Just picked up my first Fox Body...finally

matt5058

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Got the fox to crank yesterday and the battery seems to be doing find holding a charge since being on the trickle charger over night and with the sun visors/vanity mirror lights removed.


Also, my PA Performance battery cable kit did arrive yesterday. Good stuff. :)
 

Bdubbs

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What were your volts at when you let it sit over night?

I just got back from my storage unit. It's been getting colder here, like lows in the teens.

So I wanted to check volts. Mines mounted in the trunk and the car hasn't been started probably a week. Volts were 12.30

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BlksvtCobra01

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I had to replace my battery positive cable from the battery to my solenoid two years ago car died but restarted loose connection.


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matt5058

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What were your volts at when you let it sit over night?

I just got back from my storage unit. It's been getting colder here, like lows in the teens.

So I wanted to check volts. Mines mounted in the trunk and the car hasn't been started probably a week. Volts were 12.30

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The next morning it was around 12.xx and later in the day when I started the car, it dropped for a second to 9.xx and then jumped up to 14.xx I think. It's recorded in the video, would have to just go back and look at that part. I've started the car a few times since charging the battery and removing the sun visors.

Last night I replaced the old battery cables, which were in even worse condition than I thought, with the PA Performance kit. I couldn't figure out the alternator cable yet but will try to get that installed sometime in the next few days.

Old:
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New:
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matt5058

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Cliff Notes for how the build ends...

View attachment 1634584


Awesome car BTW!
Hahahahaha :p

Funny you should mention that...someone on another forum is trying to make a "Raptor" S197 Mustang. He's documenting the build pretty extensively. I can't remember which forum but will find it and share the link here.
 

matt5058

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Got a new video up with the fuel filter replacement, arrival of some more parts, and installing/testing out the Steeda Tri-Ax Shifter Handle (just the handle, not the actual replacement shifter):


Plans for this week include tracing the alternator cable to see if I can figure out if there's already a mega fuse or something similar somewhere hidden in there. Also going to remove the air intake silencer since I'm probably going to have to remove the air box anyways while I'm tracing the alternator cable. Also got some additional wire brushes for the drill so I want to pull the battery and tray again and get back to working on the rust.

Also thinking about maybe draining and fully replacing the power steering fluid or just replacing the power steering pump since I have an extra one that came in the box of parts that came with the car. The loud whining noise has become worse than the Flowmaster drone the last few times I've driven the car.
 

matt5058

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Heat gun finally arrived..along with some other random stuff. On Friday evening, something else arrived. Our foster dog, Lady, gave birth to one puppy at our house and then was having trouble delivering the next one. We ended up having to take her to the clinic and she got an emergency c-section. An little over an hour later we were driving home with Lady and six tiny puppies. Hell of a Friday, lol.

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Once things settled down, I managed to get some garage time. Took advantage of the heat gun and started removing the body molding stripe.

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I need to look a little bit closer but it seems like the stripe on the door moldings is possibly a different material or might even be painted on. I didn't want to melt the door moldings so I didn't mess with those much longer while removing the rest of the stripe around the car. I also got the front driver side wheel off again and started doing some more work on the rust. I need some spray bottles for the degreaser and metal treatment from the POR-15 kit. I had initially ordered them from Chemical Guys but the order got cancelled due to lack of inventory. Fortunately I was able to pick up a couple of alternatives with my grocery pick-up at Wal-Mart today. Hopefully these will work fine and I can get at least one side of the apron done with POR-15.

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On the alternator power cable situation, I finally just sucked it up and ordered the SR performance cable which already has the 200 amp in-line fuse. I figured between everything else I'd need to order to do it myself, I'd only be saving 15 bucks and at least with this kit I have everything already put together. That should be here in a day or two.

Anyways, I got a new video up documenting some of these things.

 

matt5058

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So I'm kind of stuck on the alternator power cable issue. In order to try and make things less complicated, I ordered a power cable with a fuse in line, and it arrived yesterday.

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I started undoing the cable that's currently on the alternator...and I was reviewing diagrams in this thread here:

[/URL]

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On the alternator side, I get that the new 4 gauge power wire goes on the alternator output stud. And I see the regulator socket like in the diagram with three wires (green, yellow, and white) but on mine, the white wire goes from the regulator socket to what looks like the field winding power input(?).

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Unless I'm looking at my alternator wrong and the white wire that is supposed to be spliced and crimped from the orange/black cable goes somewhere else? Speaking of the white wire....it doesn't look like my orange/black alternator power plug has that white wire coming off of it anyways.

Oh and I only have one orange/black cable as opposed to the two it seems I'm supposed to have as shown in the diagram. Here's mine:

img-9625-jpg.jpg


I'm lost at the moment. Any thoughts or suggestions? Is it possible I have some different or unique kind of 3G alternator?
 

Bdubbs

u even lift bro?
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So I'm kind of stuck on the alternator power cable issue. In order to try and make things less complicated, I ordered a power cable with a fuse in line, and it arrived yesterday.

View attachment 1637961

I started undoing the cable that's currently on the alternator...and I was reviewing diagrams in this thread here:

[/URL]

View attachment 1637962

View attachment 1637963

On the alternator side, I get that the new 4 gauge power wire goes on the alternator output stud. And I see the regulator socket like in the diagram with three wires (green, yellow, and white) but on mine, the white wire goes from the regulator socket to what looks like the field winding power input(?).

