Dad's 1989 Mustang GT

[Blown88GT]

Which manual do you have? Can you share a picture of it? I wouldnt mind a small library of books if it will help seeing things from different perspectives when I try to research something.

I find this one more useful than most. Everyone calls it the EVTM. '88 & '89 are almost identical.
Exterior color appears to be Cabernet Red, same as mine.
However, rear tail light have been changed, as well as the front fascia. Looks like the front is from an LX.
I don't like those front wheels, either. The rears are OEM original to the GT.

View: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1on5czXKmpETzxUggWTGtoUuVkJT2UUxN

 

[LizzieLou]

Looks like the front is from an LX.
I don't like those front wheels, either. The rears are OEM original to the GT.

The front end IS from an LX, however, the car, which I’ve verified, is a GT. One of the previous owners (who my dad knew) got in an accident. They replaced the bumper with an LX version, though I cant figure out why they’d do that. The hood dips down in one spot, so if it cant be fixed, I’ll likely have to replace that too. I plan on replacing the front bumper with the GT style one.

I am with you on the wheels. My husband and I do NOT like those wheels. I have no idea what they did with the original front wheels. I’ll likely have to use the other two matching wheels when we finish out converting the rear to 5 lug until we can replace them with something else.

 

[Blown88GT]

I suspect he put the front wheels on as a roller. The original front turbines likely were damaged in the front end accident. The tires look way too tall, you won't be able to turn without rubbing. Stock tire size was 225-60x15.

 

[LizzieLou]

I suspect he put the front wheels on as a roller. The original front turbines likely were damaged in the front end accident. The tires look way too tall, you won't be able to turn without rubbing. Stock tire size was 225-60x15.

Actually, the car was wrecked back in the 90s I think. The original wheels were on it when my dad purchased it. My dad put those tires and wheels on there when he converted from 4-lugs to 5 in the front. I also think the tire is too big. We want different wheels, but will look at buying shorter tires when we finish the rear lug conversion.

 

[LizzieLou]

I was able to go back out to my moms and see the car some more. There’s definitely a hose (attached to the bottom of the radiator) chewed through, as well as some wiring. I’m praying this isn’t going to be too expensive to fix.

Also, the car is extremely low to the ground and we can barely fit the jack under it.

 

[LizzieLou]

 

[Mustang5L5]

I see the act sensor wiring and one injector have been chewed through. Good news is those connectors can be purchased with a lenght of wire attached. Just a matter of a little solder and heat shrink

 

[LizzieLou]

There is more than one injector chewed through. Is there a link you can provide to the right part(s)? I was afraid I’d have to buy the whole thing....

 

[Dan02gt]

Rock Auto sells them and lots of other pigtails.

Injector pigtail

You can also get them on Amazon.

 

[LizzieLou]

Thanks!!! That’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I’m sure I”ll have to replace every single one, and the only one I was able to find was $16 each at Summit. <$5 is a lot better! I should (hopefully) be able to get to my moms to move the car to my house (2 hours away). It rained hard recently so theres just too much mud to safely get a trailer in and out. Then I’ll be able to get in there with an engine-knowledgable friend to go through the engine with me and see exactly what all parts I need to get this thing running.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Rockauto has multiple choice for each under electrical connector for your vehicle

 

[Mustang5L5]

Or hop on eBay and just replace the entire harness. This would take care of all 8 injectors and the act plug

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/323610372833

 

[02 281 GT]

It honestly looks more like those wires were intentionally cut rather than chewed by an animal.

 

[General karthief]

In reality a harness replacement may be in order with the amount of wire damage I see, you'll know more after you get it home and start dig'n into it.

 

[95BlueStallion]

I thought they looked cut as well. Doesn’t much matter, needs replaced either way.

 

[LizzieLou]

I don’t understand someone’s purpose for cutting the wires though? It had to be a rodent because none of the other parts are off the car. They would have had to take some of the engine apart to do that, plus there are knicks and chew marks on some of the other wires.

 

[Mustang5L5]

In that case I would definitely vote changing out the harness completely. Considering its $60 in just injector and ACT plug ends, a good used injector harness might be cheaper.

Just need to make sure it's off an 87/93 mustang as the other 5.0 models might be missing a sensor plug or other connection

 

[LizzieLou]

I will look at buying the injector harness linked previously, and hopefully the other wires that are chewed wont be too expensive, and hopefully what I’ve found is ALL.

Also, there are two smaller hoses coming off the bottom of the radiator. One of those is cut. I dont know if it happened when we were moving the car (it had sunk into several inches of dirt and this car already sits extremely low to the ground) or if something chewed through it. I know I’ll have to wait until I have the car here to see for sure, but just wanting to get prepared for the cost of whatever those hoses are.

EDIT: After studying the manual a bit, I see the only reason I’d have another hose coming off the radiator is with an Automatic... so I’m not quite sure where this hose is coming from, except its attached somewhere near the radiator. The ground was completely soaked from recent rains, and because this car is so low to the ground I was not able to crawl under there.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Power steering lines. They pass to the bottom drivers side of the radiator but don't go into the rad. Those hoses are also cheap on rockauto

 

[LizzieLou]

Oh, that’s great news! Thanks. Planning to (hopefully) bring this thing home in two weeks, so long as Mother Nature takes her meds and doesnt dump any more rain at my mom’s house.