Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

What's wrong with this picture?

Why are these different?

Some troubles with the "new" Mustang. Of course new is a relative term.

This occured while I'm still dealing with the aftermath of the stolen Explorer. More on that subject later.  I had been driving the 2007 Mustang and had heard what I thought was the sound of rattling metal. I figured that it was just due to my Daughter's habit of keeping a bunch of stuff in the trunk. I hadn't noticed any symptoms of funny handling.

Later that evening around 10 o'clock, I got the call. My Daughter told me that she might have run over something and now the car felt "funny." She was only a mile away so I went to meet her where she had parked the car. It was dark but I had a flashlight. I looked underneath and didn't see anything stuck under the car. I didn't see that any of the tires were flat. She had described the rear end as shimmying from side to side. I looked to see if any of the tires had loose lug nuts or obvious tread separations. I couldn't see any obvious problems. I drove the car about half a block then drove in reverse to get back to where I started. I couldn't feel anything (of course!) I shook the car from side to side.  Darn if there didn't seem to be a lot of side play. I looked but couldn't see anything wrong with the lower axle links.

I did remember that the Ford dealer recommended replacing the rear shocks when they finally got around to doing the air bag recall work. Could that be the problem?

I figured it would be okay to drive it home slowly, so I followed behind her at 25 mph. I did notice the rear end sashaying a bit. Hmmmm.

After the car was in the driveway I took another quick look underneath but didn't notice anything. It's late and it could wait until tomorrow.

The next Day I was advised by the Police dept that they had found my Explorer, but they didn't provide any details. I had given up on the hope of recovering it. It might have been easier if it had disappeared completely. Was it wrecked, stripped or burned? No way of knowing. My greatest fear had been that the thief might have been involved in a serious collision with it. Especially if it had caused serious injury or death. As the owner I might be named as a liable party. It would be kind of a weak connection, as the car had been reported stolen to the police, but it wasn't reported until I got back from my trip. Who knows what could have occurred during that delay? An ambulance chasing attorney could cause me a lot of grief as they tried to find someone with "deep pockets" actually, any pockets. I had wisely maintained the insurance coverage during this period.

When I arrived at the tow yard and saw the Explorer I was quite relieved. The truck was in one piece with no signs of a crash. Besides the broken driver's window there was a broken ignition switch and a damaged area on the dash. The thief had no skills or finesse. Just a brick through the window and a big wrench that broke the lock cylinder.

I had to pay out hundreds of dollars, (no kidding!) to secure the release of my truck. After an enormously frustrating phone interaction with AAA service. I waited the hour for the tow. The tow operator was a pleasant and skillful young man who delivered the Explorer back to my driveway.

I didn't want to get into the Explorer saga yet, but I'm just mentioning it because it was occurring at the same time I was dealing with the Grey Mustang. When it rains it pours, even if the Drought is officially over!

I needed to get the rear of the Mustang up in the air so that I could get a good look underneath.

My recently purchased quick lift floor jack had developed a problem. It would only raise about six inches. Then it would stop and no amount of vigorous pumping would produce further results. To borrow Charlie Brown's famous lament ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

So now I had to fix the darn jack before I could get to the darn Mustang!

As my older Brother is wont to say, "I just can't work under these kinds of conditions!"

But of course we must.

Why wouldn't the jack work? It must be low on fluid. I looked underneath and it was a little wet. A bit of fluid had been working it's way out for awhile. There must be a fill "bung" somewhere.

These were the worst two screws.

I figured that the filler would under this plate. It was held on by four Phillips screws. No problem right? These were the tightest screws I had encountered since my old Honda motorcycle days. There was no way to remove them with a hand held screwdriver. Back in the Day we all had a vital tool called an impact driver. A hand held device that you would hold against the screw and smack the other end with a a hammer. Bang, the most stubborn screw would loosen. I thought that my Son might have left one behind. Of course I spent a fruitless half hour looking for it.

I didn't want to drill the screws out so I used an old vise grip pliers to grip the head and turn it enough to break it free. Two of the screws proved to be a bit of challenge but they eventually yielded to my efforts.

That little circular rubber plug is the filler.

I didn't have any hydraulic fluid on hand so I used what I had, ATF. I filled and pumped until the proper functioning returned. Now back to the Mustang.

I raised it and placed a couple of jack stands underneath. I removed the rear wheels to give me a better view.

I looked at the shocks and they appeared to be fine. The axle linkage arms seemed okay. But wait, why was there a two piece Panhard rod? There was an inch between both pieces! Yeah, that could allow the rear end to move around a bit.

One of these is not like the other.

I also noticed that the original rod was bent, I thought that it was supposed to have a bend in it.

I did a little research online that night and saw that the bar should have been straight. I deduced that when my Daughter took her big dirt spin out years ago, it must have damaged the bar, though no one at the body shop noticed. The bend must have developed into a crack, and here we are with two pieces.

A while back I had ordered a new set of rear shocks from Rock Auto for this Mustang. I might as well replace them at this opportunity.

Besides the shocks I got the upper hose for my XJ6
 and another cool magnet.

I was concerned that it would take a breaker bar to loosen and remove the Panhard rod, but it was easily accomplished with normal hand tools. As I was replacing the wheels I noticed that the left tire had a screw in the tread. I hoped it be a very short screw, but of course it wasn't. I'm always amazed how an inch and a half screw finds it's way into the tread. Since these tires are covered by a road hazard warranty I'll just take it to tire store for repair or replacement.

After installing the spare tire I was finished for the day. Unfortunately I've still got a lot of work ahead of me with the Explorer.