Messages

If it was me, I would sell the smaller bore gage on e-bay and then buy the bigger one.

In another forty years it could be worth eighty, maybe a hundred grand.
Would be a very astute investment.

Hmmm, interesting-  but when the sender only has one wire going to the gauge, and ground is by screwing the sender into the engine, how do you put a resistor in there?  Tom...

You break the single wire, and insert the low value resistor if it is to make the gauge needle read a bit lower.
This reduces the current flowing through the gauge and makes it read slightly lower.

Or you connect a high value resistor between the single unbroken wire and chassis (at either end) to make the gauge needle read a bit higher.
This pulls a bit of extra current through the gauge, and makes it read slightly higher.

This is only a fine tuning adjustment after everything is working properly, and you just want to shift the "normal" reading position of the pointer needle up or down a small amount.
It is not suggested as a complete fix to match any old incompatible sender and dash unit.

Tom,
You can slightly tweak where "normal" temperature ends up being on the dash gauge by adding an external resistor to what you already now have.

If you want to shift the needle down a bit towards the cold end, add a low value resistor in series with the sender. Just a very few ohms should do it. A higher value resistor will move it down further.

If you want to move the needle up a bit more towards the hot end, place a resistor between the sender to ground. Several hundred ohms should have the desired effect. A lower value resistor will move it up further, a higher value resistor will have less effect.

You can do the same with the oil sender.

Resetting a coil spring can certainly be done, but it is tricky.
Very likely the spring shops did not want to get involved in it.

The problem is the spring needs to be preloaded and placed in an oven.
How much height it loses is not easy to estimate for someone not doing a lot of this type of work.  
It may take several tries to get it right before final heat treatment.
The spring guys probably figured this was going to be a lot of time and messing about, with a certain risk of stuffing it up, and there would be not enough money in the job to make it worthwhile.

Cutting a bit off each end should do it, as the amount of length reduction is not going to be great.

An angle grinder would be my choice, but take your time and allow long cooling down periods between many light grinds.  If the spring never gets too hot to touch with bare skin, it will have no effect on the original heat treatment.

No need to lose any coils, or change anything other than the free length.

Just a case of very carefully heating the spring in a controlled oven while under load, to reduce it's length, then giving it a full new from scratch, heat treatment.

If it ends up finally being one inch shorter, it will sit one inch lower in the car, under the same original compressive load.
That will be because the original spring rate has not changed, so it will compress exactly as far, under the exact same weight as it did originally.
But because it started out slightly shorter, it will end up being shorter at ride height by the same amount.

It is important to realize that a one inch shorter spring will lower the car by a lot more than one inch.  That is why measuring the required new spring length very accurately is absolutely critical to success.

It's not rocket science, and the professional spring guy will have all the equipment plus the knowledge and experience to do it exactly right.
You just need to make very sure you know exactly what to ask for, and have a clear understanding of why this works.

While it is possible do this very successfully without knowing the spring rate, or the weight of the car, ask the spring guy to test and rate your springs.  It will be very useful information to have if you decide to make further changes later on.

What I would do would be to remove the existing springs and set the car on a jack at the required ride height, and measure the new loaded spring height.
This is obviously going to be less than 8.5 inches, but you need to know by exactly how much less.
This will be far more accurate than trying to measure a non linear motion ratio and trying to calculate the new spring length.

Take the original springs around to a spring specialist and he can test and measure the exact spring rate on his spring testing machine.

He will most likely suggest resetting and re heat treating the existing springs, or possibly winding up some completely  new springs.

The reason for making totally new springs might be the possibility of coil bind, but that seems unlikely.

All the spring guy needs to do is reduce the free length by the required change, and the spring rate will remain exactly the same as original.

In theory (structurally) rod ends should always be dead straight, and only work in straight direct tension/compression.
Any angularity should be taken account of in the main supporting structure at each end.
Angled rod ends turn the links themselves into a less stiff "S" shape which in theory could stretch or buckle under extreme loads.

In practice it probably does not matter that much, and with a Hot Rod, what looks right to the eye, is probably the better alternative.

When you stomp on the brakes for a 1G stop, the fuel in the bowl sloshes to maybe 45 degrees to the front of the fuel bowl.

When you tramp it in first gear, it probably goes to something like that to the rear of the fuel bowl.

And guess what, your carb works just fine going up and down some incredibly steep grades too, just ask the off road guys.

But OH !  if the carb is not dead level when the thing is parked and just idling it absolutely must be fixed.....  I don't think so.

I have never liked nutserts or anything that is supposed to expand in a round hole. The buggers come loose and turn, and you will then have hell removing the bolt if the nut is inaccessible.

For thin panels I much prefer cage nuts that fit a rectangular hole, and apart from filing the rectangular hole, no other special tooling is required.

It depends on pedal stroke, and how high the pedal ends up off the floor.

You want the master cylinder to bottom out just as the pedal hits the floor, so pedal ratio ultimately determines pedal height.

A larger motion ratio creates more force, but if the pedal ends up too high, it becomes awkward to lift your foot that high quickly in an emergency.

Get the stroke right, then adjust fluid displacement with the master cylinder bore size, and force by selecting an appropriate vacuum booster.

One thing that may be less than obvious, but right hand drive cars from Japan, Australia, and Britain just about all have the master cylinder connections on the side you need.

In your first picture, that looks like any ordinary Ford Falcon master cylinder (Australian Version).

So if you can find something that suits the style you are after, on some "world" car, the master cylinders will more than likely have the outlets on different sides for different countries.

Just a matter of ordering it on e-bay from the right place.

Get yourself onto the Australian e-bay, and search for "brake master cylinder".
You will find a whole bunch of them with the majority having the connections on the left hand side.

How about a picture ?
We are all pretty much completely in the dark.

I "HAVE" to shorten my Pitman Arm on the bucket 'cause it has very little ground clearance.  If I make the spindle steering arm longer will it keep the same steering ratio? It's a drag link on a "T".

You will only keep the steering ratio the same if you alter BOTH in the same proportions.
Make both either longer, or make both shorter by the same amounts.

Can you bend the pitman arm slightly ?
Or raise the steering box as already suggested ?

+3
No problems.