To start with, the entire rear suspension needs to be swapped. That little 6 cylinder rear end would never make it behind my big 302, so it has to go. The leaf springs on old Bloo are brand new too, so I'll be swapping those over. By bringing over the 8 inch rear from the other car, I also get bigger brakes and five lugs in back.
Note those funky coil-over shocks. I've never seen those before.
Working on the back end, I discovered the car had been hit hard on the driver's side at some point in it's past - probably when it got the cheapie light blue paint job. It looks like they pulled out the dent and smoothed and bondo'd it.
Looking from inside the trunk, I can see where the wheel house was dented and banged back out. Can you believe I missed that in my inspection to buy it? I tried so hard to notice everything, and I missed that completely.
Anyway, the accident also pushed the rear end out of alignment, about an inch too far to the passenger side. This is best illustrated by the leaf spring shackle...
If you've seen one of these new, you'll realize the sides are supposed to be straight.
There's also a dent in the frame. I hope it's not tweaked. I'm going to install my suspension components as planned, and then take it to a trusted alignment shop to get it aligned when I'm done. I guess if the frame's bent, I'll find out then.
So I removed the leaf springs, which allowed me to remove the rear end and the exhaust system. Now I can clean and rust proof the area before I put the new stuff on. Other than the dented frame, everything underneith still looks incredibly clean and straight.
April 17, 00
Well, I was overjoyed when the guy with my parts finally called and said he was on his way. As you may recall, he hauled away old Bloo's hulk with some significant parts still on it, like the suspension and exhaust, and I've been waiting to get them back so I can continue the swap. He's been busy and I've been patient, but now I need wait no more because they're here.
He just unbolted them and dropped them out from under the old shell and gave them back to me. It's a little awkward to handle, but I'm sure we'll be able to get it all bolted back up. This way I'm back to dealing with the same parts I had on old Bloo, which was a Mustang's Plus street performance suspension, with front and rear swaybars, and the stock 2:79 geared 8 inch rear end. Now I just have to clean it up and put it on new Bloo.
April 29, 00
Well, I've been going back and forth about cleaning the rear and painting it, or just shoving it back under the car and getting on with my life. My friends voted equally in both directions - no help at all. I decided the least I could do was clean it up and paint it a little, so it didn't look so grimey. Another thing to consider was my mechanic's offer that if I brought him the center section, he would rebuild it and install new gears, and reinstalling it myself would save me a lot of money, as compared to just taking him the whole thing later and paying him for the extraction and reinstall. Also, while rolling the rear assembly around the garage, I noticed one wheel barely turns, like the brakes are locked up on that side. Plus, when I parked old Bloo for the last time, a strange noise had been coming from the rear, like far off thunder...
Ah, hell, I'll rebuild the whole thing! I called my mechanic and told him to order a set of 3:55 open gears for it (i'll be doing one-wheel burnouts), and that I would be bringing him the center section next week.
I had already cleaned the rear with foamy engine Gunk cleaner and a wire brush. Twice. Nasty stuff. I did this last week and left the rear outside to air out for a couple days and it still stinks. We removed the wheels and it took both my husband and I to lift it onto a furniture dolly I happen to have. The rear is VERY heavy, and I could never wrestle it around by myself without putting it on wheels.
I eased off the brake drum on one side and it needed a little tapping all around with a hammer before it finally came. The resto book mentions tinnerman nuts that might be holding it on, but those were long gone. Underneith everything was dusty, but in pretty good shape. I know I had the brakes checked not too long ago and they passed muster then.
Then I removed the four axel flange nuts, which are behind the lugnuts and hub. I used an open ended wrench and fought all four of them off, then I sat back and looked at the hub, which has a big hole between two of the lugnuts, and I thought maybe that was for holding when you pulled it out. Then I looked in my resto book. Duh! If you turn the hub, the hole lets you access the flange nuts with a socket. Too bad I didn't read ahead.
