69 Rustang

Thanks for the links. After reviewing I found the shaft seal at NPD, but not the O-ring. The part number(s) for the shaft seal is: D5AZ-7B498-A, C7AZ-7B498-A or NPD’s number of 7B498-1. Does anyone know if the O-ring is special or can a generic o-ring be used?

Transmission: My FMX leaks at the shift selector shaft on the drivers side. I replaced the seal on one of these 30 years ago, but I don’t remember if it was just an o-ring or if it was a special seal with a inner spring. Anybody know for sure? If it is just an o-ring, is it anything special or just a generic o-ring? If special, any idea what to order? Steering Box: For the power steering box I figure it is likely the main shaft that holds the pitman arm. On my last car (a ‘73 Mustang) that was the leaking point. For that one I bought a rebuild kit. I couldn’t get the box apart, so I took it somewhere and they put the seals in while I waited for 40 minutes or so. I looked at NPD for a seal kit and didn’t see a kit that looked the same. This one seems to be most extensive: 3C538-1 https://www.npdlink.com/product/seal-and-gasket-kit-steering-gear-master-kit/148828 Any input or advice on this? Thank you!

If the trim is stainless, it is very easy to polish. You can use a bench grinder with buffing wheels, rouge, and good gloves. Just be careful so the buffer doesn’t grab the part and send it flying or bend it. Aluminum parts are another story—it is typically anodized which is a hardened surface that can’t be buffed. I tried having some really tired looking moldings re-anodized with marginal results. They looked better, but still not great and nowhere near new or restored. I did use a bit of 000 stainless and did some light cleaning on my current projects anodized parts to clean them up. Look forward to answers from others on this, hopefully I will learn something!

Let me figure that up and get back to you. I will try to get it done today but it might take until next Friday as I have never tried to ship paint and I am traveling for work this week returning on Friday.

I have 1 full gallon of PPG Envirobase basecoat, not reduced. This was a second of two gallons mixed for my car, but I bought too much. One gallon did my entire car exterior, door jambs, under hood, and trunk—and I still have some left over from the first gallon. So this stuff covers very well! I can ship it but it likely requires some extra disclosures and handling. It is water-based, so it should ship easier than solvent borne. As for use—it sprays excellent and dries in a very reasonable amount of time depending on your weather/humidity and air movement. If you are restoring or repainting a Mustang in Wimbledon White, this is a deal you cannot pass up. You will need to buy water base reducer (T494 or T595) and a quality clearcoat to cover this—not included with this sale, just selling the 1 gallon of basecoat. $100 plus shipping (actual cost).

I used to have a choke wire routed incorrectly—it was going to the terminal on the solenoid as shown with my finger in the picture. It is now connected to the stator terminal. The tach is working again, but the car still runs like it has a miss or something. Short of swapping the carb off my ‘69 as a test, not sure what to look at as I hadn’t done anything to the ignition prior to the problem surfacing. The carb on the ‘69 is a 780cfm, so it will be a bit much for this car, but I suppose it would be ok as a test of carb or ignition.

Is there some way to test the tach? It is definitely barely registering. Tested running voltage at the batt side of coil and the solenoid and it is a little over 8 volts. I haven’t tested disconnected like Midlife suggested, I have to do that later because I accidentally killed the battery. I may try jumping the tach too after this. Isn’t there someone on here that repairs/rebuilds tachs?

So do you mean from the resister all the way to the headlights then back to the fuse box OR just to the headlight switch, then to the fuse box? I think the latter, but I know this is your area of expertise. Thanks!

Been working on the ‘72 wrapping up various things to finish it. This week I wanted to swap the carb base for another Holley base that included the automatic transmission kick down as the current one does not. So I did the swap, put it back together and the car ran terrible. The bases are virtually identical other than two small things. But, different is different, so I reversed it all and put the working base back on. Guess, what, car still runs terrible. After fiddling with it and thinking about it I remember something odd—a weird electrical issue. When the car was running, the tach wasn’t reading properly. It stayed below about 1200 RPM no matter how much I revved the engine and barely registered at idle. So I checked some voltage readings. At the battery off, nearly 13 volts. Running, closer to 15 volts. Good ground to chassis, ground continuity to coil is good. However, voltage at the batt side of the coil was only 5.9ish volts. Also, voltage at the solenoid terminal (Photo with finger pointing) also only about 5.9 volts. I do have a pertronix, but the pertronix instructions say there should be 12 volts. Why can’t things be easy? Can someone make this easy for me with some solid advice? If I get this fixed and it is electrical, I am going back in on the carb base swap!

