My '79

[79_5.0]

Feels like stepping back into an 80's time machine. LOL great find!

thanks the car actually found me. I traded it to my neighbour when he was in a bad place and needed a smaller car. I had a 1996 Cavalier i wasn't driving that had 260,000km's and needed a clutch. I got the Capri with only 83,000km's on it and still had the factory rubber on it

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Take a good look at the "rag joint" at the end of your steering column for any cracks or wear...now is the time to make the change before it goes back into the car. If the rag joint is a brown plastic material, it might be cracking...if it is like the sidewall of a tire with threads, then you should be ok. Get that Capri back on the road soon...you know why...

Neil

[dburdyshaw]

Interior: I pulled my factory literature to refresh my memory. Note I'm referencing 79 Mustang literature, which is often representative of 79 Capris, but not always. In any case, there was a paint color called Light Chamois. There also was a vinyl roof color called Light Chamois. And there was an interior color called Chamois. One picture in the brochure is a dead ringer for your interior. So I'm sure that is what you have.

As far as fading, my blue interior, 30 years later, is made up of many shades of blue. Different cloth, vinyl, and plastic components have faded differently. That is with the car having been garaged 95% of its life.

If it was mine, I'd keep the interior as-is. Lots of people have gray and black, yours is unique. The other very unique interior color in 79 was something called Vaquero, which was a burnt red. This color has some similarity to the seat color in King Ranch pickups.

And, as we all know, CHAMOIS ROCKS (as does CARAMEL).

Seriously, I luv that interior color (and yes, I know everyone knows that) ---- but it is especially good on black and dark blue cars.

Major thumbs up to you.

[79_5.0]

Day....... ah who cares :P

yesterday I went to the shop to start putting the motor back together. I've decided the new cam can wait as well as porting the heads. I want to get my car back on the road and out of my Dad's shop.

Heads went on yesterday and started to install the rocker gear. came to a dead end when the valves appeared to be open when I torqued the rocker gear bolts to the required 22ft.lbs. so we stopped and I did some research (as some of you might have seen my help thread) about the pushrod lengths and proper rocker adjustment procedures. everything i read told me to torque them down and roll the motor over and they should be good.

today i called a buddy for some help. he used to build race motors with his Dad. he was confused at the non-adjustable rocker gear. so we torqued them down and followed the firing order like we both read online. so far so good. I didn't take pics today but I got some yesterday.

[79_5.0]

so today dad and i bolted on the intake and valve covers. the intake was a nightmare. i decided i wanted to replace the bolts as the old ones were all pitted and worn out. so i went to Ferd to see if they had any... guy in Courtney has 12, but they are $6 each!!! **** that I said and went to Lordco. picked up some grade 5 bolts and proceeded to torque then to the required 25ft.lbs and ended up snapping two of them. so back to Lordco I go, and walk out with a pocket full of grade 8 hardware. then i realized that the 25ft.lbs of torque is for the stock cast manifold and not the aluminum one.... d'oh! anyways, its on there and its not going anywhere. the valve covers went as expected, the cork *shudder* gaskets got contact cement'd into place and should be just fine, if i have any leaks i'm gonna spring for those really good rubber ones again

we also repaired my oil pan. for the longest time oil would leak out around the 4 rivets that held the mount where the dip stick tube was threaded into on the side of the pan. so i drilled the rivets out, removed the old cracked hard as **** gasket and fashioned up a new gasket from an inner tube and form-a-gasket and bolted it back on. and before you guys say anything, yes I used loctite on the nuts and bolts. hopefully it's not gonna leak anymore.

next plan of attack is to bolt the pan on and then get the tranny and bellhousing mounted up and maybe drop it in the car

[WHTLTHR79RS]

I have the very same oil leak on my pan, and when the motor is pulles for cleaning, that darn mount will be welded in place. Good progress on you project.

