Fredensborg's 1973 Mach 1 improvement/build thread "Sleipnir"

[mrgmhale]

Good to know, the difference in how it drives is significant. The rear end feels absolutely glued to the road now! Now I just need to figure out what I want to do with the front suspension…should make a good winter project.

These are some recent YouTube links I put together that may be useful for when you rebuild your front end. We did not have to rebuild out front end, but I had to go as deep as repaving a Steering Knuckle and Spindle, Upper Ball Joint, Wheel Bearings and Seals, and Brake Rotors and Pads. No big surprises along the way.





Please keep posting progress photos... They are fun to look at later on. Here is a link of our progress photos put into a video, and a walk around video of our completed project.

 

[Fredensborg]

These are some recent YouTube links I put together that may be useful for when you rebuild your front end. We did not have to rebuild out front end, but I had to go as deep as repaving a Steering Knuckle and Spindle, Upper Ball Joint, Wheel Bearings and Seals, and Brake Rotors and Pads. No big surprises along the way.


Please keep posting progress photos... They are fun to look at later on. Here is a link of our progress photos put into a video, and a walk around video of our completed project.

Thanks for the links, this is the stuff I have to see to determine if I should tackle these jobs or not. And I will definitely keep posting in this thread, I'm selfishly using it to document my cars slow return to showroom condition...someday!

 

[Fredensborg]

Wow, thank you for posting this. I didn't realize that the bearings were part of the rotor assembly, I'm used to working on newer stuff where the rotors are separate from the bearings. After watching your video I am a lot less apprehensive about doing this job, I think it will be a good one for the kids and I to do.

 

[Fredensborg]

Well, it's two steps forward one step back these days with the Mustang...but at least improvements are happening! On the plus side, my son and I got our heater working again! No more freezing cold drives home from work! We found the original heater hose I had taken off years ago and smartly had not thrown away.
Installation was a breeze, a little help from the forum and some child/slave labor and boom! Let there be warmth! It almost looks like 1973 in my garage with the boy helping me...nowadays they call this "Hockey Hair", at least they do up here in Minnesota

On the negative side, while we had our heads under the hood we found that the passenger side strut looks pretty bent compared to the drivers side. Not sure how the hell that would have happened, but I know I didn't do it! I also discovered that my master cylinder/reservoir seems to have a leak. When I pulled the cover, the smaller front reservoir was basically empty. I added some break fluid and noticed a huge difference. I had assumed my break pads were just shot, but looks like there is more work to do on the break system. I think this is actually leaking onto my steering box, which I assumed was leaking itself. Either way I think that steering box has to go from the amount of slop in it...

And I also noticed my front valence thing is not really attached to the car in any way at the middle...looks like this is a hole for a fastener here, so I will have to come up with something for that.

My new Addco front sway bar showed up a couple days ago, I have the pads rotors and bearings to do, and we have a new weather-strip kit from Ohio Mustang on the way no keep my newfound warmth in the cab with me! I'll attack those items next week when I have a few days off from work.

 

[71ProjectJunk]

Check your front strut rod crossmember, I bet that it was hit on the passenger side and that is what bent the strut rod. I know that I had the same issue with a bent passenger side strut rod, and it was that the crossmember had been hit pretty hard. Bought a used strut rod on on eBay. That may also be why you have the missing bolts on the lower valance, mine are also missing as the lower valance moved when the crossmember was hit and the bolts no longer fit well.

As for the brake master cylinder. The small reservoir goes to the rear brakes, you probably have a leaking wheel cylinder in the back. Check your rear brakes ASAP as even if you now have some rear brakes, as you now have fluid in the system, the rear brake linings are probably full or brake fluid and not braking very well and will need to be changed. Brake fluid is also incredibly corrosive, it will damage any paint it touches and then everything will rust to hell. The brake fluid on the big side of the reservoir is extremely dirty, it needs to be changed ASAP. You really should bleed all that fluid out, it is contaminated and will eventually damage the brake components.

That master cylinder also seems to be leaking from the rear seal, so you should probably change it or rebuild it. The brake fluid going into the brake booster will damage the booster, and those boosters are not readily available. you can get replacement boosters that are smaller, but the OEM boosters are no longer available and can only be sent out to be rebuilt, which is time consuming and expensive.

 

[Idaho Chris]

Jason-

The 71/73 booster is not available in the repop world that I know of.
In the event that you are in for a rebuild of the brake booster, here are the guys I used: https://boosterdeweyexchange.com/
Well respected outfit in the classic car world.

 

[Fredensborg]

Jason-

The 71/73 booster is not available in the repop world that I know of.
In the event that you are in for a rebuild of the brake booster, here are the guys I used: https://boosterdeweyexchange.com/
Well respected outfit in the classic car world.

