Hoping to fire it up today

Got this car back in April but it was a mess of mismatched parts. My friend Jim who came with me to the shootout is going to be the new proud owner of it. Its at his house now.

Its a 94 auto with 97 hood and lights. We put it back to stock for now. He's rocking my Cobra wheels for now to clear the big brakes up front.

Good stuff. Hope there are no issues.

Do work like the Jeep says.

No cranking. Suns down. Tomorrow we troubleshoot ignition switch to starter solenoid.

I hear ya!!!

Good news is: we put a push button starter on it. Pretty sweet little panel and switch and button setup from Longmire. Car fired right up on the first try, idled smooth. Engine sounds good.

Bad news is: exhaust leak drivers side downpipe near cat, brake lights stay on (hopefully a new switch fixes it), and the strut rod bushings are shot.

So we took it down the road, get it up to 55 mph and about a 1/2 mile down the road steering gets shaking bad. ~~~~ing drivers wheel falls off..... It falls the ~~~~ off. We end up in the ditch. No body damage.

I put the wheels on it back in April when I got the car in Kansas. I guess we didn't torque them tight since the car was in the mud and I just needed to roll it on the car trailer. Well since Jimmy took the car over to his house, he never checked the lug nuts, and I didn't remember if they were tight or not. We lost 2 lug nuts and bent a stud. I ran back to his house and got my truck and came to the rescue. We took a hammer to the bent stud and got it straight enough to mount the wheel back on. Tightened up the 3 lug nuts we found on the road and limped the car back to his house.

So now we gotta get new lug nuts and wheel studs, strut rod bushings, install the upper control arms that we already have purchased, replace the brake light switch, replace the shocks, install the lowering springs, re-install wiper cowl and wiper motor, get exhaust leak fixed, and replace a passenger door hinge pin.

After buying the car not running, towing it halfway across the country, tearing it down and replacing a bunch of parts that were mismatched and putting it back to stock, we got it fired up and driving. So all in all it was a good weekend. We've been working on it for about 3 months a couple weekends a month. We wanted to have it down at the Shootout but we didn't have enough time to finish it.

The car is a 94 w/ 97 lights and hood. It has big brakes and had 15" LX wheels on it when I got it that would hit the rotors in the front. I put my Cobra R wheels on it for now til we can get a set of late model SC wheels off Casey. It has black carpet and black leather Mark VIII seats. The only spot of rust is in front of the tire on the right rear 1/4 panel. The car is solid.

Sorry had to LOL a little, prolly cause of your wording.

Glad to see ya got her going.

Looking back it was a stupid mistake but when it happened we both weren't laughing. My first thought was the upper balljoint snapped because its worn and we are changing the upper control arms next time we work on the car.

I just ordered wheel studs, lug nuts, strut rod bushings, and a brake light switch today so hopefully after these repairs the car is road worthy and just needs the exhaust leak fixed.

I need to get this thing done so I can get to working on my 92 before the weather gets too cold. I'm half tempted to just tow the 92 down here and put it in my small 1 car garage and work on it myself in the evenings instead of having to drive 5 hrs each way on the weekends to go work on these cars.

The superior scoundrels wheels are classy.

They are only 17x7 but they look good. I had them on my black bird since 2003. I have 18x9" Chrome Saleen Speed Stars going on my black bird now.

Yup memory lane, I had them at one point

Got the upper control arm drivers side replaced, both lower control arm strut rod bushings, lowering springs installed, and took it for a drive.

Had to use a sledge hammer on the passenger side upper spindle/ball joint bolt, that sucker was rusted in there something fierce.

As always with this car, there is good and bad news.

Bad news is the car runs rich as hell. We put it back to stock, but it has a Moates sticker on the side window, so I'm guessing maybe it's been tuned. Not sure how to tell. Stock 94 MAF, 36lb injectors, stock late model blower and pulley, only thing this car has now is springs, wheels, and some aftermarket mufflers on stock size pipes. So it should not be running rich enough to smoke when we get on it.

The car blew a trans cooler line. The rubber hose split and started spilling fluid. Luckily it was right near the driveway. Got the hose replaced, we'll see. Not sure why it split, hoping it doesn't do it again. It was the hose that came with the trans cooler kit.

Good news... well it runs and drives.

This car has what I was told a 2003 Mustang 4R70W trans. The overdrive light on the dash flashes. Not sure whats up with that, but it shifts up through all the gears when driving.

I don't know if V6 4R70W is different than V8, or if the SC had its own, or why a swap to a 2003 is better...? Anyone know why this swap would be considered an upgrade?

If its tuned it will have a chip of some kind in the EEC.

The newer trans' have a better one way clutch and a better valve body.

Ok I figured something was better.

Now one of our friends who is a trans tech and manager of a trans shop said he doesn't know if it would work because the computer for the trans is obviously different. He also said his info shows the 94/95 w/ AODE and not 4R70W but I told him that has to be incorrect. He's not a Ford guy, just someone we bounced ideas off of. He said that flashing O/D light means the trans is in limp mode probably because of the computer not working right with the later year transmission.

We can hunt for the computer and get it out, but do I have to open it or what? I'm not sure how a tuner would interface with it unless there is some sort of piggyback between the factory harness and the EEC that would allow a laptop to plug in. Even if it has been tuned, I'm not sure how we go about flashing a stock tune back to it? It might be easier to just get a 94 EEC and swap it?

I can't tune, and I don't even know what all parts are required to tune besides a laptop and a wideband O2 sensor.

Scott Long said:

We can hunt for the computer and get it out, but do I have to open it or what? I'm not sure how a tuner would interface with it unless there is some sort of piggyback between the factory harness and the EEC that would allow a laptop to plug in. Even if it has been tuned, I'm not sure how we go about flashing a stock tune back to it? It might be easier to just get a 94 EEC and swap it?

I can't tune, and I don't even know what all parts are required to tune besides a laptop and a wideband O2 sensor.

Click to expand...

Computer is behind the passenger kick panel mounted to the body on the side. You can see it if you flip the glove box all the way down (squeeze the side and flip down) on your right. you need to pull the kick panel to get the EEC-IV connector off.

To revert to stock tune you just pull the chip. EEC-IV's don't flash, they need a chip and the chip simply overrides the stock configuration. Pull the chip off and the stock configuration takes over again. You shouldn't need to pull the cover off the computer to remove the chip, but you may need to get the computer out so you can see what you have to work with.

And on the trans I think you need to use the older harness and also get the older converter clutch solenoid as they are different resistances. Hopefully Alan will chime in here. But you should be able to search for the answers.