Making Head(er) Way

This weekend was going to be a little different, on the way to Mustang Maniac. A good friend of mine has been badgering me to come and look at my car and of course Adam’s collection of cars. Gary turned up on time and loaded some bits into my car. Before we even had a chance to say hello we were in our way. We had a good catch up on the way down there with the radio on, we did decide that Joy Division tracks before 9 am when Gazza hadn’t even had a coffee yet wasn’t a good idea. The journey was quicker than normal, we arrived parked up and looked for Adam. After formal introductions it was coffee and cakes time in the boys club. I spoke with Adam to see what was the plan for the day and decided that my aluminium coated headers were to go on the car then the rest of the engine parts.

I got my headers from the storage area and took them to the workshop and prepared what I needed to do. Adam kindly took Gazza out on a little “road test” in the recently completed Shelby KR tribute. I must point out at this point I wasn’t to impressed as I ain’t even been out in that one yet. Jealous? Yep. Anyway Gazza came back looking quite pleased with himself and decided he was going to help instead of having joy rides all day. Yogi and Adam came over at this point to check all was OK, the left side header was going to be a problem as the 3″ pipe was tight and not going to fit. The answer was to drop the steering ram and try to get up to the block that way. I was a lucky boy, it just and I mean only just fitted in. We were thinking that the engine may have to come back out to get them in.

The spark plugs were removed and the rocker covers to give us as much space as possible to work in. We were going to try a new set of header bolts which are supposed to stop them coming undone with vibration.

As it turned out the bolts were very tight to fit in place against the pipes. We held the headers in place with a couple of the bolts each end and dropped the gaskets in place.

The rest of the bolts were put in but there was an issue with cylinder five inner bolt, notoriously difficult at the best of times, but these new bolt washers were a fraction to big to fit so we had to use a standard bolt in place. Yogi left us to it and Gazza got some gloves on to tighten the bolts up before the final tightening. Just prove it Gazza hard at work, well working anyway. 🙂

With the headers in place we gapped and put the spark plugs back in. Next was the power steering pump, coil and one wire alternator. All looking rather good, but there again I would say that wouldn’t I?

Adam found me the a fuel tank sender a fitted it for me, it’s a tricky job and I forgot to take photos of it as I was holding the torch. Well, that’s my excuse anyway. All in all a good day and I help too. Thanks to Adam for letting me bring a mate to his yard. Cheers Gazza for your help.

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Getting Into Gear

A short week after the Easter break meant that my weekend trip to Mustang Maniac arrived in no time. I was sure to take my ball bearing down with me to fit into the fully exposed C4 gearbox. The weather started of bad but was promising to be a nice day. I arrived at the office to see Adam in the office with a room full of people, a couple of faces I recognised and a number I didn’t. Is this the male equivalent of the ladies coffee mornings, a load of blokes all standing around talking cars? Eventually I tore myself away to get down to the task in hand, finishing the gearbox. Last week the missing ball bearing stopped play unfortunately so hopefully we could make some time back up.

I pulled out the box of bits I had taken down and carefully removed the bearing and spring to check for size.

In order to wedge the bearing in place I dropped the bearing onto a slim screwdriver and lowered it into place and made sure there was clearance with no binding at all as this needed to release pressure. Once I was happy I let the bearing go and rest in place. Now I was well chuffed.

Next up was the gasket for the filter and fitting the spring into the pressure release, The filter was fitted to the correct position ensuring the spring was in place and not ping out.

spring in place

filter ready

filter clamped down

The next part was the gearbox sump pan. The old pan was a little dented but could of been cleaned up and reused with a new gasket. Adam suggested a newer design drained sump, no it was not concourse, and as I was a slight resto-mod anyway I was swayed with the super shiny chrome. The gasket was laid on the gearbox and pan fitted in place ready to tighten the bolts up.

The last part that had to go onto the gearbox was the new engine mount. This wasn’t able to be done up tight to start with as the gearbox needed to be in position first. That meant due to where the bolt heads are the mounting bracket would have to be fitted then removed to tighten the bolts fully.

