1983 GL, project: Cheap Thrills
- Thread starter great white
- Start date
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Well, the 8.8 is at least under the car and wheels are back on.
I've done lots of axle changes before, but this one was a major biotch.
All went well until I hit the drivers side upper control arm bolt on the axle. Impact, power bar and cherry tip were unable to budge that freakin' nut. I finally had to resort to the angle grinder to cut the head of the bolt off and punch it out.
The 8.8 going in was no better. Lining everything up and getting it into place was a major pain.
It probably didn't help that my diabetes is in full flare up and fatigue is a symptom of that.
Nothing is torqued or tightened and the shocks don't fit the later axle mounts but it's in and "standing on it's own two feet".
I was amazed how dirty I got even working in the garage on the concrete floor. i honestly can't remember the last time working on a car got me so dirty and greasy.
Now I can turf the 7.5 stuff and have room to clean the garage up again.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get to doing the SN95 front end stuff.
The rear tires fit under the wheel wells with the SN95 axles, now it's time to see what's going to have to be done to the front fenders to fit the SN95 A-arms and spindles.....
I've done lots of axle changes before, but this one was a major biotch.
All went well until I hit the drivers side upper control arm bolt on the axle. Impact, power bar and cherry tip were unable to budge that freakin' nut. I finally had to resort to the angle grinder to cut the head of the bolt off and punch it out.
The 8.8 going in was no better. Lining everything up and getting it into place was a major pain.
It probably didn't help that my diabetes is in full flare up and fatigue is a symptom of that.
Nothing is torqued or tightened and the shocks don't fit the later axle mounts but it's in and "standing on it's own two feet".
I was amazed how dirty I got even working in the garage on the concrete floor. i honestly can't remember the last time working on a car got me so dirty and greasy.
Now I can turf the 7.5 stuff and have room to clean the garage up again.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get to doing the SN95 front end stuff.
The rear tires fit under the wheel wells with the SN95 axles, now it's time to see what's going to have to be done to the front fenders to fit the SN95 A-arms and spindles.....
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Well, I "mostly" got the passenger side SN95 stuff installed.
Or at least mocked up in place.
The fox stuff really didn't want to leave where it had spent the last 33 years.
It all went reasonably well (not easy, but reasonably) until those damned A-arm bolts. The nuts came off easy enough, but the bolts had seized to the bushing sleeves inside the rubber bushes.
Nothing, no matter how hard I tried, would budge those damned bolts. Power bar, air impact or even heat. Those buggers had decided they were NOT moving.
I ended up having to take a 10" cut off wheel and put it on a grinder, then cutting down into the bushings until I finally cut each bolt off on each end. It was a smoking, stinging, melting rubber flinging nightmare.I broke my 1/2" drive ratchet (ratchet mechanism inside the head) and burned up one grinder just getting the passenger side off.
I also had to cut the brake caliper off at the seized slider bolts and I just snipped the rubber brake line as it won't work with the new calipers anyways.
Once I finally had that damned fox arm off, I popped the 1994 SN95 arm on, dropped the 95 spindle on and then on went the SN95 16" wheel.
Everything is loose as the 83 strut doesn't quite fit the 94 spindle, but the tire is juuuust a bit too far out in the fender. But I do have the slightly wider track in the front than the back that I wanted for handling purposes. Its essentially the same as a 94+ sn95 mustang, except that the front track is about 1" less wide (due to the narrower 83 K member)..
Camber looks good, maybe a touch positive. Easily handled with even just the oem adjustments.
The tire is right at (or maybe slightly out of) the fender lip edge. Lots of guys just run -1.5 camber with this type of setup and it "tucks" with suspension travel. I'm going to need to reassess what to do with it. I'm mulling over possibly slicing the fender lip open and adding a 1" strip to widen it out to cover the tire. Basically a "mini flare" if you want to think of it that way. I also have the option of moving the A Arm mount in 1/2" in the K member, but that's a much more involved process.
There's no way in heck that the Fox rack is going to work. Maybe if I did some swapping around of inner and outer tie rod ends, but that's a PITA in my opinion. I'm just going to re-clock the SN95 rack I picked up at the U pull and call it a day. That lets me get replacement parts anywhere by just ordering SN95 parts. It also lets me ditch the straight cut gears int he fox rack for the helical cut gears in the SN95 rack. This will give me a tighter and more precise feel as helical gears have less backlash than straight cut.
