All about timing

 Distributor adjustment and electronic points.

Per my update from yesterday, I added WD-40 to the distributor where it goes into the block to tray and get it to move. The timing of the engine is way to advanced for it to run right at about 25deg BTC at idle and then with vacuum advance it was advancing over 35 deg.

I managed to get the distributor to move by tapping it with the handle of a large screw driver. I managed to get the timing back to about 8 deg BTC. At this timing it seems to idle nicely but still has a slight miss.

I then decided to add the Pentronix Ignitor electronic points to the distributor. After some issues with it not working and an issue with arching at the coil, I managed to find solutions to the challenges and got the electronic points to work perfectly. 

The slight miss is gone and the car starts instantly on the turn of the key even when cold.

My next task for the day was to make a start and clean up the surface rust in the boot / trunk.

I found that where the seam sealer putty was put in place from factory, large parts of it had slightly come away and there was a fair bit of surface rust under it. Mainly between the tail lights. I set about removing as much as I could and cleaning the surface of the boot with a steel wheel on the end of a drill. 

It is now ready for some anti rust treatment and then paint. Before I finish this, Nev and I will work on repairing the rust in the bottom of the rear quarters. The left side has a few holes and not too bad. Unfortunately the right side has been repaired before and has a few large holes.

The plan is to just fill it for now with bog to get it on the road and then look at a more premiant fix later.

Once the rear seat belts arrive this week I will reinstall all the back trim. Then the only tasks to complete is exhaust and the rust repair.

Stay tuned.

More original paperwork

 A bit of a jackpot.

Today I had the need to go to Just Mustangs in Riddels Creek to pick up some bolts and some exhaust hangers in preparation for the exhaust install. 

In the past Russell had mentioned that there was some paper work on the way for my car and that it had been delayed. Well, a week or so ago it arrived. 

The original California registration number is 207-GGV

Here is what came..

There is a small 10 page Atlas that has a typed note in the front to the owners and a typed to and from address on the pack.

Here is a test report that came from Ford as part of the delivery of the car. Note the car ID number is on the document.

Here is the envelope that original service tag 

This is the original service tag. Very hard to come by.

The back of the service tag document.

Original registration documents.

Looks to be '73

Not sure what year this is..

1982

1981

1974.

Very cool documents to have.

Trans extension housing seal

 Another job ticked on the roadworthy list.

This Queens birthday long weekend and due to Melbourne Covid19 Lockdown V4.0, it was time to tick another box on the list of jobs for the roadworthy. Fortunately the list is getting shorter and shorter.

The 1st job of the day was to replace the rear or output shaft auto transmission extension housing seal.

The one in the car has a slight leak per the picture.

Getting the old seal out was relatively simple. I was warned that once the seal was removed the auto trans may leak out of the gearbox, so I place the car on our slightly angled driveway nose down and then jacked up the back of the car so that this limited the possibility of auto trans fluid leaking from the back of the gearbox.

Fortunately, none came out once the old seal had been removed.

I made up a new seal insertion tool by drilling a hole in a lump of timber so that it would clear the output shaft on the gearbox and still leave timber so that it would make contact with the new seal. The new seal is a press fit but needed some persuasion.

Here is the highly technical tool, aka lump of wood with a hole cut in it.

After a bit of messing around and a few tries, the seal went in relatively easily. I then reinstalled the tail shaft and all was done.

The next task was to replace the engine oil as I did not know how old the oil was in the car.

The 1st step was to add engine oil flush to the motor in order to clean out the deposits in the engine.

I ran the engine for about 15 min to warm up the oil and enable the Nulon oil flush to do its job.

Then I removed the old oil and filter and installed some new Penrite HPR30.

This completed another job to ensure that all oils have been refreshed.

The next job on the list is to get the vacuum lines in the right places and the timing right.

As the car has Califonia emissions on it, Im keen to keep it standard, but need to check to make sure all is working correctly.

Im fairly sure that the cold start vacuum retard is not working as when the car is warm it does not shut off. So for now I have bypassed it. I also think that the electronic switch that enables vacuum advance from the carby is also not working, so have bypassed that also. 

Then with a timing light it seems that with the vacuum from the carby it is advancing too far, so need to adjust the distributor. Unfortunately, the distributor seems to be stuck or rusted in place and I cant seem to move it. I have added some WD-40 and let it sit over night and will come back to it tomorrow.

More to follow..

 

Front seat belts

 Another step in the right direction.

Last week I ordered the new front seat belts and decided on black as the colour as that's what the car had from factory.

I ordered the belts from Hemco in Ballarat and are basically the same as XA / XB / XC hard top Falcons.

Here is the spec sheet.

Here is the belt with the inertia real before install. The 250mm long drop link is part of the belt.

Here is the belt and the centre stalks installed.

I'm currently waiting on Hemco to get back to me re the back seat belts to see if they have a belt on an inertia real that I can unhook from the top sash mount so I can fold it out of the way when not in use due to the fold down rear seat.

