I can lift the car now!

It is 100% true. I can lift the mustang by the front bumper. Sadly it has nothing to do with me getting stronger. It is the mustang that has shed a lot of weight.

The last time I gave up on front suspension. Actually, since then I gave up on it a number of times. We, front suspension and I, have a history together. It is never easy between us. In fact, I would rate it as number one job I would hesitate to do on a car. For example, I needed to swap out sway-bar end links on my Subaru since the beginning of this summer. I did do it but in August. You see, I am not particularly strong and car's suspensions is designed to withhold crazy loads. In addition, at the front there are two of my compassionately hated parts: ball joint and outer tie rod end. Now that I come to think of it, on mustang, unlike Subaru the end links are not a problem at all. So, I had to outsmart the mustang since I could not beat it by force. First, ask friends how to remove those two enemies. Their advice only got one tie rod end off. Since I was seeing much progress, I came up with plan B:

That's a front end service kit from Canadian Tire. I have rented that especially for this job. Getting the tie rod end out of the spindle was a blast. In fact I went back to return this kit and ended up buying this:

As you can see, that one of the parts from the kit. That thing is amaizing for popping tie rod ends and ball joints out. I still did fail to remove the ball joint. That sucker had the rubber boot too close to the spindle so I could not stick my magic tool. But this time I got away since I was taking the control arms too.

Everything else did not pose any problems as expected. My impact gun was not strong enough to take the control arm bolts out. I guess 350 lb-ft of torque was not good enough. For cases like that I have another magic tool: breaker bar. Nothing can take that. Bolts gave up easily. In the end - ta dah:

Now I can tick off the steering parts off my "needed parts" list.

If you reflect back: the engine is out, radiator is out, master cylinder is out, power steering is out, now the steering rack and entire front suspension is out... Wait, the front end of the car has only bumper beam left. And that's exactly why I am able to lift it. ;)

Rear axle, here I come...

No brakes! Day 2

It's true. I took them out and put them on the shelf.

Today was the second day of my vacation. I can't really make it any more exciting them engine pull. So lower your expectations. Even though the big parts are out, there are plenty of small bits left in. They are boring and tedious but are required.

I hope that picture will keep you reading after previous sentence.

Today was supposed to be suspension day. I was planning to remove the front spindles. It all went well until I got to the tie rods. That's about 30 min into the job. I did everything in my power to get get them out but they are there to stay. I remember replacing them on my Subaru, it was not exactly a walk in the park either.  This is the time to buy the special press tool and make the job enjoyable. So I gave up on the suspension and switched to the next thing: brakes. It does not really make sense to remove the calipers since I am taking the entire spindle off the car, that means that master cylinder is up. Interestingly, Ford did not use the usual vacuum based booster for the brakes. They decided to go "Hydroboost". What that really means is that the power steering pump is also powering your brakes. Nice idea. It's got pros and cons. But it's not worth the discussion since I am using it as is anyways. I am off to get the master cylinder off. That thing seats on the hydroboost thingy. That means I am really off to get the entire assembly off. It's held in place by 4 nuts. I take the first nut off and jump inside. Guess what? The other 3 nuts are on the inside under the dash. Now that picture above gives away the ending. I tried to work with the dash on but it's very painful. In addition, I need to take a lot of parts from under there anyways. Out it goes. As a side effect, I took off the steering column but did not find it on the list of needed parts from Factory Five. I find it a bit strange. I'll shoot them an email to confirm. Surprisingly, I found that there's a vacuum line going into the climate controls. Ford is using vacuum lines rather than wires. They look very similar to wires but the connectors are soft. Another discovery: you know that knob that controls the heater temperature? Ford is actually using cable and a couple of pulleys but no electricity here either. Very simple but it works.

Over all the day turned out to be a success. Lot's of small parts made it to the shelf. Throttle cable, clutch cable (or what's left of it), pedal box, accelerator pedal, power assist and master cylinder along with all the lines that make up the power assist system. Let's just say that the interior.... what interior?

I can honestly say that if I had a week to work on this car, it would have been stripped. I would probably collapse since even after yesterday I am a bit stiff. By the end of the day in awkward positions, I was finding it difficult to walk.

Well, till the next time. Fuel, electrical, suspension, steering are still to come.

Pedal to the metal. Day 1

Wrench to the metal is more like it. A while ago I started a new job. At the new place they have "fair" way of calculating vacation day allowance for the first year. At the start you have none. As time passes by they give you day by day. That kind of made me save my days for the longer vacation later. However, after almost 6 months I realized that I don't really have that many days still but the summer is almost gone. So I made a call to take 2 days off to relax.

So day one was yesterday and now I am having a coffee break to write this up. The donor was parted out to such degree that no more parts were getting sold. Only some loose odd parts were left and they would take time to sell. In addition, I had someone ask for the cross member. It made sense to pull the motor out and proceed with the project. So this two days were allocated for that.

