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Messages - Chuck W

2
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
I need to get under this


So I pulled it out and threw it in the trash. new will be going in when it's time.

Still a bunch of gross under it.




The only hole is in the "plug" on the pass side rear floor area. The rest is just surface rust. Had a little water ingress over the past couple of decades sitting out. You can see the remnants of the build sheet on the passenger floorpan next to the seat bolts.

The rust will be treated and the plug replaced and sealed. Now I have access to run the wiring I need to the back.
3
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
The surgery is just arthroscopic, not a replacement. Managed to damage the socket lining due to some other issues. Pain of some sort most days. Was really bad when I was cycling, but some PT and readjustment on the bike has shifted that to discomfort instead of pain. I'm very active, and having my riding and running cut down by over 1/2 has done a number on my mental state. :tard:

The wiring isn't that terrible. Every connector is ID'd and recorded. Still gonna be fun, and I'm not final wrapping things until I get the car to fire up.
4
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
OK, well winter set in and I didn't have much time to fiddle with things that were out of the garage.

Speaking of the garage. Part of my holiday was spent getting 2" insulation up on the roof rafters to help maintain the heat a bit.


It was open rafters and while I have a heater in there, it doesn't do well at keeping things warm when it gets super cold, and it ran all of the time, which kills my electric bill.  Finished it up between X-mas and NY. While the concrete floor was cold-soaked for a bit, almost immediately I could tell it was working. For sure the heater didn't run as much as it did. Confirmation came in the most recent bill for that time period. Compared to last year, it was quite a bit colder on average, but the usage was down by 25% over the same time period. I call that a win.

Now to the car stuff.
Wiring, wiring, wiring.
Spent most of the frozen time working on harnesses, etc.





I had originally planned to mount the fusebox over on the PS of the engine bay, but it was going to really be crowded with the battery, etc, so I opted to move it to the DS.


There it's crowding out the airbox I was thinking about using, but I'll be able to figure something out.

I did design up a bracket to mount the fusebox and 3D printed it.
The red bracket in the picture is just the mock-up, but I printed the "real" one out of carbon-filled nylon.


At this point, I need to get stuff laid out in the engine bay to finalize some wiring lengths and prepare the bulkhead connector for the 20-ish new wires that need to enter the cabin.
Inside, I need to yank out the carpet. One, it's nasty and will be replaced. Two, I need to have access to run wires to the back for the FP and other emissions stuff that's at the rear of the car. OBD2 diagnostic port and throttle pedal need to be wired as well.

I needed to shift the car around on it's stands a bit to be able to open the tailgate, but I needed to get the trans mount installed, so that was properly supported. The task to day was to get the Stiffler's mount in place.


It wasn't a drop-in, as I needed to slot or elongate the slots in each of the frame brackets. Designed for a Fox, yes, but not the LTD/TBird floorpan. This mounting is temporary, as eventually I'm doing SFCs, etc. under the car, and will tie this mounting into that. I need to get the suspension on the front of the car and be able to properly load things up to design and install such things. Seeing as the LTS will need something similar, I'll make a couple sets.

Need to get the fuel system together, and I have a Deatshwerks DW200 pump on the way. Similar to the Walbro 255hp.

That's where we are at the moment.
I'm on a time crunch to get some things done before the end of April. Have a hip surgery coming up and that will take me out of doing the heavy and contortive work for a few weeks. Not going to be able to climb around on the ground for a bit.


6
Suspension/Steering / Re: Another spring/lowering question
I would use SN-95 struts, mainly due to the extended length.
I picked up a set of the Koni non-adjustable orange struts(STR.T) for the LTS, which is the same as your 85 TBird. Decent choice for a driver. I've used KYBs as well, but they don't last too long.

On the rear, you really have no choice, if you want something decent. All of the 79-04 Mustang shocks are too short to use as-is. Either make yourself a set of my old lower shock brackets (I have the old drawings linked here on the forum) or get a set from 23Parts.com, as they've put them into production and should have them on their website.
7
Suspension/Steering / Re: Another spring/lowering question
Are you talking "base" V6 convertible, or V8 convertible?

On the GT and Cobra springs, there isn't a whole lot of difference. The Cobra spring rates are a slightly lower at first glance, but the progressive rate is different and get more aggressive as you compress the springs more. They might feel "softer". The load rating is about the same.
The V6 springs have a linear rate (on all 4 corners IIRC, but for sure on the rear). They also have a lower load rating. Not recommended.

Somewhere I have the specs for all of the standard 96-98 springs based on the 3-letter codes. It has been over 25 years since I was digging around in these. If I have a look, I might find the paper with the details.

