I haven’t had much free time lately, and when I have the weather hasn’t been all that good.  Today was a nice spring-like day with warm weather and a slight breeze.  I was busy all day until around 6:00 PM or so when I had a few free minutes.  I’ve been thinking a lot about starting the old car up and was determined to at least hear it fire up once before the weekend was over.  I had already purchased and installed a new starter solenoid from the Ford dealer so I was ready to continue.  I went out to the garage with the intention of just seeing whether the car would start up or not.  I knew I didn’t have a lot of time for tuning or diagnosing the fuel system.  So my plan was a very simple one.  Fill a squeeze bottle with gas, use it to fill the primary float bowl with gas, and fire the engine up.

I went to retrieve my gas can and saw that there were a few items directly behind the car that might block the exhaust and force any smoke (and I definitely expected some) back into the garage.  So my first step was to clear that stuff out of the way.  Then I filled the squeeze bottle with some of the gas I keep for the lawn mower.  It is only regular octane, but I didn’t see this as a problem since I wasn’t planning to drive the car.  Then I used the squeeze bottle to carefully fill the primary fuel bowl of the carburetor with gas through the overflow vent tube.  I made sure to be careful and not spill any gas this time.

The “moment of truth” had arrived.  I didn’t even bother to sit in the driver’s seat so I could work the pedals.  I’m not sure if this was because I expected the engine to start up so easily I didn’t need to or was so convinced that it wouldn’t start that I didn’t bother to get in.  I think it was more the first reason.  Anyway, I reached in through the driver’s side window, turned the key, and the engine immediately sprang to life.  I was half astonished and half elated.  I would have expected it to stall the first time but it didn’t.  There was plenty of blue smoke and the idle was a bit rough but they both cleared as the engine ran.  I let it idle until it ran out of gas and stalled.

I waited a minute or two for the smoke to clear.  Then I filled the bowl a second time and started it back up.  Again it started immediately.  I stuck my head in the car and all the gauges appeared to be functioning.  I guess that did surprise me a bit as I usually expect the worst for parts and systems that I haven’t gone over yet and that have been sitting for 15 years.  I let the car idle and looked around the engine compartment.  Everything appeared normal.  This time it ran a bit longer and the idle smoothed out fairly well.  After a minute or two it ran out of gas and stalled again.

Even though I had only been working for 15 minutes at the most I had to call it quits.  I wanted to share my triumph with my family so I told one of my two sons.  He gave me the thumbs up sign.  He isn’t all that interested in cars but he knows how much it means to me so he acknowledged my small success.  I even tried to tell my wife but she was only interested in her menu planning for the week.  I know she doesn’t really like me working on my car but I had hoped for at least some small acknowledgement.  At least she mentioned that she noticed a smell before she came into the house.  I should consider that high praise coming from her. 🙂

All in all I’ll consider the day a success.  Hopefully this will motivate me to keep the project moving forward.  Time to plan out my next steps.  Stay tuned for more, hopefully soon.

I had a bit more free time and was anxious to get back to work on the car.  My plan for this day was to get everything primed, reinstall the spark plugs, and fire up the engine.  I got pretty close but didn’t quite make it there.

The first step was for me to move the car out of the garage.  It was just too dark for me to see what I was doing, and I didn’t want to fill the place up with smoke when the car started up.  So I cleared out everything behind the car and moved the shifter into neutral.  Then I grabbed a pair of wheel chocks, got behind the car and started to pull.  The car rolled very easily, which kind of surprised me.  I moved it very slowly a foot or so at a time.  My garage floor is level, but the driveway gradually slopes away from the garage.  I went slow because I didn’t want the car to get away from me.  Finally i had it out of the garage and put the wheel chocks behind the two rear wheels.

Since I didn’t have the fuel tank completely installed yet, I took a gas can and ran a fuel line from the can to the fuel pump.  I figured that the fuel pump should be able to suction gas out of the can and pump it up to the carburetor.  Since the spark plugs were still out my plan was to just prime the oil and fuel systems by cranking the engine for a minute or two.  So I turned the key and started cranking away.  The engine turned pretty fast and the oil pressure light went out.  I held the key in the start position for about 10 seconds or so and then stopped.  I repeated this 3 or 4 more times.  Then I went to check the carburetor for fuel in the bowls.  It was dry.  I checked that my fuel line was still in place and tried again.  This time I cranked the engine 15 to 20 seconds.  That led me to discover another problem.

