2/14/03
Finishing the Rear, and Grille Progress

One of the last things to do on my Mustang’s rear differential was to get new axle seals. The old one gave up a good fight, but I won in the end. If I had a slide hammer, I’m sure I could have rigged something much more elegant to get these out, but an assortment of pliers, hammers, and punches, got them to come out.

The replacement is not as beefy, but it’ll do the job. It took some hunting to find a parts store to get the right part though. I guess I have to remind myself that the Mustang is almost a 40 year old car! No longer are the days where you can go to any auto parts store and find everyone behind the counter knowledgeable with Vintage Mustangs. Parts are still plentiful, but they’ll have to come from the specialty Mustang Suppliers.

I buttoned up the rear axle and drove the Mustang back to her winter hiding place. There was still too much snow on the ground for a good test drive, but I noticed how quiet the rear axle was just by driving down the driveway.

Now that the Mustang rear differential project is over, it’s time to think about the next project, while I’m waiting for better weather to work on the Ferrari. Pictured above is a Sunbeam Alpine transmission. I bought it from Sunbeam Specialties, and it arrived at the shop this week. It’s a full sychro 4 speed with an overdrive, that’s very desirable, and getting very rare. My Alpine currently has a full sychro 4 speed, but without the overdrive, she struggles to keep up to highway speeds in the U.S.. This overdrive unit will make my Alpine even more enjoyable to drive on warm summer days!

The plan is to clean and inspect this transmission and get it installed in the Alpine sometime before Spring. There’s no rush, but there are plenty of things to buy before I get started, like new u-joints, seals, and perhaps sychros.

Last week, I mentioned that Mike and Joe were hard at work “reverse engineering” the grille. Well this week they sent me a computer mock up of the grille in 3-D! Click on the picture and see! Unfortunately it’s an *.exe file that only works on PCs (sorry MAC users!). Save the file to your computer’s hard drive, and double click on it. Close out the welcome screen, and hit “play.” Pretty cool, huh!

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