1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

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TireSmoker
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by TireSmoker »

that things looks GREAT!

-Dave
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

Today we went to Summit Racing and bought a ton of tune up and refresh parts for the Mustang. The stuff I couldn't get there, I ordered from Rock Auto too. So by the end of the week I should have my whole pile of parts to start picking at.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

With the gray Mustang gone, I was able to bring the white car home on Thursday. This morning I made a quick call to Jim at JD Race to see if he had any good used 3.27 gears for my car. Of course he had them. Long story short, dad and I had the rear end out by noon and I took it down to Jim's by about 2:30. I also stopped by to pick up the vibrating Firebird 3.90 rear to have him check it out also.
This 3.27 will replace the stock 2.73 and hopefully will help prolong the death of the OD in this auto trans.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

Saturday I took some time to get a few little mini projects that needed to get done before the rearend goes back in. I replaced the rear vertical shocks, which requires ALL the lining in the trunk to be removed. Since it's a convertible, it's a little tight, but not terrible. The shocks that were on the car appear to be the original Motorcraft pieces. Then I painted the old rear drums a nice shade of flat black instead of rust. They are otherwise in amazing shape.
I replaced the old steel driveshaft with a new aluminum one. I unboxed most of my other parts too, including the "quad shocks" that mount horizontally to this rearend to prevent wheel hop, and the new brake shoes. I also replaced the fuel filter since its WAY easier to get to as it's mounted just above the rearend.
I expect to get the rearend back in a couple days and I can get this back on the road and then shift my focus to the parts on the front of the car.

-BP
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

I got the rearend back over a week ago, but was super busy with work, and also slowed down by a stomach issue. I've been picking at the rearend project over the last few days and got it finished today. I was able to take it for a good drive this evening and what a difference all the changes made! The gearing and driveshaft have helped the driveability a ton and the new shocks have helped the ride considerably. It's not all sluggish like it was before, it now moves when I give it gas. Totally happy with the upgrades and am looking forward to replacing the front struts and doing the tune up.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

Today I finished up a transmission fluid swap, filter change, and speedo gear replacement. I read on a Mustang forum that these AOD transmissions have a plug on the torque converter so I can drain that completely when I do my pan drop and filter change. This made me feel better about switching over completely to Mobil 1 synthetic transmission fluid. People said 12-13 quarts for a swap but I put in about 11-3/4 and I'm just a little overfilled even after a test drive. It no doubt shifts smoother under normal driving conditions and feels pretty good under a decent load, but I haven't really run this thing anywhere near redline to do a full hard shift yet.
After the rearend swap, the speedo was obviously off by some margin. I had a pile of old Ford speedo gears I got from Kevin a long time ago for the TubStang, and just never gave them back since he switched to a GM trans. Research said I needed an 18 or 19 tooth gear depending on the drive gear. Well, I couldn't figure out what that was from just looking at it, so I pulled the gear that was in it out and saw it was a 16. I figured a 17 tooth gear would be good for the 3.08 gear that came in these cars, and the 18 (the tan one at the bottom of the pic) would go for the 3.27 gear I used. My figuring was right. Now I'm showing 60mph when I'm doing 57-58 according to my phone and it seems to get more accurate with speed.
Next up will be underhood tune-up stuff.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

This week I picked at the cooling system. I replaced the serpentine belt, the upper and lower radiator hoses, the coolant, the thermostat with a 160deg one, and the small bypass hose from the thermostat housing to the water pump. No major surprises here. The thermostat housing was a little bit of a pain to install while trying to keep the thermostat in place, but otherwise not too bad.

Next up, tune up and front brakes.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

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This week I was able to knock out the tune up with all Motorcraft parts. New platinum plugs, cap, rotor, and wires. Disappointing was the fact that the "genuine" Motorcraft wires were a mismatched set from different suppliers, and all wires were about 2" too long. I hate crap like that especially since I'm trying to keep it looking stock, and the lengths were off and there are mismatched boots. The original tune up parts were still on the car IMO, except maybe the spark plugs which looked too good for 65K miles. I also put a K&N (YEAH K&N) drop in filter in.
Then on to the new PowerStop front brake pads. As I was taking the caliper loose, I realized I should probably consider doing the front struts at the same time since I have to pull the calipers off to do the struts anyway. The struts proved to be pretty easy with no springs to compress. Sad thing is that the "new" struts I bought off ebay last December were really from 2004 and not new as advertised. But it was too late to return them and they were still in the box and compressed so I figured what the heck, it's an easy job if I need to replace them. The brake pads were a pretty easy job too, but one of the big outside pads had a small, half a dime piece broke off at the end and about 1/8" deep. They came this way new from the factory. Again, given the nature of the car and what I plan to do with it, it's not going to affect much IMO, so I put it on.
On my test drive I broke in the new pads last night and was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. The tune up helped all the little misses at idle and smoothed out the power a bunch. The new struts took care of the crappy ride from the front as the struts I removed were original too and eliminated all but the worst rattling from bad roads. It's only going to ride so good being a V8 subframe convertible from the 80's, but it's really pretty smooth at this point, and handles way better than I thought it would on the two freeway ramps I was on. Can't wait to really push it sometime.
I finally topped the tank off with 93 last night too, so I can turn the timing up now, which I know helped my old 5.0 quite a bit. Besides that, I have an off-road H-pipe to install, new wipers, and a full detail job to do still. Then pull the door panels to lube all the window mechanism, lube the top's working points, and I'll be hopefully just cruising it the rest of the summer.

