Friday, January 30, 2009
Problem questions and answers
A gentleman posted a question as a comment on something and I did not notice it for a few weeks. It's not that I just blew him off or anything, it's just that I didn't see it. Sorry about that Sean, by the way. So, if you have a question about something that your car seems to be doing, or not doing, post it here, and I promise that I will check this at least once a day and try to help you out if I can.
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13 comments:
I have a 66 and i need to realign the door and i can not for the life of me get that bolt that is hidden by the kick panel loose it just spins. so basically my question is how does one go about removing it and what genius built it like that in the first place?
Thanks in advance Shawn S.
That isn't a bolt. It's a nut. There is a stud with a flat metal piece on it that's supposed to lock into a hole in the fender. For that to spin, it pretty much had to pop out of the hole, and it is entirely possible that it isn't actually holding the fender at all.Since you are trying to remove that nut, I'm guessing that it is your intention to remove the fender to gain easy access to the bolts holding the door hinge onto the car? If this is the case, go ahead and remove all of that other stuff that you'll have to remove to the fender off and see if you caught a break and the stud popped loose and isn't holding anything. If it is in fact still holding the fender, first try having someone with a socket wrench turn the nut while you jostle the fender around gently without damaging the paint. If that does work, put a couple of those bolts into the fender along the lip that's under the side of the hood to keep the fender from falling off and, again, damaging the paint, remove the mudflap on the fender that's in the back side of the wheel well area, gently wedge something in between the car and the fender directly below where that stud is and take a hacksaw blade, just the blade, not the entire hacksaw, and saw through the stud. Not a lot of fun, but, good moves are hard to find in bad situations.
As far as why Ford did it like that, the reasons where simple. It was a very quick install, and it was a very cheap part. Personally, I've only had to actually go the hacksaw route once in my life, and that was when the car was thirty years old, and had gotten really rusty. Generally, even today, it's a very simple matter to remove that nut, and that's after the original warranty period of this car has expired more than twenty times over, so, it's really a pretty good system. You just got lucky and found that one in a million car that this was going to be a problem on.
Great blog! I have a 65 coupe - 289 C4 automatic. Just did the fix to the wobbly shifter this weekend (new bushings) and it's all good now. My backup lights don't work, my horns don't work and my courtesy lights under the dash don't work. I will be trying to fix these problems in the coming weeks. I put in new reverse lights (new housing and bulbs) but I am finding no power at the plugs - guess I need to check power under the car at the neutral safety switch?
Just wondering if you could post some information on basic troubleshooting if you have no spark. I have a 66 mustang straight six -- having problems getting it to start and I have no spark.
Step by step with pics would be helpful. Nice blog.
Hi Nickname Unavailable. Nick for short? ( I wish that I could put the smiley faces here.) There's a write-up on the ignition system here already. If you type ignition into the search box at the top of the page, it will send you to it. Read through that, and that should get you going. Basically, you start at the plugs and backtrack towards the ignition switch, going through the distributor, to the coil, etc... until you find the last place that you have spark. But, read through that and it might help you understand what's supposed to be happening a little better. You might already know this stuff, but, a refresher never hurts. ( Again, insert smiley face. )
I have a 65 Mustang 289 fastback. The restoration was featured in the most recent issue of the Mustang Times, if you subscribe. Anyway, I finally got my car back from the restoration shop after having practically everything replaced on the engine. Before all of that, it was running fine. Now, when you turn the key, the engine turns over, but it doesn't start. To be safe, I bought yet another coil and starter relay, but it still isn't starting. I also double checked the firing order, based off of a diagram you posted on a different site, and that looks good. Any thoughts? I'm stumped.
