The only issue I had with the Mark VII brakes up front is that you have a very limited selection of wheels to choose from with that hub design. The SN95 design has a much larger wheel selection but I think we have talked about this in another thread.
I had a problem the last time the car was together with the 302 which was several years ago. I got really aggravated with the car so I put it up and did to touch it for about five years, just glad I did not do something stupid like sell it. I battled a cyclical vibration in it from the time I finished building it in 1999 until the motor died in 2003. I tried all kinds of stuff to get rid of the vibration from pinion angle to clocking the DS. I pulled the Tremec TKO, stripped it down, and shipped the internals to a Tremec shop and had the shafts checked for straightness and if I remember right the farthest one was out was 0.003" which was within factory tolerance. I even borrowed a buddy's TKO and put it in the car but nothing changed. I had new gears and bearings installed in the rear end at Ford but that did not solve the problem. The vibration was speed induced as it would do it in 3rd, 4th, and 5th and in neutral. It was more noticeable on the gas i.e. with the drive train under load. The speed at which the vibration would occur could be changed with pinion angle but not by much, maybe +/- 5 mph. With that being said I figured out it was an issue from the output shaft of the TKO to the rear wheels. I had the custom aluminum DS checked by the shop that made it and another one and both said it was balanced and good to go. The wheels were spun up at two shops and they were balanced well. I checked axles for excessive run out and they were fine.
I never really gave the whole drive train geometry much thought until this time around. The car now has a Griggs K-member, 351W, same TKO but with an SROD bell housing instead of the Lakewood scatter shield, and the suspension is all new with coil overs, new control arms, and CC plates. So just about everything has changed. If you are wondering the SROD was a four speed transmission that came out of the 82-83 GT Mustangs and it just so happens that the bell housing fits a Tremec 3550 and TKO, not sure about the new Tremec 500 and 600's. The bell is a tapered design like the T-5 bell housing so headers and what not fit a lot better than a Lakewood. I battled header fitment issues with the Lakewood so I sold it and got this instead.
I started reading up on drive line geometry and found out that I was only addressing the angle between the pinion and the DS when I should have been looking at both angles between the tranny & DS and the pinion and DS. From what I have read on several sites and books "the operating angles on each end of the drive shaft should be equal to or within 1 degree of each other, have a 3 degree maximum operating angle and have at least 1/2 of a degree continuous operating angle". I was only addressing the pinion angle and not looking at the transmission angle as well.
So long story short I am trying to get the angles figured out before I fire the motor up so it will be fun to drive this time.
Basically you have to get the u-joints on the drive shaft at the same angle (+/- 1/2 degree is acceptable) so that you do not get vibrations. If one is out more than the other then you can get what some call sympathetic vibrations in which the frequencies will intermittently cancel one another out. So you end up with a vibration that is cyclical or in other words a vibration then a pause then vibration then a pause then a vibration then a pause...This is what I had in the Bird prior to the 302 motor dying a tragic death. I did a lot of research while I had the vibration including swapping out the TKO for a buddy's when his car was down (did not help on bit) and it continued after the motor died. I am trying to get the pinion angle figured out so that when this 351W fires up I can just drive the car and enjoy it as the vibration kept me from driving the car before as it was so frustrating.
Thanks for the info above as I am sure it will come in handy but it does not help with what I am trying to do as my Bird no longer has any of the factory drive train or suspension.
I am in the middle of setting up the pinion angle in the ’83 and have a question with regards to the direction that the pinion needs to point. I have read all kinds of differing opinions on the degree that the pinion angle should be set at and whether or not the pinion should point up or down. The car has adjustable LCA's (Griggs) and UCA's (Global West) so I can adjust how the rear end sits in the car from front to back and in rotation or pinion angle.
I took my handy Craftsman buttstuffog angle indicator with a straight edge and measured off the lower pulley on the crank. It read 7.0 degrees of downward angle (the front of the motor is higher than the rear of the transmission). I moved the angle finder to the drive shaft and it is measuring 4.0 degrees of downward angle (the front being higher than the rear). For me this gives a net angle of 3.0 degrees difference between the output shaft of the transmission and the drive shaft (DS). I measured the pinion angle on the back of the pinion using the straight edge and came up with 1.0 degrees. This also gives me 3.0 degrees of difference between the DS and the pinion. So what I have is the engine centerline going downhill from the front of the car to the output shaft of the transmission, the DS centerline going downhill from the transmission to the rear end, and the pinion going uphill from the pinion to the rear end cover.
My question is should the pinion centerline and the motor centerline be running in the same direction or should they be opposite like they are now? I went here:
and found on page 9 a diagram that shows the center lines running in the same direction and the angles needing to be the same. This is on a Mustang but I would think it would be the same for our cars. I also found this article on drivetrain.com which was a good read and also states that “Ideally, the operating angles on each end of the driveshaft should be equal to or within 1 degree of each other, have a 3 degree maximum operating angle and have at least 1/2 of a degree continuous operating angle.”
I have a set of Corbeau seats in my Coupe. The factory tracks were narrower than the new seats. I went to Lowe's and bought two sticks of 1/4" X 1-1/2" aluminum flat bar, ( socket cap screws (allen wrench style) with the same thread as the holes in the bottom of the new seats, and ( bolts with the same thread as the holes the in bottom of the stock seats. Cut the flat bar to fit across the bottom of the new seats (left to right) and marked where to drill the holes to bolt them to the bottom of the new seats with the socket cap screws. I then laid them across the bottom of the old seats and marked where those holes were. I drilled and tapped these holes and bolted up the brackets to the flat bar but not too tight. I then bolted this assembly up to the bottom of the new seat and installed it in the car. Once I had it all squared up I tightened the socket cap screws and then backed them with a nut on the flat bar side like a jam nut. Been in the car since 2003 and never had a problem. I am 6'-1" and right at 190lbs so I would say tailgate tested and tailgate approved. If you want some pics I can take one of the seats out and shot some and post them.
The reason I did it this way was I needed all the head room I could get with these cars being pretty small to begin with and the other benefit was it was way cheaper than what Corbeau wanted for their adapters. Even though these are in my Mustang I would think the same principle could be applied to the Thunderbird seat tracks.
No tips on the 83 just 3" mandrel bent LX Mustang style pipes. A buddy's family owned an exhaust shop for years and he extended the Mustang pipes so they went to the back of the car. I think it was about 8" or so. I have a shot of them when they were painted with hi-temp silver from the side but not the back. The only picture I have access to right now is this one from about ten years ago. I was on my way to the 1999 World Ford Challenge from Ennis, TX when my buddy took that picture.
They are now HPC coated but not on the car as of yet...still waiting on the headers to get built. I do like how Vinnie's look but I have a hard time cutting on my car, my dad bought it new so its very near and dear to my heart. I have done a couple of things I wish I would not have done and those are getting corrected on this rebuild.
I had the 96+ spindles on my Coupe with a stock K-member and had the tapered bump steer kit installed on it and never really noticed a problem. I had the H&R Sport springs and Tokico Illumina dampers so it was low but not like it is now with the coil overs. You will most likely be fine on a daily driver as most of the bump steer issues are compounded by the rigors of racing.
Just type in the data and it gives you all the salvage yards in the country with the parts. May take a couple of phone calls but you can typically find a set for $100 shipped.
You basically have two choice if the ball joints are worn out. You can rebuild a set of control arms or buy new ones. To rebuild them you can get the bushings and ball joint from a parts store and they will have the tool that you can rent/borrow to remove the bushings and ball joints and reinstall them but you will need a 1/2" impact and air compressor. I have heard of some doing this with hand wrenches but I would not attempt it as I have done this twice and it takes a long Saturday. I went to the salvage yard or "auto recycler" as some like to be called and got a set of control arms off a wrecked car so I could drive mine while rebuilding the other ones in the evenings. Then you can install them on a Friday evening and take car to get aligned on Saturday.
Just looking up the parts on O Reilly's website it looks like the cost would be about $39 for the Moog bushing kit and you will need two of them and the Moog ball joints are $61 each both of which are lifetime warranty. This is list so I am pretty sure you should be able to get them at least 10% cheaper. So lets say you get them for $180 total which is not cheap but Moog parts are quality so that is usually what I try and go for. Now on your car I believe the front control arms are the same as the SN95 Mustangs so you could get the whole replacement Ford Racing control arm which is part number M-3075-D. About the cheapest I could find them was here:
I left mine off the Coupe when it had the SN95 GT brakes on it and if you were backing up and applied the brakes it was terrible. Someone told me that they were a band aid so I tried them without the anti-moans as it was less on the rear. I had the car back on the lift the next day installing them. Every once in a while I can hear a bit of a moan with the Cobra brakes but I can only imagine what it would sound like without the anti-moans installed.
Well I wish I could take credit for that but one of the guys on the Corral posted those pics. I just copied them rather than linking the thread as it was a long one. Hope it helps some people out as it made my day a lot easier the last time I had to service that thing.
The gooseneck has a machined surface that is lower than the gasket sealing surface that the T-Stat housing has to stay in or it will cause the goose neck to not seat on the lower intake properly and leak. Here is a pretty easy way to ensure that the T-Stat housing stays where it is supposed to while you install the goose neck.
Not saying this is it but its a good place to start. The goose neck can also get warped so if that is the case you can get a new one at O'Reillys under part number MRY-84884 and they are about $10.
One last thing as this is really deviating from the original intent of the thread is that I would look into a bump steer kit for the car as well if you are experiencing the affects of bumpsteer. I would almost assume you are as both of my cars had it and they are as low or almost as low as yours. Here is a pretty good article explaining it:
If you are still running the 4 lug setup (which it appears you are from the picture in your signature) then I would suggest the tapered kit and not the bolt through.
I think that is the kit you need if your car runs the longer front control arms. My 83 uses the Fox Mustang length control arms and I am pretty sure the 87-88 cars use the SN95 Mustang length control arms.
socket cap screws (allen wrench style) with the same thread as the holes in the bottom of the new seats, and (
