Help with window and possible engine

StefRena22 · Jun 12, 2025

Good afternoon. I've read through all of the forums that I can find in particular....
Long story short I recently inherited a 1993 Mustang GT convertible 5.0 with a Ado transmission in it.

I've slowly been working on things here and there the starter was out in an initially the car hadn't ran in probably 18 months and maybe 2 years fired her up and re placed the starter relay , replaced spark plugs and gone down the road replacing some basic things and it ran just fine. Driving it on the highway about 200 miles into our trip started having slight surges and then got to the point that RPMs are running high and I was losing power. I discovered that one of the vacuum lines had broke as it was very brittle but I haven't driven it since I replaced that vacuum line that went from the distributor to the splicer connector that then ran to the EGR valve.
Took it to a Ford dealership because it literally broke down right by a dealership and he told me that it was the transmission even when I told him to check the vacuum lines. And he wouldn't tell me if it threw any codes or not. I have a code reader for this car and I've put it on there and I got a flashing box one time and then nothing I tried it several times and still nothing. Smoke test only showed slight smoke coming from the EGR valve. Again I have not driven it since I have replaced all of these items.

To date I have changed the spark plugs and put eight motorcraft ones in there, the EGR valve, the EGR valve sensor, Throttle position sensor, flushed and change the power steering fluid, oil and transmission fluid (which was dark but no large metal shavings), replaced the vacuum lines with a set from LMR. I have not ran it on the road since replacing all of those things. It does have a slight rough idle and I have not adjusted the idle yet. Is there anything else I am missing? I'm very Hands-On with cars I love working under the engines I have no problem working on things but to me it doesn't sound like a transmission issue it sounds like I had a vacuum leak and watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of forums they all kind of say the same thing.

Also I am replacing the bushings and the front and rear quarter window (it's a convertible) and for the life of me I cannot get the rod to line back up to go down into the hole. I've been at this thing for hours the only thing I can think of is maybe I need to remove the window motor so I can move the track more freely? I did remove and replace the bushings and all four motor Windows because they were all shot to crap and they are all up and running again.

I know this is a multi question post but I'm slowly restoring her it's in really good shape for the year that it is they took really good care of it but I've been slowly replacing things here and there buying everything from LMR directly.

Thanks

General karthief · Jun 12, 2025

First, congrat on the vert life you will now be living, no turning back
Second, get a piece of paper, you're gonna need notes.
Post up some pics of this hair dryer ya gots,
Some things to check, fuel pressure, you already checked vacuum lines, codes, what code reader are you using? Any aftermarket parts?
And you can use this thread for other issues too,
I would pull the upper intake off, easy and gives you better access to the vacuum lines that likely need replacing, most idle issues on stock setups like this are broken/soft collapsing vacuum lines and miss matched parts.

AeroCoupe · Jun 12, 2025

The General has some good stuff above so make that list.

Something I wanted to point out is that if you cannot get any codes then you most likely have a bad ECU. Not saying this is the smoking gun but it is a problem. ECU Exchange is what we have had the best results in refurbishing these ECU’s. They are 30+ years old and most have issues and need to be gone through.

General karthief · Jun 12, 2025

AeroCoupe said:
The General has some good stuff above so make that list.

Something I wanted to point out is that if you cannot get any codes then you most likely have a bad ECU. Not saying this is the smoking gun but it is a problem. ECU Exchange is what we have had the best results in refurbishing these ECU’s. They are 30+ years old and most have issues and need to be gone through.

I just thought I'd give you guys a break and regurgitate what I've learned around here,
Now where'd I put that DISCLAIMER

StefRena22 · Jun 12, 2025

General karthief said:
First, congrat on the vert life you will now be living, no turning back
Second, get a piece of paper, you're gonna need notes.
Post up some pics of this hair dryer ya gots,
Some things to check, fuel pressure, you already checked vacuum lines, codes, what code reader are you using? Any aftermarket parts?
And you can use this thread for other issues too,
I would pull the upper intake off, easy and gives you better access to the vacuum lines that likely need replacing, most idle issues on stock setups like this are broken/soft collapsing vacuum lines and miss matched parts.

