danno

I have been questioning my factory power disc/drum brakes for years, trying to get better stopping ability. I must have read a dozen threads, and no real answer. I cannot lock up my front wheels with the system I have, and I should not need to spend huge money to get the factory system to work like it was originally. I have tried all the tricks, new pads, new flex lines, new master, rebuilt wheel cylinders, etc. I was chatting last week with a older local person who knew a lot about brakes, and he mentioned that the 69/70 Mustangs have a dual diaphram vacuum booster. In other full size Fords, there was enough room to put a larger diameter diaphram on the booster, so that worked fine. 1971 thru 73 Mustangs also had a much larger diameter single diaphram booster. Because of size limits, in 69 they used a dual diapham, which is why it is smaller diameter and longer from front to back. The problem comes from what happens if only one of the diaphrams in the booster is good, and the other has a leak. You will get some stopping ability improvement, but not total. The usual check everyone does when they step on the brake with the engine off, and keep the foot on it while starting the engine. You can feel the pedal go down further if the booster is working. But if one of the diaphams is working and one is not, this test is not effective. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? I am tempted to buy a new booster, just to see if my assumptions are correct.

ditto, yes to both

ditto, yes to both

Keep checking ebay, everything will be there. Heat only systems are in very low demand, so they should be easy to get. everyone wants AC systems. There are also some places like perogie.com and northcoastmustang.com that have a lot of used parts. I also know of a guy near Little Rock that used to have a lot of them, as well as Tim Baxter in Northwest Wisconsin; both have a bunch of them.

Keep checking ebay, everything will be there. Heat only systems are in very low demand, so they should be easy to get. everyone wants AC systems. There are also some places like perogie.com and northcoastmustang.com that have a lot of used parts. I also know of a guy near Little Rock that used to have a lot of them, as well as Tim Baxter in Northwest Wisconsin; both have a bunch of them.

Myself and others will do modifications of original AM/FM radios and tape players to allow a seperate MP3 or CD input. It could be done on your digital radio, but it would not be easy. The easiest way for you to do it is to buy an FM transmitter. It plugs into your CD or MP3 and transmits a signal that is picked up by your radio. You tune the FM radio to the station that your MP3 player is at.

Myself and others will do modifications of original AM/FM radios and tape players to allow a seperate MP3 or CD input. It could be done on your digital radio, but it would not be easy. The easiest way for you to do it is to buy an FM transmitter. It plugs into your CD or MP3 and transmits a signal that is picked up by your radio. You tune the FM radio to the station that your MP3 player is at.

The fuse box is a part of the interior underdash harness. You can seperate them but it is not easy. If all you need is the black plastic surrounding, you can probably get it from many other Fords. But if you need it with wires, that is a whole lot more complicated.

I got teh one from Randall Rack and am quite happy with it. Be careful with whichever one you get, because the kit often does not include everything you need. I know in the case of Randalls, it required I purchase tie rod ends seperately. I understand some of the others are the same. But the system is great. I have long tube headers on a 302 and have no problem with it. Your decision could come down to just price.

Cuzzar, it looks like you are using a steering wheel from a 1980's Ford Truck. Is that what it is?

You are correct about the brown wire. At the connector under the hood, the brown and pink wire come together. The pink wire has resistance and goes to the ignition switch to supply voltage to the coil when the car is running normal. The brown wire goes to the solenoid and has 12 volts on it when the car is trying to start. So what these 2 wires do is supply a full 12 volts to the coild when the car is starting, and the voltage is reduced when the car is running. The brown wire starts from where it meets up with the pink, at that connector. From there is goes through the firewall to the underdash harness to the fuseblock. It does not go to a fuse, but that is where it goes back through the firewall and connects to the primary under hood harness. The wire then goes through the under hood harness to the solenoid. You are on the right track with your changes, I just thought of explaining things a bit more.

That switch is one of the best parts on my car. The original is still going strong after 44 years. The replacements are plentiful and cheap, do that. Do you know about the button on the back of it that needs to be pressed to remove the shaft?

If a 12 volt coil is to be used, fine. But be absolutely sure it is a 12 volt coil. If it is not, everthing could burn up all over again. If you take a coil designed to operate at a lower voltage and connect it to 12 volts, the car will start and run fine. Run fine, though, until the coil overheats and shorts out. A shorted coil will then start burning wires because the only fuse to it is a fusable link by the solenoid, and that was probably removed by the PO. Maybe that is how the whole burned wire process started? So be 100% sure you have a coil designed to be connected to 12 volts, with no ballast resistor or resistor wire.

The diagram you have in slide 34 is NOT fine. It is for a car with a Tachometer. If you have one, it is correct. If you do not have a tach, it is wrong. The main engine compartment wire harness is totally different with a tach and no tach car. That could be the source of your problem. There is a similar diagram for cars without tachs.

He could have been a repeat offender. In Minnesota I think they will take it for that. My guess is the reason it is not in running condition is he took parts off the engine in the time it was in his posession. I am so curious I might need to do a road trip Saturday.

I might be inclined to agree that you need a whole new main engine wire harness. I am referring to the main one, because it has all the charging wires in it. There is a seperate place above your drivers side valve cover in the firewall with 4 connectors near the firewall. This seperate place has 4 connectors. This is in view 3 of your recent photos. One for wiper motor, one for engine ignition and sensors, one for transmission hookup ( neutral and backup swith) and maybe one for air conditioner compressor. Did the have factory A/C? All these connectors look good. I don't know the condition of the harnesses that plug into them. View 16 shows your engine ignition and sensors harness, and that looks like it is also ok. But the main harness is my concern. I see view 1 with a bad wire to the brake warning connector. Are there any bad wires with the covering off (Exposing the bare metal) in the firewall connection shown in this same picture? It looks like it is in bad shape, can you get a closer picture of it?

