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Flash

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Everything posted by Flash

  1. Yep, it certainly could have ended in tears. That's always the worry with buying an old car. You never know what shortcuts one of the previous owners may have taken. Brazing the nut is a bloody good idea, so thanks for that @SOHC
  2. Fitted the new brass float to my fuel gauge sender unit and chucked it back in the tank with a brand new gasket. I've read that the aftermarket fuel senders are not that accurate on the old Muzzy's so thought I'd do a little exercise to see how bad it is. According to my Haynes manual the tank has a capacity of 60.5 litres so I started off by adding 15 litres to the dry tank. The good news is that there were no leaks. The bad news is that the gauge registered just above empty instead of the quarter tank that I was expecting. I then added another 15 litres which should have taken the tank to half, but the gauge only registered a quarter of a tank. With another 15 litres added to take the tank to three quarters full the gauge registered mid-point between half and three quarters. With the final 15 litres added to take the tank to full the gauge reads just past the full mark. So, yep ... reports that the fuel gauge is notoriously inaccurate are correct. On the plus side when the fuel level is low, I'd rather have a gauge showing less fuel than is actually left in the tank. Oh, and the added bonus is that the gauge actually works now.
  3. My new fuel tank sender float pitched up yesterday. I upgraded to a brass one as the plastic ones are notorious for developing leaks. While I was at it, I ordered a new idler arm as the bush in the existing one was looking a bit flogged.
  4. Woke up to the perfect morning for breathing in petrol fumes, so jacked up the Muzzy's arse to get the fuel sender unit out. The tank still had about 5 litres sloshing about in the bottom, but luckily I had a clean bucket close at hand and I managed to drain that off without incident. Popped the sender unit out and as you can see from the photos below its a fairly new unit. Took a close peek at the little plastic float and the cause of the non functioning gauge was instantly obvious :
  5. If I had given it the welly up my driveway that could potentially have ended in tears. Quickly pulled that sucker out with a pair of tweezers and chucked a locking nut on it so hopefully that won't ever happen again. On the plus side I managed to take a few shots of the Muzzy while it was sitting outside my neighbour's place waiting for a drink.
  6. Jeez, I dodged a bullet today ! So, my fuel gauge hasn't worked from day one and earlier in the piece I traced the issue back to the tank sender unit. The good news is that the sender unit sits on the front side of the tank so at least I don't have to drop the whole tank to get the sender out. The bad news is that the sender unit sits on the front side of the tank so you have to drain the tank if you don't want to enjoy a 98 octane shower. As a result I've been putting the job off for a while, but now that the Mustang is almost about to begin duty as my daily driver it's time to address the issue. So this week I purposefully let my fuel level run low and then today I spent a good part of the morning cruising around the neigbourhood trying to run the tank dry. Yep, I know endless cruising around in a rumbling V8 is a thankless task, but someone has to do it. After a bit I started to get a hesitation on turns so figured I was close to sucking fumes. Headed home and managed to finally run out of gas two houses from our place. Bugger pushing the car home so I walked home and got a litre of fuel that I had put aside in an old milk bottle. Tipped the litre into the tank and thought I'd prime the carby with a few drops to make the starting easier. Removed the air filter for the first time ever by unscrewing the big center wingnut and carried it home together with the empty milk bottle, then back to the car which fired up easy enough and I idled her home. Back in the shed I figured I'd refit the air filter, but when I came to fit it the threaded rod that the wingnut goes onto was missing. My first thought was that it had dropped on the road while I was walking home, so I walked back down the road keeping a beady eye out for the threaded rod, Nyet, no sign of it. Retraced my steps home and checked out the shed floor where I had placed the filter. Still no luck. Checked the valley between the inlet manifold and the rocker covers. Nope .. not there. Got my torch out and took a gander down the carby venturies and guess what :
  7. Fellas, I really appreciate all of the advice and tips. Thanks very much.
  8. Hiya All. I'm about to start investigating a temperature related issue on one of my projects and I'm thinking a good place to start would be getting myself one of those infrared temperature guns so that I can check out what is actually going on at each point in the cooling system. Prices seem to vary on the units and I don't really want to spend more than I need to as it's not something I'm going to get a lot of use out of. But, I also don't want to buy something that isn't accurate enough as I could end up chasing my tail. I'd appreciate any suggestions on what unit to buy and also any tips or tricks on how to use the gun as I'm a newbie to all of this. Ta in advance
  9. I've spent the last few weeks mucking around with the Mustang brakes. Patiently waited for the arrival of a few more brake related bits and bobs. Then needed two short hardlines made up as the outlets on the new master cylinder were different to my old original. Got those all sorted and installed, bled the brakes and finally dropped it back onto it's wheels yesterday. Luckily my local alignment shop had a last minute cancellation, so I was able to get it on the hoist first thing this morning. The upper arms need a few more shims added to get the camber spot on so I'll add those tomorrow and will take it back for a re-check. Photo, or it didn't happen :
  10. Hey @anglia4yes, my bad. I slapped the coupler on upside down for my photo. Thanks for setting me straight. I did some more research last night on this adjustable pushrod setup. It is a Scott Drake part - much like many of the aftermarket Mustang parts are- and in reading through their description of the part they state that it is to be fitted to cars with manual disc brakes only. Quoting from their product specification : "Does not work with power disc brakes" At US$ 50.00 it isn't cheap so whoever fitted it wasted their money.
