool sound, a nice bonnet, a great view. I mean, I'm even jealous of the songs you got (from American woman to Deep Purple's what-was-that-called...)
You're doing a great job with the car! :)
 
nice car man, glad to hear you're fixing it up!
 
So, I've put about 1200 miles on it since the last update, took some pictures on two of the drives,



These two are from a drive down south of Cedar, going around Zion National Park. they are about 15 minutes from the Utah/Arizona border, I think the place was called 'Apple Valley'. The mountains are essentially the southern border of the mountains that make up Zion...





These three are from a drive last Saturday down near Mesquite, Nevada (actually at the intersection of US 93 and NV 168)
I guess it's a golf course thats out in the middle of nowhere, but the intersection was freshly paved and there wasn't a soul in sight hehe.

Of course, it was about an hour after I took those pictures that the problems started, just outside of Mesquite, heading back to Cedar City...

The engine started bucking really quite badly, about 5-700 rpm of variation. It continued to buck pretty much the whole way home.
At first I thought it might have had something to do with the fuel mixture. Mesquite is significantly lower in elevation than Cedar City is, and doubtless I was running a bit lean. I messed with the adjustment screws, going both leaner and richer to no effect.
My next thought was the transmission, since the feeling was not entirely unlike the soft mushyness of a shift. It did not make a great deal of sense to me why it would be trying to shift at 70 mph when I was already in the highest gear possible, but whatever, pulled over and checked the transmission fluid. It was slightly low, but not unacceptably so. I topped it off anyways. Didn't change a thing.
By this time, I was starting to get quite aggravated because I could not determine any one specific symptom. The bucking did not seem to be affected by throttle position or vacuum, and speed seemed largely irrelevant, as it started at 70 sometimes, 80 at others, and as low as 50 as well. It seemed mostly load related, although the engine bucked even when I was at maintenance throttle, and slowing down...
I managed to limp it home, staying under 60 most of the time.

I've been talking it over with my dad, and both him and I have come to the conclusion that the problem is most likely related to fuel delivery. either the fuel filter, or the fuel pump itself.
I poked around under the hood yesterday and found that most of my exhaust manifold bolts were loose, as well as the carb bolts. so that was not helping matters, but the problem still persists.
I don't have the wrench I need to get the fuel filter off with me here in Cedar, so I am going to have to make a trip to wally-world, O'Reillys, or Autozone to buy one.

I really do think its the fuel pump though, so I will most likely be replacing the mechanical one with an universal electric pump.

Oh the joys of an old car hehe.
As many things as have gone wrong with it though, it has never, once, failed me on the road. The thing gives me all kinds of grief at times, but I have never needed to get it towed, nor have I had to do any more advanced roadside repair then adjusting the fuel mixture, or waiting for it to cool down (discounting the time when I forgot to tighten a hose clamp on the radiator hose)... More then I can say for any of my parents cars, which fail less often, but more catastrophically lol
I put a lot of miles on it too, if I recall correctly, the odo read 15,000 when I bought it 3 years ago, its at 51,200 now. and its been parked during the winter months, and during the summer, I drive the Blazer almost as much lol...
 
The symptoms might be consistent with the car pulling additional air.
 
It could also be ignition related, you could have a bad connection from the coil or just a bad coil.
 
oops, i left out one of the more baffling symptoms (at least, it was baffling at the time)
I was stopping at almost every exit on the way north, tweaking the fuel mixture every time (since early on, I was sure it was an altitude related problem)
after every stop, I flogged the car getting it back up to speed, trying to recreate the problem by putting maximum load on the engine.
the car never so much as hiccuped until after I had been at speed for about a minute.

My explanation for that now is that when I stopped, it was giving the fuel pump enough time to completely fill the fuel bowl (or if the filter is clogged, enough time to seep past)
since the fuel bowl was full, that enabled me to be at wide open throttle long enough to get up to speed, and still gave me enough fuel to maintain 70-75 for about a minute.
once the fuel bowl reserves were depleted, the pump/clogged filter could not supply enough fuel to run the engine, causing the engine to buck.

backing off the throttle and very slowly easing back in was the only way I discovered to stop the bucking (shedding about 25 mph in the process)...

or at least, thats the current theory.

I still need to check the fuel filter, and check to see what kinds of pressure and fuel rate the fuel pump is at...
 
