What did you do to your car today?

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well .... most of you know my 3 year search for power window parts to make my Mach I "all original".

Well I have had not less than 4 bad experiences with attempting to buy these parts. I've been ask to spend 1100.00 to 3,000 just to keep her original.

Finally I find a car for sale 100 miles from me. In the pic and by the owners description it had power windows and the bezels were in tact. The car is a rust bucket... i drive out today to see it. The car is REALLY a rust bucket. I Open the doors and yes it had power windows... ALL the bezels were screwed on. Quick indication the bezel clips are broken as is the case with most of these cars. Broken clips translate to worthless bezels and window gang switches. Welp another wasted trip.

I guess this contributes to what did i do to or for my car today.

 
Mr. Differential began making noise a few weeks ago. I replaced the axle bearings and seals. I need a seal anyway as it was leaking when it came out of storage last year before the engine rebuild. Overfilled it and the seals leaked horribly.

Pulled it apart this morning and went through the differential. At first I could find nothing wrong. bearings were all perfect, pattern on the gears was decent-not perfect, but not the cause of the noise. So I decided to torque the ring gear bolts since I had a shop convert it from 28-31 spline side gears and hat and they would have had it apart. AHA! Larry's crack smoking shop monkey must have run them in with an impact or something.

Not only were none of them to spec 5 were stripped badly and 1 more was just starting to strip.

Thankfully I was able to get some ARP bolts and the ring gear was not damaged. Now the rough spot is gone, though I need to torque one more time tomorrow before putting it back in as the ARP specs are higher than stock. 85ft lbs vs 65 ft lbs

Axle seals were for 31 spline axles-but. . . they were wrong. Apparently when you convert from 28 to 31 spline axles in the old housing the seal size remains the same. axle diameter at the seal is 1.37 either way, but the seals that I removed and replaced with matching part numbers were 1.5 ID and not even touching the axles. OOPS!

So tomorrow morning I'll button it up and see if the problems are resolved. Monday I'm going to go to Larry's shop and tell him. The shop monkeys are long gone, but as the owner he needs to know.

 
Mr. Differential began making noise a few weeks ago. I replaced the axle bearings and seals. I need a seal anyway as it was leaking when it came out of storage last year before the engine rebuild. Overfilled it and the seals leaked horribly.

Pulled it apart this morning and went through the differential. At first I could find nothing wrong. bearings were all perfect, pattern on the gears was decent-not perfect, but not the cause of the noise. So I decided to torque the ring gear bolts since I had a shop convert it from 28-31 spline side gears and hat and they would have had it apart. AHA! Larry's crack smoking shop monkey must have run them in with an impact or something.

Not only were none of them to spec 5 were stripped badly and 1 more was just starting to strip.

Thankfully I was able to get some ARP bolts and the ring gear was not damaged. Now the rough spot is gone, though I need to torque one more time tomorrow before putting it back in as the ARP specs are higher than stock. 85ft lbs vs 65 ft lbs

Axle seals were for 31 spline axles-but. . . they were wrong. Apparently when you convert from 28 to 31 spline axles in the old housing the seal size remains the same. axle diameter at the seal is 1.37 either way, but the seals that I removed and replaced with matching part numbers were 1.5 ID and not even touching the axles. OOPS!

So tomorrow morning I'll button it up and see if the problems are resolved. Monday I'm going to go to Larry's shop and tell him. The shop monkeys are long gone, but as the owner he needs to know.
Click to expand...
^^^

This is why I hate to pay shops to do stuff to my cars. Most either fuxor stuff up, or don't do what I tell/pay them too.

Glad you figured it out before a bolt or two backed out and nuked the diff.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Larry is a friend and half the time he hasn't charged me anything and has let me bring in parts etc. Since the engine failed, I've found that much of what his guys did wasn't done right. I'm mostly upset to learn he doesn't keep an eye on what is going on.

