What did you do to your car today?

[72MustangSprint]

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

Yes, Boss 302 . one of my fav Ford motors along with 427 SOHC.

 

[cudak888]

Yes, Boss 302 . one of my fav Ford motors along with 427 SOHC.

Just Googled it. Thought I'd seen it all. In all this time, I'd never realized the Boss 302 was a Windsor with Cleveland 4V heads. Guess it's because most of them are out there with the aluminum covers. Rather like the sleeper look with the stamped covers

Learn something new every day...

-Kurt

 

[Totalled]

Yes, Boss 302 . one of my fav Ford motors along with 427 SOHC.

Just Googled it. Thought I'd seen it all. In all this time, I'd never realized the Boss 302 was a Windsor with Cleveland 4V heads. Guess it's because most of them are out there with the aluminum covers. Rather like the sleeper look with the stamped covers

Learn something new every day...

-Kurt

And basically 289 HiPo rods.

 

[rocket366]

Boss 302 what a great engine, high winding lump of joy!

BTW: Ford Racing's 427 crate engine is based on the Boss 302.

Paul

 

[Mister 4x4]

So today, I got up and went straight over to the local Ford Parts Dept., and presented them with the part number for the speedometer gear clip... and they got nuthin'. What?! Wow. Whatever. I had the guy order one, and he said it would be here tomorrow. OK - well, that's better than waiting 3-5 business days from one of the vendors (sorry guys, but it is what it is ).

Went home, pulled the Mustang out, and gathered up everything to get the wipers installed and working. Cleaned up the wiper arm assembly mechanism, and noticed there was no pivot arm for the motor. Crap. Dug through the crate of other parts and found another wiper arm assembly, with the pivot for the motor. Whew! Swapped it over and proceeded to install it - so far, so good. Grabbed one of the replacement motors and noticed something wrong - the holes in the motor don't line up with the holes in the cowl. WTF?! Got pissed and went to every vendor site out there, and I have the 'correct' motor, according to their sites. What is going on here? Obviously this motor won't work - the images for '71 Mustang wiper motors I pulled up have a... different... mounting plate... that I apparently either can't find or simply no longer have. Crap! I don't have time for this.

So I proceeded to tear apart everything in the garage that could've ever possibly been Mustang related, and guess what I found? The missing OE speedometer cable... with the nylon gear and speedometer gear clip right where I left 'em. GAAAAUGH!!! Oh well - I'll have a brand new genuine Ford clip tomorrow morning. :shootself:

With no luck finding the original wiper motor or even the adapter plate itself, I'd noticed one of the images with the correct wiper motor was from West Coast Classic Cougars online catalog, so I got on their site and bought the used one they had in stock - and had them ship as quick as they can - hopefully it'll be here by Wednesday. Now, I'll have 2 spares (if it works) along with the correct mounting adapter and plug-in pigtail, rather than unsightly crimp connectors into the factory harness.

Not wanting to completely waste the rest of my day, I proceeded to remove the "bad out of the box" power steering pump, and that actually went a LOT smoother than I thought it would. Since I have to work tomorrow, I'll be heading over to my pal Jim's house afterward to swap the pulley onto the new pump. Hopefully, I can beg my boss into letting me have Wednesday off as well as Thursday and Friday I already have projected. If things finally fall into place, I can finish up these projects from Hell, get it insured/inspected/registered between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then drive it to the car show on Saturday. I think the Jeep might just be S.O.L. again this year.

So here's the tally on my "All Mustang - All Weekend" projects:

• Reset excessive toe-in - Done!
  
• Replace turn signal switch - Done!**
  
• Install speedometer sensor and cable - waiting on a stupid clip
  
• Install windshield wipers - waiting on a stupid wiper motor adapter
  
• Replace bad power steering pump - gotta swap the pulley onto the new pump
  
• Adjust E-brake - pending
  
• Install "Pantera" thermostat bypass restrictor plate - pending
  
• Check and top off coolant, PSF & ATF - pending
  
• Reinstall the hood - pending
  

** Brought to light a new issue - everything except the passenger side [signal] taillights flash when they're supposed to - gotta troubleshoot the passenger side taillight harness now.

 

[mach71351c]

Yes, Boss 302 . one of my fav Ford motors along with 427 SOHC.

Just Googled it. Thought I'd seen it all. In all this time, I'd never realized the Boss 302 was a Windsor with Cleveland 4V heads. Guess it's because most of them are out there with the aluminum covers. Rather like the sleeper look with the stamped covers

Learn something new every day...