No pictures though. I was honestly just too tired and PO'd to be bothered....
Or at least mocked up in place.
The fox stuff really didn't want to leave where it had spent the last 33 years.
It all went reasonably well (not easy, but reasonably) until those damned A-arm bolts. The nuts came off easy enough, but the bolts had seized to the bushing sleeves inside the rubber bushes.
Nothing, no matter how hard I tried, would budge those damned bolts. Power bar, air impact or even heat. Those buggers had decided they were NOT moving.
I ended up having to take a 10" cut off wheel and put it on a grinder, then cutting down into the bushings until I finally cut each bolt off on each end. It was a smoking, stinging, melting rubber flinging nightmare.I broke my 1/2" drive ratchet (ratchet mechanism inside the head) and burned up one grinder just getting the passenger side off.
I also had to cut the brake caliper off at the seized slider bolts and I just snipped the rubber brake line as it won't work with the new calipers anyways.
Once I finally had that damned fox arm off, I popped the 1994 SN95 arm on, dropped the 95 spindle on and then on went the SN95 16" wheel.
Everything is loose as the 83 strut doesn't quite fit the 94 spindle, but the tire is juuuust a bit too far out in the fender. But I do have the slightly wider track in the front than the back that I wanted for handling purposes. Its essentially the same as a 94+ sn95 mustang, except that the front track is about 1" less wide (due to the narrower 83 K member)..
Camber looks good, maybe a touch positive. Easily handled with even just the oem adjustments.
The tire is right at (or maybe slightly out of) the fender lip edge. Lots of guys just run -1.5 camber with this type of setup and it "tucks" with suspension travel. I'm going to need to reassess what to do with it. I'm mulling over possibly slicing the fender lip open and adding a 1" strip to widen it out to cover the tire. Basically a "mini flare" if you want to think of it that way. I also have the option of moving the A Arm mount in 1/2" in the K member, but that's a much more involved process.
There's no way in heck that the Fox rack is going to work. Maybe if I did some swapping around of inner and outer tie rod ends, but that's a PITA in my opinion. I'm just going to re-clock the SN95 rack I picked up at the U pull and call it a day. That lets me get replacement parts anywhere by just ordering SN95 parts. It also lets me ditch the straight cut gears int he fox rack for the helical cut gears in the SN95 rack. This will give me a tighter and more precise feel as helical gears have less backlash than straight cut.
No pictures though. I was honestly just too tired and PO'd to be bothered....
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
What the heck, here's a couple quick snaps:
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Didn't do much today.
Took the mocked up pieces back apart.
My strut is pretty much flat, pushes up and down by hand fairly easily. It still damps, but is cooked spaghetti level limp. The bolt holes are also too close together to fit the later SN95 spindle. Figuring I have nothing to loose if I bugger it up, I took the strut over to the mill and machined the upper bolt hole oval enough to allow me to insert the spindle bolts.
Then I popped the spring back in it's seat and bolted everything together.
Once it was capable of standing on it's own spring I dropped it down to get a better idea of where the tire is going to sit for fender clearance:
Not bad, but definitely outside the fender.
There's a couple things that might be in play here though.
1. The wheel looks to have some positive camber. I'm planning to run somewhere between -1 to -2, so that will pull the top of the tire in some.
2. The fender lip has yet to be "rolled". So that's a bit more clearance to be gained for when the suspension cycles.
3. The fenders are "as delivered" in 1983. Anyone who has owned a fox chassis knows the fenders are pretty thin metal. What this means is they can be "stretched". I grabbed the fender and gave it a little pull and got an easy inch of travel without any noticeable distortion. So I may be able to stretch them enough to get the clearance I need.
And that's where I stopped today. Reason being hte wife came home and told me I had a letter.
Turns out it was a "reassessment" of a condition I have and a settlement offer. Obviously, I'm not going to talk figures, but lets just say it was significant enough that I had to stop working on the car and sit down for a while. Pretty much all of it will go to debt management and future planning, but the wife looked at me at one point during our discussions and said " I think you should put some of it away to finish your car".
That floored me and she was talking a (in car terms) fairly significant amount. Enough to make a real difference in getting it out of the garage and on the road.
So, realistically, it may be on the road in a year or two with some very Gucci stuff under it. A torque arm, panhard bar and those 31 spline axles juuust may possibly be in the mail in short order.....
