The rack can be unbolted and removed quite easily. You would have to disconnect the lines and tie rods as well to pull it right off the car but there's no need to jack the engine or remove the oil pan.
Use these instructions as a guide and you can see that you can unbolt the rack from the crossmember, remove the bolts and then pull the bushing/bolt sleeves and the rack will drop straight down
The support bracket? I know the caliper bracket bolts onto the housing so the only other thing I can think of is the TC anti-moan bracket. Is that what is welded to the housing? Did not know that if that is the case but I have not messed with the TC rears before.
The TC anti-moan bracket is welded to the housing. When I did Cobra brakes on the rear I simply cut it off with a cut off wheel on my die grinder and called it a day. Never noticed any issues with "moaning" from the rear brakes as the Cobra backing plates are pretty stout (they bolt up no problem to the TC rear)
And in case you're wondering the stock TC brake hoses and e-brake cables mount up no problem to the Cobra stuff.
After searching a bit, figured this might be an appropriate thread to ask my question in ...
I'm looking at various aftermarket wheels for my 88 TC, and am wondering what you guys are doing for offset on the front with 8.5" or 9" wide to keep them in the fenders. Guessing that I would need at least 6" of backspacing, any comments? I do have some late SN95 arms to go on that will offer a bit more clearance at lock. Will also likely be adding some MM caster plates, and putting in additional negative camber ... maybe set around -1 to -1.25 degrees, which helps to tuck the top of the tire in the fender a bit as offer more front grip.
Should mention that I really don't like to have the front wheels and tires hanging out the fenders as can happen quite easily with these cars. Am willing to run different front and rear sizes and / or offsets to keep them tucked in.
thanks, Ed
87 TC
stock crossmember stock control arms '95 SN-95 spindles/Cobra brakes
18 x 9 wheels w/ 6.5" BS 255/40-18 BFG KDW II -1.5* camber
Back when I ran the 17" Cobra Rs I used the M179 up front and the R58 out back. The M179s had a 6.42" BS. I ran 255's on those as well and same camber.
With both setups I would get some scrubbing on the inner fender liner (it crosses over the top of the tire at a steep angle compared to a Mustang) under HARD cornering but even that went away after swapping out my control arm bushings. Under normal driving and spirited they never rubbed. Keep in mind though I run very stiff springs up front . Never had issues of hitting the actual fenderlips.....only the stupid liner due to how Ford designed it.
Not to speak for Ed but for us Canadian folks the MM arms end up being very expensive (thanks to the current exchange rate 32%)......$500+ not including the shipping charges, not to mention the taxes and import fees
1987 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe Engine Complete as shown
Engine was pulled from my personal 1987 TC (5.0 swap) Engine ran great with zero issues when it was pulled
Engine has approximately 81,000kms (50,000miles) on it and is 100% stock and original (never been opened up)
Has always been very well maintained since I acquired the car when it had only 23,000kms (14,000miles) on it with regular oil changes every 5,000kms (always with Mobil 1)
Also comes with a Ford Motorsport clutch that was installed 50,000 kms ago.
Asking for $750 CDN for the engine as shown
Also selling T5 transmission from same vehicle. Same mileage on the trans, never been apart, shifts great and has been filled with Mobil1 ATF since 23,000kms.
Asking $350 CDN for the T5
If interested I have everything required to swap this engine into another car. I have the EEC, harnesses, VAM, rad fan, down pipe with cat, tranny crossmember, etc, etc so a package deal could be worked out
I just swapped a MOMO Monte Carlo into mine today. Ditched the cruise stuff as I never use it but MOMO sells a kit to install the 87-93 Mustang switches if you want
you have a device mounted at the top of your strut tube with two brake pad like things that would clamp around the strut cylinder when you your steering wheel is at X position and your speed is at Y+ mph. the driver strut would not compress / compress less because a brake pad system has stopped it from doing so.
That's a recipe to crash.
You can't control body roll by stopping a strut from compressing......it has to be able to move up and down to conform to the road. If the strut was prevented from it's normal cycle in the middle of a corner and you hit even a small dip it will cause the car to lose grip as there is not enough "give" in the tire to absorb a sharp dip a corner.....the car will skip and then begin to understeer.
This phenom is one of the reasons people with Mustangs who are into the road race thing ditch the factory rubber bump stops on the front struts and replace them with units such as the ones from Koni which are way more compressible. I've personally been in and witnessed many a Mustang skip right off a race track in a corner when it hit the bump stops.
Equal length won't sound any different than shorties.....the problem is the the pipes of the header itself are just too short before it dumps into the H-Pipe. Long tubes will definitely sound different.
You can slot the top hole on your strut where the spindle bolts slot it back and it. Will let you pick up some negative camber not a lot but some
You can pick up A LOT going that route.
This was one of the old school tricks of the slalom/road race guys with Fox based cars (and many others) I did it to my struts when I was running open lapping events on a regular basis. Stock max I could get was -1*
After the mod I could easily get more than -2.5*. Remember....an 1/8" at the mounting point translates into a much larger move at the top of the tire.
I was going to ask what it was about the ST springs that made them perfect? I'm not familiar with them, nor am I aware who has a set.
People like them because the stance is great and they ride well. I had them in my car (actually still have them in the rear) and I liked them quite a bit.