Here is a picture of a black interior car showing where I need to mount the sash belt.

Here is the back of the car showing the seat belt mounts with the rear trim removed.

Here is a picture of the rear seat folded down.

As can be seen, Once I mount the sash part of the belt it will be seen and in the way when the rear seat is folded down. The bolt for the sash will go in the side panel just below the window is there is a inner metal part of the body that I can bolt it into.

Will continue to work with Hemco and the VASS Engineer to see what solution I can come up with.

 

Dash, Gauge tunes install

 Back in one piece.

After a few weeks of waiting for parts and some clean up work on the dash, I was finally able to get the dash back together and reinstalled and it looks a treat!.

I tried to clean up as much as I could while the dash was out. I also had the crash pad out and cleaned that up.

As part of the install, I replaced the dash lens. The 71-73 Mustang is notorious for having poor dash illumination. So I replaced the illumination globes with LED ones. I left the factory blue tinge lenses in place. While the LED's are not dimmable, they are not too bright.

As the car does not have the deluxe dash, it only has warning lights for oil pressure and temperature. As part of the dash reinstall, I installed 3 gauges under the dash that are for engine oil pressure, engine temp and volts from the alternator.

I'm a firm believer in trying to keep things as original as I can and only change stuff that can be undone, so this means done cut wiring looms etc. As such, the gauge install was done by adding extra wires for the temp sensor and the oil gauge.

For the temp sensor, I replaced the original on/off switch temp sensor with a variable one that is compatible with the new gauge. For the oil sensor, I added a brass T to enable me to install both the factory gauge and the oil pressure gauge that is compatible with the new gauge.

I then sourced a plug that enabled me to plug the power and dash lights wires that are turned on with accessories via the factory radio power socket.

 

Here is the install.

The other task I completed this weekend was the install of a small and simple MP3 / Bluetooth / FM radio unit. As I want to keep the interior looking standard, I installed the new unit in the glove box.

I also replaced the glove box lining as the original one had been wet at some point and as they are made of cardboard, it had swelled and was rather yuk.

As the previous owner had installed speakers in the rear side panels just behind the seats, I will use these same holes. I have a new set of speakers for the task.

Here is the unit installed in the glove box. It has a remote, so if I want to change the volume, I can via the remote.

At present the unit is just floating in the glove box. I need to find a way to hold it down while avoiding damaging the new glove box insert.

The other job this weekend was to find out how to best install the rear seatbelts. So I continued to remove the rear trim from the back of the car. I spoke to another 71-73 mustang owner in QLD this week and he sent me some pictures of his install.

While I plan to continue to use inertia real belts in the back as they are from factory, this gave me some ideas as to how to mount the sash part of the belt.

Here are some pics of the back of the car with all but the head lining removed.

Fortunately the is ample metal work in the top part of the inner rear quarter and access space behind in to be able to put the mounting bracket they holds the seat belt nut.

I plan to install the belt retainer in around the space where there is a large hole with the small one just above it. The factory interior in this location is cardboard so simple to drill through. I will talk to the VASS guy on Monday to make sure that he is happy with using this sheet metal. I'm sure it will be fine..

The front belts are on order, and I expect to receive them this week. I went with black as my car has standard trim and no belt upgrades so the factory ones would have been black.

Once I have spoken to the VASS guy, I will order the back ones also.

Once the belts are installed, I'm down to 4 tasks to complete before a roadworthy.

Front end alignment

Replace exhaust system

Replace gearbox tail shaft seal

Repair rust in the bottom of the rear quarter.

So getting there slowly.. Looking forward to going for a cruise....... 

More door and rubber seals

 One more step in the right direction.

Over the weekend I found that the 2 rubber grommets were missing from the front foot wells under the carpet and sound deadening. So I ordered a grommet kit from Griffs in Ballarat. These arrived the next day via express post.

The next trick was to figure out where they all go. The bottom left 2 look to be correct for the front foot wells, but the same size is also present in the boot of the car.. So I have taken some pictures and asked via the 71-72 Mustang forum for advice as to what goes where.

This is one of the 2 in the boot area.

I also installed the 2 long ones in the back of the car that covers the tops of the shock absorbers and a blank section.

As part of the same order with Griffs, I also ordered the rubber seal that goes on the B pillar that joins the bottom of the rear quarter window. The window in my car does not move, but I'm told that if a 71-73 Sports roof car is ordered with power windows, then the windows do go up and down. 

The old seals were fairly hard and damaged. Here are the before pictures.

Here are the after pictures. I will change the screws so they all match.

The next task is to reinstall the dash and set up the wiring for the additional engine water temperature gauge and the engine oil pressure gauge.

Then I will look to replace the door seals that run along the bottom of the front doors.

I installed the boot seal over the weekend and opted to not glue it in to see if it would stay in place. Time will tell. The boot is now fairly hard to close but this is due to the new seal. So it hopefully will compress over time.