First thing getting the fuel injection wiring out of the engine bay
Finished hooking up the gauges and tach. Then I installed the Grant steering wheel and floor shift column cover. The automatic floor shift shifter bezel I bought didn't fit because it's for an 85 and newer so the manual bezel stays until I can find an automatic shifter bezel for an 84.
So I found the heater core was leaking so I bypassed it for now. I also did a tune up with new Motorcraft plugs, MSD wires, Accel cap and rotor, and MSD coil.
No pics, but I did some "social distancing" aka working on the car this week. I finished getting it ready to run. I started it up and it ran for 30 seconds until it ran out of fuel. When I first hooked up the fuel line I ran some fuel out of the line to see which one was the feed line, and it pumped out a quart of fuel in the pan before I turned the key off. The motor isn't getting fuel to the carb, but the pump is running. You can hear it. I thought it might be out of gas so I put a few gallons in, but it didn't make any difference. So I'm thinking the pump might be running, but not pumping fuel or the little hose between the pump and the hanger busted. If I unhook the line and run the pump no fuel comes out now. We gently blew some compressed air back through the line and air blew out of the filler neck.
I ordered a new low pressure pump and strainer and a new filler neck seal so next time I'll be dropping the tank and replacing the pump. Then we'll go from there.
Well with Coronamania going on seems like a good time to get away and work on the project car!
First thing got the correct fan shroud on. It's from an 87 Cougar 5.0
Then I took ya'lls advice and wrapped the fuel lines in DEI cool tape. Better safe than sorry. The pics make it look like it's touching the ler, but it's not.
I had some seeping around my rubber valve cover gaskets so I picked up some valve cover tabs and put them on.
I don't know what happened to the switch panel trim piece on this car, but it was bent and half the paint was gone so I peeled it the rest of the way off and painted it with satin black and Dymo labeled the words on it. Then I straightened it out and reattached it. Not the greatest, but it's better than it was until I do something else.
After that we set in on getting the gauges in. We made three holes in the lighter panel for the gauges, and it tuned out pretty well except we got let down by a wobbly harbor freight hole saw. So they're not exactly even, but they fit and it's good enough for me. The oil pressure and temp gauges are hooked up, and the lights are wired up, but the voltmeter will have to wait until the battery is in so I can find a switched power wire.
Yesterday we had great weather; it was 70 degrees and sunny here. So we decided to set in on the exhaust first. The exhaust is a Mac off road H pipe for a Mustang and Dynomax Ultra Flo welded lers with turn downs from the Zephyr.
We also installed the Mustang exhaust brackets, which bolted right on both sides. The Mustang exhaust brackets move the rubber hangers about an inch further toward the back of the car than the Tbird bracket is, but it didn't matter in our case because the exhaust came from the Zephyr which is a longer wheelbase than a Tbird.
The H pipe fit fine, but the lers are gonna need new wire hangers because the wire hangers are too long and too far back so the lers are hanging too low and the rubber hangers are being pulled towards the back of the car by the exhaust. So once we get the car running I'll need to stop by a ler shop and get new wire hangers made. The passenger side ler is an inch away from the fuel lines so hopefully that's far enough away to stop them from getting too hot.
I also hooked up the wiring and speedo cable to the transmission. I didn't have to cut the trans harness even though the AOD and C5 use different connectors thanks to a harness from the Zephyr. From the factory, the Zephyr had a 2.3 and a C3 which uses the same neutral safety switch as an AOD. So it came with a short adapter harness from the factory. Tbirds and Mustangs might have the same adapter harness for an AOD or C3 in TCs.
After that I got the Mustang throttle cable installed while Dad hooked up the power steering hoses and put the radiator fan on. We have a fan shroud from an 87 5.0 Cougar, but he installed the Mustang shroud so I'll swap those out next time.
My Dad got the Mustang front sway bar and the new power steering hoses bolted on the other day, and today we dropped the motor in!
I also pressure washed the double hump transmission crossmember to get it ready
After we got the motor and trans bolted in, we pressed new u joints in the driveshaft and installed it. The driveshaft came from an 87 Cougar 5.0, and it's a nice fit.
Got the Mustang floor shifter installed today! I used a shifter trim from a manual Turbo Coupe and improvised with some dense foam to fill in the gap until I come up with a more permanent solution, but I think it looks right at home. All that's left now is installing the front sway bar and power steering hoses then we can drop the motor in.
Winter weather has been slowing progress on the Bird working in a carport. Last weekend was a bust with sleet and snow. Yesterday was still cold, but at least it was sunny so we pulled most of the parts we need from the Zephyr. I'm pretty sure the only thing left is the front struts.
Parts we pulled from the Zephyr yesterday:
Pioneer 3.5" speakers Pioneer 6x8" speakers Mustang shifter coil Duraspark box and wiring Equus oil pressure gauge, temp gauge, voltmeter Sunpro Tachometer speedometer gear throttle cable headlight bulbs Mustang power steering hoses Mustang GT front sway bar
It was almost 70 here today so we took advantage of it and got the 302 pulled out of the Zephyr. This is what is going in the Thunderbird. It's a 89 Mustang 302 HO with an Edelbrock Performer 289 intake, Edelbrock 600 cfm carb, and a 1985 Mustang 302 4 bbl distributor. The trans is an AOD also from the Mustang.
Nice! Love the cluster nice, looks so much nicer without a gear indicator in there. And I didn't know those quick-disconnect steel lines existed...that's an awesome solution.
BTW, if you are sticking with the stock steering wheel but want one in better shape, let me know. I have a leather wrapped one in that color, really good condition. The 1984 A-frame wheels are unique so I'm always trying to stock up on them when I can.
Thanks, I was hoping the line wouldn't be too long since 12" is the shortest you can get, but it fit pretty well. I'm probably gonna be going with a Grant wood rim steering wheel or I might clean this one up and put a blue Superior Sport Grip cover on it like I had on my Cougar we'll see.
Removed the fuel pump from the frame rail and replaced it with a 12" section of metal line and held it in with new fuel line clips After that we pushed the Tbird out of the car port and brought the Zephyr in so we can start pulling the motor out of it.
Did some work today getting the Tbird ready before we drop the V8 in. I removed all of the column shift linkage, tube, rods, and deleted the gear indicator from the gauge cluster. I still need to deal with the hole in the top column cover either with a floor shift column cover or some way to cover the hole. While I did that Dad removed the front sway bar and the power steering hoses from the rack since we'll be replacing them with Mustang parts.
