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Topics - Aerocoupe

16
Body/Appearance/Interior / 83-84 Side Molding Question
Is there a technical name for the side moldings on the fenders, doors, and rear quarters?  I am looking for a used set of the moldings but only the ones on the fenders and rear quarters that butt up to the bumper covers.
17
Drivetrain Tech / Aluminum Driveshafts - Who Has One and How Did You Make It?
We have tossed this topic around a bit on here and I wanted to put together a thread with aluminum driveshaft in the title as well as link some of the better threads on the subject within the body.  I would also like for anyone (Vinnie, cough, cough) to post up what they used and where they had the DS fabricated or shortened (you don't lengthen one) and their results.

Threads
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?40545

http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?31374

http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?34196

http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?19231

Driveshaft Shops
Performance Driveline, Oklahoma City (Not finding them listed any longer, maybe Vinnie can update)
Blumenthals Manufacturing, Oklahoma City
Drive Train Specialists, Oklahoma City
Drive Shafts, Inc., Tulsa, OK
Inland Truck Parts, Tulsa, OK
Action Machine, South Bend, IN

Anyhow one clear solution is the 1995 - 2010 police interceptor packaged Crown Victoria which comes factory with an aluminum drive shaft.  These can be found at salvage yards for around $75 to $100.  So you will need to supply the Crown Vic drive shaft, the input yolk to the trans in your car, the rear flat  that bolts to the  on the pinion of the rear end, and the drive shaft shop will provide the adapter u-joints.  The Vic drive shaft will need to be shortened, the correct u-joints installed, and the assembly balanced so plan on another $120 or so for that work.  So all in you might have $220 but that is cheaper than having one built.  As Vinnie and a few others can attest to it takes care of the typical issues (mostly critical speed) with numerically higher rear end gears and steel drive shafts.

Feel free to tack on any other shops or other vehicles that have aluminum drive shafts that can be used to make one for our cars.
18
Suspension/Steering / Brake Booster Pushrod Adjustment - Master Cylinder Swaps
We have gone over a variety of brake swaps on this site from the anemic 10" front disc setup to the less anemic 11" front brakes and then adding on the TC rear disc brake setup and finally to adding the pinnacle of all Fox calipers the SVO/Lincoln 73mm front calipers.  We pretty much know that going from the 10" to 11" front brakes and if we are running the stock drum brakes in the rear a MC (13/16" bore) swap is not necessary as the piston size on the calipers is the same at 60mm.  Now when we up the game to the TC rear brakes (45mm caliper) with the 60 mm front calipers we need to upgrade to a different MC (1" bore).  It is really hard to find the MC piston size anywhere due to the Hydro-boost system and the Teves II  but remember the 1993 Cobra had the same braking system so that is where you find the MC bore diameter for that setup since the Cobra and TC shared the same brakes.  Now when we upgrade to the SVO/Lincoln Mark VII 73mm front calipers a yet a different MC (1-1/8" bore) is once again needed.

This also applies when you install the SN95 V6/GT brakes on one of our cars.  If you are installing the 94/95 GT or 94-98 V6 brakes they came factory with a 1-1/16" bore MC and the 99-2004 V6 cars came factory with a 1" bore MC.  Just in case some folks do not know, in 1996 and up all of the GT and Cobra cars went to hydro-boost and in 2005 all Mustangs used this type of brake boost.  I can tell you from experience that in all of the SN95 braking applications the all around best MC is one with a 1" bore and to utilize the 1993 Cobra booster as it has a Fox bolt pattern and takes very little modification to fit in our cars.

Okay, so with all of that said I see instances where we discuss swapping to another master cylinder due to some kind of brake swap scenario and we discuss soft pedals, hard pedals, lack of brake power, air in the lines, bench bleeding the MC, etc.  The one thing I personally have never thought to bring up is the booster rod adjustment.  This is pretty critical being that if the gap between it and the MC piston is excessively large you will have lots of pedal travel and not much braking power and if there is no gap or tool little gap the booster rod can pre-load the piston and cause the brakes to drag.

