A few weeks ago I posted a question concerning towing a camper behind my 59 Ford Wagon. I had previous issues with cooling, have been doing some work on it for the past couple of weeks and took it for the maiden voyage tonight. As discussed, I have installed an external trans cooler, checked and or replaced all kinds of miscellaneous axle and transmission seals, and further inspected the hitch (while it is not a reese style receiver hitch, it is tied into the frame and bumper). I decided to replace the thermostat, wondering if that was part of the running hot problem. When I pulled off the thermostat housing, there was no thermostat inside. I added that to the list and bought one from the local parts store, and installed it along with many other updates (gaskets to the motor, intake gaskets, and the pan under the intake gasket (don't know the name of that one). The camper was stored around 20 miles away from my house, and decided to drive the wagon to pick it up to see how it performs. The entire trip to pick up the camper the wagon ran around 190. As soon as I stopped, it started to overheat at around 220. I let it cool, hooked up the camper and drove it home. On the plus side, the wagon towed the camper quite well for a 59. However, once again, when I returned home and shut the car off the temperature skyrocketed to 230 and began to overheat.

My questions:

Did someone remove the thermostat before because of some overheating problem? Does it make a difference to not have a thermostat in? I never had overheating trouble like this before, it just got hot at high speeds.

The radio has no fan shroud on it. Was it supposed to have one? Is there somewhere I can get a fan shroud for this application? I inspected the radiator and flushed it, and it seemed quite clean. I do not think the radiator has any issues.

Off topic... I also dropped the tank to inspect my sending unit. It was bad, but I did move it up and down and my gas gauge does work. I have read several posts on the forum about the nightmares of aftermarket sending units. I also found a convenient access hole to replace the sending unit, so I do not need to drop the tank again. Any suggestions on a good aftermarket sending unit?

No one locally had a trans filter or a trans pan gasket. Does anyone know the part number, or where I can locate one for my transmission? It is an automatic behind the 292, it is either the true two speed, or I have read about the 2 speed that is actually a three speed. Someone had a link to a website for transmission identification...but I was unsuccessful in my quest.

Sorry for the long winded post, and long list of questions. BUT, there is a car show next weekend (around 250 miles away) and I would like to attend with the camper and the wagon.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You guys rock.