See what drunken driving gets you, your car confiscated by the police. The police in Hastings, Minnesota have a 1969 Mustang they will be auctioning this saturday, May 7. The list below is from the police department. http://www.ci.hastings.mn.us/FormsAndDocuments/2011HPDExcessProperty1.pdf Way at the bottom of the list is a 1969 Mustang, with very little description. If it was not for a small article in the paper, I am sure this car would have sold for a very low price. I will try to find out more details of what the car is, which is critical to it's value. Maybe it is only worth $400? Maybe it is worth $4000, or more? The article in the paper mentions it was returned to the owner after the arrest for a short period of time, and that when the police got it back some parts were missing. duh? What did these stupid city workers think was going to happen. Anyone within a hundred miles, it might be worth investigation. I have a 69 already and my garage is full, so it is not for me.

I have a 69 that I am sure is foctory original, and it has 2 harnesses from the firewall. One for the engine and wipers is just above the left valve cover, and the main engine harness comes out of the firewall below the master cylinder. The main goes forward, under the radaitor, and to the battery area. There is nothing around the passenger side shock tower except my convertible top motor wire. The main engine harness has lights, washer pump, brake warning connection, horns, charging, regulator, and starter drive. The engine harness has oil pressure, engine temperature, and ignition wires. I think there is a seperate wire also for the air conditioner.

As I mentioned in the other thread, you probably do not need a new one. The one you have can be used.

It looks like your regulator has been cut out completely. My guess is the PO installed a one wire alternator. Your existing harness is probably ok, but you need to decide to either fix it and put in the conventional regulator and factory style alternator, or change to the one wire alternator. In the wire harness under your battery, I think there are 5 wires. My car is still in winter storage or I would check on it. the 5 wires are a brown and red/blue wire that go to the starter solenoid. there should be a green/red and maybe a yellow/black that went to the regulator. Then there is also a black wire to the battery. Have you got 5 wires in this harness, and what are the colors of them. I want you to peel back the tape from all the modifications that were done, so you can get back to the factory wires. Tell us what you have and we can proceed from that.

The factory tach was not really a tach, it was a current (amps) meter. It measures the current from the ignition switch to the coil. The higher the engine speed, more sparks sper second are required from the spark plugs. To get more sparks, it takes more current in the wire from the switch to the coil. So Ford put an ampmeter in the wire and called it a tachometer. It is very accurate and works fine, until people started changing ignition parts. The factory tach should work with aftermarket distributors and coils. There is a chance it will not be accurate, though, with aftermarket parts. A high voltage coil might mean more amps of current than a standard coil, and so the tach always reads a certain percent high. So it will definately not work with Pertronix or other aftermarket ignition systems. These are what you need the convertors for. Something Ford never did, that is a wise thing to do, is to add a fuse in the line to the factory tach. If your coils shorts out, it could ruin the tach. Maybe that happened, which is why it was bypassed?

Why do you think you need an isolator switch? Keep in mind that if the switch accidentally gets shut off with the car running, it can ruin a lot of stuff and do serious damage to the electrical system. Maybe that will never happen, it is a stretch. Why else do you need a cutoff switch? Another good place to find one is a marine parts store. Boats need cutoff switches, and a 100 amp switch should work fine. You might need to wear a life preserver when you dirive if you buy a marine switch...

The power from your switch goes 2 places. One wire goes to the solenoid to start motor, and the other wire goes through a completely seperate wire harness from the firewall to the coil. The charging and ignition circuits are completely seperate. To find out what kind of alternator your car is set up for, it should have a 3 wire connector on the wire harness that connects to the alternator if it is a conventional system. This connector will be below the solenoid a few inches. Can you take a picture of the area around the solenoid to let us see what you have?

What is the part number on your radio? I will see if I can find a schematic on it. This is the same process I went through with candyapplered, to start with the paperwork. That will tell me a lot about what you have and are working with. The model number should be something like D2AA-12H223.

Great job, I know the felling of sucess when you actually see an accomplishment like this. I must admit, I was not sure about those 100 ohm resistors added in the audio line, but it sounds as if they worked fine. It looks like your work is very high quality, with nice solder joints, connections, bundles, etc. I usually do it a bit different in that I use a relay inside the radio to do the switching. Then all I need to do is run a single wire to +12 volts at a switch to do the changeover. The other thing I always do when I make the mod is add a USB cable to supply power to the mp3 player. That way it is always charged. I just got through doing a mod to another AM/FM that will be going onto Ebay this week, I will reply when I do so you can see what I did to accomplish the task. For 69gmachine, somewhere inside your tape player/radio is a switch that changes the audio from tape to radio. You can usually connect your mp3 to the audio output of the tape player and disconnect the tape player audio output at this switch. If you do this, you still need to slide in a tape to engauge the siwtch to change from radio to tape. I just finished doing the mod for a person in International Falls, MN. That is just down the road from Frostbite Falls, where Rocky and Bullwinkle were from. Anyway, I did the mod in a AM/8 track player from a 68 Fairlane, and it was not that difficult. So if anyone else wants it done, I can do it for them. I can also answer questions if anyone wants to do it on their own.