Pete M Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 I don't mess around with rusty fuel tanks. worth every penny to me to never worry about that aspect again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 Time and money wise its easier to by one then to fix it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 24 minutes ago, Pete M said: I don't mess around with rusty fuel tanks. worth every penny to me to never worry about that aspect again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Share Posted December 7, 2020 Yeah, trust me, I won't be fooling around with the tank as something to throw back in until I kick myself for throwing it back in. Ill be getting a new one to tank and throw in along with getting a new fuel pump just so that way I can worry about rebuilding the original one later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 having said what I said, I can totally get behind practicing a resto on that tank for educational purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Share Posted December 7, 2020 New gas tank, sending unit, fuel pump, starter relay and ground cable ordered. Once I get holiday shopping done I will get the starter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 This thing is officially aggravating me.(What I am holding in the pliers) This is the clutch disc piece that a clutch like friction material goes in and is cemented to both discs. Theres a bar that actuates it and pushes it together so you can tune it. When you push the preset buttons said bar will separate the two discs to allow for the preset to slide to the station it is set for. Pretty neat but for the absolute love of Henry Ford can I not either seem to find a good friction material or get it all to set right. I have been following this guys steps: 1955 - Motorola - 5MFS8 - Radio Repair | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models I have tried two types of gasket paper now and the most recent has been fiber like gasket paper. I give Motorola credit for the design of this radio but the mechanism for the tuner with a clutch is proving difficult to repair. I got sandpaper to work pretty damn good till I realized it was sanding down the discs. Any thoughts? And yes this is the original radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I'm no expert on ancient radios, so my only thought is: can you get it to stay on a single frequency? can that frequency be one that is used by a bluetooth adapter device? my only concern would be getting it to talk to my phone in some manner. having said that, I can totally understand the desire to get it working properly. I'm just not of any help in the matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 Lol thanks for that Pete. It is an AM only radio, so I am unaware of any bluetooth devices that work with AM. It will go to any of the preset stations currently set. Just tuning is a challenge with this clutch based system. I will keep trying at it. I had to drill holes into the chassis just to get the clutch unit out. Now taking it all apart is not happening. Maybe with the clutch unit out I will be able to better glue in the gasket material and go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 the XJ radio in my liberty has a AUX cable plugged into the AM input. just sayin' *cough* Minuit *cough* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 Lol something tells me Minuit would tell me to not send him anything with tubes in it lol. But yeah I know your KJ has that and suffice to say I think its pretty awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 ya never know, he might love the challenge but there's a waiting list... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I would love to if I didn't have other customers to attend to. It wouldn't be fair to them to skip so many places on the list. That clutch based tuner shaft coupling was used right up until the 80s. Even the very last manual tuning AMC radios have the same issue. The clutch is to prevent someone from ruining the (very finely aligned) tuner section by turning the dial past the maximum. It'll wear out especially quickly if someone does that. Of course, age will ruin anything too. Of course, just having a button for next station and having the electrons take care of the rest while having the tuned-in station read out to you on a sexy VFD works way, way better. I'm actually working on an '83 CJ AM-FM radio right now with a tuner section that looks fairly similar to what you have there, mechanically anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I am zero help, I was just going to say “ask Minuit” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 5 hours ago, Minuit said: I would love to if I didn't have other customers to attend to. It wouldn't be fair to them to skip so many places on the list. That clutch based tuner shaft coupling was used right up until the 80s. Even the very last manual tuning AMC radios have the same issue. The clutch is to prevent someone from ruining the (very finely aligned) tuner section by turning the dial past the maximum. It'll wear out especially quickly if someone does that. Of course, age will ruin anything too. Of course, just having a button for next station and having the electrons take care of the rest while having the tuned-in station read out to you on a sexy VFD works way, way better. I'm actually working on an '83 CJ AM-FM radio right now with a tuner section that looks fairly similar to what you have there, mechanically anyway. Lol I know you’d have me jump ahead of them, no biggie. But really? That clutch design was used up until then? Talk about if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. What do you use as replacement material? Now I agree with you on VFDs. Much better and softer glow and pretty retro-future looking. But I’ll take the old fashioned bulb and tuner. 1 hour ago, 89 MJ said: I am zero help, I was just going to say “ask Minuit” Lol I’d be very surprised if you had any knowledge tucked away about old vac tube radios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 Hahahahaha! I did it! Conquered the radio clutch. After a couple weeks of searching a guy who rebuilds those old Ford and Mopar radios said the clutches were rubber. So I bought a small sheet of rubber, cut the appropriate size I needed for the clutch and done! The tuner dial turns as it should and doesn’t slip. Now to prep the underside of the gas tank and head over to do the installs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Share Posted December 13, 2020 I still don't know if it works yet. Have to go back over tomorrow and install the tank, new battery cable, new fuel pump and starter relay. I was over today and took the parts over there aside from the tank as it was still finishing in the drying process for the under coating. But I sprayed the hell out of the engine bay with gunk engine degreaser and hopefully Ill be able to spray it clean tomorrow. The head lamp buckets were full of nothing but dirt and those were cleaned since I had the bulbs removed, still need to buy new ones. Thats all for now. I will have to film if the radio works or not but I don't see why it shouldnt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 Water pump is off. It’s a piece of rusted toast. Tried to replace the starter relay, that failed as it kept wanting to crank the engine over as if the relay was open. Not sure what was up with that but the old one functions as it should. Tested the new one to see if it was stuck open and it wasn’t. Tomorrow I will get the tank installed, try to get the new fuel pump installed and see if she will drink some fuel. Then once all said and done I’ll get the radio installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 picture of starter relay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 The pic I took is as if your looking at the relay installed on the fender. It’s as follows: starter cable wire and another wire small left post is ignition small right post is starter engagement right post is battery and a couple other power things. Here’s the old one: I am not sure why there’s a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 did you try switch the middle two? was never a fan of the ford style starter relay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, jdog said: did you try switch the middle two? was never a fan of the ford style starter relay Get this. I left both middle posts disconnected and it still wanted to crank the starter which is why I did bring it home the new one to see if it was stuck open Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 that is weird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 24 minutes ago, jdog said: that is weird Yeah it is absolutely an anomaly. So I’ll be going back tomorrow to install a few things and clean up some contacts with my drill wire brush. I also need to figure out why the front headlamps aren’t getting any power. I suspect the headlamp fuse on the switch is popped but wouldn’t I not have markers or rear lights? Suppose I need to spend a full day looking at the t-bird forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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