95 GT - Das Llama!

[g36 monkey]

Just a heads up, the Autozone at Holden and the trail is open 24 hours if you are ever working on something really late and need parts

 

[Nighttrain]

Just a heads up, the Autozone at Holden and the trail is open 24 hours if you are ever working on something really late and need parts

What! You guys got parts stores open 24 hrs? Wtf

 

[mcglsr2]

Do those brass adapters screw out? Might want to think about jic fittings instead. If not double clamp them things mang!
Looks good though i like how you think

Which brass fittings do you mean? The hose barbs, or the fittings for the senders? Both? They are brass NPT threaded. I used teflon tape (but not close to the bottom of the threads, don't want tape in the oil) and tightened them down to GAT specs (good and tight). They should not unscrew themselves, and hopefully won't leak.

What are JIC fittings?

We need video footage, good bad or indifferent. We need to see what happens, plus, I want to see those gauges working.

Will do!

Just a heads up, the Autozone at Holden and the trail is open 24 hours if you are ever working on something really late and need parts

Well that is super handy to know! Usually it's about 10:30pm when I run out of my last spade connector/electrical tape/bolt of correct size/etc. and I'm like

Now if only they would build a 24 hour NAPA right next to that store

 

[Nighttrain]

Didnt realize they were pipe nipples, from the pic they look like those nipple you push a hose over then clamp it. JIC fittings are just flared fittings used for high pressure hydraulics. They never leak unless they get torn off.....but then anything would leak

 

[g36 monkey]

What! You guys got parts stores open 24 hrs? Wtf

We used to have another that was much closer, but then they switched to close at midnight, and have since switched to 10 pm. The store I mentioned before previously had normal hours, but they recently bought several more sections of the plaza and turned it into a main distribution hub. So not only are they open 24 hours (because employees are going to be there to handle trucks, etc.) but they have pretty much everything.

 

[Tally_4.6]

and tightened them down to GAT specs (good and tight).

LOL

 

[Nighttrain]

We used to have another that was much closer, but then they switched to close at midnight, and have since switched to 10 pm. The store I mentioned before previously had normal hours, but they recently bought several more sections of the plaza and turned it into a main distribution hub. So not only are they open 24 hours (because employees are going to be there to handle trucks, etc.) but they have pretty much everything.

Im jealous :/

 

[mcglsr2]

We used to have another that was much closer, but then they switched to close at midnight, and have since switched to 10 pm. The store I mentioned before previously had normal hours, but they recently bought several more sections of the plaza and turned it into a main distribution hub. So not only are they open 24 hours (because employees are going to be there to handle trucks, etc.) but they have pretty much everything.

GTFO I will certainly have to check this place out!

 

[mcglsr2]

Okay. Let's play a game. I'm going to show you guys a picture. You then tell me what is missing from that picture. Here we go:

Eh? Ehhhhh? Do you (not) see it? Ehhhhhhh? YES! THAT'S RIGHT! THE CAR IS NOT THERE! Why is it not there you might be wondering? Because this happened:

[video=youtube;2AOMo09KPqA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AOMo09KPqA[/video]









It Started! The FIRST Time!!!


This is a Big Deal. The car has been in the garage for like 1.5 years. Like 18 months. It has not been started, not once, in that entire time. Not going to lie. I was SUPER pumped. I was basically doing this in my driveway:

This family happens to be walking by on the sidewalk in front of the house, like 8 people, while I was doing the above (no, seriously, these people literally happened to be walking by right after I started the car). And they were looking at me like this:

And I Did. Not. Care.


So I left the car running, and checked for leaks and stuff, and there were none. No leaks so far. Which is fantastic. And full disclosure, before filming the attempt at starting, I did pull the fuel pump fuse and bumped the starter a couple times to get the oil circulated.

I drove the car for like 40 min all through the neighborhood. It was nice to be back behind the wheel again. And, perhaps surprisingly, the car was good. A little rough at first but sorted itself out pretty quickly. The trans is pretty hard to shift right now - getting into gear is pretty tough. I probably should replace the trans fluid. We'll see about that. The car is not done. There are still things to do. But it starts. And it drives. Now I just need to start getting some confidence back into it. I will close out this post with some pics.

Here's a shot of the white calipers on the rear. We'll see how they hold up:

And because the car was so awesome and started for the first time in so long, I decided to reward it with some stickers!!

Some longer shots:

I took the side skirts off because they were sort of already falling off (I ordered new replacement clips), and because I will be getting the car painted and I want them painted separately off the car. Looking at these pics, though, I'm kind of digging the skirt-less look...


Here's the remote oil filter, installed. I still have some plastic wrap stuff to put on the hose to dress it up a bit - I'll do that later. I wanted to leave it off for now to make it easier to check for leaks:

Here's a shot of the pod, with the oil temp gauge, working. The green light is the air bag (I haven't unhooked the module yet, I will get around to it - the light is not distracting) and the red LED is the eBrake that is on:

And here are the gauges in the center console working. I kind of expected them to, as they worked before I put the car in the garage. But now there is new wiring and that dedicated fuse block in the passenger air bag cavity - so that guy is clearly working:

The speedo is still giving me trouble. It bounces pretty badly. I will have to work with Auto Meter tech support to figure out what the deal is with that.

