The Latest on the Transmission

Back in November I wrote a post about the transmission. The post ended with us needing to put the transmission back together correctly and reinstall it in the car. Well, time for an update. Since that post, we successfully got the transmission back in the car. It drove okay and shifted okay, but we noticed some gear noise. At this point, we are rather familiar with the cost of each component inside the transmission. We decided that it was best to not drive the car but to once again remove the transmission, investigate, and see if we can't determine what was causing the noise before we end up damaging something.


While we've gotten way too much practice removing and reinstalling the transmission, we were somewhat excited about this opportunity. Why you might ask? Because we got to try out Dad's new Christmas present, a 3-ton Craftsman floor jack.

We had previously been using a hydraulic bottle jack with lots of 2X4's. It worked, but this is much nicer. 3 tons seems like overkill since the curb weight of a 1966 Mustang is closer to 2300 pounds, but this particular jack had a higher lift height. With the bottle jack we had to lift the car up and get it on the lowest settings on the stands, then put more blocks under the jack to lift it up further. Lowering it was the same sort of process in reverse. With this jack, we can lift the car up sufficiently high enough and get it on the stands all in one shot.


With the new jack, we were able to get the car lifted and the transmission out in record time. We've got the process down pat: disconnect the gear shit lever, lift the car, drain the gear oil, loosen the bolts to the bellhousing, disconnect the spedometer and reverse switch, unbolt the crossmember from the transmission, remove the drive shaft, remove the cross member, take out the remaining transmission-to-bellhousing bolts, lower the transmission onto the dolly we specifically built, and roll it out from under the car.


Once we had the transmission out and on the workbench, we started doing some investigating into what was causing our noise. After realizing that the noise only occurred when the output shaft was turning, it didn't take long to narrow it down to this:

This is the Output Shaft Bearing. We found that it no longer turned smoothly and made quite a bit of noise when it was turned. We ordered a new one from our local NAPA and it actually took them about a day and a half to get it. Replacing it requires completely disassembling the transmission. Completely disassembling the transmission means that we have to put it back together. Which in turn means that we would have multiple opportunities to screw it up.


During the process of putting the transmission back together, we made us of each of those opportunities. Here is what the inside of the transmission should look like:

Please forgive me if I get some of the terminology wrong, I'm still learning all of this. The large gear on the right with the selector fork next to it is the travelling gear. It's what selects either first or reverse. It's the fork that we put in backwards before. We put it in backwards again (as shown in the picture is the correct orientation). You can't really see it in the picture, but behind it and below is the reverse gear. It is possible to put the reverse gear in backwards. We know, because we did that too. The mechanism on the left with the other selector fork in it is the synchro assembly used to select either 2nd or 3rd. It's possible to get it in backwards as well (yep, you guessed it, we originally put it in backwards).

The worst part about all this is that in order to take it apart and get it right, you have to remove the snap ring that holds everything onto the output shaft. Snap rings can sometimes cause some difficulty because you have to get the snap ring tool on them just right and get them expanded enough to come out of the groove. But they usually aren't that bad. This one is evil. I have very bad things to say about the engineer who designed this one. Why is it so bad? Next to the groove is a small gear. So, you don't have to just get it out of the groove, you have to get it over the gear and the teeth of the gear make it almost impossible to get the tool on it properly.

But anyways, enough complaining, we got it back together. Correctly. We then got it back in the car (in 45 minutes, we timed it). Correctly. A short drive around the block confirmed that we have been successful. The clutch is properly aligned, the transmission shifts properly, and there are no gear noises coming from the transmission. The transmission is in better condition than it has been in 15 years. This can mean only one thing. It's time to teach my wife how to drive a manual transmission.

Front Bumper, Attempt #1

One of our "cosmetically challenged" areas on the car has been the front bumper. It is quite rusty and has a few extra dings and dents in it.

We had previously installed a new rear bumper and found the process rather easy and straight forward. We figured the front bumper would be the same. So, we asked for a new front bumper for Christmas. To our amazement, there it sat, under the tree on Christmas morning.

The bumper itself attaches to the car at 6 places with carriage bolts. There are 2 main brackets that attach to the front frame rails that then go straight up. There are 2 other brackets (1 on each side) that go up at a diagonal from the frame rails to the corners of the bumper. There are also two brackets that connect the bumper to the sides of the fenders. In addition to the bumper itself, there are 2 vertical bumper guards that run from the bottom of the valance to the bottom side of the bumper. They attach in two places, to the bottom of the valance and then to an L-shaped bracket that attaches to the main bumper bracket.