View attachment 1637964


View attachment 1637965

Unless I'm looking at my alternator wrong and the white wire that is supposed to be spliced and crimped from the orange/black cable goes somewhere else? Speaking of the white wire....it doesn't look like my orange/black alternator power plug has that white wire coming off of it anyways.

Oh and I only have one orange/black cable as opposed to the two it seems I'm supposed to have as shown in the diagram. Here's mine:

View attachment 1637966

I'm lost at the moment. Any thoughts or suggestions? Is it possible I have some different or unique kind of 3G alternator?
I have a PA 3g alternator. It's been on my car for years. I can check it out, but currently it's at my storage unit.

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matt5058

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I have a PA 3g alternator. It's been on my car for years. I can check it out, but currently it's at my storage unit.

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Thank you for offering but it's all good. I think I might have a clear path forward based on some conversations in other forums. Will hopefully have an update tonight or tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
 

matt5058

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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 will appreciate.

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Anyways, here's my latest video documenting recent progress:
 

matt5058

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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.
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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. I am thinking I might need to just have someone weld the bracket back in eventually.
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Anyways, here's the latest video documenting these efforts.

I finally got some electrical tape and ring terminals, at least one of which will hopefully work. Planning to try and get the alternator and battery squared away and put back in this weekend.
 

matt5058

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So on another forum, someone pointed out that my brake lines look like they might be copper. My car has a rear disc brake conversion but it looks like whoever did it kept the factory master cylinder and made custom lines coming from that MC.
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A few folks have chimed in that copper lines are not good and that I should try to address this. Initially I was looking at purchasing the 1993 Cobra Master Cylinder, which appears to be somewhat of an upgrade, and can fit on 87-93 GT Mustangs without major modifications. The problem I'm anticipating though, is the Maximum Motorsports master cylinder installation kit doesn't appear to include the front port brake line, which I obviously need to replace too. I'm not seeing any front port lines available on MM or LMR.

I also looked at the 94-95 Cobra MC on MM and it looks like their installation kit does include a complete line kit. Anyone have thoughts on the 94-95 Cobra MC for a mostly stock 1988 GT?
 

matt5058

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Happy to report that I finally got the alternator power cable finished. I ended up running the power cable in one loom and the rest of the wires in a separate loom. It took a while but I got it looking how I wanted it, for the most part. I might need to redo the tape around some of the clips but for now, I'm pretty happy. Trying to get both looms to sit well and fit underneath the battery tray took the most time.

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Got a new video up documenting this progress and talking about a few other things:


I went ahead and ordered the 93 Cobra MC and installation kit. I'll try and figure out a solution for the front port line when the time comes.
 

Bdubbs

u even lift bro?
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Happy to report that I finally got the alternator power cable finished. I ended up running the power cable in one loom and the rest of the wires in a separate loom. It took a while but I got it looking how I wanted it, for the most part. I might need to redo the tape around some of the clips but for now, I'm pretty happy. Trying to get both looms to sit well and fit underneath the battery tray took the most time.

View attachment 1642517

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Got a new video up documenting this progress and talking about a few other things:


I went ahead and ordered the 93 Cobra MC and installation kit. I'll try and figure out a solution for the front port line when the time comes.
My car has a 93 cobra master cylinder. I can take a picture tomorrow if you'd like?

I didn't install it though. I just replaced my brake booster and fluid about a week ago.

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matt5058

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My car has a 93 cobra master cylinder. I can take a picture tomorrow if you'd like?

I didn't install it though. I just replaced my brake booster and fluid about a week ago.

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I didn't get a notice about this comment for some reason. Thanks for offering but I think I found a solution. I ordered a brake line kit that I think will work.

Foster puppy madness has occupied most of our time at the house the past few weeks. I found some time to make a new video but not a ton of progress on the car. The foster puppy goon squad should be gone this weekend so I'm hoping to start working on the master cylinder/brake line project soon. I believe I have everything I need for that but I do still need to pick up another can of POR-15 to use on the shock tower so I can do both of those at the same time.


I also ordered the lower door hinge tension spring so I can finally fix the driver side door. Also managed to make some progress on getting the residue from the body molding stripe cleaned off (documented in the video a little bit as well).
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matt5058

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Still haven't made a ton of progress recently. In addition to the puppies, I've had a few things come up in the house that we need to work on sooner than later. I am still waiting on the shocks I ordered a few weeks ago. I did install new header panel support brackets...but I should probably take some time to clean up the screws. Still looks better than the rusty ones that I had on there.
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Also, I ordered a lower door hinge tension spring, since my driver side door won't stay open. I noticed today that the bag is marked a little bit differently. It says 82-83 door check tension arms...the parts in the bag look the same as what is advertised on LMR though, so I'm hoping it's still the right piece, just tagged or bagged incorrectly.
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Also, managed to make some time to clean a bit more of the space on one side of the garage. This area was pretty crowded and a pain to walk through until now. We recently ordered some new shelves to help better organize the garage and maximize space. It's the little things that help sometimes...
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Made a new video documenting some recent things:
 

matt5058

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Finally got the driver side door able to stay open, by replacing the lower door hinge tension spring.

The installation video from LMR definitely made this seem like an easier install than it actually is...at least for me, lol.

 

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