FFR overhaul

[Joe Campbell]

The stars finally aligned well enough to start the teardown and rebuild of FFR3144. I initially planned to just yank the 88 GT donor wiring and put in newer stuff, but while I'm in there, I might as well make some 'other' improvements if budget allows, and hopefullly get some paint on 'er before reassembly.

It'll be a 90% street car with occasional autoX.

Anyway, I'll post update summaries here with a link to the site.

This weekend was basically removal of all trim, lights and other shiny things to allow removal of the body:




And a link to the overhaul site:
http://myweb.cableone.net/campbelljl/FFR3144/index.html

I hope to have 'er back on the road by summer.

[tfalk]

Cool, didn't know you had picked up another FFR... I think your previous car was repainted and resold?

I built my Daytona planning on it being strictly an auto-x/track toy but that never really got anywhere. At this point, I'm thinking the same thing like you, make it 90% street and occasional auto-x. I'm going to spend the winter trying to get it ready to pass NJDMV and hopefully get plates for it in the spring...

Should be interesting to follow along with your updates...

[Joe Campbell]

Yes...ol' 4760 is on its 4th owner (I think) and is up for sale again:
http://www.ffcobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222830

At least now the block color matches the body, but the blue looked better. (Changing my mind on color after painting the block). Too bad it's carbed and solid axle or I woulda bought it back.

Good to see that the silver POR15 paint has held up so well. Haven't decided yet if I'll touch it up or go to the hassle of blasting and recoating it. There's only one spot in the cockpit that ever saw sunlight, it's turning a bit green there.

Anyway, made some good progress unhooking everything to pull the 302 this week:



I'll shoot for removing the dash and all wiring next weekend.

Details in the sig link below.

[Joe Campbell]

Didn't get all the wiring (only most of it) stripped out, but did the carpet (ack) and insulation.

Holy crap, the donor harness is a mess. Yeah, it works to use the factory gauges and other switches if you gotta (but why would you wanna?). The blue jumper wires are a nice ghetto touch.



Getting cleaner though. Computer and front chassis harnesses are out, and it took a heat gun and a bit of scraping to remove the foil-backed insulation.



I'm off between Christmas and New Years, we'll see if I can get this thing down to the bare frame. I had more bits of the POR15 paint lift up as I pulled ground lugs out, so I'm leaning toward powdercoating the whole frame.

[Wanderer21]

Do yourself an immense favor, remove the insulation from the driver's side footbox, on the panel along side the gas pedal. I had the gas pedal get stuck on the insulation once on a back road and it was a scary moment.

[Joe Campbell]

It's all coming out, and won't go back in. It's not even needed (for heat insulation anyway) with the heat shields the original builder attached. I may have the upholstery done by a pro who will probably use some kind of tarry goop that won't let go of the carpet at all. Lots of scraping and bumping as you climb in and out of the rather cozy cockpit, especially in the footbox area.

[Joe Campbell]

More rather tedious disassembly. Drilling rivets, breaking drill bits, and chiselling away at the silicone between the aluminum panels and steel frame. Bleah.



Made good progress today after all the Christmas fun wound down, and before New Year's sets in. Got all the passenger side aluminum removed. I've made a note that I'll only be removing chassis aluminum once in my lifetime. What a royal pain in the patooty. That silicone's stronger than you'd think. The nice part is putting it back together will just be about pulling rivets. The IRS pumpkin will get yanked for one with 3.55's. Probably going to snag some of the spherical IRS bushings Dave Borden put together for the T-bird knuckles. I hope those axles will stand up to the 351 when I'm done with it.

[blainefab]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

I've made a note that I'll only be removing chassis aluminum once in my lifetime. What a royal pain in the patooty. That silicone's stronger than you'd think. The nice part is putting it back together will just be about pulling rivets.

I would use some kind of RTV or foam weatherstrip between the panels and the frame to keep them from buzzing. Got a air riveter? The cheapo from HRP has served me well.

[Tobey]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

The IRS pumpkin will get yanked for one with 3.55's.

Just a little warning: eat your Wheaties before attempting to remove the pumpkin. You have to stand it up on end, and rotate it 90* to drop it down through the subframe. It looks like you have an aluminum diff, so it will be a little lighter than the iron one we installed on my buddy's car a few months ago. To install his diff, we used my A-frame and chain hoist to pull it up through the frame. That made it not so bad. I'm not sure I could have done it on muscle power without at least a few pinched fingers.

[Joe Campbell]

Definitely need the silicone between the panels and joints. The assembly part is easy, squirt some silicone and pull the rivet (already got a riveter from HF so I"m prepared). Most people are sane enough to not disassemble their FFR once all that part is done, so most never get to know my pain.

