Dec '13 - Starting the suspension

12/01/13

Got a little bit done on the front suspension over the Thanksgiving holiday. Front control arms are in place and got one of the Koni coilovers on before I noticed that the threaded sleeves are on upside down...I'll have to correct that on both of them before proceeding. Also hit a snag with the rear differential - it seems some slight modification of the spider gears is necessary if they came out of a solid axle car. The IRS axles have a different arrangement for retaining the axles, and a small groove needs to be machined into the side gears. Either that or I pick up a set of IRS side gears to swap in.

12/08/13

Didn't get a whole lot more done this weekend...temps were dipping into subzero range and the propane line on the forced air heater I use to make things tolerable was leaking rancid artificial sulfur smell and making my eyes water. Once I replaced a couple of fittings on it and put some teflon tape on the threads I could run the 375,000 BTU heat cannon to keep things tolerable. I managed to disassemble and reassemble the coilovers with the threaded sleeves on right side up and get the upper and lower arms installed and properly torqued. My trusty/slightly rusty Craftsman torque wrench gave up the ghost; they only cover those for one year these days rather than the lifetime warranty they do on just about everything else, so it got replaced with a Lowe's 50-250 ft-lb unit that seemed to be of better quality. Also grabbed a 36mm socket to use on the front and rear hub-nuts. Steering rack is up next.

I can run this baby for 10 minutes and have the garage at about 50 degrees even if it's -10 outside. It's probably meant for a much larger working area.

And a comparison of the MkIV suspension showing the FFR-designed spindles with the new upper control arm pickup points that improved the steering axis inclination (SAI) compared with the MkI through MkIII design. Below that are shots of the same view on my first build, a Mk II, and my last build, a MkII with David Borden's SAI mod kit installed.

MkII design:

And MkII with SAI mod - much closer to the new design.

12/15/13

Still stuck waiting for parts on the rear suspension so the front got all the attention - everything installed there but I'm still deciding whether to install a bumpsteer kit or just regular outer tie-rod ends. Brake rotors, calipers, and braided steel hardlines all installed, along with the power steering rack from an '02 Mustang GT (rebuilt). I need to get some power steering lines ordered for that, along with fuel lines and fittings.

I think I solved a problem with my IRS differential; it seems the tracklock diffs are not as interchangeable as everyone things. All of the solid-axle diffs will bolt into the IRS diffs with no problem, but there is a minor difference with the spider gears.

I found the part number for the Ford spider gear set (2L1Z-4215-EA) that can be used in either solid or independent rear axles, so I tried swapping them out. Once I got the solid axle side gears out I could compare them side-to-side to see the C-clip groove in the IRS side gears. You can see in this shot the new gear (left) that has the groove to capture the skinny C-clip in the IRS axles.

The solid axles use a much larger C-clip arrangement that looks completely different. Hopefully this will solve my issue with the CV axles provided by Factory Five, but I won't know until they ship out the 5/8" rod ends for the rear lower control arms. Better be here by next weekend. Anyway, I got the IRS diff pumpkin bench-pressed from underneath the frame. Much easier now that I know the two axes on which it has to rotate to wiggle into place in the frame. Bolted it down using aluminum bushings from Mike Forte, ready and waiting for the rest of the independent rear suspension.

12/28/13

Didn't get as much done as I hoped through the silly season, but I did finally get my replacement rod ends so I could get some more done on the rear suspension. Following FFR's directions, I threaded each of the control arm rod ends in all the way and then backed them out four turns each before tightening the locknuts a bit.

To check on an issues that's seen some discussion on FFCars.com, I took the springs off of the coilover shock assemblies to check clearance with the spring hat and the LCA, and it looks like I had the same interference issue others have had where the hats make contact at full compression. Not good, even if it wasn't likely to bottom out in rear world driving with 750-lb springs.

When FFR designed their control arms they were using ProShocks, Carreras, and/or Bilsteins. The Konis must have a wider spring hat and/or a shorter rod end. They've had the MkIV's out for a while now and I would think they would have addressed this issue. Turns out it is an easy fix though. They include two machined spacers, one about 1" and one at 3/8" and per their directions you install them with the long one in back. Here's what I got...

Full extension, no problem. (Not a good angle, I know).

Full compression - we have contact. The hat makes contact with the LCA x-brace at about an inch above would would be about ride height.

Others have had to fab up some different spacers and/or use varying stacks of washers on the shock and LCA rod ends to move the rod end back enough to maintain clearance through the travel, but FFR really should work on a better fix for this. I'll have to keep an eye on this once the final alignment adjustments are made - there's not much room to work with. Turns out I got clearance just by flipping the spacers around and using the longer ones in front.

Full extension:

Full compression:

Once I had that taken care of I got my nicely cleaned up knuckles and poly bushings out and slathered them up with their nasty uber-sticky goop grease and pressed them in with my trusty Home Depot knuckle bushing press tool.

What a freakin' mess that stuff is though. With that out of the way I could bolt them to the control arms and get out the bolt adapters that allow for use of the 11.65" Mustang Cobra vented rotors vs. the 10ish" rotors that the T-birds originally used. Just a small machined chunk of metal that bolts to the knuckle at the stock caliper location and provides two new bolts and spacers to relocate the caliper a bit outward and rotate it a bit more toward the top of the rotor. Looks to be solid enough and they provided grade 10.9 bolts that should do the trick.

Put the rotors on and calipers, and the rear suspension is almost there, just waiting to get my halfshafts back once the longer middle shafts are swapped in. After putting on the knuckles and brake rotors it measured right at 59", right where it needed to be, so no adjustments needed on the LCA length until I do final alignment.Also cleco'd a few panels in place and got the gas tank strapped in tight.

Also I got the pedal box bolted in, and looking at the hydraulic clutch MC got me thinking about some of my other mods I will need to use the '05 GT drivetrain, and the more I thought about it the more I didn't like the idea.

After a while I decided I didn't want to mess with doing several other mods that would be needed to clear the big mod 3V motor that may or may not be good. Custom headers and/or spacers+ 2V headers, since FFR doesn't make a set for the 3V, footbox mods to clear. At least with a Coyote there's enough power there to make the hassle worth it and there are some gorgeous stainless 4-1-4 headers already available.

So the drivetrain plans are changing. Just so happens that a local Ford guy was moving up from a 347 to bigger/better motor for his racecar, so I snagged that from him along with a transmission and I'll run that, either with carb or an aftermarket EFI system of some sort. Scored a good deal on a very well-sorted motor with all forged internals that should last forever. Might need to swap to a more street-friendly cam but we shall see. Stay tuned.