I have been taught how to work the math using a straight edge and a caliper (not the brake kind the measuring kind) to correctly adjust the booster push rod.  83TB and I were having this discussion and I was trying to figure out how to explain this without the hands on (that is how I learn the best) so I told him to let me research it and see if I could find it somewhere.  I found it on Maximum Motorsports website on everyone of their master cylinder adapter kit installation instructions.  You can go here and access them and the instructions on how to do this are in the first and second pages:

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Install.aspx

And for the lazier bunch of us here it is:

X

X

Hopefully this will help some folks out as I realized I did do this on my Coupe but did not do this on my Bird when I converted the brakes so I will be checking it this weekend.
19
Drivetrain Tech / 83-86 Floor Shift Conversion - Possible?
I know you can do a floor shift conversion on the 87-88 cars but can this be done on the 83-86 models?  I am not wanting to do one but was curious what the options were for the 83-86 cars that were column shifted cars.  I cannot remember for the life of me if the Turbo Coupes in these years were even offered with an auto or not.
20
General Fox T-Bird/Cougar Discussion / RockAuto Discount Code for 5% Off
Ordered a few parts over the last couple of weeks and got a discount code of 5% off from RockAuto and they said to share it so here it is:

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Thank you for being a RockAuto customer! To show our appreciation, we have a special discount for you. Your discount code is:
5590395949893519

How to Use Your Discount Code:
Enter the code above in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" space on the checkout page (above your payment information). Do not enter any other text in that space or the discount will not apply. Please note: Discount only valid for orders placed online. Code must be entered before order is submitted. The discount takes 5% off our already-low prices. There's no limit on order size or the number of orders. Use the code for your next order, and share the code with anyone you know who works on cars or trucks. This discount code expires on March 5, 2017 so don't wait!

Thanks again for buying your auto parts at RockAuto!

http://www.RockAuto.com[/COLOR]

I know is not a huge discount but they really do have super low pricing to begin with so I will take what I can get.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]Note to the Admin...we need a separate forum for stuff like this so folks can find them and it would be super easy to share them that way.[/COLOR]
21
Drivetrain Tech / Automatic to Manual Conversion - Transmission Tunnel Hump Question
Does anyone know if the transmission tunnel hump from the 79-93 Fox Mustang will work for our cars when converting from a column shift automatic to a manual transmission car?  I guess this would also be for converting over from a column shift car to a floor shift auto as well?  The reason I am asking is that I just cut a hole in the tunnel on my '83 and called it good but I am thinking about reworking it as I think it would seal up better.  LMR has the hump for the 79-93 Fox Mustangs new so if there is not a difference then I was thinking about going that route.

https://lmr.com/products/79-93-Mustang-Manual-Transmission-Tunnel-Hump-Install
22
T-Bird/Cougar Parts & Cars WANTED / 83-84 Door Panels
I need the entire door panels (left and right) for my 83 T-Bird as I used some Cougar panels back in the day and do not like the way the pull strap trim dips down in the back.  I am pretty sure that the 83-84 T-Bird panels are the same where the 85 and up are different.  The ones I am after are like this only I need them complete with the map pocket, armrest pad, etc.  My car has manual windows and manual locks so they are the basic panels.  Color wise I would prefer the charcoal or dark blue as the black interior paint covers those a lot better.  And with that they will be covered with black materials so if there are small cuts, ses, or stains we can still talk some $$$.

X
23
Electrical Tech / Fuel Sending Unit - Float Needed
Anyone know where to get the float for the fuel sending unit for an 83 car?  I think that is what is causing my issues on my car and wanted to have one in hand when I dropped the tank.
25
Miscellaneous For Sale/Wanted / Wanted: 1971 Ford F150 SWB Pickup - Would Prefer a Roller
I am looking at selling my 1993 Mustang Coupe and getting a 1971 Ford F150 SWB pickup that I can rebuild.  My biggest concern is the body and trim items as this will be a resto mod so the driver train, suspension, electrical, etc will be sped.  With that being said I only need a roller but if it is a complete truck I would consider for the right price.  So this is more of "help me locate" kind of post than anything else as our forum is definitely devoted to a totally different kind of beast.  My plans are a street truck with a 2013 F-150 drive train (5.0 Coyote and 6 speed auto) so I can properly haul my Bird when I want to.  Anyhow, any help locating one would be appreciated as I have been looking online but the ones I am finding are either long beds (LWB), rusted out, or have been built to someone else's taste.

