Since the current distributor in my Mustang is the Load-O-Matic that only has vacuum advance and depends on a special Spark Control Valve in the carburetor (which the 2100 doesn’t have), the ignition needs to get changed with the new carb. I haven’t received the parts yet, but they’re on their way.

The distributor is going to be one of the mid-to-late ‘70s Duraspark 2 electronic distributors. I figure I may as well swap over to an electronic ignition since I’m swapping distributors. The distributor was ordered for a ‘76 Maverick with a 250. That’ll trigger a standard Mopar black ignition box (‘74 Plymouth Duster), connected to my existing Pertronix Flame-Thrower coil. I was going to use a regular blue strain relief DS2 box, as I had two sitting in the shed. They turned out to both be completely dead though. The Mopar box was cheaper, and I’ve seen a lot of people posting about dead aftermarket DS2 boxes… so we’ll see how well the Mopar box works. I’ve always liked Dusters and Barracudas anyway. :p

Since the Mustang needs an alignment anyway (wandering a bit at 50+), I decided to do the Shelby/Arning drop on it. The drop involves drilling new mounting holes for the upper control arms, 1” down and 1/8” back from stock. This gives a better camber curve and also lowers the car a little bit. I got the template from Opentracker Racing Products. So far I’ve just gotten both springs out (using an Autozone internal spring compressor). The shocks were being difficult, and the bolts that hold the shock tower end caps on were just spinning with no place to hold them as I took the nuts off. At least one nut on each side of the car came off eventually, and then I was able to lift the cap up, slide the loose bolts out, and then slide the cap out with the other bolts still in place. Once I get the control arms off, I’ll need to go ahead and patch a few more areas of the frame and shock towers that I couldn’t get to before.