Brake pipes – One Man And His Mustang

During the week I was sent a teaser picture by the guys from Mustang Maniac. What was that picture? It was of my engine. Now there is nothing new about that, as I have posted (quite) a few of them myself, but this was a little different. The engine was sitting at the front of my car. The guys were happy that the engine was ready to go in. It was going to be a weekend for me as it was my first engine refit and I couldn’t wait.

On arrival the brake lines were finished and Yogi has excelled himself yet again. Now I love doing the brake lines, but I must admit, Yogi does them better than me. The brake reservoir was in, connected up to the three way splitter box and not the four way original and the pipe work to the disc brakes are now in place. It’s a different car already to look at. I would be happy with the drum brakes and they would work if it was only me on the road. However I am worried about other nutters on the road that do stupid things in front of me. I know I can stop the car where I want to when I want to, but I can’t cater for the excellent braking capability of modern cars, and in comparison my drums were not going to be able to stop me as fast in an emergency. I always drive with plenty of space between me and the car in front, but you just never know. My new disc conversion will give me that extra stopping power should I need it and safety peace of mind. The brake reservoir now has front and rear split for the brake lines. Should the pipes leak or fail on either the front or back, then I have would have the other independent half to stop me, at some point that is. The original brake booster set up was a single reservoir for all four corners of a drum brake distributed by a three way splitter, so if one corner brake cylinder leaks, then the whole lot gets dangerous. With a brute of an engine like the 289ci you need it to stop as well as get of the line. Drums are notorious for fade when they get hot, on England’s roads the inclines can be quite step, so constant braking down a long hill could cause issues. But in the USA everything is pretty much flat, apart from a few places like San Francisco of course, so it wasn’t so much of a problem then.

Mustang Maniac had ordered me in a particular disc conversion kit that I was after for my car, and it arrived at the end of last week. Yogi and Adam wasted no time in bolting the parts to the car.

The discs are vented and slotted along with four pot calipers for superior stopping power assisted by the new brake booster reinstalled last week.

Once the discs were in place the steering bar, steering ram, tie rod ends, idler arm etc. fittings were all bolted into place. The tie rods were just finger tight as the geometry has to be completed at some point before the road testing. Due to the full three inch opening of my powder coated headers, there needs to be an extended steering ram spacer fitted. I have covered this on a previous photo set, click here for the quick link or look up Steering Ram in the search.

With all the brakes fitted and piped up and the performance springs now in place, the outer shock tower covers could be fitted. This was pretty much the underside of the car completed apart from gearbox, prop and exhaust etc.

Engine Fitting:

The engine was attached to the crane and aligned up to the front of the car. John, Yogi, Chris and Me were all there ready and waiting to put the engine in. I was on crane duty listening to the instructions to lower, push forward or back etc. The guys were either side of the engine bay to guide the freshly refurbished engine in place and trying not damage the fresh paint work. There is a secret to getting the engine in with the hood still fitted and is a closely guarded. Shhh here is some of it! The engine is moved into the engine bay sideways just under the hood, then lowered a little, twist it quarter of a turn so it’s the correct position and lower down again. But I didn’t tell you that! Anyway, as I was on crane duty I still managed to grab a few pics of the process.

With the engine almost in place, the long mount bolts were slotted through to take the weight. I have a few pics here of the engine mounts after their refurbishment, not that you will ever see them, but I will know of course.

The nuts and bolts were finger tightened on and the crane disconnected from the engine. There she was all sitting pretty and ready to go. The tape was still in place over the carb inlet and the old rockers cover still there for now. We will test fire the engine and then replace the rockers with the ones I want a little later. The distributor cap is an old one and will be replaced so it’s only there to keep the insides of the distributor clean too.

With our hard work and with no damage what so ever, John decided to photo bomb a picture for me! 😀

Just to keep the silicon pipe work fresh and the engine clean the Mustang Maniac logo heater pipes were just pushed over the water fittings before the final trim ups as they are much to long at the moment.

So there you have it – a major milestone was completed, the engine was in, the heart of the car ready to start beating in the near future. The rear wheels are on the car and the fronts will be on as soon as the steering column gets fitted in place. Then the car will be ready to roll where ever it’s needed to go. I am so chuffed with the results of seeing the painted engine in the engine bay, the brake pipes, the steering and suspension, I can’t find the right words to express it, and that’s a true first for me!

I may be a bit biased here, but I think it looks great even with the old bits still on it. Thanks to the Mustang Maniac guys, yet again.

Share my Content

The weekend arrived and I couldn’t wait to get down to see what the guys had done to my car. I wasn’t disappointed. The car was well and truly in bits and the rear axle was on the leaf springs on a pallet. The engine was out and the front suspension was in bits on the floor, all the smaller parts were all in a large plastic tub ready for me to clean up. The steering rack was out, and all that was left was the steering column and the brake servo in the sparse looking engine bay. When I asked Adam what needed to be done, there was a walk around the car and the list duly flowed forth. The rest of the engine bay to be stripped clean, pipes off, the gas pedal out, steering box out and the servo without saying. All brake pipes underneath and fuel lines, the rear valance, oh and the rear lights out, oh and the gas tank out with the shocks out too, don’t forget the rear valance of as well as that was damaged beyond repair. In fact, if it had a bolt on it, it needs to come out. The day was going to be busy and I had my instructions, I was excited and off I went. I completed my tasks as requested with the guys giving me tips and tricks of the trade as I went along. When I got to a certain part like how do I get the column out, I was shown the parts in question, told the process and off I went again. In fact I have taken lots of pictures of the removal process’ and I will write them all up. But I have some teaser pictures here for you.

Engine out

almost empty bay

steering rack

springs and shocks on the way out

suspension removed

spndle and suspension out

steering box

steering column

top of the steering column

Sunday I decided to clean up one of the larger bits I had in my man cave the prop shaft. Last week I explained the process (click here for the link). I took the prop shaft into the garden on the sunny day and I needed to remove the old underseal from it. The rotary wire brush made short work of it attached to the drill until I got to the UV ends. At the diff end there are two cups that are held in place by the U-clamps on the diff. These cups come off but are filled with small needle bearings and need to be treated with care so they don’t all fall out. Once the cups are removed keep them safe out-of-the-way, then it’s de-grease and clean, and clean again, and more cleaning. The grease and grime were so bad that you couldn’t even see the grease nipples. The Marine Clean in a 1:1 mix made a good job of breaking it all down.

diff end with cups held in place

gearbox end

unable to even see the grease nipples.

wrap removed

removing a cup

cup removed

both cups

With the prop cleaned up and de-rusted it looked a very different part that’s for sure. Off to the man cave.

cleaned up shaft

gearbox end cleaned

grease nipple can now be seen

other side of box end

diff end cleaned

again grease nipple can be seen

I retired to the man cave for the POR15 first coat. the problem was how to paint it? I had to make a rack to hold the prop in the air so I could get access all around the prop. The idea worked well if not a little delicate, I think I will spray the prop white, the same colour as the shocks once it’s done. The full process of the painting and clean up can be seen on the quick link below.

diff end

bare shaft

box end

starting the paint

half of the shaft

box end treated

shaft single coated

diff end treated

diff end

I shall be posting the steering box removal process, soon as well as the other little projects and clean ups. I mentioned the lights earlier!

rear lights in place

no lights and fuel tank out.

The process was very simple, four Philips screws hold the lens and trim in place, remove them and pull the housing and the lens off to expose the bulb, remove the bulb as well. Inside the car there are four studs with nuts on for the housing, undo these and the light housing will pull out. Dead simple. I will have to replace the holders as the as reflectors are rusty and no good for anything now unfortunately.