At this point Adam joined me to help with the gearbox fitting, we decided to dry a fit to make sure everything was in place and where it should be. It was going to take longer with bits going on and coming off again, but as we have seen some of the previous handy work we wanted to make sure. I fitted the flex plate and the retaining plate first, not doing things up to tight, just to make sure it was held in place. Then we jacked the gearbox to the engine to check alignment.

Adam was happy with the fit and gave me the next set of instructions. Remove the flex plate again, clean up the torque converter, spray the engine back plate and then give him a shout. As the sun was out and a gorgeous day the spraying was dry by the time I had cleaned up the converter. The torque converter was cleaned up on the outside being careful not to get any cleaner into the converter itself.

With the converter now cleaned I took that and the plate back to the workshop. Fitting the newly sprayed engine plate to the back of the engine was simple as it was more like a huge gasket. The flex plate was remounted and bolts done up tight.

The torque converter was fitted into the bell housing and checked all was aligned correctly.

The gearbox was lifted to the engine and the gearbox was held in place while, the torque converter was aligned up to the flex plate with a single bolt to hold it in place from slipping out of position. The bell housing bolts were fitted to the engine and tightened up with Adam’s new fancy Snap On tool. Note to self – future Christmas prezzie!

Next up was the gearbox support bracket that we dry fitted earlier. The gearbox mounting bracket was now in place and tight so we just had to tighten the nuts to the bolt threads. Now the gearbox was supported under her own weight and the lift was released.

A huge step forward and we were on a roll. We decided to fit the prop shaft in place while we were at it. Adam carefully inspected the UJ bearings to make sure that there were no needle bearings missing. Once he was happy with that they were fitted to the end of the prop shaft universal joint and clamped into place.

The drive train was now in place. Technically ready to move under her own power and drive.

To finish the day we day we quickly fitted up the hand brake counter lever to keep the cables of the floor.

Next week it shall be back to putting things back in the engine bay. I hope to fit my new engine headers and the radiator. I am so looking forward to that.

Adam showed me a quick peak at the interior I wanted and it looks pretty darn good, but I would say that as it’s mine. I will have to start working on striping the seats down ready for the fitters sooner rather than later.

A great day, thanks Adam.

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Oh Balls!

Easter weekend and I have lots of days on the car, well that’s what I was hoping anyway. I had promised to help to wife around the garden over Easter and the day we were hoping to have away in London didn’t happen for various reasons. But, I was still allowed a day pass to go work on my car so I was happy. I arrived at Mustang Maniac tools and food at the ready to last me the day. I managed to grab some time with Terry who kindly showed me how to change the main seals in the C4 transmission with me.

The first part was to remove the kick-down and gear lever on the side of the gearbox. This was a case of undoing the gear selector pressure plate on top of the valve body and removing the brains of the gearbox. The brains of the gearbox is a series of pipes and valves that operate in certain pressure conditions and should not be played with unless you know exactly what you are doing. A single thread from a cloth will be enough to damage the valves inside.

The bolts being removed from the valve body or brain.

Lifting the brain out and exposing the intricate pathways of the transmission fluid.

With the valve body lifted carefully out-of-the-way, it allowed access to the gear lever and kick-down mechanism. Remove the bolt from the outside and the two halves of the lever will separate the smaller part inside the outer sleeve.

The two rubber seals need to be replaced at this point, one on the main gearbox housing where the larger outer sleeve fits through on the outside casing, the other is on the end of the lever bar itself and will need to be pressed in with help of a vice as it’s a tight fit.

A rare glimpse at the inner workings of a C4 transmission.

connection to gear lever at the top

To fit the lever back into place was simple enough, but locating the position of the gear selection lever to the valve body kick-down mechanism is tricky. The lever has to sit inside a cam and the kick-down connection sits just behind that. The horizontal bar at the top of the picture below shows where the lever cam must be located.

With the valve body in place it’s time to tighten the valve body back down in place, make sure the body does not lift of or move from the gear arm.

The next part would be to fit the filter back on, then the transmission sump. This is where my problem started. When the filter was first removed we also removed the spring but there was no steel ball bearing or valve plate sitting in the pressure relief channel. We were going to check if this model need it. It does.

