'63 Falcon project

[SuperBuickGuy]

love em

[1946Austin]

love em

Thanks!

[milner351]

Those are nearly twins to what I'm running on my falcon - but yours are in much better shape!

Ironic that you have through studs and open lugs on the front, but not on the slicks out back!

[1946Austin]

Those are nearly twins to what I'm running on my falcon - but yours are in much better shape!

Ironic that you have through studs and open lugs on the front, but not on the slicks out back!

Not really ironic. I had 3" all around, but my ET washers were bad and allowed the slicks to twist on the studs, which broke two studs. In order to get things back together for the nostalgia drags last week, I had to buy factory studs and new washers/lugnuts, as time was an issue. The factory studs pass completely through the lugnuts, and are long enough to be perfectly legal at any track. 3" studs would look better, but lots of excess stud that doesn't add to them being safer. I really just need to get open end ET style lugnuts so they can be seen without removing a nut, and then they'll be perfect. I may pull them and turn the ends off on my lathe to meet the open end rules.

[milner351]

Thanks - I have standard studs and mcguard nuts all around - since my tires are DOT hopefully that doesn't present an issue.

I really like your wheel / tire combo!

[1946Austin]

Thanks - I have standard studs and mcguard nuts all around - since my tires are DOT hopefully that doesn't present an issue.

I really like your wheel / tire combo!

Thanks! Millions of cars set up that way, so I'm sure you'll be fine. As long as the stud has enough thread engagement it wont ever give up and fail.

[1946Austin]

I finally gave up on trying to get my old two speed wiper motor going. Nothing I did would make the motor move, so it's either bad, or I'm too dumb to figure it out. I finally headed to the wrecking yard yesterday and pulled a two speed wiper motor from a '73 F150 truck, along with the control switch. I had heard they were a direct bolt in on a '63 single speed wiper system to upgrade to two speed. Only cost $10, and I found a truck that already had the instrument panel out, so it took about 10 minutes to pull the motor.
Once I got home and pulled my old wiper motor, I saw the bolt patterns were different, but my stock bracket was punched for two different wiper motor patterns, and the extra one was the same as the truck motor! I simply popped the rubber grommets out, and reinstalled them in the other three holes. Before bolting in the new motor, I took the arm off, and swapped the old Falcon arm on, but 180 degrees off from what it was on the F150 arm. I also added a ground jumper from motor to bracket to complete the circuit.
The rest was easy; just bolt it in and connect the arm. I pulled the outer wiper arms off and did a test, once I installed the switch and gave it power. It worked fine, so I replaced the arms and tried it again. I now have working 2 speed wipers for $10, and don't have to worry about possibly being caught in the rain.

[milner351]

I'll have to get the cliff notes version of this swap from you - I currently have what I think is a granada two speed wiper motor, but hadn't tried to marry the two together yet.

Another question for you - was your car already a clutch car when you got it? If I keep having issues with the AOD, I have a T5 on the shelf, and a lakewood bellhousing..... but my car was originally an auto.

[1946Austin]

Yes, my car was a 170 6 cyl. with 3 speed. Made the pedal part easy, but I fabricated my own Z bar and adjustable heim rod ends. I'd guess your T5 uses a hydraulic clutch master/slave, and factory pedal might work with a master on the firewall and a operating rod to stock pedal. Might also be a case where a aftermarket Wilwood pedal assembly with master might fit too, and work better? I'd probably try to go factory hanging pedal, if you can find a donor, but not sure if that's easy or hard?
The F150 wiper motor swap was a snap. Took me less than two hours to remove the old bracket/motor, and swap in the new motor to the bracket. Since it comes prewired, it was simply a single hot plug in connection to the lead marked "wipers" on my new wiring harness.

[milner351]

Thanks Val!

[1946Austin]

I put the Falcon in the Costco canopy for the winter a couple weeks ago. Have a small list of upgrades, or things to finish during the winter. I picked up an aluminum bellhousing while putting the car together, although I wanted a scattershield, so that was on my winter list. Last week on CL I found a very cool old Lakewood with the universal GM pattern to fit Chevy and BOP, plus it's a neat old two piece, which makes clutch work easier.
I climbed under the falcon to drop the 4 speed and discovered at the first mounting bolt that the ear was cracked on the trans!! Looked at the one above and it also was cracked! Passenger side ears were fine, but what a surprise! I pulled the trans to see what could cause this and discovered I'd put a truck bellhousing on that has a 5.125" center opening, vs. the ST10 4 speed's 4.686" collar. So the bolts were supporting all the weight and torque, and it snapped the two ears.
I have no spool gun for aluminum, so I ground all the joints and bolted the trans to my new Lakewood bell, and took it to a local fabricator I know. He welded it all up, and draw filed the mating surface to make it flat again. Chris did a really nice job of welding it back together, and very reasonable too! The trans is almost a press fit into the Lakewood, so much better support there now.
I have to mount the scattershield and use the dial indicator to verify it's aligned with crank center, before reinstalling the trans. The two piece Lakewood will make that much easier, as I can turn the flywheel with the bottom off and watch the run out, if there is any.
Glad I found this before I broke the other two ears, or it would have probably spun and tore off the rubber tail housing mount, and spit the trans out the back! Yikes! Can't believe I missed the difference in the center hole when I put this together!

[SuperBuickGuy]

dodged a bullet there, for sure. Glad it worked out okay. Bell looks good

[1946Austin]

dodged a bullet there, for sure. Glad it worked out okay. Bell looks good

Yep, someone was sure looking out for me!

[SuperBuickGuy]

that tail housing looks nothing like the one on my car (speedo is on the other side).... what's it from?

[1946Austin]

that tail housing looks nothing like the one on my car (speedo is on the other side).... what's it from?

It's from a 2nd Gen Camaro. It's a Super T10, and from what I could find the ST10 had the passenger side speedo connection.