Deconstruction

The bumper guards can be removed from the underside of the car (we had the car jacked up because we are also in the process of repairing the transmission...again, more on that in a later post). We ran into trouble on one of them because the nut the bolt screws into had rusted out. We were finally able to get the 4 bolts (2 each) out and removed the bumper guards. In hindsight, it may be easier to get the bumper out by removing the front valance, but the bolts holding our valance on looked kinda rusty and we opted not to.

Once the bumper guards are off, you can get to the two bolts that hold the bumper onto the main brackets from underneath the car (inside the valance) once you remove the L-shaped bracket that the guard did attach to. We did this on one side. On the other side, we were able to get to the bolt by going directly underneath the bumper. Apparently the valance and bumper on this side of the car had been tweeked years ago with the help of a curb. The other two bolts are reached from underneath the bumper (it requires a socket wrench with knuckle and a little bit of swearing). At this point, the bumper and bumper guards were off the car.

We had only received a new bumper for Christmas, not new guards. After inspection of the old bumper guards, we decided to instead buy new ones. Between the hardware that we just took off and our stash of extra hardware from other projects on the car, we decided we had enough hardware to put the new bumper and guards on.

Installation

We figured that installation was probably the same as removal, just in reverse. So, we started by attaching the fender brackets to the bumper. We then set the bumper in place and found that none of the holes lined up. We were able to solve this by loosening the main bumper brackets from the frame rails. This gave us enough play that we were able to get the bumper to attach at all 6 points.

The next step was to attach the bumper guards. When we first attached them, we noticed that they didn't seem to fit quite right. So we removed them and compared them to the original bumper guards. In the attached picture, the one on the left is the new one, the one on the right is the original. It is somewhat difficult to see from the picture, but the mounting holes are not in the same exact place in relationship to the guard itself. We dutifully attached the new guards as detailed in the assembly manual. The bottom of the guard attached to the bottom of the valance and the top of the guard attached to the top side of the L-shaped bracket near the bottom of the bumper. The end result is a beautiful new bumper and 2 bumper guards that don't sit flush up against the valance. We are not helped by the fact that our valance has a few extra dings and bends in it that aren't factory original.

So, while the bumper itself looks nice and the overall car is looking much better, I have a feeling we'll be revisiting this one in the not so distant future.

How Fast Can You Remove a Transmission?

Today we learned that we can remove the transmission in under 15 minutes. Unfortunately, our goal today was to install the transmission.

Starting with the Mustang's introduction in 1964, through the 1966 model year, the base 6 cylinder mustang was coupled with a 3 speed manual transmission with a non-synchronized first gear. It was originally used in the Ford Falcon (where the shifter was on the column) but then moved to the Mustang in a floor shifter format.

To put it politely, the design of the transmission is junk. Whenever we run into someone who had a car just like ours, the conversation usually includes how many times they rebuilt the transmission. I guess Ford agreed, because in 1967 they went to a more robust 3 speed transmission in the Mustang.

The transmission in our car has been rebuilt numerous times. After the engine was rebuilt in the 1980's, the transmission kept getting torn up and it was the failure of the transmission that ultimately resulted in the car being garaged and not driven. Last year, one of our first projects was to rebuild the transmission, which we accomplished successfully. Unfortunately, after only minimal driving, it seemed to be having issues again. Thus, a couple of weeks ago we once again removed the transmission with the plan that we would at the same time replace the clutch.

In replacing the clutch we learned something very important. There's a thing called a pilot bushing that keeps the input shaft of the transmission lined up properly. It appears that after the engine was rebuilt, that bushing was not installed. Thus it explains why a piece of junk transmission was even worse. So, we bought a pilot bushing along with clutch plate, pressure plate, and rebuilt the transmission. That brings us to today.

After careful measurement, we successfully installed the pilot bushing. We then installed the new clutch using an old input shaft to insure we had everything lined up right. After getting the transmission bolted into place we started installing the drive shaft. This is where we realized the error of our ways. We went to turn the drive shaft to get a better angle on one of the U-bolts. It didn't turn freely. We checked to make sure we had it in neutral. We did. Thus we had no choice but to remove the transmission once more (in less than 15 minutes). After inspection we realized that the fork holding the first gear in place was put in backwards, causing first gear to always be at least partially engaged.

So, next weekend we get to put the transmission back in, after taking it apart and putting it together properly.

The Radiator Hokey Pokey

Note: This work was actually done about a year and a half ago, we just started the blog late.

As stated in the last post, one of the first priorities was the radiator. The radiator was known to leak. In fact, it was so leaky that my brother had removed it from the car a few years before.

