MAA here I come!

Well I signed up, so come hell or high water I will drive my car across this country. Now here is the technical part: The one thing I can't find new or rebuilt is the windshield wiper motor. As luck would have it (and mine is always bad) the last time I turned mine on, the wipers stopped in mid motion. The rain had stopped and the windshield dried off so the friction was pretty high I suppose, but still it was a bit disturbing. I could get another used one and cross my fingers, but I'd like to have more confidence than that before I drive 4000 miles cross country. So does anyone know where I can get one rebuilt soon? Anybody know of a good way to judge what condition they're in if I bought a used one e.g. a resistance reading through the windings?

I'm trying to keep it in an "up" status, so I don't want to tear anything apart that I don't have to, but it's a good idea. If I can find a local electrical repair shop, I'll buy a used one, take that to be repaired and then swap them out. It's a small town, so not every service is available that you'd find in a big city, but I'll start looking.

I took the grill off and sprayed WD40 on the linkages. They ran fine with no wipers installed, so I put everything back together with new wiper blade re-fills and tried them out. I didn't run them very long because the windshield was dry, but they ran OK. I'm going to take a chance with it like it is. Now that all the snow's gone, I'll drive it to work every day until I head out, so I should get a chance to run them in the rain a few times between now and then. If they act up again I'll stop by Mike's Mustangs. If every 3rd rebuilt one is bad, I'd just as soon get a used one.

My biggest challenge is not to start any new projects before I leave. The only things I'm going to change are the fluids and the radio station. I keep thinking "there's enough time to swap out the gas tank to a '70 style 22 gallon for better range" or "I could swap out the crappy 80's Ford radio for one with modern guts and an iPod adapter", or "surely I could put the tinted door glass in, I'll need that in the desert". I must NOT touch a n y t h i n g!.

Thanks for all the feedback!!

I'd love to check out your car up close sometime. I'm pretty sure I saw you over in Prince Frederick last summer at one of the K-mart cruise ins; that's one sweet ride! Are you a member of the Southern Maryland Mustang Club? If not, I hope you'll join, if yes PM me. I'd like to see more vintage iron in the ranks.

The only thing that's acted up recently is the wiper motor. I may go ahead and pick up a spare from Mike's. I think I'll get a spare fuel filter also. I also need to put fresh tires on the front. I don't even have a spare tire yet.

I keep changing my mind about swapping out the gas tank to a 22 gallon '70 model. This trip is already going to blow my budget bad, so a $1K+ fuel cell probably won't happen. I also need to get a CB radio and antenna. I think I'll just buy an i-phone instead of changing the radio and download all my music.