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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Raising A Glass or Two

Another trip to Mustang Maniac at the weekend, I was loaded with tools, food and the enthusiasm to match. When I got there the sun was shining which just seemed to make everything much happier, if that makes sense. The task for the weekend was to finish the complete strip down of anything else left in or on the car. The last parts to come out were the brake pedal assembly, emergency brake and the glass from the doors. The emergency brake (hand brake) bolts to the firewall were held in place by a liquid metal that sets. I had a nightmare of a job to get to the bolt head having to chip it off. Eventually I got there and the bolts were removed and the handbrake cable itself. The brake pedal assembly is attached to the fire wall on the inside via four bolts from the back of the servo brackets and also to the back of the dashboard, this was easy enough to undo and remove, in fact much simpler than I expected it to be. The glass however I was little nervous about. They came out of the doors eventually after the guys told me the correct way of doing it, after I spent far too much time trying doing it myself. The bolts for the glass and the mechanisms were in all the wrong places and the fitted incorrectly previously, so it’s no wonder I had issues, well that’s my excuse anyway. My style of learning is not from a book, I can read the books, but it don’t go in. I can look at the pictures and it sort of goes in, but I need to compare it to the real thing. But, if I am shown how to do it, I remember it and it stays there, I’m a kinesthetic learner apparently so my wife informs me. I always assumed it was me being thick when it came to following instructions, apparently not, it just the way I process the information. Anyway I have added a link to the process of the window removal here or go to the quick link at the bottom. All that remains now is to remove the front and rear glass screens. Then she is a bare shell as she was the day she was made!

middle bolt

lift up the quarter

twist to free the bottom

main glass of the rails

bottom of the glass rail checked for rust

Sunday was a day of cleaning and painting the parts from last week, the prop shaft was undercoated with a self-etching primer on top of the POR15 and sprayed white. Yes I did want it white which would match my shocks, and yes I do know I will be cleaning it. But it’s what I want and I am ready for the cleaning. The days I can’t take her out for a spin, I will be cleaning her.

masked up ready

masked up

close up of primer

White gloss applied

3 coats of white gloss

bottom end

I took the brake pedal and the gas pedal assemblies apart and de-rusted them, then treated them to Under Hood satin black. They now look as good as new but took a little while. The Brake assembly was the worst on the inside of the bracket. I managed to get to the outside while I was doing under the dash. The clean-up of the rust parts was a bigger job and I needed to replace the inner bushes of the pivot pin. The process can be found here.

close up

bar removed

pedal lifted out

Rust cure applied

bracket with under hood black

The gas pedal was a very similar process and can be found here for the full process.

untreated

press down the clip

kickdown cable in place

rust treatment applied

coats of under hood satin black & cleaned kickdown cable

Quick links:

The full stories of the work above can all be found on their own pages below:

Door Glass removal can be found here or under Photo Menu – Glass Work – Door glass Removal

Gas pedal can be found here or under Photo Menu – Engine Bay – Brake & Gas Pedal Refurbishment – Gas Pedal

Brake Pedal can be found here or under Photo Menu – Engine Bay – Brake & Gas Pedal Refurbishment – Brake Pedal

Gas & Brake exploded diagram can be found on the pages or click here to view it.

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Bits & Pieces

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.

Four screws each corner

lens and bulb out

removing the housing.

Quick Links:

Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Prop Shaft Renovation. or click here for the link. This will be updated as the project goes along.

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Raising The Standards

The weekend was a strange experience for me as I didn’t get to walk into my garage and see my car there. It is of course in the safe hands of Mustang Maniac in their panel shop. I got up and got ready to go in record time, packed some overalls and tools and took myself off to see the guys. All the way down there I had a silly grin on my face knowing full well I was going to get covered in various lubricants that were leaking from my car if any was still in it that is. On arrival I was speaking to Adam and catching up with all things Mustangs, I was shown new parts that I decided I was going to have along with other parts I was going to get a bit later on. I just have to get this minor detail cleared with the accounts manager, my wife first though. I would like to point out that I was given permission to work with the guys and this is certainly not a normal practice. I just wanted to help get the gearbox, and/or engine out, just so that I can be a part of it all. Adam knows about my blog and has made the kind concession for me. I got changed and ready to go. I was told the procedure to remove the main parts of the car; the prop shaft, gearbox and then the engine, not forgetting all the other attachments between them.

I set to work straight away by getting the car up on some nice big high axle stands, I got my tools out and started to remove the radiator, alternator and starter motor.

Next up was the prop shaft which I have started a renovation guide here, or can be found under the Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Prop shaft renovation.

clamps in place

clamp removed

exposed braket to diff

shaft disengaged

prop in back of gearbox

full prop removed

Working on the engine I was to remove the headers to make room for the next part I wasn’t looking forward too, the transmission cooling pipes that run from the gearbox to the bottom of the radiator. The headers were not bolted in correctly to the block and the dark black soot on the header pipe end itself proves the point. The gasket fell apart as the pipes were removed as well.

The radiator, starter motor and cooling pipes removed, the transmission pipes are now scrap due to the poor amateur installation of the gearbox. You can just about make out the rubber hose on the ends on the transmission pipes.

Terry told me what to look for and a gave me the specialist tool to get to the connections. But what I found was a common botch job, the pipes had a hacksaw taken to them and fitted with a bit of fuel pipe hose and a jubilee clip each end. The botch job is to make it easier to remove the gearbox and refit it, obviously these people didn’t know what they were doing. This saved using the specialist tool as the rubber pipes had perished and now I could see where the leaks were coming from. All the cables, such as the speedo, kickdown throttle linkage, shifter rod, neutral safety switch, hand brake etc were all removed to allow the gearbox freedom of movement. The flywheel and torque converter were undone and the converter was bushed into the bell housing to make the separation easier. The bell housing bolts and support brackets for the gearbox were removed once the weight of the gearbox was taken up underneath as the gearbox and engine were separated. The gearbox was lowered down and moved to the side away from the car.

torque converter

chassis bracket bolts & gearbox

gearbox out from the car

I have a renovation page for the gearbox process too under Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Gearbox Renovation or click here for the quick link. All sounds so simple or so it seems, what took me all day takes the guys a matter of hours. I think I held them up a bit!

I would like to say a big “Thanks” to Adam, Terry, John and Al for helping me out and their invaluable guidance. It was an experience and I am grateful for the knowledge overload that came my way. This type of work I couldn’t do at home as I simply don’t have the heavy gear to do these jobs. I was right about one thing though, I was smothered in all sorts of grime, so the intentions to take photos of all process didn’t really happen from the transmission lines onwards as I didn’t want to drop my camera. But, I have taken some photos under the Photo Menu and I am sure there will be many more to follow. The next time I looked outside it was dark so I reluctantly called it a day, in fact, I called it a very good day. I drove home feeling as though I had achieved something big from my point of view. I am sure there will be more days to feel like I’m sure. I was a happy chap knowing the work I was doing was being aided by the guys who really knew what they were doing.

Oh, remember that daft silly grin I had on the way down there? Well it just got a whole lot bigger all the way home. 😀