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Flash

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Everything posted by Flash

  1. @Gee, in terms of the EFI setup I've just been experimenting on my own. Got to admit that I'm a total newbie when it comes to EFI. I'm not chasing performance at all, mainly focused on economy and driveability. The car runs really well apart from the fumes at idle issue and I'm now suspecting that I may have a dicky Idle Air Controller as I've set it up a number of times according to Fitech's "how to" video clip, but for some reason the IAC count at idle seems to climb after a bit of driving. Fitech use a "no name brand" copy of a genuine AC Delco part out of a mid 80s Camaro. I tried to order one in from Rockauto but the Delco one is NLA. They do list some other brands for the same part so I might just order one in when I've got some spare cash. At least then I can rule that out as the issue.
  2. Yep I reckon you are bang on the money Clint. The normal tyre places used the standard Mustang settings, but the suspension guys did their own thing and it made a massive difference. Next time I'm in town I'll drop by the shop as I'm sure they will have a record of the settings they used. This might help @Gee out with his setup.
  3. Yep, that's pretty much how mine feels too, so maybe that's how they all are with the ram type p/s. How new is your front rubber and I'm assuming you have had a pro do your wheel alignment? I took my car to 3 different wheel alignment guys before I got it right. The first two were just your usual tyre places, but the 3rd guy was a suspension specialist and whatever he did it made a huge difference to the road feel. Before that it would wander about a bit on a straight road and feel a bit iffy in corners, but now it feels better in corners and runs true if I let the wheel go when I'm travelling in a straight line. Unfortunately, the 3rd guy didn't give me a printout so I can't compare the settings that he did with the others, but I was hanging around while he did it and it looked to me like he spent a good bit of effort on the caster settings. I'm still struggling with fumes but it only occurs at idle when I've pulled to a stop at a traffic light or stop sign and only when I have the front windows open. Having EFI I'm able to just about infinitely tune the bloody thing and I've been playing around with the idle fuel settings at various temperatures as well as my AFR targets, but I still can't shake the smell.
  4. Yep, my steering is good now although I do get that slight play in the wheel when the power valve is at rest (ie travelling in a straight line). When you say it "clunks" are you hearing an actual noise or is it just the play ?
  5. First thing this morning Josh gassed up the a/c which is now back in perfect working order. Hopefully that's the Mustang sorted for the next few months.
  6. Recently the a/c blower fan has been making an intermittent grinding sound which has been getting steadily worse. I figured it was a sign that the motor was on its last legs. So, on my way back from the alignment shop I wheeled past the a/c place and Josh quickly dropped the gas for me. Oh, by the way, that black beastie in the background is an LS3 powered 350Z that is in for some a/c work. Anyway, back home I pulled the under-dash unit out and opened it up: Chucked a battery on it and fired up the motor. Sure enough grinding sound started up almost straight away. Turns out the hamster wheel on the left was just touching the inner rim of the casing. Yikes can it be that simple I thought. Removed the small holding clamp and slid the wheel slightly outward till it cleared the casing a bit more before reinstalling the holding clamp. Tested it again and it was running smooth as silk. Unit is back together and reinstalled with fresh o rings on the a/c lines and a brand-new receiver/drier. It's booked in for a re-gas first thing on Friday morning.
  7. First thing this morning I headed into town for a hot date with the wheel alignment boys. AAA+++. Would trade again.
  8. The rebuild kit for the power steering ram and a new set of sway bar bushes pitched up yesterday arvo. So, this morning I cracked straight into it. Nek minnit: Yummy.
  9. Our usual Friday night cruise followed by burgers at the beach.
  10. Yep, lock to lock and the closest I get to the header is 40mm. Guess I just got lucky.
  11. Thanks for the info on your alternator. I've just finished rebuilding the power valve with the kit that arrived yesterday. Not too bad a job once I'd watched the CJ Pony Parts "how to" Youtube clip a good few times. Just measured and I've got 40mm clearance between my header and the power steering pipes which sounds okay. Things can be a bit hit or miss with the aftermarket headers. My RHS one is an absolute shocker in terms of clearance. For added protection I might just wrap that LHS header so it matches the RHS one and it will also give the power steer hoses a bit of heat relief too.
  12. Put the Thames through a few more heat cycles this morning and still no coolant drip. Flushed with success I thought I'd give the system a spring clean: Hope you noticed what I did there. I'm just so funny ..... not. Anyway, after doing that I figured I'd tackle another little leak, but this time of the oil variety. Again, tell-tale signs of a little drip, nothing alarming, but enough to be annoying: On closer inspection it looked like it was coming from the sump drain plug and since I've now got 1000 km on the freshly rebuilt 3Y I figured I'd do an oil and filter refresh while I'm about it. Pulled the sump plug and yep: No sealing washer fitted. What a numpty I am. I've got this pack of appropriately sized copper washers in stock, so I'm going to give one of them a go: I'd also picked up a new filter and some oil on my last town trip, so everything was good to go. And that's another job jobbed.