Previously I went to Canadian Tire and bought engine crane and stand while it was on sale. I had to jump throw some hoops to actually get it in my hand and in my garage but that's history now. One night, I assembled the things and had them ready for this 2 day spree. The plan was to pull the engine first and then get the tranny out next day. Well, it never does go by the plan. I got the instruction steps of how to get the motor out from my shop manual. It's only 12 pages of disconnect this and that. Actually it was not as difficult at it sounds beside the step to remove 9 bell housing bolts. The thing with the shop manual is that it clearly tells you what to do but not how to do it. Those bolts are located all around the bell housing. That means that the bottom and sides are more or less accessible but the ones on the top are between the engine and car's body. I still don't know how I could get them off. So after some unsuccessful attempts I gave up and decided to pull the the entire thing. Well, it had to be out one way or another.

The major accomplishment for me is the AC system well-being. There's a bit of a story to that. Once upon a time I had to pull the intake manifold off of my Subaru and managed to lean on the AC line and snap it off the fitting. That cost me $100 or so to refill the system and the new line from my trusty part source: Four Star Motorsports. I don't know why but the dealer never has parts for my Subaru but the rally shops have them all. Next day, I spoke to my buddy at work who is crazy enough to perform engine pulls every now and then and tell him my mishap. He laughed at me and saying that AC does not need to be disturbed even for the engine pull. So here you have it. I undid all the thing required to leave the AC compressor still in the body with all the lines and condenser intact.

What did I break? Actually I usually break more things than that day. Maybe I am getting better at this. I only managed to ruin my clutch cable. I must admit, I was young and and stupid. I remember I was putting it off till later and I guess that later never came. I hope Ford does not charge much for those. I also snapped the plastic box that seems like EGR controller. That thing is still fine it simply came off it's bracket. I need to take a look at this EGR system. I have a strong feeling it's something I would want out anyways.

The fun part was to figure out a way of separating engine and tranny. The crane was kind of holding the couple by the bolts that keep them together. Surprisingly a simple chair was of most help here. Transmission is not that heavy and could be supported by a chair. Once undone, the motor was back on the crane with all chains connected and later mounted to the engine stand. 

The only regret I have is for not draining transmission fluid out first. Well, I did not need to according to the plan. Even though I have caught most of it in the bucket, a lot got spilled on the floor. To add to the already messy workplace, a bracket of the engine stand fell and knocked down my beer. It was a long but productive day that came to a satisfying end. When I later showed my "sandbox" to my wife the instantly noticed that the entire garage smelled like beer. Strangely, she did not say anything about the strong smell of transmission fluid and nasty stink from coolant. I don't know what was wrong with that coolant but it had some disgusting smell from the day I got the car in the driveway.

Well, It's time to get back in there. I hope the floors dried up. Here's a sneak preview of Day2:

Some haters work at Ford

Let's walk through a hypothetical scenario. A car guy wants a manly car. He thinks nice V8 it is. He thinks it must be all out raw power. He chooses Ford Mustang GT. Next thing he picks up the car and sticks the key in it and... Bugger! Naturally, if the guy got a V8 he would want the entire world to know that it's a V8. That means it's gotta get much louder. So far none of the typical production cars have addressed that. Hell, even cops don't seem to get it. The only people who seem to be on top of this are cruiser bikers. But I reject their existence. Returning back to the guy with a quiet mustang, he jacks up the car looks at the exhaust system. Repeats the previous step. Looks on the web. Looks on the YouTube. And then, it occurs to him: that thing is stuck in there pretty good.

I appreciate the fact that folks at Ford are very smart engineers and know what they are doing. I can understand their logic behind the design of their exhaust system. In fact, it's been proven to be very effective and well flowing setup. But seriously, just to remove a muffler you need to partially drop the rear axle? In general, the mufflers tend to rust after years and need to be replaced even with normal use. Not to mention that poor car guy who just want's it loud. The first comment I got from the forums was "just cut it into pieces and pull it out". Really? Wait that means that aftermarket setups would install with out all this pain in the rear end. Ford only needed to add one more flange for tail pipes and they would have had enthusiasts satisfied. Having said that, the enthusiasts don't stop at this minor things. They will cut this into parts and put their beloved systems on. But the mechanics at Ford dealerships get the short end of the stick. In fact it's the people who come to dealership to have the mufflers replaced who would have to shell out extra bucks.

Just to put this into perspective my Subaru's exhaust system is made up of four parts connected with flanges and gaskets. The crazy guy I know would change the exhaust in his own garage every spring and fall. He has a winter and summer setup. Just like tires. (Trust me, it's not the only thing that puts him into"crazy" category).

There's my problem:

See those bends that meant to go around axle. That just would not come out ... One joint point. All I ask for.

Edit:
In that guys defense, how can you say no to that: