"There's Something About a Mustang..."

Jay Leno has a website at www.jaylenosgarage.com that features some of his vehicles. One of his vehicles is a '65 Shelby GT-350. He drives it around in a short video, and the site features tons of videos of his other cars too. Check it out!

Odds and Ends: Part IV

Lots of various items done recently: new alternator and regulator trying to chase a charging issue. Might be the underdrive pulleys, but I'm going to add some grounds on the battery and the alternator to be sure. Painted the gold alternator fan black.

Replaced the crummy black-oxide bolts in the engine bay with the left-over zinc-plated ones I used on the body panels.

Also installed a new fuel sender since the one I installed already was bad out-of-the-box. Two tips on that: put the brass float in a cup of water for 10 seconds or so before installing the sender in the tank and look for bubbles to tell if there's a pinhole in the float. Otherwise the dash gauge will read empty the day after installation... And use some thick grease to hold the rubber gasket in place if the tank is upside down as you install the sender, otherwise it's a huge hassle.

Oh, also installed some LED reverse lights from Mustang Project. And bought their blue LED dash light kit, but haven't installed yet. (Update: I can't get the reverse lights to work, so I removed them...)

Lastly, I signed up for Hagerty insurance to make sure I'm covered if something happens.

Exhausting, Yet Electrifying...

I picked the car up yesterday from the muffler shop. He did a great job getting the Magnaflow exhaust to fit. The fuel tank required some persuasion to get the tailpipe around it safely, which I was expecting to some extent. Sounds good too, much quieter but still a good rumble when I get on it.

I almost forgot: we start the car and after 5 seconds it starts to smoke, and I mean smoke out of the exhaust. We wait ten minutes and it's still smoking, maybe worse. I decide to pay and leave after we figure the pipes have some oil or grease in them from manufacturing and assembly and it should burn off. Maybe a quarter mile from the shop with a huge plume of smoke from the car, I get on it and see an object shoot out one of the tailpipes and roll along the highway with blue smoke all over it. I think a shop rag or something ended up in the pipes and burnt up before getting ejected out the back. Problem solved, and in spectacular fashion no less! No more smoke.

With the fresh battery in the car, I swung by Advanced Auto Parts and they tested the alternator on the car, just to see if I had figured out the electrical gremlin from the other day. Wasn't putting out enough voltage and actually dropped when I revved the engine. Hmm. I bought a new regulator for $15 (to replace the other new one) and swapped it on. Brought the car back to them, after the swap and after trickle charging the battery, to check the alternator. The battery has 12.5v at standstill with car off vs. 11.5v yesterday. With car running at idle the volts were still 12.5 vs. 11.5 yesterday. I decided to rev the engine to 2000rpm and sure enough the volts went past 14, unlike yesterday when they dropped with higher rpms. So partly, I had a bad regulator.

But also it appears that the March underdrive pullies don't charge the battery suffieciently at idle. Not sure what to do here yet. But definitely keeping the jumper cables in the trunk!

Chris' and James' Excellent Adventure

It was supposed to be simple. But just like Harold and Kumar on their way to White Castle, things aren't always so simple... I had a 9:30 appointment at RJs Muffler and Custom Piping shop in Raleigh this morning.

My buddy James was in his pickup and I was in the Mustang. The drive down the highway was great, kinda loud, but the car had great acceleration. A bit of vibration on hard acceleration, not sure if it is motor mount- or driveshaft- or rear pinion angle-related yet.

We get to the shop after 15 miles or so, but nothing, no shop. RJ moved--in the past two months. We call him but he's not answering.

So we drive home. As soon as I arrive I call RJ, and get a hold of him. He gives me the new address and James drives back to my house.

I hop in the Mustang, turn the key, and nothing. Hmm, maybe that's why the tach got all funky on the drive home? So we jumpstart the Mustang and I hit the road.

Ten minutes into the trip I see the Temp gauge climbing towards "H" with no electric fan running. Yikes! I pull over in a parking lot. No fan. Let it cool for a few minutes and try to start it. Nothing. We try to jumpstart it. Nothing! I figure the car has been driving on the alternator since the battery was so dead. The electric fan is hooked up to the battery and solenoid directly, so I think that's why it didn't come on the first time, but we'll see.

We pull the battery, leave the car open with no windows in some random office parking lot, we set off and find a NAPA four miles away on James' iPhone. Go there and exchange the sealed Orbital battery (free!) and drive back to reinstall. Goes right in, turn the key, and starts right up. Backing up, my shoe slips off the clutch and I catapult backwards before it stalls out. (Gotta get this thing insured!)

So we get to RJs at noon (!), and spend some time walking around the area to kill time. We drop off James' truck at Dent Wizards to get a door ding removed for $99. We buy (cheap) food at Cookout after standing in line for half an hour. We check out Priscilla's adult store next door to Cookout after driving by it for years and not stopping. (Seems to cater to the ladies mainly.) We drive go-karts at Adventure Landing. I get whiplash when some 80-pound kid barrels his kart into the back of my kart as I was parking in the staging lanes when we all were done. We go back to RJs, but he's gonna need more time... So RJ has the car tonight, and I am supposed to get it back tomorrow. Woo hoo!