Took the mocked up pieces back apart.
My strut is pretty much flat, pushes up and down by hand fairly easily. It still damps, but is cooked spaghetti level limp. The bolt holes are also too close together to fit the later SN95 spindle. Figuring I have nothing to loose if I bugger it up, I took the strut over to the mill and machined the upper bolt hole oval enough to allow me to insert the spindle bolts.
Then I popped the spring back in it's seat and bolted everything together.
Once it was capable of standing on it's own spring I dropped it down to get a better idea of where the tire is going to sit for fender clearance:
Not bad, but definitely outside the fender.
There's a couple things that might be in play here though.
1. The wheel looks to have some positive camber. I'm planning to run somewhere between -1 to -2, so that will pull the top of the tire in some.
2. The fender lip has yet to be "rolled". So that's a bit more clearance to be gained for when the suspension cycles.
3. The fenders are "as delivered" in 1983. Anyone who has owned a fox chassis knows the fenders are pretty thin metal. What this means is they can be "stretched". I grabbed the fender and gave it a little pull and got an easy inch of travel without any noticeable distortion. So I may be able to stretch them enough to get the clearance I need.
And that's where I stopped today. Reason being hte wife came home and told me I had a letter.
Turns out it was a "reassessment" of a condition I have and a settlement offer. Obviously, I'm not going to talk figures, but lets just say it was significant enough that I had to stop working on the car and sit down for a while. Pretty much all of it will go to debt management and future planning, but the wife looked at me at one point during our discussions and said " I think you should put some of it away to finish your car".
That floored me and she was talking a (in car terms) fairly significant amount. Enough to make a real difference in getting it out of the garage and on the road.
So, realistically, it may be on the road in a year or two with some very Gucci stuff under it. A torque arm, panhard bar and those 31 spline axles juuust may possibly be in the mail in short order.....
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Well, sure enough as soon as I hit "post reply" it started eating at me. I had to know if I could clear those front tires. So back out the garage I went.
I grabbed a 35 mm dia piece of aluminum from my machining pile and had a little go at the fender. After 5 mins of "massaging":
Pretty much there. The lip is rolled and the fender stretched with a bit more stretch still to be had.
I also dropped a 6 foot level against the tire and while it's not strictly accurate for camber measurement, the tire appears to be at "0" (or pretty darned close to it). Which means -1 to -1.5 and a bit more fender work should have the tires solidly under the fender.
Beauty of all this is I now have SN95 track dimensions front and rear with the improved steering geometry (IE: longer arms for more better camber gain, better ackerman, etc) of the sn95 over the fox.
I'm also considering cutting the front filler part between the fascia and well to move it out and cover the front edge of the tire a bit more. Still thinking about whether or not I want to do that one....
I grabbed a 35 mm dia piece of aluminum from my machining pile and had a little go at the fender. After 5 mins of "massaging":
Pretty much there. The lip is rolled and the fender stretched with a bit more stretch still to be had.
I also dropped a 6 foot level against the tire and while it's not strictly accurate for camber measurement, the tire appears to be at "0" (or pretty darned close to it). Which means -1 to -1.5 and a bit more fender work should have the tires solidly under the fender.
Beauty of all this is I now have SN95 track dimensions front and rear with the improved steering geometry (IE: longer arms for more better camber gain, better ackerman, etc) of the sn95 over the fox.
I'm also considering cutting the front filler part between the fascia and well to move it out and cover the front edge of the tire a bit more. Still thinking about whether or not I want to do that one....
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Ordered up the caster/camber plates today:
120 bucks to my door.
Yeah, they were bought off eBay and it said Australia, but we all know it's most likely Chinese in origin. I don't really care where it comes from.
If I were going to switch to coil overs, it would not have been an option at all as the plates would be bearing the weight of the front end of the car. I would have wanted a different quality piece for that. Personally, I'm not a fan of the coil over setup as it forces the strut towers to carry loads they weren't designed for. The Fox is "flexi" enough as it is without loading it in planes it was not meant to be loaded.
But I'm staying with the stock spring locations so all these plates only have to deal with the load from the strut, which is just the damping effect on the compression/rebound. Nearly any plate is good enough for that duty, so I can save some bucks to be applied elsewhere on the car. Lets me drop a few ounces too as aluminum is more than sufficient for that task vice heavier steel plates.
