56 Ford Fairlane hardtop.

[MercuryMac]

I bought this '56 Ford Fairlane in the fall of 2020. It was finished and done nicely. There are a couple of things that I want to fix up that the seller couldn't find. I'm not complaining, because this car is very nice, inside and out.
There is a vibration in the driveline at over 80 kms or 50 miles per hour. I knew this when I test drove it, but I liked the car and I like diagnosing problems, [well, the ones that I can beat, anyway]. I tested the U-joints right away and found that wasn't the problem, but the slip yoke was fairly loose in the extension housing. So today I popped the seal out of the back of the transmission and proceeded to try and get that pesky bushing out. I made a few different tools and hammered, beat, pried and cursed until I got the old one out and then installed the new one easily. The slip yoke fits in the new bushing a way better. A downer is when I ordered the new bushing I also ordered a seal and you'd think that a good partsman would assume that they should be roughly the same size. Well, the bushing has an ID of one and a half inches and the seal won't fit over my little finger.

 

[zzrodder]

Your Fairlane is one sharp looking ride.[cl
Frustrating when parts guys don't know parts....
I see it has the Overdrive tranny, I drove my brothers 56 Delivery to California in 1978, the OD was great on the highway, freewheeling on the down hills made it cheap on gas even with the 312.

 

[dutch]

beautiful car Mac [cl

 

[Old Iron]

My favorite year of Ford

 

[DozerII]

One of the only Fords I really like.

 

[Bamamav]

I love those cars.[cl[cl[cl

 

[bob w]

I'm with OI, my favorite year of Ford too. You've got a good one there.

 

[MercuryMac]

It was the best year for Fords, and black is the best colour, too. I could have accepted a wee bit of other colour on there also, but it is what it is. I'm quite happy with it.

 

[soltz]

Very Nice!!!![cl

 

[Skip]

From my experience, the worn bushing is likely due to an out of balance drive shaft. Something else to worry about. [S



Oh yea, beautiful car. [cl

 

[MercuryMac]

Yes Skip, I'm taking the driveshaft into town tomorrow when I go to try and find a seal.
Today I worked on lining up the neutrals in the gearshift linkage. It turns out you have to know what you're doing to adjust the linkage rods. Nothing changed, ---- well, almost nothing, I guess I gained some wisdom.

 

[MercuryMac]

I found a new seal and installed it. The driveshaft was out of balance quite a bit, so it has an extra biggish weight welded on it now.
The shift rod that I was trying to adjust was at the end of its threads, so it had to be bent to get more adjustment. That is done.
A signal light is fixed with a new bulb. I did open a can of worms when I asked the Napa guy if he had a signal light flasher that would run a system of half bulbs and half LEDs. Mine flash very slowly, so I assume the flasher is old fashioned. Anyhow, I never got a new flasher, and I left the partsman scratching his head.
I also hooked the battery down a little better than I had it and found the ground cable pulled completely out of the clamp. I don't know how I started it to get it into the shop.

 

[earthman]

I have a special affinity for fifties era Fords and this one is a beauty Mac.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you E-man.

 

[Old Iron]

Mac, this is the flasher you're lookin for. It's non polarized and the only thing you need to do is plug it in and hook the wire to ground.

 

[05snopro440]

Mac, it doesn't matter if your system is half LEDs or none at all, the "LED Flasher" that Old Iron posted will do the same thing. It works off a timer instead of resistance, so it will operate anything in the system.

 

[Burgerman]

That Ford rocks Mac.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you Burger.
Thank you OI and Snopro. I was quite sure that that is what I wanted and how the new flasher worked, but after five minutes listening to the partsman, my confidence was shaken and I came home shaken, empty-handed and determined to go to another store to get a LED flasher.

 

[MercuryMac]

Today went well. It turns out that when I bought a timed flasher for my '36 truck a few years ago, I must have had quite a time, so when I found one I bought two. There it was on my 'electrical stuff' shelf. I dug under the dash for quite a while and finally found the old flasher and replaced it. pic one]. Pic two is my test. It works like a charm.
Then there were a bunch of little things. The return spring on the brake pedal didn't always bring the pedal to the top to click off the brake light switch. I found a light spring and added it to the mechanism. Voila, the brake lights go out every time now.
You know how long old two door, doors droop down after a while, well, I adjusted it up -- my way.
I painted a couple of rock chips.
The last picture is one side of the lowering blocks partly installed.

 

[Old Iron]