By Jeff Glucker
I’ve been a bit quiet regarding the Mustang since my last update. In that one, I talked about the thrill of driving the car for the first time. This was quickly followed by the pain of project car ownership, as I sort of blew up the transmission.
The worst part of that last sentence? It was completely my fault.
When I initially filled the gearbox with transmission fluid, I stopped as soon as I saw fluid start to weep from the fill hole. That was not enough fluid. I needed to let the fluid settle for a second and keep filling. This is a long way of saying I underfilled the damn thing. This is why it failed after 20 minutes of driving. There was some fluid in there, but eventually the bearing on the input shaft got so hot, jammed up, and that’s how I was left sitting on the side of the road waiting for AAA.
Fast forward to today, however, and the car is in a better state. The T5 is fully repaired, properly filled, and mounted back in the car. Sort of.
During this installation, the shifter didn’t line up as neatly with the hole in the trans tunnel. That’s weird, because everything else is bolted up correctly. Or it seems that way. I’ve taken the car for two runs around the block, and everything is working nicely.
But I’m holding off from driving it more until I realign the gearbox. Additionally, the two bolts that connect the trans mount to the bottom of the T5 tail housing are not fully tightened. The holes are threaded, but the bolts aren’t properly grabbing. I felt the gearbox lurch a bit under a harder pull, and I assume this is due to those two loose bolts.
They may be the wrong size, but I believe we used them when we initially installed this thing and they worked great. Either way, not a difficult fix – especially when I need to back under the car, loosen everything up, and get this transmission sitting in its proper place.
After that, I plan to start cleaning up the interior a bit more. I’ve added three-point belts front and rear. I need to get the side glass moving more easily, as it’s a pain in the ass to roll the windows up and down. Eventually, I want to replace the front and rear glass and get fresh weather stripping on them. And then it will be time to add a sound system, because I like tunes when I drive.
Regardless, the car runs. The engine sounds amazing. And I’ll be driving around by this weekend, once I adjust the transmission’s position.
As for my other car… I’m prepping the Montero for sale. So stay tuned for the replacement on that one. Yes, I already have my eyes on something.