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"Breezie" 1964 Mercury Monterey


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Now own a 1964 Mercury Monterey Breezeway that is without serious rust and though I'm happy to bring her up to spec and use her for runs and the like I've discovered a lot of 'cowboy' fixes that keep getting in the way.

The biggest right now is stumble off idle that grows worse throughout a run.

Replaced fuel pump with a new Carter mechanical - cowboy installation of a secondhand mechanical pump saw a socket stuck on the inner bolt which turned out to be cross threaded, the lever mounted over the eccentric. Recoiled the inner thread and mounted correctly. Though the fuel pressure now being constant appeared to make things better - the stumble off idle continued to intermittently rear its ugly head.

Next to the PCV. Yeah right - another cowboy prank. All clips for the hoses were missing. The valve itself was clogged completely so got a new one in after reading somewhere that a cleaned one might look the best but new required regardless. Sorted that out but the stumble remains albeit intermittently.

Next up the dizzy  - yeah - you're getting the idea. Outfitted before my time with a XR-1 electronic points setup including a Flame Thrower coil, I soon discovered that the plate the XR-1 was mounted on being the vacuum advance movement as well, was mechanically sticking due to an incorrect fitup where the plate was angled and binding against its own retainers which also should have been set to allow free movement, was jury rigged with an oversized foriegn washer and the little mount cylinders being to short hadn't been spacer-ed at all. Getting stuck on full advance now and then sure wasn't helping with the stumbling problem and once I had sorted that out the stumbling went away though a problem with acceleration now reared its head.

That means the next thing to address is the carb settings. It's a QF-Slayer 4160 750CFM though that took some time to sort as there was no ID marks anywhere to be seen whilst it is mounted.

The carb has glass sight for the bowls so I fitted a permanent fuel pressure gauge, changed the vacuum advance to manifold vacuum, replaced the first hose for the merc-o-matic vacuum and checked that - no leaks at all - found out the exact marking on the harmonic for TDC #1 - ( it needs to be re rubberized as it has moved with age ) - and set about setting the timing exactly at 6 degrees - ( Vacuum advance is 12 degrees and I'm looking at keeping full advance under 34 degrees ).
Set the bowl heights exactly as indicated and brought Breezie up to op temp at idle. Everything looked and sounded fine.
Turned her off and watched the secondary bowl height grow until not seen at high level. Not good.

Reset the height and once fired up tried to rev her a bit to now see the secondary level went - it went down and caused back firing and excessive stumbling - basically - lean running.

So pulled the needle and it looked fine but still blew it out to be sure. Back in and reset the bowl back to original. Though a quick run around the block showed only a little spit upon initial acceleration, Breezie seemed to want to run.

Took her for a 200 Kilometer run the next day and thoroughly enjoyed her though just a little spit on initial acceleration persisted.

Still, the trip to Kerikeri got to see an expert with carb recognition identifying the carb which allowed the ordering of parts such as plastic bowls, new needles and gaskets. So this weekend should see that done and hopefully dusted.

Can't wait to get on with looking out for Breezie and not being stuck using precious time on this holdup. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile I'm on the look out for 14" rims and original covers ( Hubcaps ).

 

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Today the new indicator switch arrived and testing showed it to be way move positive than the 'repaired' old one. Highly recommend that anyone with a 'freed up' indicator switch to replace it. In my case a 1964 Galaxie one fits straight in fully to the Monterey so that will cure the intermittent brake light operation.

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Today the new indicator switch arrived and testing showed it to be way move positive than the 'repaired' old one. Highly recommend that anyone with a 'freed up' indicator switch to replace it. In my case a 1964 Galaxie one fits straight in fully to the Monterey so that will cure the intermittent brake light operation.

 

060917 Fitted and rear lights working as they should.

Now dealing with battery tray (Rusty one end and requires updating for modern batteries).

Sorting wiper washer - needed new pump and water bag - Thanks to Northwesten for those items.

Need to protect inner right side engine bay panel so whilst the washer and battery tray are out - a decent paint job to sort the panel and chassis members underneath the battery tray.

Having a great time keeping Breezie on the road.

Just found out that the needle valves in the QF-Slayer 750 4160 are oversize so getting them replaced could prove difficult. Still, means they can't be all that old. The stumbling intermittent problem seems to be caused by a split primary bowl gasket cause installing a new one is making tuning a lot easier. Time will tell. Re following image of needle valves. (Closest to wrapping is standard.)

 

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  • 3 months later...

So a little catch up due.

A trip to the mount for an American Day Car Show saw us there OK but took 2 days getting back with the new drive for the starter motor  locking out and now Breezie is sporting a toyota starter motor.

Got her home OK then with some missing along the way. Thought it was bad fuel. Time showed us that it was a collapsing of the ignition system.

Take a XR-i points replacement, add a Flame thrower 1.5 ohm coil and do nothing with existing wiring in this 1964 FE390 rig and the system will fall over sometime along the way.

Not mucking with this anymore, have spent a great deal of time trying to track down the actual cause and arrived at it being the XR-i  breaking down intermittently though that would be a reaction to something else. Can only think that the alternator is in an unrestricted state so will need to check that out when I'm able to fire up Breezie again.

For now, I await the arrival of a new HEI system from Staparts. What with it being the holiday season I can only hope it'll get through sometime.

So for now Breezie is parked up awaiting that.

Oh yeah. I fixed the carb problems - brought and installed a new Holley Avenger 570CFM. The more I got into the QFT Slayer 750 VS the more I realized  that this is a worked over carb and well used. No problems with that but got to a point where a rebuild/clean became essential so ordered a rebuild kit but decided before doing the rebuild to get a new carb instead that more suited my use of this car.

So anyone wanting a QFT Slayer 750cfm VS with a rebuild kit thrown in - make an offer. ( It has oversized needle valves and I fitted plastic bowls when replacing the bowl gaskets which dealt to the off idle stumbling I had. I did not use any of the rebuild kit for that.)

Will catch up again once the new HEI Performance Dizzy is fitted.

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  • 5 weeks later...

HEI made a reliable difference and coupled with finding the exhaust leak finally am saying goodbye to back firing on de-excelleration also.

Must say that the blowing vacuum cleaner up the exhaust pipe with a little soapy water in a spray bottle is the most effective way yet I  seen for finding all the exhaust leaks in any system.

WOF failed due to exhaust leaks, leaking power steering cylinder ( yep - the new one - bloody US supplied Chinese rebuilt junk ) and an alleged 'completely knackered' ball joint pitman arm connection. Turned out the pitarm arm saga was actually a compromised boot. These aged cars are starting to fool our new testing station personal me thinks.

Anyway, sorted the exhaust ( header gasket looked like it had been reclaimed from some dump site ) and rebuilt the control valve which left having to scavenge parts from the old power cylinder to sort that requirement.

Had a little fun with a proper throttle linkage connection from accelerator to new carb catching against the kick down rod on full throttle. Jan wasn't impressed though. Breezie lighting up at 50ks/h  really surprised her.

So today gave Breezie an oil and oil filter change and she's all ready for attending the Orewa Beach Rodders Show and Shine fundraiser for Aucklands Rescue Helicopter Appeal.

 

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