Inside

We did some prep work to do the shocks, sprayed down the nuts holding them together. To do these, you need to remove the dust cover in the trunk, and the easiest way to do this is by removing the rear seat. We also needed to remove the rear firewall, a nice addition that was added to make this '66 just a bit safer in a rear end collision.


To make this all easier, we pulled the front seats out, and did a general clean-up of everything interior. The inside of the trunk got a vacuuming also.

Tune Up

So the engine is not running real well, it's doing OK, but still feels a bit rough. We replaced the coil back when we were trying to get the engine started for the first time, but we got the cheapo replacement. We've replaced the replacement with a Pertronix III to get a bit more spark power, as well as match it better with the Pertronix electronic ignition.

This seems to have helped slightly, and we had to adjust the timing a bit again. It still seems like it's misfiring on one of the cylinders once in a while, every 3rd cycle or so? Not sure.

Road Trip!

Well our time in TN has come to a close, and we're moving back to NC. It was a bit of a surprise to us. We'll be leaving behind great friends, and great views.

Once we got to NC, we stowed the Mustang for a bit while we settled in and found a new job, and a new place to live.

Here we are in the new garage, ready to start working again!

All Clear

The clear gas filter we installed keeps getting gunk in it. We've replaced the gas tank already so this has to be the fuel line. We were hoping to avoid having to replace it, but it looks like we have to.

We ordered up a new fuel line, and did a dry fit. We then disconnected the old line from the plastic filter, and got ready to do the tank end. We grabbed the fire extinguisher just in case, and got some paper towls to mop up any spilled fuel. Last up was to get a plug for the fuel hose at the tank. We disconnected the fuel hose at the gas tank, and quickly plugged it to keep it from leaking. Then we replaced the original fuel line with the new one, and got the new one secured. After the new one was in place, we reconnected the fuel hose to the new line. A few other minor adjustments and we were ready to start the car and do another road test.

No Charge

So, while we drove the car around a bit to the gas station, I had to get a jump start to get it to start again. A quick test of the battery with the car running showed that it was draining the battery rather than charging it. When we replaced to alternator, we did not replace the "Voltage Regulator" that is connected to it.

This suspicious looking dusty black box held the Voltage Regulator. I had been wondering what this thing was, and when it would become a problem we had to solve.

We replaced the voltage regulator, which was an old style wire wound regulator. We went with a modern Solid State regulator for improved performance. Here's what we found inside the old one:

Wire wound resistors and "Buzzer Coils" that kind of act like a relay and make/break the circuit very quickly creating a PWM that reduces the voltage. That's how it got done in 1966, and for quite a while after that.

Here's the new regulator in place, with a new connector soldered into the old wiring harness. We ran the car a bit, and the voltmeter showed that it was charging the battery now.

Ignition... What's your point?

After the last road test, we're looking for ways to get the engine running a little better. We ordered up an electronic ignition module that is a drop-in replacement for the existing points. It's a Pertronix Ignitor II module. This is the module that includes an embedded microcontroller to adjust the dwell time based upon engine needs.








First we opened up the distributor, and removed the old points and condenser. These were new, and had been gaped properly months ago when we were working on our "first start" of the engine.

Next we installed the new ignitor in the distributor, and made sure that the vacuum advance had clearance around the wires.











The included nuts with the kit did not fit our ignition coil, so we had to find one in the spare parts jar.
Once we got that sorted out we cut the old wires, crimped on the new connectors and finished the wiring job.

We fired up the engine again, and adjusted the timing to account for the new module. It's running smoother now, but still something is not 100%.











Grampy was here with us, and when we got the Mustang up and running again, we put in the rear seat-belts and took it out for a spin with Grampy along for the ride.

We also did some tests on the electrical system since we had to jump the car after we brought it to the gas station last time. When I placed it on the battery charger, it took 10Amps for quite a while, indicating that the battery was quite low.

When the engine is running, the battery is discharging. When the engine is off, the battery recaptures some of its charge. We looked at the off-board regulator module, and used contact cleaner on the wiring connections. This is a crazy electro-mechanical module, thankfully there are now solid-state replacements. We'll order up one of those, and a new wiring connector.

Road Trip

A couple of videos from our first road trip. The first one is getting ready and warmed up so we can do a final check of the radiator fluid.

Here's our trip down the driveway and into town for a fill-up.

Registration

We had to get a notarized bill of sale, along with the signed over title. Once we had those both in hand, we called up the insurance company and got insurance on the Mustang. Then we went down to the county office and got it registered. We're almost ready to take it on the road!

We decided to replace the radiator after a few short trips around the farm we saw that the old one was leaking from a number of different places. A new all aluminum radiator is not "stock", but we are building a daily driver. The all aluminum version performs better, and it's about $100 cheaper than the OEM version so we opted for aluminum.

Here it is installed all shiny and new. Ready to keep the engine cool.

Long Cold Winter

This winter was one of the coldest on record. There is no heat in the workshop, so we had very few work-nights. When we did, we were huddled around the shop lights trying to stay warm.

In October, we took a drive around the farm, and adjusted the brakes a bit to give them some more grab.

In November, we checked out the shocks, and found the mountings in the trunk, and looked over the shop manual for what is required to replace them. It's a bit of work, and not completely necessary at this point, so we decided to skip doing that for now.









In December we did some interior maintenance and cleaned up the missing drivers side door panel. We then mounted it back in the car so it does not look so rough. Did I say it was cold? Connor is working in shorts...... We took advantage of all the warm days we got.









Connor's putting a little elbow grease into cleaning the door panel.













I suppose we could use to do the same to the rest of the interior. Here's the dirt we rubbed out. A bit of detailing should clean up the interior quite a bit.


























Here's the door panel, installed again. We're missing the door pull/ arm rest. I'm not sure if it's in the misc parts box or not. For now, we'll live without it.

We did a small bit of poking around in the under-dash electrical. That's going to need some work. There are a few loose wires, and a few mystery wires attached with rouge screws and alligator clamps. Everything seems to work, so we'll leave that stuff for now. I'm sure something under there explains why the horn does not work.

We pulled some of the wires down so we could buss them up again. Most of these are associated with the bolt-on Tachometer.
I am very happy that we have a Tach, it helps tremendously when adjusting the idle, and getting some idea of how well the engine is running.

 Here we are all ready to put the drivers seat back in.