What did you do to your car today?

[Butch65]

Replaced the steering box w/ a 12:1 unit, new rag joint (or steering coupler assembly) and power steering pump and reservoir. All the wiggle is gone and she feels tight! I was able to find all the parts on Rockauto.

Started looking at what it will take to seal off the windshield trim and keep the liquid sunshine from encroaching on the cockpit!

 

[71 gbvert]

Still waiting for my seats and qtr trim panels to get back from my friends shop, so I decided to tackle the last piece of my dash that needed cleaning. Took a couple of hours but the heater control panel is cleaned and back together.

 

[Steve73QMach1]

Started the rear leaf spring replacement project today on the 4 speed car. Got the drivers side done with all new attaching parts from Don at OMS (perfect fit!). Will start the passenger side tomorrow. The springs I removed were the originals. No trouble with any of the hardware coming loose except those darn rear stabilizer bar end links. The long bolts were fused to the sleeve so they had to be cut out. It didn't help that the original owner had taken the liberty to spray everything with undercoating - what a mess. The impact wrench was a lifesaver in getting those U bolt nuts loose. New stabilizer end links are on their way. These are shot:

 

[cudak888]

Removed some tires until I pulled my tire removal tool out of the shed floor again. Time to concrete the thing to the ground for once.

-Kurt

 

[Mister 4x4]

Pulled the hood off yesterday, so I could facilitate the replacement of the power brake booster, install the windshield wipers, and whatever else ahead of next month's GAFB Car Show (the only one I'm really interested in, for the most part).

After pulling the hood off, I found the new brake booster I bought from NPD, and realized it's pretty much just a universal and won't fit (it'll shove the master cylinder too far forward). I did recall reading something in this month's edition of Mustang Monthly, about someone offering "new" 71-'73 power brake boosters. So, I ordered one, and hopefully it'll be here before next weekend.

I also discovered that my brand new power steering pump has never been circulating. Yay... bad right out of the box. Oh well - lifetime warranty from O'Reilly Auto Parts. I'll definitely have a new one of those before next weekend, along with a wiper motor.

BTW - http://gpsbrakes.com/i-21155650-9-inch-power-brake-booster-black.html

 

[Hemikiller]

Took time off from scraping paint on the house to do a little work on the Mach. Swapped out the howling 3.40L 8 inch to a temporary 3.00 9 inch. Swapped in the new 42-547 429 springs as the original 45 year old leafs were sagging a bit. Found out one of rear wheel cylinders is starting to weep, so I'm just going to replace them both as they are ten years old now.

Bottom two pics are before and after.

 

[72HCODE]

drove mine today and nothing broke, crossing fingers.

 

[Twins]

Put in new door hinge pin and bushings but had to call for the cavalry to help line the door back up. Thanks again Dan! (72H Code). Glad you had a non eventful ride!

 

[Hemikiller]

Over the weekend I replaced the OE rear shackles with a set of poly shackles from MU, Quality is OK, could be better for the price. Replaced the leaking rear axle seals that now seem to be unobtainium unless ordered online and replaced the leaking D/S rear wheel cylinder. Tried to bleed the rear brakes, but I think my rear hose is done for, couldn't get any fluid out. Will fix that sometime this week.

Still waiting on my TractionLok clutch kit so I can get the 3.25 center section rebuilt, looks like it finally shipped today.

Car definitely sits better with the new springs, should level out once I get the 351C installed in the spring, otherwise I'll be trimming some coils. Don't know if it's the angle, but that d/s Mach 1 fender decal looks crooked. Might have to add that to the list...

 

[Mustang Dynasty]

Over the weekend I replaced the OE rear shackles with a set of poly shackles from MU, Quality is OK, could be better for the price. Replaced the leaking rear axle seals that now seem to be unobtainium unless ordered online and replaced the leaking D/S rear wheel cylinder. Tried to bleed the rear brakes, but I think my rear hose is done for, couldn't get any fluid out. Will fix that sometime this week.

Still waiting on my TractionLok clutch kit so I can get the 3.25 center section rebuilt, looks like it finally shipped today.

