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Nominals 1964 Mercury


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Been up and collected the car for some fix-ups. All minor details - more split washers/nylocs needed, few more clamps and guards on the air lines and parts. Things like that. Also have some new shocks for the rear. Will hopefully get these things sorted over the next couple of evenings and back for a re-check before the end of the week.

Also need to pull plugs and see why it's only running on 6 or 7 cylinders.

Pretty happy overall.

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All that list ^^ got done, including new set of plugs.

Went for re-check today, and the brake test.

That test was quickly followed by a wrecker yard crawl looking for a master cylinder with a 7/8 bore. Pulled one from an AE101 that looked workable. Drove home, slapped together an adapter plate from some 12mm steel and re-did the line ends with metric fittings. Back to Levin for a re-re-check by 4:30pm. Stops heaps better now.

I think everything is done, except for the paperwork, and anything that LVVTA might question.

Anyone want a 1977 Thunderbird master cylinder?

This is the new one. Since the lines have been swapped side to side the bends are even more wonky than they were before.

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The car has always required a bit of cranking to start after sitting overnight. It's a drain on the battery and hard on the starter too. The easiest solution seemed to be fitting an electric fuel pump to fill the carb float chamber before starting.

Ergo 1 Carter 4070 pump. I ordered this from http://www.nzperformance.co.nz as the price was OK, and it was closer than the USA. Very happy with the service there.

Pump comes with 3/8 fittings and mounting hardware (not the mig tips, they are just lying around on this temporary workspace)

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Mounted it just forward of the gas tank. Pump instructions recommended a filter before the pump. Connecting the 3/8 outlet to the stock fuel line needed a soldered adapter. The pump also leaks a little bit from the threaded outlet connection which is annoying. The instructions are clear on not using any sort of sealer there, and it is done up as tight as possible.

I'm only going to run this pump to prime the carb so this connection won't normally be under pressure so it will be OK. Car seems to run fine using with the stock mechanical pump sucking through the Carter one.

It isn't permanently wired yet - I ordered a 12v 55 delay relay board from AliExpress and will use that to set it up for a 15 second run when the ignition is switched on (like a typical EFI setup).

It is fairly noisy as mounted - the pump is rubber mounted to the supplied plate which I have bolted to a new part of the airbag controller mounts. If I ever end up running the Carter pump full-time I'll get some rubber mounts for the plate too.

There's a lot junk in front of the gas tank now. Plenty of clearance at full low though.

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Have been visiting my folks in Nelson, and camping in the Sounds in January.

Left in the rain onto the Interislander, hauling the camping gear and kayaks.

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Our camping setup at Momorangi, on Queen Charlotte Dr between Havelock and Picton

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At Anakiwa, across the sound from Momorangi. Anyone else been to Outward Bound? I went in the early 90s.

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Dazzling the tourists at Pelorus on the way back. If you look close you can see bathcollector's wheels on the trailer.

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Car went mostly OK. I locked my only set of keys in the trunk which was a hassle. A bit of hotwiring got us mobile for a day until the locksmith from Blenheim picked the lock while it was pissing down with rain (thanks AA and Gary Ching Locksmiths). I got some more keys cut after that.

Also had some fuel starvation issues which seemed to get worse over the 3 weeks. By the end I was running the electric pump full time otherwise it would lean out and stumble up hills or cruising above 80kmh. Not sure what is going on - perhaps the mechanical pump doesn't like sucking through the Carter pump? I really need to address the fuel leak before using the Carter pump all the time.

On fuel leaks, after we filled up at Havelock I notice a lot of gas leaking under the drivers door. There is an old fuel return line that I had cut and 'crimped' under there that is still connected at the tank end. Apparently with a full tank (and maybe the hot weather) there was enough pressure to leak quite a bit. I crimped it up more tightly with some vice grips to stop it leaking, but will fix that better now I'm home.

Was quite nice as a camping wagon, but mileage means it's only feasible on trips near home, we will likely go back to the Holden next January.

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Have removed and replaced the fittings on the Carter electric pump and it seems slightly less leaky.

Also got stuck in and removed the mechanical pump/filter combo, made a block-off plate for the hole it left, and stuck a new length of rubber hose in to bridge the gap. All harder than it might have been because it sits under the A/C/airbag compressor now.

I haven't taken the can off to see if there is a filter in there. Someone had also added another filter between the pump and carb.

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Acquired some new 4WD-spec shocks (thanks CDL) and got them fitted - they definitely have more 'grunt' than the Nissan Urvan ones that I put on (new) last year,

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However, one side is now leaking after a short (but bumpy) test drive. These are specced for LJ70 Landcruiser front, so I thought would be strong enough not to blow a seal?

Engine will only run on 7 cylinders right now, which needs investigation. PS is noisy, and the air bag compressor needs to be removed and checked. 9 days to Beach Hop departure.....

