I appreciate it.

I know it's not high performance related, but I have a/c on my car that was not working for quite a while. since I swapped the engine. I wanted to also relocate the a/c lines a bit.

I picked up my kit today, and got to work. Things went well and I just have to test and fill the system now.

After driving a little more this weekend, it was apparent that the rack needed a little more tweaking.

I jacked it up tonight after work, and found that the preload on the front wheel bearings was just a little loose. That was a bit of a surprise, so I tightened up that a bit more.

Next was onto the steering rack, and adjusted it a little more.

After taking it for a test drive, I think it is really close now. I might have to adjust the toe in a little. I set it at 1/16 but it feels like it might be at zero.

I also want to review the caster and camber, just in case.

I have a bit of a line leak, that is introducing air into the system, and causing a little bit of steering pump groaning noise. I think I have one tracked down, and will try and see if I can find other possible leak areas tomorrow night

Set up the car for alignment last night, so it did not take me too long to get started on checking the settings.
The caster and camber were a little different from side to side, plus the TCP alignment specs use a little more aggressive caster with the power rack, than I had before (i think)

I really like the TCP upper control arms for the caster camber adjustment. It's pretty easy once the camber is set to slightly tweak the UCA to get the desired caster

One side done, it will be easy to do the other tomorrow night, then recheck the toe. Hopefully equalizing the two sides and the toe in recheck will make it further refined

wow Doug, allot of changes since the last time I looked at this, you are really moving along!

Joe

Thanks Joe

I've been tweaking things a bit over the last few weeks after coming off of the week long flu.

There was some clattering of the 3" exhaust on the chassis over the rear axle, so I did a bit of fitting and clearancing
That worked well. It's still a little noisier that I like (must be getting old) so I am planning on adding some resonator tubes on the tailpipes

I had some more tweaking on the steering to do as well. After centering the rack, the steering wheel itself was not centered. I pulled it off today and rotated it a couple splines, and it's dead center now.
I also found the grant adapter was a little loose for some reason. This added a tiny bit of looseness to the steering. I tightened that up, and the TCP rack steering is feeling really fantastic after a couple quick drives.

I have a little longer drive planned tonight still. Should be good, I think.

The last thing I have to work on, is the fan belt system. I've done the best that I can. It seems like it is just not able to work well under the low speed demands of the steering. I hate the belt groaning, so I am going to get a serpentine system of some sort.

I just have to make certain this fits between the radiator and the fan ;)
Bummer that I have to change the pulley on the KRC pump

If its really "groaning" that is almost for sure something in the P/S system, not the belt. IF the belt was mis-aligned or slipping it would be "squealing".

its your car so you know better than me but something to think about. I seem to remember something about theose TCP racks that maybe the servo groans a bit at low speed load but that is a very vague memory. Generally groaning, besides a plain old worn out pump, can be cause by air bubbles getting introduced into the reservoir, but this is usually an issue with aftermarket style tanks with the return hose coming in above the fluid level or similar. But I think you still have a FoMoCo style OEM pump in which case it would just be something worn out maybe. Just a suggestion as belts are not usually described as groaning and you mentinoed it happens under steering load.

Thanks for your suggestion, Preston.

I have a vacuum pump for testing for leaks, and although I had a small early leak in the system, I see no more aeration of the fluid. I will have to get someone to spin the wheel for me, so I can observe.
It only happens under low engine rpm under turning and usually when the engine is warmed up.

Planning on doing a bit more tweaking on the steering system this weekend, since I have some sunny weather.

I think that maybe the power steering fluid is getting aerated as the car drives and gets warmed up (ie does not make any groaning noises when cold) I don't see any foaming in the fluid. One would think if there is any air in the system, the ps pump would make noise constantly cold or warm.