Car definitely sits better with the new springs, should level out once I get the 351C installed in the spring, otherwise I'll be trimming some coils. Don't know if it's the angle, but that d/s Mach 1 fender decal looks crooked. Might have to add that to the list...

Like the color! My rear mustang decal on trunk on my convertible, holes predrilled as crooked so the decal is on a slant. Outsidda manufacture after market defect, my help installed two of same belts on rear seat/bench. Such unprofessionality lost me from winning on an AACA car show. :+/

Pulled the hood off yesterday, so I could facilitate the replacement of the power brake booster, install the windshield wipers, and whatever else ahead of next month's GAFB Car Show (the only one I'm really interested in, for the most part).

After pulling the hood off, I found the new brake booster I bought from NPD, and realized it's pretty much just a universal and won't fit (it'll shove the master cylinder too far forward). I did recall reading something in this month's edition of Mustang Monthly, about someone offering "new" 71-'73 power brake boosters. So, I ordered one, and hopefully it'll be here before next weekend.

I also discovered that my brand new power steering pump has never been circulating. Yay... bad right out of the box. Oh well - lifetime warranty from O'Reilly Auto Parts. I'll definitely have a new one of those before next weekend, along with a wiper motor.

BTW - http://gpsbrakes.com/i-21155650-9-inch-power-brake-booster-black.html

For me, with only 2800 miles since tranny and motor rebuild, all of the sudden oil pressure acting up, under too much pressure since AC installed whether problem with the addional belt(squeeling) or though oil appears clean, been couple years since oil change, -may be a break down in the oil's viscosity?

 

[goodnigh]

Went to start the car after sitting for three weeks and the battery

died after about 15 seconds cranking. This a new Optima red top!

Hmmmm

We took the battery and charged it. Put battery back in car.

We checked amps at battery cable with Fluke clamp meter, nothing.

So nothing is draining the system, no short somewhere.

Some may wonder why 15 seconds and no fire. We thought there

was not enough juice left in the battery to crank the car (quench

Cleveland) and deliver an adequate spark plus I may have flooded

it. I dunno.

Turns out we found a loose connection at the voltage regulator clip.

So the battery may not have been getting charged properly, the

connector was shot. Some time ago I purchased a complete wire

harness from Don of OMS and had it refurbished by Midlife. By

complete I mean every wire from headlight to tail light. There was a bag Midlife labeled "alternator harness, checks good" and it was.

Nice tight regulator fit. Should that fix problem.

This car keeps throwing me curve balls and I love it lollerz

mike

 

[Butch65]

Adding Mustang Steve's bearings to the clutch / brake assembly.

 

[Manu Mach1]

[align=justify]Water pump is removed. Try to drain all ****** coolant from the bloc but I can't remove the one on the passenger side. The other one on the other no problem, it came out easely. Also flushed the heater core with compressed air (gently done, don't want to blow out the core).

 

[jsbcats]

Installed new front seat belts.

 

[Mister 4x4]

OK - so the annual Goodfellow Air Force Base car show is coming up next weekend. Last year, my '71 won Best In Class, even though it wasn't technically 'on the road,' yet (no wipers, working signal lights, seat belts, leaky brake booster, steering jacked up, etc.). My wife told me that I would not be allowed to trailer Frank to this year's show. So this weekend so far, I've been attempting to get the final things done to get it registered and on the road.

Yesterday began with mating up the speedometer cable to the AOD's speed sensor - check. Then I couldn't find the stupid speedometer gear clip from my old speedometer cable. Spent at least two hours looking for it. No joy. While I had the car on jack stands, I adjusted the toe - it was around 2.5 turns on the passenger side, and 2 turns on the driver side of too much toe-in. Now, the car doesn't make any 'squeaky' noises going into the garage or cycle the suspension, depending on which direction the car is moving. This should be good enough to get inspected and down the road to the car show, and over to the alignment shop after.

Since I still can't find the gear, and none of the local parts houses carry the speedo gear clips, I'll head over to the Ford house on Monday to see if they have any. If not, then I'll just stuff the speed sensor in without the gear, order one from Summit or wherever to keep the ATF from bleeding out of the tranny when I'm driving.