Fuel pressure check is good, I pulled the main upper intake off. I ordered the OBD1 code reader.
No aftermarket parts. It's 100% original still. After I replace the broken vacuum line the car is running smoother but I have not tested it since I was worried the guy at Ford told me it was a transmission issue. I do have a new transmission pan with a drain plug being delivered tomorrow so I can change the pan out run it through the neighborhood so that way I can try to drain the torque converter of all the previous fluid. Also I'm changing out the rear differential fluid because I'm pretty sure it's never been changed before. I am just the third owner of it and my aunt who passed away has owned it since 2001.
The white line was the broken line and I replaced it with a kit from LMR. We thought maybe that the bushing had gone out on the on the TV cable put it was intact but I went ahead and replaced it with a new brass bushing and clip.

StefRena22 · Jun 12, 2025

AeroCoupe said:
The General has some good stuff above so make that list.

Something I wanted to point out is that if you cannot get any codes then you most likely have a bad ECU. Not saying this is the smoking gun but it is a problem. ECU Exchange is what we have had the best results in refurbishing these ECU’s. They are 30+ years old and most have issues and need to be gone through.

I wondered if it was possibly bad. When I connect it and turn it on I get the little triangle and when I hit test I got one flashing square for one second and then nothing else.

StefRena22 · Jun 12, 2025

General karthief said:
First, congrat on the vert life you will now be living, no turning back
Second, get a piece of paper, you're gonna need notes.
Post up some pics of this hair dryer ya gots,
Some things to check, fuel pressure, you already checked vacuum lines, codes, what code reader are you using? Any aftermarket parts?
And you can use this thread for other issues too,
I would pull the upper intake off, easy and gives you better access to the vacuum lines that likely need replacing, most idle issues on stock setups like this are broken/soft collapsing vacuum lines and miss matched parts.

I have read a lot of different forums on here and watched I don't even know how many YouTube videos about this particular make and model that talk about vacuum leaks can cause a lot of the issues that I was having with the surging on the interstate it was very slight and I really don't believe it's a transmission issue because of the way that it was driving and handling. I did the smoke test and there was just very little smoke coming from the EGR valve after I replace the vacuum line. I do plan on driving it on Sunday after I install the new transmission pan and replace the rear differential fluid so I'm hoping that this might have fixed it but I'm still stuck trying to get the door and window to line back up after replacing the bushings. I am very new to Ford's I do all the work on my own cars but I drive Subarus I 100% stand behind those cars but this car is very special to me and I've been tinkering under the hood and learning as much as I can about it this is the first time I've reached out.

gkomo · Jun 13, 2025

StefRena22 said:
I wondered if it was possibly bad. When I connect it and turn it on I get the little triangle and when I hit test I got one flashing square for one second and then nothing else.

How long did you wait while the square blinks? Mine will blink for a while before spitting out any codes. Also, does anything happen when you hit ‘test’? Your car should start doing things on its own (KOEO clicks and priming and etc, KOER it will rev the car up on its own).

AeroCoupe · Jun 13, 2025

Car should be up to temperature when running codes.

These cars are sensitive to vacuum leaks. The vacuum lines are 32-33 years old so my suggestion would be to replace them all if the car is all original.

LMR should get off their ass and make a complete vacuum line kit for them.

StefRena22 · Jun 13, 2025

gkomo said:
How long did you wait while the square blinks? Mine will blink for a while before spitting out any codes. Also, does anything happen when you hit ‘test’? Your car should start doing things on its own (KOEO clicks and priming and etc, KOER it will rev the car up on its own).

When I hit test I hear the clicking and I waited a good almost 10 minutes the third time hurt the clicking but then no boxes I kind of find it hard to believe there are no codes but I also wonder if the Ford dealership that I took it to clear the coats because they didn't tell me there were any codes

StefRena22 · Jun 13, 2025

AeroCoupe said:
Car should be up to temperature when running codes.

These cars are sensitive to vacuum leaks. The vacuum lines are 32-33 years old so my suggestion would be to replace them all if the car is all original.

LMR should get off their ass and make a complete vacuum line kit for them.