The spring locates just where you can see two half-moon parts of casing just below the end of the spring. This is in fact a pressure regulator for the two half’s of the gearbox. So not only was it put back together with a pressure valve part missing, but there was also a bolt missing from the gear selector arm sprung plate as well. John hunted high and low all over the place for a ball bearing that size, he even opened up some scrap parts that may of had a bearing in them. Do you think we found one? No. We even split open a couple of old used spray cans to get the ball bearing(s) out. In today’s world that bearing has been replaced with a glass marble so it seems. Now it’s at this point I need to apologise again to John who punctured a can I gave him to get the (potential) bearing out. The tin of black spray paint gushed out, (even though no gas was coming out of the nozzle after I emptied it), and proceeded to spray satin black paint over his overalls and neck. Sorry John. John to his credit managed to remain calm, but the air did go a little blue if you get me. So I was going to have to try and buy one as the search was not proving to be successful at all. I was not a happy Easter Bunny at this point because some herbert didn’t put the gearbox back together properly, and it makes me wonder even more now about the health of the gearbox in general. The only good thing is that the fluid is clean, which can be a good sign of health for an auto transmission gearbox. But, these setbacks do happen in restoring old classic cars and I dare say there will be more. The guys at MM see it all the time where things are put back together with bits missing or not even secured where they should be, such as brake pipe valves, fuel lines, engine parts etc. Anyway in the mean time I cleaned up the back of the gearbox, fitted the seal gasket and re-attached the rear of gearbox and tightened the bolts up.

gasket in place

With the two halves back together again I fitted the new rear seal that protects the prop shaft from leaking when located in the gearbox. This particular seal is an upgraded version as these new seals have a collar rather than just the ring on the inside. I found a very large socket to fit over the end of the collar and tap it back into place.

The governor valve was next up to be fitted to the side of the gearbox, this is held in place by a sprung loaded clip and a bolt. Make sure the thin rod that fits into the end of the governor is in place or the gearbox will not change gear!

governor in place

sprung slip

vacuum pipe

With the parts in place it was time to prep the sump and gasket ready to be fitted to the gearbox.

chrome cleaned up

gasket in place

Now there wasn’t a great deal I could do so I just tinkered around. I said my farewells to the chaps at the end of the day and thought all the way home where I could get a single ball bearing from. Once I arrived home I went to my man cave and looked through my odds and ends tin. As a creature of habit when I finish a can of spray I cut it open to get the ball bearing out.

Note: Please be very careful if you are mad enough to attempt this at home as it could explode if any air pressure remains in the tin, if in doubt don’t do it.

In previous posts I have used the bearings to seal up fittings when spraying or to stop the area being contaminated. They do come in handy. So I opened the lid and tipped it out onto my bench, I found the perfect size!

I have now packed the spring and bearing away very carefully ready for next week. Not only did a find a bearing, but I found two balls, now I was a happy bunny again. It’s amazing how a single tiny part can stop an entire days plans. I was hoping to get the box fitted back on the car last week, but it will have to be next week now. Something to look forward to now.

Happy Easter to you all.

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Freshen Up

This will be a short(ish) post as I spend a whole day busy but not seeming to get very far. Saturday arrived and I arrived at Mustang Maniac to an eerie quietness. As Adam is cruising the Route 66 on holiday at the moment not much was happening at the offices obviously. I unloaded my car and took the refurbished bits and tools down to the work shop. The c4 transmission gearbox was still there leaking transmission fluid like it had been shot. The task for the day was to clean it up, degrease it and spray it to match the back section of the gearbox. John was on hand to sort out the heating for me in the workshop to get the ambient temperature up in order to allow me to spray. I managed to clean up the outside, dry it all off and mask up the areas not requiring any spray.

As this was aluminium I needed to use some Self Etch Primer to hold the paint to the casing. I gave the case a not to heavy a coating and allowed it to dry. Drying didn’t take long considering there was a fuel powered heater that looked like the back-end of the Batmobile when it fires up and the heat is pretty instant when it hits you.

primer

A slipped on the back-end of the gearbox to the primer in the pic below and there was not a lot of difference to be honest. The silver paint just made the case look like clean aluminium which was exactly the effect I was after.