Noticed this critter scaling the Nibbler. It was dead/crispy though, so maybe the leaking oil did something bad?

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Adjusted the upper shock mounts a bit to allow a bit more shock travel (duh).

Was looking under the car with CDL and noticed that one of the front bags was rubbing on the chassis pocket when down. Not necessarily a concern but I wanted to check it further, I found that there were a couple of (factory) weld dingles rubbing on the airbag so had to dismantle some of the suspension so I could grind them smooth. Came apart OK, and no other issues after 1 year/3000 miles on the bags. It's nice not to have to deal with spring compressors and such when splitting things apart.

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Have also topped up PS, bled brakes, drained and refilled air compressor (twice) so hopefully is all OK of BH16.

Geez this thing looks untidy underneath!

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Brought a few smaller parts back from the USA recently, mostly carb kits and a better filter plus NPT fittings to re-do the fuel pump setup. Also intake gaskets and some PS rebuild parts.

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Rough plans are to re-do the fuel pump plumbing to include the filter and an adjustable regulator (although the Mr Gasket one I've got looks a bit crap).

Also have an oil pressure cutout switch to add to the wiring to make it a bit safer. At some point the PS system needs work at is leaks even more than engine (and that is saying something!)

Got a used heated spacer to work with the 4-barrell manifold, and a Autolite top to get the choke plates parts from.

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Shaggy Autolite 4100 on the left and shaggy Holley on the right.

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Picked up a new 620CCA battery today too, so hopefully will be a better starter now on.

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Reworked the fuel pump setup a bit, added a proper filter. Needed a mount adapter plate. The other pump is a spare  got for $20, after paying a lot more for the shiny one.

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I bought a few proper NPT (instead of BSP) fittings in the USA, so I could get rid of some ugly plumbing.

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Also used the Permatex #2 on the the fitting threads to prevent leaks - the pump instructions say not to use sealers, but they leak otherwise!

Back under the car. The clip leads were for a pump test run.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Mercury survived a run up to Cambridge and back for the NSRA Nationals.

I have mostly fixed the PS leaks with a new feed hose (thanks to Pirtek for a freebie that was much more suitable than the heater hose BNT sold me)

Developed a lean backfire on acceleration while on the way to Hamilton to pick up the Oxford parts (probably a protest) which was somewhat cured by advancing the ignition timing a little bit. I need to investigate the tune-up further.

Also one of the welded brackets has broken off the bellflower pipes.

Towing a trailer load of B-series bits through Taihape.

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For last few months (maybe even last Beach Hop) the oil pressure on the gauge would sometimes be very low when driving around (original factory electrical gauge, no pressure markings), while other times it was 'normal'. I ignored if for quite a long time, but finally got a bit nervous with the long BH trip coming up again.  I don't have a mechanical pressure gauge around, and due to weird US threads (NPT vs BSP) didn't want to deal with buying one here.

I did have a spare sump gasket, and some googling indicated that pulling the sump was possible. Last time I looked inside the engine (under the valve covers a few years ago) it wasn't pretty so I though there might be some crud blocking the oil pump pickup. So I disconnected various things and jacked the engine up as far as possible (there is a chassis crossmember right under the oil pan). Once the sump is unbolted there is space to unbolt the oil pump and let it drop into the pan, then pull the whole lot forward and out (once the anti-roll bar is unbolted anyway).

It wasn't super-dirty inside

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The bottom pan was quite dented which probably pushed it up against the pickup though.

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The 390 'workshop'. Nothing looked too scary here.

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Instead of actually fixing anything I bought a new standard pressure oil pump and driveshaft (there is a hex shaft like a pencil that drives the pump from the bottom of the dizzy. If these break things get bad fast)

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It goes here - I was checking for pan clearance

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But to get it fitted it needs to be sitting in the pan, then bolted up through this gap, including getting the drive in place. It only took a few tries (including not dropping the bolts/gaskets into the pan) to get it in.

I cleaned up the sump and flattened the dent out. Didn't bother painting it because of the copious oil leaks.

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Some test driving shows a slightly better oil pressure, and no 'drops' noticed so far, so I'm calling that good to go. I decided to stay in denial about the bearing condition so I left the caps in place. Also ignored the timing chain and front seal as I didn't want it in too many pieces right before BH.

I also wired a couple of Nissan relays in for the headlights. This was mainly to take the load of the original light switch as I wouldn't like to source a replacement for that. Also fixed the instrument panel lights so they work more reliably. The BH is really the only time I drive this at night.

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Nearly another year up. Nothing much has been happening. Went out to a couple of car shows in Kapiti today, then to the beach later. 

Needs new rear shocks, I'm going to order some Rancho 9000 adjustable offroad models - preferably prior to Beach Hop.

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