Next I'll be tackling the steering toe adjustment. The rack and pinion system has a really great feel. I think I will revisit the whole spec for the alignment. In particular the toe.
They suggest a neutral toe, for cornering, and toe in for straight line performance. I "feel" a little darty in the corners, so want to check where the toe is once again, now that I've driven for a bit. Recheck all the fasteners.

Then I guess it's almost time for the oil change and transmission change.

Finally the pace a t work is winding down, and I think I'll have the energy at night to do this lol

niiiiiiiiiiiiice
 

This thing is awesome.. I could swear I was subscribed to the thread, but apparently not! Hope to see this thing in person on the streets one day!

Cheers,
Joe

Thanks very much for your comments, Joel . It feels like if I can iron out the steering noise issue, quiet down the evil exhaust a little and install the t56, it will be a kind of good looking, semi-refined, and very evil road car lol

I have some work to do this spring though ;)

For some unknown reason the engine has been rough running the paste 2 weekends. I think it's the carb. maybe needs even a cleaning on the idle circuit. I turned up the idle speed a little bit, but I still think the carb needs cleaning.

The settings seemed to be good last night when I checked.

I just picked up a quick fuel rebuild kit. The sales person was recommending a regulator to keep the fuel pressure a bit lower for the quick fuel carb

So are there any good videos on cleaning a quick-fuel type carb out there?

I got antsy last night and started taking off the float bowls and metering blocks

I didn't want to disassemble the whole carb.

The idle air mixture screw seals that were on the carb, I'd say were suspect. SO was the power valve gasket.

I replaced the accelerator pump diaphragms, metering block gaskets, power valve gaskets, and IAMS Seals.

After doing all that, I wasn't really sure what to expect, other than say that I was hopeful.

Took it out of the garage and went about setting up the IAMS. After not too long, it was running better, and I kept doing minor adjustments, until I have it pretty good I think.

I want to really tackle the power valve vs the cam I have now, to see if I can knock the surging down a little. I think I might have to look at the vacuum gauge as I am driving, to set it up right

In an effort to iron out some rough idling issues and better tune the carb, I finally installed the Air Fuel meter that I had ordered a couple of years ago and had sitting in my garage.

I did get the Qickfuel carb to idle and transition better, but I think I have a little more work to do.

The next task is getting the evil sounding 487 FE to be less deafening while driving. I added resonator tubes to the exhaust a few years ago. Today I found out they are called Helmholtz pipes, or resonators.

I used a 3 bolt style header flange to bolt the resonators on with, so I can change sizes and vary the resonator size and pipes until I get it right. (hopefully I can get it right)

Finished the resonators tonight. They worked perfectly. The deafening sound inside the car is gone, and the exhaust note on the outside of the car is virtually the same.

Next on the agenda is some revised soundproofing in the doors, then any other suspect areas, like the firewall.

Then I think after that, it's on to the T56 Magnum conversion. I have everything, but I think I am going to pull the trigger on a sequential shifter. More on this in the coming weeks. The transmission and shifter change is a big one, with that work, the overhead and floor console will have to be redesigned.

I am also going to revise the gauges, adding two in the overhead console and changing the gauge layout in the lower console.

Since years ago, when I first did my own custom consoles, I have added carbon fiber skills to the toolkit, so it should be fun, being creative.

The doors have been completed for soundproofing.

On the drivetrain front, it looks very much like I am ordering a sequential shifter for the T-56 magnum. More on this later, I am hoping to get some custom engraving on the shifter handle as well.

Should be fun and fast shifting ;-)

Been working on the transmission change over the past couple weeks, much to the chagrin of my wife.

She asked me, when are you going to be finished working on that car?
"Never" lol

Anyway, I picked up the plate for dialing in the bell housing (something a little more difficult on the T56, and I did not want to disassemble the transmission front.)

I am fabricating the transmission mount. This is much more challenging on a lowered car as well. There are a whole bunch of little things that I need to do.

