1969 Mustang Restoration: Helpful Tips

How to Remove a Pilot Bearing

There are many methods to remove a pilot bearing or bushing. The following pictures show the method that I used. It worked very well and the Bearing was out in about 5 minutes.

The 1st step is to fill the void behind the bearing with grease.

Next insert an old clutch alignment tool into the pilot bearing.

Snap off the ring on the end of the tool. Then tap the tool with a hammer.

Since the grease will not compress it forces the bearing out. Once the tool has bottomed out on the bearing remove it and refill the void with more grease. Reinsert the tool and tap it with a hammer again. Repeat this process until the bearing comes out the entire way.

Once the bearing is out clean the grease out of the crank and install the new pilot bearing/bushing.

How to Remove Pressed on Axle Bearings

I stumbled upon a good deal on a 31 spline limited-slip 9" differential. The problem is that my original differential was set up for 28 spline axles. This required me to upgrade the axles. I ordered new axles and bearings, but I wanted to reuse the original flanges used to bolt the axles to the housing. The axle shop could have done this, but I hate paying someone for something that I can do myself so I decided to remove the flanges on my own. The following pictures show how I accomplished this.

Here is the axle with the bearing and flange installed. The bearing needs to be removed in order to get the flange off.

In front of the bearing there is a lock ring. This is removed first. I used a cutoff wheel on my grinder to score the ring. I DID NOT CUT THE ENTIRE WAY THROUGH THE RING! The reason that I did not cut through the ring is that these are still good usable axles and I did not want to ruin them. Once you have scored it about 2/3rds of the way through the retainer take a hammer & chisel and smack the retainer ring. This will crack the retainer ring the entire way through allowing you to be able to slide it off of the axle.

This is what the retainer ring looks like after it has been cracked the whole way through.

Here is another view with the retainer ring slid out of the way. The Vise Grips are there to keep the axle from rolling around.

The next step is the remove the bearing. Start by making two cuts (180 degrees apart) through the outer part of the bearing .

This will allow you to remove the outer shell of the bearing. The two half moon shapes in this picture are the outside of the bearing

Next take a chisel and smack the ring of ball bearings until it splits. Once it is split you can remove the ring exposing the inner part of the bearing.

To remove the inner part of the bearing use the grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut a groove 2/3rds of the way through. Once the groove is cut, strike the groove with a hammer & chisel. This will split the inner part of the bearing, which will allow you to slide the remainder of the bearing off of the axle.

Once the bearing is removed the flange will come off.

Fabricating a Block Plate

In 1997 I converted the car from an FMX automatic transmission to a T-10 4-speed. When I did I reused the block plate for the original automatic transmission. The automatic style block plate differs from the standard one in that it is not a solid piece of metal and that the automatic block plate incorporates a removable inspection plate at the bottom of it to allow you to access the torque converter bolts. This inspection plate does not line up with the holes in a standard transmission bell housing so at the time I decided to just not install the inspection plate. By not installing the plate I left a large portion of the flywheel exposed which could have potentially allowed dirt and debris to enter the bell housing. I was younger then and was more concerned with driving the car than with doing things correctly.
This time around I am more concerned with doing things correctly than driving the car. Therefore I decided to purchase what I thought was the right block plate. Unfortunately Ford thought it would be a good idea to use both a 157 tooth and a 164 tooth flywheel. These flywheels apparently use slightly different starter mounting locations. The block plate that I purchased was evidently for a 157 tooth flywheel because it did not line up with the starter location on my bell housing. Rather than searching for the 164 tooth block plate I decided to make my own from the two block plates that I already had.
The following pictures illustrate how this was accomplished:

I began by clamping the two plates together in a vise. The engine bolt pattern for the block plates were the same, so I used that bolt pattern for a reference to align them. Once I had them in the vise I used more clamps to ensure that the two plates didn't move while I was cutting. Once I had the plates clamped together I used a cut off wheel and cut out around the starter hole. By cutting them at the same time I guaranteed that the pieces would match exactly.

I then laid the two pieces on the bell housing to keep them aligned. The larger piece is from the plate that I purchased and the smaller piece where the starter mounts is from the FMX plate.

I bolted the plate to the bell housing and bolted the starter in plate. This ensures that everything will line up once it is welded together. Once everything was lined up I tack welded the two pieces together.

Once the pieces were tack welded the starter was removed and a full bead of weld was laid down

The welding is complete.

The weld were then ground flush

The holes at the bottom of the plate did not line up with the holes on the lip of the bell housing so I had to create new ones. I drilled a 3/16 hole into the bell housing and then ran a 1//4" NC tap though it. This worked well on the right side, but unfortunately the tabs did not line up with the lip on the left side, so I had to do some more fabrication.

This is the way that the tabs were orientated. I need to remove the tab on the left and transfer the tab on the right over to the left side of the block plate.

Before I transferred the tab I drilled a 5/16" hole in it.

I then cut off both tabs.

I transferred the tab to the part of the bell housing that had a lip on it.

Once I relocated the tab I welded it in place and ground the welds flush.

Once the weld was ground flush I lined up the plate with the bell housing and drilled a 3'16" hole that coincided with the relocated tab. Then I ran a 1/4" NC tap through the hole.

Finally I applied a coat of paint to finish off the job.

How to mimic a Factory Spot Weld

The 1st step is to grind all of your plug welds flush with the surface. Next apply small amounts of filler to even out any aesthetic imperfections in the weld. Then sand the filler with 150 grit sandpaper.