Engine
When I finished up the work on the Mustang. I did not do any work on the clutch, transmission or engine as they seemed to be working ok. As I drove the car to cruise-ins I noticed that the clutch pedal would end up not matching the brake pedal. I would make an adjustment and things would be fine for a short while and then same thing would happen. Those of you reading this may know what was going wrong but my brother from Texas and I could only fault the clutch. He thought maybe it was a diaphragm clutch that was failing. I knew the clutch linkage was not quite stock so I bought the right clutch pedal rod and installed it with the correct free travel adjustments. CJ and I started for a local cruise-in and made it about a half mile from home when suddenly the pedal went down easy and now would not release the clutch. I managed to drive back to the house in low with no clutch release but it was tricky.
We (brother, son, myself) decided that a new clutch was needed. I found a clutch from ZOOM Competition in my Summit catalog but I decided that I needed to see the old one before buying this one. So I raised the car up on blocks and jack stands so I could crawl under it and began disassembly. There sure are lots of things to remove before the clutch. I finally got to the clutch but on the way I learned some interesting things about my car. I found casting numbers for the engine block, bellhousing, flywheel, and transmission. Nothing matches the car. I had suspected that the engine was not original because the heads had 302 cast in them under the valve covers (see Tripower Saga.) Here is what I found.
Engine
D8VE - 6015 - A3 7H31
D – 70s; 8 – year eight (1978); V – Lincoln; Hey, I got a Hotrod Lincoln. :)
Casting date - 7H31 7 – 1977; H – August; 31 - 31st
Bellhousing
C5AA-6394-B
According to Kee's TopLoader site
It is a 1969-73 aluminum bellhousing
I know it is marked a C5 which should mean 1965 but see another site for explanation.
Flywheel
C5AE 6380 E 5K25
The casting date indicates 1965, October, 25 since the car was built September, 16 1964, it is not original.
Transmission - Toploader 4-speed
RF-D2AR-7006-CB
M012
RF- Don't known; D - 70s; 2 – year two (1972); A - Ford; R - transmission
Casting date - M012 December 01, 1972
metal tag
RUG BF1
1972 4-speed Fairlane wide ratio
Tailstock
D0ZR-7A040 L292 In the picture the last 0 is covered.
D – 70s; 0 – year zero (1970); Z - Mustang; R - transmission
Casting date - L292 November 29, 1972
I shall refer to my Mustang as a Heinz 57 model. I was pretty sure that the car was not all stock but one always hopes. It is a good thing that many parts associated with a 289 also fit a 302 because I thought I had a 289 for years.
What about the clutch? It appeared to be in ok shape but a bit crusty. Looks never tell the complete story. As I was laying under the car studying things and deciding whether I was going to remove the flywheel, I noticed that there appeared to be a crack where the lower lever was attached to the central tube on the Z-bar of the clutch linkage. I removed the Z-bar and it was broken. I got it re-welded. I am sure this was the real problem. Pictures below.
At this point I decided to replace the clutch anyway as I already had half the job done. I called Summit and ordered the clutch. It turned out it was the last one and it was located in Ohio. CJ and I drove over near Akron and picked up the clutch. (I know they would ship it for free but I needed the break.) The clutch kit from ZOOM included the disk, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, and 5 different pilot bushings.
I
finally decided that the flywheel needed be resurfaced so I got that
done. I also cleaned the parts I took off. The transmission was a
real mess. Even the high pressure washer had trouble getting the gunk
off.
Reassembly was interesting. Torquing the flywheel bolts was “fun” while laying on your back under the car. I did have a transmission jack to handle the transmission. While I could lift it outside the car I could never lift it under the car. The transmission went back in place with less fight than I expected. I was still dreading the exhaust system. When I got to it the battle wasn't quite as bad as I had envisioned. I finally got everything back together.
After letting the car slowly back to the ground, I tried to start it. Nothing happened! Then I noticed that the interior lights were not on. Sigh, the battery was dead again. I think I may have a charging problem or a bad battery. Future project. The car started right up with the battery recharged. No strange noises and the clutch seemed to work fine. We took it for a ride today and all seemed to work better than ever. The vibration that was present before seems much less and the car seems to be quieter. We will hope this continues. (I later figured out the battery problem. The alternator belt had loosened up and was slipping. I snugged it up and have had no more battery trouble).
Harmonic Balancer
Later... It didn't. I'm going to replace the harmonic dampener . I noticed in the Summit catalog that 302 HDs weigh 9+ lbs while 289 specific HDs weigh 6+ lbs. the one on this car looks like the 289 version. (It was. It weighed 6+ lbs and the new one weighs 10 + lbs). I think the people that rebuilt (reassembled) this engine used both the flywheel and the dampener from a 289. This is ok for the flywheel but not the harmonic dampener I suspect. ?????
I installed a Summit Streetdampr which I believe is actually made by ProRace. I rented the puller and installer from Autozone. This is a good deal as you just pay the cost of the tools about $50 and then get all your money back whenever you return them. No deadline for return! I followed the instructions available from both Summit and ProRace with one exception and installation went very well. The first step in their instructions was to remove the water pump. The water pump does not leak and works fine on this engine. I did NOT want to remove or disturb it. The Ford Shop Manual did not say anything about removing it first so I didn't. There were no problems. I was somewhat concerned about clearance but this turned out close but ok. I think the engine runs much smoother now so I'm quite happy with this upgrade.
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