-Kurt

[/quote The steel valve are on for valve train protection during install. The original aluminum covers on the engine now.

Yes, Boss 302 . one of my fav Ford motors along with 427 SOHC.

Just Googled it. Thought I'd seen it all. In all this time, I'd never realized the Boss 302 was a Windsor with Cleveland 4V heads. Guess it's because most of them are out there with the aluminum covers. Rather like the sleeper look with the stamped covers

Learn something new every day...

-Kurt

And basically 289 HiPo rods.

4 bolt mains and steel crank.

 

[Austin Vert]

So here's the tally on my "All Mustang - All Weekend" projects:

• Reset excessive toe-in - Done!
  
• Replace turn signal switch - Done!**
  
• Install speedometer sensor and cable - waiting on a stupid clip
  
• Install windshield wipers - waiting on a stupid wiper motor adapter
  
• Replace bad power steering pump - gotta swap the pulley onto the new pump
  
• Adjust E-brake - pending
  
• Install "Pantera" thermostat bypass restrictor plate - pending
  
• Check and top off coolant, PSF & ATF - pending
  
• Reinstall the hood - pending
  

** Brought to light a new issue - everything except the passenger side [signal] taillights flash when they're supposed to - gotta troubleshoot the passenger side taillight harness now.

Hey Eric,

sounds like your a very busy man. and there's always dramas in the camp eh.

Keep up the good work,

Greg.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

So today, I got up and went straight over to the local Ford Parts Dept., and presented them with the part number for the speedometer gear clip... and they got nuthin'. What?! Wow. Whatever. I had the guy order one, and he said it would be here tomorrow. OK - well, that's better than waiting 3-5 business days from one of the vendors (sorry guys, but it is what it is ).

Went home, pulled the Mustang out, and gathered up everything to get the wipers installed and working. Cleaned up the wiper arm assembly mechanism, and noticed there was no pivot arm for the motor. Crap. Dug through the crate of other parts and found another wiper arm assembly, with the pivot for the motor. Whew! Swapped it over and proceeded to install it - so far, so good. Grabbed one of the replacement motors and noticed something wrong - the holes in the motor don't line up with the holes in the cowl. WTF?! Got pissed and went to every vendor site out there, and I have the 'correct' motor, according to their sites. What is going on here? Obviously this motor won't work - the images for '71 Mustang wiper motors I pulled up have a... different... mounting plate... that I apparently either can't find or simply no longer have. Crap! I don't have time for this.

So I proceeded to tear apart everything in the garage that could've ever possibly been Mustang related, and guess what I found? The missing OE speedometer cable... with the nylon gear and speedometer gear clip right where I left 'em. GAAAAUGH!!! Oh well - I'll have a brand new genuine Ford clip tomorrow morning. :shootself:

With no luck finding the original wiper motor or even the adapter plate itself, I'd noticed one of the images with the correct wiper motor was from West Coast Classic Cougars online catalog, so I got on their site and bought the used one they had in stock - and had them ship as quick as they can - hopefully it'll be here by Wednesday. Now, I'll have 2 spares (if it works) along with the correct mounting adapter and plug-in pigtail, rather than unsightly crimp connectors into the factory harness.

Not wanting to completely waste the rest of my day, I proceeded to remove the "bad out of the box" power steering pump, and that actually went a LOT smoother than I thought it would. Since I have to work tomorrow, I'll be heading over to my pal Jim's house afterward to swap the pulley onto the new pump. Hopefully, I can beg my boss into letting me have Wednesday off as well as Thursday and Friday I already have projected. If things finally fall into place, I can finish up these projects from Hell, get it insured/inspected/registered between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then drive it to the car show on Saturday. I think the Jeep might just be S.O.L. again this year.

So here's the tally on my "All Mustang - All Weekend" projects:

• Reset excessive toe-in - Done!
  
• Replace turn signal switch - Done!**
  
• Install speedometer sensor and cable - waiting on a stupid clip
  
• Install windshield wipers - waiting on a stupid wiper motor adapter
  
• Replace bad power steering pump - gotta swap the pulley onto the new pump
  
• Adjust E-brake - pending
  
• Install "Pantera" thermostat bypass restrictor plate - pending
  
• Check and top off coolant, PSF & ATF - pending
  
• Reinstall the hood - pending
  

** Brought to light a new issue - everything except the passenger side [signal] taillights flash when they're supposed to - gotta troubleshoot the passenger side taillight harness now.