I figured out the ideal gear ratio I wanted was somewhere between a 3.25 and 3.50. Thay make a 3.40 for a ford 9", but I'm not too sure if it is a crazy straight cut gear that is a lot noisier. I don't know if I want to trade engine rpm for a constant gear whine at 80 mph on long highway drives

I have the driveshaft sent out for shortening. I have one set of offset dowels, so if the bell housing is not off by much, hopefully by this upcoming weekend, I'll have it more or less ready to go.

I want to figure out how to wiring up a neutral safety switch for this transmission. Unlike the TKO, it does not have one.

I heard from the sequential shifter manufacturer. Sounds like they are closing in on being finished my custom shifter.

That should be pretty exciting. Once I install that, I plan on completely redoing my earlier iteration of my custom console. Rather than having a shifter boot, I want to design a seal at the floorpan, so I can show off the custom milling and shifter design.

The Bremer sequential shifter arrived today.
My choice for this shifter was as much to do about the aesthetics as it was the function of the shifter.
The team at Bremer was also able to accommodate my request for custom engraving of the shifter with my lettering.

It will be a few days before the install, maybe longer as I have a few calibration items to do, after changing gear ratios, then configuring the floor console to fit the new shifter.

On unpacking the shifter and giving it the once over, I have to say it is an incredibly designed and machined piece of equipment.
I'd expect that the mechanism and internals are equally precise.
It's really top notch.

I plan to redesign my new console around the shifter itself. It'd be a shame to hide all this great work. I just have to design a seal at the floor pan, that fits the shifter itself.

It looks like it''s made for the space shuttle! nice

Thanks!

I am upgrading the rear brakes and with the upgrade thinking about changing caliper colours (from the red that's on the car now) to something else. I am considering yellow, gold, blue or a more vivid red, or keep the same red.

Just trying to think of also what will go with the blue, and maybe be a little more unique. One of the colours that I think could look good is gold as well.

Blue kind of blends into the background, and I was thinking of a colour that pops a bit more.

Opinions?

A little bit of catch up

Changed out the headlights to LED Motorcycle headlights.
This was a lot of work, and involved heavily modifying all 4 headlight buckets.

New Nitto Tires

New Electric Estopp parking brake, and a lot of heat shielding

(oh yeah, and I went through the thread and re-uploaded a lot of the old previously photobucket pictures that were deleted when the account was closed and photobucket did their thing a while ago)

The starter would not engage last night when I went to do my Friday workout.

Got a tow-start from the tow truck driver (thank goodness for a stickshift) and drove it home

I thought it might be the solenoid, but the wire just came off. I guess the heat cycles and soforth had weakened the push-on connector. It was really not gripping.

I took it off and used an eye terminal and the screw fastener, on the starter.
I don't want to risk having that fall off again. The car is way to low to want to crawl underneath at night somewhere (lol)

Picked up the rear brake kit today, hope to get it underway sometime next week

Lil bit bigger brakes

Nice difference [emoji1303]


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Thanks a lot. I am looking forward to a little bit better parking brake set up and hold as well.

I think that the braking upgrade I did previously was some of the best money I ever spent. It just gives a measure of confidence driving in traffic and on the highway, knowing you can stop, feeling that modulation and knowing you have extra braking capacity when needed.

Last night, after getting the OK from Baer, I had to drill the lug nut holes a tiny bit larger to clear the shoulder on the longer HD wheel studs.

it worked and there is a hub centric shim/washer to allow the rotor to be precisely centered, with the aftermarket 31 spline axles

So far so good, and tons of snow in the PNW so I can take my time doing the brakes, and not be tempted to drive lol

Winter nights make for tough motivation, but got both assemblies installed and calipers shimmed. Next big task is setting up the parking brakes. Different cables this time, so might need some adjustment to the electric brake assembly.

Once I get it all set up I'll bleed the rears and may flush the front system, for a fluid change

Brakes are breaking in and it was time for a quick cruise between the winter weather. My buddy's bike in front.