Chapter 5
Ahead of Schedule

by Ryan King
Edited by Patricia Kalin
5/06

Destiny and fate aren't always a project's best friends...nor the project-er. Namely me.

Because of events outside of my control, I was forced to turn to the Project 351 Mustang as daily transportation. As I had already put it away because it wasn't up to the task, that was going to present a problem. (See Chapter 4 for more details).

As I racked up more miles, the high mileage (160,000) Mustang began to give me increasing problems.

The first problem was the return of the squealing throwout bearing that I mentioned in Chapter 4.

The second problem was a bent hood hinge that happened during the last race of the season.

I had decided to return to the track one more time after the throwout bearing given me trouble during the previous outing.

I'd been testing it the week following the race outing in Chapter 4, and it had quit giving me trouble so I thought it would be nice to give the last race of the year a try.

Well, the bearing trouble was right back when I got to the track, but not before the hood hinge bent while I was trying to get the hood down for the first run. I was waylaid from the inevitable ugly truth while I fixed the hood hing problem by using my Club to bend it back far enough to allow it to latch.

Not long after that day at the track, the suspension began creaking, cracking, twitching and becoming unresponsive. To be truthful, I was lax on the maintenance work for the old gal (since I never intended to drive her much until I got the 351 installed and the major driving problems repaired). Now the car was demanding work, and I had to answer.

On a Saturday morning Patty and I replaced the hood hinge and greased the front suspension just before going to the local state fair for the rest of the day. Even greasing the suspension wasn’t a simple affair for this car. While the previous owners had put grease fittings on all greasable components, they seemed to randomly decide to leave one of the two crossmember attaching bolts out. Think that might lead to chassis problems? Yeah, I thought so, too. Thankfully I was able to “borrow” one from my Mother’s dormant ‘66 and get underway.

Greasing the suspension and replacing the crossmember bolt seemed to fix the suspension problems, but those problems were only foreshadowing things to come.

Not long after that, another Eagle ST went flat and needed to be replaced. Rather than replace one dying ST at a time with different odd ball tires, I chose to replace them all with a set of brand new Michelin X-Radial DTs. I’ve been impressed with the two sets of Michelin I've had on the GT and decided to give them a shot for the 351. I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was impressed...again.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the last problem I'd have to face as I continued to drive it.

A few months later, the front suspension seemed to be losing its ability to track straight or predictably (which told me something was loose in the front end). I didn't know what was wrong, but finally when the problem got bad enough I stopped to take a look and found that the wheel bearings were loose. While tightening the bearings I decided to remove the drums to see what they looked like After tightening them down and discovered the passenger side front brake shoes were almost gone...don't even ask about the driver side front brake, I wasn't able to get the drum off. I’d never looked at the front brakes, because (you guessed it) I hadn’t intended to drive the car for any length of time before I installed the 351.

After I got the wheel bearings tightened down, I found that the upper ball joints were going. If it isn’t one thing it will be the next.

I knew it was only a matter of time before I was without brakes and had to face the music: It was time to do some major repairs whether I wanted to or not.

Thus I ushered in the official premature start of Stage 2.

Getting Down to Business

As with almost any project or repair, the terms "quick," "smooth,” or "convenient" would not be used to describe this one...at all...

On a sunny Monday morning in the beginning of this last winter, I began disassembling the front brakes so that I could get the drums down to the machine shop to have them turned. While this may seem like a simple task, a number of the machine shops in the area that turned brakes have closed down which left me with a limited number of known sources. Two to be exact.

Since it was the day after Christmas (and since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year), one of the two known places was closed, but the other said that they could most definitely turn the drums for me.

Things were looking pretty good, I already had an extra pair of rear drums off a car in storage so it was just a matter of getting the front two drums off.

That's when I found my first major problem of this repair.

The stubborn brake drum on the front driver side of the car wasn't coming loose, because the brake shoe rivets had dug 1/8" grooves into the drum and were holding the drum in place.

Once off, I was pretty sure the drum was toasted (but I hoped for the best).

I got a ride to the machine shop from my Mother, Cheryl, who was a tremendous amount of help throughout this entire repair (and without whom, it wouldn't have happened).

Once we got there, I discovered that the machinist had gone home.

Now I was in for a world of hurt and I’d run into my second major problem of this repair.

I called my friend and automotive guru, Jack, for a recommendation and came up with nothing. It wasn't because he didn't know of a place that could do the work. He knew a number, but they just weren't open.