-BP
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struts brakes 6-2-22.jpg
tune up 6-2-22.jpg
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tune up 6-2-22b.jpg
tune up 6-2-22c.jpg
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by MostMint »

At 33 years old I would take a good look at the brake system and all the hoses. I recommend new brake hoses and fluid unless you have evidence that stuff has been changed. You can deal with a power steering, radiator or vacuum hose failing with minor inconvenience. Odds of bigger trouble with a bad brake line are another thing again.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

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All the rubber brake lines are still nice looking with no cracking or signs of dry rot anywhere. Even after I pulled the calipers and wiggled them around they still look good. I know I checked the rear line when I pulled the rearend out too and it looked good. So for now, I'll go with them. Plus, I lubed up the parking brake when I did the rear shoes and now the parking brake works as designed, so if I get into a pickle, I can still stop.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

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Today after breakfast I went to 32Vs place and used GMs timing light to bump the timing from a stock 7-8 degrees to a happier 16 degrees. We went for a test drive and it definitely feels more peppy. But on the test drive I ran out first gear (and 2nd later) and the car lays over pretty hard anywhere between 4200 and 4800 and it's inconsistent at what RPMs it will do this. So far I'm thinking it's the catalytic converters (there are four) and they are prone to clogging in these Foxbody cars. I have an off road h-pipe in stock, so next on my Mustang agenda will be to install that and hope the problem is solved. But under normal driving conditions, and even up to probably 70%, there's no issues and it runs strong and smooth.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by MostMint »

There might be stuff packed in the muffler from critters it did sit s long time.
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

Since I hate leaving problems and had an open afternoon, I decided to tackle the h-pipe. It went reasonably smoothly until the passenger's side O2 sensor didn't come out of the factory pipe. I had everything I could find on there to get it loose, and it's still on there. Luckily the AutoZone in Chardon had a replacement so I was only slowed down about 45 min.
The new Pacesetter h-pipe kit fit pretty well, but it wasn't perfect. The hanger hooks were a little too short, and the bolts they give you to attach to the muffler pipes were 1/2" too short. Otherwise, no big deal.
So it is a little louder, as expected, but not so inside the car. The best part is that it revs strong to 5500 RPMs consistently. Problem solved.
Kevin's Mustang had the same issue a million years ago, and removing the cats was the cure too. He also suggested turning the timing back to 14 degrees, so that will happen eventually.

It's official, I've installed all the parts I bought for this car, so now it's just small details like a detail job, and some lubrication of the top and window tracts. I might get an alignment done at some point too.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

Post by Basement Paul »

I found this under the seat when I was lubricating all the convertible top bending points yesterday. This is apparently when Dave bought the car on the internet back in '08. The top works smoother than ever now too. It's never had lubrication I'm sure and there are a TON of moving points in the mechanism.

-BP
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Re: 1989 Mustang GT Convertible #56

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This week I'm smoothing out stuff. Now the power windows and locking mechanisms need attention. Last night I went through the passenger's door with grease and lube where it needed it. Now the window goes up and the door lock mechanisms operate correctly. The window still makes a little noise initially when going down, but it functions smoothly and I can't see anything else to lube, so it's just going to make a little noise. I'll duplicate the driver's side probably on Thursday. Then I have to figure out how to get to the rear window mechanisms. If I'm lucky I can just see down inside that area when the windows are down and tactically squirt some lube at them. If not I'm sure the covers aren't that terrible to remove in the back seat area.
I took a picture of the plastic just to show that it's actually dated. LOTS of parts on this car still have dates. It's pretty cool. I was as careful as possible to not tear the plastic with hopes that it would stick back up, and it did for the most part.

-BP
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door panel 6-7-22.jpg
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