Lots of work going on for sure. Are you going to take the wiper motor apart and clean the dried up grease from over 40 years? It is a pain but it will run much better with new grease and clean the armature. It is tricky getting the brushes back in but you can do it. You can also detail the whole thing. Gearbox is cast aluminum and left raw with the motor housing semi gloss black.

David

 

[Mister 4x4]

Lots of work going on for sure. Are you going to take the wiper motor apart and clean the dried up grease from over 40 years? It is a pain but it will run much better with new grease and clean the armature. It is tricky getting the brushes back in but you can do it. You can also detail the whole thing. Gearbox is cast aluminum and left raw with the motor housing semi gloss black.

David

Nope - I'm going to harvest the mounting bracket adapter and clip the plug-in pigtail, and install one of the new motors with weatherproof bullet connectors and split loom. That will go a LOT quicker than trying to rehab the motor with all that other stuff going on. I'll clean up the used motor sometime after this coming weekend.

 

[Mustangfeverrr]

So today, I got up and went straight over to the local Ford Parts Dept., and presented them with the part number for the speedometer gear clip... and they got nuthin'. What?! Wow. Whatever. I had the guy order one, and he said it would be here tomorrow. OK - well, that's better than waiting 3-5 business days from one of the vendors (sorry guys, but it is what it is ).

Went home, pulled the Mustang out, and gathered up everything to get the wipers installed and working. Cleaned up the wiper arm assembly mechanism, and noticed there was no pivot arm for the motor. Crap. Dug through the crate of other parts and found another wiper arm assembly, with the pivot for the motor. Whew! Swapped it over and proceeded to install it - so far, so good. Grabbed one of the replacement motors and noticed something wrong - the holes in the motor don't line up with the holes in the cowl. WTF?! Got pissed and went to every vendor site out there, and I have the 'correct' motor, according to their sites. What is going on here? Obviously this motor won't work - the images for '71 Mustang wiper motors I pulled up have a... different... mounting plate... that I apparently either can't find or simply no longer have. Crap! I don't have time for this.

So I proceeded to tear apart everything in the garage that could've ever possibly been Mustang related, and guess what I found? The missing OE speedometer cable... with the nylon gear and speedometer gear clip right where I left 'em. GAAAAUGH!!! Oh well - I'll have a brand new genuine Ford clip tomorrow morning. :shootself:

With no luck finding the original wiper motor or even the adapter plate itself, I'd noticed one of the images with the correct wiper motor was from West Coast Classic Cougars online catalog, so I got on their site and bought the used one they had in stock - and had them ship as quick as they can - hopefully it'll be here by Wednesday. Now, I'll have 2 spares (if it works) along with the correct mounting adapter and plug-in pigtail, rather than unsightly crimp connectors into the factory harness.

Not wanting to completely waste the rest of my day, I proceeded to remove the "bad out of the box" power steering pump, and that actually went a LOT smoother than I thought it would. Since I have to work tomorrow, I'll be heading over to my pal Jim's house afterward to swap the pulley onto the new pump. Hopefully, I can beg my boss into letting me have Wednesday off as well as Thursday and Friday I already have projected. If things finally fall into place, I can finish up these projects from Hell, get it insured/inspected/registered between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then drive it to the car show on Saturday. I think the Jeep might just be S.O.L. again this year.

So here's the tally on my "All Mustang - All Weekend" projects:

• Reset excessive toe-in - Done!
  
• Replace turn signal switch - Done!**
  
• Install speedometer sensor and cable - waiting on a stupid clip
  
• Install windshield wipers - waiting on a stupid wiper motor adapter
  
• Replace bad power steering pump - gotta swap the pulley onto the new pump
  
• Adjust E-brake - pending
  
• Install "Pantera" thermostat bypass restrictor plate - pending
  
• Check and top off coolant, PSF & ATF - pending
  
• Reinstall the hood - pending
  

** Brought to light a new issue - everything except the passenger side [signal] taillights flash when they're supposed to - gotta troubleshoot the passenger side taillight harness now.

Wow, I wish I had your ambition (and time!)!

Good luck with the rest of the work -

 

[Mister 4x4]

Wow, I wish I had your ambition (and time!)!