Not too hot on the gold color though. I may spray they the same ford blue to go better with the engine compartment instead of standing out like "blingy" ricer style.
I do like that it appears as if the bearing are held into their housing by a screw in retainer vice a welded assembly. Means they may be replaceable if they wear out.
120 bucks to my door.
Yeah, they were bought off eBay and it said Australia, but we all know it's most likely Chinese in origin. I don't really care where it comes from.
If I were going to switch to coil overs, it would not have been an option at all as the plates would be bearing the weight of the front end of the car. I would have wanted a different quality piece for that. Personally, I'm not a fan of the coil over setup as it forces the strut towers to carry loads they weren't designed for. The Fox is "flexi" enough as it is without loading it in planes it was not meant to be loaded.
But I'm staying with the stock spring locations so all these plates only have to deal with the load from the strut, which is just the damping effect on the compression/rebound. Nearly any plate is good enough for that duty, so I can save some bucks to be applied elsewhere on the car. Lets me drop a few ounces too as aluminum is more than sufficient for that task vice heavier steel plates.
Not too hot on the gold color though. I may spray they the same ford blue to go better with the engine compartment instead of standing out like "blingy" ricer style.
I do like that it appears as if the bearing are held into their housing by a screw in retainer vice a welded assembly. Means they may be replaceable if they wear out.
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Well, got my rock auto cart loaded up. Just over a grand. Adjustable shocks and struts, brakes, stainless lines, bearings, ball joints, etc.
When the time comes I just have to hit the buy button and it's on its way. Probably in a week or two. Pretty much everything I need to make it roadworthy except for h pipe back exhaust pieces.
Fab the full length subframe connectors, lanyard bar and torque arm and then it's back to bodywork and rust repair.
The paint I will push off for a year or two to save up the dough. The interior I'll pick away at while saving for paint. I stitch my own leather, so interior is just my time and a couple upholstery grade hides.
If I'm lucky, it may even make a couple track outings this coming summer.
When the time comes I just have to hit the buy button and it's on its way. Probably in a week or two. Pretty much everything I need to make it roadworthy except for h pipe back exhaust pieces.
Fab the full length subframe connectors, lanyard bar and torque arm and then it's back to bodywork and rust repair.
The paint I will push off for a year or two to save up the dough. The interior I'll pick away at while saving for paint. I stitch my own leather, so interior is just my time and a couple upholstery grade hides.
If I'm lucky, it may even make a couple track outings this coming summer.
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
well. I was looking at my rockauto order in the cart today and the shipping prices started changing all on their own. Specifically, how many different places they had to be shipped from.
Then one really nasty note showed up under one of the "shipping methods": courier may collect taxes, duties and fees on delivery. YIPE! no freakin' way dudes! That's not the usual "fee free" Landmark global shipping but UPS or FEDEX. No way in heck I'm dealing with shipping via those A-Holes!
So I went back in and massaged a few things to minimize the shipping locations again.
Then the locations changed again. I looked at quantities remaining on what I needed and the numbers were dropping. People were apparently out there headhunting the same parts I was.
Rather than get screwed with multiple shipping charges over and over, I just pulled the trigger and bought what I needed. The money isn't in my hand yet, but it's on the way. It's as "guaranteed" as you can get so I'm not worried about that. Visa can carry the balance until my funds show up.
I ended up ordering the KYB AGX adjustable shocks and struts. It came down to a cost thing. I was trying to choke down the price of some Bilstein's, but it worked out to nearly 500 US bucks more (that's taxes, shipping charges and price difference making up that 500 bucks diff). Hard to justify that much more when it's just a "Sunday fun" car, especially when that 500 bucks could be used to finish the interior or something else.
On a "bling" level, they red KYB's will match my suspension urethane pieces, the red calipers and the red car.
While I was at it, I pulled the trigger on a couple 31 spline SN95 8.8 axle shafts from LMR. Slid a couple wheel bearing/seal kits in for good measure and I'll change those out too.
Earlier today I grabbed a pinion depth measuring tool and differential installation kit.
So there's a passel O' parts on the way.
Expect for some fluids, silicone, brake lines and assorted low cost bits, I'm ready to go to get the car together.
Well, H pipe back exhaust still needed, but that's it. Heck, I can tool around the neighborhood without mufflers, right?
