2015 Project Thread!

Man there are so many time-saving ways to do things (save time now-may have to do it again later), but I still solder as much as I can.
T-taps are good for low current, circuits with little/no vibrations; yeah I’ve used the posi –connectors. Be careful when using them in small gauge wire (red ones), you could actually slice the wire in two.
When I first found out about the posi connectors, I thought they were great, I had some samples to work with, I found them bulky and unsightly, and you need to pay special attention to the outlet end getting the wire as close to center as possible and make all connections tight.
I would solder the joints for the fan, now the radio or an alarm, I may be inclined to use the t taps or posi connectors, butt connectors etc.
My buddy is a crimp-connector & t-tap connector freak; he has pretty good reliability most of the time.
When I make a loom, all my joints are soldered, I will use the non-insulated butt connectors on the larger wires (10 gauge & up) but I will still solder he but connectors to the wires. I know it takes a little longer and people want everything now, but I’m old and hate change, and don’t like doing things twice.
When I make battery cables, all eyelets are soldered to the cables, my bud made a cable the other day, used the correct eyelet for the cable, he has the same hammer operated crimper that I have and when he went to test the fit, the eyelet slid right off, when we looked at the eyelet, everything looked ok…….
You’ll make the correct decision, no doubt and be satisfied.

I don't like to do things twice either, but sometimes I am just that impatient, haha. I've done almost everything on this car at least twice for various reasons.

I'm a little annoyed I have to order my circuit breakers online and then wait for them to come. All the local places have is cheesy stuff, and I want to do it just once, how about that? haha

I've been thinking about my fuel drainback problem. I'm wondering if maybe the one way check-valve is actually NOT internal to the Mustang fuel pump I'm using, but elsewhere on the hanger assembly. I mean, I've been through 1 pump that I'd been using in the Mustang tank up to that point, AND a brand new one! Neither held pressure in my present arrangement. I looked on Jegs, and it looks like you can get 1-way check valves that would bolt right up to my AN lines. They're a little pricey, but the no name one on Jegs is under $50. I had a guy tell me though about early '90s F-150s with dual tanks used to be notorious for the same problem. And rather than replace pump after pump, Ford came up with a check valve that fits inline! It's a pretty slick deal, and nice and compact! Only thing is, online, I've only seen them NOS, and they want $100 and up. I could maybe find one at a junkyard, but maybe not.

yeah, there was a recall for that problem, and I think in came in 5/16 and 3/8 line sizes.

what kind of tank and pump unit are you using. most of the older stock units had the valves in the pump itself, now the newer ones had a separate valve installed on the pump housing, big plastic thing hooked up with crush clamps. I used a pump out of a later town car for a while and it caused a long crank issue, but the pressures were Identical....
I bought a new Ingersoll rand 2135 impact wrench and it arrived yesterday, I'm going in today and try it out.

To go with my CFI LTD wagon tank, I'm using the pump hanger/sending unit that goes with it (CFI LTD wagon). I grafted on the SEFI '87-93 Mustang high pressure pump in place of the low pressure LTD pump. I had to modify the steel lines coming down a little, but I just cut some of the length off. You might remember, I had to change the gauge sending unit to a Mustang one also because the LTD sending unit used the wrong resistance range.



Do you think my pressure line (as opposed to the return line) on the pump hanger is 3/8"? There is no big plastic thing on the pump hanger, I know that much. All I can figure is I'm managing to damage the check valve as part of putting it on the pump hanger it doesn't belong on or something. I don't know. It's frustrating though.

Always nice to get a new toy! Especially something you use as often as an impact! I like how all my air tools say "oil daily", and I've oiled most of them maybe 3 or 4 times in 15 years. hahaha! My home compressor setup sends the moisture right through them too, haha. I do have a filter ready to go on, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

what is that big rectangular thing hooked-up to the fuel outlet pipe in the top of the fuel pump mounting?
don't worry about the check valve on this set-up, it's inside of the pump. once you get the pump changed, you pressure loss should go away if it's the correct pump.
if you want to find out what size your fuel lines are , just use a 3/8 wrench, or 5/16 to see what size it is, (unless its metric) then use metric wrenches, if it gets too close to call, use a micrometer.
why not just install your new pump with zero miles and enjoy..........I hate pulling the tank on mine also, but I did it so many times 2 yrs ago I should be exempt.
I really like my new impact gun, its a bit stronger that my old one, but this one doesn't rattle you spine. of course it had to be "red" so I got the anniversary special.........

