Resurfaced Flywheel

I asked about my flywheel condition from FMOC (Finnish Mustang Owners Club) forum and found a fellow hobbyist who said that he had the necessary tools to resurface it. I drove there the same evening and he was not kidding. Drills, lathe, mill etc. There are not many machining jobs that could not be handled in his basement.

We started with the bellhousing. I had used some hours (and two cans of Brakleen) to clean it earlier so handling it would not be so disgusting. Drilling two holes to it did not take long and it was ready to accept the adapter plate. I think I'll paint it before installing it back to the car.

Then it was time to attach the flywheel to the lathe. He used a dial gauge to make sure it would rotate straight and put the machine to work. It took a few hours and finally we had taken 1,7 mm (0.067 inches) off the surface to get all the hardened parts out. I checked the 1966 Mustang shop manual and it says: "If it is necessary to remove more than 0.045 inch of stock from the original thickness, replace the fly wheel."

I read some discussions in the web and found that the durability should not be a problem (especially with a stock motor) but the clutch could be. Or more closely, the clutch fork might not have enough range to disengage the clutch any more. I have to do some investigation if adding some washers to the fork pivot could fix this issue or should I just get a new flywheel. At least the old one looks quite good now.

T5 Swap Part 2

It was time to push on with the transmission swap. I watched the CJ Pony Parts video and wrote a list how I should proceed with the project. So let's go through it.

1. Remove The Shifter

To remove the shifter, I simply lifted the rubber boot and unscrewed the two bolts under it. Seems that there should be four screws holding the rubber boot to the transmission tunnel but mine were missing.

2. Drain The Oil

I had done this already by unscrewing the drain plug with an adjustable wrench and letting the oil out to a container.

3. Remove The Drive Shaft

Again an easy job of unscrewing four nuts at the back of the drive shaft, removing the U bolts and then pulling the yoke out of the transmission. I will probably have to shorten the drive shaft before putting it back in but that needs to be measured when the T5 is in the car.

4. Remove the Starter Motor

The starter is held on to the bellhousing with two bolts. I removed those and left the starter hanging by the cable from the starter relay. Then I loosened the cable retainer bolt and removed the starter motor.

5. Separator Plate Bolts

While working with the starter, I also removed the two bolts from the front of the bellhousing that hold the bottom lip of the separator plate in place.

6. Clutch Linkage

Next I removed the clutch linkage. It was held on by a cotter pin and could then be pulled out.

7. Speedo cable

The speedometer cable goes to the back of the transmission and is held on with one bolt. Unscrew that and the gear can be pulled out.

8. Back Up Light Switch

My back up light switch wire came through the shifter opening. I separated the connector and left the switch itself connected to the transmission.

9. Disconnect The Transmission From The Bellhousing

It was time to move to the heavier stuff. I loosened the four bolts that hold the transmission to the bellhousing. I left the bottom two loosely in place so they support the transmission for now.

10. Disconnect The Crossmember

I removed the two nuts that hold the transmission to the crossmember. Surprisingly they were not completely rusted and came off quite easily.

11. Loosen The Transmission From The Engine

I wiggled the transmission a bit until it started to separate from the bellhousing. This is where the two bolts that I left there stopped it from coming out completely.

12. Support The Weight Of The Transmission

I places an extra cinder block under the transmission and used my floor jack to take the weight of the transmission off the crossmember.

13. Disconnect The Handbrake Cable

By loosening the handbrake adjuster nut I could remove the lever that was attached to the crossmember.

14. Remove The Crossmember

With the weight off, I hammered out the two bolts that held the crossmember to the frame. It was a pretty tight fit but I just managed to get the crossmember out from between the exhaust pipes. I had not removed them for the swap.

15. Drop The Old Transmission

This is where I got into some trouble. I did not dare to just lie under the transmission and try to lift it out. It would probably just fall on me and cause some injury. Nor did I have a lifter tool to use. The small floor jack didn't lift high enough and the transmission would just probably roll off it.

Finally I just decided to let the transmission drop down. Not straight to the floor though. I placed two cinder blocks under it and placed the old interior carpets on them for padding. Then I pulled the transmission out and carefully let it come down on the carpet. Next I added some steps and more carpets and gradually pulled the transmission down on the floor. It took a long time but finally the heaviest part was out of the car.

16. Take The Thrush Bearing Out

The thrust bearing is just placed in the groove of the clutch fork. It comes out by sliding it to the side.

17. Remove The Bellhousing

The bellhousing is attached to the engine with six bolts. I had to remove the two top ones through the hood and the other from below. Then the bellhousing should just drop down with a few slight taps.

18. Remove The Clutch

Next under the bellhousing is the clutch. It seemed that mine had been replaced at some point and was attached with six allen head bolts. Unscrew them and the clutch drops down.

19. Remove The Flywheel

The six bolts holding the flywheel were pretty tight. Turning them would just rotate the engine. So I screwed in two of the clutch bolts and placed the jack handle between them. It contacted with the exhaust pipe and prevented the engine from turning further. Then apply some force and the bolts come out.

20. Remove The Separator Plate

With the flywheel out, the separator plate under it is not held on with anything and should come out with some wiggling.