Neil

[79_5.0]

alright. its been awhile since the last time I worked on the car. today the motor got some more junk bolted on it. its almost ready to drop in. I had quite the time figuring out where the different bolts went on the water pump. somebody didn't take pictures when he was unbolting everything anyway, no pics as usual. not using my iPhone anymore and couldn't find the Canon before i left the house. next time I will try and get some pics.

so i have some items coming up for sale soon. pretty much everything i pulled out of the car minus the shifter. trans, driveshaft, pedals, torque converter, flex plate, trans cooler and lines. if anyone wants/needs anything let me know, we can work something out

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Remember that some of the bolts into the water pump need #2 permatex sealer, the ones that go into the water jacket...just some sealer on the threads, I always put some silver "anti-sieze" on the body of the bolts, where the rust was when you took them out.

[79_5.0]

so i've been busy the last couple of days prepping the motor to drop it back in the car. flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, pilot bearing is all bolted on and ready to go. got the new release bearing this morning, so I started to prep the bellhousing to bolt it on the tranny and get things rolling. I have pictures of the motor and stuff here. I'm hoping to have it running by the end of next week (hopefully). I am not sure the tranny will bolt onto the crossmember. i might have to order a new one and make a new bracket maybe

[lui_83MustangGT]

those seats look in great condition!

[79_5.0]

those seats look in great condition!

haha, they aren't too bad actually. the fabric is faded of course, but no rips, no tears, no huge spots or stains, don't think they've even tasted mold either. soooo ya I would say great condition thank you :P

[xpkpremier]

UPDATE:
so I decided that since I'm going to bring the car down to Vic next week I wanted to make sure I was going to get there in one piece. New rotors, wheel bearings, seals, brake pads, and calipers. I have been putting this off for quite awhile and now I have an excuse to do it properly. The rear brakes are pretty much 85% or better. the drums aren't even ridged or scored or anything. I didn't even have to replace any springs. Just adjusted and threw the wheels back on. Oh, I also changed some tires over, took the old BFG traction T/A's off the turbines, used the fronts, trashed the rears and bought a couple BFG Radial T/A's (like the old school ones).











rear tires - BFG Radial T/A's 215/60r15

Ahhhh, my kind of bearings, sweet, keep using SKF bearing and seals. Keeps me in a job. btw I may have a great deal coming soon, bearings for the T-5 W/C transmission, from SKF. I will keep everyone posted.

[79_5.0]

Ahhhh, my kind of bearings, sweet, keep using SKF bearing and seals. Keeps me in a job. btw I may have a great deal coming soon, bearings for the T-5 W/C transmission, from SKF. I will keep everyone posted.

no problem. hahaha I only use SKF stuff (if i have the choice). I am interested in your bearing deal for the T5............ is it here yet?? haha

[79_5.0]

Okay, so today I had some help and we managed to get the motor and trans dropped into the car it went really smooth, only had two hiccups, first was I had the motor mounts on the wrong side :P the other hiccup was with the trans cross-member. I had originally thought that I could get away with using the auto cross-member, but turns out I needed to change it. so I phoned the local wrecker yard and they just happened to have one on the shelf woohoo!! I had to do some mods to it to get it to fit in the stock brackets. nothing major. it came with only 1 complete bushing tho, and you think I could find another one? HEEELLL NO! ford couldn't get any because their system shows them coming with the cross-member, Lordco couldn't find a listing to get aftermarket bushings... so I went back to the wrecker hoping they had the other one on the shelf, turns out they didn't and said they would have to pull one from another car. while I was waiting for someone to do something, a guy comes out from the yard with a handful of rubber. YES! now my next question was "do you have the centers for these?" his reply "ya, but they are short and in the garbage can already" so i went to the can and pulled them out, thankfully they are the exact length I needed to get them to fit properly with the mods I had planned. turns out they were pulled from a 4 cyl cross-member which is the same size as the C4 cross-member. here are some pics of what I did today, and I'll explain each pic as I go along.

