Ok check this out everyone. I woke up this morning and it was like 70 something degrees out kind of cloudy cause it had been raining but was still nice. I had buffed my headlight last night and thought Id put it in. Well as we all know one project leads to another and another and another. So anyway the ole ladies out helping me on the car.
We got the hood up and Im doing the headlight. Meanwhile she's fixing the rod for the tranny that keeps slipping off the TB. She gets that done fixed it with bread ties for now until I can get another one of those bushings for it. Thing works great for now may have to redo it if the ties break. I get the light put in and have her turn the headlights on. Automatically I can tell they're brighter then they were because of how much light I can see coming through it. The thing was actually bright enough in the day time at certain angles it was almost to much to look at.
Anyway I get the light bolted in and the ole lady dissappears around the corner of the house. She comes walking back with a box and says baby you got something in the mail. I looked at the address and see who its from. It was my TC cluster in. I open the box feeling like a kid in a candy store and pull it out all smiling and stuff.
First thing off the bat I start looking for the tools to change the odometer. I get it all apart get that changed so it reads right on the speedo. Put it all back together and print off the charts Eric made on the wires.
I go back out and tear the inside of the car apart and pull the old cluster out. Then I start rewiring it. It was actually pretty easy except that one wire that appearently not all base models came with. Anyway I get it all put back together I get the tach wire ran. I fix the wire for the oil pressure. Slap it all back together and we're good.
I turn the key and hear that nifty little starter spin. Turn it again the starter begins to engage and then slips again. Ugh the starters out. So I go digging through all the parts I have stored in my spare room and dig out my spare starter. Get the starter changed. While Im under there Im looking around and notice the power steering pump leak seems to have went from minor seepage to waterfall.
So I pull the power steering pump and swap it. Get it all off and find the return hose in the bottom was actually starting to split at the end. So I cut it back some since there was alot of slack in it and hopefully it'll hold until I can get a new one.
And last but not least the gas guage is sitting on full now. All in all it seems like I had a pretty busy day a really good busy day for once.
Yeah, I put a heater core in a 96 taurus, took the front clip off of a 91 Chevy diesel Subby, and mowed part of my father's yard.
Took 5 hours on the heater core, coulda done it some quicker, but was also fetchin' parts at the time, too, and had to replace an underhood vac line on the same car, as well.
shoulda just shot the car and buried it :D
Sounds like you had your hands full all day long. Thats the one reason why I'm scared to do the 5.0 HO conversion on my car: I know we're going to find something that will take us an extra day or two to fix.
Yeah on swapping if youre just swapping the top of the motor off and dont pull the engine out of the car give yourself a couple days to do it. if youre pulling the motor give yourself a good 3 or 4 just to be safe. Just take your time and make sure you get everything together right and tight. Im still waiting to do the 3.8 to 5.0 swap in mine. Waiting on a few last minute details as well as my other car so I can do without this one for awhile. Good luck when you do it
Thanks, you too! We're planning on just keeping the engine in the car and we'll give ourselves a weekend to do it, and more time if needed. Hopefully we won't have too many big problems (but as you all know, there's always something unexpected that will take at least an hour to get around). My dad and his brother have been working on engines for 30 years now (I swear they can do it with their eyes closed), so I'll have plenty of experience backing me up. In fact, dad's first hot rod was a 67 Fairlane, and he dropped a 289 in it (and got it running as fast as my uncle's souped up 69 Camaro 350), so they know their way around small block Fords.
well thats good experience is always a good thing to have on your side. Just make sure you have everything you need before you take it apart and you should be fine. Im still waiting on the throttle cable and kickdown cable bracket from a stang or something with a stang type motor. all the ones I see on ebay look like theyre for manual cars not having the kickdown bracket on it. other then that and gaskets I think I almost have everything to at least put the motor in in its SO state and get it running.
Thats cool. Hopefully all my stuff will be delievered this week. All we haven't bought yet are the heads and MAP sensor, and I think our grand total is a little under $240. Once some stuff arrives, I'll start sand blasting away, cleaning everything up and getting it ready.
well my totals at about twice that but also have the entire top half of the HO motor minus cam and lifters. and after youre done with yours you wanna blast mine? lol
Bread ties!! Now I've heard it all! LOL! I guess whatever works, right?:hick:
hey. i did that with my Capri after that rod linkage connector broke, do what ya gotta do, it worked pretty good. I used a zip tie after that, then a finally had time to go to the junk yard for the part.
Well its not like I said hey grab the bread ties baby we gonna go work on the car lol Im not sure how she came up with the idea but it seems to be working good, works better then my grab the duct tape idea :D. The car seems to be doing alot better then it has in awhile and I still can't get over having the buttstuffog cluster that thing is just to cool.
I actually always told the girlfriend that I would never have anything other then digital if I was going to switch all the aftermarket guages Ive looked at have even been digital. It was never really high on my looks good list until it was my car. Now it just looks awesome for some reason. It could be that I had never seen it in person though either only pictures of them.
I had swapped the full digital into my white car at one time. It looked great and all but still had the same basic layout as what I swapped from. In my honest opinion now I would never switch back to either the layout of the guages on the buttstuffog is just to much better IMO. I love it. I just cant thank Beau enough for trading me the cluster.
I may still go digital with the aftermarket guages but its keeping the same layout that the buttstuffog cluster has thats just too cool.
AWW, lol, you're welcome, but when we meet up, you're buying the beer! ;)
Glad you enjoy it, someone may as well have it, ain't room in my car for 2 of em, lmao.
If you're just looking for the little bushing that holds the kickdown cable to the throttle linkage, I wouldn't even both with ebay. It'd probably cost more to ship it that just getting the part through ford. It only cost me a couple bucks for the bushing.
Hell man, I'll keep my eye out for cars at the yard that have had the fix done to them.
i used a small hair pin clip on my old 88
well as long as you dont drink much that should be alright since I dont drink would hate to spend a fortune on beer :D
on the bushing I hadnt even thought about ebay on it. Im waiting on some parts to finish my 5.0 swap so Im not going to need that much longer anyway. Basically its just gotta hold for a little bit until I get the parts I need.
And on the Fix exactly which fix are we talking about?
I'm lookin' for a fix, I've got this terrible blue swollen thing..oh wait, it's my Chevy...:flame:
I made some progress on my F-150 today, got it running right, spent some time on the plug wires, and found/fixed a coupla emissions and fuel issues I'd had. Runs much better now, get to pull the 2.3T and T5 from the TC next, been doing a lot of research on a 2.3T transplant into an 87 Escort GT, it's been done, but most of the Escort guys favor the 2.0 SPI engine...aka known as the Zetec or some such shiznit..
I'd do that, but ain't got 800 bucks for the engine, eec, and misc. wiring to handle it all...anybody wanna buy my Tbirds? lmao
j/k