Assembly

Next I can start the assembly. I need to take the bellhousing and flywheel to a machine shop first though. To use the T5 adapter plate, two holes must be drilled to the bellhousing and I do not dare to do them by hand. They can sand the flywheel too. I'll have to ask them what they think about its condition first though. Seems that there are some small fractures in it.

T5 Swap Part 1

After the plan to fix the rust damage failed, I decided it was about time to start the bigger projects. And what better was there to start with than the transmission swap. Now I just had a problem of how to get the Mustang high enough to get the transmission out. I've been thinking about it for a while and finally figured that a good (and cheap) way to get the car up was to buy some cinder blocks and lift it on them.

I fetched ten blocks (a few extra just in case) from the nearest hardware store and got to work. I used my small floor jack to lift the front corners up and placed a block under the tires. Then I lifted the whole rear up from the axle housing and added more blocks. Finally I lifted the front again and placed another block on the first one. Now the Mustang was high enough so I placed some wedges on both sides of the tires so the car won't roll of the blocks while I'm under it.

Lifting the car took most of the evening so I had just enough time left to drain the transmission oil and remove the drive shaft. I think I'll watch through the excellent CJ Pony Parts video of the T5 swap once more before continuing.

Last Road Trip

I visited Tampere with the Mustang last weekend. It was probably the last longer drive of this year. The plan was to weld the holes in the floors so I could install a new interior during winter. Me and my friend drove to a garage and started grinding the rust off. Unfortunately quite soon it became clear that with the rust gone, there wasn't much floor left in the passenger side front footwell.

It didn't make any sense to start patching the floor so we decided to leave it and just fix a few smaller holes. I'll have to get a new floor panel before we can complete the welding. Unfortunately that means it won't be done until next spring. Oh well, at least we managed to get rid of the rust elsewhere and spray some rust proofing on the footwells.

Winter Is Coming

Temperatures have been dropping really fast in Finland for the past week. Winter is coming, as Ned Stark would say. So it was time to start the project. I needed to paint the floors and it had to be done while it was still warm so that would be the first job.

The interior would have to come out so I unbolted the seats and put them in storage. Next were the seat belts and kick panels. Then I could remove the carpets and see the actual floors. It was not a pretty sight. Both front foot wells were covered in rust. Rear floors were a bit better but the paint was bubbling there too.

It seemed that the driver side front floor had been fixed at some point. Some parts of the floor had been cut and replaced with straight sheet metal. Other flooring might actually be original for the car. Unfortunately the rust proofing had been done pretty poorly. A really thin layer of paint had been sprayed on the floor and it just was not enough to protect it.

I cleaned most of the dirt and rust away with a wire brush and then vacuumed the interior. That's when I found the holes. Passenger side foot well was the worst. The front corner had a bunch of small holes and there were a few others elsewhere. I guess it could be much worse for such an old car but I still need to fix them before putting the new interior in.

Some not-so-professional fixes in the driver floor

Bunch of holes in passenger side floor

Some surface rust in driver side rear floor

And more of the same on passenger side

Borg Warner T5

Well, won't you look what the cat dragged in.

Or rather, I ordered from Trade Parts and fetched from Tuusula when the parts arrived. It seems that I'll have to actually go through the T5 swap during winter.

I searched for a T5 transmission for some time and called many different possible dealers. I found a few used ones but only Trade Parts had a rebuild unit in stock. They also had some used transmissions but the price difference was not that big so I decided to get the rebuild T5. At least that way I would have some warranty.

Buying the transmission from them was convenient because they had all the other necessary parts also in stock: a new clutch, adapter plate and cross member. I thought that the conversion kit also includes the T5 yoke, but it didn't, so I'll have to get one before starting. Then it was time to find out what my tranny was made of.

The ID tag reads: E6ZR-7003-FB REP-ATI, 13-52-169 101845 H2173. The important bit is the 13-52-169 so I checked a decoder page and found out these:

• Make: Ford / World Class
• Year: 1986-1989
• Model: Mustang/Capri
• Engine: 5.0
• Max torque (lb/ft): 265
• Gear ratios: 3.35 / 1.93 / 1.29 / 1.00 / 0.68

Should fit pretty well behind my 289 V8. I'm not absolutely sure about the 3.35 first gear ratio and my 3.00:1 rear end.  Some web pages say that it might create an almost useless first gear. Well, we'll see when the transmission has been installed.

New Parts And Brake Pads

I received a call from another Mustang hobbyist today. He had a new rear valance panel for sale that had holes for reverse lights and GT style exhausts. The price was right so I drove by to buy it. He also had a pair of trim ring moldings for the exhaust and couple of used back up lights. I bought all of them too.

The trip was about 100 km (62 miles) and the Mustang worked great during the drive. The hesitation when accelerating was now gone but another strange problem raised its ugly head. The car started fine when cold but not when hot. I had to give it some gas and turn the key for a while before the engine started running. Perhaps this is because I tuned the choke. It had been screwed completely open and I closed it up to help with cold starts. The new radiator cap also seemed to stop the coolant overflow after long drives.

When I got home I decided to replace the brake pads. And it was about time. One of the old ones had wore down to the rivets and the other three were not much better. I pushed the pistons back in the calipers and installed the new pads. And oh boy, they made a huge difference! Now I could lock up the wheels easily and the Mustang stopped much better. I had been planning on upgrading to power brakes but now I see that they are not really necessary.