That master cylinder also seems to be leaking from the rear seal, so you should probably change it or rebuild it. The brake fluid going into the brake booster will damage the booster, and those boosters are not readily available. you can get replacement boosters that are smaller, but the OEM boosters are no longer available and can only be sent out to be rebuilt, which is time consuming and expensive.

Is the damage already done to the booster, or do you think it will be ok if rebuild/replace the master cylinder ASAP?

 

[71ProjectJunk]

Is the damage already done to the booster, or do you think it will be ok if rebuild/replace the master cylinder ASAP?

If it is still working, then it is still okay. so change the master cylinder ASAP.

 

[Lazarus]

For what it’s worth, I have these on both Mustangs. They aren’t perfect replicas in appearance but they are close enough for me, go on easy, and do a great job:

71-73 Mustang Brake Booster | Mustang 9-inch Power Brake Booster

You can get this 1971-1973 Mustang brake booster kit for a great price! Buy this high-quality Mustang 9-inch power brake booster kit at LEED Brakes.

leedbrakes.com

The above link is for front discs but they have others if you have manual.

I kept both originals in case I ever decide I want to have them rebuilt.

 

[Fredensborg]

Had a little time to spare today so I decided to look into my rattling dash problem. Didn’t take long to find the culprit, it was missing a screw and the second one was loose!
so while I was in there I decided to dig a little deeper for curiosity’s sake. Pulled the radio just for fun, not sure if this is an original radio or not…I’m guessing it’s an aftermarket addition from the 80’s. After putting all that back together, we pulled the dash apart for s**ts and giggles…took the opportunity to change the bulb on my right turn signal indicator, and now have both of them working again! We also cleaned up the instrument cluster glass, and I attempted (ever so lightly) to roll back the odometer by pushing on the little number wheels with a paperclip. It didn’t seem to want to cooperate, so I let it go for now…I’m guessing one would need to detach the speedometer cable to roll it back. I’ve just always thought it would be cool to roll it back to zero from when I got it, I’ve put less than 5000 miles on in the last 20 years..4000 of those miles in the last 12 months!

The parts are starting to pile up, we’ve got the master cylinder to do, as well as the breaks/rotors/bearings, a new weatherstrip kit from Ohio Mustang ( I’ll try and fix my headliner when I do that job) and going to try and convert the rear windows to roll downs with some MotorCityMustangs parts. Making progress!

 

[Mister 4x4]

Coming along nicely. The Leed's Brakes booster is awesome - mine was toast, so I went that direction as well. Works like a champ!

Clarion was the shiz-nit back in the '80s. I had a set of Clarion 990 6x9s in my '82 Mustang with a JVC AM/FM/Cassette and 5 1/4" Jensens in the doors - best stereo ever! I loved that combination so much that I usually purchase JVC head units (but have moved on to Infinity speakers, thanks to my home stereo system). If you want a little updating, check into a Retrosound Model 2 - it has AM/FM/USB/Bluetooth audio and hands-free cell phone, and offers 6 RCA Line Level outputs if you want to bump things with a full amp'd system, or use the 4 amplified outputs for fronts & rears (and maybe the sub output for a pair of subs in the trunk maybe). The Model 2 looks like an old Philco AM radio, but is super cool - I stashed my USB plug in the center console and have 32GB thumb drive with around 8,000 tunes for drivin' around.

Sorry for the grainy pic - it was from my old flip-phone's 3MP camera back in 2016 - I also ditched the wood grain for some black carbon fiber.


That was after I tore mine apart to change out the dash lights to LEDs, swap the instrument cluster clock for an RCCI clock/tach conversion, swapped the factory Ammeter for a Bosch Voltmeter, and tidy some things up. It's never pretty when I tear my dash apart:

 

[Fredensborg]

Overdue for an update or two...life has been busy! My son and I finally got around to doing the front breaks wheel bearings and master cylinder on the mustang. Everything went pretty well, wound up putting new calipers on after I broke one of the bleeder screws though. Here we are pre-op and ready to rock. Got that funky old one off, wow was it nasty in there!!!
After a quick bench bleed, we got the new one dropped in....looks much cleaner! I'll hang on to the old one so I can attempt a rebuild when I find the correct kit.
The bearings and rotors were a piece of cake, Gilberts video's were a big help there.
Here's a quick snippet with poor narration showing off my front end components...



Then we put in the new front sway bar from Addco to match up with the one in the back we did last summer.

Installation was pretty straightforward, but I did have to modify the supplied brackets because the holes didn't line up with my old ones. A quick reaming with a drill and we got it to bolt right in. And what a HUGE difference the two sway bars have made! You can go into corners very aggressively now without having to worry about losing control...It feels absolutely GLUED to the road!

Man is it nice having a shop-helper/child/slave to do the dirty work underneath!!! All I did was hold the bolt head with an extension while he did the grunt work!!

Next up, we will tackle the tie rod ends, and replace the old steering box with the new one I ordered from RedHead. At that point, I'm hoping my steering should be pretty tight. The only play I could see in the system was in those two components.