More Carb Tuning And Paint Cleaning

I did some research about my Autolite 4100 carb during the day and found out why my choke was not working. Mustang Monthly forum had a few excellent pictures how the hot air choke should work.

There should be a tube from the carburetor going down to the exhaust manifold and back up again to the choke housing. When engine starts and the manifold gets hot, it warms the air going through it. This hot air gradually opens the choke blade by heating the spring inside the housing.

Problem with my car is that the cold air tube from the carburetor was missing completely and the hot air tube had broken off from the manifold. Some rusted remains were still in the manifold so I don't think I can attach the tube without replacing both. Perhaps I should just replace the hot air choke with an electric one...

While investigating the choke, I also checked the accelerator pump again. I opened it up and noticed that the small rubber elastomer valve under it was not correctly in place. I pushed it in, closed the pump cover and started the car. This time the pump worked perfectly. I took a test drive and the whole car handled much better when accelerating. I also tuned the choke settings and this seemed to correct the high idle speed too!

Finally, as the weather was a bit better today, I continued the paint cleaning chore. I snapped a photo of the half cleaned hood. It's pretty clear how big difference the cleaner wax does.

Unfortunately it's pretty hard and annoying job. I still have to roof and sides to go though. I don't want to use a polishing rotary tool as the tar has stuck on so hard. There's a risk of damaging the paint when trying to remove them.

Basic Maintenance

I visited US-Parts today to get some basic maintenance parts for the Mustang. I spent some time earlier crawling under the car checking things and found a few small issues. The brake pads were pretty thin and cracked a bit. They needed to be replaced. Driver side suspension was also squeaking annoyingly while driving. Greasing the joints fixed that problem. I also found some rust from the right side front frame. I'll might have to weld a small fix there.

I also decided to get a new radiator cap as some coolant was coming out of the overflow hose. Could be because the old cap had perished. And while at it, I got a new air filter and some engine gaskets ready for winter.

It was raining the whole evening so I could not wax the car today. It was a good time to check the carburetor and fix the accelerator pump. I found a good blog earlier that has a lot of information on old Mustangs: The Care And Feeding Of Ponies. It also had a nice post about Autolite carbs. I followed the instructions and replaced the pump diaphragm. This still did not completely fix the stumble. Sometimes the pump seemed to work and some times it did not squirt any gas. I'll investigate it further later...

Paint Cleaning

The paint on my Mustang is not that great and there were some strange black spots all over the car. It seemed as if some tar like goo had been sprinkled over the body. I decided that it was time to give the car a proper wash.

Unfortunately normal car washing soap did nothing to the spots. I was a bit worried that they had already corroded the paint. I had some old Turtle Wax Extreme Nano-Tech Cleaner that I had used on the Corvette some years ago so I decided to test it again. And after many hours, bloody fingers and loads of rubbing later the spots were gone. They were really hard to get rid off but luckily the paint was intact under them.

Just cleaning the car took so long that I'll need to give it a proper coat of wax on some later date.

Downloadable Owners Manual

I was asked if I could scan and share the original Owners manual of my car. So here it is. You can download the Finnish PDF by clicking here.

History Report

The complete history report that I ordered from Finnish transport agency arrived today. It included the same report from 1988 until today that you can download from their website and three photocopies of older documents.

The Mustang was sold as new from Lappeenrannan Autokeskus OY and first registered to Finland at 21. September 1967. After the car dealer the owner list looks like this:

• 19. September 1967 - 12.October 1968: Kaarlo from Savitaipale. This photocopy was really poor quality so I'm not absolutely sure of the dates.
• 12. October 1968 - 11. November 1987: Jukka from Valkeala.
• 11. November 1987 - 12. November 1988: Information missing. Jukka sold the car but the next owner is marked from 12. November 1988 onwards. Perhaps the next owner did not register the car for a year?
• 12. November 1988 - 22. March 1995: Aki from Kuusankoski
• 22. March 1995 - 4. September 1995: Hans from Kuusankoski
• 4. September 1995 - 8. November 2005: Ari from Kuusankoski
• 8. November 2005 - 26. August 2013: Ari from Jaala
• 26. August 2013 onwards: me

Project Plans

Driving season for hobby cars in Finland is going to end in about a month or two so it is time to make some plans for the winter. As I've said, there are a lot of things to fix on my Mustang so let's make a list.

