stangs-R-me

If you have a fastback, the only advantage of bolt-in glass is the fact that it is bolt-in. If you have a '69 Hardtop or Conv. then you also gain the much improved vertical sealing that moves from the door glass to the quarter glass. This alone made the swap worthwhile on my car ... no more snagging clothing or worse slicing open your arm when shutting the door as that sharp trim can get you when you don't expect it !! Doug

I put an '85 HO 5.0L in my '67 Fairlane using a double roller chain set & '67 timing cover and stock fuel pump so it can work with the right parts. This was done back in the early 90's, so I don't remember exactly what brand chain set I used but I'm 99% sure I used the 1 pc. eccentric. Doug

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a '67-68 Harness from CJ last weekend and it came today (only a $20.36 gamble thanks to their supposed 15% off SALE). YES the main power wire is LARGER ... same size as main (headlamp) harness, guessing 12 GA. so wire sizes used in this '67-68 harness are all the same as my original. However it is not exactly the same as the original ... plug lead to main harness is longer and the ground leads going to the engine block are shorter so I could not re-use the wire guide and clamp from the original harness and route the exact same way. I made it work though and am much happier with this more HD harness than the "correct" '69 one. Also, this harness was NOT made by Alloy, it was made by Mr. Mustang. Doug

Last week I brought in my orig. 24" that I had re-cored with a 3-row core back in the 80's and thankfully it checked out ok. Small crack in the top shell that he fixed but the core was solid ... total cost for flush, test, & repair was around $46.00. He said a new core (if it was needed) would have been around $300 ... complete new radiator would have been around $200. He said re-cores used to always be cheaper, but not with the cost of copper where it's at now. Doug

Sometimes the knob can be near impossible to remove so it's good to hear it can be dissassembled from the back if needed. Two of us ... one on each set of pliers could not get the knob off the clock from a friend's '70 Mach. We gave up ... he's going to let Instrument Services deal with it when he sends his clock in for a new lens & quartz conversion this fall. Doug

According to the wiring diagram (PDF below) there should be a FUSE LINK in the wire that connects to the starter relay. Per the diagram the harness is all 12 GA wire which is good for 20 AMPS nominal @ 12VDC (or by length ... 15' = 25A / 10' = 40A). If you wanted to experiment with actual fuses, start with 20A and work your way up to no more than 40A and see what survives. Doug

I may have figured out this harness ... looks more like a '67-68 Cougar XR7 / Mustang w/o Tach 289-302 harness # C7ZZ-14305-B. Here are pics of this harness from 3 different vendors: http://www.cougarpartscatalog.com/c7zz-14305-b.html http://www.cjponyparts.com/ALTERNATOR-WIRING-HARNESS-6-CYL---SMALL-BLOCK-V8-W-O-TACH-1967-1968/p/WALT4A/ http://johnsmustang.com/Parts/details-2140.html Definitely think this harness is superior to C9ZZ-14305-S / '69 version due to the added Ground wire (can never have enough ground) but I can't really tell if the main power wire is actually a larger gauge like mine or not. Doug

I bought repro battery cables for my car back in the 80's and not only were they wimpy wire but they fell apart in about 2 years ... JUNK. The std. auto parts store ones I bought to replace them are still on the car today and still look good and solid. As far as the HD Alt harness ... look at my pics !! Was thinking maybe I swapped in a newer harness at some point. So I was looking at other repro alt harnesses for 70-up Mustangs and nothing newer will interchange with 1969 or older, so this can't be the case !! Tried to call Alloy today and phone just rang & rang ... maybe they are off on Friday. Doug

Thanks Bruce, I thought that might be the case ... but ... I'd really like to find out what I've got. I'm going to try to contact Alloy Metal Products and see what they have to say. The Headlamp Harness wire in the mating plug appears to be the same size as the one in my old harness so it should be compatible with the larger wired alternator harness. More than likely what I've got is the H-D Alternator harness ... and knowing me, I've got the highest amp replacement alternator listed in the parts store data base for 1969 Mustang so I probably NEED this higher capacity harness !! Doug