Thanks,

Darren
26
Drivetrain Tech / Tremec TKO Will Not Go Into Gear
I took the Bird out for about a ten mile cruise and from the beginning the trans was super notchy going into any gear.  Even for a Tremec TKO is was overly burdensome to get into gear.  As the drive progressed it got to the point where I could not get it into gear at all.  I called the house and had my father bring a jack and some tools to adjust the clutch cable as the car had zero clutch.  After getting it up in the air I saw the nut on the cable backed almost all the way off and there was no jam nut.  This was all my fault as I adjusted the cable but did not install the jam nut so I readjusted the cable.  With only four miles to get back to the house I figured it would make it that far with what I was able to do on the side of the road and I could get it back up on the lift to install the jam nut.  After a little more inspection I saw some wires that appeared to be broken clutch cable wires so I hoped that it would make it back to the shop where I had a spare clutch cable.  Needless to say I got it back to the shop and just barely as I could only get it into 4th as again I had little to zero clutch.  I will say that slipping the clutch at 4,500 rpm and leaving off two red lights in 4th was only possible with the 351W and the 4.10 gears.  I got it up on the lift and found out what was going on, the clutch cable was toast.  The wires that I saw were not the cable strands but the wires under the clutch cable sheathing.  It was hard to determine what these wires were on the side of the road as I had previously wrapped the lower portion of the cable in header wrap.  When I got it back to the house and and pulled the cable it was very apparent what was going on.  Here is a picture of the old cable next to the new one:



I also purchased a firewall adjuster as I could never get one on the car with the stock T-Bird booster.  With the SN95 booster it fits like one would expect:



I went ahead and pulled the X-Pipe, the collectors off the headers, and driver shaft to remove the transmission as it had a fluid leak.  I suspected it was the seal between the tail housing and the case as that is where it was dripping.  We pulled the two inspection plates on the top of the transmission and immediately found the leak.  The forward inspection plate lost its seal at some point and the fluid was running on top of the trans and found its way to the tail housing to case joint and ran down the tranny so that is an easy fix.  We looked over the internals and about the only issue we found was the 1-2 & 3-4 shift fork pads were boarder line on needing replacement so I ordered new ones as well as some new GM synchromesh fluid.

We are going to have to pull the tail housing off the tranny to change the shifter fork pads so I decided to look around to see if anyone made a 6 tooth speedo drive gear for the output shaft of a Tremec TKO.  With the 4.10 gears and the stock 7 tooth drive gear in the TKO I am having to run a 23 tooth driven gear which is not optimal.  I found one thread on the Corral where a guy had to modify a T-5 speedo drive gear to fit the larger diameter TKO output shaft which I thought to be sketchy at best.  The T-5 speedo drive gear slides onto a splined section of the T-5 output shaft.  This guy used a Dremel to make the ID of the T-5 speedo drive gear larger to fit the bigger output shaft of the TKO.  The TKO has a 1-3/8" diameter output shaft and the ID of the original 7 tooth speedo drive gear is smooth.  I did some serious searching on the net and I think that Tremec is simply using the speedo drive gear design from the old Ford Toploaders as they have 1-3/8" output shafts and the speedo drive gears have smooth ID's.  I am not 100% sure but I went ahead and purchased a new 6 tooth drive gear for the Toploader and a 19 tooth driven gear for the VSS.  I will know more about this in the next couple of days and will post up with some pictures.

Hopefully all of this will solve my shifting issues and I can get back to the custom instrument cluster I have been working on.  When that it finished I will start a thread on that as the 83-84 cars are not as friendly so this mod as the 85-88 cars due to the really narrow instrument cluster.