When I let go of the key to stop the starter motor it continued to crank the engine.  I knew what the problem must be.  So I got out of the car, grabbed a screwdriver while the engine continued to turn, and gave the starter solenoid a good whack with the screwdriver.  The starter stopped turning.  I got back in the car and tried again.  After a few more tries the starter solenoid got stuck again.  A good whack with the screwdriver stopped it once again.  But it was obvious that the starter solenoid was sticking.  It was also obvious that no gas was making its’ way to the carburetor.  Time to take a break and rethink my strategy.

One thing I know for sure is that I need a new starter solenoid.  I prefer to buy Ford starter solenoids so I gave the local dealer’s parts department a call.  They told me they don’t stock them  No big surprise there as the part hasn’t been used for decades.  While he didn’t actually refuse to search for one  he didn’t really offer any further assistance either.  I told the parts person that I didn’t want an aftermarket part as they are all just so much junk.  I’ve had some success with Ford Parts departments using those exact same words in the past.  At that point I must have said the magic words and he said if I would like he could try and find one for me.  He looked it up and found one in the warehouse.  It would be in tomorrow.  I told him I would be by in a day or two to pick it up.

I’m hoping that the fuel pump is OK and the reason no fuel made it to the carburetor was just that the engine wasn’t cranked for long enough or it was just too slow to suck in the gas.  I plan to fill the fuel bowls through the vent tubes to prime the carburetor and hope that when it starts the fuel pump will do its’ job again.  But that will have to wait until I get the new starter solenoid installed.  I want to make sure I can stop the starter motor in case something goes wrong before I can give the solenoid another good whack to stop the starter.  So the sound of a Ford big block engine will not be heard today.

I didn’t want to quit yet so I went ahead and reinstalled the spark plugs and wires.  This went about as well as removing them did, which means it was a chore.  But I got it all buttoned back up.  Finally I pushed the car back into the garage.  You’re probably wondering right about now what happened to the gas can.  Yes, I did forget to move it and when I pushed the car back into the garage I spilled some gas.  Now I need to wait for the garage to air out as well.  That and buy some more gas.  But next time I really hope to get the engine started up.  Unfortunately we are expecting some bad weather the next few days.  But I still hope to get some work done and move things a little bit farther forward.

The honey-do list got in the way of my working on the car over the weekend.  That meant I had to wait until the work week commenced before I could get back to the Mustang project.  After taking care of my Monday to do list that had developed over the weekend I had an hour or two to get back to work on the project.

First order of business was to install the starter.  When I parked the car 15 years ago the starter died.  I had pulled it and taken it to the local auto parts store for testing.  It had been completely seized so I purchased a rebuilt one.  That starter has sat on my garage shelf for the past 15 years.  I also had a new set of starter bolts squirreled away.  It took me a few minutes to locate the bolts, but I eventually found them and was ready to get going.

Now back in the old days replacing the starter meant that I was capable of sliding myself under the car to work on it.  No jack or jack stands used to be required for this job.  Years later I had gained more than enough weight to prevent me from fitting under the car as easily as I used to.  I got the car up on jack stands and slid myself underneath to have a look.  It was dark and cramped under there.  And moving my head to look around made me light headed and dizzy.  After a bit of wrestling and struggling I had the starter in place and two bolts holding it in.  There was a third bolt, but I needed more room and better lighting to get that one in.  I plan to install the last bolt after I get the car out of the garage.  I installed the cable that delivered battery power to the starter and crawled back out from underneath the car.

