New Start

Since my decision to pull the GT off the road and make it a drag racing car I had to go through a couple things to get it off the road. I called my insurance agent to cancel the insurance, but he told me that the State of Georgia will fine me if I don't turn in my tag and tell the State that the car is no longer on the road.

I thought that by not renewing the tag would be enough for the state to know it's not on the road anymore, but I was wrong. So, before turning in my tag I had to fill in the empty space with something new. I searched Amazon and found this Ford Racing plate for $6.99 with free two day shipping since I'm a Prime member.

I got the plate today and installed it. I'm not sure if the tag office will be open on Monday because of the 4th of July holiday. If not I'll have to wait until Wednesday to turn it in and cancel my insurance.

A very small upgrade and a small step toward my race car project, but "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao Tzu

Or to put it another way, "A journey of many quarter miles begins with a single step."

R.I.P. Project Street Machine. 2008 - 2017

My Street / Strip Project is dead. The new transceiver did not fix the problem. From today, I only have four days to get my emissions checked and get my tags. That is not happening, so off the road my Mustang goes, to start life as a drag car that will also be trailered to parking lot shows.

I am not going to dump a bunch of money into the car to chase down an electrical problem. So far I'm leaning toward a carbureted build using the 4.6 Edelbrock intake, a 650 CFM carburetor and the MSD Ignition Controller Mod 6. This way I can strip out all the 19 year old wiring and start fresh. I'll need a wiring kit to wire the rest of the car, something like the Bare Bones Wiring Kit from Ron Francis.

I will strip out what I don't need and sell it on eBay or Craigslist to fund this. Things like the perfect all black leather interior, the '98 gas tank with the SVO Focus racing pump, the Mach 360 stereo system, the EFI wiring harness with the ECU and the heavy 18x9 Bullitt wheels and tires.

I know it's odd to strip apart a super clean 1998 Mustang just to drag race it, but I will be starting with a car I know, that has not been in an accident and will make a great platform for a race car. I have only driven the car 7,000 miles since I got it 9 years ago. This will start out as a budget build. I'm going to try and get as much as I can used except for the MSD Mod 6 and the wiring kit.

The downside is I can never drive it on the street again. The upside is I don't have to worry about keeping it emissions legal and I won't have the yearly costs of insurance and tags.

Stupid PATS problem, Ordered A New Transceiver F8SB-15607-AC

OK, I talked to a mobile locksmith and he does not think it is a problem with the key. He thinks it's a problem with the transceiver module, a blown fuse, a short or a bad relay. I checked all the fuses and they look fine. I looked in the owner's manual for my car and did not see a relay for the PATS / Anti-Theft system. So I took the steering column apart and removed the PATS transceiver. I have ordered one off eBay for $25 shipped.

It took a bit to get the covers off and the large metal plate from under the dash off to get access to all the screws for the cover. I had to fiddle a bit with the connectors and finally got them loose. The transceiver is held on with a T-20 bolt. My T-20 bit seemed a bit large but I was able to get the job done with some extra force. There is a wire going to the ring where the lock cylinder goes and there is a small brass tab that looks like it makes contact with the lock cylinder. It had a bit of white lithium grease on it. I'll make sure that is cleaned and re-lubed when I put it all back together. I hope my next post is one that reports the car has started and is running.