Part 2

New boot

You need to reuse the steel rings from the old boot and put them on the new one.

They give you a new crimp ring but I like the stainless worm gear clamp.

The new protective fiber ring goes on.

Replace the rear seal in the rear cover. It just unfurls out and lube and install the new one.

Put the covers back on and the band.

The input rod gets a new retainer and then just carefully push back in. It should lock in place. A word of warning, do not push in the rear portion of the booster (tail stock) without the master push rod against the bench or the master bolted on. The master acts as a stop otherwise the innards move to far forward and the tail stock can break. Ask me how I know. (45 dollars later)...

New air filter

Ready to go.

Back in the car.

I'm happy to say while the power brakes aren't totally brilliant yet, they are the best they've ever been. If nothing else changes the car is more than drivable. I do have slightly larger front wheel cylinders to replace on the car which should slightly help. But when the correct pistons come in and these go back in the engine, the vacuum should come up a bit (currently ~11 inches) and also improve the assist.

Rant

I've been swamped with work the past couple of months and well haven't had much time to work on the cars. But making a little more time now. Yuppers, regarding engine pistons. Maybe this time I'll make darn sure I check them to make sure they are correct. In fact I know I will. The first time I didn't catch it cost me $1050 for this round of pistons.

I know I'm really being picky about this, but I really want to see what this puppy will do with the original intention build. It's together enough to take up and down the drive and even with the low compression pistons in it, it has gobs of torque. On concrete at 1/4 throttle it spins both rear tyres with ease. On gravel, the slightest touch of the throttle and the right rear just spins. I'm really anxious to see what the low end torque is like with the correct pistons. After experiencing this I am now re-energized to finish this LTD.

As for the brakes, the intention was to put these drums back on restored for now and when I get free time (haha, jokes on me) I am going to convert to a more modern Panther disc brakes for the front and Explorer disc brakes for the rear as the large bearing 9" needs the Explorer backing plates a friend who sells conversion kits told me. If the 9" is the small bearing (light duty) variety then can use Panther backing plates and associated disc drakes.

I even ran a spare stainless steel brake line in the back to also use the traction control and ABS system from a Panther as well that's if I live long enough

I'm hoping the new engine pistons will also raise idle vacuum up a notch or two to give more boost, if the pedal still doesn't perfectly right I'm going to drill/punch a new fulcrum hole in the lever assembly behind the booster and fabricate a new link bar to change the pedal ratio to a higher ratio. Either way it'll be solved

About the Ford brakes, I know the '66 and I think '67 Ford full sized (not sure about Merc or Lincoln) only used the Kelsey Hayes 4 piston calipers and had their own rotors and steel wheels to clear. I do know that the '68 Ford full size with factory disc brakes uses different calipers and rather unique to '68 only brake rotors . Both our '68 LTD and '68 XL have factory disc brakes. I'm currently revamping the entire braking system in the '68 LTD starting from the brake pedal (believe me it needs it) all the way to the individual wheels.

In the interim, I did find and buy all 4 power window regulators for the 3rd gen 4 door (all the same), so now the '66 LTD will have power windows and I also found the elusive Ford full size '65-'66 only AM-FM radio from a friend and procured that.

It doesn't work, but that's not a problem, easy peasy to fix and align. In fact it looks like a brand new factory service radio that's never been installed, so cosmetically it's in fantastic condition with just a couple of scratches here in there over the years probably getting shifted around. Only 2 more to hunt down now . I did buy another 1968 only Ford full size AM-FM radio. So I have both those cars covered.

Interestingly the Ford '65-'66 AM-FM radio is all monaural, where as on the '68 AM-FM radio the FM is in stereo. Just for the sake of curiosity I wonder what '67's had?

OK I had better get back to work

Cheers