Skip to main content
Topic: BlueBird (Read 39712 times) previous topic - next topic

BlueBird

Reply #75
First shot off the stands

X

Not bad! But it does look a bit like I have commitment issues. I mean, am I lowering this car, or not??
Another 1/4 coil off the rear TC springs, 1.5 coils total.

X
X

Much better :evilgrin:
Up next brakes, and alignment. I pulled the stock MC and made a list of fittings needed to swap the 15/16" sn95 Cobra MC I still have from the white car.
Konis and T5 clutch parts are on the way.
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #76
Looking pretty good!
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

BlueBird

Reply #77
Looking good. Still have the stock rear control arms?
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

BlueBird

Reply #78
That's a great looking car. I want another Bird.
'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..

BlueBird

Reply #79
Quote from: thunderjet302;467572
Are you going to change out the stock rear control arms while you're swapping the rear axle?


Quote from: gumby;467577
No. The main goal for this round of suspension work is to get the car back on the road and somewhat presentable ... I know they will get upgraded down the road and I do not want to be double purchasing a bunch of parts. When I get into the major suspension redo, I will handle control arms at all corners.


Quote from: thunderjet302;468382
Looking good. Still have the stock rear control arms?

Yeah....:toilet:
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #80
Christ. I should have gone back and reread :hick:
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

BlueBird

Reply #81
A couple package deliveries later, I have more parts on the car

Front Konis
X

Cutting and flaring lines in the engine bay sucks while the engine is still installed...
X

I also made up a couple brackets for the rear flex hoses at the calipers
X
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #82
Here they are installed, and you see the rear Konis too

X
X

I kept the right axle tube mounted chassis hose and reused the axle hard lines from the original 7.5
The new brackets hold the connection between the new caliper flex hoses and the shortened hard lines.

It's pretty tedious bleeding brakes solo when you forget the racecar bleeder bottles at work, but I got it done enough to take a short test drive from the flat stall onto the lift.
X
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #83
Going up! Time to start soaking exhaust fasteners and scheming plans for some more of these parts I bought

X

X

X
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #84
Quote from: gumby;468492
I also made up a couple brackets for the rear flex hoses at the calipers
X

I'm going to need to do that too.

Progress looks good!

What engine is in this thing?
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

BlueBird

Reply #85
Cfi 3.8
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

 

BlueBird

Reply #86
I had a kinda lazy week. I had a few hours that I should have spent in the shop, which were wasted away watching live timing from The Chili Bowl.... I did get out there last night while we didn't have any drivers competing and started easing my way into this T5 swap.

87 CFI 3.8 as stated above. So far I have collected:
  • sn95 T5 and v6 bellhousing
  • '83 F100 3.8 flywheel(same part number as 5.8L) 164T, 28oz
  • '83 F100 10" clutch
  • '96 F150 5.8L manual trans starter
  • Fox pedals
  • Clutch cable
  • Hurst shifter
All my research, mostly here on FTBCF, says this should be the correct combination of parts to complete the mission. We are going to find out together!

First things first, I gotta get rid of that green speedo drive gear
X

With any decent rear gear ratio, and my 275/40-17 tires, the green(8T) drive gear requires a 21 or even 23T driven gear. 23T driven gears are notorious for self destructing and should be generally avoided if at all possible. Thankfully, my junk pile contains various remnants of T5. Notable here is that the turbo 4cyl T5 received a black(6T) speedo drive gear while most 5.0 and n/a 2.3 T5's got a yellow(7T) gear.

It just so happens that the majority of my junk pile is 2.3T leftovers :hick:
X

With that done, I turned attention to the rest of the sn95 T5. Now normally, I am the guy your mother warned you about, and I will toss an unknown jy T5 in a car just to find out if it is any good. They are simple enough to swap, and if they are good to go as is, I don't ever really need to open the case....ever.
Even I have my limits, however....three different colors of RTV is too many! I had to open it up and double check things since it was on the bench and I already had the tailshaft housing off. I found a broken bolt in the top cover, and as expected, the red RTV wasn't under the top cover at all, just smeared on the outside attempting to stop whatever leak was present from the lack of clamping force on the one corner.
Guts look good. Pads on the shift forks even look great. Drilled out the broken bolt and retapped the hole. I cleaned all the mating surfaces and then realized I was out of black RTV.

Then my keg ran out of beer! I called it a night and shut everything down.
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #87
My mother always did warm me about guys like you.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo

BlueBird

Reply #88
Ugh, what a fight. No tool access, corrosion, stock junk in the way that I had forgotten about because it has been so long since I had a stock Tbird(and never a column shift car before).

But I won
X
gumby - beauty may fade, but stupid is forever!

BlueBird

Reply #89
These are the worst.

Are you reusing that for now?
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo