WTF! - this is sweet.
 

So, I woke up around 9:00am to put in a new clutch (local shops need the flywheel thats being resurfaced by 10am-12pm). I barely make it home with my smoked-a*s clutch, but I start tearing it apart by 10:00. 1:00pm comes, a collector stud broke and the rest of it is rusted into the header flange, one of the starter mounting tabs was broken, and I was supposed to be at carquest BY 1:00 pm. I got it there at 1:30, got a new starter/set of door locks, then came back and picked up the starter around 2:45. I'd start putting everything back on, but the stud won't ***king come out. It finally comes out, I get to bolting up the trans crossmember and whats going on, oh sweet, the one side where one of the long bolts goes through is rotted out completely. I spent hours riggin up a new hollow piece to go where the rotted one went. Then after I get everything back together, it won't start. That's because they gave me the wrong starter. I return it around 11:50pm, go home, and bolt it up. It won't start now cause the battery's dead. I charge it for a bit, then start it, then stall it cause the new clutch grabs real quick, as apposed to one thats worn into the rivets. Now my car won't charge for some reason, and I leaked a bunch of coolant when I was working on it (it just started leaking today???) so there's air in the system making the temp gauge bounce around and the heater won't defrost long enough to dry my windshield. I can't belive all the sh*t thats ****ed up today on my car, all I wanted to do was make it move, but instead a bunch of stuff broke and cost me a few hundred more than I had (which my badass girlfriend lent me). Sorry about the long story, but I'm pretty pissed about not being able to drive my car after working on it for a good 12 hours. Anybody want to guess whats up with the starting issues? I'm guessing it's something that'll need to be replaced (which will probably cost another $80-100) before I can drive it.

Talk about some tough luck, hope things get better for you... You got a pretty cool g/f though to lend you money for ya're car. I used to get bitched at when I worked on my car. Not anymore.... It was either the car or her.... sure going to miss her. lol :D

Take it easy,
§am.

LMFAO, Sam...that's hilarious...especially since my dad had a choice between losing his cabin cruiser or his chevelle, and sold the chevelle (this was 10 years ago), so the boat went for a sch!t about 4 years later cuz we put it in salt water, so now he doesn't have the boat or the chevelle and always says how he shoulda lost the wifey...rofl :D

429: gotta love working on mustangs...as soon as you touch something, something else just has to get f***ed up...hope it is just one more part and youre set ;)

I finally got my car cruising today. I don't understand, last night it wouldn't charge, but today I jumped it and now it starts right up. Whatever, I went with the Ford HD clutch, it was $40.oo cheaper than the King Cobra, so the extra $$$$ went toward getting the flywheel turned. It grabs real hard (especially since I was used to my trashed out clutch), my trans still whines loud though. It only had about 1/2 qt. of fluid when I drained it, so I was hoping it would get quiet after I filled it, but no luck. Anyone got a low miles T-5 for sale?

Better?
 

Sounds like it's better than it was. Keep playing with it to find out all the issues.

Rev

Don't feel too bad, it took me 3 freaking days to unbolt ONE bolt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was stuck on the bell houseing and I didn't have any room to work. I finally got it out but the end was chewed to nothing. After I got the bolt out, it only took me 10 mins to get the rest of the stuff off, and about 2-2 1/2 hours to get everything back in.

Go have your battery load tested. My battery helded a charge, but it wouldn't start the car unless it was over charged (13+ volts). It didn't have enough cold cranging amps to turn the motor over.

This was a bad week to install a new clutch. Trust me.

:mad:

Take care,
~Chris

My car starts up fine now. Especially with the new starter, I don't get any more slow cranks when my car is warm. The only other deal is now I have an annoying exhaust leak, the crossover on my h-pipe is pretty rusty. I'd rather get an x-pipe, but I also want to get rid of the car and get a newer notchback sometime next year, so I may fix a few other things up and sell it. I was looking at the master rebuild kits at jeg's(a little over $200), the trans whines in every gear and grinds into second. Should I buy the kit and rebuild it, or get a used T-5 with low miles?

Isn't that what a brand new T-5 did from the factory :D - those sure are noisy damn transmissions-, if i were you i'd probably just buy a used T-5 since you say you're going to sell it anyway. What condition is your clutch cable in? The stock cables stretch all to hell when they get older and it's harder to engage gears....made 200% difference in feel replacing my old clutch cable with an adjustable clutch quadrant/cable.

Since this is your daily driver it sounds like you might as well replace the trans when it's convenient rather than when it's necessary.

Good luck, glad to hear you figured out the problem, i hate when that kind of stuff happens

I just put in an adjustable cable last year. 2nd gear has always grinded a lot, tonight I noticed a small grinding into 4th, especially when I downshifted. Hopefully I'll run into a cheap T-5 for sale. I just put in a new set of door locks and replaced the passenger doorhandle thats been sitting in my car for the last 2 years. As soon as I fix the trans and touch up some rust spots I need to get rid of it so I can get my other car cruising (hopefully before winter).