Thread: 1974 Mustang II Build

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Tough love, but a great lesson in life and a good motivational facter to find balance between fun and responsibility

Cade passed the first semester (by the skin of his teeth) so he is allowed to go back to work on the Mustang. That being the case we made room in the shop to do the transmission change over.

Winter's here and the cooler weather doesn't agree with my arthritis so we got a little later start than I usually like to. On a good (warm) day I could probably do the change over myself in a half a day. As this is a learning experience for Cade I went into it figuring it would take as long as it takes. In the end it took 3 days (about 5 hours a day).


Day one was spent getting the C3 out. My job was mostly pointing out what parts needed to be taken out. There were a a few I had to break loose for him, but over all he did pretty good. I think Cade is almost starting to feel that the underside of the car is his natural habitat.

1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


Anyway, by the end of day one the little C3 was out.


2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


The second day was spent cleaning some parts and getting the 4 speed installed. That was pretty straight forward except for not having the correct alignment tool for the clutch disc and having to modify one of my old ones to work.


The clutch we put in is the original unit I pulled out when I converted it to an automatic. The clutch assembly didn't slip but does show some wear and normally I'd go ahead and throw a new assembly in. I'm having Cade use the original clutch as this is the car he will be learning to drive a stick with and if he doesn't listen and picks up those bad habits that a lot of first time drivers get when driving a stick I'd rather he burn up the old clutch than a new one. If he does good, the clutch should last quite a while yet and leave him more money to put in other areas of the car. We did put in a new throwout and pilot bearing.



We probably would have had the Mustang running that day except for a couple of issues I hadn't planned on. The first was the drive shaft.....I would have sworn that I used the original 4 speed drive shaft when I converted it to an automatic, but apparently I didn't. I commented to Cade was I sure hoped I didn't cut it up to use for the flag pole. Anyway as it turned out I didn't so after digging that out and changing out a couple of U joints that was ready to go in.


t1 by M Patterson, on Flickr



The other issue was a bit more involved. Ford ran the clutch cable thru the firewall like everybody else........unfortunately they didn't reinforce the area the where it passes thru. Over time the firewall flexes and cracks and the cable pulls thru the firewall.

CC 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


I had reinforced this area once before but apparently didn't use a big enough reinforcement and the firewall continued to crack. It was no big deal when we switched it over to an automatic, but definitely needed some attention.

This time I used a bigger piece of flat stock and added a second piece to connect it to the pinch weld area above the master cylinder.

CC2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


With that taken care of Cade got to crawl under the dash again to connect the cable to the pedal. A few more odds and ends and the day ended with Cade installing the shift knob and getting the car back on the ground.

t2 by M Patterson, on Flickr

We took the car out to the arena and Cade found out driving a stick wasn't quite as easy as he thought it was going to be, but he'll do fine with some practice.


On a side note, Cade goes back to school tomorrow and starts Drivers Ed. He's looking forward to that. When I asked him about it I found out that at least in his high school it's all classroom. THERE IS NO ACTUAL DRIVING!!!!!. How does that work????????




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Good for Cade! Nice to see him working towards a goal.

Probably a couple simulator trainers in the corner.

The college I was attending has one. Just made my mouth water thinking of the simulated mayhem one could inflict.

Before we deployed to Afghanistan, we got to play in a full sized simulator trainer for the hummvs and mrps. I totally wasted a dozen civilians when one of them threw a rock. I thought it was a grenade, and I lit them up with the .50 cal.

C.O. wasn't happy.

Oh well, the second time through things went better!

Never under estimate the application for V.R.

Good for him; most kids now days have no idea how to drive a stick.

I'm willing to bet that most instructors don't know how to drive a stick!

When my step daughters went through drivers ed about 8 years ago, all of the driving instruction and testing was done driving around cones in a parking lot.

Very nice Mike! I'm sure that was a great 3 days for you.

On the driver's ed subject..... I have a funny story on that. I know 2 guys that train semi drivers for TMC here in Des Moines. They told me there are instructors teaching people to drive manual semis but they never drove them before. It's all done on a computer and then it's the next instructor's job to put them in a truck and teach them. IMO you might as well just start in the truck to begin with. Most people don't need the extra confusion. They are potential truck drivers and will be confused no matter what. (No offense to truck drivers)

I'm really enjoying following along on this one.

Ditto another great family thread!

Cade got off to a rocky start on the second semester so the car was on hold for a couple of weeks. Fortunately his grades are headed in the right direction again so we got some time on the car today.

Work wise it was pretty light stuff basically an oil change.

CF1 by M Patterson, on Flickr



Which was followed up with another bath for the car.


CF2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


Then it was out to the arena again so Cade could practice with the clutch until the car was dirty again.


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Good job on helping him keep his grades up and that's a nice looking Mustang! He may be one of the few kids in his age group that will be able to drive a manual trans. Is that a Monza in the background?

I personally don't understand the difficulty with his grades. No offense, please! I've been watching Cade since he was big enough to turn a wrench, and grandpa is doing a stellar job.

That being said: i just completed an associates degree and standards and study loads ain't what they used to be. Or maybe it's just the college I attended. I dunno, too many distractions for the lad maybe.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

I personally don't understand the difficulty with his grades. No offense, please! I've been watching Cade since he was big enough to turn a wrench, and grandpa is doing a stellar job.

That being said: i just completed an associates degree and standards and study loads ain't what they used to be. Or maybe it's just the college I attended. I dunno, too many distractions for the lad maybe.

Said by a guy who's obviously not a parent, and seems to have forgotten what it was like to be 15, when all of the girls around are starting to look different and group up, looking at all of the guys and giggling. A kid needs to know how he "fits" into society, and why learning is a key to that.

Good on ya' Mike, for finding the hook that keeps Cade focused on a goal, and one that will help him with those girl issues next year, too! You're a Grandpa example for all of us!

Good eye on the Monza Seth. I'm storing it for a friend of mine who's currently working as a contractor in Afghanistan. It's an original V8 car, that somewhere along the line the 262 got changed out for a 283 and a 10 bolt rear end was added. Rumor has it was street raced on a regular basis locally for a few years. My buddy has scrounged the Mirage fiberglass body panels for it along with a few other parts (including a 400 SB) but who knows how long it will be before he actually gets to it.

As far as Cade and school work, I can't say a lot, basically I was the same kind of student he is. Nobody could get it thru to me how important it really was......I ended up figuring it out not long after I graduated that I really should have paid more attention in class. We're hoping Cade won't have to find out the hard way too but who knows.



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