1979 Mustang Pace Car

A little rough around the edges (I'm talking about me)

IN THE BEGINNING

Ok, so here's the story of how one pace car became three, and part of the repair journey of two of the three cars.  Wayne started off the frenzy--back in high school his dad bought him a V8 pace car.  Wayne and his dad John put tons of hours into that car, doing everything from putting in a posi-traction rear-end to putting in a rebuilt roller engine.  Wayne also had a body shop repaint his car, complete with stock decals.  I tell you, that car is sharp.

Then, in the fall of 2002, Wayne and Ben found another pace car in Nebraska.  Ben bought it, and in a few days it was on the road.  Unfortunately, after some carburetor and gas tank rust, it ended up in the shop (and is featured in this web site, being worked upon alongside mine)

Two pace cars, both with their hoods up.  No surprises here.

Then comes the story of mine, found just this year (2003) in Pittsburgh.  Wayne and Ben drove out there and hauled it back in a weekend (no, they did not sleep).  And here is it's story.

On the way home from Pittsburgh

New home--in a barn on the Drymalski farm

Wayne and Ben with a fresh coat of grease.  Let's get dirty (dirtier)!

LET'S GET IT RUNNING!

The car came into my possession in desperate need of some TLC.  Ok, maybe not even the tender or even the loving type, just care of any kind!  And she found it in Benjamin's Mustang Repair and Restoration (also known as "Benny's house").  The floorboards were almost completely rusted out, the transmission shook when you pushed it over 2000 RPM, the tires were mostly metal wires, and there were a few holes of rust scattered about.  But the engine--she purred!  So let's get working on some of the other stuff so that we could get her on the road!!

It takes teamwork!!

GOING AFTER THE TRANSMISSION

We figured that the shake that the car was having was because the tranny wasn't installed correctly (either the previous owners had screwed up the clutch or the tranny, we figured).  After we had the vehicle up on jack stands with the front tires removed, we dove underneath for a look-see.

Sorry for that wrench I dropped on your head!

The Chilton we had told us to take the transmission out separate from the bell housing.  The first step was removing the drive shaft.  This was accomplished by first taking the 4 bolts holding the drive shaft to the rear end (12-point 14mm wrench), then we slid the drive shaft out of the transmission.  Next, we slid a jack underneath the tranny to support it, then we removed the speedo cable from the tranny and the 2 bolts that connected the support bracket to the car's frame. 

(Speedo cable in blue, bolts in red)

Tranny and speedometer cable exposed!

After we had the bracket and cable disconnected, we moved to the inside of the car and removed the 4 screws that held the shifter in the center console and the 2 bolts that connected the shifter to the tranny.  We then took off the 4 bolts connecting the tranny to the bell housing.

Being careful not to pull down on the tranny, we slid it back out of the bell housing and then lowered it to the ground.  We then took off the bell housing (after disconnecting the clutch cable) by taking off the starter and 8 bolts.

Bell housing and one bolt of the starter

Position for wrench when taking off starter and the "wrenches" used.

The 5-speed is out (5-speed?)

CARBURETOR

Because Ben's car was running roughly (seemed like the choke was stuck--kept misfiring and burning a lot of gas), we decided to replace his carburetor with mine.  It was a pretty easy job--just disconnect some vacuum hoses, the throttle linkage, the fuel line, the choke shut-off (metal tube that connects the choke to the exhaust manifold), and remove the 4 studs holding the carburetor to the intake.

(Click for a larger image of the 2-barrel carburetor)