Two coats of the silver paint were applied in thin layers and looked pretty damn good once it was done and dried.

With the gearbox now sprayed I turned my attention to a task I did a little while ago, the glove box. I mentioned that I had no clips on the back of the card insert which meant that I had the lip at the top inside the glove box. But as this was bugging me I found some small clips from a previous panel and slid them into place on the cardboard and held them down with tiny bit of duct tape. The clips were gripping the card fine, but I didn’t want them to turn on the first couple of turns of the screw. The duct tape was well out of sight and will never be seen. The self tapping screws were just enough to grip the clips and pull it tight to the back of the dash. Now it looks how it should do.

inside

door inside

While the dash door was off I took the time to give it a light freshen up with a satin black on the paint. Not too much, just a light dusting from a distance that still give the door that old look but clean. The inside of the door was given a another sating black dusting and the catch was removed to give it a spray of chrome. Unfortunately you can’t see it to well on the picture but the sating and chrome look works well.

All in all I spent all day cleaning and spraying but there wasn’t a lot to show for it, but I am happy with the results.

The next job is to replace the seals in the gearbox and get it fitted back into the car, hopefully that will be very soon.

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Steam Clean

The task for the weekend was to sort out the C4 Automatic Transmission gearbox. The guys at Mustang Maniac had already pulled the box out from storage and set it by the stand. The gearbox is lifted onto the stand and bolted into place just like the engine was so you can rotate it in any direction to work on.

Once we started to roll the C4 around the transmission fluids came running out and made a nice mess of Adam’s yard, it almost looked like the gear box was bleeding with the red transmission fluid. Sorry Mate! The gearbox was soaked in a strong cleaner and degreaser while we pulled out the steam pressure washer. The gearbox was pretty heavily caked in what ever from the road and was going to need a couple of going overs. Adam kicked of the first few jets of cleaning and the difference was amazing to even start with.

Adam handed over the lance to me and said with a smile, “I hope you have a change of clothes?” I laughed and said “I will be careful don’t worry”. I always carry a spare pair with me down to MM just in case as you never know so I wasn’t worried. I started and then I got covered within about two minutes flat. I was careful but still got sprayed. The weird angles and crevices on the casting made the water jet back out at strange angles, I was convinced that I was a water magnet. The only up side was the water was hot so it wasn’t to bad until I stood around. Needless to say I got changed after the soaking pretty quickly. Now it could be my paranoia, but I swear I could hear laughing as endless warm clouds of water came my way. But still the gearbox was looking great after the first clean up, more soaking for the second session and another blasting of steam. I did clean up the yard and swept the oil away after I finished with it all.

We allowed the gearbox to dry out and moved it over to where the car is stored in Yogi’s garage. On the stand Adam had a good look over the gearbox and discovered that the casing was from anywhere from 1970 to early eighties casing cast, but the rear section was from a 1964. This may not sound like an issue but the number of splines on the drive shaft could be twenty-four or twenty-six or a combination either end. So it looks as though the C4 case and insides; or the just the casing were swapped over in a previous ownership. Now this doesn’t worry me in the slightest, as potentially there is fifteen years less wear and tear on the mechanicals inside. The car stood for twelve years before I purchased her so that’s almost thirty years less wear and tear.

We rolled the C4 upside down and Adam started to undo the sump bolts to expose the insides and the filter which he was eager to look at.

Removing the filter which looked OK if not a little dirty, I was relived to see no gearing teeth wedged in their or a filthy sludge. surrounded by bits of metal swarf.

It turns out that some of the insides were from a 1974, which leads us to believe that a rebuild or swap out was performed at some point using the original parts from the previous gearbox that were not under stress or worn, such as the filter holder etc. The back section of the gearbox was unbolted and the housing removed for me to clean up at home. So far the gearbox looks OK with no bits of metal lying around. How it performs when it gets going we will have to wait and see.

filter removed

governor

pipework

Sunday was a case of clean up prep ready to put back on the main gear housing. This was a more degreasing and a light rub with some nylon scouring pads to clean the outside. The old gasket had to be removed and leave a clean surface ready for the new one.