Next step was to change the oil.  I didn’t think it was a good idea to trust 15 year old motor oil even though it looked really clean.  I drained out the old oil and removed the old oil filter.  The rubber gasket from the old filter had become detached from the filter and was stuck to the oil filter adapter.  This was easily removed, but should serve as a reminder that this can happen. It was the first time for me, but there are plenty of stories out there of people who didn’t remove the old gasket and ended up with oil leaks.  One trick I like to use is to fill the oil filter with a quart of oil before installing it.  Since the oil filter adapter is at 90 degrees to the side of the block I can do this without spilling any oil.  I like to do this so that there is a second or so less where the oil filter is filling up and oil isn’t getting circulated throughout the engine.  It may be overkill, but on this car it is so easy to do that I feel it is worth it.  Finally I filled up the crankcase with oil and checked the level on the dipstick.  The dipstick said the crankcase was full.

The last step for today (I had very limited time) was to clean the ends of the battery cables and connect them to the battery.  I was a little hesitant to do this step as I wasn’t completely sure that the wiring hadn’t deteriorated over time or that rodents hadn’t chewed their way through some of the wiring.  Either one could lead to shorts that could even result in a fire.  Not something anybody wants to have happen.  But I was able to get the battery connected without any drama or smoke.  As a final check of my work I decided to try the starter to see if it worked or not.  15 years on the shelf is a long time.

Turning the key to the run position caused the instrument cluster to come to life.  I had gauges and red idiot lights where I expected to see them.  A great first step.Then I got brave and tapped the starter, only half expecting it to work.  But the engine spun around and the oil pressure light even went out after a few revolutions.  That was the good part.  The part that made me nervous was that the engine made a whining kind of noise I hadn’t heard before.  No clanks, rattles, or scraping sound. Just a very loud whine.  It made me nervous and I was at the point where I planned to stop for the day.  But now I need to figure out whether it was a result of a 15 year old starter, a bad starter installation, nothing i need to worry about, or something scary.  Time to contact some more knowledgeable people and see what their opinions are.

After consulting with Val we felt that the noise was he starter turning much faster than I was accustomed to since there were no spark plugs and hence no compression.  The starter was able to turn fast due to the lessened resistance of the motor.  When I put the spark plugs back in it should turn over the way I am accustomed to.  That wraps things up for the day however.  The next nice weather day when I have free time I expect to have the engine running again.

Looking over the list of work to be done that I had made, there were a few things I could reasonably hope to accomplish in my garage or in my driveway.  If I was to work in the driveway I had to be careful not to tackle anything that would leave the car sitting there for more than a few hours at most.  I didn’t want to get in trouble with the HOA or anger any of my neighbors.  Val’s suggestion was that I concentrate first on getting the engine running again.  That seemed to make sense to me as it would make it easier to get the car into and out of the garage.  It also would be a huge boost towards getting the car back on the road since it would move farther away from being a roller and much closer to being a driver.  I felt that if the weather would just warm up a bit I could give it a shot.

I did some online research in starting engines that had sat for years and made up a list of steps to follow.  Then I emailed the list to Val to get his opinion.  He gave me a lot of good suggestions and really helped me refine the list.  He had told me during one of our past conversations that the formulation of motor oils had changed since the car was last on the road and that I needed to select an oil brand that contained enough of the additive ZDDP to properly lubricate my engine’s flat tappet camshaft and lifters.  Since one step of starting the engine was to change the oil I asked Val what he would recommend.  His recommendation agreed with what my online research had shown, which was to use Shell Rotella T 15W40 oil, which was available at Walmart for a fair price.  Here’s the list of steps I ended up with after talking to Val.  Don’t blame me if you follow these steps and they don’t work for you or you have a different way of proceeding.  I’m just sharing what I plan to do.