  13. The van has been running really well of late, but I've noticed that it tends to leave a a few drops of coolant on the floor after it's had a hard run. At first I assumed that I had overfilled the radiator after replacing the radiator cap and figured that it would sort itself out over time. However, it's been getting steadily worse and this morning I woke up to this: Lifted it up for a closer look and noticed this: Bugger .... it's not the first time I've dealt with weeping from this joint. Anyway, wiped the drip off the hose, ran the engine up to temp and no sign off a leak. With the system now under pressure I switched off and sure enough after a couple of minutes the first drop of coolant appeared on the hose joint. Grabbed the black hose further away from the joint and gave it a good squeeze and the coolant drip turned into a steady trickle coming from the joint in the hoses. Last time this happened I replaced the hose clamps and the problem went away for a while, so this time I got desperate in true "Rough & Ready Restos" fashion: Looks bloody awful but I've gone through a few heat cycles and some more vigorous squeezing of the hose with no drips experienced so I'll take the win for now. Time will tell, I guess.
  14. I've been trying to track down the source of an intermittent steering "clunk" for a while now and yesterday I finally got a chance to chuck the Muzzy up on my mate's hoist for a good look see. It didn't take us long to identify the source as a worn ball joint on the power steering valve -this being the only ball joint that I haven't replaced thus far. Using a photo off the web the offending ball joint looks like so: So first thing this morning I pulled out the centre link that incorporates the power steering valve and ... yep... my ball joint is well knackered: Ended up ordering a steering valve ball and stud rebuild kit from Sydney Mustang which is winging its way to me as we speak, but I thought I'd get a head start by stripping the nasty thing down. Gave everything a good clean and now I just need the new bits to arrive.
  15. In terms of ongoing maintenance, the poor old Mustang has been taking a back seat to our Thames van for quite a while now, but the recent failure of its starter motor has finally pushed it to the front of the queue. The old clapper style starter that these are blessed with has been slowly getting lazier and lazier, especially during hot starts. The main reason for this is the fact that it sits so close to the RHS exhaust header that it slowly gets cooked. A good 18 months back I bought one of those mini high torque jobbies as a replacement. These are supposed to be fully adjustable to provide extra header clearance but in this instance it actually ended up making things worse to the point where the header would no longer fit. So, I ended up wrapping the original in one of those thermal blankets and putting it back. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and she didn't last too much longer. I toyed with the idea of buying another high torque example marketed by Aeroflow, but after seeking advice from our local auto electrician I ended up going for another clapper style unit. New and old together: The newer unit is a slightly improved design with the main terminal located at the rear of the unit rather than on the side closest to the header. I tweaked the header slightly with a BFH and ended up wrapping it in some of that thermal bandage. There is a good 15mm of clearance now so hopefully this will give the new starter a fighting chance. While I was grovelling around under the old girl I noticed that the power steering pressure hose was looking a bit tatty. Here: And here: The hose moves back and forth as its attached to the main ram which in turn forms part of the steering centre link so it ends up with this kind of wear at both flex points. Replacements are cheap as chips, so I added a fresh unit sourced from Rob at Sydney Mustang. Another thing that looked well flogged was the dust boot and end rubbers on the power steering ram. Ended up getting a fresh kit in the same parcel with the hose, so I chucked that in too. I'll give the Mustang a bath sometime next week and hopefully then all will be forgiven. Thanks for looking.
  16. I guess a lot depends on your driving style. If you are going to lay rubber all the time no tyre is going to last that long.
  17. If you are looking for a pure road tyre, I'm a big fan of the Nankang N729s. I'm currently running 225/50/15s on 8J rims on the front of my 66 Mustang and 245/50/15s on the rear on the same width rims. Looks like they do a 205/50/15 too. If I had to do it again, I'd go 225/50/15s all around as I prefer the look of the slightly smaller side wall profile. I have the same 225s on the rear of my Thames van. I'm not crazy about the raised white lettering so I had them reverse fitted for a subtler look.
  18. Did a supply run to town this morning and when I got back to the van it had done a little wee. Stuck my head underneath for a nosey and it looked suspiciously like it had originated from the radiator overflow pipe. I keep an almost constant eye on my temp gauge, so I knew that she hadn't run any hotter than usual. Grabbed a rag and popped the radiator cap off and he didn't spew his guts, so I figured that was a good sign. Cap spring felt pretty weak to the touch and on closer inspection it looks pretty crusty: Luckily Repco was just a block away, so I strolled on down and grabbed a new one. The new cap is the same 0.9 bar rating, but I could definitely feel the difference in the spring resistance compared to the old one. Made a few extra stops before heading back home and no more piddles, so looks like that's another win.
  19. What an amazing outcome Alex. Well done mate ! I can't wait to see the video of your first hoon in the Imp with his new heart.