Just finished installing a new ALLOY METAL PRODUCTS headlamp wiring harness on my car and it went very smoothly. Now pulled the alternator to change this little harness and my original is slightly different. My original harness has the ground wire from the plug going down to the engine block (where the battery ground goes) and then a larger wire comes back and attaches to the alternator case. The main black positive wire (in the center) is also larger on my original than the one in the replacement harness. My original harness is much more Heavy Duty, just that it is 42 years old and really should be replaced. Could this be the HD 55 A alternator option (vs. std 38 A) or because my car has A/C ?? See pics below ... anyone else run across this ?? Doug

A roll back pulled my brother's 2 stangs ('69 Conv & '79 Hatchback) out of the 2 garages he had them stored in for 20 years. All 4 brakes eventually free'd up on the '79 during the ordeal, but I think at least 1 of the 69's drums never did so it got dragged all the way out of the garage & up the roll back. If one or all the drums stay locked up, you'll have some black marks on your garage floor for a while and the brakes obviously need a complete overhaul anyway so no big deal there either. Doug

Ok, another difference between 1969 & 1970 !! Doug

1969 front (headlamp) harnesses are different between Tach & non-tach cars and the fact that 1970 & 1969 headlamp harnesses are NOT the same slipped my mind yesterday. The hood scoop T/S wiring was separate in '69 where it was incorporated into the Mach 1 (Sportlamp) harness in '70. So maybe they incorporated all the wiring for both Tach & non-tach in the two '70 headlamp harnesses to avoid having FOUR different harnesses. Doug

Negative battery cable on a Ford typically goes right to the engine block to a dedicated threaded hole ... usually somewhere on the right lower corner (provided the battery is located in the right front corner). The rest of the car then gets it's battery ground via the block to firewall ground strap. The only component in the car that needs the amp capacity of the big ground cable is the STARTER, so running this cable anywhere other than the engine block is a big no no. Doug

Both use the same alternators ... the extra terminal is just used with the one and not the other. Yes, you need to get the Tach specific front harness as well as the Tach specific alternator harness. OR, you can do as I did and swap in a non-tach cluster alternator gauge in place of the Tach cluster temp gauge and add the Shelby styled pod in place of the ash tray with aftermarket oil psi & temp gauges. Requires some minor wiring, but you keep the non-tach front harness & alternator harness PLUS you end up with REAL temp & oil PSI gauges !! See attached circuit drawing PDF ... it ends up being very similar to Cougar XR7 (which has full instrumentation and uses the Mustang non-tach front harness & alternator harness). Doug

I've removed all the old gasketing (or what was left of it) and wire-wheeled all the doors & rods. Hopefully it is warm enough (focast says partly cloudy / high of 61) to go outside and paint all this bare steel today. If SUN is out, it should dry well enough that I can put all the new door gaskets on maybe later today. Question #1 ... should I use "Spray Adhesive", "Super W/S Adhesive", or something else to apply all this gasketing ?? Question #2 ... the "spare" evap core is nicer than my original (the expansion valve side tube is twisted, more butcher work I assume), so I'd like to use this "spare" instead. It however has not been "sealed" for the past 24 years while in storage. Blew it out with compressed air and nothing came out, but should I have this cleaned out / flushed befor I use ?? Doug

Here is a pic of my original Evap/Heater case ... When I had replaced the heater core in 1984, I did the best a 21 year old could do to fix it and make it useable. Lots of silicone and notice the piece of cork added to fill the gap where a chunk of the case was missing next to the exaporator tubes !! I think the fiberglass repair where the one bracket belongs (and is missing) was done during previous service at which time the upper bracket went missing too ... quite the butcher job !! Doug