The casing was dried and allowed to dry in the sun for while before the self etch primer was applied, two thin coats as recommended.

I sprayed a non visible area with wheel silver to see what it would look like, it came out looking like new aluminium not to far away from the original colour.

The reaming hardware for the nuts and bolts were cleaned up and sprayed with self etch again then with Tough Black which is a chip resistant paint. To hold all the bolts head up I used my useless malting wire brush to hold them while spraying. The bigger bolts were pressed into an old small box and sprayed the same.

The last part for now was the pipe work. There was the transmission dipstick pipe, a vacuum pipe and the selector arm to the gearbox. These were all rusty and in a bad way.

Same old story with these was to wire wheel them of with the rotary attachment to my drill. They came up quite well considering.

Obviously to leave them as bare metal would cause rust issues in no time at all, so again treated with a self etch primer then sprayed with a chrome spray. This was a new manufacturer I tried and the results were so much better than the Halfrauds version. The sprayed parts almost had a mirror like finish to them. The selector lever I coated in Tough Black again as this was likely to get more exposure to wear than the pipes would.

All in all a good amount of work. But, in the back of the mind I still worry about the health of the gearbox as it’s an unknown entity so far on the car.

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Fits Like A Glove

It seems as though I was working all day on a single bit of the car at Mustang Maniacs and seemed to get nowhere. when I bought my car there was a bag of old bits in the trunk and there was a single item that was brand new in bubble wrap. What was it? The glove box. Yep who ever had the car before me wanted to fix the glove box and not the wire loom that they set light too. I had kept the glove box safe and sound ready it to fit it. This weekend was that day. The glove box is made of black cardboard and has to be the most awkward job going for what it is. You can’t push it through the front opening so you have to feed it up under the dash. Then I realised that you can’t get to connect the lamp up as its right by the side of the box. So I had to move it out the way again. Fitting the switch was quite easy and just pressed in the hole. with that in place the single connection attached to the new dash loom.

switch

lamp connected

The next part was to work out the fittings. The latch is held in place to the dash via two screws that can move to adjust the door catch. the two screws are attached via a plate with two screw holes that align with the oval holes of the dash. For somebody with big hands this was a bad deal for me. Eventually I managed to fit both the screws in place and nip up the fitting. I could adjust this as I needed to later.

The original glove box was riveted in place at the factory, so now the replacements have holes and a screw thread attached to the glove box which aligns up with the dash itself to secure it in place. I had to hunt around to find some self tapping screws to fit the holes. The same was for the upper two screws that held the top in place.

The lower three screws were a complete pain as they were adjustable and needed to have a nut of some sort to fix them. In my many compartments of odd nut and bolts I found the same sized fittings and had to dislocate my fingers to hold them in place while I screwed them up. With this being made of cardboard it doesn’t take much to bend and weaken the card and looks rubbish. Having to treat the cardboard with TLC and try to move it into place was an art form in itself. I removed the hinge that I fitted last week in order to get more room and be able to see what I was doing.

With the bottom in place I managed to tighten the screws up and look to the sides. These previously riveted holes were simple fit as I only need a nice looking couple of screws small enough to fit. I found a couple in Yogi’s spares draw in his tool box and took the liberty to borrow them on a permanent loan basis. The two screws either side were followed by the support strap which fitted just above the side screws.

The easy bit, fitting the hinge back in place and the glove box door. Fitting the door was done in two stages, making sure the hinge cleared the dash and the front closed. Three screws for the hinge and three for the door front were adjusted and on first shut the door clicked into place. The only real result I had that day so I tightened up the catch at the top. Job done.

At this point I looked at the inside of the door and thought to myself, I need to make that look better. So I will take it of again and clean it to higher standard to make it look acceptable. I don’t want to replace it as it’s the original part of course.

The remainder of my time was wrapping wires with loom tape again that I knew wouldn’t be moved. So although the post is short and sweet, I thought it would take an hour or so ended up taking me longer to do than fitting the front suspension on the car! Is it just me or do we all have days like that?

