I suppose I should create a thread introducing myself since I'm sure you'll see more of me. I have a 1988 T-Top Mustang (5.0 V8) that we've had in our family since I was born (90s child). This was my Dad's favorite car and his weekend projects usually involved this car. Back when I was in Middle School, we restored the interior of the Mustang and the paint to its former glory. I learned most of what I know about cars from this car (oil changes, alternator swaps, electric work, etc).
Since then, some years have passed and unfortunately with the time passing, my father passed unexpectedly (around 8 years ago). We've had the car with family while I've been unable to store the car, but now with my new location, etc I have the time and space to put resources and love into the car to keep the spirit of my father alive.
The first issues I tackled since the cars been back with me is improving some of our former electrical work (you don't want to see the old alternator harness haha -- I hope we didn't do this, but if we did it lasted a long time soooooo). Along with a cracked battery terminal, I'm ready to sort some more of the interior electrical out and restore some of the components to their former glory (LMR has been an amazing discovery for parts -- holy moly I didn't realize I could find so many restoration parts).
The next project(s) for this car is sorting out the idle/stalling at start to improve the drive-ability and reliability. It runs rough and the idle fluctuates a fair bit at start and if you don't give it a bit of support with some steady gas (around 1700-2000 RPM I think), it stalls out. After a couple of minutes helping it out, the car runs perfect and future starts are healthy and happy until the engine goes cold.
My guess is there's some kind of issue with the air/gas mixture at start, but I'm gonna have to do a smoke test this week on the air and vacuum system to see if we have a few leaks (I know for a fact the A/C vacuum reservoir is disconnected -- I have a replacement hose arriving today).
Other than that, I'm throwing a double-din headunit in so I can have wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay along with a backup camera. Looking forward to getting things back to where they should be with this car. I'm sure my Dad would be excited with the work I have planned and I wish he could be a part of the project.
Let me know if you have any tips or tricks for when I'm working on this car. I'm learning more often than not to start super basic as it often is the most basic of things that are wrong.
Since then, some years have passed and unfortunately with the time passing, my father passed unexpectedly (around 8 years ago). We've had the car with family while I've been unable to store the car, but now with my new location, etc I have the time and space to put resources and love into the car to keep the spirit of my father alive.
The first issues I tackled since the cars been back with me is improving some of our former electrical work (you don't want to see the old alternator harness haha -- I hope we didn't do this, but if we did it lasted a long time soooooo). Along with a cracked battery terminal, I'm ready to sort some more of the interior electrical out and restore some of the components to their former glory (LMR has been an amazing discovery for parts -- holy moly I didn't realize I could find so many restoration parts).
The next project(s) for this car is sorting out the idle/stalling at start to improve the drive-ability and reliability. It runs rough and the idle fluctuates a fair bit at start and if you don't give it a bit of support with some steady gas (around 1700-2000 RPM I think), it stalls out. After a couple of minutes helping it out, the car runs perfect and future starts are healthy and happy until the engine goes cold.
My guess is there's some kind of issue with the air/gas mixture at start, but I'm gonna have to do a smoke test this week on the air and vacuum system to see if we have a few leaks (I know for a fact the A/C vacuum reservoir is disconnected -- I have a replacement hose arriving today).
Other than that, I'm throwing a double-din headunit in so I can have wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay along with a backup camera. Looking forward to getting things back to where they should be with this car. I'm sure my Dad would be excited with the work I have planned and I wish he could be a part of the project.
Let me know if you have any tips or tricks for when I'm working on this car. I'm learning more often than not to start super basic as it often is the most basic of things that are wrong.