Questions?

[Ehenry77]

So I recently purchased a 73 Coupe and I don't know for sure all that has been done to it. I know it is a 302 it has electronic ignition, Summit Racing manifold, dual exhaust, Summit Racing 4 barrel carb and filter, Ford Motorsports aftermarket valve covers. It is a automatic. However it only has 2 gears which means it has a power glide installed. My question is Does this sound like the car was set up for racing at some point? It just seems like a lot of work and upgrades for someone's daily driver. Any thoughts?

 

[will e]

I would be surprised if it had a power glide. It would require an adapter plate and such. And I don't 'think' a 'serious' racer would have used a Summit carb.

How about a few pics of the engine and, if you can get under it, a shot or two of the tranny.

 

[Ehenry77]

I would be surprised if it had a power glide. It would require an adapter plate and such. And I don't 'think' a 'serious' racer would have used a Summit carb.

How about a few pics of the engine and, if you can get under it, a shot or two of the tranny.

I have a few pics of the engine. I can get more pics tomorrow when I get home. I have driven it and can confirm it only has 2 gears and when you hammer it and it goes from first to second it will chirp the tires. I only asked about racing cause I was reading that 2 gear transmissions were popular for drag racing.

 

[Ehenry77]

Also neighbor said he thought it was a Holley carb just branded for Summit Racing.

 

[Ehenry77]

If not a power glide then the Ford cruise o matic 2 speed maybe? It was an option on the 73. I just don't know what to trust because the title says grande. The vin indicates coupe apparently. And the door sticker say it is light blue, but it is actually glow blue. So I'm guessing repaint at some point. Idk it's a mess trying to figure it all out.

 

[Steve McMahan]

The door sticker will have the transmission code.

 

[Ehenry77]

The door sticker will have the transmission code.

The door sticker says it has a C4 but it definitely only has 2 gears and 2 wasn't an option on the C4 transmission. Idk. I'm gonna have to take it somewhere to be looked over I guess. Seems like it is kinda Frankensteined together. Lol.

 

[will e]

Two speeds were not an original option on our cars. I poked around and the Ford two speed doesn't have the correct bolt pattern for our engines.

I have to admit I am very curious. I would love to hear a video of it.

 

[rvrtrash]

If I was going to make a guess, I'd say either the shifter linkage isn't adjusted correctly, keeping the transmission from going into "Drive", or something is wrong with the transmission. If you move the shifter part way between drive and neutral, do you get a third gear?

 

[Hemikiller]

Take a pic of the transmission pan. If you're only getting two gears,it might be possible that a PO swapped in a Green Dot early C4. In the D position, it shifted 2-3. If you move it to 2, then it would shift 1-2-3.

Another possibility is that something's amiss with the transmission and it's not shifting to Drive.

 

[RIBS]

On a C4, if the vacuum modulator is not connected, it will shift hard to reverse and 1-2, and never go to 3rd. Mine was spinning tires leaving garage, with brake applied in reverse.

Inspect the rear intake on the 302, you should have a vacuum T rising up, with a 12-18 inch rubber vacuum line going to a hard steel line mounted on firewall near center passenger side of car….this goes down the trans tunnel to the passenger side rear of transmission. Look for another 12-18 inch rubber vacuum line connecting to round vacuum modulator near rear of trans…it’s also possible modulator is bad. There are different ones, ID’d by color bands painted on around the modulator.

If you have an aftermarket intake, it’s entirely possible the previous owner did not reconnect this…

 

[tkelley72]

I agree with Hemikiller. Years ago I owned a bone stock, unrestored 66 and experienced the same thing. Your natural instinct is to place the selector into the first position which is wrong. Once I placed it in the middle position it shifted as it should. Go the easy route first.

 

[basstrix]

From the throttle linkage peeking out below the air filter, I'd say you have a holley carb, but hard to say for certain w/o removing the filter.

@Hemikiller The breadth of your knowledge is impressive.

 

[Don C]

Also neighbor said he thought it was a Holley carb just branded for Summit Racing.

The Summit carburetor is not a rebranded Holley. Its outward appearance is more like the Ford Autolite 4100 carburetor with upgraded internals.

The stock C4 transmission usually won't chirp the tires when shifting from 1st to 2nd. Someone may have installed a shift kit in the valve body and did something wrong in the process, like getting some debris in it, messing up the shifting.

 

[Ehenry77]

Here is some better pictures of the carb. Still working on getting pictures from underneath the car.

 

[Ehenry77]

The Summit carburetor is not a rebranded Holley. Its outward appearance is more like the Ford Autolite 4100 carburetor with upgraded internals.

The stock C4 transmission usually won't chirp the tires when shifting from 1st to 2nd. Someone may have installed a shift kit in the valve body and did something wrong in the process, like getting some debris in it, messing up the shifting.

Previous owner did say he believes that someone before him put a shift kit in it. But he really had no info on anything for me cause he didn't change anything on the car in the 7 years he owned it.

 

[Hemikiller]

That's a Summit M2008 carb, which is an update of the late 80's Holley 4010 series carbs. Urban legend is that it was Holley's take on the Autolite 4100 from the 60s.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-m08600vs

They're good carbs and run well when tuned properly. There have been some recent reports of QC issues, but overall reviews are positive. I have that same carb on the 429 in my 71 Country Squire and am about 85% satisfied with the way it runs. There is some part throttle tuning to be ironed out still.

 

[Ehenry77]

On a C4, if the vacuum modulator is not connected, it will shift hard to reverse and 1-2, and never go to 3rd. Mine was spinning tires leaving garage, with brake applied in reverse.

Inspect the rear intake on the 302, you should have a vacuum T rising up, with a 12-18 inch rubber vacuum line going to a hard steel line mounted on firewall near center passenger side of car….this goes down the trans tunnel to the passenger side rear of transmission. Look for another 12-18 inch rubber vacuum line connecting to round vacuum modulator near rear of trans…it’s also possible modulator is bad. There are different ones, ID’d by color bands painted on around the modulator.

If you have an aftermarket intake, it’s entirely possible the previous owner did not reconnect this…

I have no clue what I'm looking for. But these are the only things I can see running out of the firewall on the passenger side. Is it any of these? I included a photo of where the 2 hoses connect to the motor.

 

[Don C]

I have no clue what I'm looking for. But these are the only things I can see running out of the firewall on the passenger side. Is it any of these? I included a photo of where the 2 hoses connect to the motor.View attachment 91765View attachment 91766

Those are heater hoses. What you need to look for is more of the small hoses that you can see above the heater hose on the right. There should be one that runs from a "vacuum tree" on the back of the intake manifold to the rear of the engine and then follow the bellhousing down to under the car, that would supply vacuum to a vacuum modulator (called a vacuum diaphragm in the service manual) on the right side of the transmission.

 

[Ehenry77]

Those are heater hoses. What you need to look for is more of the small hoses that you can see above the heater hose on the right. There should be one that runs from a "vacuum tree" on the back of the intake manifold to the rear of the engine and then follow the bellhousing down to under the car, that would supply vacuum to a vacuum modulator (called a vacuum diaphragm in the service manual) on the right side of the transmission.

This is the only T I see under the hood. It runs down to a steel tube one one hose and the other hose appears to run under the carburetor. Would this appear to be the correct set up? The T hose and the hose to the right of it both connect to the metal tubes running down the trans.