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Pretty Bits

The car was loaded up Friday night, full tank of gas and I was ready to rock. The weather was supposed to be nice so it wasn’t going to be a case of layers on layers again I’m glad to say. The trip to Mustang Maniac was uneventful and I couldn’t settle on a mood of music for the radio. I arrived and was greeted by Adam walking through a new gate that he has just had put in to make it easier to get to the yard from the offices. It has only just happened this week after a couple of years of nagging to get it done.

Anyway, I knew what my task was I was chomping at the bit to get going. The wires and dash need to be tidied up and the pretty bits fitted to the dash. Yes, I say pretty bits but what I meant was the essential bits. The wiper and light switches, ignition switch, cigarette lighter and heater controls. The first part was the lights as a big block that clamps on the back of the switch so it needed to be located and fixed in place before fixing it to the dash.

Dead simple to fit as the dash ring locates into a groove and the light switch is held to the dash by a centre screw in part. Once that part is fitted the long bar with the knob on the end just pushes in and clicks into place.

Next up was the windscreen switch, now this is an aftermarket switch and had to have an extra fitting screwed to it make sure the spacer cup was in the correct position and the knob didn’t stick out from the dash by about two inches. Again the dash ring is screwed into the middle to hold in place via the lugs at the bottom. While fitting the connections to the rear I remembered that there has to be an additional wire that runs to the washer pump from the switch. The Newport Wipers kit does not come with the wire nor did the AutoWire kit except for the washer connection due to the many configurations that there could be at the time of manufacture. To get round this I found a wire for a Variable Speed Sensor that would not be used for my car. I reallocated that wire to the washer pump and followed it back to the inside of the car. The VSS wire runs to the dash gauges so I cut the wire and again rerouted it to the wiper switch. A female spade connector was fitted and pushed in place on the back of the wiper switch, job done. The wiper switch is a pain because unlike the lights that have a large cross in the middle, you have to tighten wiper switch centre tube up with a pin in the way. To get round this I made a tool that fits over the top with two legs that twist the locking centre tube into place thus holding it to the dash. The pics here are outside the car to make it easier to see.

on the main switch shaft

close up of the pins in place

The tool was made from an old wiper blade not the cheap aluminium ones now days, but a real old solid one I had laying about. Anyway it worked although I bent it a bit still. The knob for this was a tiny 5/64ths Allen grub screw, having the correct key is important not to damage the fine flats inside the head.

The next part was the heavy wires for the ignition switch. This is again held in place by a spacing cup behind the dash and a set of locating lugs for the dash ring. There is a special tool that holds this in place while you locate the back of the switch. But I found that by thumb wedged in the hole and then twist the back to the dash ring via the spring, it clips in nicely with a reassuring click. The plug from the wire loom pushed onto the back and the tiny nut to hold the accessory feed and the plug in place is tightened up. The final part was simple cigarette lighter. This is a twist into position effort with a female bullet connector for the thread at the back for the live feed.

Now for the heater controls, this plate is located via two holes in the dash and two clamps at the back. The trick is to thread the control cables through the opening and direct them to the top of the heater box. Clamps at the top of the heater box hold the cables in place so that the levers can pull the wire freely in and out to operate the flaps on the box. This was a much quicker process that I thought it would be and was fitted in about fifteen minutes flat.

The ash tray was is slightly broken and if you pull it to hard from the mount then the it will come straight out. But, as I don’t smoke I wont be using it, so it’s there just to fill a hole and still be part of the original car. Two bolts on the side of the recess holds the bracket for the ash tray and two at the top hold it flat. Again another ten minute job. The ashtray slid in and looks a awesome colour matched to the dash. I will take it out and fix it at a later date when I have nothing better to do.

While I was inside the car I took the courtesy light wires to the door jam switches and pressed them into the A pillars. A bit of a fiddle job making the wires disappear, but I will tidy that up a bit later once I know all is well.

That’s the inside done for now at least anyway. I decided to fit the washer pump into place with just two self tap bolts, but not connect the wires up just yet. I must say it looks quite good against the satin black.