Good luck with the rest of the work -

"Ambition" is the wife telling me that I will not be able to trailer the car to the car show (which is this coming Saturday). :whistling:

"Time" is: wife's out of town, chores are all done (for now) and I had a 3-day weekend and will be taking the next 2 days off to get those things done (Thursday), as well as get insurance, get it inspected, and get license plates (all 3 on Friday, I hope).

All of those things are just the last "little" things left to do, IMHO. This time last year, I was putting the interior back into the car, installing the glass & seals, and was literally working until 11:30 the night before the car show putting the Mach 1 decals on the car. These things should be a piece o' cake in comparison - just having to locate the parts and getting the Mustang Gods to cooperate has been the challenge.

I'll still have some nit-noid things to do before I'll be comfortable driving it to work or on short road trips, etc., but driving it from my house to the car show won't be an issue (it's the annual car show put-on by the Air Force base I work at - been going to it for the past 13 or 14 years now with my Jeep... now the Mustang).

BTW - I picked up the new speedometer gear clip from the Ford house yesterday, dropped off my power steering pump(s) to Jim last night, and the wiper motor from WCCC is "on schedule" for UPS delivery this evening. Keep 'em crossed for me. ::thumb::

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I hear the ambition comment. How many get home and go sit in living room and watch the TV? I didn't own a TV until I was in my 40's and didn't have a phone so nobody could bug me. If you want to talk come one over.

In 1975 I think was the year a good friend of mine found and bought a 1965 fastback in pretty good shape. He brought it for me to look at and when I started looking I knew something was fishy. The holes in the front fender for emblems were not the right pattern and the car had an export brace. In the glove box was the owners manual from Munich Germany and stamped on the front it said, "I recognition of trademark rights in west Germany T-5".

So to shorten the story I spend the next 6 months taking the car apart and fixing the rust and making the body slick. He wanted the car to be pearl white and also added the then new Flip Flop Paint from Metalflake. It changed color with the angle of light they now call chameleon. This was 100% lacquer back then and it took 37 coats of clear to smooth out the bumpy pearl finish but it looked and inch deep and slick as glass when all rubbed out. No buffer ever used sanded and hand rubbed.

No to the part of the story about being ambitious. I saw an add that there would be a car show coming to the Civic Center in Asheville N.C. it was 7 days away. I went to Larrys house and said let's enter your car. His mouth dropped the car was in pieces, all glass out, interior out, dash apart, no good tires or wheels. We both worked full time jobs but I pushed him and we started. We would work till 1:00 or 2:00 each night and put the new mags and tires on the car in the civic center. He won first place with best paint job. There were two floors of cars. I could have picked up paint jobs to quit my regular job but didn't. It was painted using a small portable Sears air compressor using the free paint gun that came with the compressor in his basement with plastic hanging and a squirrel cage fan for exhaust.

So if you put your mind to doing something it can be done and people will never believe that you did it. You do have to work not just poke at it but the results will be more than expected.

The couch won't miss you and you will build your arm muscles doing all the sanding, lol.

So go for it Mister 4X4 and send us a picture of your trophy next week.

David

 

[Mister 4x4]

Well, ambition mostly paid off. Today, I was able to get the following done:

• the new power steering pump is in - 1-finger steering at last!
  
• the "Pantera" thermostat restrictor plate is installed
  
• the wiper motor is installed and working
  
• the E-brake is adjusted
  
• the PSF is topped off
  
• the speed sensor installed into the AOD.
  

What I didn't get done (and why):

• speedometer cable (I can't see to get the cable stuffed through where it needs to go between the tranny and the floor/transmission tunnel - gonna need a lift)
  
• passenger side rear signal light (ran out of time - and daylight)
  
• hood is still not back on (ran out of time, daylight, and can't do it myself)
  
• still gotta top off the coolant (engine was already hot from topping off the PSF)
  
• instrument cluster is out, because I was trying for the speedo cable and grounded the wiper switch (ran out of time and daylight)
  

Tomorrow, I'll get the dash back together, turn signal figured out, hood back on, coolant topped off (along with other fluids checked), then take it in for inspection. After that: registration and plates!

I suppose the fact that my neighbors are getting ready for a garage sale tomorrow, and brought me over a couple of homemade frozen margaritas while I was messing with the wiper motor probably didn't help me move as fast as I maybe could've to get those other things done. But Hey - frozen margaritas are not a bad way to slow things down a bit, eh? ::thumb::

 

[Mister 4x4]

Today was going along fine. I'd gotten insurance squared away, got the hood put back on, dashboard back together, and checked all the fluids - good to go.

