Couple Of Upgrades

It’s been a long time since I have changed anything or added anything to my car. I was at a car show recently and something caught my eye that I decided I wanted to change. That part was under the hood that nobody would really notice to be honest. That part was hood pin and safety catch. There was nothing wrong what so ever with the old ones what so ever. Except that I thought there was just too much blue and it needed to be broken up a little. It’s standard for the safety catch to be car coloured as mine was. The hood pin itself was fine if not a little tarnished after fifty-two years as it was the original parts.

So I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac and he said “You need a little stainless steel, with some nice bolts to go with it, not just chrome.”

The safety catch is held in place just by two bolts and like for like swap out. I got a couple of Adam’s new ‘Ford’ branded stainless steel bolts to go with it all. I just love these bolts which looked even better after a good polish up.

before clean

after cleaning

ready for fitting

Undo the two bolts for the safety catch and it will expose the hood pin itself which again is a simple nut to hold it in place.

The swap out is a simple reverse procedure, hood pin and then the safety catch. You have to make sure the hood pin is set correctly, to shallow and the hood will not close, to long and the hood will bounce and vibrate at speed. I created a detailed page on how to change these parts in detail here, or go to the top menu ‘How To.. Projects/Engine Bay/Changing the hood pin and safety catch’

The difference is subtle yet instantly visible if that makes sense, it also matches the hood lip trim.

Before and after side by side. Just another little something to clean now. 😉

On the ’66 Mustangs all models there hazard switch that fitted as standard. The official place for these to be fitted was in the glove box on the upper left hand corner as in this picture I found on the net for the correct location.

Depending if the car hazard switch was fitted later or somebody on the production wanted to fit it somewhere else, it could have been anywhere. The most common alternative was under the dash on the passenger side, sometimes on the drivers side. When I first got my car there was this random switch that I didn’t know what it was for. It was so rusty I couldn’t read anything and it virtually fell to bits when it was touched, not to mention all the wires were cut from it and been melted due to the under dash fire.

I now realise that this random switch was the original position of my factory hazard switch. Now I had a problem as my wiring loom was an American Autowire upgrade kit and wouldn’t work directly with standard hazard switch and pigtail loom. Another conversation at Mustang Maniac and research came up with an accessory kit for the factory hazard switch. Considering the cost of the wire loom in the first place I think it was a bit much to charge for this extra mini loom in my opinion. Anyway, rant over. Adam made a special order for me and the kit came in a couple of weeks later. I popped down to see the guys and also picked up the switch as well.

The wire loom and switch.

The AA kit is a bridge under the steering column that just connects the male to female and the female to male sections for the column (indicators, horn brake switch etc), with the extra wires running from it for the hazard switch. I have created a detailed walkthrough on how to hit it up here, or got to the main menu ‘How To.. Projects/Electrical/American Autowire Hazard switch installation’.

The switch is great quality and just needed to be assembled.

The wire connections for the AA kit was supposed to fit the original hazard pigtail loom, but as I didn’t have (no need for my fitting), I cut the supplied connector off and fitted some heat shrink tubing to each wire, then the spade connectors with a factory look crimp.

correct length

first crimp completed

second crimp

second crimp completed

I then checked the wiring diagram for the correct fitting onto the back of the switch.

I now had a decision to either replace the switch in the ‘correct’ location, or the position that the car had it fitted at the time. I went for the car’s location at the time. Yes there will be the experts that moan it’s not in the correct place, but I have seen a few cars where this was the ‘original’ location. I also understand that some dealers fitted them under the dash to save taking out the glove box liner as it was easier!

Plugged in connectors with heat shrink tube looked pretty cool, even though nobody will ever see it.

Under the dash next to my aircon on the passenger side there are two bolt holes which were used originally, so there was no drilling or measuring for this project either. A case of bolts through the switch bracket, through the dash holes and the backing plate, nuts on the back of the plate and tighten up.

The last part is to connect up the steering column, this is done last as the live power feed is taken from the brake switch, connecting it up first would mean having live or hot wire about as you are connecting up. Not ideal!

under column connected

column sperated

AA Hazard kit in place

The hazard switch now works without the key in the ignition and with the engine on. The old hazard switches worked by putting the switch on and then indicating to trigger the four way flash. To finish the installation, I spend half hour or so wrapping the new loom extension in factory look loom fabric tape, I find it just so therapeutic.

I just hope I never get to use the hazards for a real emergency. I enjoyed my few hours of pottering around on the car, just because I could.

Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac (again) who put the special order in for me so I could get this all working.