While I was at it I thought I would screw a voltage regulator onto the inner front panel where they are supposed to be. Those that have been reading my blog from the beginning may remember that the American AutoWire kit requires a One Wire Alternator so the voltage regulator is not needed. As this is blown one that Adam had lying around he gave it to me. Just for show of course and the wire loom pig tail that goes with it will be a dummy set of wires into the main loom to give it that more stock look, all be it polished chrome. But shhhhh – don’t tell anybody as it’s a secret!

Time was drawing to a close so I fitted the two horns to the front of the car, just to free up some more space that don’t have to laying around in the way anymore.

I know I have more to do under the hood, that can be tidied up later as there is no rush right now. Next week I am not sure what I will be doing. All of a sudden the car seems to have moved on a big step forward. Perhaps it’s just the chrome going on blinding me for just how much work remains to be done. But for now I am well chuffed. 🙂

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Fifty Meters & Counting

Weekend trip to Mustang Maniac was greeted by the cold dark damp air but it didn’t quell my enthusiasm to get there, but I was a little nervous about the task that awaited me again. This weeks update will be a fairly short post as a result of that task, there would be a lot of trial putting bunches of wires here or there and making sure no cross overs or snags, in other words a lot of work with nothing to show for the hard work. It was going to take at all day and then some. Wires are in my dreams now, yellow, red, green, blue, black, white, purple and all colours in between, thick and thin all with type written on the side. I eat spaghetti and I see wires, I look at the gaps in the pavement and I see wires. Trying to make wires look neat is therapeutic and frustrating all at the same time that’s for sure. Reaching up under the dash holding things up made my arms ache like mad. While wrapping all the ugly wires into their respective branches it was at this point is where my second roll of wire loom fabric tape ran out. Yep, that’s two full rolls of twenty-five meters by nineteen millimetres of fabric tape used so far, and it only looks like a few meters have been taped up. I just don’t know where it has gone, it’s not the cost as it’s only a couple of pounds as roll, it just goes nowhere.

The worst part was trying to get the fuse panel mounted onto the dash area. The original long screws were just self thread into the firewall. Yogi when doing the brake lines used one of the holes to hold a bracket up and cover the ugly hole which was a good move. But, on the other hand this meant that I had nowhere to fit the fuse box and some of the lengths of wire they give you aren’t that generous, moving it to another locations wasn’t going to happen. So a change of plan was to use a longer thin diameter nut and bolt through the firewall and into the fuse holder. The only trouble is once I had drilled out the holes to take the bolts they would just push back out the other side as I tried to mount the fuse box up. This is where I could have done with a third hand inside the car, one to hold the bolt, one to hold the fuse box and one to put the nut on the bolt. Not easy but I managed it, not sure how but I did. At one point the air turned a little blue as the colour of my car when the bolt fell out the firewall onto the floor and I had to put it all down and re-bunch the wires back up again. The branches that were in immediate view were wrapped up and cable tied neatly, just for now at least. Yes I do know that this is a gamble as loom should be tested before it all gets put away tidy. So fingers crossed is all I can do for now.

fuse box mounted

bank or relays

The only oversight with this American Autowire loom is a simple one – where do you put the relay boxes. The bank of four relays need to be mounted somewhere and the kit does not give you any idea on how to do that for you. I will have to have a word with the Yogi to see what he thinks and what ideas we can come up with. The rest of the wires were pulled through to the places such as the lights, ignition, dash, wipers radio etc.

Next week I will be hoping to put the new sparkly new switches onto the dash to make the loom live capable as it were. Then it will be more tidying up and putting the wires away.

Pretty bits – Ohhh Yeeeah!

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Wiring Puzzle

This week I have an update, but to be honest although I spend the whole day doing things I don’t seem to have got very far. When I arrived at Mustang Maniac it was its usual busy self, with people waiting for the Adam. As Adam was not around, I had a word with Yogi (who incidentally has a fan club thing going on at Mustang Maniac blog). Anyway not sure what that is all about, but I digress, we decided that wiring again this week was the priority due to the fact that my transmission was in a storage bay right by some temporary cover being errected, this was to house Chris’ Coupe so it didn’t get wet while the body shop was being used.

