Another day a few more tasks on the job list complete

 Gearbox and engine mount day.

Today was rear gearbox mount and right side engine mount replacement day.

The day started with the rear gearbox mount needing to be replaced.

While the car has a single exhaust system for most of the way, it combines just after the gearbox extension housing. This can make life a bit tricky re replace the rear gearbox mount.

Fortunately, not so tricky after all. The main bracket came off and out fairly easily and then it was a matter of unbolting the mount and then reinstalling the new one and the crossmember.

Here is a picture of the old one. Does not look to bad, but on close inspection the cracked rubber can be seen.

The next job was the engine mount. After unbolting the mount, the challenge then is to get it out. I figured that if I unbolt the left mount (that was replaced not long ago by the looks of it) from the block, this would enable me to lift the motor enough to get the warn out mount out of the tight space. I lifted the engine by placing a large block of wood under the sump to spread the load on the sump to then lift the motor. I found that I had to unbolt the fan shroud to enable enough lift as the fan blade was hitting the top of the shroud. As the shroud it the original fibreglass version, I did not want to damage it.

Once the old engine mount was out, I installed the new one only to find that the new one had the block bolt holes about 5mm out from where they needed to be. After a quick call to Russell at Just Mustangs, I arranged to go meet him at the factory in Riddell's Creek to check the others and arrange a swap over.

Here is the new mount ready to go in. 

Unfortunately I ran out of time so I placed the old one back in and lowered the engine back on the old one to take pressure off the sump as I will probably not get back to it until next weekend.

While waiting for Russell to be available I made a start on the front castor / strut bushes. After a bit of work I managed to get the castor rod out but it looks like the bushes are in there and are press fitted. 

As I did not have much time and I wanted to check for other kits, I put it all back together. Here is the kit with just the rubber bushes. Next weekend, I will have another go at getting the old ones out. They are similar to a X series Falcon, but the 71 to 73 Mustangs have a bulky cross member under the radiator where as the X series Falcons have a angle brace that goes from the radiator support to the frame rail. Ford changed them for the 71 to 73 Mustangs.. So time will tell.

While checking out the problem with the engine mount at Just Mustangs, I came across a nice new Auto trans shifter cover. Mine, white not cracked, is old looking and is missing the rubber in the leaver slot. As it is a simple 7 screw removal and replacement task, I figured why not. The new one looks so much better. The flash picture does not show the nicer looking cover.

Here is the old one. All the silver (Chrome) is missing from the high points..

Here is the new one installed.

Along the way, while looking for the engine number, I managed to dislodge / break the washer water pipe that connects to the underside of the bonnet. Im not sure if it is bung around the pipe or some other design. So I have asked a few questions on a few Mustang forums to find out before I try and pull it out and possibly damage it more.

 

Well, that's about it for now. That's the end of Sunday. No more time to work on the car and back to work tomorrow. More research to be done over the week between work..

Stay tuned for more updates.

 

   

Working through roadworthy job list and other tasks

A productive day.

Today I set about making a start on the job list to make the old girl roadworthy.

First job of the day was to get the engine running after replacing the plugs yesterday. This was not a large issue as the engine was going, all be it roughly when I drove it off the tilt tray truck on Thursday.

As suspected the radiator has a hole or 2 in it and leaks. Fortunately someone has put glycol in the radiator so the water looks nice and green, all be it a bit low. I topped up the water and let the engine idle for a bit. I think the carby may need a kit through it or at least the engine needs a good run. (Once the radiator is fixed and the car is roadworthy).

Someone asked, how many miles has the car done. The odometer on the car is 08682 miles. So it has done approx. 10,8682 miles, that's 174,906 km. (Michelle's 2008 Hyundai i30 has done more...)

Earlier in preparation, I picked up some parts from Just Mustangs in Riddell's Creek. This is where I purchased the car from. Russell, the owner, is very helpful and has heaps of parts are good prices. Oh so much cheaper than Australian based Falcon parts! While there I picked up a front guard protector that was very suitable for the car.

Part of the appeal of this particular car is the fact that it is very original. Per my last post, it has all the tags etc. One of the roadworthy items was to locate the engine number as the mechanic could not find it. After some research and some elbow grease and steel wool. The engine number was located on the back of the block on the left side behind the kick down rod for the auto trans. With the help of a mirror the engine number was checked and confirmed that it is the original block and all numbers matching.

Here is a picture of the numbers via the mirror. Due to the mirror they are reversed.

With the help of the good old PC, the picture can be flipped to enable the reading of the numbers.