Fired it up, backed it out of the driveway and started through the side streets on the way to my favorite inspection shop. It was a little scary driving it, because it's so 'new' to me - the fact that it's an actual "car," and not some project I've been working on for 5 years. I hit a small dip and the back tires rubbed a tiny bit, so I'll be needing those extended shackles and proper off set wheels for sure. No overheating or anything weird. It was kind of cool.

Got to the shop and told 'em I needed a 'Certification Inspection.' Basically, someone licensed by Texas DMV to sign a form that pretty much says, "Yep - it's a car, and that's the VIN, and it is what the other forms say it is." They couldn't do it. Crap! So, I took off to Firestone to see if they could help me out. About 3 miles away through side streets - no biggie. Until I heard a dull clunk and "thud, thud, thud, thud, thud" noises. WTF?! I pulled off onto a more quiet street and got out - looked under the car... couldn't see anything out of the ordinary (or course, it sits so low you can't see squat anyway). So I hopped back in and decided to bail on the inspection and just take it back home (a few streets away) to figure it all out. Made it 50 feet when the driveshaft dropped out.

I'm stunned. I totally did NOT expect that. So, I checked the end of the driveshaft, and the U-joint's still there, just missing the bearing caps. Sigh. Had it taken home on a flat-bed and put it back in the driveway. Went to the parts store and got a new U-joint and U-bolts, and also scored a car hauler trailer from one of the rental places. Got home, jacked up the car, and the old U-bolts are still there - just no bearing caps on the U-joint. Weird. So, I pulled the bearing caps off the new U-joint, slipped 'em on and put it back together. Maybe I'd just forgotten to tighten the U-bolts or something.

As I was talking to my wife, her brother mentioned something about the grooves in the bearing caps lining up with the tabs in the yoke. WTF is he talking about? Then the light goes on - it's a Ford... with grooves in the bearing caps to keep them in the yoke. Yeah - mine are totally not installed right - the grooves are on the 'shaft side of the U-joint. Duhhh... rookie mistake.

Oh well - it's back together, and good enough for a couple trips on and off the trailer for tomorrow's... whoops - 'scuse me, "today's" car show. Gotta crash now - I'll post pics this weekend.

 

[73StangCoupe]

I don't have my mustang, it's at the dealership and hopefully it will sell soon. They tell me there is a lot of interest. Anyway... I installed a new mass air flow sensor on my 2005 Volvo S60 2.5T. I had to take it to the dealership to get the diagnostics done. Ordered the part from rockauto, it was $125 with shipping. The dealer would have charged $325 for the part plus an hour of labor to install it. They were very up front with me and I do appreciate that. It took about 10 minutes to install, including the test drive. All in all a good deal.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[PADave]

Put in a new Custom Autosound USA-630 II stereo and a dual voice speaker in the dash.

Wired up Kenwood KFC-6965S 6x9s in the package tray.

Sounds good, better than expected. Soon be putting carpet in.

 

[MeZapU]

Started swapping the heater core. A-pillar plastics started self destructing as I dropped the dash. :-(

 

[Mister 4x4]

Totally uneventful yesterday, but I got some redemption: Won "Best In Class - '70-'79 Modified" plaque. So, the car is 2 for 2 at the Air Force Base car show. After I get the last few bugs worked out and finally get some plates on it, I'll hit a few other local shows and see how it goes.

I got pics - some worked, some didn't. I'll post up the good ones. Had about 110 cars, motorcycles, and hot boats make the show. Not a bad turn-out.

 

[mach71351c]

Totally uneventful yesterday, but I got some redemption: Won "Best In Class - '70-'79 Modified" plaque. So, the car is 2 for 2 at the Air Force Base car show. After I get the last few bugs worked out and finally get some plates on it, I'll hit a few other local shows and see how it goes.

I got pics - some worked, some didn't. I'll post up the good ones. Had about 110 cars, motorcycles, and hot boats make the show. Not a bad turn-out.

Congrats on 2 for 2 Eric. Post some pics when you can.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Will do - I left the Slate in my trunk from Saturday. I'll get it out this evening.

BTW - I noticed that the "Pantera" cooling trick works awesome. The temp gauge never made it past the area between the 'O' & 'R' on "NORMAL." ::thumb::