Progress Thread Let's try this again...

The battery's charged and the car starts now, but I am reasonably certain that I have some wiring issues. When I was reconnecting the battery, I noticed that the positive and negative wires had to cross over each other to reach their respective terminals. I'm not an electrician or mechanic, but I remember reading somewhere in the past that that's a big no-no.

I looked up some pictures online and found that the negative wire usually hooks up to the battery approaching from the front of the car. It seemed like mine was too short to do this, and so it had to cross over the top of the battery and the positive terminal in order to reach. I'll post some pictures when I get them uploaded from my phone.

Here’s some of the wiring I was talking about. I know that as long as they’re insulated, there’s not much chance of anything happening but I want to make sure everything is in the right place and it’s not going to burn down my garage. I’m not sure if the cable running under the oil pan is the negative cable or something else.

I also fixed the steering wheel tilt, it was just stuck. I’m going to be cleaning up the interior a little bit next, it smells a little funky.

Not much progress so far. Cleaned out the interior pretty well, but I don't want to mess with the wiring until I can take it to a shop. There's a place by me that specializes in mustangs, they provided some advice on the 85 that I had, so they seem trustworthy. Hopefully once I get it registered and plated and I figure out how to drive stick, I'll be able to bring it to them.

Does anybody here have experience with GTS headlight covers? I have a pair of clear ones that I was trying to put on today, but even after test fitting and shaving off some of the rubber edge I couldn't get them to fit. I think the brackets that came with them are too small, and don't grab the edges of the cover as well as they should. Or I'm just doing it wrong, which is probably the case.

I got the title transfer and plates taken care of today.
Also drove around the neighborhood a couple times, and I think I might finally be getting the hang of driving stick, at least to the point where I can go on short trips and not have to worry about breaking anything.

Speaking of broken things, I have an updated list of things that don't work on my mustang:

• The only gauge that works is the tachometer. I don't know about the fuel gauge, but the temp, oil pressure, battery, and speedometer don't work.
• It seems to idle really low
• The interior map light still doesn't work
• The passenger's side mirror still won't cover my blind spot and feels loose in the housing.
• I still don't quite know how to drive stick, and so the car ends up kind of bouncing and lurching sometimes. I've read that the bouncing is called "bunny hopping" and is really bad for the car. Any time that happens, I let off the throttle and slow down until it settles.

All in all though, things are going pretty good.

Gs87GT said:

I thought the $7k purchase price included having the thing 100%?

For $7k you really shouldn't have to fix anything, unless your doing upgrades, by choice and not necessity.

Or did I mis-read your earlier posts?

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You are correct. Unfortunately—and I think this was mentioned earlier by somebody—it seems that mine and the seller’s definition of “100%” may not have matched entirely. I haven’t contacted him about any of this, although I’m thinking that maybe I should eventually. He was/is having some family medical issues so it’s entirely possible he just wanted the car out the door. It’s also possible the speedometer went out after I took possession of the car. On the previous short drives I did, I was more focused on the tach than the speedo.

Fixed the oil pressure gauge on accident. I pulled the plug from the sensor next to the oil filter and plugged it back in, it works now. That means that the only gauges I have to worry about now are the temperature and speedometer (and odometer). I'm pretty sure the speedometer needs a new cable. As for the temperature gauge, I'm not sure but the sending unit (or what I believe is the sending unit) has a pretty weird looking wiring setup. the cable splits into two connectors, one of which dangles of to the side and does nothing.

I have an appointment with a mustang shop next week to take a look at the car and figure out exactly what else might be wrong with it. I think there might be an exhaust leak somewhere, and the rear end makes some grinding noises at certain speeds.

Gs87GT said:

Man I hope you dont have to rebuild the rear. Is the rear an 8.8"? 85s I believe had the 7.5". For 7k that thing should have been near mint and everything should have been working as it should be. Hope that shop is able to help you and doesn't overcharge you. Good luck.

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The guy I bought it from supposedly replaced the gears because it was making a weird noise before I got it. It’s an 86, so I think it has an 8.8. I haven’t noticed any slipping or anything, so hopefully it’s just some trim piece rattling or something else back there that sounds like grinding. Part of my problem is I don’t know what’s normal on these cars, so hopefully this shop will be able to tell me. The guy said it wouldn’t cost me anything to have him take a look around. Hopefully he’s still open next week.

I may have broken some stuff.

Since this is my day off, I decided to try my hand at an oil change to familiarize myself with working underneath a car and also try to fix the speedometer. I pulled out the instrument cluster to make sure the speedometer cable was connected (it was) and then I put the car on ramps, disconnected the battery, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and filled it with 5 qts of new synthetic.

I noticed when I was under the car that the negative ground from the battery wasn't connected to the block. Instead, it was hooked up to the starter cable bracket with a broken zip-tie, and the whole assembly was just kind of flopping around down there. I took the picture below after pulling off the ziptie and positioning the wire a little closer to the bolt.



Thinking myself to be a master mechanic since I had just changed my oil, I looked up a few youtube videos and found that the ground is supposed to connect to a timing cover bolt, so I hooked up the ground to the bolt, left the starter bracket where it was since I didn't have a bolt for it, and congratulated myself on a job well done.

I then checked the oil level on the dipstick and realized that I had overfilled, so I crawled back underneath the car and drained a little bit and checked again.
Then I thought to myself "well, the car is on an incline, so the reading wouldn't be accurate." so I got in and rolled it off the ramps in neutral. I checked the oil again, and it still seemed a little high, but it was hard to tell since there's a lot sticking to the sides of the dipstick tube. I figured the best way to tell is to let it run for a little bit to warm up the oil and distribute it to get a better reading. I turned the key, the car ran fine, and the oil pressure gauge still read in the normal range. I shut off the car, checked the stick again, and it was still a little high, so I decided the best thing to do would be to get it back in the air and drain a little more. I got in the car and turned the key.

This is where things got a little crazy.

Something sounded a little weird, so I turned the engine off which revealed that the starter motor was running, and was continuing to do so at a frantic pace. Pulling the keys from the ignition did nothing, so I popped the hood and yanked the negative cable off the battery, and that finally killed it.

It seems there was a reason the negative cable wasn't grounded to the block, but what I don't know is why the car ran fine the first time I started it, and went crazy the second time. I obviously shorted something out and bypassed the ignition switch somehow. Unfortunately, I need the engine to get the car on ramps, so if I'm going to fix it (by putting things back the way they were and taking it to a professional once this coronavirus thing is over) I'm going to have to get over my fear of jack stands. There's a smaller wire coming off of the negative terminal connector that goes to the starter solenoid, and part of that wire is stripped, so I wonder if maybe it's shorting out on the fender or something and it's not the ground at all.