Another important thing to note is that the battery I have in the car, an Odyssey PC680, cranked the Mustang. This is important to note because this is a tiny, tiny battery. It's supposed to be a motorcycle battery. It weighs 15 lbs. I did a lot of research, trying to determine if this battery would be enough. I made the determination that it would be. And today, it turns out, that yes - in my case, for my car, it is enough to crank the car. Okay. Having that said, we will see if it's enough to live with the car. Meaning - does it stay charged, will it be able to crank the car a second or 3rd time. And that we will have to see. I let the car sit and idle for quite some time today. So the battery was getting, for the most part, only about 13.8 volts or so. And to test the battery, I did turn the car off, and then try to start it again. It was a little sluggish. I don't know if that's because the battery just isn't quite enough or not. It's possible that after actually driving the car, getting somewhere, shutting it off, and then starting it again, it may be okay. But it may not. We will see. If it isn't, then I will just get a slightly bigger battery, probably an Odyssey PC925. So the the jury is still out on the PC680.

But anyway,


Super Big Milestone Met!!!!

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

 

[g36 monkey]

Bro I am sooo happy for you!

 

[lwarrior1016]

Dude! That is so awesome! Im really happy that its all working out, the first start up is always nerve racking. That first drive though, thats when things get interesting.

 

[mcglsr2]

Bro I am sooo happy for you!

Dude! That is so awesome! Im really happy that its all working out, the first start up is always nerve racking. That first drive though, thats when things get interesting.

Thanks!

 

[Nighttrain]

Friggin awesome dude. Looks awesome, sounds good. Im proud of you dude thats tits. And thoee hoses are the way i thought. Double clamp em when you get a chance. Ive seen them pop off at high rpm.

 

[mcglsr2]

So now that I've had time to stew it over for a bit, some observations:

• The Cobra MC feels much better with the Cobra brakes than stock GT MC. Even with the tiny bubbles in the rear calipers. Much better pedal feel.
• The coolant overflow tank works.
• The low coolant switch, spliced into the stock low coolant sensor, works
• I didn't get that much of a chance to get on it, but I think the rear end clunking noise (from perhaps sticky rear calipers) has been resolved
• My new battery cabling seems to be sufficient - the voltage that the voltmeter reads is the same (or within 0.1 V) of what I see at the battery
• The new door lock/passenger window switch wiring works such that if both switches are pressed, but in opposite directions (for example, LOCK on the driver side, and UNLOCK on the passenger side), the entire system goes to ground and does not blow any fuses (my initial switch wiring design would have caused the fuse to blow had I not re-thought it)
• An Odyssey PC680 has enough oomph to crank my Mustang - not sure if it will be able to crank it multiple times in a row though
• The passenger side aluminum door panel doesn't rattle nearly as bad as I thought it - I don't even recall hearing it while driving (driver side panel not installed yet, so we'll see how that goes)
• The starter kill on the car alarm works as it's supposed to
• The speedo still bounces (which is not good) - all other gauges seem to be working as expected
• Trans struggles to go into gear. Going to replace trans fluid and maybe play with the firewall adjuster
• Left bank wideband O2 periodically pegs to 21.0. I think it might be bad and need replacing.

I'm sure there's more, I'll have to think on it a bit.


The real tests will of course happen when the car gets back on the track.

 

[Tally_4.6]

Way too quiet, that needs to change.

Love the stockish sticker.

And if you leave the side skirts off i won't talk to you anymore.


But anyway congrats broham.

 

[ElrodKTPQ_89]

In full agreement with the statement about the side skirts^...

 

[g36 monkey]

Sometimes widebands have a tendency to skyrocket when you push the clutch in/put car in neutral and coast a bit. Is that when it pegs? Or does it do it while driving normally?

 

[Nighttrain]

Second the wideband problem with Tew, and i gotta say unless youre going to go so low that theyll hit (which i dont know if thats even possible lol) put the skirts back on, or go side exhaust......hehe

 

[mcglsr2]

Way too quiet, that needs to change.

Love the stockish sticker.

And if you leave the side skirts off i won't talk to you anymore.


But anyway congrats broham.

In full agreement with the statement about the side skirts^...

Thanks, thanks And no worries. The skirts are going back on. As soon as the car and the skirts get painted, back on they go. I've already ordered and received all the replacement clips I need. So no worries there, gents

Sometimes widebands have a tendency to skyrocket when you push the clutch in/put car in neutral and coast a bit. Is that when it pegs? Or does it do it while driving normally?

Second the wideband problem with Tew, and i gotta say unless youre going to go so low that theyll hit (which i dont know if thats even possible lol) put the skirts back on, or go side exhaust......hehe

Yah, that's not when it pegs. Just does it randomly. And I now have the right bank on a wideband, and I can see both gauges at the same time - every time the left side pegs, the right side is working just fine. I think the O2 is on its way out...