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Steering Column

This week has been difficult as I was poorly and wasn’t sure Mustang Maniac was going to happen on Saturday. Being the hero that I am, I talked myself into my weekly homage to Mustang Maniac, it was a very short conversation mind you. With that in mind the duties were going to be a little lighter than normal. Adam was busy moving large mounds of dirt to somewhere that obviously needed the large mounds of dirt. We broke away from the guys to discuss what was going to be the plan for the day. We decided that the steering column is constantly being moved from one side to the other of the car and is just asking for damage and was causing a little concern. So the plan was – fit the column. Not a heavy job but a delicate due to the paint work involved. The parts I had were all there except the mounting screws and some special square ended bolts that cleverly hold the top to the column. Adam send me on a mission to his stash of engines and components where there was a scrap ’67 column still attached to the steering arms. I was allowed to pinch the difficult and rare parts to make mine fit.

The steering column is just a tube that goes over the steering box bar and also holds the steering wheel in place with the turn indicator fittings.

steering bar

column

At the steering box end there is a rubber grommet that seals the column from dirt and grime and is just a press fit into the end. This grommet also helps to hold the column in a central position. There is a metal plate and a gasket that fits to the fire wall that is a draft and grime gasket. When the column is slid over the bar and gets to the end make sure that you don’t press the gasket through the firewall, it’s a tight fit. The column also has a rubber gator that sits on top of the firewall sound insulator and presses in place. Simple but an effective idea. Just slide the column over the top of bar. thread the end through the gasket and onto the steering box. There will be resistance here as the box fitting is quite tight too.

column in place

column gator

The column can only fit in one position which is held in place by a bracket. The bottom part has a key-way to hold the column in position and the top part of the bracket goes between the column and the bottom of the dash. The brackets have a coating of a rubber to protect the column from any damage.

The next part is to fit the business end of the column is in two main parts, a block that fits to the top of the column and a sleeve that fits behind it to hide the wires routing to the bottom. In order to protect the paint I used a sheet of paper that wrapped around the column as I slid the neck over the column.

The top part of the column collar slides over the centre bar and fits inside the column tube, this holds the bar in the centre at the top. Make sure the bearing in the middle has enough grease in place. The two special square retaining bolts are slid from the back into the cut outs at the top of the column. With the bolts showing place the corresponding nuts in place to screw the collar down. The collar will only fit in one place as the indicator stalk fitting is recessed out. Don’t tighten all the way up yet as the centre of the collar has a position ring that sits inside the bearing.

turn lever recess

retaining bolts

Next part is the fun bit. Threading the turn signal mechanism wires down the inside of the column. To be fair it’s not to bad with the technique I have for it. Inside the column is a separate tube that holds the wires to the side of the column. I take a couple of wire and tape them together, move up an inch or so and tape the next couple. Repeat for the rest of the wires are taped up then thread down the top opening until the wires poke out the bottom. undo the tape and pull the wires through evenly.

wires threaded and greased bearings

taping up

With the wires almost pulled out then position the turn indicator onto the collar and gently do up the three screws evenly. Do not over tighten the screws as it will distort the plastic mounting. Ensure that the horn ring connectors are free to move up and down. Slide the bottom part of the collar up and insert the two long screws into the remaining holes and tighten up. Remove the paper from the column to leave no scratch marks on the paint.

With the steering mechanism all in place screw in the indicator stalk. Now you are ready for the steering wheel to be fitted, but more of that at a later date.

It doesn’t look much but I was taking my time to complete this task. A very visual part of the car and an important to get right. The main bean headlight switch from the American AutoWire kit comes out about five inches short to ten inches if you want to have a nice routing. So with the column in place in cut the supplied wires fittings and added around a foot of extra cables colour coded the same as the AAW ones. I attached more correct style fittings and refitted back into the connecting block. That took up the rest of the time I was down there.

Next week we are aiming to fit the door seal rubbers to the door weather strips, that will show some progress on the car with any luck that is a bit more visual.

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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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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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Two Steps Forward – One Step Back

It’s not as bad as it sounds though…

The weekend has been about me undoing work I have done up till now. OK, that sounds a little odd but I makes sense, my head says I needed to do it, but my heart said no. After speaking to Adam at Mustang Maniac I asked the questions “does my wire loom need to come out?” The reply was simple – “is the cowl OK?” I know there was a little issue of rust around it but it looked OK, in my eagerness to get the car wired I done the best patch up I could, deep down there could be issues. So the decision was made to take the whole loom out again so we don’t damage the loom and check the cowl out properly. If you have a dodgy cowl the rain could get in, run down some rust and ruin the carpets. Potentially every time I clean the car I would ruin a carpet, let alone being caught in the rain or use the window washers come to that. Also the dash has got to have a repair plate welded back in to look original instead of the wide gaping hole there at the moment where a modern radio was put in, ideally the area behind it needs to be clear of wires. Once the car gets down to Mustang Maniac we are going to look at sorting out the cowl, rear quarters, any chassis welding work etc. then to paint the car properly. For that it will need it to be a shell in order to make it easier for the paint and prep work. You may ask yourself why did I do all the work I have so far? The answer is simple but the answer is threefold. The first is when I got the car there was nothing in it to work, so I wanted to know it was going to work, so I wired it up to prove that it does basically work mechanically. Secondly I didn’t know the Mustang Maniac guys at the time and I was (mis)led and “advised” by other people, – it turns out they obviously don’t know as much as they think they do, those people and companies shall remain anonymous from me as they don’t deserve any mention on my blog, at all. I could name and shame but then I will be bouncing their name possibly advertising them, but they know who they are! Thirdly, it’s a learning curve, I was going to do what I had to do to get the car on the road. Many conversations with Adam made me realise that it’s a bit of a false economy and I should do it properly. yes, it will take longer, but on the other hand, it will be more reliable and last longer, it will look so much better and be worth much more, in fact should outlive me! The car was bought for me as a hobby to do up over time, which I am enjoying every minute of it, even when the car bites back and draws blood from me. In my infancy of car restoration things were done a little bit back to front in retrospect. BUT, the huge advantage is what I have done so far, I know fits and works. The last thing I wanted to do was have a nice paint job and go messing it up by doing stuff I wasn’t to sure about, scratching it, denting it and so on. One of those major things was wiring the car up from nothing, turn the key and it starts. That proved the point that the engine was basically OK and proved to myself that I can wire a car up. Other things like the brakes needed to be sorted out too. I know that I had of had the car sprayed and put the brakes on the car as I first did I would have ruined the under hood paint. The original brake booster looked fine, I checked it and cleaned it up, and when I filled it up with fluid it was fine, but when the pedal was pressed it squirted brake fluid out all over the place, like a kids water pistol in fact. Without a question of doubt it would have ruined the paint and I would have been gutted more than taking the loom out again. The brake booster and dual cylinder upgrade on there now works and should be a simple bolt back in job. So you see it’s not such a bad idea after all. Yes I took two steps forward, the one step back should only be a temporary loose of momentum though. In fact there are things I will do little differently when I put the wiring back in again. So it’s not so bad in the end after all.

remove loom

The inside is just as bad!

The American AutoWire loom was on its way out, and it all looks like a mess again. The advantage that I cling onto is that I can wrap all the wires back up again with insulation tape once in place. The engine will be coming out, so will the gear box, drive shaft etc etc. in order to spray the engine bay properly.

Inside the car with the main loom out, only the heater control loom and the rear link loom is still in place. The car is almost back to how it was when I got it! In a way I’m a little sad, but on the other hand it will be a better job than before. (I must keep telling myself this to keep the spirits up). Short-term I will not hear that bark of my v8 again for a little while anyway.

Review:

As it’s winter and it can be cold the good lady wife took pity on me and bought me a heater for the shed or garage while I am working out there on my beloved Mustang. The only thing is wanted something that was in keeping with what I had, retro in other words. There are these horrible plastic boxes out there that do the job, but I just don’t like them. I mentioned that I liked a particular style made by Honeywell and I was lucky enough to get it. Women have this knack to store things in their heads for ages, in this case it worked for me. Most of the time it’s evidence used against me when I am after something. Know what I mean guys? I have reviewed the Honeywell Heater HZ-510E1 under Accessories Reviews. Is it as good as it looks?

Quick Links:

Accessories Reviews – Honeywell Heater HZ-510E1 or click here for the hyper link

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Took my crimping tools away with me!

Why did you take the tools with you? Did I hear you ask, OK perhaps you didn’t then!

Anyway, I had been working away for a couple of days and stayed in a great hotel. As I was on my own (Billy no mates), It gave me time to work on blog in the hotel room, I know I should be drinking beer etc. Moving on, as a result of the time on my own I could work on the latest review of the American Autowire (AAW) Crimps that compliment the American Autowire Upgrade kit I install and reviewed. The crimping tools review is found under the “Tool Reviews” button and the Wiring Loom is found under the “Part Reviews” button now located on the home bar at the top.

Or click the hyper links for the reviews of the AAW wiring loom here, for the AAW Crimp tools here.

I took the tools with me as I find it a lot easier to write about them when they are to hand, plus the fact they are only small and didn’t take up to much room. See, there was a logical explanation 🙂

Not long now for Christmas Day, I will be looking forward to a nice break over the holidays and get a few hours in on the car. Maybe Boxing Day would be ideal. I have no intention of going to the sales, unless there are some Mustang bits in it for me!