Today was the second day of my vacation. I can't really make it any more exciting them engine pull. So lower your expectations. Even though the big parts are out, there are plenty of small bits left in. They are boring and tedious but are required.
I hope that picture will keep you reading after previous sentence.
Today was supposed to be suspension day. I was planning to remove the front spindles. It all went well until I got to the tie rods. That's about 30 min into the job. I did everything in my power to get get them out but they are there to stay. I remember replacing them on my Subaru, it was not exactly a walk in the park either. This is the time to buy the special press tool and make the job enjoyable. So I gave up on the suspension and switched to the next thing: brakes. It does not really make sense to remove the calipers since I am taking the entire spindle off the car, that means that master cylinder is up. Interestingly, Ford did not use the usual vacuum based booster for the brakes. They decided to go "Hydroboost". What that really means is that the power steering pump is also powering your brakes. Nice idea. It's got pros and cons. But it's not worth the discussion since I am using it as is anyways. I am off to get the master cylinder off. That thing seats on the hydroboost thingy. That means I am really off to get the entire assembly off. It's held in place by 4 nuts. I take the first nut off and jump inside. Guess what? The other 3 nuts are on the inside under the dash. Now that picture above gives away the ending. I tried to work with the dash on but it's very painful. In addition, I need to take a lot of parts from under there anyways. Out it goes. As a side effect, I took off the steering column but did not find it on the list of needed parts from Factory Five. I find it a bit strange. I'll shoot them an email to confirm. Surprisingly, I found that there's a vacuum line going into the climate controls. Ford is using vacuum lines rather than wires. They look very similar to wires but the connectors are soft. Another discovery: you know that knob that controls the heater temperature? Ford is actually using cable and a couple of pulleys but no electricity here either. Very simple but it works.
Over all the day turned out to be a success. Lot's of small parts made it to the shelf. Throttle cable, clutch cable (or what's left of it), pedal box, accelerator pedal, power assist and master cylinder along with all the lines that make up the power assist system. Let's just say that the interior.... what interior?
I can honestly say that if I had a week to work on this car, it would have been stripped. I would probably collapse since even after yesterday I am a bit stiff. By the end of the day in awkward positions, I was finding it difficult to walk.
Well, till the next time. Fuel, electrical, suspension, steering are still to come.
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