• Drain any gas remaining in the fuel lines to the carburetor
• Pull the spark plugs and inspect them.  Replace if necessary.
• Repeat the following steps until the engine turns freely
  • Oil the cylinders with a small amount of ATF using a tube or fuel line to help guide the ATF into the cylinder
  • Wait for the ATF to penetrate
  • Turn the engine over by hand 90 to 180 degrees
• Change the oil and filter
• Carburetor may need rebuilding.  Make sure it is in good shape, especially if the air cleaner has been left off.  My air cleaner had been in place and the carburetor looked really good so I chose to wait until the fuel system had some pressure and see if it leaked or not.
• Rig up a container of gas with a fuel line attached to the fuel pump inlet.  This was in place of my gas tank that I hadn’t installed yet.  If your gas and tank are OK this may not be necessary.
• Turn the engine over using the starter until it has oil pressure or remove the distributor and prime the oil pump using an old distributor with the gear removed and a drill.  There is also a tool available for people who don’t have an old distributor available.  If cranking the engine with the starter this should also prime the fuel system.  Cranking the engine will also blow excess lubricant out of the spark plug holes preventing hydraulic lock in the cylinders.
• If you used a tool to prime the oiling system, crank the engine over using the starter for the reasons mentioned above.
• Replace the spark plugs
• Have a fire extinguisher handy.  Safety comes first!
• Prime the fuel system through the float bowl overflow if needed.  Shouldn’t be needed if you cranked the engine with the starter
• Start engine – check for leaks, just let it idle when it is ready.  No need for high RPMs unless it is a new engine that isn’t broken in.
• Set timing, adjust the carburetor, and check the dwell angle if the car uses points.

I watched the weather for the next few days and saw that the upcoming weekend was supposed to be a bit warmer.  I made the trip to Walmart to pick up the oil, oil filter, and ATF.  It turned out they also sell a hose that can screw on to a bottle of ATF and has a valve that opens and closes to control the amount of ATF that can flow through the tube.  I added that tool to my purchase, paid for the fluids and parts, and then headed home.

I decided that since I had some free time I would try and get the project started inside the garage before the weekend.  I pulled the fuel line and made sure it was empty.  Next I tackled the spark plugs.  There is very little clearance between the engine and shock tower on this car, so removing the spark plugs can be a challenge.  Combine this with the fact that there is very little lighting n my garage and you can probably imagine what a challenge removing the spark plugs can be.  But I persevered and eventually got them all out.  I also had some help from my one inch extension.  In a pinch I could always remove the valve covers as well to gain some additional clearance.

Now it was time to try out my new tool.  I opened the bottle of ATF and screwed the tool on.  Then I put the other end of the hose into each spark plug hole and put about one teaspoon full of ATF into each cylinder.  This was a little messy but not too much fluid was spilled.  Then I left it to sit for a couple of hours and let the ATF do it’s work.  When I came back I tried to turn the engine with a wrench on the crankshaft pulley.  It turned, but was a bit tight.  I put some more ATF in each cylinder and let it sit for a few minutes.  This time the engine turned much more easily.  I was happy and out of time, so I left it to sit until I could continue the job.  The plan was to continue the next day if time and my wife permitted.  If not, I would continue in two days, after the weekend was over .

In January 2013 I retired from my job of many years.  I had several plans for what I would do during retirement, but one was to fix up my house by repairing many of the things that had been neglected over the years.  This led to some wall patching, painting, minor electrical, and plumbing work.  Eventually it reached a point where my wife and I couldn’t agree on some of the projects, so work ground to a halt.  A little while later I decided to shift gears and return to working on my old Mustang that had been sitting in the garage for the past 15 years or so.

I hadn’t been completely neglecting the car over all of those years.  I had been very slowly and quietly purchasing and squirreling away parts in preparation for the day when I could work on the car again.  I had some mechanical parts, some body trim, and the better part of the interior stashed away in my garage and basement.  A few of the parts were even NOS Ford parts that are no longer available.  But the majority of the interior parts are reproductions.

I knew the car required a lot of work after sitting so long.  I felt that the best thing for me to do was to join the local Mustang club and start looking for referrals from them on resources to work on my car.  I went ahead and joined the National Capitol Region Mustang Club, or NCRMC.  I had been a member of that particular club back around 1983 or so, but I had let my membership lapse as I was never very active and at the time a lot of the club activities seemed to be in Virginia.  I filled out an application and sent them the dues for one year.  Step one completed.

Looking over the club’s Web site and reading through their recent newsletters and forum postings I learned that one of their members not only worked on the cars but he also permitted the owner to work and learn along with him.  This sounded like exactly what I wanted.  I didn’t feel like I could work on the car at my house and was planning on farming a lot of the work out to a competent mechanic.  To have the opportunity to learn from somebody with a significant amount of experience sounded like the best of both worlds.  The mechanic’s name was Val and I gave him a call.