That reads 232551. This is the last part of the body number that is specific to this car.

  Note: Michelle's mirror was cleaned after the exercise.

With the car now turned around and forward into the garage the next task was to replace the rear shackles on the rear springs. While not super difficult, was time consuming. The old rubbers came out looking surprisingly good. It was just the outside edges that had cracked, but the main load bearing part of the rubbers were near perfect. Here is a picture of the old one..

Here is the new left one installed. The right one was also completed.

Once the rear shackles were replaced and while the car was still up on jack stands, I took the opportunity to replace the rear shock absorbers. These are gas filled ones from Scott Drake. As can be seen, there is a fair bit of surface runs around the place, but no deep rust other than the rear quarters.

Next job on the list, while not on the roadworthy job list, was to fix the auto trans gear leaver. It was very sloppy as this is a known feature that the bushes wear out and disappear. I pulled off the small console and selector cover, then removed the whole assembly in order to replace the 2 plastic bushes and then clean up the shifter, re grease the plunger that locks in park etc and then reinstalled. Total cost of repair $2.

That's 3 jobs off the roadworthy list plus a bit of cleaning plus the auto trans selector fix. A productive day.

Tomorrow I will replace the rear transmission mount and hopefully the right front engine mount.

Please continue to follow along.

Good original untouched Mustang

 Time for some documents and pictures of original looking stuff.

Where to start on this one.

Lets start at the back and work my way forward. 

While a little rusty looking, the spare wheel looks to be original with the original tyre installed on it. The tyre still has the yellow paint mark on it. I will ask around some of the Mustang forums to see what I can find out. I'm sure there is some sort of date code on the tyre to identify if it is from 1972.

Next is the seatbelts. To register the car in Australia, it needs to comply with ADR regulations as at 1972 per the build year of the car. There are a few things that need to change, such as headlights (so they point slightly to the left rather than the right). The seatbelt webbing needs to be Australian ADR compliant and the US ones are not compliant. Rather than just replacing with off the shelf units, I plan to get the original ones remade using the original buckles and with Australian compliant belts. There is a place in Braeside that can do this work. My 1st step is to find out if the buckles and lets are the original type and set up. The front seats have a lap sash set up and then an extra shoulder strap the clips into the lap sash buckle. The drivers side push button buckle (pictured below on the right) is different to the other 3 so I suspect it has been replaced at one point. All 4 seats have inertia real on the lap sashes. I can order reproduction belts from the US and local Mustang suppliers, but none look like these ones. So I suspect they are unique to the 71 to 73 series sports roof or fast back cars. The current belts are faded and the flash picture washes them out a bit. But they are ginger in colour to match the seats and the carpet. 

The car are a number of original stickers still on it. It is missing some, but the following still exist from factory.

It also has a number of tags still on the car. The engine tag that appears to be 5th month 1972, the carby tag, and the body build tag. I removed the body tag to take a picture and then reinstalled it from where it came from. I'm yet to determine if the carby is the correct one. I suspect it is at it is a 2 barrel as per the engine code for the car.

 Here is the back of the body tag to help read the codes.

Other parts in the engine bay have a number of form part numbers on them and appear to be 1972 codes or dates. The glass appears to be the original tinted glass. The left rocker cover still has the OK stamp on it. the wiper motor has a 1972 date. The fan shroud usually break from mechanics leaning on them as they are only fiberglass. This one looks to be original fibreglass. The radiator has a leak and will need to be repaired. The headlights are not sealed beam and are different. One is a GE and the other is a Wagner, so I suspect they have been replaced at some point in time.

The ignition and boot keys appear to be the original set. The car was not optioned with a lockable glovebox.

The car same with the original owners manual and warranty and a emissions document. As the car was ordered for California, it was optioned with the emissions pack (extra piping etc under the bonnet, all of which is still installed).

Well that's about all for now. Will do some research into the carby and alternator to see if the part numbers are correct.

Almost forgot.. I replaced the spark plugs this evening. I now remember why I like working on a Windsor 351 rather than a Cleveland. This car has the original headers on it, so the original engine lift rings are still installed and this makes it very hard to install the plug leads on #2 and #7 cylinders. But with a bit of perseverance I got there. I cant imagine what it would be like to replace the plugs on a big block 428 or 429!

I'm told the car is a 1 owner that lived in LA and then moved to Texas at some point. Old told that documentation is on its way from the US (shipped separately from the car). So once I receive that, I will hopefully learn more about the history of the car. 

Please continue to follow along.