Hi everyone,
I have been a long time Corral member and fox-body owner (since 1996), but after picking up my 94GT 2 months ago, I have noticed the 94-95 sub-forum on the Corral is marginal at best. If your posts are not answered within a day or so, the post vanishes and nobody is able to see it unless you refresh the thread yourself. Some of you may know me as Luke87GT on the Corral.
I was directed here by JT (he goes by the name of HISSIN50 on the Corral if anyone is familiar with him). He mentioned that the 94-95 crowd is very knowledgeable and tight knit here. I thought I’d drop in, say hello, and hopefully learn a few things about my newly acquired Mustang. To give you guys some background before I get into the bulk of the post, the following are some details about the car (If it is not listed, then you can assume it is stock).
94GT 5-speed w/ 160K
H&R Race Springs
Koni Reds
MM CC plates
Cobra Brakes
MSD Distributor/Coil
Steeda Shifer
FMS KC Clutch
04 Cobra Wheels
*I did an EEC scan with a jumper wire and I got 111 as the results of both the KOEO and KOER tests, so the car is not spitting any codes at me.
I will go ahead and list some things that I need to take care of below:
1.) The speedometer bounces all over the place. Sometimes it reads 100 when I am doing 50, other times it just goes 360 degrees clockwise pegging the underside of the needle tab when coming to a stop, etc. The odometer works great. I pulled the speedo gear and inspected it. Although it did not have any wear, I went ahead and replaced it with a brand new gear from Ford. That did not fix the problem unfortunately. Next step, I bought a VSS off ebay to see if it will help. It should be here early next week. If that does not help, signs will point to the speedometer itself. If the speedometer is the culprit, is it possible to replace the speedometer without replacing the whole cluster?
2.) The driver side MM CC plate seems to be making a slight clunking over bumps. I jacked up the car and tightened all the bolts (sway bar, spindle, control arm, steering rack, etc). If I bounce the driver side fender up and down using my body weight, I can hear the faint clunk coming from the CC plate. I notice that the previous owner installed 1 big spacer and 2 small spacers below the CC plates, and 1 big spacer above the plate. I plan to get my hands on an impact gun this weekend and reconfigure the spacer arrangement. I will likely put an equal amount of spacers on top and bottom while making sure that the top strut shaft is not running out of threads. If the strut nut is loose, it should cure the clunk. If not, then I may need to replace the bearing on that side. We shall see…
3.) I notice that the throw out bearing is making just a little bit of noise when I am off the clutch. On a fox it is simple. You replace the TO bearing and get a steel retainer. I have heard that the 94-95 uses some two piece retainer? One part aluminum, one part steel? Can anyone explain this to me? What do I need to buy? Pics would be helpful too. D&D shows a simple 1 piece retainer, similar to a fox-body. I will likely avoid doing this until the car needs a new clutch since its very faint, but eventually it will be done.
4.) Pinging… With 87 octane gas I notice the car pings a little between 3-5K RPM in 3rd and 4th gears at WOT. If I fill up with 91 octane (highest octane in CA) it does not ping at all. Seeing as how 91 octane is ~$0.40 more per gallon, and the motor is only 9:1 compression, I would like to be able to run 87 octane, like I do in my 93. I have verified that the timing is at 10 degrees. I have read posts that show that the timing curve for a 94-95 is significantly more aggressive in the mid-range than a fox. Any solutions for this? After doing a search about pinging seen in 94-95 Mustangs, the amount of posts that come up is staggering! Since the car does not throw any codes at me, I am at a loss as to what to tackle first. I will say that the pining was worse when I first bought the car. I replaced the air filter and cleaned off the MAF sensor which helped the pinging considerably, but its still there on 87. Thoughts?
5.) Most important and difficult to diagnose... Once in a while when I try to start the car when hot, the car starts for a split second, then the RPMs fall, and the car dies. It will start back up everytime however, and if I goose the throttle, it will remain on. If the car is in gear and moving, it will also remain on. If I let off the throttle while in neutral, the car dies. Once the car cools, it is 100% back to normal. I have heard that if it were a stator/PIP/Hall Effect sensor, goosing the throttle would not have any effect. Can the IAC be affected by temperature changes? I am not sure what to attack first. The first time this happened, I went ahead and hooked up a vacuum gauge to it and it read steady at 18inches at idle, so it doesn’t appear to be vacuum related. I did notice that this car idles at around 600RPM on the stock tach. Perhaps I can remove the IAC, clean it with electric parts cleaner, and raise the idle a bit? Any thoughts?
Also, how is the idle adjusted on a 94-95 IAC? In a fox, the throttle adjustment is simply done on the throttle blade screw.
That about sums it up. I know the post is long, but I hope to keep it going while I eliminate each of these pesky problems.
Thanks for all your help!