Engine

Carburetor

The carb in my car has a tag with text "C6ZF A" and "A 5HD" on it. So it is the original Ford Autolite 4100 480 CFM unit. It works pretty well but there is something wrong with the choke. When the engine is cold, it starts immediately but usually stalls a couple of times before warming up a bit. I'll clean it and install a rebuild kit that hopefully will fix the problem.

I would really like to replace the carb with an EFI unit, like the Fast EZ EFI but they are pretty expensive. The base kit seems to be about $1650 and EFI conversion kit for the fuel tank another $500. I'll stick with the carb for now...

Gaskets

I need to replace some gaskets on the engine. At least the timing chain cover is leaking. While doing that, I'll also replace the water pump and intake manifold gaskets. And why not also give some paint to those parts to make the engine bay look a bit better.

Drivetrain

Clutch

The clutch is in pretty bad shape. The whole car shakes badly when starting moving and when changing gears. I have learned to use it during the last week so it is not unbearable but the clutch has to be changed during winter.

Transmission

There's nothing wrong with my current 4-speed transmission except that there is no overdrive. As I have to take it out anyway, I might as well swap in a 5-speed Borg Warner T-5. I've been reading about these swaps and it seems like a pretty straight forward job. If I can find a suitable tranny and the other needed parts without breaking the bank, I'll do this while fixing the clutch.

Interior

Seats

There are no tears or holes in the seats, but they are dirty and the color has faded badly. The rear seat is still fine but both front seats need new covers. I tried cleaning them but they are just too far gone.

Carpets

The floor carpet is the worst part of the interior. It has gotten wet and smells, has been torn to shreds and looks really dirty.

Door Cards

Door cards are also a bit dirty and seem a bit bent. The vinyl cover is warped and the chrome inserts have peeled off. I'll buy new ones.

Steering wheel

The steering wheel is probably an original part and has some cracks in it. Should be pretty simple to replace.

Radio

My car still has the original radio in it. It does not work but I'm not sure if it is broken or just not connected. There are some wires hanging in the passenger footwell from another radio installation that I'll investigate later. If the radio does not work, I might consider having a modern radio installed inside it or just replace it with a retro look head unit. We'll see...

Body

Roof corner

There's a nasty looking rust area where the right side quarter panel attaches to the roof. I hope it's surface rust so I can just clean it away and repaint. Only way to know is to remove the paint though.

Right wheel arch

The wheel arch is also pretty badly rusted. Most likely I'll have to order a replacing piece of sheetmetal and weld it on.

Rear valance panel

Left side of the rear valance panel has a dent in it and the back up light is broken. It has hit something while reversing. I might consider replacing the whole panel with a GT model.

Smaller rust areas

There are other smaller areas that need some work too. I need to check how far they have gone.

The Plan

As the worst obstacle in enjoying driving the car is the clutch, I'll probably start my project from there. Then the interior will probably be next. I'll remove the seats and carpets, clean the interior and rust proof the floors and add some Stinger Roadkill sound damping mat. The road noise level is not that bad but a little more insulation has never hurt anyone.

But all of these tasks are still a bit open until I get the parts for them. At least I have a partial list of things I need so next I'll check if I can find them from Finland or order them from the US.

First Fixes

As the car had been mostly standing for a few years, it had produced a common problem: coolant and oil leaks. There was some oil on the water pump and timing chain cover but I was not sure where it came from. At first I thought the intake manifold cork gasket had perished. I cleaned the oil and added some RTV gasket silicone to the manifold. Unfortunately this did not fix the problem as some more oil had leaked after a test drive.

I removed the air cleaner to check the intake. Soon I noticed that the bolts holding it were really loose! One at finger tightness and others a bit better. I tightened them but this still didn't fix the leak. Most likely the oil was coming through the timing chain cover gasket. Adding some more RTV there finally fixed the leak. I need to replace the gasket during winter.

Luckily the water leaks were simple. Both upper and lower radiator hoses were leaking from under their hose clamps. I just tightened them a bit and the puddles under the Mustang disappeared. The hoses seem old though so I'll replace them too while taking the timing chain cover out.

I also found a nice surprise from the glove box: original owners manual in Finnish. Always fun to flip through these old books.