Galaxie storytime (technical)

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile) 04/09/2019 at 19:07 • Filed to: Galaxie

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Finally, after weeks and weeks, I was driven to investigate an intermittent vibration. Think it’s the brake drum.

It is bad enough that it is now acting like an out of balance wheel at 55+, so I have to do something. I’ve had an intermittent vibration under braking that I’d thought was the brakes, then on finding nothing, had started to think was a bad cord in the tire. Nah. Drum is skipping into the shoe once per revolution... sometimes.

See, I had “help” doing the brakes. Also, I turned the drums when marginal, and my *new* wheel cylinder may have had a problem. So, help failed to notice one of the shoe retainers was missing, which didn’t help, shoes were adjusted unevenly, which didn’t help, and the first time the drums got hot, I think they got wet ( and cold, being thin ) fast. Distortion.

So I went from needing new front brakes to mysterious shakes (only when the drums were “from cool”) and an imbalance, which has been the straw on the camel’s back for my lower left ball joint. WHEEEE.

Butcher’s bill: two new drums, some new bearings, some steering relay bushings, new lower ball joints, new lower arm bushings, and so on. Some stuff that was not so good that makes sense to address now, but while there I’ll also install the replacements for the anti-bump Ford Bad Idea on the lower control arm that I’ve mentioned before. (Ordered the last parts for that too - two studs from McMaster).

That last normally requires a $300+ kit from Rare Parts, but I’m making my own because YOLO.

On the other side, it may finally brake well and corner correctly for the first time in its miserable life. Maybe also no funny noises...

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:16

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Turning and stopping a galaxy should always be hard... otherwise physics as we know it is all wrong.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 04/09/2019 at 19:26

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Men in Black informs me that the Galaxie is on Orion's Belt. I can only assume it's a freeway connector of some kind.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:27

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The dumbest thing is why I had a chance to work on it today: power was out at work with an hours-away timeline to restore. Lucky me.

Chariotoflove > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:27

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What are plans for the exhaust?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Chariotoflove 04/09/2019 at 19:29

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The exhaust is done. Apart from me videoing it for public consumption, which I haven't done yet . And/or if I feel like adding a crossover. Less imminent need than front suspension rebuild.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:32

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Notes: until parts arrive, I fixed the shoe retainer problem and backed off the adjuster on the problem brake to help things not be a problem/delay contact ... As well as repacking and adjusting the bearing . To attempt to isolate a funny noise, I also swapped the front / rear tire on that side.

Chariotoflove > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:33

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For sure.

lone_liberal > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 19:54

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Here we see RamblinRover shortly after getting his Galaxie up to snuff: Yes, somehow RamblinRover is holding off Jimmy Clark around the local roads

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > lone_liberal 04/09/2019 at 20:04

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True story: fiberglass front bumpers exist as repros, and are cheaper than rechroming an existing bumper. As are trunk lids and some other things.

A fairly straightforward way of spending a lot of money (but not as much as possible) with one of these that has some damage is to go full race Galaxie.

lone_liberal > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 20:07

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I’m assuming that doesn’t include the cost of that 427. 

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > lone_liberal 04/09/2019 at 20:22

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Looking like a 427 would be in the region of $11k+. Another four grand for trans, and depending on if the car has a regular or hd 9" diff...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > lone_liberal 04/09/2019 at 20:23

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For the cost of a 427, one can make a pretty bad 302 + Paxton setup.

lone_liberal > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 20:23

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Holding off Jim Clark with a whole bunch of Oppo...priceless. 

RallyWrench > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 20:38

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Ah yes, my old friend “help”.  

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RallyWrench 04/09/2019 at 23:08

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Dont get me wrong, the guy is fast as anything and has experience, but he hurries ahead of sanity checks ... and he literally is missing an eye, so he misses things sometimes.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/09/2019 at 23:26

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If you can’t find it then it’ll be even harder  to fix it...