As a last resort, I called Austin's Pro/Max (since they did brake work and I knew they were open). I thought that there might be a good chance that they'd turn drums as well. I was right.

Once I was down there though, my worst fears were realized...and then some.

The grooved front drum was no good, and both the rear drums I had gotten out of storage were at their limits as well.

With only one front drum that was any good, I had no chance of getting the job done that day without replacing all of the drums. (The reason being that drums need to be within, at most, .1" of each other in order to work properly, and even if I got one new front drum it would have to be turned to match the only good drum. I wasn't going to be able to get that other drum and get back in time before Austin's was closed. Forget being able to get the other rear drums off in time as well.)

Instead of giving into defeat though, I headed to two local parts places and tried to find all the parts I would need.

Unfortunately, again I was foiled.

The only front drums available weren't sold with hubs (as they used to be) and the machine shops that could swadge the drums and hubs together were closed.

I was stuck without brake parts and ultimately without a car.

The brakes were at best marginal and I wasn't willing to risk life, limb, and car by asking these failing brakes to last just "a little bit longer" (even if that was only a week).

The fact of the matter was, I was going to need the front brake drums off the car during the week so that I could get the hubs swapped between the old drums and new drums. New Year's was the following weekend, and the only time I could get the machine work done was during the rest of the week.

I was again forced to replace both front drums, this time because the available drum designs were considerably different in external size and weight compared to the old ones (and thus needed to be replaced as a pair to balance the braking characteristics from side to side).

To make matters worse, I had to work during all of this.

Luckily (with the help of my Mother and Stepfather), the machine work got done and I even had most of the parts ready for me to get started.

The reason I say most of the parts is because I found out that Friday night that I needed new front brake hoses because one of them had a slit in the outer lining that encircled half the circumference of the hose.

That prompted a Saturday morning New Year's Eve run down to Jack to get the parts I needed.

It was while I was talking with Jack that I ran into my third, major, unexpected problem of the repair.

Earlier, when I had described the upper ball joints as "going," what I meant was clunking around in their shells like the striker in a bell.

Jack pointed out that that would be all the warning I got before they fell apart. I knew that even though I didn't want to replace the upper ball joints at this time, I had better.

Patty, who was with me for this "automotive adventure" stuck it out with me and we got it done. (Note to self: ...must...improve...adventures...)

Well, at least the upper ball joints.

Right at midnight.

Happy New Year.

Sunday rolled around and Patty and I busied ourselves with the brakes.

By busied, I mean fought with.

While there were still things left to go wrong that didn't, it seems the New Year was bound and determined to be a bugger. I would have conveniently blamed it on the car, except many of the things that happened that day had nothing to do with the car.

I obviously couldn't have been at fault for lack of research and choosing to use faulty tools! I had to find something to blame.

At the outset of this repair, one of the bright shining points about the brake job was the lack of need for front wheel cylinders. The pair on the car were almost brand new. Had I not wanted to make sure whoever before me had installed the wheel cylinders installed them right, I wouldn't even have removed them. As it is, I am that careful. So, off they came. It was a good thing too, because it just so happened that the bleeder screws were frozen. So frozen they simply rounded off when I tried to loosen them.

This, like so many "simple repairs," just wasn't simple enough.

Luckily, Schucks was open on New Year's Day and they had the wheel cylinders as well.

Patty had done an excellent job prepping the bolt threads the day before, and they went on without drama.

I wish I could say the same for the brake shoe hardware.

I made reference to my lack of research above, which is actually what lead to the problem with the hardware. My memory was a little fuzzy around this detail and I didn't research the repair thoroughly enough before I got started. Because of that, I didn't know the proper stacking sequence of the upper shoe retention springs and self adjusting cable eyelet, nor did I know the eyelet's face up/down orientation.

This led to replacing the whole stack several times while I tried to figure out which sequence was correct.

It was during the third replacement that the retracting spring removal tool gave up the ghost (which I also made reference to).

I shouldn't have been using that spring tool because of its weak construction, but I was in too much of a hurry to replace it.

The tool's failure left a chunk of the tool sandwiched within the stack of springs and eyelet (and me without a suitable way for removing it).

So, again, my Mother saved my keister because she's my Mom and probably deserves some sort of humanitarian award for saving my butt as much as she has during the length and breadth of my life.

After going through all the trouble of going to Schuck's for me to get a new retracting spring installation/removal tool I ran into another problem, the spring removal end on the new tool was too large and wouldn't grab the spring effectively.