In '99, Ford changed the way the values on the springs were listed on the tags.
Before that, you would have the 3-letter code and the spring and load ratings listed (Metric).  Such as "RRR" which was a '96-98 Cobra rear spring had "28.9/3470" which is the spring rate in N/mm and load rating in N. Converting that to lbs/in and lbs is 28.9x5.7 lbs/in and 3470/4.44 lbs. Or 165 lbs/in and 780lbs.
As an example, the stock rear springs in my old '84 XR 7 were "JAD" "33/4200" (185 lbs/in and 944 lbs)

In the end, the main difference in the springs is the load rating, as they changed what springs were in the cars based on options, etc. The V8 convertible springs were always the highest load rating, which is what I tended to use on the rear of my cars. (I have always tried to use Motorsport C-Kits on the front). You can see in the example above, the rear springs on our cars are kind of beefy.

Anyway, probably a lot more than you asked for, but it does remind me to try and find that info, for posterity sake.


10
Suspension/Steering / Re: Front Struts
Quote from: EricCoolCats – on
Chuck, how does a 1980-82 Thunderbird/XR-7 strut compare to a 1983-86 car?
They used the same(or similar) style of strut mounts as the others did, so the same would apply. On the 2 that I had , one got a set of my custom strut mounts and the other got a set of the KYB/Moog like above. I probably used Fox KYBs struts. (It's been forever ago, and my notes are pictures are more limited on those builds)
11
Suspension/Steering / Re: Front Struts
Buy struts for an '86 Mustang and replace the strut mounts with ones like THESE.

The Mustang struts won't fit the TBird strut mounts, thus the need to swap them out.
12
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
Longtubes would've been even more of a hassle. The 6R80 is already tight enough the in the trans tunnel  :giggle: .

When I left off, I was going to toss the rack into the car, so I could get the steering shaft where it needed to be. Ran into a small snag.
I had to make more adjustments to my motor mounts, as the rack was running into the oil pan before I could get it into place.

Spent some time early this afternoon modifying the mounts to raise the engine up a touch (about 1/4"). That gave me the room I needed for the rack so I got it mocked up.

I found a 3" to 2-1/2" conical reducer that should do what I need. To test it, I 3D printed up a copy and dropped it all in place.


I might get more room with a regular stepped reducer, but I kind of like the flow of this one, and if I need a little "clearance" dent it shouldn't be too bad.
I'll need to extend it a bit past the end of the reducer, and then I need to turn down to clear the firewall and get under the car. I'll need to add a bung for the front O2 sensor and I'll probably make a (v-band) connection before the turn down.
The X-pipe is 2-1/2", so I'll just be keeping with that theme all the way to the back.

The downside of raising things up a bit is now the intake hits the hood. (Like thick paper contact). It's on one of the underhood support bits, so another clearancing dent should be sufficient.

Another thing I ran into while digging into wiring involves the fuel system.  I'm wanting to stay with the stock return-less set-up and use the stock FPCM.
I came across a possible issue with that involving the RCM (Restraints Control Module). Back in the late 00's, Ford did away with the intertia switch and replaced it with an "ENS" signal from the RCM to the FPCM. If the module, which is tied into crash sensors, ABS, SRS, etc) senses a problem or in a crash, it kills the FP through the FPCM. This car is from WAY before the implementation of all of that, so there's no RCM in the car.
All of Ford's "control packs" just are set up to run a return-type fuel system and don't deal with it.

After finding the copy of Ford's patent for the set-up, I may have a solution for spoofing that signal, though. Picking some brains bigger than mine on it and will know more when I have more parts in hand.
13
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
That lower section is telescoping (This is the fancy MM conversion steering shaft).

Shoving the upper portion into the receiver on the column more may allow for clearance of the u-joint, but the lower section still needs to angle more.
I need to toss the rack in there to see exactly where things fall, but some sort of modification is going to be needed.
14
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
So I had about an hour to work on this today (and the weather was decent)

Quickly pulled the DS manifold off and confirmed my suspicions that the contact was going to be even worse.



I took the cut-off to the 


My thought to use the angling of the bend there to rotate the exhaust away from the steering shaft isn't going to work. It does move the outlet away, but the  interference stays about the same. Going to have to extend the outlet past the steering shaft a bit, and then make the connection.


15
Other Vehicles / Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)
If the interference wasn't right at the stupid connection point, this would be a whole lot easier.

Got a bunch of TXL wire on the way so I can start connecting the dots.

Of course the weather is supposed to get frigid here this weekend. Going to have limited time to work on this anyway, we'll see what I can get done.