I guess I really should subscribe to some Mustang magazines, but, I kind of never really got around to it. If my car wouldn't start after having undergone a restoration which set me back back thousands of dollars, I would not be very happy with this. It could be something as simple as the car is out of gas, or, it could be something in the ignition system. I would start with making sure that the car had gas in it and that the fuel pump is working by disconnecting the fuel line from the carb and pointing it into a suitable container and cranking the motor to see if fuel comes out of the line. If yes, I would then pull one spark plug and ground it out on a valcover bolt or something, crank the motor and see if I had spark. If no, I would then check with a volt meter to see if the 'I' post on the starter solenoid showed power while the key is in the start position. I f yes, then I would check my high tension coil wire going from the distributor to the coil. Basically, you'll need to start at one end of the ignition system with a volt meter and go through it until you find the problem.
The first thing that I would do,if the car is not just out of gas, is go down to the people that did the restoration and ask them why, after spending all of this money, my car won't start. I would be nice about it at first, because it could be something very simple that just got overlooked somehow. In a job that big, it can happen. My actions from there would be contingient upon their response. I seriously doubt if they have anyone that could get as angry, loud, and bitchy as I can, though, if it came down to it. They would be fixing my car.
Hello :) So I have a 66 Mustang coupe. 6 Cylinder. Automatic tranny. I checked my transmissions fluid and it was empty. How bad is it to turn on your car without the fluid? Also, When I tried to drive the car it wouldn't accelerate at all? It ould rev and nothing would happen. Is that the reason or could it be something else?
Thanks :)
Hello :)
So I have a '66 Mustang Coupe, 6 cylinders with an automatic transmission. I went to go drive my car after finally getting it to turn on and it wouldn't accelerate at all. I went to check some shtuff and it everything seemed to be fine except that there was no transmissions fluid because I guess it leaked itself away. Now I was wondering if that would be the reason for the lacking acceleration? And if not what it might be? I don't know too much about carburetors either soooo yeah.ha Also, I was wondering how bad that would have been for the transmission to be trying to get the car to go for about twenty minutes with no fluids?
Now my final question(and sorry for so many) is if my transmission was rebuilt, aside from leaking from the pan, could it be leaking anywhere else?
Thanks for your help :)
Hi, Anthony. To answer the big question first, the car will not move if you have no transmission fluid. Loosely stated, how the rotation of the motor is transferred to the transmission is by means of a thing called the torque converter. Imagine two fans facing each other inside a tube. If you turn on one fan and it blows directly into the other one, the blades of the other fan will start turning also. The torque converter sort of does that. Instead of blowing air, though, it is pushing transmission fluid, so, if there is no fluid, there is nothing to transfer the rotation of the motor to the transmission. The car can't move. Automatic transmission fluid isa type of hydraulic fluid, not a lubricant. It has some lubricating and conditioning stuff in it, but, it is basically hydraulic fluid, kind of like power steering fluid .
As far as leaking goes, anywhere that the fluid goes is potentially a place that could leak, but, if fluid is leaking out onto the ground, that is almost always the pan that's leaking. You won't need to have the transmission rebuilt to get the pan to quit leaking, though. Just replace the pan gasket and you should be good to go.
Thanks so much for your help :) I have one final question group, after I change the filter and gasket, how many quarts of fluid do I put in the tranny and what kind? Do I need to check the fluids in the torque converter? Thanks again :)
Your transmission uses Type F fluid. As far as how much you will need to add after changing the gasket and filter, you will probably need to add 3 or 4 quarts. I would replace the filter and gasket, add a couple of quarts, start the car, check the fluid, and add fluid as needed until I got to the correct level. Overfilling the transmission is not a particularly good thing, either.
As a side note, when you are changing the filter, it is held on with a bunch of little bolts, and you will notice that the are all the same size except for one of them that is towards the front of the car and that one takes a different size wrench to remove. Sometimes people see that and think that the dreaded Previous Owner has messed something up, then they try to 'fix' this. The one different bolt is not a problem, it's supposed to be like that.
Hello Veronica :) I have a 66 Mustang 6 cylinder block. I kinda have two questions that have to do with replacing the freeze plugs. My first question is do you know of the easiest way to get out the freeze plug on the back of the engine block? I have probably like 6 inches of wiggle room between the engine and the fire wall. My second question is (just to be sure) how many freeze plugs are on the 210 6 cylinder engine? Thanks for your help :)
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