the motor and trans on its way back into the car


sitting in the car on the engine mounts (properly :P)


**** YA!


this picture show's the bits I had to cut off the new cross-member to make it fit in the brackets. took the sawz-all to it. after cutting those bits off, it was the right size to bolt in the car


C4 member on the left, T5 on the right


C4 in front, T5 in the back. so much difference between the two, the switch is definitely needed


T5 member with the 4cyl bushings installed


T5 member on the bottom, C4 on the top


here it is in stalled under the trans with an Energy Suspension mount, is my exhaust hanger plate on upside down?



now I get to start putting everything back on!!


So now that i'm on the road to putting everything together again. i have some questions about the plugs and fittings on the T5. the next pictures show the 3 plugs/fittings I have questions about. top left is attached to the trans with wires, top right is screwed into the trans and has 2 posts on it, it had a rubber hat on it that looks like it's attached to wires. the plug on the bottom comes out of the tunnel and has 4 slots in it to receive spade type connections it was attached to the C4 trans. anyone have any ideas on what is what, and how I hook it all back up again.




I also tried to plug the speedo cable into the T5 and it doesn't seem to fit. it goes in 95% of the way, but when stops just before the rubber o-ring disappears and the little bracket used to bolt it down is about 1/4 inch off the trans. no pic of that right now, i'll snap one tomorrow. will i need to change the speedo cable as well? hope not

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Wish you were a few days ahead of schedule so it could be in a field with a bunch of others...but you are progressing very nicely !!

[OldsRocket442]

That is your back up light switch.

[79_5.0]

Wish you were a few days ahead of schedule so it could be in a field with a bunch of others...but you are progressing very nicely !!

ya me too. and thanks

That is your back up light switch.

okay, so how do i hook it up? any ideas what the other plug might be? neutral safety maybe?

[79_5.0]

okay so a quick update, last couple of days included the installation of:

clutch cable
bbk equal length shorties
driveshaft (original since the other one i got is a 1/2 inch too long and won't fit)
power steering pump
starter
alternator bracket
fuel pump (not really sure about this, it doesn't feel right but I haven't dealt with a mechanical fuel pump before)
distributor
spark plugs

i also trimmed the tunnel opening for the shifter. not sure how i'm going to get the shifter boot and junk to stay in place, but 'tis the life of backyard mechanics

[Chris Wood]

The connections (pics that you posted) are indeed a neutral safety switch and your back up lights. The neutral safety switch and the back up light switch can be wired to work, but obviously you will need to modify the car's wiring. As far as which one is which...honestly it has been so long since I performed my swap I can't remember.

You can figure out which one does what with an OHM meter.

On mine, the car would not start, I couldn't figure out WTF was going on, then I thought about the neutral safety switch....that was it, it HAS to be jumped or connected for the car to crank.

Goog looking project.

[79_5.0]

last couple of days has been filled with buttoning up everything, getting all those little tiddly bits on the motor. all the coolant lines, temperature sender, getting a proper vacuum fitting on the back of the intake, bypassing the heater core for now, etc etc. everything was ready for fluids.....

and today I managed to put fluids in the car. engine oil, water, and transmission fluid. there was only one hiccup with that. apparently i put the wrong gasket under the water pump and it leaked all over the place. so i had to remove it and put the proper one in and no more leak. imagine that but now i have a different problem. i put a battery in the car, turned the ignition and the fan came on, headlights worked... but no crank. not even a click from the solenoid... so now i'm on the hunt to find out which wires are for the neutral safety switch and which wires are for the back up lights. i'm going to use the plug off the auto tranny and splice it into the plugs on the T5.... if i figure out which is which that is hahahaha


so i'm thinking about this neutral safety wiring i need to hook up so the car will start..... my buddy had the suggestion to run a momentary button as the neutral safety instead of jumping it or hooking it up to the transmission. the idea is to have it act as an immobilizer as well as ensuring neutral safety.

what do you guys think??