Then I did as suggested by my newsgroup friends, and turned the drum over, loosly attached it to a couple lugs, and used it like a slide-hammer to pull the axel out. After a few good tugs it popped right out. It was all nice and greasy, and the bearing looked pretty good.
Then I did the same to the other side, noticing along the way that the brake drum was a slightly different style than the other one. I don't know if that means anything. When it came time to take out the flange nuts, I thought I had it made, since I now knew about the hole in the hub trick. No dice. the hub wouldn't turn. It turns out the brakes weren't locked up, the axel was. Suddenly I was really glad I had chosen to rebuild it and not just throw it under the car as is!
So I wrestled off all those flange nuts with an open ended wrench again, and tried to pull out the axel. Despite repeated tugs with the inverted brake drum trick, this one wouldn't budge. Which led me to our local auto parts store to rent an axel puller. This is always an entertaining prospect, because the guys at the store are always certain that a little woman like me cannot possibly know what I need nor need what I am asking for. I swear, the following is completely true:
Guy at store: You need a what?
Me: An axel puller with a slide hammer. See here's a picture of it. (I hold up my Mustang Weekend Projects book, and point at the picture of them pulling off an axel with an axel puller.)
Guy: Why do you need it?
Me: I'm removing an axel. (duh)
Guy: Mine just popped right out. I don't think you need a tool to do it. (I'm so glad he's sharing his 18 years of wisdom with me)
Me: Mine are stuck. I already got one out. The other one needs a puller.
Guy: What is this book? (He flips the book closed and looks at the front) What kind of car are you working on?
Me: A 68 Mustang. (I cringe as I see where this line of questioning is going)
Guy: (pointing at the front of the book where it says "for 64 1/2 through 67 Mustangs") Oh, well that's your problem. This book is for 67s, you have a 68.
Me: The axels are the same.
Guy: No, in '68 they changed to a 10 inch ring gear.
Me: (after a short pause while I wonder what the hell he's talking about) No, look, I just need an axel puller, and a slide hammer.
Guy: Well, I'll rent it to you, but I don't think that's going to work.
I returned it ten minutes later after I had pulled out the axel with it, just like the book says :-) My husband actually operated the slide hammer after I got it set up. He thought it was cool, and said he'd be happy to help with any slide-hammer operations in the future. I was a little jealous, but glad he enjoyed some car work for a change.
On that axel the bearing was dry and caked with something that looked like rust/dirt/mucky brown stuff and it wouldn't turn around the axel shaft. So, I'll be putting new bearings on the axels before they go back in.
Ok, so that picture isn't really helpfull. One bearing is a little shinier than the other, but you can see they're both kind of nasty looking. I don't know if that's normal. Also, the brake drums are very rusty and pitted, inside and out, except for where the shoes contact them, and they are kind of surface rusty there too. I might just replace those. If I'm going to live with drum brakes, I want them to be in really good shape.
So, with the axels out, I removed the leaf springs, which were just getting in the way at that point, and set them aside for painting, along with the shock plates. Despite the fact that I only bought the leaf springs three years ago, and that they have probably been used less than 100 miles total, they are rusting and the paint is peeling off. They will get freshened up with a good coat of rust-tough, as will the shackles, u-bolts, and shock plates, which are all getting rusty spots as well. I'm sick of rust!!
So, anyway, that just left me with the axel housing and the center section I need to remove. I removed all the bolts and tugged and pulled, but the thing wouldn't budge. It's held on pretty good by 30 year old undisturbed gasket sealer, no doubt. Finally I decided to leave it for tomorrow.
May 1, 00
Yesterday was way too fine a day to waste inside working on the car, so I spent it outside working in the yard. Today I wrote and asked for help from the VMForum. The guys told me to remove the copper washers under the nuts on the center section, because they will hold the thing together, and then to use a screwdriver to pop it apart.
