The Pony Car Project-More Glitz!

With the Pony Car, there is always something to spend money on. A few weeks ago, I a friend was riding in the Mustang and they commented how the shoulder harness rubbed on their neck and I should have a pad for the strap. I didn't think much of the suggestion until I too noticed that the strap rubbed on my neck. One of my Internet sources says it this way: "Harness belts have a tendency to rub against your neck and or shoulders causing a minor annoyance while driving." I too found it to be minor. None of my trucks have this problem, so I assumed that because the Mustang is low, the angle of the strap is different.

So, I did a search on Ebay and found some shoulder harness pads for an inexpensive price. And of course, they had the traditional Mustang name and logo embroidered on them. Might as well have glitzy looking ones!

They arrived today and of course I installed them and tried them out. Very comfortable! But I probably would not have bought them until the friend suggested them. Chances are that that friend will probably not ride in the Mustang again so they will never know how nice they are.

Nicely embroidered with the traditional Mustang logo and name. This matches the logos on the floor mats and hatch carpet.  

Easily adjustable to fit where they should. 

A little more "glitz" added to the interior.

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-UH OH!-Part 3

The saga continues. As posted in UH OH! and UH OH! Part 2, I have been in the process of recovering from the results of a failed transmission cooler in the radiator. This allowed engine coolant into the transmission and transmission fluid into the engine coolant. What a mess!

 

Last week I started the third change of transmission fluid. I drained the transmission fluid on Saturday. I don't know if this will be the last time I will change the fluid, so I decided I would change the transmission filter. This required that I removed the fluid sump and unbolt the filter and replace everything. Since I wanted to wait for the sealant to cure, I waited until today to refill the transmission with 9 quarts of new Type "F" transmission fluid.

 

I put three quarts of fluid in and waited a couple of hours to check for sump leaks. None found, I added the fourth quart. At this point I have to start the engine to allow the torque converter to start filling, otherwise the fifth quart will overflow the fill tube. I checked for leaks after starting the engine and there appeared to be fluid dripping from the corner of the sump. Drat! I cleaned it up and checked around and finally concluded that the fourth quart of fluid had "burped" and some fluid had drained down the outside of the fill tube to the corner of the sump and looked like a leak. Transmission fluid is funny stuff, it is thin and yet seems to hang on to everything it spills on and looks like a drip or leak for some time.

 

After pouring in the rest of the fluid, I went for a drive this evening and cannot find any drips. It stills shifts good and I cannot detect any slipping. If this fluid stays clean, I will probably drive it for a few months and change it again with some synthetic fluid that a friend markets. It was the original fluid and I liked how it performed.

 

In addition to changing the transmission fluid, Friday I drained the water out of the radiator, flushed it again and refilled it with a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and distilled water. I was satisfied that the engine and radiator has been thoroughly flushed and cleaned.



 

 

Here is a blot of new transmission fluid on the left and old drained fluid on the right. I am getting a lot closer to getting the transmission clean. The old fluid still has some discoloration. 

 Two gallons of old fluid with only a couple hundred miles of use.

The old filter. It showed some dirt in the screen. 

After cleaning out the shelves of Walmart of all their Type "F" transmission fluid, a friend found a source for fluid. It was being closed out and he bought me the last six quarts for 11¢ a quart! I still had to buy three more quarts at Walmart when they restocked.



The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-UH OH!-Part 2

If anyone has been reading my blog, you may have read this post:The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-UH OH!. In this post, I described how I discovered that my transmission cooler in the radiator had failed and deposited antifreeze in the transmission and transmission fluid in the engine coolant. Well, the saga continues.

 

I contacted the company that supplied the failed radiator and although they could not warranty it outright, they did sell me a new aluminum radiator at a very reduced price. While waiting for it to be delivered, I proceeded with more flushing. After buying the remaining 6 quarts of Type F transmission fluid from Walmart (I cleaned out their shelf) and three more from O Reilly, I once again drained the contaminated fluid from the transmission. This time the fluid came out looking more like "strawberry milkshake" instead of chocolate milk. It also did not appear to separate out any water.  So, nine more quarts of clean fluid went back into the transmission to be sacrificed at a later date.

 

Also while waiting for the new radiator, I decided to start flushing the engine coolant system. As suspected, there was quite a bit of transmission fluid in the coolant. I flushed several times with the old radiator over several days with flushing fluid added.  I ended up with 5 gallons of ugly contaminated antifreeze and water. I delivered 4-1/2 gallons of contaminated transmission fluid and the antifreeze to the Hazardous Waste Facility on Friday.