I was starting to assemble the rear of the interior tonight…finally! I ran into a problem though. Which way do the rear seat belts install? Does the button mechanism go to the outside or mount in the center of the car? It seems like it would be better if they were mounted with the button part on the outside in case it gets stuck between the panel and the seat cushion, it would be easier to get back out or less likely to even happen. But, tell me, how do they mount? Thanks!

My #1 learning about this Mustang occurred yesterday. When the gas gauge needle aligns with the line for “E”, it seriously means it is empty. Fortunately my wife was just a half mile away and could go home (1 mile the other way) and bring me the gas can. Doh! Lesson learned, next stop, the gas station! On the plus side, the rear end has been rebuilt—the center diff issues were covered in another thread, but it was a mess. Now the rear brakes are all new, new soft brake hose to the axle, fixed the axle vent hose, new axle seals, and one of the rear axle bearings was replaced. It is quieter than ever, especially when the engine dies from lack of fuel and you are coasting…. While waiting for the differential rebuild, I had time to start on the interior. The console has been disassembled, thoroughly cleaned and reassembled, the fold down seat mechanism has been cleaned and mostly reassembled (but out of the car). The dash has been cleaned up again. The trim has been transferred to the new door panels—when you buy the new ones and pay extra for the “improved” version, please realize they are still not a great part. At this point I am waiting on just a few things. The biggest delay is the headliner. I have a friend who has an upholstery shop and he is going to help fix my headliner—but between his schedule and mine we just can’t get together until October. There are still a few things I can work on though.

On both my 72 and on my 69, the heater/air conditioning blower only runs on high. Is the resister sold by NPD 19A706-2A the likely culprit?

All back together and first drive tonight—wow, the noise! Where was it because there wasn’t any! That is the quietest rear end I have ever had in a Mustang. Whew, glad that’s done. Now its time to get the interior put together!

A few pictures of the damaged carrier, and a few pictures of the restored differential. The first picture shows where a thrust washer used to be, it had worn away some time ago left behind is scoring and a huge ridge of worn material. The second image is the gear that was wearing on the surface in the first picture. The third picture is the other half of the carrier, notice the wear on the outer ring outside of where the spider gears are—it was grinding along here. So the noise I heard was because of the play in the spider gear/carrier assembly due to the missing thrust washer. All in all, I got lucky that my ring gear and pinion gear were not damaged. The other noteworthy comment is on the second picture. The spider gear here has four sections where there are no splines, so the 28 spline axle is only connected to 24 splines in the carrier. Notice the gap in splines visible at about the 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions. The guy doing the work for me said this is very common and almost always present in a 8” rear end, and it is uncommon but sometimes present in a 9”. He installed gears with the full 28 splines when he put the new one together for me. The last two pictures are the work of art I am going to install. Included with the overhaul was a gasket, copper washers, new nuts, and gear oil. Out the door for $420 including him swapping the differential case for one with a fill plug (which mine did not have due to someone changing it somewhere along the way).

I learned this is not the original center section to this car—this one doesn’t have a fill plug so it was changed somewhere along the way during life for one of the same ratio. If it was under filled, it happened before I got the car as it always had a clicking noise, but I never bothered with it as I haven’t put that many miles on this car to worry about it. I did pull it years ago trying to figure it out and put it back—that was when I realized there was no fill plug and I had to fill through the axle tube. I think I actually overfilled it as it leaked out and ruined the brakes on one side despite new seals. The guy doing the rear now is swapping out cases for one with a plug for an extra $50. The worse news is I have a second 9” center section with 3.50’s that makes the same clicking noise only it sounds even worse than the one I pulled from the car. So apparently I have two junk center sections! At least this one will be right when it is done.