Show and Go 2013

I finally entered my car in a car show! This year was the 14th annual Riverside Show and Go put on by the local Rotary Club and the Old Farts Racing Team. I sent in my check for $60 a few weeks back and was mailed my entry tag which was #663. There were 1,000 cars that turned out for this years extravaganza in Downtown Riverside. I showed up on Friday night around 5pm and was able to get a parking spot on 12th and Market. Throughout the weekend I was able to stay in the same general area, but just worked my way right on the map below (towards Main St.)

 My car was looking pretty clean for the most part although I really didn't spend any time washing, waxing or vacuuming it. It's always parked in a garage under a car cover, so it really doesn't get too dirty. I was parked on a bit of a slope in the picture below so the rear drivers side tire looks nearly tucked in the fender while the rear passenger side tire make it look like the rear had a lift kit installed.

I was going to leave the show on the first night around 8:30 since I was going to be back early the next morning, but I decided to drive the cruise route on my way out. I was about a mile into the cruise route when I pushed in the clutch and hear a loud POP sound. Immediately I knew that it was the clutch cable. The transmission was now nearly impossible to shift between gears unless I had the clutch practically pressed through the floor and it was engaging at the bottom of the floor when I started letting my foot up. After what felt like an eternity of being trapped on a narrow cruise route, I found an exit and pulled off. Instead of trying to get under the car to see what was going on, I decided to drive over to my parents house which was about 5 miles from there.

I pulled out the car ramps and drove the 'Stang up so that I could get a good look underneath. My suspicions were correct.

Nobody likes a broken clutch cable. Fortunately this one was at least hanging on by one last thread which allowed me to get the car to my parents for repair. Most of the parts places (Autozone, O'Rileys) close at 9pm and by the time I knew what I needed it was almost 9pm. I called to find out who had the cable in stock so that at least I could swing by in the morning to get it. When my parents got home from a late dinner with some Chinese business people my dad told me that there was an Autozone that was open later than 9pm a few miles from the house. I called them and sure enough, they had the clutch cable in stock although it wasn't the adjustable one that I had installed in my car.

I picked it up and spent the next two hours trying to get it installed. I was having issues reaching up under the dash to release and then re-install the allen-head screw that holds the cable to the clutch pedal.  Once we finally got that tightened and I slid back under the car to hook it up to the clutch fork, I ran into the same problem that I had when I installed the first cable; the cable didn't reach the clutch fork. In order to get it up and running for the car show the next morning we cut off part of the old cable and used cable clamps to extend the new cable allowing it to reach the fork. We doubled back the cable on itself and used a second clamp although the picture below only shows one cable clamp.

I wanted to install the longer 96-04 clutch cable, so that I could better route it through the engine compartment, but no one had it in stock. I worry about this cable breaking just like the first one did. I'm tempted to spend some $$$ to install a hydraulic system because no one wants to get stranded due to a broken clutch cable. The transmission could stand to be gone through and have a kit installed too. 

I'm expecting my first child in October so if I'm going to spend any amount of money on this car, I should probably do it soon because once that baby is here, I probably won't be doing any major projects on the car (e.g. disk brakes, hydraulic clutch, rebuilt transmission, etc.)

Update 09/02/13: I installed the longer clutch cable,a 10.5" Ford Racing clutch, Ford Racing flywheel, and Ford Racing pressure plate. As it turns out I had been using the wrong pressure plate all along! You can read about it HERE.