The phone conversation with Val went really well (at least in my opinion).  He was very knowledgeable and a really nice guy.  And even better, he was willing to help me get my car back on the road and ensure it was safe to drive.  The only catch was that he was booked up and couldn’t get to my car for about two months.  That was OK by me as it would give me an opportunity to inventory what parts I had purchased, what I had gotten back from the restoration shop, and what I still needed to purchase.

I went through all the parts I could locate and made a list.  I also made a list of what work I wanted to do, what order I planned to get it done, and what parts I needed.  This left me with a list of parts to purchase and the order I needed the parts in.  I scoured the Mustang parts vendors to find the best prices.  Then I started placing orders for some of the parts in batches.  What parts were included in a batch were pretty much dictated by when I needed them, what vendor carried them, and which vendor was having a sale.  I worked pretty hard at making sure I got the best prices by waiting for the vendors to have sales or discounts.  My parts collection was growing larger and larger.

There were still a few parts that were not available new and not being reproduced.  For those parts I remembered a used parts vendor, Dave at Pony Express that I had done business with before back in the 1980’s.  It turned out that he is still in business, although his location has changed.  I was able to pick up some interior trim panels from him, and I will most likely need some more parts from him as I go.  I also discovered that some parts that weren’t reproduced and had been hard to find used in decent condition were now being reproduced.  I made note of the parts and corresponding vendors so that I know where to find them when I need them.  Things really seemed to be coming together.

I waited patiently for the time to pass.  I also did some minor work on the car in preparation.  I bought a new battery as the old one was completely dead.  I cleaned up and polished some of the trim that was still on the car.  The tires were flat and when I tried to put air in them it quickly leaked out.  They were too badly dry rotted so I bought a set of tires online.  I had them shipped to the local tire store.  Then I put on end of the car on jack stands, took off the wheels, took them to the store to have the tires mounted and balanced, and then put the wheels and new tires back on the car.  Lather, rinse, and repeat for the other end of the car.

Then I got ambitious and drained the gas tank of the extremely bad smelling liquid that was in the tank.  It used to be gas, but it wasn’t anymore.  This took a couple of trips to the hazardous waste disposal site. Then I removed the tank and took that to the disposal site as well.  I ordered a new tank and all of the hardware and caulk needed to install the tank.  While cleaning out the lip where the tank mounted I crawled under the car and noticed that both of the mufflers had rusted through.  Then I saw that part of the tail pipes weer rusted through as well.  That meant I needed to include a new exhaust system in my list of parts to replace.  I looked around some more underneath and noticed that the driver’s side trunk drop off was pretty rusted as well.  I let Val know and he recommended that I not install the new tank as repairing the rust and replacing the exhaust would be easier with the tank removed.  That put the new gas tank installation on hold.  I put the new tank in place but didn’t bolt it in permanently.

Finally it was time to check in with Val.  He said that he needed more time for the car he was working on and would let me know when he could get my car in.  I went off and ordered a few more parts as a consolation.  Periodically I would check in with Val and each time he said that he was still working on the same car.  Finally, four months after I had first contacted him he said he was ready for my car and would come out with a trailer to pick it up.  Mother Nature decided to intervene at this point and unleashed with some snow.  So we had to delay once again.  It seemed like every time Val planned to come by to pick up the car the weather interfered.  Then Val let me know that he had a standing obligation to do some charity work every year in the Spring.  Everything had been delayed so much that he was now under the gun to get that work done, and the dates couldn’t move.  So my car would be delayed once again for about another 6 weeks or so.

At this point Val’s best recommendation was to either just wait for him to fit me into his schedule, or to start some of the work on my own and get back with him in 6-8 weeks.  I wasn’t really too sure what I could reasonably hope to accomplish with my limited facilities and HOA restrictions.  But I agreed that this was the course of action that made the most sense.  I went back through my list of labor to be done and separated out what I might be able to accomplish on my own.