Load 'em up!

Well, we're moving to Tennessee. The plan for the Mustang is to load it onto a trailer, and tow it behind a big Penske Truck down Rt. 40 and over the mountains to Tennessee.

We moved it out of our garage, into the neighbors driveway for a few days. Then we loaded it up onto the trailer. The video shows us moving, and then positioning the car in the road. It took all hands to load it onto the trailer, so nobody was able to capture it on video.

Getting a car loaded onto a trailer is a pretty big challenge. We had the added complications of a manual transmission, a clutch that was a bit tricky. In the end, we got it part way, and then used some ratchet straps to winch it, and a few hands to push it the rest of the way onto the wheel chocks.

The trip out to Tennessee was long and difficult, but we made it!

Stopping Power

There was a little bit of brake work that needed to be done after our first powered move test. One of the brake drum cylinders was leaking fluid. We pulled it all apart, and replaced it with a new one.










Once that was done, we bled the brakes again, and refilled all the brake fluid.













Here's some pics of the master cylinder. We drained out the old fluid, and then had to run brake clean fluid into the cylinder and pump the brakes to wash out the dried up dot 3 goo that accumulated as the old fluid evaporated over the years.

Here it is with lots of brake clean in it, waiting to get washed out.

Move It!

Now that the engine runs, we took the car for a short ride. This is the first time the car has moved under it's own power in more than 10 years.

We wanted to just test that it would roll, and that the transmission works, and the rear differential work. We replaced the rear differential fluid last week, and checked the gearbox oil while we were at it. The right front brake cylinder is leaking, which is also why this ride was so short. We need to fix the brakes, and put in the windshield in case we have trouble getting the car back into the garage once we move it out. We could at least part it at the end of the driveway and fix up whatever is giving us grief.

Idle Hands

Well, ok it's not the hands that are idle. We've been hard at work, and I am going to skip forward a few months in order to post the amazing video:

Yes! We have the Mustang started, and the carburetor is now adjusted. We were able to get it to warm up, and drop down to low idle. The battery is now installed, and we were able to fire it up without priming the carburetor with fuel first. The initial start took a bit of cranking since the fuel reservoir in the carb was empty, but second start was a breeze.

Our next step is to work on the brakes, followed by manual transmission gear oil, and differential oil. Then we can try to move the Mustang under it's own power!