I don't know if my "catch" is going to be enough on this one, I am hopeful it will be okay, but gear wear may or may not become an issue.

PS if anyone thinks shop monkeys is racial, it isn't-these "mechanics" are not minorities, they just aren't up to human intelligence levels

 
Larry is a friend and half the time he hasn't charged me anything and has let me bring in parts etc. Since the engine failed, I've found that much of what his guys did wasn't done right. I'm mostly upset to learn he doesn't keep an eye on what is going on.

I don't know if my "catch" is going to be enough on this one, I am hopeful it will be okay, but gear wear may or may not become an issue.

PS if anyone thinks shop monkeys is racial, it isn't-these "mechanics" are not minorities, they just aren't up to human intelligence levels
Click to expand...
I was offended by "shop monkey"....

sock-monkey-edward-myers.jpg


Sorry ....thought you said "sock" monkey

 
Put it back in the car, reinstalled everything. Found a few collector bolts that had loosened. Tightened up my e-bke to where it will now hold on a slight grade-still have room for more adjustment. Test drove it about 15 miles, almost perfect. No leaks, no vibration, no whine, ever so slight roar, but with Calverts and an aluminum front bushing and the back seat and side panel out. it really was just audible and not noticeable unless you were trying to hear it.

I'm thankful I caught it. I'm even more thankful that my buddy Tommy was willing to come hang out and give me assistance esp with the backlash setting and reinstalling the chunk. I trust his eyes and ears more than my own on stuff like differentials.

 
Today I spent a couple of hours working on little things. I replaced the dimmer switch, installed the dome light, installed the license plate light, installed courtesy lights, door jamb switches, flashers, replaced tail light bulbs, and clock lens. Had to find and cut the opening for the dome light since they did not do it when installing the headliner.

All in all, not a bad day.

 
Mr. Differential began making noise a few weeks ago. I replaced the axle bearings and seals. I need a seal anyway as it was leaking when it came out of storage last year before the engine rebuild. Overfilled it and the seals leaked horribly.

Pulled it apart this morning and went through the differential. At first I could find nothing wrong. bearings were all perfect, pattern on the gears was decent-not perfect, but not the cause of the noise. So I decided to torque the ring gear bolts since I had a shop convert it from 28-31 spline side gears and hat and they would have had it apart. AHA! Larry's crack smoking shop monkey must have run them in with an impact or something.

Not only were none of them to spec 5 were stripped badly and 1 more was just starting to strip.

Thankfully I was able to get some ARP bolts and the ring gear was not damaged. Now the rough spot is gone, though I need to torque one more time tomorrow before putting it back in as the ARP specs are higher than stock. 85ft lbs vs 65 ft lbs

Axle seals were for 31 spline axles-but. . . they were wrong. Apparently when you convert from 28 to 31 spline axles in the old housing the seal size remains the same. axle diameter at the seal is 1.37 either way, but the seals that I removed and replaced with matching part numbers were 1.5 ID and not even touching the axles. OOPS!

So tomorrow morning I'll button it up and see if the problems are resolved. Monday I'm going to go to Larry's shop and tell him. The shop monkeys are long gone, but as the owner he needs to know.
Click to expand...
paying shops to do things for me ~ $8,000 between disc brake coversion kits-shocks-exhaust-transmission and EFI RE: labor alone cost me an add 5,000 in correcting and repairing their poor quality assurance from those shop monkeys that the BBB of W. PA will hear about. JUST ONE JOB COSTED ME 4K INDAMAGES SEE MY P8 OF MY PHOTO ALBUM RE: BRAKES GIVING OUT^^^

This is why I hate to pay shops to do stuff to my cars. Most either fuxor stuff up, or don't do what I tell/pay them too.

Glad you figured it out before a bolt or two backed out and nuked the diff.
Click to expand...
 
Put my insturment cluster back in the car after putting the LED bulbs and the new circuit board in. Did it twice since the new electronic VR did nt work. Put my old one in and gages came back alive.