  20. Tiny step forward today. Sorted out a hiding place for the bottle jack and associated bits. The bottle jack slides under the wooden side panel in my front storage box and jacking it up a notch to press against the underside of the side panel holds it firmly in place. I wedged the wooden block between the back of the jack and the side of the van so she ain't going anywhere either. I then fitted two little plastic clips that I found amongst my stash, and they hold my spare wheel crank in place. I've rolled up a thin piece of marine carpet that I've also stored in the same compartment just in case I ever need to crawl under the van for a roadside repair. While I was mucking about in the two front storage bins, I figured it was time to fit some kind of stay for each of the lids as I'm a bit over them closing on my fingers all the time. Scratched around in the shed and found some more leftovers from our kitchen reno: Chucked in a few wood screws and the lids now stay open all by themselves. I did think about fitting my new voltage sensitive relay to add the house battery to the charging loop, but it's so bloody hot here at the moment that I packed up and went to wallow in the pool instead.
  21. Okay, so having a spare wheel doesn't really help if you haven't got a jack ... duh. So today I thought I'd remedy that situation. Rummaged through the pile of leftovers from my donor vans and I have a choice of two scissor jacks and a bottle jack. I'm not a fan of scissor jacks so the bottle jack got the nod. Pulled it out into the light of day. Looks a bit crusty but it does come with a crank handle that looks just as crusty: First step was to check that the jack still functions and that it has enough bottle to lift the Thames (did you see what I just did there .... absolute howls of derisive laughter Bruce) Grovelled under the van and it will lift either of the back wheels perfectly. Tried the fronts. Bottle is too tall to use under the front beam. Bugger. Scratched my head a bit then decided to try using my strut rod mounts as the lifting point and she lifts a wheel, but it's just on the borderline and I doubt that she is high enough to get my commercial profile spare on. So I grabbed a bit of timber which will make a solid base for roadside lifts as well as giving enough lift for the front. Perfect. With the functionality box ticked I then focused on the aesthetics. Took to the jack and the handle with my wire wheel of death and it started looking a bit better: Quick wipe down and a spritz of the usual satin black. I even fed my OCD by giving the wooden block a few coats of flat black fence paint. Tomorrow I'll work out a nifty way to store everything, so it doesn't rattle around in my storage compartment. Thanks for looking.
  22. And that's the spare wheel crank handle done and dusted. Works like a charm.
  23. Well according to the Captain's Log it's day 656 on the Thames build and I thought I'd celebrate the fact by adding a spare wheel. When we bought the van it had no spare, but the factory wheel carrier and lifting mechanism was still in situ. The original mechanism was pretty complex, so I suspect that the Dagenham based propellor head responsible for the design was on an hourly rate and decided that it was time to milk the system for everything it was worth. Schematic of the system looks like so: Unfortunately, the threaded rod, ... ahem ... I mean the trunnion spindle, was seized solid and no amount of lubrication would free it up, so I ended up taking to said spindle with my grinder of angles way back when I refurbished the underside, and the van has been going commando ever since. So as part of my Christmas present, Santa popped one of these fine marvels of modern engineering into my stocking: And as previously mentioned today was the day to figure out how I was going to mount the thing. So I grabbed the bull by the balls and headed under the arse end of the van for a look see. Turns out there is a perfectly placed chassis cross brace that looked like it might do the trick. The first part of the exercise was to try and make the new mechanism line up so that the crank handle hole in the rear Thames badge would still work. So, I started off by poking an appropriately sized steel rod through the hole in the badge and then through the corresponding hole in the chassis cross brace. The rod was able to temporarily hold the new lifting mechanism in place. Next step was to prop the spare wheel up on a few blocks of wood and then drop the lifting chain to make sure that it lined up with the centre of the spare wheel. As luck would have it things lined up perfectly, so it looked like I was off to a good start. Slapped some white paint on a spare bolt and poked it through the threaded nuts attached to the mechanism and I now had a good guide for the mounting holes: The flooring in the load area is still the original ply that was rubber lined by the previous owner, so I figured the easiest thing to do was to lift out my false chequer tiled floor and then drill some pilot holes through the chassis cross brace and then up through the ply. Eventually ended up with the correct diameter holes and bolted the mechanism up. Worked perfectly and I ended up with these countersunk beauties: Next step was to attach the spare and winch it up into position. These vans were offered from factory with two wheel options, option 1 being 13-inch diameter and option 2 being 15-inch. Again, the forward-thinking engineers had allowed for both options when it comes to the spacing of the abutment plates which is achieved by moving the captive nut thingies to the appropriate holes: Unfortunately, my spare is a 14-inch wheel so I had to mix and match the spacings to get the wheel to sit snuggly, but it's all good now. Tomorrow exercise is to turn these little bits of scrap into a crank handle for the mechanism: Thanks for looking.
  24. It's a toasty 32 degrees Celsius in our part of the world today, so a perfect time to visit this place: To get this done: And I then enjoyed a cool ride home. My DIY a/c hoses are holding up so far. Time will tell how long that lasts. I'm getting a bit of a/c belt slip, so some adjustment is called for, but apart from that all seems good.
  25. We are deep in the rainy season here and I'm a bit over getting sprinkled with liquid sunshine, so while in town today I wheeled by my mate Ben's place, and he worked his magic.
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