69gmachine
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Posts posted by 69gmachine
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I thought about the TCP kit with the Arning drop built into the mount. Guess if one didn't want to drill more holes in their shock towers, it would be fine. I am a little leary of the design. IMO the transfer of stresses will do better in a straight line, the "drop mount" on the UCA could act like a "hinge". They have a lot smarter engineers than I could ever imagine to be, and testing to back it up, but it just seems funky. I went SOT, it is still in the boxes.With a coil over design where the shock mounts to the LCA, the UCA carries no load. It is exactly as you stated, merely a hinge that allows the top of the spindle to go through a shorter arc than the LCA, which increases camber as the suspension is compressed. I did this years before TCP did, with excellent results. I took it one step farther though and adjusted the anti dive down by about 30% as the factory designed it for a much higher ride height and a much heavier load as it could potentially support an FE engine with all the accessories.
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The transmission isn't as critical to the kit design as are the bellhousing and clutch. All of the kits I've seen are designed to use a late model cable clutch that pulls forward on the fork. If you want to keep the stock bell, you should consider a hyd throwout bearing.
Some things to consider:
1. the factory pressure plate was a 3 finger long style. They hold great, but have a higher pedal effort than a diaphram style pressure plate, so you should seriously consider changing the clutch and pressure plate to a diaphram style (which may allow you to ditch the helper spring).
2. The original bellhousing (which you have) is for a push style clutch fork. In order to use an external slave, you will either have to design your own mount or swap out the bellhousing. If you have headers, you will likely have clearance problems if you mount the slave cylinder in front of the fork.
3. You could use a "pull" type slave cylinder and mount it behind the fork, but the forks are made from hardened steel. You will probably have to use a torch to cut through it as you won't be able to just drill a hole.
4. You need to make sure you will end up with enough travel to disengage the clutch. If you're making your own kit using an external slave, this will be trial and error. For my car, I used a 3/4 master and a hyd throwout bearing from Ram. It will work on a toploader 3, 4 or tremec 5 speed. If you use an external slave, you will need to engage the fork closer to the fulcrum than the factory design in order to end up with sufficient travel.
If you have the patience to work out the design problems, and some decent fabrication skills, you can put together your own kit for about half price. I started with an external slave and then switched to a hyd throwout bearing. My clutch is fairly stiff as I have a fairly stout engine, and the only way to make it easy to depress was to fabricate a lever arm for the master like Modern Driveline sells. I love the smooth operation of a hyd clutch, and it gives you lots of header clearance. If your pressure plate has a low enough engagement effort, you can proabably get by without the lever arm and simply lower the pivot point on the pedal to line up with the pushord on the master.
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Just a couple of pitfalls to be aware of from my own experience:
1. With the pivot point lowered to line up with the clutch pushrod, you will lose some mechanical advantage. I have a diaphragm clutch and it was still uncomfortable to hold the pedal down for any extended period (like a long red light). I recently fabricated a lever arm like Modern Driveline sells. It made a huge improvement in pedal effort. I can depress the clutch with my hand now.
2. I also started with an externally mounted CNC slave. I was unable to get enough travel from it to fully disengage the clutch. I noticed that you have yours mounted a little farther inboard than the factory divot on the fork, so that may provide enough travel, but it also reduces the lever arm on the clutch fork, so your pedal effort might end up really high. I would check to make sure you can turn the driveshaft by hand when someone depresses the clutch while in gear.
I enjoy making my own stuff too. I bought a spun aluminum reservoir and master from AFCO before they stopped making them. I picked up a hyd throwout bearing from Ram. It's pretty easy to piece a kit together, and a hyd clutch is so much smoother than the old mechanical linkage was.
Good luck with your project!
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I received my gauges back from the Tachman. The 140mph speedometer conversion is beautiful. I hope someday I can make use of it by entering in the Silver State Classic.
The Tach is not what i expected. With no electrical power it defaults pointing straight up at 4K. As soon as power is applied it zeroes out, so it will read correctly when the engine is off but the key is on. I guess it's just annoying, but he doesn't tell you that it will work this way until you receive it. Everyone else seems to be using the same movement as most aftermarket tachs that points to zero when power is off.
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300 HP is not hard to reach with all the aftermarket stuff available now, just keep in mind the more power you make, the higher in the RPM band it will make that power. I would consider hyd roller lifters a must when maximizing a "small" engine like a 302. That will allow you to have a cam big enough to meet your goals while still being calm enough at idle where you won't mind actually driving it. Talk to a cam company and tell them what power level you're trying to achieve and they'll steer you in the right direction.