  11. Comes with a set of instructions that even a fool like me can follow. First step is to unbolt the original retaining wire that tethers the cap to the fuel tank neck. Unfortunately you have to then sacrific the wire loop, but it's worth the effort. Then with the fuel cap in place you mark a pilot hole position at the back of the cap through the original hole that the wire loop retaining bolt passed through. Next you carefully drill a hole through the inner face of the cap taking care not to go through the outer brightwork. Then it's just a case of mounting the little spring loaded latch pin inside the boot. The spring loaded pin engages the hole in the cap when the cap is closed and the only way that you can open the fuel cap is by unlocking the car boot and disengaging the spring loaded pin while you screw off the cap. Bonus is that now that the cap is no longer tethered to the car, you can place it safely elsewhere while you fill up. Bloody clever.
  12. Now it just so happens that Scott Drake market an ingenious little locking kit that they sell for around $15. Probably costs about 15 cents to make, but the idea behind it is priceless, so I had to have one. Kit looks like so:
  13. Thought I'd tackle a quick and easy job for a change. The fuel cap on the 66 Mustang is an absolute work of art. Although it looks bloody good its functionality leaves much to be desired. Firstly it doesn't lock which I'm guessing wasn't an issue back in 1966 but because I'm planning to use the Muzzy as a daily driver, I'm picking I'd be a sitting duck for fuel theft or even worse someone chucking a handfull of sand into the tank just for shits and giggles. Secondly when you do unscrew the cap it has a factory fitted retaining wire so it dangles down onto the back bumper. Just the thing to scratch the chrome or paintwork.
  14. Thanks for the additional info @cletus I was anticipating exactly what you describe in terms of a factory pedal modification and from what I have read it seems like Ford built this into the Mustang brake pedals from 1967 onwards. All of the info that I have managed to track down thus far suggests that for the 65 and 66 Mustangs the brake pedal was exactly the same for both manual brake and power assisted models. I find this really hard to believe. I'm going to make contact with Rob from Sydney Mustang tomorrow morning to see what he says as he has restored and modified hundreds of earlier Mustangs over the years. Excuse the crappy quality screen grab below.
  15. Okay, so if I use the straight pivot connector instead of the pivot lowering kit everything works smoothly. That is a plus, but I'm still left with the problem of the pedal ratio which would be back to the non power assisted ratio. Uncle Google tells me that for manual brakes the pedal ratio should be somewhere between 5:1 and 7:1 and that for powered the ratio should be somewhere between 4:1 and 5:1. So I thought I'd start off by measuring my existing ratios. Sure enough with the standard pivot connector I get a ratio of 6:1 and with the pivot conversion I get a ratio of 4:1. Okay, so if I'm going to use the standard pivot I solve my alignment issue but I end up back at a manual pedal ratio. Uncle Google tells me that this will result in twitchy brakes. Yikes that doesn't sound good Did some more searching on some of the Mustang forums and there are quite a few posts that say that for any Mustang prior to 67 the pedal ratio for manual versus power brakes was the same from factory. Now much as I would like to believe this I also know that everyhting you read on the net is not always true, so I'd really like to hear the opinions of those who have more brake knowledge than I do. Calling @sr2 and others ....... please help a brother out mate. Oh a picture of the brake bias adjuster that was hidden under the booster for anyone who is interested.
