'58 (nash) rambler american family project

[mygasser]

not much but today we got the next part of the column in place. the front shock bracket needed a bit of a curve adding and the shaft ow has almost an inch of clearance. it'llstay this temporary until the engine and box are in place in case it needs to move over any more.
neil.

[mygasser]

i just bought another exploder axle, this one has a 3.55 ratio not the more common 3.73 like the one i have under the nash now. we'll cut the long side of the casing the same as the other and swap in the new short shafts i have. the higher gear makes about 6mph difference at 3000 rpm which doesn't sound much but is noticeable out on the road.
neil.

[mygasser]

so you must know by now how good i am at sticking to a plan and never changing my mind? well..... i'm looking at adapting a late ford 4r70w o/d box onto my fe and keeping the 3.73 geared exploder axle. i'll get better (lower) cruise rpm and better launches so win win. i just need to sell the 3.55 geared axle i just bought, lol.
neil.
edit using an online calculator the 4r70w with .67 o/d, 3.73 diff and the 295/50 tyres will give me 70mph at 2200 rpm or 80mph at a tick over 2500 rpm.

[mygasser]

so yes the 3.55 geared exploder axle is for sale as i've now bought the 4r70w o/d box along with a standalone electronic controller and loom. that allows me to set the shift rpm and firmness for gear changes so sounds good to me. i'll have to make an adapter plate when it arrives to bolt it to the back of the fe big block. the box is an updated/stronger version of the aode which is an electronically controlled update of the original aod from the early 80's. the box will handle 500hp from what i've read so it'll be just fine behind my 352.
neil.

[mygasser]

i just ordered a 600mm square of 10mm thick perspex to make the gearbox adapter template. being clear it'll be easier to see what i'm doing.
neil.

[mygasser]

today the front shock mounts were finished off. we tried the threaded slug in the axle idea........ fail, even with the slug moved over an extra 1/2". the caliper was still too close on lock so that meant '2 steps back' and weld a lump of 1/4" steel back in the hole and then just weld the old brackets on the upper front of the axle instead of the lower front. last job was turn some ally spacers for the top mounts. these are made nice and chunky to give the brackets extra stiffness.
neil.

[mygasser]

ashley popped in after work today. we took the (for sale) exploder axle out of my car where it's been since collecting it on saturday. also we brought the fe engine from over the road into my garage ready to make a start on the adapter to bolt it to the 4r70w o/d gearbox that arrived today. after a quick look at the destructions for the controller i need to get a throttle position sensor to fit the the carb as it's one of the inputs required. i hate to say it but i can see me fitting/making some kind of efi to the fe engine in the future as the car evolves. one thing we agreed on was the front axle will need dropping 2" ish. 2 reasons, 1 is sump clearance and 2 is axle to chassis clearance once fully loaded. i already have a plan and it will be done before dropping the engine/box in the hole. the bonus will be less tunnel cutting as the engine/box won't need to be mounted as high in the car.
neil.

[mygasser]

we did some more cad work today. we now have a 'rough' template ready to be transferred to the 10mm perspex sheet. this was made from 2 templates, one for the engine and one for the 'box. centreing the engine one meant drawing a circle the diameter of the crank' flange. and the 'box we had to make a centre point from a bit of 8mm stud turned to a point with a nut to keep it out flush with the face of the 'box. the cutout was then taped back to the engine template and the 2 centre dots aligned for marking them both on the same card. not sure how much we can leave in the middle, the flexplate needs fitting to get some depth measurements from crankshaft to torque convertor. we'll then know what spacer it'll need to push the flexplate back far enough leaving the convertor correctly engaged in the 'box.
neil.

[mygasser]

ok..... the fe flexplate is too big to go in the 4r70w bellhousing so adapting the box to the fe that end isn't a homemade job. the other way is to cut the bellhousing off of the box and adapt the fe bellhousing (they unbolt) to the box via the front pump bolts. a quicktime bellhousing is available but as expensive as the adapter plate mentioned above. so some radical surgery was the order of the day, lol. i may even need to drill and bolt the fe bell' directly to the pump if i'm going to keep the stock lockup convertor. we'll see how we go. the last pic shows what it'll look like.
neil.

[mygasser]

we made a start on the bellhousing swap/replacement today. a cad template of the front pump (big enough to include the 4 bolt holes in the bell' also) was copied to and cut from the 10mm perspex, followed by a disc/ring that's snug on the pump shaft. then another disc/ring is marked ready to cut that fits both on the pump shaft and into the fmx bell'. these 3 will be glued together while on the box, then removed and snugged into the bell' so the bolt holes can be transferred to the bell' for drilling. the bell should then bolt to the pump using the new high tensile countersunk bolts i ordered and the 4 threaded holes in the bell' if there's room.
neil.

[mygasser]

well the bellhousing fits! i'm waiting for the countersunk bolts now so it can be attached for good. some holes come through on sloping parts so will need grinding flat first but that's easy enough. once the right bolts are fitted we can slip the convertor in place to see if any ribs need grinding down inside the bellhousing. the hard bit's done though.
neil.

[mygasser]

yesterday i thought we'd be at a standstill with the gearbox swap and we are but not for the reason i expected. i wasn't expecting the countersunk bolts to arrive but they did so we set to countersinking the new mounting holes in the bellhousing and trimming the bolts to length. then we bolted the bell' to the box and fitted the converter. this showed up some clearance issues with the ribs inside the bell', which are now ground back. i'm still not happy with how much engagement there is on the 3rd 'step'. soooo..... i've been in touch with my friend who has his own machine shop and he will be milling 5mm from the mating surface of the bell' that bolts to the box. that is the afore mentioned standstill. i don't have a milling machine (nor probably ever will). once done though that'll give the required clearance while at the same time reducing the gap between the flexplate and converter. this will be the last piece of the puzzle finally and will be worked out once the bell' is milled down.
neil.

[mygasser]

back to the nash, here are a couple of pics of where we're at so far. in an effort to gain every mm we even took the little bumps off of the convertor, another 1.5mm gained. the black paint in the bell' is so we could see where there was still contact when the converter was fitted and rotated, you can see a line of black on the converter in the second pic. still, the machining of the bellhousing should get this part of the swap together with clearance.
neil.

[mygasser]

soooo..... i'm currently negotiating a deal on a tunnel ram with carbs . of course nothing's easy when you have an fe ford big block. tunnel ram's are like rocking horse poo but there is an alternative. a guy in the states makes an adapter to allow a 351 cleveland 4v manifold to bolt to the fe engine, yes it's $740 but i can live with that if i can get a tunnel ram for reasonable money. here's a link to the adapters https://fepower.net/Products/feiamr.html
neil.

[mygasser]

well bu66er! that was short lived. the deal didn't happen so that idea's on hold for now. i've not given up on it and will keep my eyes open for another inlet.
neil.