That lead to a 15-minute cuss fest while Patty and I tried valiantly to remove the damn springs.

Did I mention my Mother does drum brakes on Mustangs?

She was the one who ended up getting the spring off. She really does save my butt more often than I deserve.

I went to put the springs back on...and the spring hook bent.

At the time I didn't realize the installation portion of the new spring tool was flared at its end the way it was, and it spread the spring hook pretty far.

At this point I had to make a decision. I could leave the spring alone (which looked as if it was going to continue bending due to the way the pressure was placed on the spread hook now), or remove and replace it. Being a cautious person, I chose to do the latter.

After fighting with the removal tool for a while, we finally got the spring free again and I bent it back.

Since I still wasn't sure what had caused the spring to bend in the first place, I went about installing the spring with the new spring tool again...slowly. This time I discovered the problem...as I watched the damn tool spread the spring hook.

This, of course, lead to a more serious problem: Spring steel, being of a very high carbon content and highly heat treated can't handle much bending before work hardening and subsequent failure of the metal will occur.

I could tell this spring was already becoming weaker, which meant it probably wasn't going to be safe under the kinds of conditions I will ask it to survive in during its service life (I have my doubts if it would have survived at all, to be honest) and I wasn't going to take the chance.

Mom returned with the new hardware kit...and without the tool. But that didn't matter, since I had researched the stacking sequence by this point and didn't need to disassemble any other springs.

I just made sure everything went together right the first time.

Viola, I had one brake shoe assembly done, and I was fine without a retracting spring removal tool.

Only three more to go.

As much trouble as we had had with the first front brake, it was the rear two that would be the hardest to repair.

The wheel cylinders had leaked horribly, and every single component in the rear brake assemblies was pitted with rust. That meant that I had to spend time de-rusting those components so that they would move freely...including the threads of the self-adjusters.

By this time I was on my own, and I needed to get these brakes done before Monday.

This, however, wouldn't be much of a story without drama...well, more drama.

While removing the parking brake lever from an old rear shoe, I noticed the lever was on the short shoe...and I knew that the lever went on the rear shoe...and that I had put the long shoes on the rear of the two front brake assemblies earlier that day...as I was about to do with this one.

This revelation brought me to a state of near panic, and I rushed to find the assembly instructions.

Sure enough, the long shoes go on the front and the short on the rear.

My lackadaisical approach to research, coupled with my decision to ignore my poor memory of this detail, had failed me again. By then, it was late in the evening with what would essentially be four brakes to do.

At this point, I'm not sure if I should hide my head in embarrassment or stand proudly. My Mother came to my aid yet again. I'm not actually referring to her character (although I am proud of that), but because of what she was able to do when she helped me out. Without a retracting spring tool removal tool, we had all three brake assemblies disassembled and back together within 30 minutes.

Thankfully, we didn't have to do the time consuming prep work that had to be done to each brake assembly the first time around.

Sadly, it wasn't enough, though. It was getting late and there was still the last rusted brake assembly left to prep and assemble (along with installation of all four drums, the preliminary brake adjustments and the bleeding).

I would be forced to use alternate transportation the next week as well.

However, to my relief, things finally started to go smoothly with the brake repair.

In the evenings after work I managed to prep the rusted brake parts for the last brake, and get the shoe assembly together along with installing three of the four drums.

The fourth drum, along with the adjustments and the bleeding, went off without a hitch on Saturday.

After two weeks of hurrying up, waiting, back tracking, parts hunting, coordinating, arranging, disassembling and assembling (along with four long days and three short days of actual work) the brakes finally got done.

Epilogue

Just when you thought this chapter in the life of the Project 351 Mustang was finished, it isn't.

With the front end finally tight enough to transmit road and suspension feedback through the steering wheel, I ran into a number of problems. They included binding and notchy steering, misalignment and tracking problems.

I decided that it would be a good idea to take the car in for an alignment and even that was problematic. The only shop and technician I trusted to do a decent job was no longer in business.

As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered. The place I was eventually forced to take it to found two problems that kept them from being able to perform an alignment anyway.

One was simple and cheap to fix: the bearings weren't tight enough (although they were tightened within spec, it wasn't enough).

The other was the steering idler arm: the cause of the binding and notchy steering.

At nearly $80 for a good idler arm, I would need to wait for the time being and just put up with cranky steering until I was able to repair the Project LX '93 Mustang and free up some extra time and funds.

Hang on for Chapter 6, this ride's nowhere near done.

Click image for Chapter 5 Work Photos.