I bought the kit from LMR to replace the one that was broke. I also have other vacuum lines on hand. I did a smoke test and I did not see any smoke coming from anywhere except for a little bit by the EGR dumb question though did the car be running or not running when you do a smoke test

RaggedGT · Jun 13, 2025

Fwiw-the torque converter should have a drain plug on it

gkomo · Jun 13, 2025

StefRena22 said:
I bought the kit from LMR to replace the one that was broke. I also have other vacuum lines on hand. I did a smoke test and I did not see any smoke coming from anywhere except for a little bit by the EGR dumb question though did the car be running or not running when you do a smoke test

Not running

General karthief · Jun 13, 2025

Dealership don't know how to work on our 'old' cars,

StefRena22 · Jun 13, 2025

RaggedGT said:
Fwiw-the torque converter should have a drain plug on it

It does. But I'm not sure exactly where it is and what I read is that we had to rotate the engine until we found it????

StefRena22 · Jun 13, 2025

General karthief said:
Dealership don't know how to work on our 'old' cars,

It was frustrating because this guy was all excited and said he has two fox bodies himself.

StefRena22 · Jun 13, 2025

gkomo said:
Not running

It was not running when I did the test. I did the test after I replaced the line that had broke.

RaggedGT · Jun 15, 2025

StefRena22 said:
It does. But I'm not sure exactly where it is and what I read is that we had to rotate the engine until we found it????

There’s a rubber plug in the bottom of the bell housing-take that out and you will have to rotate the engine until the drain plug is pointing down

StefRena22 · Jun 17, 2025

RaggedGT said:
There’s a rubber plug in the bottom of the bell housing-take that out and you will have to rotate the engine until the drain plug is pointing down

I installed a transmission pan with a drain plug. Put new fluid in. Ran it around the neighborhood, drained it, added new fluid and going to run it again. Fluid looked cleaner the second drain but still a little dark

Willybill32 · Jun 21, 2025

StefRena22 said:
Good afternoon. I've read through all of the forums that I can find in particular....
Long story short I recently inherited a 1993 Mustang GT convertible 5.0 with a Ado transmission in it.

I've slowly been working on things here and there the starter was out in an initially the car hadn't ran in probably 18 months and maybe 2 years fired her up and re placed the starter relay , replaced spark plugs and gone down the road replacing some basic things and it ran just fine. Driving it on the highway about 200 miles into our trip started having slight surges and then got to the point that RPMs are running high and I was losing power. I discovered that one of the vacuum lines had broke as it was very brittle but I haven't driven it since I replaced that vacuum line that went from the distributor to the splicer connector that then ran to the EGR valve.
Took it to a Ford dealership because it literally broke down right by a dealership and he told me that it was the transmission even when I told him to check the vacuum lines. And he wouldn't tell me if it threw any codes or not. I have a code reader for this car and I've put it on there and I got a flashing box one time and then nothing I tried it several times and still nothing. Smoke test only showed slight smoke coming from the EGR valve. Again I have not driven it since I have replaced all of these items.

To date I have changed the spark plugs and put eight motorcraft ones in there, the EGR valve, the EGR valve sensor, Throttle position sensor, flushed and change the power steering fluid, oil and transmission fluid (which was dark but no large metal shavings), replaced the vacuum lines with a set from LMR. I have not ran it on the road since replacing all of those things. It does have a slight rough idle and I have not adjusted the idle yet. Is there anything else I am missing? I'm very Hands-On with cars I love working under the engines I have no problem working on things but to me it doesn't sound like a transmission issue it sounds like I had a vacuum leak and watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of forums they all kind of say the same thing.

Also I am replacing the bushings and the front and rear quarter window (it's a convertible) and for the life of me I cannot get the rod to line back up to go down into the hole. I've been at this thing for hours the only thing I can think of is maybe I need to remove the window motor so I can move the track more freely? I did remove and replace the bushings and all four motor Windows because they were all shot to crap and they are all up and running again.

I know this is a multi question post but I'm slowly restoring her it's in really good shape for the year that it is they took really good care of it but I've been slowly replacing things here and there buying everything from LMR directly.

Thanks

The stock ECU is 30+ years old and has components known to fail. Before I spent too much money in replacing parts, I’d suggest sending the ECU to ECUExchange and let them test it and repair as necessary. They’re very reasonable and turnaround time is pretty short. That way at least you know you’ve eliminated any gremlins from the ECU.

Bill

Help with window and possible engine

Member

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes

Member

Member

Been here over a DECADE and still no CT

now i can hopefully expect to receive the shaft

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Member

Member

Attachments

Member

Been here over a DECADE and still no CT

Member

But at least it's tight!

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