1968 Ford Wagon - Fergus

singleslammer wrote: Wonder if you can have a column shifted T56

The thought has crossed my mind. Don't get me wrong, the three speed is a bit of a hateful transmission. First is too tall, third is too short for modern speeds, second is nice. The whole transmission is about the size of a loaf of bread though, which is kind of cool.

In reply to singleslammer:

See my above post.

I wonder actually if you could do three on the tree with a Gear Vendors unit or something so you can have six gears in total. 3rd high would be your 6th/OD gear.

In reply to ssswitch:

Absolutely. Gear Vendors does sell versions that are yoke/driveshaft driven instead of replacing the tail housing of the existing transmission. Not cheap, though ($3400+). By the time you fit it and have the drive shafts made, you're probably looking at almost $4K total. The big question would be if there's enough room in Fergus' drive shaft tunnel for the unit to fit without a lot of sheet metal fabrication. That actually might be a problem with a T56 (or maybe even a T5) as well - they aren't small transmissions. But neither were the automatics of the day so it might be OK. A column-shifted 5 or 6 speed would be the schnitz, tho.

I'm posting this to keep myself accoutable. It's 8:55 in the morning. The work bay of the garage is empty and yet full of stuff. Before I go pick up the kids from school st 2:30, I intend to post a picture of Fergus, here, in this spot, ready to be worked on.

Consider yourself accounted!

It's 11:30. You at least got the battery on the charger?

Dude you have from 9:00 AM to 2:30PM with no kids?

You should be able to build -another- grosh. Screw that, we're holding you accountable to noon. Better get cracking.

10:33 central time.

tuna55 wrote: Dude you have from 9:00 AM to 2:30PM with no kids? You should be able to build -another- grosh. Screw that, we're holding you accountable to noon. Better get cracking.

I have that TODAY, but not every day. I do need to be more efficient. Less GRM, more wrenching.

OK, here's the deal. Look back through the thread and I pulled Fergus off the road last November. Fourteen months ago. The car needs some basic safety work before I drive the Deucelings around.
I built the grosh. I finished the upstairs in the grosh. I'm about to pour footing to build the extra parking on the grosh. Then I have to finish the inside of the grosh. Then.......
I realized that if I kept waiting to get done, I'd never get started, so it's time to say to hell with it and just start and work around everything. Duecekid #2 loves cars and is of the age to legitimately start helping. It's been really hard to make the time to work with him on it with the three other kids around. I think I figured out a way though. I'll discuss it with him and hopefully we'll be posting nightly pictures of progress, Tuna style.

Good for you! I am glad to have a thread which people seem to like. I hope yours goes quicker than mine though!

I'm excited to see more Fergus updates.

Yay Fergie!

So, you have the RX7, you have dear old Fergus, you've got a Grosh and you're going to do the one lap in your new CTS-V Wagon-of-awesome. You sir have hit the life Jackpot. Do you pick lotto numbers on the side for the rest of us?

Adrian_Thompson wrote: So, you have the RX7, you have dear old Fergus, you've got a Grosh and you're going to do the one lap in your new CTS-V Wagon-of-awesome. You sir have hit the life Jackpot. Do you pick lotto numbers on the side for the rest of us?

Also a Porsche if memory serves.

at least if the photo above is to be believed.

Glad to see Fergus back in the local news. I have a soft spot for old Fords.

And the 911, yes.
I've said it before on other threads, but I'll repeat it here, all of this is because I married well. I just hang out and make sure she's happy. The fact that any of this is real is as amazing to me as it is to you.

tuna55 wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: So, you have the RX7, you have dear old Fergus, you've got a Grosh and you're going to do the one lap in your new CTS-V Wagon-of-awesome. You sir have hit the life Jackpot. Do you pick lotto numbers on the side for the rest of us?

Also a Porsche if memory serves.

If I have learned a lesson here, it's that in my next life, I will be shopping at a different bride bazaar!

mazdeuce wrote: The fact that any of this is real is as amazing to me as it is to you.

I don't begrudge you at all, and I am not jealous or covetous at all. I promise.

But no, it's way more amazing to me.

Somehow none of the Deucelings noticed that Fergus was missing from the yard. Yes, he's sort of the same color as grass, but come on, he's 22 feet long!
Deucekid was surprised when I told him not to put on PJ's with the little kids and instead follow me outside after I tucked them in. I introduced him to to project. He will be earning sweat equity on the car. He's pretty excited about that. First we put the front safely up on jack stands, and he pulled the wheels off. Then we spent some time poking about with a screwdriver knocking off 50 years of grease soaked dirt trying to identify all of the parts of the suspension.

Good job putting the kiddo to work!

Pulled the drum. Disassembled the pads and all 48 springs. Pointed out why we're doing this one side at a time. The chances of us getting it back together properly without an assembled side to look at is about zero. We need to pull the brake line to get the backing plate off. I'm betting those are 45 year old brake lines and we're going to end up replacing everything from the master to the wheel cylinder. Using this to teach the boy about the joys of soaking things in PB Blaster. Pretty sure he's going to smell better than your average 6th grader.
Finally we got out the pickle fork and knocked the tie rod off. He tried. He was nervous about hitting things too hard and breaking them. I told him to hit as hard as he could. No dice. He was impressed with how hard I had to hit to make it all come apart.

Glad to see the thread going again, even more glad to see you teaching valuable life lessons about hitting stuff with hammers.

He might have more luck hitting hard if he looks at the hammer end of tie rod tool instead of where it's pointing. That was a hard-earned lesson from my dad after I hit my thumb a few times at about your son's age.