Hello From Southern California

Hello Psych62, you are not alone. There are a few female members here but it's really not that important. Most of the members are respectful and treat you like one of the guys.

Is this your first forum experience? It was mine. I have checked out one or two others but this one stuck. Wether they like it or not I keep hanging out in the garage.

It's great to meet you and your pretty wagon. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. Give hubby a thumbs up for me. Behind most women with a car fetish is a great guy helping her achieve her dream.

 

I am a member of another forum (non-car related) that used to be extremely lively but is now pretty much dead in the water.
It seems that more people are socializing via Facebook than forums, but I'm not a Facebook member and don't intend to become one. Forums suit me fine. I'm old school that way.

 

Social media is usefull for certain things. Of course, it's no replacement for organized forums, given that everything there is stacked up to where it's impractical to use for reference. Unfortunately, one needs to go visit these outlets, when in need of information that isn't showing up on forums, because of that information-holder abandoning forums, in order to get active on social media, while taking her's or his stuff there

 

I can share several stories about our 77 Squire, One, it has had several owners yet when we purchased it, it had only 83,000 miles on it, indicating that for some period of time it sat. Hubs examined the receipts (and there are a lot), from 1977 to 2016 it was used very little, then had a lot of work done to it mechanically to make it road-worthy. The man we purchased the wagon from was not a car guy, he purchased it from a cancer charity that was trying to raise funds. He was looking to flip it, and made a couple of grand on the deal. I won the Ebay auction at 11,000 with no one bidding for hours, even though it had furious bidding for quite a while (no reserve). Hubs said I got a fair price, not a bargain, but what it was worth. We have made several improvements since.

One funny (if you can call it that) story, hubs almost threw away the car keys in the complex dumpster. Had to fish through garbage to find them. He didn't have a key chain at the time but I bought him a really nice (and heavy) sterling silver one with the Ford logo in script, enameled in blue. Also has his name stamped on the back. It's a really pretty key chain. Bought it off of Etsy, hand-made by a guy in Henderson Neveda. It felt good supporting a small business.

 

There has to be some brackets out there, unless they went extinct because they inherently cracked or something. If your luck in getting one runs out absolutely, you might want to try swapping the original compressor for one of General Motor's A.C. Delco types, if conversion brackets for those are even still available somewhere. On Lincolns and Thunderbirds, those were Ford-correct, as well as era-correct (on this forum, we usually say, "period-correct". But that would sound somewhat awkward, when conversing with a female member ). The rest of the system wouldn't know if it was fed by one of those or by the original York.
The very last option would be to convert to a modern compressor specifically designed for the latest refrigerants. Their design is supposedly more efficient than that of the originals. Therefore, better fuel milage and higher horsepower will be available

 

The following below was written by my husband, Paul. I don't really understand technical/mechanical stuff involving the Squire so he sat down in front of the computer and added this information.

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Hello Sir, This is Paul, Lisa's Husband. I found one front bracket on EBAY that perfectly matches the picture shown in the 1977 Shop Manual. I just finished painting it flat black and obtaining the correct 9/16 head 3/8 thread bolts and bolted it up to the block. Four of the five bolts lined up, the 5th one on the top right part of block did not. The Bracket wasn't long enough. Not too concerned with that. It's not going anywhere. I just hope the compressor clears the distributor. Will know tomorrow when we get the compressor. It's coming UPS. Maybe i can just use plumber's tape and strap er down. Lol. btw A pleasure to meet you!

 

You're doing great with the work, Paul and Lisa. That Squire is going to be close to 100% pretty soon. (You've done more on your wagon in 2+ months than I ever did to my Pontiac Safari in 7 years!)

 

Neither is the one circled in the following image. If you loosen the 4 bolts retaining this bracket, you should get enuff play for lining it up. As for the missing hole on the block, getting a self-centering punch for marking the boss for drilling and tapping will save you from having to look for another bracket. This is what I had to do to my '56 Chevrolet, when I replaced the original 265 with a later-casted 283, getting the front engine mounts to fit

 

No. The one circled is for the idle bracket pulley which isn't installed yet. But this bracket won't work anyway. The compressor fits in its slot perfect but the pulley does not line up. Nor will the rear brace ever work with this bracket as it mounts the compressor too far to the left. Oh well. Thank you! Back to the old drawing board. Have a few junkyard guys supposed to call me back. Thanks again though!

 

This is from the 1977 Shop Manual. Compressor Installation 351/400 Engine. You can see why I thought that bracket would fit!. It looks exactly like the picture.

 

It reads as if you're almost there and that the compressor wants to fit. Will it not line up with the harmonic balancer pulley, the idler pulley or both? If it will only not line up with that bottom balancer pulley, than it should be the wrong balancer that's at fault

What's obstructing it from getting mounted there? In other words, what's in its way?

 

Well, I don't know if "one of the guys" is right. It's great to have more female participation, in any case. Without it, the forum would otherwise be limited to short answers and picture-posting. A little more conversation makes for some interesting dialogue

 

Welcome Psych62. There is also a website you can check out called “Stripeman”. He carries several wood appliqué offerings and I know he has planked wood grain, which is what you would want to replace the factory DiNoc if you want to keep it looking factory. Love ‘77 Squires. I currently have a ‘78 LTD wagon, so don’t have that issue, but have other papered wagons. Again welcome aboard and look forward to lots of pictures. I took the liberty of looking him up and he does have complete kits for your wagon. For the what it’s worth column I would replace the wood grain (Di noc) for the entire car. Think in the long run you would have the continuity of the exact same colors and condition. As far as the replacement you will want to make sure you have someone who really knows what they’re doing. You’ll want to insure the planks line up and there are no air pockets under the application. I would certainly recommend you ask a lot of questions and get references. You may also meet folks at car shows who can be a good resource for you. Not to sound like an ageist, in this case I think I’d look for gray hair. lol

 

Doghead: Yes, it wants to fit. But both pulleys don't line-up and it sits too far to the left so the rear bracket does not line up. We found another on Ebay that says fits a 1977 Country Squire with the 400 Engine. Will try again, but if this one does not fit, we will return it.

 

Mercman: Thank you very much for the info and advice. We're still debating whether or not to replace the woodgrain. Right now, it looks presentable., but is deteriorating in places and is undoubtedly going to get worse over time.

Would love to see a pic of your '79 LTD wagon!