The brackets make a nice spot to slide a bolt throw for trailer tie-downs. Thats what my friends and I always do.
Its funny that somewhere there is a Ford chassis engineer that was so proud of the idea, yet, thats the first thing that goes when a hot rodder gets his hands on a Mustang. That, and the intake silencer under the right front fender on EFI cars. Imagine in 20 years what those two items will bring on Ebay ;D
Started setting up the diff this evening. I will be running a set of Motive 3.90 gears. Check out the size of a 2.73 pinion vs. a 3.90 pinion. That 2.73 is huge!
I measured the pinion head and added that to the checking depth parked on the pinion head and was nearly spot onto the Master Housing Dimension of 4.420".
So I pressed the bearing on with no shim and checked the pinion depth. Dang... right at 0.030" too deep. Should have just stuck the stock shim in the first time! I put the stock 0.030" shim in and it was spot on.
I am using a Ratech solid pinion spacer w/ shims instead of a crush sleeve. It took many tries to get the bearing preload just right. Basically you just put it together, torque the nut to 125lbs and then check how many inch pounds it takes to turn the pinion. If it turns too easy, reduce shim thickness by 0.002" and try again. I started way too thick. The spacer is 0.425" thick and I had 0.022" in shims and finally ended up with just a single 0.012" shim.
I plopped the diff in the housing and installed the stock side shims. It seems like the backlash is gonna be a little tight, but I have not torqued it down yet or checked the pattern on the gears. I will check it, but I really expect the pattern will be fine.
I'm interested in seeing the pattern. I still have flash backs of setting up the Skylark's axle. And I may be doing it again sometime this year. (I think I already wore the friction discs out, or they need to be shimed... Or I may replace it with the 4-coil spring carrier, and maybe change the gears...) I had a 2.41 gear come out of the donor axle :o
Ok, so I traded the Ranger for a shotgun and the guy mentioned he had an 84 Mustang. I asked what color and he said red.... ORLY? ;D
So today I went out there checked it out and snagged the front and back seats out of it as well as the sun visors. I traded him the fuel cell and mounting rack that was in the Ranger. Then I told him I'd trade him the shotgun back for the hood, cowl vent panel and any other little odd or end I might end up needing.
WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!
The fronts are cloth sport buckets with halo headrests and the rear is a cloth split bench. They are in pretty decent shape and should look just fine. My current ones are crispy crunchy vinyl that I was going to have to replace.
What luck, the car he had was red. Those seats are one of my all-time favorites for comfort. I had a pair of gray ones in my old F-150, with a Bronco center console. I love how the front part slides forward under your knees.
Diff is done except for the cover. Setting the backlash was not real fun, but it's in and it's right. Gear pattern looked fine too. I also installed the c-clip eliminators on the axles.
Tossed the passenger seat in just to see what it looked like. Being a tall guy, I kinda like the knee bolster things.
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