Darren
27
Miscellaneous For Sale/Wanted / Auto Meter Gauges For Sale - SOLD
I have the following 2-5/8" Auto Meter gauges out of my T-Bird for sale:

(1) Autometer Sport Comp 3521 (silver bezel black face) 0-100 psig oil pressure gauge (electric) with sender & fittings, light bulb assembly, and installation hardware - $30
(1) Autometer Sport Comp 3532 (silver bezel black face) 60 - 240 Degree F temperature gauge (electric) with sender & fittings, light bulb assembly, and installation hardware - $30
(1) Autometer Sport Comp 3561 (silver bezel black face) 0 - 15 psig fuel pressure gauge (electric digital stepper) with sender, wiring harness, light bulb assembly, and installation hardware - $175

The first two were bought on 11/16/1993 from Summit and I still have the original receipt for them.  The third one I bought in 09/04/2012 from Chicane23.com and I have the receipt for that one also.  All three of these gauges just came out of my T-Bird and all were verified working when I started the new 351W.  I pulled them out as I need 2-1/16" gauges to put into a custom dash cluster.  The last one is pretty high dollar but it was never put into service until I fired the 351W a couple of weeks ago.  I ship USPS priority mail so Shipping will be $6 each or if you buy two or all three it will be $12 due to the size of the box needed for two or more.

Here are some pictures of what I am offering:

Temperature Gauge
   

Oil Pressure Gauge
   

Fuel Pressure Gauge
   

Darren
28
Engine Tech / 83-84 Heater Core Replacement - Addiditonal Information to the CoolCats Tech Article
I got around to replacing the second heater core in my 83 over the last three days (did a lot of other things while I had the dash apart) and I used some of the info over on CoolCats but the tech article there is around the 85-88 dash which is a bit different than the 83-84 dash.  I wanted to post up some of the differences (with pictures) that I came across.  And if Eric reads this just PM me and I can send you the pictures if you want to add them to your site.

To remove the dash pad there are a total of ten screws that need to be removed.  There are two down in each windshield heater vent as seen here:

 

Then there is one on each side of the dash pad.  My dash pad has been covered so you cannot see where they are located but they would be located in just about the middle of the upholstered part and look like the second picture:

 

Then there are four screw that attach the dash pad to the dash trim panels, two on the driver side and two on the passenger side.  This is the one on the driver side to the far left to give you and idea of what you are looking for:



The lower braces behind the kick panels and the center dash brace on the passenger side that you get to through the glove compartment is the same as on the 85-88 cars so refer to the article on CoolCats for those.  The 83-84 also has a center dash brace on the driver side but it connects to the bottom of the dash as seen here:



On the 85-88 dash there are only three screws on the top of the dash where there are five on the 83-84 dash.  There are two on either side of each dash speaker and one in the center (look for the phillips head screws) as seen here:

   

There are three machine screws and four nuts that hold the air box in the car.  One machine screw is self tapping and is at the bottom of the air box in the passenger foot well as seen here:



Then there are two machine screws that attach the air box to the fire wall at the base of the wind shield which are identical to the image shown on the CoolCats write up so I'm not going to post pics of those.  The AC acspoogeulator/dryer is in the engine bay and it will need to be removed from the bracket that affixes it to the fire wall.  This bracket is on two studs that are part of the air box.  Once you remove the AC acspoogeulator/dryer from the bracket there are two nuts that affix the bracket to the studs.  Remove the nuts and remove the bracket.  Now you will see two washered nuts that will need to be removed so that the air box can be removed.  I already have the AC acspoogeulator/dryer removed here:



And now the bracket is removed as well as the two washered nuts:



So from this point you have the dash pried back and the air box dropped and you are ready to remove the five machine screws that hold the heater core cover onto the air box.  When you remove the cover it may take some gentile prying but be patient and pry at multiple locations.  Once you get it off then as it states in the CoolCats article you need to clean all of the old seal off the air box and the cover.