The AFR is certainly a better flowing head, but I'm sure you can hit your goal with a Gt40 head and the right cam. Only you can decide if the slightly better power curve is worth the extra money.
Of course you could always just go bigger. Either stroke it or get a 351W and you can keep the power band a little lower.
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I don't know what cfm the original 4V Autolite carbs for these engines had, but I'm pretty sure it was less than 570.True, the Autolite 4V that came on Mustangs was a 480, but the 390 FEs came with a 600. Lots of full size Fords came with 390s and 600 Autolites. I pulled mine from a T-bird.
I sent them a Holley 650 with downleg boosters and got back a carb that with annular boosters that flowed 770. If all he needs is a 600 cfm carb, if JET was able to find an extra 120 cfm from my carb, it can prolly squeeze an extra 150 cfm out of his current carb.The Holley 450 is a completely different body than the 650. While Jet could likely improve the flow, the bowls are side hung versus centerhung like your 650 and there are no metering blocks for the back barrels (just plates) so it will never be as tuneable. I still say it's not worth investing any more time or money in the Ford Holley given all the new carbs that are ready to just bolt on and go.
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I think placing the tach in one of the 2 large center pods would look more aesthetically pleasing.
How about moving the 2 displaced gauges to the outside pods with 2 movements in each, so you would have fuel/volts on one side, and oil pressure and water temp on the other?
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Welcome Bob. If I didn't already have a factory tach I would be a volunteer, and I just recently sent it out for conversion to a 3 wire.
Your site says you make modern improvements to factory gauges. Have you given any thought to adding a low fuel light to the factory fuel gauge? I was thinking about adding an LED to my fuel gauge and using the sending unit from West Coast Classic Cougars (maybe you make that too?).
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Ouch. I once converted a 1969 Cougar harness to Mustang, and I vowed never to do that again, as there is so much that is different, including connectors. As for your harness, you have to stick with the factory configuration (either tach or non-tach), due to the constraints of the circuit cards on the back. There is no alt light with a standard dash...I plan to keep the factory tach gauge cluster so I need to add the wiring from the fuse panel up to the dash to complete the circuit to make the light functional. I figure modifying a non-tach harness to add a couple of circuits has to be easier than modifying a Cougar under dash harness!
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In southern California you don't even need a choke. Before i stroked my Windsor I ran an Autolite 600 on my 351W and loved it. It had annular boosters, and I agree with BigDuke, a well tuned carb with annular boosters is just about as close to fuel injection as a carb can get. So you have choices; I would go with a 600 cfm Holley, Summit, or Autolite with Annular boosters.
EDIT/// The D0PF 9510 U is an over the counter universal 450 CFM Holley. I wouldn't invest any money in trying to make it better. Just start with a 600.
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Welcome Randy. Can you put together custom harnesses?
I have a heavily modified cougar XR-7 underdash harness that I originally bought because it had a tach and a lot of cool options such as the door ajar circuit (I ran the door ajar signal to the "OIL" idiot light). I also tied the parking brake to the existing "BRAKE SYSTEM" idiot light so I can actually get some use from it. The problem is I had to splice all the wires to the gauge cluster in order to reach and with all the splices it's a PITA to make everything fit with the AC ducts in place.
I recently sent my tach out to be converted to a 3 wire so I no longer need the factory underdash tach harness. However, I still want to retain the "ALT" light as I find this actually useful. So I was thinking about modifying a non-tach underdash harness to mate with the tach headlight harness.
Any thoughts? Interested in a project like this?
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Nice score, and it already has the correct WP and pulleys for a '70. Are you going to leave the '75 up smog heads on it or do you plan to replace them with the '70 - '74 style heads, or even aluminum aftermarket?
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to put wilwoods on you will have to change the spindle to a mustang spindle a drum brake spindle works on a wilwood conversion.Assuming you have the Granada spindle, you can use a Wilwood kit for a '70 to '73 Mustang with Disc brakes. The ID of the wheel bearings increased in '70 and are the same as the Granada. The only other difference is the diameter of the caliper bracket bolt in the upper neck of the spindle is larger on the Mustang than the Granada. If you buy the Wilwood kit for the disc brake spindle, you will need to drill this hole out to the correct size. I believe the Mustang used a 5/8" bolt whereas the Granada used a 9/16" bolt.