Well, I finally yanked out my original Evaporator Case from the car last weekend and it ended up being in far worse shape than the spare one I have, so the "spare" got fixed instead. To fix the drain nipple, I got a 1/2" brass "soft tube support" ferrule from the hardware store. O.D. is 0.368" I.D. is 0.320" and it is 0.72" long with the one end flanged. Dropped it in the case bottom and the flange portion mated to the case perfectly. Roughed up the o.d. of ferrule and the i.d. of the broken off nipple and used 2-part epoxy. Once set up, I then added a couple more coats to reinforce. The riveted-on lower case firewall bracket was completely broken off (see last pic) of this case. However, the one from my original case was completely missing, as was the metal bracket that is the 2nd firewall mounting point on the upper half of the case. So, the Exap case in my car was held in only by the one upper screw behind the cowl air inlet and the heater & A/C tubes going through the firewall !! So I re-attached the bracket with the 2-part epoxy as well but also used some fiberglass mesh to reinforce it. I think both repairs are probably stronger than new. If I did not have this "spare case", I would have never known my case was missing the two firewall attachment brackets !! Doug

Yes, the support is the same with or without a clutch. However ... you do need the upper clutch pedal assist spring & bracket "IF" you are going to use a regular old school 3-finger type clutch. If you are going to up-grade to a Diaphram type (I.E. Centerforce), then you're good to go as the pedal assist spring is not needed or wanted with this type of clutch. Doug

According to my CJ Catalog, the Z-Bar & both mounts are the same, but the upper & lower rods are not. Clutch/brake pedal assemblies are also different. Doug

According to my CJ Catalog, the Z-Bar & both mounts are the same, but the upper & lower rods are not. Clutch/brake pedal assemblies are also different. Doug

"IF" it is a '69 or '70, the whole interior (including the dash) can swap right in. A somewhat popular swap back in the day used to be putting an XR7 / Eliminator dash in a Mustang to get full instrumentation (Tach dash in Mustang looses Oil & Amp gauges). I've seen a few like this, but the flat Cougar dash pad just takes away the unique look of the double cockpit Mustang dash. Cougar dash pads were less prone to cracking though and may have been part of the reason people did the swap back then. "IF" it is a '67-68, nothing but front seats will simply "swap right in" as far as interior goes. Exterior wise: nothing but the cowl panel, side glass, and maybe a few other components will swap between '69-70 Mustangs & Cougars ... nothing at all if it is a '67-68. Mechanical wise: the whole drive train & suspension are interchangable if '69-70, (brakes too if '68-70) ... basically just engine & trans and differential if '67. Doug

"IF" it is a '69 or '70, the whole interior (including the dash) can swap right in. A somewhat popular swap back in the day used to be putting an XR7 / Eliminator dash in a Mustang to get full instrumentation (Tach dash in Mustang looses Oil & Amp gauges). I've seen a few like this, but the flat Cougar dash pad just takes away the unique look of the double cockpit Mustang dash. Cougar dash pads were less prone to cracking though and may have been part of the reason people did the swap back then. "IF" it is a '67-68, nothing but front seats will simply "swap right in" as far as interior goes. Exterior wise: nothing but the cowl panel, side glass, and maybe a few other components will swap between '69-70 Mustangs & Cougars ... nothing at all if it is a '67-68. Mechanical wise: the whole drive train & suspension are interchangable if '69-70, (brakes too if '68-70) ... basically just engine & trans and differential if '67. Doug

'69-70 Coupes actually had a "formed" (hardboard) package tray rather than a flat one like '65-68 ... the back edge curls up to the window gasket. The reproduction one I've seen is formed fiberglass instead of hardboard. Anyway, because of this curled back edge, it may be tricky to make something custom that fits as well or looks like it belongs there. Just an FYI. Doug

'69-70 Coupes actually had a "formed" (hardboard) package tray rather than a flat one like '65-68 ... the back edge curls up to the window gasket. The reproduction one I've seen is formed fiberglass instead of hardboard. Anyway, because of this curled back edge, it may be tricky to make something custom that fits as well or looks like it belongs there. Just an FYI. Doug