[weaverkb]

I just did this same swap and just made a jumper wire for that 4 spade connector coming through the floor. I can't remember which two terminals it was, I just had someone trying to crank it while I jumped them.
As far as the speedo cable goes, the manual speedo gear has a shorter nub on it then the auto one. The auto one won't seat all the way into the tranny. I didn't have one when I did my swap, so I just cut about 3/4 of the nub off and it slid right in. I'll end up getting the correct gear once I get my rearend swap done.

[79_5.0]

I just did this same swap and just made a jumper wire for that 4 spade connector coming through the floor. I can't remember which two terminals it was, I just had someone trying to crank it while I jumped them.
As far as the speedo cable goes, the manual speedo gear has a shorter nub on it then the auto one. The auto one won't seat all the way into the tranny. I didn't have one when I did my swap, so I just cut about 3/4 of the nub off and it slid right in. I'll end up getting the correct gear once I get my rearend swap done.

ya I'm fairly certain which wires I have to jump for the neutral safety. as for the speedo gear, i did just the same. i cut off about 1/4 inch and it fit perfect

[79_5.0]

alright. so i've got the neutral safety and back up lights figured out. now i have to figure out why i'm not getting fuel to the carb.... i'm thinking the fuel pump is shot. but i'm concerned about that, when i was putting it back in the timing cover, it didn't sit right against the lobe on the end of the camshaft. i didn't remove the cam or the lobe at all, so that isn't the issue. but i couldn't seem to get the pump to bolt on properly, so i took the timing cover off and spun the motor until the lobe was in the "unloaded" position and bolted the pump onto the cover then used a screwdriver to push on the arm of the fuel pump so i could get everything on the motor. but it felt like the arm was pushed down to full stroke.... i'm not sure if it went in right, or if i'm missing something out of that equation but its not working, so a new fuel pump is ordered and i'll see if that fixes it..... if not, electric fuel pump time

so anyone have a favorite electric fuel pump they could recommend?

[Chris Wood]

alright. so i've got the neutral safety and back up lights figured out. now i have to figure out why i'm not getting fuel to the carb.... i'm thinking the fuel pump is shot. but i'm concerned about that, when i was putting it back in the timing cover, it didn't sit right against the lobe on the end of the camshaft. i didn't remove the cam or the lobe at all, so that isn't the issue. but i couldn't seem to get the pump to bolt on properly, so i took the timing cover off and spun the motor until the lobe was in the "unloaded" position and bolted the pump onto the cover then used a screwdriver to push on the arm of the fuel pump so i could get everything on the motor. but it felt like the arm was pushed down to full stroke.... i'm not sure if it went in right, or if i'm missing something out of that equation but its not working, so a new fuel pump is ordered and i'll see if that fixes it..... if not, electric fuel pump time

so anyone have a favorite electric fuel pump they could recommend?

while you a laying under the car to put the fuel pump on, you could make you life easer by putting a socket and ratchet on the harmonic balancer crank bolt (pull out the spark plugs to make it easier to turn over) and rotate the crank / cam to make it easier to bolt on the fuel pump. YEP, been there / done that.

[79_5.0]

while you a laying under the car to put the fuel pump on, you could make you life easer by putting a socket and ratchet on the harmonic balancer crank bolt (pull out the spark plugs to make it easier to turn over) and rotate the crank / cam to make it easier to bolt on the fuel pump. YEP, been there / done that.

did that. the pump just didn't seem like it was going to seat properly on the timing cover, it sat against the lobe on the cam and didn't seem to hit the gasket surface flush, until i had rotated the motor around, but when i did that the pump sat flush on the mounting surface but it felt like it was in full stroke. and knowing the lobe was in the "unloaded" position with the pump feeling like it was in full stroke I wasn't sure if it would work at all. i'm just going to have to get the new pump and throw it in and giver ****