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Finally bled the brakes after finding and fixing the leak! Also shipped the tach and speedo off to the Tachman. The tach will be converted to 3 wire and speedo will be converted to 140 mph like the Shelbys.
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Bearings are cheap. I would clean everything as best you can and replace all of the bearings, cam and crank.
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My car has been down due to a leak in the brake system. I believe it's fixed now, but I decided to add a lever arm to the hyd clutch like Modern Drive Line sells. If I didn't already have the hydraulic system functioning, I would have just bought their kit, but since all I needed was the lever arm and mount, I decided I could fabricate those myself easily enough. I spent about 6 hours total on the project spread over a couple of days.
I moved the pivot back to where it was originally on the pedal. The difference in pedal effort is absolutely delightful! I would highly recommend the MDL kit if you're starting from scratch, and if you already have the master and slave (or hyd throwout bearing like I do) it's not that hard to fabricate your own lever arm.
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Have you mocked up the 18x9 already? I was not able to make one fit on the stock spindle. Of course if it was spaced way out i suppose it could work, but then it would stick way outside the wheel well.
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IMO modifying the production rack is just asking for trouble. I use an unmodified rack that is easily replaced (feel free to comment Jim). It also helps keep costs down by not having to design and manufacture new parts.
I don't know exactly how many miles are on mine, but I'd say around 7k. I've driven it at open track events, cross country cruises and autocross with no problems so far. The only leak I've had was traced to a loose hose connection. Tightened it up and problem solved.
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Does it suffer from the same increase in steering radius like standard J-car racks haveIt would if you use the stock spindle. I designed a rear steer arm for the Wilwood Prospindle that is adjustable. I have it set at 5.25" (the shortest setting) so I have a turn rate and radius that's as tight as a modern Mustang. With wide front tires (P275) it's almost impossible to turn the wheel without power steering when going slow.
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The differences in frame width and lower control arm CC distance dictate a difference in the mounting and centerlink design, and the lower volume produced mean the cost per item to manufacture increases.
Having designed and manufactured small volume custom parts, I can tell you that the manufacturer makes a significant investment in both time and money to develop new parts and there is no guarantee they will ever get their money back. For the small contingent of Falcon owners who are willing to modify their ride instead of restore it I'm sure TCP is just trying to recover their investment. If volume picks up, they would probably lower the cost.
I designed a rack and pinion for my car that uses an off the shelf GM J-car rack that I hope to be able to start marketing next year. I would love to be able to market it to the widest audience possible, but I would have to spend more time and money developing unique pieces for every different model like the Falcons, Fairlanes and Mavericks. Right now it just isn't worth it to me. I'm glad there are companies that are willing to make stuff just for the love of the hobby.
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If you're planning to drag race I would at least add a main hoop with attach points to the upper seat belt anchors and a couple of braces to the rear. With that much power to the wheels you could tweak the sheet metal at the sail panels, and if you run too fast at the track you risk being kicked out. Of course if you end up crashing it would be much worse than that.
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If you're not experiencing body roll on the aft end (which when taken to extreme results in oversteer), then you don't need it.
With the axle mounted solidly to the leaf springs, the leaf springs and axle combine to form a giant anti-sway bar of sorts. If you've lowered your car the moment arm acting on the body is also reduced. You're not planning to drive anywhere near the limit of adhesion, so I think it's a waste. If you change to any other kind of rear suspension, then you would almost certainly need a rear bar to balance the front, but from what you describe I would spend my money elsewhere.
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Although it was not typical, the best I ever got when I had a 351W with twisted wedge heads, a mild crane cam, 600 cfm Autolite 4100, 1 5/8 headers and a T5 was 23 mpg. That was on a basically straight and level highway (I-95 to I-20) while driving from Washington DC to Dallas TX going 60 to 65 mph. Around town I got 13 to 14 mpg.
The best I've done with my 408 is a tad over 19. That has been very repeatable as long as it's all highway miles and I stay around 65 mph. Around town that drops to around 11. If I speed up to over 70 (which is typical) it will drop to 17 or 18, depending on how much over 70 I'm going.
Contrary to what danno thinks, I was not smoking crack. I think his car runs rich.
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Yep, it sounds like you have a good plan. He makes his own molds so if he doesn't already have a pattern for a coupe he can make it off the originals.
DIY fan shroud for 3 bucks
in 1969-70 Technical Forum
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Juit, Have you considered changing your handle to McGuyver? Improvise and overcome, very cool.