Leaking Water Pump

I drove the Mustang to the grocery store on Sunday night. I returned and parked the car in the garage. I walked back out to the garage about 30 minutes later and found a one inch wide stream of water running from under the car to the garage door.

I wiped up the water and looked for the cause briefly. Unfortunately, I could not see the source of the leak.

I arrived home from work today and found the leak had continued and was once again almost to the garage door. I'm glad it is not antifreeze. It is actually Prestone Super Radiator Cleaner and water so it should not hurt anyone.

I checked for the source tonight. It appears the Radiator Cleaner will eat off paint. This made it a little easier to find the source. It seems to be coming from the weep hole in the underside of the water pump. This is an indication of a damaged interal seal. The pump will need to be replaced but at least they are not very expensive ($50-$80).

Garage Project Complete

I spent some time cleaning up the garage over the past few weekends. I started by fixing all the holes the previous owner made in the walls. I then centered the garage door opener (previous owner installed it horribly) and then painted the ceiling and walls. Finally, I epoxy coated the fllor and added trim about the perimeter of the garage. Oh... and along the way I decided to replace the hot water heater since it was 10 years old and very corroded.

The epoxy floor coating is made by U-Coat-It. It is a light grey and does not have any flakes of color in it. The coating is suppose to stand up to oil, grease, and other chemical spills. I'm sure I'll test this out before too long. I hope to not be more messy because I can but just to make cleanup a little easier.

Floor Coating & General Update

I've been driving the car at least once each week and some on evenings/weekends. I'm now at 712.5 miles which is about 200 since I completed the front end restoration.

I noticed a noise from the back right which sounds like a bad wheel bearing. I need to repair it and wonder if it could be the cause of the louder hum sound when driving at highway speeds. I hesitate to repair it now because I wanted to wait until I reconditioned the rear axle and brakes. However, I don't think it will last that long without causing damage.

I'm in the middle of cleaning up the garage, painting the walls, and epoxy coating the floor. This project will take a couple of weeks to complete. I'll then be able to do the job without too much concern about getting grease, oil and brake fluid on the floor.

Accessory Belt Squeal

I've tightened the alternator belt a few times on the Mustang since putting it back together. The belt still tends to squeal a little when I first start the car.

The squeal is caused by paint on the pullies. In particular, the alternator pulley. I took the belt off this morning and sanded the groove of the alternator pulley with some 220 grit sandpaper. I put the belt back on and started up the car and no squeal. Hopefully this will end the squeal permanently.

I also removed the lower crossmember. I chipped the paint off in one spot when a wrench slipped performing the alignment. I sanded down the chipped areas and put the first coat of Extreme Chassis Black on the part. I'll put the next coat on tomorrow night.

New Sway Bar End Links

I've driven the Mustang 150 miles since restoring the front end. Over the last week, I started to notice a strange feeling when going over bumps. There was also a slight noise I could hear after going over a bump.

I knew without checking it was the sway bar end links. I pieced together a set with the center bolt and nut from one set and rubber bushings and sleeve from another. I pieced them together to make them shorter and to reuse the new rubber bushings which I installed early last year. Unfortunately, they are still a little too long but I was hesistating on buying a new set.

I checked earlier this week and found the rubber bushings were starting to setting into the swaybar. This caused the end link to be loose. I tried to tighten the nut but ran out of threads on the bolt. Rather than continue working with these, I decided to go ahead and buy a good set which were shorter.

I purchased some Engery Suspension end links (#9.8122G) with a 1" sleeve and polyurethane bushings. The sleeves are a 1/2" shorter than the current version. I drove around the block after replacing them and it is an incredible difference. The 1 1/8" sway bar must be too much for rubber bushings. The suspension now feels much more predictable. I should have just replaced them with everything else but was starting to feel a little 'sticker shock' from the cost of this phase of the restoration.