Then one really nasty note showed up under one of the "shipping methods": courier may collect taxes, duties and fees on delivery. YIPE! no freakin' way dudes! That's not the usual "fee free" Landmark global shipping but UPS or FEDEX. No way in heck I'm dealing with shipping via those A-Holes!
So I went back in and massaged a few things to minimize the shipping locations again.
Then the locations changed again. I looked at quantities remaining on what I needed and the numbers were dropping. People were apparently out there headhunting the same parts I was.
Rather than get screwed with multiple shipping charges over and over, I just pulled the trigger and bought what I needed. The money isn't in my hand yet, but it's on the way. It's as "guaranteed" as you can get so I'm not worried about that. Visa can carry the balance until my funds show up.
I ended up ordering the KYB AGX adjustable shocks and struts. It came down to a cost thing. I was trying to choke down the price of some Bilstein's, but it worked out to nearly 500 US bucks more (that's taxes, shipping charges and price difference making up that 500 bucks diff). Hard to justify that much more when it's just a "Sunday fun" car, especially when that 500 bucks could be used to finish the interior or something else.
On a "bling" level, they red KYB's will match my suspension urethane pieces, the red calipers and the red car.
While I was at it, I pulled the trigger on a couple 31 spline SN95 8.8 axle shafts from LMR. Slid a couple wheel bearing/seal kits in for good measure and I'll change those out too.
Earlier today I grabbed a pinion depth measuring tool and differential installation kit.
So there's a passel O' parts on the way.
Expect for some fluids, silicone, brake lines and assorted low cost bits, I'm ready to go to get the car together.
Well, H pipe back exhaust still needed, but that's it. Heck, I can tool around the neighborhood without mufflers, right?
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Alrightly.
I was working on making the SN95/fox hybrid steering shaft yesterday. To make a long story short, a couple bad choices resulted in a trashed fox shaft and a trashed SN95 shaft.
The sn95 shaft I can get at pretty much any scrap yard, but the fox shaft is super hard to come by these days.
Figuring I was hooped and was going to have to choke down a 100-200 used part of ebay (or similar), I started surfing google for ideas and possible parts. Somehow I ended up on KIjiji NS at one point. I punched in "mustang parts" and nothing really came up. Then I punching in "mercury capri" and first listing was an 85 for free to haul away. I text the guy and ask if he's willing to part it. He says not for free, but for 25 bucks I can take whatever I want. I don't see the difference in asking 25 bucks or giving it away, but I'm not going to complain if 25 bucks gets me the steering shaft I need.
Icing on the cake is he's only about 8 mins drive from my house.
Tools in the truck and off I go. I get there and sure enough it's a Capri:
At least what's left of one. Wow, is it ripe! It's probably one of the most rotted out fox chassis I've ever seen. Literally rotted from the roof down.
I give the guy 25 bucks and he says "take whatever you want and don't worry about cutting or breaking anything. Do what ya gotta do". No problem, I can rip and tear with the best of them.....
The steering shaft is there and in good shape. I start in to tearing it out. It's a fight to get the bolts out. Everything is rusted, everything is sharp. I end up tearing my hands all to ratsh!t in the process. I'm going to need a tetanus shot on monday.....
Comes time to pull the shaft out of the steering column and it won't budge. They're rusted together tight.
So I figure I'll just drop the column inside and pull the slip joint apart. I get inside and notice and extra lever on the column. Could this be a tilt column?
Yessir! sure is! Rare option on a fox. Mercury had a habit of upping their trim level a little bit over ford offerings, so this makes sense in this car. I yank it out and chuck it in the back of the truck with the steering shaft, glad to score a tilt column. I despise fixed columns.
I also yank the sail panels, the cruise control stuff, the rad bottle, the rear speaker grills (mine went missing long ago), the kick panels (mine have speaker holes cut in them) and the cowl trim/grating.
All for 25 bucks! Great score!
Now I can get back to making that steering shaft, except I'm going to go about it a bit differently this time......
I was working on making the SN95/fox hybrid steering shaft yesterday. To make a long story short, a couple bad choices resulted in a trashed fox shaft and a trashed SN95 shaft.
The sn95 shaft I can get at pretty much any scrap yard, but the fox shaft is super hard to come by these days.