  16. Now being an absolute ignoramus when it comes to brakes I ended up asking my good friend Uncle Google what was going on and it turns out that this little conversion kit is used to lower the pivot point on a non power assisted brake pedal to modify the pedal ratio for a power assisted setup. Okay ..... but how the hell does that work if the actuator rod fixed inside the booster remains at the same fixed height. Surely this will cause a mis alignment between the pivot point and the actuator rod. Got some mixed answers to this from Google. Some say that you need to raise the pivot point for the pedal at the same time. Looked at the pedal bracketry and yikes, modifying the pedal pivot point would require major surgery as well as having to remove the whole setup from the car to do the mod. So I'm definitely not going down that road. Is the booster perhaps mounted too high on the firewall ? Checked this out but the holes in the mounting brackets for the non factory booster are all predrilled to suit the original mounting points in the firewall so that would need modification as well as the hole for the booster neck in the firewall would need to be elongated. Again I'm definitely not going down that road. But all of this extra info got me thinking some more and I decided to try something different. The new brake kit was supplied with a different looking pivot connector, so I pulled off the conversion hardware and fitted the straight connector and then bolted the pedal back in the car. Next I bolted the new booster to the firewall. Grovelled under the dash again and guess what ... the booster actuator rod and the new pivot connector line up perfectly. Screwed the two together and gave the pedal a try. Nice and smooth. The two setups pictured below for camparison:
  17. The newly discovered bent actuator rod on the old brake booster has been playing on my mind over the last day or two. Although I knew from day one of owning the car that the power assist wasn't working, apart from the pedal requiring more pressure I hadn't noticed anything untoward with the actual pedal movement or travel. In my mind there must be a reason for the mis alignment between the pedal pivot point and the actuator rod that caused this bend and surely whoever was doing the conversion should have picked this up during the installation. And if they didn't notice it whilst bolting everything together you would think that they would have smelt a rat when they tested the pedal movement and felt something binding up. The force needed to bend that rod surely couldn't have felt normal. So whilst I had the old booster out I decided to investigate further. Spent a few minutes fumbling about in the dark under the dashboard and managed to extricate the brake pedal. With the pedal on the bench in the light of day things took an interesting turn. Hello .... this doesn't look standard:
  18. Eventually got the old brake booster out. On close inspection I discovered a bent actuator rod. That's not good either.
  19. So back in December when I bought the Mustang the brakes worked okayish but needed plenty of leg power and I suspected that the power assist wasn't working. I swapped a few emails with @sr2 (AKA The Brake Wizzard) around Christmas time and with his help we diagnosed a faulty brake booster. I ordered a decently priced replacement that came complete with a new master cylinder. Both have been languishing in their packaging for a good while now, but today was the day. Started off by checking out the existing setup a little more closely. First thing I noticed is a brake bias adjuster mounted under the booster. Hullo .... that doesn't look factory. There is also a set of non factory looking firewall brackets that the booster bolts up to. So I'm picking that this car was originally delivered without power assist or if it was someone else has been here before. Okay, so after removing a few nuts and having to sacrifice one of the solid brake lines due to a previously rounded flare nut, I was able to seperate the m/c from the booster. Yikes, that looks a bit nasty:
  20. Got the driver's side suspension all back together yesterday and started taking the passenger side apart this morning. Lots of shagged dust boots and some notchy feeling ball joints and tierod ends. A bit more of the Mustang's history was revealed during the process. The upper control arm on this side is a repro unit manufactured by ACP. Date stamp says 2006.
  21. Last bits are the new upper arm shaft kits and ball joints. Let the assembly commence.
  22. Next up are the new lower control arms. One of these newbies photo'ed along side his old mate:
  23. Late yesterday arvo my final batch of front suspension parts arrived, so this morning I excitedly unpacked the box to inspect the goodies. First up were the high performance coil spring perches. As you can see in this photo the modified units are fitted with a grease nipple and the usual factory rubber bushes are replaced with a greasable polymer. My original units are completely siezed up, but the new unit rotates smoothly with a little finger pressure. Winner. These units should cure the lateral pressure that my front shocks were experiencing during suspension travel.
  24. Late last week whilst patiently waiting for the rest of my suspension parts to arrive, I thought I'd finish off the last bit of exterior re-assembly being the front bumper and support brackets. But, before tackling that I wanted to have a go at sorting out the bonnet and front fender gaps which were pretty bad when I purchased the car. Whilst it all sounds pretty straight forward, it has been complicated by the fact that the car has previously been fitted with a reproduction right fender, under grill skirt and lower valance as part of the previous USA restoration and everyone knows that these non factory panels leave much to be desired in terms of final fit. Now a wise man would have sorted this out before final paint, but sadly I am not that man. Anywhoo I started off by loosening everything off then aligned the back of the bonnet with the windsheild scuttle panel. Got that as best as I could and then worked along the bonnet to fender lines on each side. After a bit of fiddling about I got those gaps pretty good then refitted the bonnet catch. Nope .... nowhere near going to work. Ended up getting physical with the bonnet pin and now for the first time the bonnet latches and unlatches smoothly. Flushed by my success I thought I was home and hosed until I tried bolting up the under grill skirt. Nope not even close. Tried the lower valance and again an instant fail. Okay .... Changed tack by loosening the fender mounting bolts, then loosely fitted all of the front panels with finger tight bolts. Then with a bit of pushing and pulling in all directions I finally managed to get everything to line up as best as I could. The front bumper and brackets are also reproduction units so they served up a few extra challenges, but after spending three full mornings on it I've declared a victory. The final fit is not 100% prefect, but it is way better than it was .... enough to quell my OCD, so I'll take the win. Sadly without its suspension in it's not a roller so I haven't been able to take any photos of the results which I will do as soon as it is back on its wheels. Now no one likes a pictureless update so here are a few photos of the inside of the reproduction front bumper and over riders which were badly rusted inside and are now sporting a protective coat of epoxy primer after a good de-scale. Thanks for reading.
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