Thursday, December 22, 2011

Mea Culpa......

Seems my inattentiveness has come back to bite me square on the ass.

I dropped the transmission and was amazed at the pristine condition my clutch disc, pressure plate and flywheel were in. I was stumped at what the problem could be until I looked at the clutch fork pivot I put in. It was loose.

Stepping back in time, I had a SFI bell-housing I wanted to use instead of buying a new one so I could use my Tremec and not the T5. The problem was the SFI was set up for a push-style clutch fork and I needed a pull-style for my new hydraulic clutch slave cylinder. The solution I came up with was to weld in a support for a pivot so I could use the pull-style clutch fork out of the donor 95 Mustang.

All worked well until the pivot screwed itself away from the clutch, which led to my slowly worsening clutch performance. Each time I pushed down on the clutch, it would turn slightly, and become shorter. The reason for this movement? I neglected to install a lock washer with my jam nut. :-(

The pivot now has a lock washer along with LocTite.

I have taken the opportunity to replace the rear main seal, and I dropped the oil pan to fix a slow leak. Tomorrow I am going to be cutting out the bad parts of my exhaust and replacing them. I had posted previously that the shop that did my exhaust did not do a good job, so I am fixing that.

The horns are now wired to allow for my 1964 steering wheel with a 1965 wiring harness. I just added a relay which the horn switch gives ground to. I also built a new subwoofer box that is a full cubic foot in volume and will fit behind my seat. It is tall, but once I cover it with black carpet, it should not be as noticeable.

Finally, I welded a bracket onto my transmission mount for a vertical emergency brake cable puller. The stock 1965 E-brake uses a horizontal arm which is the lowest point on the car. I decided to move all of that stuff up into the tunnel and out of harm's way. Once I get it installed, I'll snap a pic and post it.

A project car is never complete. Especially when I build it. :p

Monday, December 5, 2011

Parked?

I had to park the Mustang. I think my clutch is coming apart, which is unexpected since it has never been abused. Over a two week period, the symptoms got progressively worse.

Suddenly, I could not downshift into second in order to navigate a 90 degree right turn. I was able to get it in once I bumped the lever a few times. At this point I thought my 2nd gear syncro was toast. I dismissed the clutch as the cause because all other gearbox functions were unaffected. I could even get into reverse without a crunch, which eliminated the clutch as the cause in my mind.

At the end of the two week period, suddenly all the gears were tough to get in-out of and reverse crunched like crazy.

I put the car on the lift and confirmed my hydraulic clutch mechanism was moving the fork far enough for complete disengagement. This leaves dropping the trans as my next step, but time is in short supply until the second week in December at the soonest.

It is a disappointment to have this failure, but I've got something clunking in the front suspension when I reverse and turn out of a parking spot, so I've got to troubleshoot that too. I've put a few thousand miles on the car, so I should take the time to give it a once over and check for loose stuff that should not be loose. I need to get the horn working, along with a few other odds and ends.