New to Mustangs

[Handi_ca]

Greetings from Canada!

A friend of mine has recently acquired a 1973 Mustang and I expect to help him out with the repairs.

Right now it doesn't run or stop.
It's been hiding in a garage for the past twenty five years.

It's a base model Mustang with clean lines and some body rust. The plans aren't to restore it to factory condition but rather to customize it, modernize it.

The engine is a 302 with all wheel drum brakes. Are there disc brake upgrades available? A motor swap may be in the future. Any suggestions?

Also are there any service manuals available in PDF format that won't cost an arm & a leg?
If I can't find one online I'll simply order a service manual from Amazon.

FYI: I'm not a professional mechanic but I am experienced with working on my Jeeps and other vehicles.


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[Mach1 Driver]

Welcome to the forum. Everything you asked for is readily available- start with National Parts Depot. They will have it all and are highly regarded.
You will get lots of opinions on how to modernize it, so start by telling us how it will be driven- cruiser, street and track, etc. There are so many go-fast (and stop fast) parts for these cars that it boggles the mind.

 

[Horseplay]

Welcome and have fun with it!

Best modernization would be to upgrade to front wheel disc brakes. Next up would be to freshen up the engine and move up to a more reliable fuel injection system over the old carb. FI is not much more than a new carb these days and the benefits far surpass the cost. A good free flowing exhaust would not be a bad idea either. Lots can be done in the area of suspension but simply rebuilding what is there would make for a fine driver.

 

[Handi_ca]

Welcome to the forum. Everything you asked for is readily available- start with National Parts Depot. They will have it all and are highly regarded.
You will get lots of opinions on how to modernize it, so start by telling us how it will be driven- cruiser, street and track, etc. There are so many go-fast (and stop fast) parts for these cars that it boggles the mind.

Thanks Mach1 Driver

I imagine that my buddy wants a street car not a race machine.

I think he was considering four wheel disc brakes.
Besides replacing the drums & brake cylinders with discs & calibers i expect the brake master cylinder & lines will have to be replaced too.

I hadn't considered replacing the carburetor with a fuel injection.
The entire fuel system is likely gummed up in need of a cleaning/flushing.

I was surprised to see the type of rear diff, I'm guessing its a 9"?
I bet it needs new fluid.

What would everyone suggest before attempting starting the engine?
I've would expect that we first replace the engine & transmission fluids then remove the spark plugs, squirt some oil in the cylinders and manually turn the crankshaft.


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[Horseplay]

Before trying to fire it up...

Clean out the entire fuel system. Sitting that long you should expect to have to flush the tank and lines at minimum. Better to replace. The inside of the tank and lines are surely nasty. As long as replacing the tank need to know prior what set up will be needed long term. An EFI system needs different lines, etc than a carb set-up.

New plugs and wires

Drain any old oil. Fill it with some cheap stuff, pull the distributor and using a drill, turn the oil pump for a while (turning the crank manually to TDC and then 90 degrees at a time) to fully push oil throughout the oiling system. Drain it all out and then put in new oil and replace the filter. Put distributor back in.
Likely need to pull the carb and rebuild it. At minimum, soak it in cleaner to remove old build-up and crud.

If an automatic, I would pull the trans pan and do a fluid/filter change too.

Rear diff needs a fluid change as well but not needed prior to firing up the engine if not going to be test driven yet.

 

[Mach1 Driver]

Thanks Mach1 Driver

I imagine that my buddy wants a street car not a race machine.

I think he was considering four wheel disc brakes.

I hadn't considered replacing the carburetor with a fuel injection.
The entire fuel system is likely gummed up in need of a cleaning/flushing.

I was surprised to see the type of rear diff, I'm guessing its a 9"?

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I'm sure Horseplay is just the first to offer his valuable opinion.
4 wheel discs aren't a problem. My 69 Mach came stock with front discs.
EFI has lots of advantages but by the time you replace the tank and add a pump and new lines the cost does add up. They self learn and eliminate tuning, plus they start immediately just to name a couple of advantages.
They came with 8 or 9" diffs, depends on the options- decode the vin tag. Mine is a 9" with 28 splines, but is an open rear end. I plan on upgrading to a TruTrac 31 spline. TruTrac is Ford speak for Positraction. You may just want to change the gears for highway driving or quick launches.
What trans does it have? Many people upgrade automatics to an AOD or 4R70W to lower the rpm and make for a quieter ride. Or there are lots of people that like 4, 5 or 6 speed manual transmissions.
Your options are only limited by the size of your buddies wallet

 

[Horseplay]

Just to avoid confusion, TruTrac is a limited slip differential made by Eaton. The Ford technology piece is called trac-lock (spelling?). The TrueTrac is a better design for sure...and not just because that's what I put in my new rear. Most older rear gears are not very conducive to nice launches. A limited slip rear (both wheels driven) and a gear in the 3.5x + range make driving much more fun.
If the cash is there, changing the trans as mentioned is a very good idea. Gaining overdrive either through a modern automatic or a manual trans is a BIG gain for a street driven car. Being able to roll down a highway at a decent speed without winding up the motor is a good thing.

 

[Handi_ca]

Thanks for all the great advice.
I'm going to have to get my friend on this forum and have him ask these questions.

So to move the oil through the engine all I need to do it spin the distributor shaft? Won't that damage the connection between the distributor shaft and the main crankshaft?

On other cars that I've worked on the oil pump was either driven off of a camshaft lobe or camshaft gear.


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[Horseplay]

It's called "priming" the oil system and no, it won't damage anything. The oil pump is driven by a drive shaft which connects into the base of the distributor shaft which itself is turned by the camshaft. You remove the distributor to gain access to the oil pump drive shaft which removes the connection to the rotating engine mass. You need to by a tool to spin the pump. Some guys use a homemade set-up but the tool is cheap and designed for the job. No risk of losing a socket into the engine!

Here's a vid showing how it all goes together. You can find other vids of how to use the priming tool on Youtube and elsewhere.

Here is the tool
https://www.summitracing.com/search...e/ford/engine-family/ford-small-block-windsor

 

[Handi_ca]

Here's a nubie question,
what the heck am I looking at?
It's on a 73 so I'm guessing it's MPH.
Does this Mustang have 19,

Does this car only have 19,159.2 miles on it?


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[Horseplay]

nah. better guess would be 119,159.2 miles. Cars weren't designed to last as long as they are today so odometers didn't have a 100k digit. They just rolled over.

And yes, the speedometer is in MPH