It sounds exactly like what my Jeep used to do. Mine was an issue with the coil having a bad connection and that's why I said it might be ignition related, but it sounds like you have it figured out. Good luck!

PS. Those pictures are awesome, it looks at home in the desert.
 
Well, started the process of switching to an electric fuel pump. Its a cheap Spectra from Autozone. I've got the same one in the Blazer and it seems to work OK (if a little loud)

It's a bit of a hillbilly-hackjob though, since all I have tool-wise is some standard sockets & wrenches, and a cheap crimper.
When I get home I will re-route all the fuel lines, and probably reposition the pump which is only where I put it since thats the only pre-existing hole...

Also, I was stupid and forgot the end terminals so that i could actually hook up the hot and ground connections, so I'm only halfway done lol

it will be on a hidden switch, and the hot source will be right of the battery for the trip home. (I will move it to keyed hot when i get home, with an extra oil-pressure cutoff)

anyways, pictures!
Closeup on the new pump, complete with fuel line knot, hidden behind the window pisser pump

Pretty clean for an engine that has not seen any cleaning in the last 14,000 miles

The work area at my university (todays parking spot in other words lol)
 
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Well, There goes that theory.

Got the fuel pump wired up, but the problem persists.
Now it is almost like an extremely severe bog, that falls into a pattern of momentary recovery before bogging again.
Its a slightly slower pace, and seems to be tied more directly to three conditions, those being:
vacuum under 10" (keep in mind I am at 6000 ft elevation, and 20" is the absolute top, with idle being more like 12-15")
RPM over 2800
and high load (such as trying to go over 75 mph, a steep hill, or wind)

the RPM does not have to be over 2800, but it does have to be over 2500 at least, as i can't get the problem to show up under that rpm.
All I can think of is spark. I've got fuel, I highly doubt I'm not getting enough air with a 10" open filter, so that leaves spark.
I'm thinking maybe the Vacuum advance? my mileage is slightly down from where it ought to be, its felt down on power ever since I came to Cedar. (I thought the power issue was most likely fuel mixture, but it could be timing)
I don't see it being the coil since the problem seems related more to vacuum, RPM and load then heat, and don't coils usually just have heat problems?
 
Well it could just be a loose connection on the coil somewhere. Make sure everything is tight.

Other than that I really have no idea. Good luck and let us know what it was when you figure it out.
 
Check the carb and intake manifold for additional air. Just to be sure.
 
I already soaked the intake with starter-fluid looking for air leaks, and found none, and my two vacuum lines are still in good shape with no dry-rot or cracks to be found.
today I am going to rent a timing gun from Autozone so that I can tear into my distributor a bit to check the vacuum advance.
I am also going to go through all the wiring for the Coil to make sure that everything is still tight and good to go there.
I If neither of those yield any results, I am going to try and limp the car back home to Spanish Fork (where almost all of my tools are) so that I can tear into the carb. (my reasoning for going home to do this rather than doing it here in Cedar is that I don't have a good place to do carb work here, and carb work on the side of the road sucks)

Either way, I'm running out of things it could be.

What does an engine need (or at least, this one)? Air, Fuel, Spark. thats it.
I cannot possibly believe that I am not feeding enough air to the engine. I have a 15" diameter open air filament that only has 6200 miles on it, feeding air directly down the carb.
I know that I have good fuel delivery to the base of the carb, so the only fuel related thing it could be is the float, or some mysteriously clogged passage that is only used at higher RPM's
After today, I will know if my distributor is working properly, and if my coil is still hooked up right. I replaced that coil with an after market one shortly after I bought the car, so I suspect it's unlikely to be bad yet.
Floats in the carb, Spark plug wires, Spark plugs. Those are the only elements I wont be able to account for as being 100%...
 