 

The new radiator arrived Friday. It is a beauty. But I immediately noticed that the transmission cooler is installed on the drivers side where the old radiator had the cooler on the passenger side. This caused two changes: 1. The transmission cooler lines will need to be extended and 2. The electric fan will need to be moved to the passenger side. Moving the fan is a complex item to figure out. Fortunately, two of my custom fan mounting brackets could be used as is, and the other two could be modified. The radiator also mounted differently which took some head scratching to come up with a new design for mounting brackets.

 

After three days of part time work, I started the Bronco this afternoon. As I had hoped, the aluminum radiator seems to control the temperature better. I flushed the radiator twice today, but I can still see transmission fluid in the water. I will probably flush it a few more times before I add antifreeze.

 

Of course, it is always something more! After parking the Bronco for the night, I noticed a puddle of water under the passenger compartment. Sure enough, the heater core had failed after only three years. I had suspected this, but when I looked at it a few weeks ago, I did not see any evidence of leakage. So off to the auto parts store and home again with a new heater core. After another 1/2 hour of work and the core was replaced. With only 5 screws to remove to access the heater core, this repair is a lot easier than what I did on the Mustang a few weeks ago: The Pony Car Project-I Can See Clearly Now

 

So what's next? First I need to extend the transmission coolant tubes to connect to the transmission cooler. Then more transmission flushing followed by a transmission filter change. A friend located 6 quarts of transmission fluid that was be closed out for only 11¢ per quart! That is a great buy, especially since it will probably be thrown away after a short service life..

 

The second draining of the transmission. This looked a bit more like "strawberry milkshake" in person.

 The new radiator.

The radiator installed and the fan relocated.

BAD Was Bad At Brownsville This Year.

It was BAD at the Brownsville Marina on Saturday.  Before you think that something was amiss, "BAD" stands for Brownsville Appreciation Day and the slogan is "Bad Is Good". It is sort of a community fair for the Brownsville community at the marina. The marina was open to the public along with vendors, a classic car show, classic boat show, live music and eats.

What made this BAD so bad was record setting rain and winds all day. I went down for a short visit. I walked out on the breakwater to view the classic boats. Then a trip along the vendors, many who were unsuccessfully trying to stay dry. I drove up the hill to the car show where only 20 or so of diehard car owners were showing their cars. I thought about showing the Mustang, but I did not want to stay all day. Unfortunately, by the time I left, the crowds had not appeared.

 There were quite a few classic yachts that showed up.

 The vendors had a hard time keeping themselves and their products dry.

The diehard car owners showed up, but not in the numbers that usually attend. The field and parking area is usually packed at this event.

A Late Season Hike At Sunrise, Mt Ranier

All summer I had wanted to take a few days and go on a road trip for a few days and do some hiking in the Cascade Mountains. But the summer passed by without it happening. One of the hikes I wanted to do was in the Sunrise area of Mount Ranier National Park. I have hiked here a few times and for some time have thought about hiking a loop starting and ending at White River Campground. My plan was to hike from the campground up the Wonderland Trail to Sunrise, across the Burroughs Mountains, down into the White River valley and back to the campground. Since the weather on Thursday was suppose to be the best of the week and Friday was suppose to be stormy, this looked like one of my last chances.

 

I left my home at 0430 and after a quick breakfast at Enumclaw, I was at the White River Campground and ready to hike at 0739. I started  up the Wonderland Trail. I was nervous about this section. Unlike many of the other trails in the area, I had never placed my boots on this trail. As I suspected, it started going uphill from the start. I kept a constant pace and was not very winded. As this trail switch backed up the valley wall, views of Mt Ranier appeared through the fog and clouds. It was 34 degrees when I started, but got colder as I gained elevation. After 1 hour 40 minutes and 1900 feet of elevation, I reached level ground.

 

I then headed west toward the Burroughs Trail. After passing Shadow Lake, the climb began along the south flank of First Burroughs. It is a steady climb on rocky trails that run along exposed treeless slopes. This area is soon devoid of and forest and a sign says that it is very similar to Arctic tundra. After reaching the top, the trail was covered in a few inches of newer snow. Footprints indicated more hikers in the area and at the trail intersection at 7000 foot elevation, I stopped to talk to one and while I was stopped, several more showed up.

 



I soon was cold, so I started off for the final climb up to Second Burroughs. This climb always looks worse than it is and I soon found myself on the 7400 foot elevation. The view from here is spectacular! Mt Ranier is in your face to the southwest. Berkeley Park and Sunrise is north and east. White river is a ribbon of flowing water to the south. And Mystic Lake and Spray park is off to the west. An elaborate rock bench was built here, so with a comfortable place facing Mt Ranier, I ate lunch.