I elected to use a butal rope as my new seal because it worked so well the last time and was super easy to clean up this time.  You can see it installed on the air box and the cover in these pictures:



Here is the new core installed in the air box and the inlet and outlet are through the rubber/foam seal for the fire wall:



And with the cover installed:



From here its reversing the removal procedure to reinstalled everything.  Only piece of advise here is watch all the wires and don't pinch anything.

One thing I noticed with the new Ford heater core is that the inlet and outlet were kind of flimsy.  You can see how the outlet is different on the old heater core as they soldered it to the body as a stiffener.  I took the new one to a radiator shop and they used some copper tubing to brace up the inlet and outlet on the new one and then tanked it to make sure it still held pressure.  This picture has the old heater core on the left and the new one on the right:



Here is what the radiator shop did to stiffen them up and it worked very well:



I also installed the flow restricter in the inlet hose as this keeps the heater core from popping due to high rpms.  I did not take a picture of it installed as my setup is way different than most but here is the Ford and Late Model Restoration part numbers:



I got the heater core for about $85 shipped and here is the Ford part number for the heater core:



Hope this helps someone out later down the road and if you have any questions post up and I will try to help out.

Darren
29
Electrical Tech / List of EEC-IV Processors for MAF Conversion
I am pretty sure this list is complete but if any corrections are needed let me know and I will revise.  I scoured several Mustang sites and several tuner sites and finally started seeing enough of the same thing here and there that I feel comfortable with publishing the list.  I am not saying it is 100% correct but it is as far as I know.

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Manual Transmisstion EEC-IV's:
A9L - 88-92 5.0 Mustang
A9M - 89-93 5.0 Mustang
D3D1 - 89-93 5.0 Mustang
S0Z - 89-93 5.0 Mustang
A3M - 93 5.0 Mustang
A3M1 - 93 5.0 Mustang
A3M2 - 93 5.0 Mustang

Automatic Transmission EEC IV's:
A9P - 89-92 5.0 Mustang
A9T - 89-93 5.0 Mustang
C3W - 93 5.0 Mustang
C3W1 - 93 5.0 Mustang

California Mustang EEC-IV's:
A9S - 88-93 5.0 Mustang
8LF - 88-93 5.0 Mustang
8LD - 88-93 5.0 Mustang

Cobra Mustang EEC-IV:
X3Z - 93 5.0 Mustang[/COLOR] [COLOR="#FF0000"](24lb injectors with OEM calibrated MAF)[/COLOR]

With that I would strong caution that the California EEC be not used unless you are going to use an editor as they have some inherent programming in them to deal with CA's emissions laws.  The same goes for the Cobra's EEC as it was specifically meant for that car unless you can come up with the matching OEM MAF and 24lb/hr injectors.

Under the manual transmission list you will see the A3M family and under the Auto list you will see the C3W family which show 93 only.  This is due to them being the replacement EEC offered by the dealerships.  So for example, if you would have brought in a 1991 5.0 Mustang with a T-5 and the A9L EEC was fried the Ford dealer would have most likely replaced it with an A3M processor.

I did this as I see a few guys going MAF and it seems like everyone thinks that the only processors out there are the A9L and A9P and those that have them want a mint for them.  We still should not be paying over $100 for a working unit and yes they can be found for this on the Mustang forums.  I typically have much better luck on the "local" Mustang forums than on the "national" ones like the Corral as those get jumped on really fast.

Darren
30
Miscellaneous For Sale/Wanted / F/S: Black 16 GB i-Phone 4S Factory Unlocked - AT&T
I have the original box with original unused ear buds, home charger, car charger, and Otter box. The Otter box comes with an extra belt clip. This phone has always been in the Otter box and is in excellent condition.  I recently got the phone unlocked through AT&T so now the phone is unlocked and will work with any carrier that uses a SIM card. I have a screen shot of the conformation of the phone being unlocked by AT&T and will provide that with the phone as well. Price is $200 firm plus shipping which I think I can do for about $5 via USPS.

 

 

 


Darren