High School Mustang GT

I was 16, times were great. It was just before Christmas and my 1993 Honda Civic finally bit the dust. My mom told me I had $5000 to buy any car I wanted. $5400, and a set of snow tires later, I was in love!

It has the right sound, the right colors, it's manual, and most of all it does awesome burnouts! What more does a high school boy need? Throughout high school, it quickly turned into a second car once I got a job and could afford a beater f-150, and once I moved off to college it got put away in my fathers garage for a few years. I now live in an apartment that has a garage, so its time to bring my mustang down from CO to AZ, and begin working on what I hope to become a seriously fast road car. Many people ask what I describe as seriously fast. Well, I'm not sure, but hopefully ill know once I get there, slowly as my wallet is small!

Here are some more photos from when I lived in Colroado!

Nice! Have fun. 

I went to High School in AZ.  One of the cars I had was a 1970 Boss 302.  That's one car that I wish I had never sold. 

That truck is awesome

What are your plans for the mustang?

Nice!

Went up to Colorado to pick up my Mustang, alongside having a vacation. Note to self, don't visit CO in January when you live in Arizona, it was so cold! Being that my Mustang hasn't been on the road for almost four years I figured it would be best if I towed it home with my 4Runner. Another note to self, UHaul trailers suck, and they suck even more in snow and ice. That experience had to be some of the most horrifying driving conditions that I have ever gone through. Here are some pics!

First step now that shes home is to put some miles on her to see whats broken, and what self heals. 

List of current known issues:

-rear end has major leak, and pausi-trac defiantly isn't working

-Transmission grinds into reverse

-Transmission also has rattle. It sounds like a throwout bearing, but rattles when clutch pedal is out, not when pressed. Real lost on this one

-Power steering is whining a bit, but is getting better. I have a feeling this will resolve itself after some more driving

-The rear main seal is leaking

-Flat spotted tires (again, will resolve itself after a few more miles)

-Rear driver side wheel showing corrosion under the paint alongside wheels being scraped. This was actually due to the awful tires that I got the car with rolling under themselves in hard corners and the wheels would physically touch the pavement, its never actually been curbed.

Next steps

-Basic fluid changes

-Brakes

-Put a couple hundred miles on her to see what gets worse, and what gets better

-If the rear end needs too much love, alongside the transmission having some unknown issues, it may be very fun to do a cobra swap transmission back. For those who don't know, cobras of this generation have 6 speed transmissions, single piece aluminum driveshafts, and independent rear suspension. All of this also supposedly swaps right in with only two drill spots. A solid possibility if I can get ahold of some parts, or a crashed cobra parts car.

I forgot to mention, I also gave it a bath at a friends house, my apartment doesn't have any hose bibs. Shes so shinny!!! This picture also shows the road rashed wheels. 

Transmission noise possibility: Could be your input shaft bearing. 

The Cobra rear end swap is a bit more involved I think.  There is a good photo how to and write up at svtperformance you should check out.  I’m picking up a complete 03 IRS next weekend myself.  I have to wait post challenge to install it.  I don’t think I can squeeze it into the budget.  

In reply to AnthonyGS :

I will check out what svtperformance has to say. Thank you for that info! I have a feeling that it will be a bit more involved than I was previously told, but I don't believe it will be incredibly difficult being that it's mounted to the same frame structure. 

In reply to Benjamin_Casto :

It could be that, but the noise also only noticeable when the car is in gear, only when it's in neutral. I'm very stumped on this currently, but I also know very little about transmissions to begin with. I guess we have to wait and see where this noise leads!

In reply to aselmike :

That truck is my dad's baby! It was his first car in high school, 1966 F100 originally with a 352, now has a 390GT. 

Surrounding plans with the Mustang, first is to get it road worth, next is to make it fast, finally is to work on visual details to make it hopefully stand out in a good way!

Isn't the general consensus that the Cobra IRS just isn't that good? I've heard some fairly smart Mustang people say they prefer a solid axle setup like the MM torque arm.

In reply to Will :

The 28 spline IRS is pretty weak, but the 31 spline IRS is okay. They definitely can't handle hard launches as the solid axle can, but the IRS is much better around corners. I'm not set on the idea yet, but if I can find the parts for a good price I'll at least give it a shot!

From what I've gathered in my quick skim, it's the throwout bearing making noise. I've replaced them on 3 New Edge Mustangs. Only symptoms on all of them were squeaking/light rattling from the transmission only in neutral when not on the clutch. As soon as you load up the clutch fork by pushing the clutch pedal it seemed to go away. You can confirm by having the car idle in neutral up on jackstands and peeking in the opening for the clutch fork on the bell housing and manually manipulating the cable. (Be safe about this...safety glasses and all!) 

Also, before you jump down the Cobra IRS route seriously consider the Maximum Motorsports panhard bar. You will likely be more than happy with a panhard bar (or Watt's link) on the solid axle, especially for street and track day driving. You could always add a torque arm, K-member, and better springs/dampers to the panhard bar later if you get more serious about track use. 

riatamacer said:

In reply to AnthonyGS :

I will check out what svtperformance has to say. Thank you for that info! I have a feeling that it will be a bit more involved than I was previously told, but I don't believe it will be incredibly difficult being that it's mounted to the same frame structure. 

It isn't difficult it's just there are small things to consider like brake line routing, fuel filter replacment (possible moving so you can service it later without dropping the rear end), exhaust routing etc.  You should also look into the IRS issues and corrections to make it work much better.

As for the solid axle being better than the IRS like lots of other things it depends.  Do you research and make up your own mind.  There are tons of conflicting reports though.  Mustangers have traditionally been drag racers first, so a lot of opinion results from that. 

This thread is relevant to my interests...

I too am an Newedge-o-phile - and currently own a 2004 GT.

In addition, I too have a 4th gen 4Runner as well.

In reply to GarageGorilla :

Smart man!!

Working six day work weeks has been brutal, and has put the project on the back burner, but I only have a couple more weeks of extra hours. Today I got antsy, and did a little work. What do I mean by a little work? Well, I took out the back seats, put the car up on jack stands, took the back wheels off, broke stuff already, and learned I need an impact gun. So all in all, not much! I did, however, reorganize my garage, clean it, and use it as a garage! So a win sorta! 

Drive shaft bolts are real stuck! Shock bolts are real stuck! Control arms are real stuck! Basically, every bolt is seized, so heres hoping a cheap chinese impact and some pb blaster will do the trick. Off to harbor freight to save next weekend!

Here are some pictures!

The current plan is to remove the entire rear end, and go from there! I have found that rear ends out of S550's are very cheap and easy to find in comparison to cobra rear ends. I know it will be a much more difficult swap, but once I get the current solid axle out of the way I will figure out how hard it will be put in. I also do realize this is kind of cart in front of the horse situation, but no matter the outcome I do not want a solid rear axle any longer. Hopefully it's not too difficult to mock up, but I am expecting to pull out skills from my high school metals class. Lets hope welding is like riding a bicycle xD