 

After lunch I continued on down the back side of Second Burroughs. The trail was soon covered in about six inches of snow, but it was still easy to follow from the tracks of a couple of hikers. I passed up the way trail to Third Burroughs and continued toward the Glacier Basin trail. The trail soon headed steeply downhill with numerous switch backs and a lot of large rocks to step down off of. As the trail descended, it went from rock to alpine meadows and the woods again.

 

I soon reached the trail to the White River Campground. A side trip up to Glacier Basin would have been fun, but unfortunately I needed to be home early, so I headed down the gently sloping trail arriving at the camp at 1400 after about 10 miles, 6 hours 20 minutes of hiking and 3200 feet of elevation gain.

 

This was a fun hike and I finally got over the fear of climbing from White River Campground to Sunrise. In the cold crisp air, the views were awesome. I felt fine afterwards and I knew the beating of my heart and deep breathing was from exercise and not like the panic attack I had a few days earlier.

 

 

 Here is my route starting and ending at White River Campground heading in a counter clockwise direction.

View of Mt Ranier from the Wonderland Trail.

The first sign. I headed left on the Sunrise Rim Trail towards the Burroughs Mtn Trail.

Where I came from: White River Campground.

Shadow Lake.

Headed right to  First Burroughs.

On the climb to First Burroughs, the fog rolled into the valley and at one point put me into a white out.

The rugged trail up First Burroughs.

The exposed flank of First Burroughs.

A little bit of snow on the top.

I headed to the left to Second Burroughs.

Mt Ranier from Second Burroughs.

Looking toward Berkeley Park.

White River where I started the day.

A "selfie" on the summit of Second Burroughs.

The snowy trail heading down the backside of Second Burroughs.

I headed right to Glacier Basin Trail.

The White River again.

I headed right toward the White River Camp.

 

Just a waterfall along the trail.

The Pony Car Project-New Gears

The pony car is really fun to drive and can accelerate well. Part of the reason for the great acceleration is the 4:10 gears in the differential. Someone changed the stock gears to this very low set. These work OK, but cruising at highway speeds has the engine turning at a higher speed than what is normal thereby decreasing gas mileage and increasing noise and vibration. Furthermore, I was concerned that the existing 4:10 gears were wearing as the pinion bearings seemed loose and there was some noise coming from that direction.

On Friday, I parked in front of a auto repair shop. One of the workers came out and told me that he had had a Mustang like mine only it was a 1988. He had rebuilt it including the motor. He showed me pictures and it did look nice. But it had been stolen. The insurance had paid him off and some of the parts had surfaced around the state. But as we talked, he said that he had a set of differential gears and the installation parts(shims, bearing, seals, etc).  He told me that the parts he had were brand new and still vacuum packed. He offered them to me at a really good price. I went home and checked parts stores and sure enough, he was offering me the parts for about $100 less then retail. The other cool thing was that these gears were 3.73 ratio which is what I wanted to change the Mustangs gears to anyway. The 3.73 ratio should give a good compromise of good acceleration and good highway cruising.

So Monday I called him and arranged to see the parts on Tuesday.  They were as he described, so I bought them. Overhauling the differential and changing the gearing is another project that I was hoping to do this winter.

 The install kit with bearings, shims and seals.

The ring and pinion gear set.

Movie Review-The Life of PI

Last week, I noticed that the Blu-ray disc for the "Life of PI" was at Costco for a low price. Since I did not see this movie in the theaters, I bought it. I was sitting at home Saturday night, kind of bored, so I thought it would be a good time to watch it. So down to my home theater for a viewing.

 

Overall, I really liked this movie. The quality of the video was excellent as was the photography and the special effects. The musical score was good and nice to listen to on my surround sound.

 

I am reluctant to say much about the plot for fear of ruining it for someone. But here goes. PI (you will have to watch this movie to know how he got this name) was a young boy raised on his fathers Zoo in India. As he grew, and became a teen, his family decided to move to Canada. They loaded their animals and themselves onto a ship for the voyage. In the Pacific Ocean, the ship foundered with PI and some of the animals the only survivors. One of the surviving animals was a full grown Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. The movie moved to one of survival, faith and surrender.

 

I was especially moved when the Tiger(now the only surviving animal) tried to get onto the boat after a swim and could not. PI took pity on him and helped him even though the Tiger was more interested in eating PI. The Tigers eyes showed his fear and his hope for salvation instead of hope for a meal. As time went on, the two learned to live together.

 

I would recommend this movie.