The wires still looked as bad when I last saw the mess that I left myself, I was kinda hoping that they would all jump into place, but no. So I had to decide where and what I wanted to do. Starting from the rear I sleeved the cables and run the cable along the door sill up to the dash, this helped in keeping it a single neat line.

For the engine I decided that the main loom was going to run the traditional route inside the engine bay around the left side shock tower, the engine loom would be almost stock maybe with a slight difference for the solenoid wires.

The worst part of this job is to work out what holes will be used for what loom, you are better of starting with the long wires and working back towards the fuse box where the wiring becomes more intense. As the wires are being threaded through the firewall you have to be extremely careful not to slice the wires or tear the shielding of that will cause a bad connection or failure. So it’s a case of put some through from the inside of the car and then coil the slack, go to the engine bay and pull the slack through and repeat. As the wires has connectors on them I protected all the paint work with a fitted sheet. This turned out to be a good choice as the neutral colours showed up exactly what I was doing. With the wires pulled through I sleeved up the cables and left the sleeve tight up to the firewall as to not get in the way. I looped up the cables I would not be using just yet. So although it looks unsightly it will be made neater later on. The American Autowire loom has the wires labelled up but I don’t want to see them. Although the new fuse box will give the game away from the first glance I want it to remain as stock as possible.

The main loom to the lights was again feed the traditonal route and sleeved as the wires went through the front support. The braided sleave looks nice and neat and not intrusive to the eye. The main loom hangs helpless for now until we are sure everything works fine before we tidy and finalise it all.

The engine loom was threaded out and again braid sleeve slipped over. Once the wires had been laid out I wrapped them up just for now.

The inside has gone from a complete nightmare to a headache, so I take that as big step forward.

What I am amazed about is the amount of wire loom tape I have used. I ordered a roll of 19mm and 25m long and I have all but a few feet left. Where did it all go as I have no idea. I have ordered some more this week ready for another session next week where I hope to mount the fuse box and tidy the wires up.

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A Promise Kept

A tired start to the day on Saturday with me retuning my radio to something soothing on the way to Mustang Maniac. Maybe it’s my age showing, but I just wanted to chill on the way and enjoy my drive. As Saturday was Valentine’s Day of course, my wife decided that it would be OK for me to spend some time with the other love of my life, my car. That was on the condition I wasn’t late home and bought the diner. Of course I agreed and made sure I would leave on time, so I just have to say “Thank you Darlin'”.

I arrived early and the slow wakeup had changed into get up and go by the time I got there. Adam and the guys were moving stuff around to make space and filling up their scrap pile. If I wasn’t mistaken I swear they were even sorting out their stores! A conversation was had on what I should be doing next, the main next job is for the transmission to be overhauled, but as the engine stands are being used at the moment we went to plan B. This revised plan was to start laying out the wiring and finish the insulation matting in the car. There was only one sheet left so I covered as much as I could for now and used the smaller off cuts to finish the gaps at the front.

As the back of the car is pretty much completed now I have added the all important iconic filler cap it would be easier to run the cables there. Yes, before you say it, the picture is of a 69/70 cap, but it was what came with the car and I didn’t know any better when I bought the car, and to be honest I quite like it. I dare say I will change it later for the correct ’66 one, but for now it will do. I have taken a picture of the stainless tank underneath, but it hasn’t come out to well unfortunatly.

The wires have been carefully stored and were in a box all neatly coiled up when I took them out of the car. When I put them away I placed them in the box so as not to get them knotted up. As I went to lift them out they were knotted and all entwined. Just how does that happen? I found the rear loom and took it to the trunk, laid it out for each side lights, once I was happy I threaded them through, but not made it final. I spent most of my time re-taping the wires up and making them look presentable as time just flew by. I used a little tape just to hold the light pigtails in place.

left side

number plate cables

right side

The next part was to unravel the spaghetti mess that had been created for me. It seems as though the gremlin that plagues me at home has been squatting in my wiring loom box! I managed to sort the wire loom into their particular junctions and placed it in the car ready for next week.