Skip to main content
Topic: Chuck's '83 TBird (Read 70639 times) previous topic - next topic

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #180
OK, back under the car to measure a couple things and scope out that lateral brace.

I have this that I chopped off of the original cross brace


Sorry for the pic quality. Hard to get a decent shot from under the car like this.

Now I have 2 options on the lateral brace for the panhard chassis bracket. I could go all the way over to the opposite frame rail, but there are a couple issues.


I can't get a clear shot straight at the rail. It hits the PS axle bracket, and is wedged up against that fuel tank mount.
If I want to use that original frame mount bracket, in its intended location, I'll need to chop out more of that tank mount to get it there (This was the primary issue with using the chassis  bracket as-is.)

Meh.

Option 2 (Not going to use that round AL bar, but the piece of square tubing was too long to try and deal with in this instance)


If I hit a spot on that extra brace I welded i, just this side of the axle bracket, I won't need to cut any extra stuff out on that tank mount. Weld a couple tabs on either side of that frame brace, attach a bolt tube on the end of this lateral piece, and bolt it to those tabs. I would need a slight bend on the tube on the DS to get things lined up properly, but not all that much, really.

If there was a concern about flex in that extra frame brace, I could always weld a support up to the piece that's welded in between the shock towers :hick:


I'm kind of liking the shorter, Option 2.

Looking at the RUCA mount


Basically, my reference point is right in the middle there, of the stock bolt hole location. To line things up with the axle brackets, the inboard tab would need to be about where that exhaust hanger bracket turns up.

I could very easily make mounting tabs and weld them to the floor/frame. If I wanted to brace them frame-to-frame, I'd have to either cut through the floor, or run a smaller tube over the top of the diff/driveshaft hump, just to make sure I had clearance.


I also scoped out the needed length for the upper links (12.25-12.375") so I can get those sourced.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #181
Silly chassis engineers and fabricators.
It's Gumby's fault.

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #182
Got a little bit of time in the garage this evening. Got a bunch of  from both rear ends that isn't going to be used off of the workbench and got things cleaned up for the next round of work.

Got the DS of the chassis bracket adjusted so the panhard bar mount locations on each side of the car are in line with each other.

Then I chopped up some leftover motor mount bracketry to make the PS mount for the panhard chassis bracket.



This will be welded to that extra frame brace under the car, and the lateral brace tube will be welded to that bolt tube.

I'm going to have to make my own upper links, so I ordered some of the bits for that.

This weekend I'm going to try and get that lateral brace tube fabbed and tacked in place and lengthen one of the original links from the kit. I need something to hold the rear in the proper orientation, so I can run it through its full range of motion, to check for clearances, etc.

If I have enough time, I'm going to cut out the DS RUCA chassis mount, in preparation for building the new brackets there.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #183
I eagerly await your solution Chuck, just make it easy enough that I can duplicate it easily!
One 88

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #184
Well, seeing that the weather is marginal around here today, I spent a couple hours in the garage making some headway.

I almost changed my mind about the lateral brace, and seriously thought about taking it over fully to the PS frame rail. I could get a straight shot, but would have to cut out some of the inner bulkhead on that tank mount.

In the end (and after bouncing ideas off Gumby), I went ahead with my plan of using the shorter route.



I have this guy, and while not the best for doing a lot of serious bending, it gets the job done for things like this.


In the end, I wound up with this.



Need to do all of the finish welding, and add a couple of small gussets at the bend.

The attachment on the DS is going to have one bolt through the frame and a bolt into this nut plate dropped into the frame from the trunk.


I lengthened one of the original upper links from the kit, so now I'll be able to run the suspension throughout its range to see where problems might be, before I get any farther along.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #185
Got back in the garage for a short bit to check some clearances.

With everything fully compressed, the panhard axle bracket doeshiznit the tank mount, pretty much right as the axle hits the bumpstop.


Shouldn't need too much clearancing. The upper link axle brackets are about 1/4"-3/8" from hitting that crossbar that the panhard chassis bracket is attached to, so I may trim off the top of those brackets, just for a little more breathing room.

The main reason I wanted to do this was to check on how much room I had above the diff/driveshaft.




I've got over 3" of room over the snout of the diff, so it looks like I have a reasonable amount of room to weld in that crossbar between the framerails, to allow me a good solid spot to attach my new RUCA chassis mounts. I'm thinking some 1.5" dia, 0.120" wall tubing should be sufficient. I can tuck it right up there where the seat belt mount points are and it looks like a slight bend on each end will take it down to the frame rails. That should also put me right behind where I need to attach the brackets for the RUCA mounts.