I don't know what that rectangle thing is. It's probably a check valve neutralizer, haha. But yeah, if I still have to put a check valve on, I can probably only do it at the fuel filter, unless I manage to find one of those Ford ones for reasonable money. What that means though, is that I could install the valve without pulling the tank again.

I ran across a guy on facebook that had assembled everything you need to do the LTD nose swap. Including the wagon rear bumper and surrounding trim! But, I have no budget for it right now, and he pretty much told me you have to cut the F/Z inner structure out from the shock towers forward and weld in LTD stuff. Since I can't weld... or paint for that matter, not to mention I don't have a place to store stuff that big until I do figure out how I'm going to do it, I have to pass on it. It's really a bummer, he had all the legwork done for me! AND he had both Ford and Mercury parts like grilles and turn signals!

Today is fan controller install day. Should be fun! I'm having trouble finding a place to put the relays and stuff under the hood though. I know where NOT to put it though, that's for sure!

finally got round to doing the 3rd brake light, not my car is part Nissan....(oh well) I mounted it up on the rear trim panel for the back glass, I was surprised when I tightened it down, no adjustment required, it was perfect, now the damn thing will probly not start........got to get moving on the electro chromatic mirror with a compass if I can find one, I don't want just the electro chromatic mirror.
I'm a bit concerned about the general condition of your fuel pump, if the check valve is faulty, how much life does the pump itself have left in it? being that you already have a new one why waste the time looking for some check valves.
is the fuel pump you are using (at the moment)from a fox mustang or another vehicle?
remember when I used the town car pump, it had no check valve (because it was from a returnless fuel system), so in that case using a check valve on a good pump would be beneficial. I suppose you have to ask yourself why did the check valve fail, was it debris from the pump-or just a poor sealing condition.
you sure as hell don't want to have a failure away from home knowing you have a good pump back home barking to be put in.
I would have thought the frt end change could have been done easier, seems like a lot of cutting/welding.
I hope the fan install went ok, you'll rest easier once it's done. you'll probably fine it went easier than you thought.

Well, since swapping to this LTD tank, the check valve has never worked. Not with the used Mustang pump I had at first, and not with the new Mustang pump I have now. So, you see what I'm dealing with here. From what we know about how these pumps work, the check valve is internal. Could the check valve have failed on the first used pump? Seems most likely. But what about the second, brand new pump? Could it have been faulty right out of the box? The odds would certainly be against it, but nonetheless, that seems to be what we're looking at here.

So you can see why I might want to cover my bases here. I do intend to put the new pump in, but when I fire it up, I have every reason to believe the check valve in the new pump still won't do what it's supposed to. It certainly doesn't help the thing appears to have been sitting for some time. As far as I know, the odds are against me. I won't buy a check valve until after I put the new pump in and test it though.

Yeah, I guess with that nose swap, if you want it to look right, hood open or closed, you have to cut out the inner structure forward of the strut towers and swap in some aprons from an LTD (or he said Mustang, but I'm not so sure about that), along with the core support. Since looking like it came that way is so important to my car, I just can't cobble it together and feel good about it.

I had to walk away from the fan controller install. I ran all the wire through the firewall, and the controller itself is pretty much good to go. I had to make myself okay with just having it hang under the dash instead of finding somewhere cool to mount it, but there just isn't anywhere i liked to put it.