Replacing the radiator was seen as a relatively simple project to start with, and for the most part it was. The radiator is held into place by 4 bolts, 2 on each side. The plan was simple:

1) Buy a new radiator, upper hose, and lower hose

2) Bolt the radiator into place

3) Fill it full of coolant/water (note: The thermostat had been removed years before, as a result we didn't have to worry about getting the car hot to circulate the fluid).

We purchased the parts online from a company called NPD (National Parts Depot). They are very well known among the Mustang Restoration hobby. While, not displeased with their service, you will find in future posts that we have gone predominately with Mustang Mania, a local company, for our future part needs.

Upon receiving the new radiator, we noticed some differences between it and our old radiator. First, the new one had 2 extra ports in it for connecting a transmission cooler (something our car doesn't have). We simply left these ports open. The second thing we noticed was that the new one had a welded in draincock. Specifically, it had a welded in draincock that didn't work.

The draincock seals, it just won't open to allow for easy draining of coolant. We decided that the few times we would have to drain it we could just pull the lower hose and made the executive decision to use the radiator as is. Little did we know how many times we'd have to drain the radiator.

After installing the radiator in the car, we noticed another difference between the new radiator and our old one. The new one is wider. The original radiator had 2 rows, the new one has 3, thus it is wider. The NPD catalog states that you should have a clearance of at least 1/2", preferably 1" between the radiator and the fan. Ours was closer to a 1/4". So, we put the radiator in, took the radiator out, and went in search of a shorter fan spacer. After installing a shorter fan spacer, we had the proper clearance and we were good to go. This was the first lesson of this project, check the relative thicknesses of the old versus new radiator and make sure your fan spacing is proper.

Our second lesson wasn't realized until many months later. You will notice that our above plan didn't include flushing out the engine block. When a car sits for as long as ours did, it's important that you thoroughly flush the entire cooling system. Rust, debris, and corrosion will clog up the system and adversely affect cooling performance. Since doing this original project, we've had to deal with overheating issues partly caused by insufficient circulation. We probably could have saved ourselves a lot of effort if we had done a good job flushing the cooling system at the very beginning.

So, one small project with at least 2 lessons learned. We're making good progress.

Every Project Needs a Plan

In order for a project to be successful, certain things must exist. First, one must have a goal. Then you have to have certain rules and guidelines. You can't just go about it all willy-nilly. Then you need to break it down into small, manageable projects. But most importantly, you have to have funding.

The Goal
When we first set out, the car had been sitting in the garage for approximately 15 years and was missing some very vital parts (radiator, working gears in the transmission) and had a few extra things it shouldn't have had (boxes on top of it, gasoline in the gas tank). So, our first goal was to get it running. Basically, this would serve as a validation that the car was worth it. But, we needed a long term goal. Once again, we can't be all willy-nilly about this. This is where involvement in the MCA comes in. 2009 is the 45th anniversary of the Ford Mustang and to celebrate, the MCA had a big event in Birmingham, Alabama. They are planning a similar event (but bigger) for the 50th anniversary. So our goal is to be able to drive the car to the 50th anniversary and show it there (we're hoping it's in Detroit).

In addition to the above, we still have the main goals of:
1) Learn something about cars
2) Spend time together working on a car
3) Keep it stock

The Rules and Budget
Since one of our overriding goals is to learn something about cars, we can't just simply take it to somebody else to do all the work. That said, there's a lot of things that we don't know how to do or don't have tools to do properly. We hope to learn how to do many of those things, but there will be some things that we will have to pay somebody else to do. But, we're going to try to keep that to a minimum. This rule helps us with the next topic, the money. Theoretically it's cheaper to do it yourself.

We don't exactly have a big pile of money just laying around. So, we can't spend a lot of money all at once. Instead, we've gone with the approach of spending a small but sufficient amount of money each month. In our case, $200 per month. This allows us to split up the work into small, manageable projects. For those projects that require more than $200, we just have to wait a few months. With this approach, hopefully 5 years will be enough time.

The first two projects were what caused the car to be garaged to begin with:
1) The radiator was extremely leaky (and had been removed by my brother years before)
2) The transmission was broken (a pattern that has been repeated for the whole life of the car)

Subsequent projects tackled those things that deteriorated in the last 15 years. But each of these things are possibly worth their own post, so I must wait on the details and leave you in anticipation.

The Car

1969 was a monumental year in the history of our country. It was the year of the moon landing, Woodstock, and "The Game of the Century" when UT beat Arkansas 15-14 to win the National Championship. It was also the year that this car entered into our family. What you see below is family lore, to be passed down from generation to generation.