The washers were buried under oil and paint and crushed flat against the casing, so I used a gasket scraper and a hammer to bend them up and then break them off with a needle-nose pliers. Once those were off I used a screwdriver to seperate the halves and with my husband's help (this thing is heavy)...
Tah-dah, I've disassembled a major part of my car! My god, what have I done!?! Oh well, I always feel that way half way through the project. It's a great victory to have gotten this far. I took the center section to Vernon at Affordable Performance along with the axels, and he'll rebuild it and put new bearings on the axels, and I'll be ready to put it all back together in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, I need to clean and paint the housing and replace the axel seals, so that will be coming up shortly.
May 17, 2k
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Wow, that's what a lot of elbow grease and some spray paint will get you: one fine lookin' rear end! I washed the rear repeatedly with degreaser, but it was still pretty nasty. Finally I got the idea to use a scotchbrite pad and Fast Orange, figuring if it can degrease my hands, it can degrease the rear end. I scrubbed and scrubbed, and rinsed and rinsed, until I could run my hand all over it and it still came away clean. Then I primed it with two coats of brown primer and two coats of rust tough semi-gloss black, and it's looking really good.
I also got my rear-end center section back from Vernon at Affordable Performance. He did the usual great job, installed the new 3:55 gears and cleaned and painted the case. He also pressed new bearings onto the axels. Now I just need to put it all back together. Now that everything is clean and painted, it doesn't seem as intimidating.
July 28, 00
Ok, I lied, it's still prety intimidating. I have so many questions, wondering if I'm doing things right. The housing is gummed up on one end where the axel bearing was shot, the brakes look pretty complex...
So I got all the parts laid out and was ready to jump in and put it together when I chickened out. It's too important to have me bungle up. I'm hauling the whole rear end and drum brakes and axels back to Vernon at Affordable Performance, and he's going to assemble them for me. When I get them back I'll have a complete rear end, ready to drop in, and I know he'll do it right.
So here it is, ready to go away and be finished by someone who knows what they're doing...
August 24, 00
And here it is, done, finished, and back in the car! Finally! Everything is painted with a couple coats of rust-tough, which I hope will keep it nice looking for a few years at least. There are new brake lines (both hard and flexible), new drums, all new brake shoes and hardware, new axel bearings and seals, new gears, and it's filled with synthetic gear oil. I hope I never have to mess with this end of the car again. Once I get it back on the ground I can torque all the bolts and be done with it.
A question I see frequently on the newgroup is where to route the vent hose that comes out of the top of the rear end axel housing. On my old 68 it was just left hanging loose, but since this '68 was so original, I can show you how it was routed from the factory.
This picture was taken laying on my back loking up. You can see where the hose comes out of the axel housing. It goes up to a little hose clamp that is held on with a bolt, and the very end of the hose goes into a hole you can't see because it's just behind the frame. It goes into the area where the shocks bolt up to, which is a little open area between the trunk and the back seat. In this picture the shocks aren't in yet, but you can see the upper mount hole behind the hose. So I hope that helps somebody decide what to do with that vent hose.
So it's pretty close now. I'm saving the shocks and rear swaybar for installation later. Sharp eyed readers might notice that the exhaust hangers aren't bolted to the floor yet either. I'm leaving those loose until after I have installed the engine and tranny, because I suspect the crossover might get in the way of the tranny, and I might have to drop the exhaust out of the way.
Which reminds me, this is a big project. I've had the car completely apart, and at this point I am test fitting things that may have to come off again so I don't tighten them, and there are things like the suspension bolts where the book says to torque them with the car's weight on the suspension. I don't want to forget anything, so I'm making a list (a BIG list that hangs on the wall next to my bench), and every time I put something on but don't torque it, I add it to the list. When I'm finally ready to roll I'll go back through the list and make sure everything got tightened to specs. I hope this prevents all my work being lost to some tragic accident caused by my own forgetfulness.
