One complaint about the SM plates is that they mixed Standard and Metric fasteners. The studs plates have M12 hardware in them, but the smaller bolts for the caster adjustment are 5/16"... Seriously? Just use M8s (Like I did)
Worked on getting wires to the firewall bulkhead connector together, as that was the last of the underhood wiring I needed to sort out, aside from adding connectors to the MAF sensor and the AC pressure transducer. I don't know where those will live yet, so I'm holding off a bit.
I filled 27 of the 29 locations on the connector. This is all stuff inside or at the rear of the car (fuel system, etc)
I went ahead and populated 3 extra wires and I have the stuff for the cruise control, just in case I can get that to work.
I'm planning on running the bulkhead wiring outside the engine bay and pop in behind the pass strut tower. Gonna need to open up that hole a bit though.
The connector will be mounted in the same location of the old factory ECU wiring. I'll be making an adapter to mount the Deutsch connector. The wiring is still all open right now, as I want to get stuff together so I can power things up and get the tune flashed and make sure the car starts. Then I'll tidy it all up.
Going back to the CC plates.
I needed to redo the risers for the poly bushings, but haven't been able to get any material yet.
However, I had these old things.
They were a couple of fixed-caster mounts I made up at least 20 years ago. They were probably on my old '84 XR-7. These were a less aggressive version of what I have on the TBird. I just needed part of the riser, so I chopped them off.
Just need to finish weld and coat them, and they're all set. (I noticed that one of the centers is slightly lower than the other, but for what this car will be doing, that couple mm difference isn't going to matter)
Next is to sort out the wiring from the bulkhead connector on the inside of the car.
Last post by Chuck W -
Well, it was supposed to be raining all day today, but it didn't. Got a little time out in the garage.
I wound up getting some CC plates for this thing.
They're Speedmaster brand that I got off ebay. Not 100% impressed with them, and I wasn't too keen on using a mono-ball set-up on this car. I figured I could live with it for now...until I decided not to. I wanted to use a poly bushing set-up like I have in the TBird for years, and have with the BBK CC plates in the LTS. So, what did I do? Grabbed the calipers and opened up the CAD software. I reverse-engineered the bushing tower plate and will weld up a replacement set of those for these, with a tube modified for the poly bushings. While I was CAD-ing, I've been wanting to replace the OLD extreme caster plates I have the the TBird, so I redid some base and stud plates that will fit the TBird. Put in an order with Sendcutsend.com and will have parts to redo these, as well as make a new set for the TBird. (More on all of that when I get to it)
Back to the airbox project, I had parts arrive for that.
It's the 2015-18 Mustang air box. I think I have a plan to mod it and be able to use it. Going to mess with that later.
Most of the time today was spent getting wiring in place.
I have the fuse box temp mounted in the location and have begun getting wires where they need to go. Doesn't look much different than before, but now we have new wiring in there. Also, most of that nonsense on top of the engine is going to go away. It's just staying there until I make the needed cuts and connections that delete it.
More things will be happening the next week-ish, as I'll probably still be off work and my mobility has greatly increased over the past couple of days.
Last post by Chuck W -
Yeah, the pain is manageable. No much more than before, just different. All of the tissue, etc around the site is angry.
The original location for the fuse box was going to be on the PS near the strut tower. My desire to not relocate the battery and use a stock-sized one caused the same interference issues. Since I had nothing going in this spot on the DS, I moved it there (and lengthened a bunch of the wiring as needed.
I think I like the spot closer to the strut tower, honestly.
Just trying to get it into its home, so I can start making all of the needed connections for power and other stuff. I'm using the relays, etc in the box for lighting/fans/fuel pump, etc.
This engine bay stuff I can do while I'm limited on mobility, so I'm going to try and take advantage of the bit of time off work and the time alone at home during the day to make a little progress. I still have about another week in this brace they have on me, so that's annoying.
Last post by EricCoolCats -
Happy you're up and about, hopefully not in too much pain.
If it were me...by the strut tower would make the most sense. Would look just like a new car, and it gets all the wiring in one spot. Did you have any other plans for that area (sensors, etc.) or would it otherwise be unused space?
Last post by Chuck W -
Well, I'm 2 days post surgery and I can hobble around at least. The weather is beautiful today, so I got out for a bit of pondering on the car.
I'm trying to decide where I want the fuse/relay box to live and how that's going to affect my MAF and air box location.
It's going to live on the DS of the engine bay for sure, but I currently have 2 options for location. Either back by the strut tower
Or farther forward
You can see that the orientation of the throttle would like for the air box to be in that front corner (which it is on the 2011 Mustangs).
Using the stock Mustang airbox is out, as it's too big to fit in the spot if the fuse box is in there.
I really don't want to use a cone filter in the fender well. I'm going to have a PS pump in there anyway, so things are going to be crowded.
Short term might be a cold air box with a cone filter behind the headlights for the time being, as I either try and find a suitable stock-type air box that might work, or design and 3D print something that uses some sort of panel filter element.
I can buy or build an MAF sensor housing to replace the one that is integrated into the stock airbox lid, so that's not an issue.
Last post by Driverguy -
Picked up a factory Ford equalizer...the wiring seems straightforward to me. I understand that the wiring harness was different with a factory-equipped car...but if I spliced into the power/ground/backlighting from the radio, then spliced into the signal output wires (between the radio and the amplifier), in theory it should work, no? It would just be modifying the sound signals on their way to the amp/speakers?
Last post by Ductape91 -
This lot, which is primarily a land rover place, usually gets some interesting or weird cars and takes lots of pics of them so i keep my eye on it occasionally. First time seeing a foxbody tbird there.