Figuring I was hooped and was going to have to choke down a 100-200 used part of ebay (or similar), I started surfing google for ideas and possible parts. Somehow I ended up on KIjiji NS at one point. I punched in "mustang parts" and nothing really came up. Then I punching in "mercury capri" and first listing was an 85 for free to haul away. I text the guy and ask if he's willing to part it. He says not for free, but for 25 bucks I can take whatever I want. I don't see the difference in asking 25 bucks or giving it away, but I'm not going to complain if 25 bucks gets me the steering shaft I need.
Icing on the cake is he's only about 8 mins drive from my house.
Tools in the truck and off I go. I get there and sure enough it's a Capri:
At least what's left of one. Wow, is it ripe! It's probably one of the most rotted out fox chassis I've ever seen. Literally rotted from the roof down.
I give the guy 25 bucks and he says "take whatever you want and don't worry about cutting or breaking anything. Do what ya gotta do". No problem, I can rip and tear with the best of them.....
The steering shaft is there and in good shape. I start in to tearing it out. It's a fight to get the bolts out. Everything is rusted, everything is sharp. I end up tearing my hands all to ratsh!t in the process. I'm going to need a tetanus shot on monday.....
Comes time to pull the shaft out of the steering column and it won't budge. They're rusted together tight.
So I figure I'll just drop the column inside and pull the slip joint apart. I get inside and notice and extra lever on the column. Could this be a tilt column?
Yessir! sure is! Rare option on a fox. Mercury had a habit of upping their trim level a little bit over ford offerings, so this makes sense in this car. I yank it out and chuck it in the back of the truck with the steering shaft, glad to score a tilt column. I despise fixed columns.
I also yank the sail panels, the cruise control stuff, the rad bottle, the rear speaker grills (mine went missing long ago), the kick panels (mine have speaker holes cut in them) and the cowl trim/grating.
All for 25 bucks! Great score!
Now I can get back to making that steering shaft, except I'm going to go about it a bit differently this time......
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Forgot to mention I grabbed the center console under the same 25 buck deal.
It's blue but I couldn't pass up the chance to grab one, regardless of color.
It's blue but I couldn't pass up the chance to grab one, regardless of color.
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Aww, hate is such a strong word.
Does it help any if I say the tilt lever is rusty and will need to be repainted?
Might need to clean up the faded plastic too.
Does it help any if I say the tilt lever is rusty and will need to be repainted?
Might need to clean up the faded plastic too.
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Little experimenting today with the center console bulb outage panel and digital clock that came in the Capri console.
I downloaded the 1985 wiring diagrams off the web and ferreted out the power and ground for the clock on the console wiring harness. Connected them to a 12v battery and the clock fired right up. Ran through the functions and it's all good.
Next up was the bulb outage panel. first was to determine if it was just a box with a couple LED's or if it actually contained the sensing module stuff. Popped it open and yahoo! Resistors, caps and PCB. That means the sensing stuff is (or should be) internal to the box.
Next was to suss out the power and ground. Back to the wiring diagrams. Hook them up to the battery and hit the "test" button on the outage panel. Everything lights up like it should.
Great!
So now it's just a matter of splicing it into the vehicle harness and the tail, stop and headlight monitoring will work.
The washer fluid light and the low fuel warning is a different story.
The fuel low warning I could give two hoots about, that's what the fuel gauge for. The washer fluid low would be nice to have though. If I had been thinking, I would have stripped the washer bottle out of the 85 I grabbed the console from. But as it is, I can probably hook it up with a float switch of some sort. Easy enough to do. I've done the same thing for low level warning in my water/meth tank on my diesel.
Sure, the console clock and warning panel is kind of hooky and very 80's, but the car is an 80's car. It will look right at home in there!
I downloaded the 1985 wiring diagrams off the web and ferreted out the power and ground for the clock on the console wiring harness. Connected them to a 12v battery and the clock fired right up. Ran through the functions and it's all good.
Next up was the bulb outage panel. first was to determine if it was just a box with a couple LED's or if it actually contained the sensing module stuff. Popped it open and yahoo! Resistors, caps and PCB. That means the sensing stuff is (or should be) internal to the box.
Next was to suss out the power and ground. Back to the wiring diagrams. Hook them up to the battery and hit the "test" button on the outage panel. Everything lights up like it should.
Great!
So now it's just a matter of splicing it into the vehicle harness and the tail, stop and headlight monitoring will work.
The washer fluid light and the low fuel warning is a different story.