But, I don't have my circuit breakers yet, so I knew I couldn't finish yesterday. So that was the first count against me. Second, I need 2 more power leads coming straight from the solenoid than I have now. My solenoid stud is already maxed out. I couldn't get another terminal on there if I wanted to. So, I need something to expand that capacity. You can get power distribution blocks and stuff like that, but it just seems so silly to me. It's usually just a stud, just like the solenoid, mounted on a plastic base so it doesn't short to ground for $20-30. I should be able to come up with a decent cheap solution for this. Nothing came to me. And anything I buy I would need to order online now that Radio Shack is gone. I don't know of anywhere local that would carry anything like that. So that means more waiting. I could start to think about how I wanted to eliminate the fender solenoid and do something different there, but there are just too many things to consider. I wasn't ready for that, and it kind of seems like it should be a project in itself. So that means, I have to make myself okay with buying a solution here, just so I can get the car back on the road, and possibly eliminating that solution somewhere down the line when I go a different direction with power distribution. It just seems like such a waste.

I just got overwhelmed. So I went inside and took a nap, haha. I'm up against a deadline, like usual. There's a good car show next Sunday, I want to meet up with Stymee at. It's a bit stressful because I won't have the chance to work on it again until Friday, and I don't know how long the programming process will take. It's a big unknown.

how about this: use one copper eylet and solder all the wires into it. there is NOTHING wrong with that, I've had to do that my self more than a few times. I like fuses, so I put the fuse connectors into the eylet and solder them altogether at one time, then get some red heat shrink or self fusing tape from SCRAPPA or Auto-zone and wrap the copper terminal.so you'll have a multi-fused bus link, problem solved...........
or
you could run and eyelet to your little fuse box that you got some time ago and remote mount it, problem solved.
I think some of the F150 & F350 had a starter solenoid that had longer terminals, you'll just have to go to the store and look at each one, problem solved.
RELAX=get your camera ready: all the pigs have been fed and are ready to fly, it's all good.

you are correct, the check valve is in the pump for the Fox mustang, some aftermarket pumps are failures straight out of the box, trust me on that one. I was and still am puzzled about that block on the fuel pump module, however I don't believe it should affect the check valve in the pump. if necessary, you could cycle the key a couple of times before start-up to build pressure.

we are having the end of monsoon season over here, so I'm kinda pleased, but don't bring your happy ass over here and expect me to stand next to you in a thunderstorm.

Well, I ended up finding a stupid stud in a plastic bracket for $10 instead of $30 right after I wrote that. So, I bought it. It's coming all the freakin' way from your neck of the woods. Whatever, I guess. At least I didn't waste like $100 or something. So, that issue seems to be solved for now.

I was annoyed too that the temp gauge sender wire is on the same harness as the left bank fuel injectors, so there is NO slack in the wiring for me to work with. In order for me to get in there and solder a nice joint, I'm going to have to take the upper intake off. I guess I just have to do what I have to do.

I was having a really hard time finding a place to put the relays where it would look nice and neat like it belongs. There's some nice real estate on the passenger side of the engine bay, but I'd have to run the wires SO much longer to have them over there. I just don't want to do that. There's room next to the radiator cap where my old controller was, but we already know that put them in harm's way. The only decent place I could find is the battery tray. My stupid battery is about 3" shorter than the battery tray, so it has all this room to move around. I planned to kill two birds with one stone and put wooden spacers in the tray to hold the battery in place, and I could mount the relays to the spacer at the back of the battery. I've seen that on new cars where they mount modules, and all manner of stuff to the sides of the battery because there's nowhere else to put them. Anyway, a wooden spacer at the front of the battery, I thought would be fine because it's dark down there and you won't see it if it's black. The back though, I thought maybe I could wrap the wood with some thin sheetmetal (I happen to have some) because wood doesn't belong on a car. So I made the sheetmetal wrap for the board. But, the only way I could get it to wrap the board nice and tight, it ended up all dented with the hammer strikes all over it. It looks like crap. And looks are pretty much what it's for, so I wasn't happy about that either. I'm probably back at square one with that one. I'll figure something out.

you could go farther back into the loom and pick the wire up.
could you install the relays INSIDE the fenderwells or behind he grille?

