First of all, your car with the stock I-6 and stock C-4, is not built for hot rodding, every time you hot rod it you stand a good chance of breaking something, thus the blown head gasket and now tranny issue and also including as you stated "rear steer" brake issue, I suggest you fix what you have and drive it normally or tear everything you have now out of it and start building it to handle the hot rodding, it would be better than breaking something all the time, yes it takes money to build it, but it takes money when you break it also.
Now you are about to f up... Let coolant leak into the oil and you'll be buying a engine... Trans requires vacuum to shift, with leaking head gasket it's going to be low or maybe line has become disconnected... Well I'm gonna disagree, if engine, suspension etc were in good condition the power a stock 6cyl produces would not be endangering anything... Head gasket blowing at WOT??? Was no doubt going to fail anyway... Jury is still out on rear suspension but if there was a 302 in the car, whatever it is would have failed a long time ago ...
I just don't believe a basically stock engine/drivetrain should be subjected to power braking and the like AND be expected to withstand that kind of abuse, most stock Mavericks are just that, a lot of stuff on them is original and more than likely worn out somewhat, most people have no idea what the car went through before they got it.
Well we'll just have to agree to disagree... Sure it's a bad idea on a 40+ year old vehicle with unknown maintenance, even a worse idea if it's a V8, but back in the day I've beat on 6cyl(and 4cyl) vehicles mercilessly and never had a failure... As I stated most don't make enough power to do harm......
Irregardless, I appreciate the feedback from both of you. Will be posting progress pictures. In the mean time, Tom made a valid point about the substantial lack of stock power. And while I agree that the stock setup can potentially fail due to abuse, it is a particularly low mileage car (~25k AFAIK) Tom, the modulator was disconnected and leaked fluids. I filled it but over filled it, so I just need to siphon it out to the proper level?
rear steer is usually the u bolts holding the diff to the leaf springs being loose. did you loosen them while doing shocks? did you not retighten them?
There should never under any circumstances be fluid in the vac line from modulator, if si, it's bad no if ands or butts... With it disconnected transmission shift points are going to be very high... You need to make a list of problems and pull it off the road until all are fixed...
Stainless fasteners have low tensile and yield strength (stretch and deform) compared to carbon alloy. Regular carbon alloy nuts with lock washers, properly torqued should not come loose.
Go to Lowe's for these? Honestly never heard of carbon alloy nuts Here's a list, I'm checkin' it twice so we're all on the same page here: Head gasket small leak at Cyl 6 Rough running and backfiring has subsided after new plugs, wires and rotor (hooray) Trans has late shift (40 when it should be 25, 55 when it should be 35-40) Rear steer issue, need new nuts and sequenced tightening should help. That's all folks. Mia's pulled over and sitting until I can put some good work in tomorrow afternoon/evening. Weather report says sunny and 63, might even wear shorts! Woohoo! As for the labor, I have a gentleman down the street who was once a master mechanic, so I should be good to rock and roll. Linkage doesn't slip anymore. Funny how that works out...
Yes. Carbon alloy is the type of steel they are made from. Just your everyday steel fastener, available in different strengths such as Grade 5 or Grade 8....
Once you remove the crankshaft (I think? The one on top under the rocker cover) and the pushrods how do you remove the valve spring assemblies?
For those of you that reused the head bolts..... How did you replace the bolts that were damaged? Since they were used before torque to yield, Can I just use grade 8's since that's virtually all they are ( according to the top of the bolt)