The fuel low warning I could give two hoots about, that's what the fuel gauge for. The washer fluid low would be nice to have though. If I had been thinking, I would have stripped the washer bottle out of the 85 I grabbed the console from. But as it is, I can probably hook it up with a float switch of some sort. Easy enough to do. I've done the same thing for low level warning in my water/meth tank on my diesel.
Sure, the console clock and warning panel is kind of hooky and very 80's, but the car is an 80's car. It will look right at home in there!
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Ohtobbad;n9832 said:
yup. A fox tilt column alone can go for a couple hundred or more, depending on where you look. Just the tilt column plastic pieces can command a good bit of coin.
I still remember walking into a scrap yard and lines and lines of fox chassis sitting there for wrecking. They almost had to give the parts away. Not like that anymore. Darned near scarce as hens teeth....
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Man, I've got to stay off eBay!
Was surfing around and ran across a couple billstein struts from an 03 cobra. Low mileage and clean (although seller could have just wiped them down).
All done price to my door was just a few ticks over 300 bucks. Considering they go for just over 600 bucks CAD new, that's a steal.
So I grabbed them.
Now I do have kyb agx struts and shocks already on the way. They should be OK, but I've read they tend to fade fast with hard use and go flat within a few years. Lifetime warranty, but it doesn't cover those issues. Only "catastrophic" failures. I started getting "buyers remorse" shortly after ordering them as I really wanted billstein all around to start with.
Bils are top of the line struts and rebuild-able/re-valveable. Send them in with your specs and they send 'em back fresh as new and ready to go. So at 300 bucks I've got lots of room to have them reworked to my exact specs if needed. Arguably, better then a new generic valved set off the shelf.
Although you can put them on a regular pot 87 fox front end, I'm running sn95 spindles which are the proper height for the slightly longer sn95 bils.
There are reportedly some issues with them bottoming on lowered foxes, but mine is going to be pretty much stock height for suspension geometry reasons (and we all know what NS roads are like to lowered cars - crunch!).
I'll run the AGX's and if they fade in autocross, I'll drop the bils on and see how they do.
Rears will stay agx, unless a steal on a set of rear bils crosses my path.
So yeah; as it stands I've probably paid as much (or a bit more) than if I'd just gone with bils originally. But now I have some options if I find one or the other doesn't meet my needs or if the KYB's are better for street uee and bils better for autocross. Simple job to swap 'em out and I do my own caster/camber/toe setup in the driveway.
Was surfing around and ran across a couple billstein struts from an 03 cobra. Low mileage and clean (although seller could have just wiped them down).
All done price to my door was just a few ticks over 300 bucks. Considering they go for just over 600 bucks CAD new, that's a steal.
So I grabbed them.
Now I do have kyb agx struts and shocks already on the way. They should be OK, but I've read they tend to fade fast with hard use and go flat within a few years. Lifetime warranty, but it doesn't cover those issues. Only "catastrophic" failures. I started getting "buyers remorse" shortly after ordering them as I really wanted billstein all around to start with.
Bils are top of the line struts and rebuild-able/re-valveable. Send them in with your specs and they send 'em back fresh as new and ready to go. So at 300 bucks I've got lots of room to have them reworked to my exact specs if needed. Arguably, better then a new generic valved set off the shelf.
Although you can put them on a regular pot 87 fox front end, I'm running sn95 spindles which are the proper height for the slightly longer sn95 bils.
There are reportedly some issues with them bottoming on lowered foxes, but mine is going to be pretty much stock height for suspension geometry reasons (and we all know what NS roads are like to lowered cars - crunch!).
I'll run the AGX's and if they fade in autocross, I'll drop the bils on and see how they do.
Rears will stay agx, unless a steal on a set of rear bils crosses my path.
So yeah; as it stands I've probably paid as much (or a bit more) than if I'd just gone with bils originally. But now I have some options if I find one or the other doesn't meet my needs or if the KYB's are better for street uee and bils better for autocross. Simple job to swap 'em out and I do my own caster/camber/toe setup in the driveway.
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great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Id like to have one too, but they're scarce as unicorns and go for stupid money when they pop up. It would be period correct for my 83, but people want just too much money for them.92LX302;n9839 said:I wish there was a location I could cleanly install a FMS SVO performance timer in my dash. They look great replacing the warning panel on 4 eyes center console:
There's also dozens of iPhone apps that will do the same or better these days for a couple bucks.
I'd like to have one, but have better places to spend the cash on the car right now.
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