My parents had only been married for a couple of years and were living in Southern California. I was still ten years away. Their only car was a ten year old Volkswagen Bug. As the story goes, my Dad took my Mom to the "Beauty Shop" to get her hair done. As any self respecting man would do, he chose not to wait for her at the "Beauty Shop" but instead chose to kill time looking at cars in a nearby car lot.

My Dad had been a fan of the Mustang since it had first come out 5 years prior. He and his father (my Grandfather) actually tried to buy one. After finding the Ford Dealership unwilling to negotiate, they instead chose to buy a Chevy (the horror). When my parents were dating, he would borrow a Mustang from the company he was working for at the time (a red coupe). So, the Mustang was already in the "periphery" of his life.

On that fateful evening, he came across a Mustang sitting in the back of the Narducci Ford car lot. According to the used car salesman, the previous owner was a "little old lady from Pasadena." (Why do I have the suspicion that a "little old lady from Pasadena" was the previous owner of every single used car sold in Southern California in the late 1960's?). After some tough negotiating, my parents paid approximately $1200 for a car that would be a part of our family for the next 40 years.

According to the data plate, the car began life at the Ford assembly plant in San Jose, CA. The data is as follows:
VIN: 6R07T15XXXX (I've x'ed out the last digits. I'm not sure it's necessary, but it seems like the smart thing to do)
So, what does the VIN tell us?
6 = 1966 Model Year
R = San Jose, CA Assembly Plant
07 = Hardtop
T = 200 cubic inch, inline 6 engine

Some additional information on the plate:
Body - 65A = Hardtop, Standard Interior
Color - M = Wimbledon White
Trim - 25 = Red with Red Trim
Date - 26A = January 26 planned build date
DSO - 71 = Los Angeles
Axle - 3 = 3.20:1
Transmission - 1 = 3 speed manual

So what does all this mean? It means that our Mustang has the most common body style available in 1966. It's painted what is believed to be the most common color for 1966. Did I mention that more Mustangs were produced in the 1966 model year than any other in the first generation? This isn't exactly a rare car. The major selling feature of the mid-1960's Mustang was the long list of options. It seems the "little old lady from Pasadena" completely ignored this wonderful option list when selecting this car. With the exception of the California Smog Pump (which wasn't really an option for a car sold in the LA area), absolutely no optional equipment was selected. For any true Mustang Collector, this is probably the least desirable 1st generation Mustang possible.

But, one cannot tell the story of the Mustang, the story of one of the most successful car launches in the history of the auto industry, without at least hinting at this car. One of the reasons always given for the Mustang's success was its low, low starting price ($2,416.18 in 1966). Well, this car represents that starting price. Today, one finds car shows dominated with V-8 Mustangs. And rightfully so, as they are amazing cars. But it was this car, and the hundreds of thousands built just like it that made the Mustang a financial success for Ford Motor Company.

In addition to what this car represents in automotive history, it means even more to my family. It has been with the family for 40 years (longer than me) and in that time it has generated many emotions. Not always good emotions (My mom will tell you that the car hates her and that she hates it back), but emotions all the same. So, in something of a sign of respect, my Dad and I have chosen to not "resto-mod" this car, but instead return it to its original, stock glory. Don't get me wrong, we have nothing against resto-mods or hot rods, etc. It just didn't seem like the thing to do for this particular car.

Really, how hard could it be?

About a year and a half ago, I came to the realization that I wanted to learn more about cars. I've always been interested in cars, but only had a passing knowledge of their inner workings. I can change a tire, check the oil, and if a gun was put to my head I could even give a basic explanation of how an internal combustion engine works.

Recognizing a need to learn more, a plan was hatched. In 1969, my dad bought a 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe. For the last 15 or so years, it has been sitting in his garage underneath a pile of boxes. The plan seemed so simple. My dad's somewhat knowledgeable on fixing cars. We could work together on his Mustang. In the process I would learn about cars and in the end I would end up with a cool car that I could take my wife out on the town in. Really, how hard could it be?

Fast forward to today. My dad and I have been working continuously on the Mustang over the last year. We've spent countless weekends working on the car, learning everything we can, and realizing that yes, it can be that difficult. In the process, we've joined the Mustang Club of Houston and the Mustang Club of America, met some really amazing people, and have developed a new love for the Ford Mustang. And we've gotten the car to run (barely).

This blog is an effort to better document the project. We'll share with you some of the lessons we've learned the hard way as well as our future successes. While we've spent over a year working on it, it's obvious to us that we have many more years to go.