The next task is going to be the un-fun process of cutting out that DS RUCA mount, while lying on my back under the car...
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #186
OK, well it was kind of a busy week, so I had limited time in the garage until the weekend.

I did get the panhard chassis bracket all welded up, so that is ready for finishing.

Today I tackled the big PITA of removing the stock DS RUCA bracket. I really wish I had a plasma cutter.

Kinda sucked working around the rear end, etc with the cut-off wheel, but I eventually got it out of there.



No turning back now...

It would've been easier, had I been able to locate the spot welds, but the paint and other crud just made it impossible to find them.

maybe I'll have better luck when I get to the pass side.

I still need to clean things up a bit, and patch up a couple holes, but that's all cosmetic stuff. The new suspension mounting points won't be attached to the sheetmetal at all.


Still waiting for my upper link parts to show up, so I can get things mocked up and layout the new brackets and crossbar.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #187
Busy week, having to deal with  weather and then having to fix both of my drivers the past couple days.

Got into the garage for a short bit today.

Mocked up an new upper link, only to find that I had the wrong LH weld bung. Somehow I wound up with one for a 1.125" dia tube and not 1.25".

Still I was able to get the measurement for the tube and lay things out for a look-see.




Going to put the poly end on the chassis side.

I also messed with some s tubing, checking where the new RUCA mounts will be. I have a preliminary plan, but I need that proper LH weld bung to mock things up properly. After that, I need to get the axle out of my way, so I can get the rest of the stock upper bracketry cut out.

Seeing as I got stymied by the wrong parts, I popped the hood to look at the headlight conversion (H4s). The stuff I got from Eric is pretty straight-forward, but I want to re-evaluate my power distribution a bit.

Looking at something like THIS for a nice contained set-up. I've got about 3 inline fuse holders already that I want to get rid of, and I'll be adding the new headlight circuits, as well as (FINALLY) the foglamp circuit.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #188
Going poly on the chassis end for less noise/vibration?
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #189
Quote from: thunderjet302;468689
Going poly on the chassis end for less noise/vibration?

Pretty much. The lowers are poly on one end, with a (hard) rubber rod end on the other.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #190
Quote from: Chuck W;468692
Pretty much. The lowers are poly on one end, with a (hard) rubber rod end on the other.

The one thing I dislike about my MM RLCA is, with the spherical bushings on each end, that quite a bit of driveline noise makes it to the cabin. In hindsight I should have gone with the version that has poly bushings on the chassis end.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #191
Not much to report.

Still waiting on parts that were ordered to finish the upper links (The idiots sent them to my old address...even though they JUST sent me an order to my current address a week before) and dealing with the tedium of cutting out the factory RUCA brackets.

I did pick up material to build my new RUCA cross-brace, so that's headway, I guess.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #192
At least you are working on the old Bird. I'm waiting til Spring to get back to wrenching.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #193
Quote from: vinnietbird;468837
At least you are working on the old Bird. I'm waiting til Spring to get back to wrenching.

Well, I haven't done much to it in years. It's due.

Seeing as I'm waiting on parts and tools to do more work on the back of the car, I moved to the front, to start digging into the lighting upgrade.

As you recall, I bought Eric's old H4 Conversion Kit earlier last year. My car is still running the original lighting set-up and it's bad enough that I can't run the high-beams w/o overheating the light switch. That's not going to cut it.

So, the easy way to do this was just to unplug the old lights and pull the connectors out of the way, run the new harness, make 4 wiring connections, and be done with it.

That's the easy way. Stupid me has other ideas.

I went ahead and liberated the stock harness from the car.

 
The plan is to remove the stock wiring for the headlights and replace it with the larger gauge wiring from the new harness.



Then I'm going to bundle it all back together.



That male connector is what connects to the DS of the stock harness into the original bulb socket. It acts as a trigger for the power relays for each of the Lo and Hi beam circuits.

I will probably replace that connection with a better connector. Like a Weather Pack, or similar.

Those relays are probably fine, as they are, but I've got a new relay/power box coming that is going to house all of the lighting relays, as well as the fan relay, plus a couple other circuits that are currently just with in-line fuses in the engine bay. So, I'll probably run the wiring for the relays into this new distribution box, to clean things up.

More on all of that when it arrives.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

Chuck's '83 TBird

Reply #194
Got the upper links welded over the weekend.

Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo