Progress Thread Finally got my first Fox Body - 1988 GT

Cut the brown wire as close as you can to the junction you circled in red....add the ring terminal there. The fusible link ( brown wire ) is the fuse for the yellow wire. It needs to be a few inches long to work correctly. If you cut the yellow wire itself you'll need to add a fuse.
Thank you. I should have said brown wire...but that's very helpful. Going to attempt this tonight or in the morning and see if I can at least get that finished.
 
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Following up on the alternator cable issue - I wasn't able to re-use the ring terminal from the green wire and all the ones I have (that came with my cheap, crappy wire stripper) are too small. So I am waiting on some of those to arrive in the mail. I also ordered some more wire loom tubing, wiring harness clips, cloth wiring tape, and electrical tape.

In the meanwhile, I managed to make a little bit of progress using the POR 15 on the area underneath the battery tray (wheel well side). Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and planned poorly with brush usage, so I have to wait until I get some more brushes before I can get to the engine bay side. I have some cheap brushes ordered for curbside pick up so fingers crossed that those are actually in stock). I managed to get two coats of the POR 15 on with the two brushes I had available.
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Once I get the brushes, I should be able to get some more rust work done and then eventually get the alternator cable situation squared away. Oh, in other exciting news, got a new t-shirt (and HP sticker) via Blipshift that I think some folks in this forum will appreciate.
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Here's my latest video documenting recent progress:


View: https://youtu.be/gqXl8xKcza8
 
Do you have birds in there or is that just the local wild fowl cheering you on?
Man...just local wild fowl, lol. They were in rare form during this video. If it’s not the neighbor’s crazy dog barking nonstop, it’s loud ass birds or someone using a backpack equipped leaf blower that looks like it should have been in Terminator 2.

I swear I live in one of the quietest neighborhoods you could find...until I start recording something for a video.

In more positive news, I picked up a few cheap brushes to get some more POR15 action done, and a torch, so I can get that damn screw out of the horn bracket finally.
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Tonight I worked on some weight reduction, lol
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Also, a few more things arrived in the mail

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The MSD piece was a few bucks cheaper than the Motorcraft one and it looks kind of cool so I went with it. The current coil appears to only be attached by one cockeyed screw and is looking a little dated.
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Some questions for the Mustang mega brains and some updates...

I got these in the mail today (cheapest, quickest thing I could have delivered that seemed to be the right size) but now I'm wondering if I should try to find something that is copper or silver. This would be for the yellow/brown wire that runs from the alternator, to connect at the starter solenoid.
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Also, I made some progress on applying the POR-15 kit on the frame underneath the battery tray. I will likely need some more of the POR-15 to get the shock tower done. On the shock tower though, I'm wondering if it would make sense to remove the master cylinder (and how difficult that is) in order to apply the POR-15 better. It's not the easiest space to get into. Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Back to the horn issue...I was finally able to get the screw out of the horn bracket, thanks to the torch idea. I found a couple of random screws that actually fit in the holes on the bracket (looks like they are from IKEA) but they fit in the bracket pretty tightly and they are too narrow for any of the holes on the frame. For now, I used some washers and attached both horns to the same hole but with that placement, I can't get the fender protector back in and I'm also wondering if the second horn is too close to where the tire will turn in. I will carefully test it out once I get the alternator and battery hooked back in.
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I am thinking I might need to just have someone weld the bracket back in eventually.

Anyways, I documented some of these things in my most recent video. I welcome commentary, lol.

View: https://youtu.be/5laJVZll-J0
 
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If the ring/wire size is the correct on those crimp connectors they should be fine, best way is to crimp, solder and shrink tube them.
Although when I did mine I believe I just crimped and shrink tubed them , haven't had any issues.

If removing the master cylinder allows you to treat a rusted area that you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise, then probably necessary.
You'll need to remove the brake lines coming from the distribution block before unbolting from booster, brake fluid will eat through paint so
be careful to wipe up spills quickly. System will also need to be bled when reinstalled , probably not a bad idea since you most likely
don't know the age of the fluid.
 
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If the ring/wire size is the correct on those crimp connectors they should be fine, best way is to crimp, solder and shrink tube them.
Although when I did mine I believe I just crimped and shrink tubed them , haven't had any issues.

If removing the master cylinder allows you to treat a rusted area that you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise, then probably necessary.
You'll need to remove the brake lines coming from the distribution block before unbolting from booster, brake fluid will eat through paint so
be careful to wipe up spills quickly. System will also need to be bled when reinstalled , probably not a bad idea since you most likely
don't know the age of the fluid.
Thanks! I think I've got the ring terminal figured out on the yellow/brown wire. Now I'm just trying to figure out where to place the mega fuse. I looked at your pic from a while back and it looked like yours was on the frame just behind the battery. I'm wondering if this sort of placement will work, once I get the other wires wrapped in loom and taped.
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I also tried to simulate other placements. I saw a few pics where people mounted it just behind the battery close to the washer fluid reservoir. This one seemed like it would be hard to secure since there's a ground wire right underneath.
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And this placement seemed a little bit too tight...
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So going back to the rust question on the shock tower - I think that makes sense to try and remove at least the distribution block/lines to properly address the rust.

On another forum, someone said this in response to the picture that shows the brake lines and I wanted to see what folks think:

"If that is copper tubing being used for brake lines you need to get rid of that right freaking now. Copper is a terribly dangerous choice for brake lines because it can split, work harden, and fail. A restoration shop I am friends with removes copper lines from the vintage cars that come in for restoration for this very reason. They then replace with steel lines that have been copper plated for the correct period look.

There are enough rental tools to make your own steel lines, and junk yards out to provide acceptable replacements for these copper lines.

A failure in the most critical safety component in your car may cost you your life, or the life of someone else exposing you to law suits or jail if you get into a crash. A guy in my area killed a woman and maimed her two children when the bus he was driving had a brake failure after he worked on them. He is now in jail
."

:eek:

Should I be concerned? Is there any way to know if the lines are actually copper (which is apparently really bad for this purpose) rather than copper-nickel or something else?
 
Copper nickel brake lines are OK. People used to use plain copper for brake lines....that would be bad.
 
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I've had no issues with the mega fuse sitting on the frame rail behind the battery, been resting there for years now.

Yes your pictures do kind of look like copper brake lines , hard to tell from pics but I would guess they are only copper
where someone made lines at the distribution block for do the rear disc conversion.
You can replace those with the correct lines pre-bent from LMR.
 
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Check that ....got my lines from Maximum Motorsports when I did the conversion.

Thanks. Any chance you have a part number?

I’m looking on both LMR and MM and not sure what I would need...there’s a lot of different options.

Took a few more pics just now.

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They do look like copper lines. The ones in the rolls at the parts stores aren't even that color. Whoever's eagle eye caught that deserves a beer.
 
This is what I used in conjunction with a 93 Cobra master cylinder.
You should also have a proportioning valve installed, usually behind the passengers strut tower.
Thanks. Based on some pics I was looking at online, my master cylinder looks a little bit different than the 93 Cobra MC. I wonder if those lines will still work or if I would need to look into getting another master cylinder...

I do have a proportioning valve on the other side.

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So I can order the 1993 Cobra MC on LMR or MM and I can also order the installation kit but I was looking at the description and instructions and it doesn’t include the front port brake line, which I obviously need to replace too. It seems I could get a more complete line kit if I went with the 94-95 Cobra MC that MM offers. Any thoughts on the 94-95 versus the 93?

I’m going to do some more searching and reading in the meanwhile.