Luke87GT
I have been a long time Corral member and fox-body owner (since 1996), but after picking up my 94GT 2 months ago, I have noticed the 94-95 sub-forum on the Corral is marginal at best. If your posts are not answered within a day or so, the post vanishes and nobody is able to see it unless you refresh the thread yourself. Some of you may know me as Luke87GT on the Corral.
I was directed here by JT (he goes by the name of HISSIN50 on the Corral if anyone is familiar with him). He mentioned that the 94-95 crowd is very knowledgeable and tight knit here. I thought I’d drop in, say hello, and hopefully learn a few things about my newly acquired Mustang. To give you guys some background before I get into the bulk of the post, the following are some details about the car (If it is not listed, then you can assume it is stock).
94GT 5-speed w/ 160K
H&R Race Springs
Koni Reds
MM CC plates
Cobra Brakes
MSD Distributor/Coil
Steeda Shifer
FMS KC Clutch
04 Cobra Wheels
*I did an EEC scan with a jumper wire and I got 111 as the results of both the KOEO and KOER tests, so the car is not spitting any codes at me.
I will go ahead and list some things that I need to take care of below:
1.) The speedometer bounces all over the place. Sometimes it reads 100 when I am doing 50, other times it just goes 360 degrees clockwise pegging the underside of the needle tab when coming to a stop, etc. The odometer works great. I pulled the speedo gear and inspected it. Although it did not have any wear, I went ahead and replaced it with a brand new gear from Ford. That did not fix the problem unfortunately. Next step, I bought a VSS off ebay to see if it will help. It should be here early next week. If that does not help, signs will point to the speedometer itself. If the speedometer is the culprit, is it possible to replace the speedometer without replacing the whole cluster?
2.) The driver side MM CC plate seems to be making a slight clunking over bumps. I jacked up the car and tightened all the bolts (sway bar, spindle, control arm, steering rack, etc). If I bounce the driver side fender up and down using my body weight, I can hear the faint clunk coming from the CC plate. I notice that the previous owner installed 1 big spacer and 2 small spacers below the CC plates, and 1 big spacer above the plate. I plan to get my hands on an impact gun this weekend and reconfigure the spacer arrangement. I will likely put an equal amount of spacers on top and bottom while making sure that the top strut shaft is not running out of threads. If the strut nut is loose, it should cure the clunk. If not, then I may need to replace the bearing on that side. We shall see…
3.) I notice that the throw out bearing is making just a little bit of noise when I am off the clutch. On a fox it is simple. You replace the TO bearing and get a steel retainer. I have heard that the 94-95 uses some two piece retainer? One part aluminum, one part steel? Can anyone explain this to me? What do I need to buy? Pics would be helpful too. D&D shows a simple 1 piece retainer, similar to a fox-body. I will likely avoid doing this until the car needs a new clutch since its very faint, but eventually it will be done.
4.) Pinging… With 87 octane gas I notice the car pings a little between 3-5K RPM in 3rd and 4th gears at WOT. If I fill up with 91 octane (highest octane in CA) it does not ping at all. Seeing as how 91 octane is ~$0.40 more per gallon, and the motor is only 9:1 compression, I would like to be able to run 87 octane, like I do in my 93. I have verified that the timing is at 10 degrees. I have read posts that show that the timing curve for a 94-95 is significantly more aggressive in the mid-range than a fox. Any solutions for this? After doing a search about pinging seen in 94-95 Mustangs, the amount of posts that come up is staggering! Since the car does not throw any codes at me, I am at a loss as to what to tackle first. I will say that the pining was worse when I first bought the car. I replaced the air filter and cleaned off the MAF sensor which helped the pinging considerably, but its still there on 87. Thoughts?
5.) Most important and difficult to diagnose... Once in a while when I try to start the car when hot, the car starts for a split second, then the RPMs fall, and the car dies. It will start back up everytime however, and if I goose the throttle, it will remain on. If the car is in gear and moving, it will also remain on. If I let off the throttle while in neutral, the car dies. Once the car cools, it is 100% back to normal. I have heard that if it were a stator/PIP/Hall Effect sensor, goosing the throttle would not have any effect. Can the IAC be affected by temperature changes? I am not sure what to attack first. The first time this happened, I went ahead and hooked up a vacuum gauge to it and it read steady at 18inches at idle, so it doesn’t appear to be vacuum related. I did notice that this car idles at around 600RPM on the stock tach. Perhaps I can remove the IAC, clean it with electric parts cleaner, and raise the idle a bit? Any thoughts?
Also, how is the idle adjusted on a 94-95 IAC? In a fox, the throttle adjustment is simply done on the throttle blade screw.
That about sums it up. I know the post is long, but I hope to keep it going while I eliminate each of these pesky problems.
Thanks for all your help!
Luke87GT