Still need to upgrade the center gages to LED bulbs. They did not light up, hoping just burned out bulbs. Plan to do that when I get my AM-8 Track radio rebuilt. Will then pull the "not correct" AM-FM radio that is in there now.

Also learned that the dash pad is not original to my car. It was green at one time. Was painted black for my car at some point.

 
Not so much what I did to the car, but got for the car. At the Carlise swap meet I got a complete convert. top, SS trim, cylinders, pump, and the visors, all for the low low price of 50 dollars. Yes it was a steal but that was the asking price. Also got a Weiand water pump for 20 dollars.

IMGP0293.JPG

IMGP0297.JPG

 
Last trip to the drive in the throwout bearing started singing way offkey. So we dropped the tranny and, while it was out decided it was an opportune time to trade out the 4.71 3rd member (original N-Case) with a spare regular center section set up with much more street-friendly 3.91s. Got it all back together today.

This is probably already up here somewhere, but it bears repeating. Tech tip for those without access to a lift (isn't google great?). Wrestling with a 100lb tranny in about a foot of head room while lining everything up to stab just right either takes two big strong boys and a lot of patience, a tranny jack, or the floorjack you already have, couple of bungees to hold it on, and two 6", smooth shaft, 7/16 bolts with the heads cut off (Bingo!). Thread the headless bolts into the lower holes of the bellhousing, roll the trans up with your jack, adjust until you can slide the transmission's lower ear holes over the pilots and it's all downhill from there. Make minor adjustments with the jack until it all lines up right and the throwout is stabbed.

Of course it took an afternoon of cussing and bathing in tranny lube before we found that one. :rolleyes:

 
finally got to work on the Mustang today.. first time all year..

I installed a chin spoiler, went on nice and easy.. Replaced an incorrect speedo gear, thanks to the folks on this forum for the help. I was noticing mechanical buzzing type noise coming from somewhere under the car.. it would come and go and I started to notice that it was tied to putting the car into P/N/D/R.. Checked my trans fluid and it was low, not sure how as there are no leaks that I can see, trans is super clean looking. Put in about 3/4 of a bottle of fluid to bring it back up to the correct level and the noise is now gone..

Next week im tackling front springs, rear leafs, and ball joints etc with the help of my brother.. My car sits way to high, can't wait to have it back to normal or close to normal - 1" drop.

 
I finally reinstalled my front valance and turn signals which were completely refurbished and installed LED's in them. The only problem is they don't blink when the turn signals are on :(. Also found my shoulder strap connection belts and reinstalled them. They have been on the car in about 17 years, took them off in high school.

 
I finally reinstalled my front valance and turn signals which were completely refurbished and installed LED's in them. The only problem is they don't blink when the turn signals are on :(. Also found my shoulder strap connection belts and reinstalled them. They have been on the car in about 17 years, took them off in high school.
Click to expand...
You need resistors for the LED bulbs to 'fool' the flasher into thinking incandescents are installed. Google "LED resistor flasher ".

 
Last week I dropped off my 4V quench heads that I have been porting off at the machine shop to get worked over. Machining for screw in rocker studs and guide plates, guides, surfacing, etc. I ordered the new valves today from Ferrea. I'm taking advantage of their 40% military discount rates at the moment. Getting the heads rebuilt will be the catalyst for me building the new engine for my car.

I also managed to score a nice used Blue Thunder intake manifold. Measurements show it is nearly identical to my 2V Weiand X-Cellerator intake manifold in regards to height. It will be an extremely close and tight fit with the Ram-Air components but I am optimistic it will clear.

 

Similar threads

B
What did you do today instead of working on your Mustang?
31 32 33
Replies
647
Views
78K
EdM
E
W
"What's it worth?" How do you respond?
2 3
Replies
45
Views
9K
Spike Morelli
Spike Morelli

Latest posts

Back
Top