Today started with replacing the brake booster. The original one's bellows are dried out and not holding vacuum. So, I had ordered a replacement (universal) unit from NPD - yeah, don't ever do that. It's $250-ish for something that straight-up will not work. It's WAY too thick... the master cylinder will be jammed up against the shock tower. The old one was a major PITA to get out. First, the fasterners are hard to get to, and the top/passenger side nut is up against the brake pedal bracket, and must use the open-end wrench 1/4 turn, flip, 1/4 turn, flip, 1/4 turn, flip, etc. technique. Then the master cylinder had nowhere to go, so it was tough wiggling the OE unit out.

I scored a GPS Automotive 9-inch power brake booster - two words: It Rawks! After I made sure the rods were the same length as the OE booster, it slipped right in. Being just a tiny bit smaller than the OE unit helped immensely. I'll get some pics tomorrow. It came with new MC nuts, but I had to scavenge my stash for the proper stud nuts to mount it up to the firewall/brake pedal bracket. Fits like a champ and now I have the familiar "whoosh" sound of a properly working brake booster again. ::thumb::

http://gpsbrakes.com/i-21155650-9-inch-power-brake-booster-black.html

After that, I tackled the signal light switch. I'd bought a '70-'72 w/tilt switch from NPD, and while it did the trick, I'm disappointed that there's no wiring diagram included - none of the wires are OEM color, so it was a guessing game as to which wires go where. The "instructions" on the website were pretty much no help as they are even labeled as '68-70' directions, with there being a possibility of the 1-6 pin positions being reversed for 1970 cars. That's pretty damn vague if you ask me. I'll be sending them an e-mail.

After much frustration, I decided to just go for it and hope for the best. Being red-green color blind didn't help, since the green and gray wires look identical to me. I must've gotten lucky because everything works and the only issue I have is the right rear tail light won't flash with the signal (but works fine with the Hazards) - so I need to troubleshoot the turn signal circuit on the right tail light (no biggie - I can do that).

Tomorrow is all about swapping out the power steering pump, installing the windshield wipers (motor, mechanism, wiper arms, blades, and wiring up the switch) and running to the Ford house to hopefully score a speedometer gear clip so I can get the speedometer working as well. Then get the hood back on, talk to my insurance guy about coverage, get it inspected, then file the Application for Title paperwork and registration. Then I should be able to drive it to the car show [next Saturday] this year. Time permitting (I have Thursday and Friday off, as well), I'll get the Jeep running again (clean the plugs and put in some new gas) inspected and tagged and I'll have some side-by-side shots of both my babies next weekend! ::thumb::

Sorry for the novel - it's just been so long since I've done anything to my '71 and I didn't get pictures, so I had to use a lot of words.

 

[mach71351c]

Well this wasn't today but a few weeks back. I helped my brother install the original Boss 302 engine back in his 1970 Boss 302 after a 3 decade absence. The Boss motor broke a piston ring back in 1982. My brother ended up storing the car in our parents basement in Connecticut till 1987. Then he had our dad tow it out to San Diego. Ounce the Boss got to SoCal my brother and I installed a 1970 302 2v c4 out of a 1970 coupe that he picked up for 500.00 bucks. It wasn't to long after we removed the original 9" 4.30 Detroit locker and install the 8" from the 70 coupe. My brother drove the Boss as a 2nd car up in till 2001 when he tore it down for a ground up restoration. The funny thing the Boss was very dependable car and a nice "20 footer" before tear down.

 

[73pony]

Well over the weekend between playing with the kiddos. I installed new front seatbelts. Replaced the power steering pump and replaced the broken heater control valve (heat was stuck on) much better now.

 

[luxstang]

I backed mine into a VW Golf. Smashed up his front license plate and front "bumper".

My insurance will be happy.

 

[MeZapU]

Set the hot valve lash on the new engine after breaking in the solid flat tappet cam. "Ouch!" "Hot!" But after checking all the valves I'm relieved to see that they were all almost perfect(even) from where I set them cold. So they all needed about the same amount of tiny tweak.

 

[cudak888]

Well this wasn't today but a few weeks back. I helped my brother install the original Boss 302 engine back in his 1970 Boss 302 after a 3 decade absence.

Cleveland heads on a Windsor?

-Kurt