Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #225 – July 01, 2019, 09:21:42 AM I am running an extra clutch in mine with the F150 "Z" spring. Was a little chirpy around corners at first but it settled in and has worked great for the last 10 or so years. Realize I haven't put more than 10,000 miles on it in that time.The control arm cross mount looks really good. Be curious to hear your feedback on how the car handles once you get it dialed in. Quote Selected Last Edit: July 01, 2019, 09:22:16 AM by Aerocoupe
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #226 – July 01, 2019, 11:01:51 AM We'll see what happens with the diff. I may not ever notice a difference. :pThis car has needed a real rear suspension for years.I modified the front end geometry almost 20 years ago now... Quote Selected 1 Likes
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #227 – July 01, 2019, 11:06:52 AM Better late than never! Just to think I've had my car close to 15 years Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #228 – July 01, 2019, 03:20:21 PM This rear suspension is definitely different than any Fox car I have seen which is a few but not 100's or anything like what you have seen over your career. Maybe I missed it other than you had most of the parts but what is it about this suspension that you like or what you expect out of it? So hard to quantify suspension performance from one setup to another. Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #229 – July 01, 2019, 09:00:44 PM Quote from: Aerocoupe – on July 01, 2019, 03:20:21 PMThis rear suspension is definitely different than any Fox car I have seen which is a few but not 100's or anything like what you have seen over your career. Maybe I missed it other than you had most of the parts but what is it about this suspension that you like or what you expect out of it? So hard to quantify suspension performance from one setup to another.I was mainly looking to un-splay the uppers and get a panhard bar on there (or some other way to lower the rear roll center). I knew I was going to have to modify whatever I started with, and this was cheap.The uppers in this kit kinda sucked, and seeing as I needed to make new ones, I made them adjustable and took the liberty of moving the attachment points around to help offset how low the car is.Also, the front roll center is probably lower than it needs to be, but I was playing around and copying what we were doing at KB's on the front susp geometry. Why? Because I could. It's not a perfect set-up by any means, but it should do what I want in respect of trying to balance the car out a bit. Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #230 – August 18, 2019, 09:02:00 AM Been messing around with this thing, as time's allowed between life and other projects.The diff is ready to go back in, but before I did that, I wanted to deal with the mounting of a couple bits to the axle beforehand.Since I needed to stay with the lower RCLA rear location, I was re-installing the oold KB axle brackets.DS went fine.PS, not so much.Needed to make a slight modification to get everything to play nice together.Now to get the diff installed and work on getting the axle bearings and brake stuff mounted. Quote Selected 3 Likes
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #231 – September 01, 2019, 10:31:40 PM OK, well after fighting with getting the pinion bearing preload correct, I was finally able to get the diff installed and that all buttoned up.After that, I decided to dig out the brake parts I've had sitting in the shelf for a while.Take a close look at that shipping date...Yep.From there I try and bolt the caliper slider brackets on and find them hitting the rotor, on opposite sides.Looking closer...The hell?!? Yes, the caliper mounting brackets are bent. Both are bent in mirrored images of each other. It's hard to get a picture of, but you can for sure see it when you look at them when unbolted from the axle.I'm going to see if I can tweak them back in line. If not, I guess I'll need to come up with another set.I have no idea how they got bent like that. I honestly don't remember where I got them. I've probably had them longer than the brake rotors... Quote Selected Last Edit: September 01, 2019, 10:32:27 PM by Chuck W 1 Likes
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #232 – September 02, 2019, 11:31:51 PM That's messed up. But at least you figured it out before going too crazy. Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #233 – September 03, 2019, 08:23:31 AM Wow.Crazy that they are both bent. Did the fixture slip for welding them on? Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #234 – September 03, 2019, 08:47:40 AM Quote from: Mikey97D – on September 03, 2019, 08:23:31 AMWow.Crazy that they are both bent. Did the fixture slip for welding them on?The bolt-on brackets for the calipers are both bent. Nothing welded here. Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #235 – September 03, 2019, 09:00:59 AM Chuck,Are they the TC or SN95 brackets or custom? Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #236 – September 03, 2019, 09:03:53 AM SN-95, for the Cobra brakes. Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #237 – September 03, 2019, 02:43:22 PM How did they get bent like that? Quote Selected
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #238 – September 03, 2019, 04:02:54 PM Quote from: thunderjet302 – on September 03, 2019, 02:43:22 PMHow did they get bent like that?I couldn't tell you. The only thing that I can guess is whatever car they came from was hammered pretty hard.I spent some time today massaging the brackets with a 20-ton press. Got both sides straight again.I may add some thin shim washers between the slider brackets and the axle mounts,just to center things up a little better, but at least the twist is gone. Quote Selected Last Edit: September 03, 2019, 06:18:48 PM by Chuck W 3 Likes
Re: Chuck's '83 TBird Reply #239 – October 01, 2019, 10:04:40 AM So, things have been a little busy the past month. My weekends have been tied up with cyclocross racing since the beginning of Sept, and well, we had our second kid on Sept 1st. In and around all of that, between house projects, other vehicle projects, etc, I've had limited time to really mess with this.However, little things are happening here and there.After sorting out the bent brake caliper brackets, I needed to get a couple more parts and then fab up some brake line brackets.Grabbed a few bits of s from around the garage, and *insert sounds of cutting, drilling, welding* we have these.At this point, all I really need to do is seal and install the diff cover, and we're ready to stick the rearend back under the car.Then I get to try and fit a 3" tail pipe around the rear susp stuff, and see what other things I missed during the mock-up. Quote Selected 3 Likes