Yeah, I suppose you're right on both counts, thanks. Being up inside the fender well would kind of hamper servicablity, but if there's nowhere to put them, there just isn't.

I think I'm feeling better about the whole thing. I should be able to just attack it and get it done on Friday. I think I have a better idea for the battery spacer too. Might even be fun, haha.

i used wood for mine iast time round, prime seal the wood, spray with black quick dry enamel.
a lot of the newer cars use the fenderwells, even the older mustangs used it for the washer bottles,daytime running lights, CCRM and speed control. outa site outa-mind.

Yep, I used the '87-93 fender well washer bottle on mine. Moved the horn there too. I just have to go grab some yellow ring terminals, and I'll be good to go on this install. My circuit breakers and stupid stud on a plastic base have all come in the mail.

Know anything about JIC fittings? I was at a store the other day looking at these hydraulic fittings meant to use with hydraulic cylinders and stuff. I found out that JIC is the same as AN, just not made to the same manufacturing standards. I was hoping for a -6 AN cap I could close off my fuel return line with, so I could test for certain whether it was the pump causing the drainback problem. Since I don't have soft fuel lines (they are braided stainless), I can't just pinch them off like you normally can, so I need another way to close off the return line. I found this place locally that has a JIC cap that size, but they call it FJIC. I don't know if that's something different or what. I think it means "Female JIC" but I'm not sure, haha. Anyway, it's a lot cheaper than AN, and I could have it today, rather than waiting for Summit to send it to me. We don't really have any speed shops that I know of here, or any place that would just have something like that in stock.

i have never used an AN or JIC fitting, so I'm lost on that one.........

Spent the whole day wiring yesterday, but still didn't finish. I put the relays in the fender well. I didn't have any yellow size butt splices, so I went to the store. I tried several places looking for the uninsulated ones. I found some at Napa, in every size but yellow. They did have uninsulated yellow "parallel connectors", but they are these weird ones that are only about half as long as I'm accustomed to. Getting sick of shopping, I bought them and went home. They suck to use. I don't know who ever thought this was a good idea. You have to put each wire only a tiny bit into the connector, crimp it and hope it doesn't fall out anyway because there's hardly any bite, and then do it again with the other side. Then delicately balance it long enough to solder these fat 10 gauge wires to the connector. Wiring and soldering is enough of a pain, I don't need something making my life even more difficult. Especially when you're doing half the wiring upside down over your head.

Sorry to hear you have the “procurement” problem. That’s a bad one. Hint: whenever you are out and see something you are going to need, just get it. It’s better to have it on hand than to go searching for it. I’m using medicine bottles and sandwich bags to store small parts for just that reason.
Sometimes those crappy short but connectors are good in tight spaces because they are not long enough to make the wire rigid where it may have to bend. I don’t like using then either. Use a good solid heat-shrink like the Ford stuff with sealer.
We do a lot of mods at our place after hours, and we use spaces like fender-well, under seats (frt or rear) consoles, trunk etc, we try to stay away from under the dash, that just causes problems later on. We had a good “remember when” laugh the other day about stuffing modules & relays In weird places! We haven’t tried the seat backs yet…………………
When doing a job away from home, I always take the minimum amount of tools and stuff, and forget bits or something needs something else, today I’m going out to do a temporary repair to the seat belt buckle on a town car, but this time I’m going to take more than I need, hey I already forgot the soldering gun, so I’ll have to use butt connectors……bummer.
we have been experiencing early mice migration this year maybe it’s due to the rain, maybe it’s going to be really cold, but I’m doing a lot of soldering/repairing, I just hate repairing wires on RV’s because it’s overhead, the other day I was soldering and a blob hit my name tag, that was close…..
I missed the local chevy dealership car show yesterday, it was raining anyway, I sometime go, all the money goes for charity for the boys and girls club. We are supposed to alternate every other year between the dealerships, but we have only had one and it was an All Fords show, I just get tired of seeing a 350 shoved in every car imaginable, it’s ever so boring. I’d rather look at fuzzy dice.

When I make a junkyard run, I forget something i'll need 100% of the time. One time a few months ago, I went to rescue a friend whose battery had died. I brought this set of sockets that were missing one size. Well, take a guess what size I needed. (SIGHHHH). We had to go back to the tire shop she bought the new battery from to borrow the socket from one of the techs. How stupid.

I guess Stymee's not going to the show now, but I think I might still see if I can get things in working order in reasonable time. There's a couple more Fairmonts i know of down that way that will probably be there. It would be cool to see them in person. Although, if I didn't go, Lord knows I have plenty of other crap to do around here.

Yeah, every time I see a small block Chevy in a street rod or something, I think "did you put any thought into this car whatsoever?" Lame. It could be this amazing custom, but I don't care. Chevy power means I'm not interested. Plus, I don't know that much about what the cars looked like when they were new, haha. Sometimes I wouldn't even recognize custom if I saw it. As far as I know, every Willys coupe rolled off the assembly line as a gasser. hahaha

You ever see this show "Garage Squad"? They always have these cars that haven't run in years they come in and get going for the owners. They always have these interviews with the owners like "I never thought this car would run!" and stuff like that. I always think "you know, getting a car running is not that difficult". My car's been "running" almost the entire time I've had it. I thought it would be funny if I sent them a submission for them to fix up my car. I would start off with "I'm not one of those lazy people whose car isn't RUNNING... " hahaha!

be carful, you might end up with a 350 engine in you Zephyr.......I'm pretty sure they screen all the jobs to make sure they can do the jobs before they show up, most of the cars I've seen on the show were GM, except one old mustang.

Haha, well, if you HAVE an engine, they use it. I saw one the other day where they did a '63 Galaxie boxtop. The guy had an incomplete 390 for it, and they procured what other parts they needed and slapped it in there. Came out nice! They even found seats for it!

Got everything all put together and programmed yesterday. Just in time for the show to be over by the time I could get there, haha. I took it for a test drive, and I don't think the fan even came on, haha. It was a pretty cool day yesterday though. The controller has a diagnostic mode where you can make sure the fan is working, and it is, both high and low, so I'm not worried about it. I am starting to suspect though that I have too cool of a thermostat in the car. I'll have to look up the receipt and see what it is. Also though, I didn't drive it very far before it started raining either, so that could have something to do with it too. The temp gauge never rose above 190.

The controller was actually pretty fun to program once I finally got to that point. There was this tense moment where you turn this knob until your gauge moves as part of the calibration process. I turned it for what seemed like forever. What if it didn't move, and therefore my gauge wasn't compatible somehow? But then it did move, so I breathed a sigh of relief. haha

i.m glad you got the cooling fan installed and running. That must be a load removed! It’s good they have a test feature. Sounds like you have a pretty good system. Better than my old crap.
The purpose of the thermostat is to retain and circulate the coolant in the engine block and heater core to maximize fuel efficiency and heat up the engine quicker. While the car is moving, you may never hear the fan come on due to the airflow across/thru theradiator dissipating the heat.
If you want to test the operation of the fan, you can drive the car a while, then operate the headlights and back glass defroster, switch the heater to cool and turn the fan onto high speed, the fan should cycle at its settings when the engine is wam, it’s fine if it comes on, but it must cycle. (off/on/off).
Just remember if the fan comes on while you are cruising (and you don’t have A/C) you either have a problem or the temp setting is too low.

I have the controller set so that the fan won't come on until it sees 210*. Since the engine never got that hot, it wouldn't have.

I guess my thermostat is a 190*. I've heard that Ford recommends 195*. I've also heard Ford did some testing and determined that their engines run best at about 200-220*. That's why I set my controller where I did. I wonder if changing my thermostat to a 195 will be the thing that makes the difference. Obviously though, I need to drive the car farther to make sure that's even an issue. I'll do that before I change anything. I really hate getting antifreeze on my hands and all over the place, so I'd like to avoid that if I can, haha.

I guess that show I missed was pretty much the last one. There are a few more, but I'll be busy for all of them. That's a bummer. I'll drive it until the snow flies though. Then after that I'll do the fuel pump and rear shoulder belt projects because it won't matter at that point.

We have been having a shite load of rain and wind lately, more than we have had in a very long time. Rain is not something we see a lot of over here, so it’s rare that I drive the red one; because all the knot heads who couldn’t do a burn-out are now out, and all the big trucks are hitting the water holes to make the water spray, so I tend to keep it off the road.
I went down to the river yesterday, the wind was blowing like hell thru the tall trees, but were I was at the bottom of the valley it was really nice with the dark skies it was beautiful. I had to take a road test, so I chose that area to go to, sometimes I go to Tombstone and get a coke just to get away. If you go the back-way; there are a lot of mountains in that area, so it can be really picturesque.
I reckon it’s going to be a cold winter this year, we have had rodent damage on cars since the middle of July, and it’s obvious they are on the move. I change all the anti-freeze in all my cars every two years just to keep everything nice & clean with no problems.
My new impact wrench has been a real pleasure to use, my last Ingersoll rand lasted 10 years, most of my air tools are Ingersoll-rand, they just seem to last longer.
I just use genuine Ford or Toyota thermostats in my cars, I find the aftermarket ones open too soon, stick or break whenever I use one, everybody else seems to have good luck. That last thermostat I changed on the 5.0 was a real beast trying to get it in “after” I changed the intake gaskets, I finally went to Autozone and go some permatex high tack gasket adhesive to hold the gasket, 4th time lucky. I should have done it on the ground when the intake was off. You may be right about the temps, I thought they were 190-195 also.
I miss a lot of the cars shows because I have to work, this year I’ll miss the big one for sure, it kind of makes me mad, but that’s just the way it is. There are other shows I can attend, but I usually get there early in the morning, to beat the crowds and the heat. I really like the one in Douglas AZ, it has all kinds of cars, bikes, bicycles etc, some of the paint is wild. the people there are low-key, not begging people over to look at their cars, it's like a social event.

While you're at work you do that? Drive off and just hang out for a while? haha. I would've been in deep &^%$ if I'd tried a stunt like that, haha. Of course, I hardly ever made incentive time either....

Yeah, it seems like impact wrenches in particular have come a long way even since I bought mine 15 years ago. Easier on your hand and what not.

Yeah, changing thermostats in the car sucks. You can get right at them, but they love to fall out. The time before this one I have now, I broke the water neck doing it.

Looks like I may be able to make one show, but it'll be a haul from here to get to. Should be a good test of my engine temp. I should get going on that display board!

Well; I wouldn’t say it’s getting away with anything; it’s just a heat-soak and vibration test to verify we can or cannot reproduce the customer’s concern. Tombstone is only 16 miles or so away the river is about 7 miles or so, and I doubt very seriously they would terminate my employment as I have been asked to perform this task on many occasions, by customers and the company. I always get the “weird ones”, so I have a longer leash than some of the other employees, who knows maybe one day they will “can” me for something really dumb………….oh well.
You’ll need a good board with pix, showing before/during/now stuff, not much writing, people don’t like to read….it should be a blast going for a long trip, I know I was ALWAYS worried after a major mod, but after the confidence builds, it’s just another trip.
My first trip to Tucson was a nauseating anxiety provoking event, it’s a long way between towns on the interstate. After finishing the 5.0 install, me and 2 friends struck out at 5:30 am to get an early start before the heat, loaded with tools and spare parts, all went well till 2 or 3 people tried to embarrass us, my bud says he reckons the exhaust should sound nice at full throttle under load……so………….we performed an exhaust note check, it sounded pretty good, anxiety was lowered, trip went fine. Even if it took a dump, all would have went well; it was win win,
so now that you driveline vibration is gone, get out there and burn some hydrocarbons, reap the fruits of your labor-enjoy.
I’ve had more check engine light troubles with the 4.6, o2 sensors, temp sensor, maf vent valve etc, but that is behind me, everywhere around here is a “good distance” so if it aint leaking fuel, oil or coolant, theres no need to worry too much.
Go for it!