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.
When my friend got his first car at 16, he decided to learn to do maintenance on it. He went to the store and got oil and a filter. He slid under the car with an empty drain pan, and returned with a pan full of slick, messy stuff, then reinstalled the drain plug he had removed, and poured the fresh oil into the oil filler.
He was quite proud of completing the maintenance task, and went for a spirited drive. On the freeway, the car made funny noises, and after he pulled to the side of the road for a look, the car refused to move. It needed to be towed to a shop.
It turned out that the fluid he drained into the pan was NOT from the crankcase. He drained the transmission (a manual), then put another capacity-full of motor oil into the crankcase. Amazingly, there wasn’t any permanent damage, and proper fluid changes in the gearbox and the engine cured the malfunction he caused.
That is wild – hell of a learning moment.
As was my deal with the Mustang. As I type this, I just popped on a better front shock tower brace and an air cleaner. Goal is to be rocking and rolling by Saturday morning. But it’s HOT out here this week…
Dude-you have an attached garage with a second storey above it. And you’re in SoCal. And last time I looked at the calendar, it was still March. Plug in a good electric fan, and I bet you can work in temperature below 85°. So what if the weather girl said you have a heat wave this week?
I used to work (white collar) at a place that did forging. The building with the forging machines had two furnaces fed by a 4″ gas line. The furnaces didn’t shut down during work hours, which usually was more than one shift. One day I pointed an infrared thermometer at the underside of the roof, and it was 145°. Even on days when the forecast called for 100° days, the crew used to go outside during breaks so they could stand in the sun to cool off.
If cruising the stang is viable for this weekend, make it happen.
yeah, this heat wave has been miserable… 30 degrees above average, on average, each day. Wild shit. But yes, the car will cruise this weekend for sure. Might drive my daughter to hear dive meet in it, to flex on the other dads in attendance, haha.