No good places to rebuild a carb in your uni?

last time i checked cafeteria's have large unused tables in them.... :p
 
Well, I fixed it. it ended up being nothing more than a small pinhole that had formed in a rubber connecting section of the fuel line coming out of the tank.
however, I did end up discovering that my vacuum advance was not doing anything, wouldn't hold a vacuum for crap lol
and then on the test drive, it started to rain, turned on the windshield wipers and nothing happened. took about 5 hours of screwing around with it, but I eventually discovered that the wires on the wiper motor side of the plug were corroded with age, causing a bad ground.
fixed that and now all is well with the car again :)
 
Well, I think I can safely say that absolutely nothing has gone wrong with this in the last 4 months.
It's currently back down in Cedar with me for school.
I even managed to pull 22.8 MPG on the first leg of the trip down.
Keeping it at 65 and under helped there, as did the timing adjustment I made some time ago (5 months or so)
It does seem to be a bit of a trend for me though. My family and I recently went on vacation to the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park area of Colorado, and we took the truck with us.
10 separate fill-ups in that thing (over $400 of gas :( ) and all but one of them averaged over 20 MPG. In some cases (such as the first trip over Trail Ridge Road) I actually managed very near 25 mpg :shock2: )
the one trip I did not average over 20, I was doing nothing but sub 10mph off-road, and pulled a whopping 10.4 mpg :lol:

anyways, heres a recent pic of the car, just south of Cedar Breaks:
https://pic.armedcats.net/n/no/notlaw/2011/08/22/IMAG0294_Resized.jpg
I'll do a mega post with pics from the Co trip shortly (I already posted it at a private forum, I'll need to make some adjustments)
 
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Part one, the narrative with cell-phone pictures:
The trip started with an 8 hour, 360 mile drive from where I live in Spanish Fork, to the mountains north of Steamboat Springs, CO.
The Drive Out: (somewhere between Vernal, UT, and Craig, CO)

Our only destination was "the mountains north of Steamboat Springs," we didn't really know where we were going to park, but we ultimately settled on this spot, at just over 9,000 ft elevation. (~2,750 m)
Some pictures of Camp, and Hahns Peak: (these pics are not necessarily taken on the same day)

And the morning fog in the valley:


We had arrived on the 27th, on the 28th we went down to the town of Steamboat (no pics that I took on the phone), and then on the 29th, My dad, my sister, and I took a drive around Hahns Peak. We were still figuring out the GoPro, so I only have images from the last third of the trip, after I got stuck in a 4-5 ft deep snow drift on the top of the returning pass back into Steamboat. I cant recall the name of the pass, or the dirt road we were on at the time, but I know that the snow was completely covering the road, was about 4 or 5 foot deep (1.2-1.5 m), and was at over 10,400 ft elevation (3170 m). I would not have gotten stuck if I was going a little faster, but oh well.
Turns out it was a good thing we got stuck. only one vehicle had made it through the snowdrift, and my dad and I estimated that they had gone through less than 2 hours before. While we were getting un-stuck, they came back (it was a newer Jeep JK), and reported that about 2 miles up the road was a 20 foot deep drift (6 m), about 40 yards long (37 m).
I was eventually pulled out by a Jeep Gran Cherokee that came up behind us, and then I had to pull out the Jeep JK that managed to get stuck trying to come back through (they made the same mistake I did, and went too slow)
This is where we sort of figured out the GoPro, and we have images from about this point on. I still need to process them though, so later.
heres the only two shots I took that day with the phone, that turned out:


On the first, we packed up camp, and moved to a new spot, closer to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.
Mostly packed up:

On the road, this is the first view of the Front Range. Most of those peaks are over 12,000 ft (3650 m):

less then 5 minutes after we had arrived at our new spot It started to rain:

Unfortunately, I do not have any good pics of the second camp, the situation was just too closed in by small trees and bushes to get a good wide shot of the whole camp.


We made a short exploratory run to the park entrance on the second (no pics), and on the third, we woke up super early, and went to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.
Near the park entrance:

Lake Irene:

At or near the top (the road reaches 12,183 ft, (3713 m) the highest continuously paved road in the continental US:



We made a loop that day, heading out through Rocky, going out to the front range, and back on CO 14, the Poudre Canyon Highway.
these last two were taken along that road, and the last is actually Poudre Falls


Note that every single picture was taken with my phone, the ones taken with the GoPro and the actual camera still need to be transferred onto my PC, and processed.

Part Two: the Pic dump after I had pulled the 1600 pics off of the real camera. Not captioned because I couldnt be bothered then, nor can I be bothered now.
Post up with a filename if you want details of a specific picture...
(they are in chronological order though)

I've still not compiled the 21,000 GoPro pictures into video yet... I'll get around to it eventually.
 
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