On the pumpkin, I think it is iron, just painted silver. I do still have my friend's engine hoist, so I'll be prepared. Reminds me though, I need to get some aluminum diff bushings ordered.

[TravisD]

On the silicone, will the Piano Wire method work - like people use to remove windshields bonded in with Urethane?

[Arty]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

got a riveter from HF so I"m prepared). .

Get a spare.
HF tools have an uncanny characteristic of becoming inoperative 2 minutes after the stores close.

[carrew]

Originally Posted by Arty

Get a spare.
HF tools have an uncanny characteristic of becoming inoperative 2 minutes after the stores close.

I have found rivit guns are like most things what you spend is the quality you get.

[Joe Campbell]

Very true. I sold the HF riveter I used on my first build, but it did hold up OK...when it malfunctioned it was usually due to it picking up excess silicone that squished out as I pulled rivets. The mandrels would stick part way through and not eject out the back. Easy to deal with on the fly though.

Anyway, made more progress, and took 'er all the way down to the frame. I did notice some things in the suspension as I removed it that will definitely get changed, though.

I'm going to replace the rear knuckle bushings with either polyurethane or Dave Borden's spherical bearings to eliminate some of the slop. Also you can see the original builder added a sway bar on the bottom. A nice touch but there is so much play in the rubber bushings and end links that it probably doesn't help much in the handling area. Those parts will have to get upgraded.

In the front, I'm not happy with the thread engagement at all. Note the upper control arm bolts. I'll replace those with something a bit longer to get some decent thread engagement, at least two or three protruding from some nylock nuts would be nice. If those backed out while in motion it could be...bad. Also I'll be getting Dave Borden's SAI (Steering Axis Inclination) mod kit to improve the handling and high-speed stability.

It's down to the frame as of today. Biggest hassle was the differential, it took several somersaults in three dimensions to wiggle the thing out of there (of the differential, not me). Not easy with a 60+ pound chunk of cast iron when you can't get any decent leverage on it from all the interference from the other parts of the frame. Much grumbling, cursing and pry bar persuasion involved. Now I'm going to have to find some wire wheels or some other way to strip off all the cured silicone...the stuff is damn stubborn.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

Now I'm going to have to find some wire wheels or some other way to strip off all the cured silicone...

If you're going to have it powdercoated, dont bother - part of what you pay them for is to blast the frame.

[James85z28]

How was the build quality of this FFR versus your methods and techniques used in the past? Do you find that most builders do it quick and dirty or are they as thorough and thoughtful as you would expect? Anything besides the thread engagement issue make you question how safe or durable this car was as you received it?

[Joe Campbell]

Some FFRs are cobbled together white trashy (a 1 on a 10 scale) just to get them up and running, some are sheer works of art with incredible detail (a 10). This one is a combination of both, so I'd say 5 or 6, basic donor build with the exception of a few extras he did. He took the time to add the IRS and transmission tunnel 3/4" tube cage which were not standard. Neatly, carefully routed fuel lines, with heat shields around the footboxes, etc. (The heat shields were actually neatly bent air-bake cookie sheets - call that redneck or clever, but they worked). But then it got a bit sloppier with the donor gauge gerry-rigged setup (but following the FFR donor concept of only needing their kit and a 5.0 mustang) and un-dieted wiring harness.

My last build was about a 6, I definitely didn't do things as neatly as I could have but was all very functional. Money is a factor too, of course. 7-10 builds cost a lot more. Here's an example of a solid 8 or 9 build in progress, everything powdercoated, perfectly parallel, fancy bracketry, etc.
http://www.ffcobra.com/forums/showth...light=progress

I'm shooting for a 7-8 build but I want to have the means toward the end to get it painted as well and that's a chunk o' change. That and I won't be keen on missing any of the driving season up here.

[BMiller]

Joe - no tech here but I am really enyoying this thread, keep up the good work and updates please.

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

Here's an example of a solid 8 or 9 build in progress, everything powdercoated, perfectly parallel, fancy bracketry, etc.
http://www.ffcobra.com/forums/showth...light=progress

That is beautiful work. I don't think I would have the patience or time to get that detailed (as evident by my x-American Sedan car).

[Joe Campbell]

In a holding pattern on the frame, waiting on the brackets I'm updating to arrive from FFR, so I started pulling the 351 apart to see how good or bad things looked.

First, pulled off all the extraneous wiring, vacuum and emission lines to see what was left under there. There was a motor under all that after all...


The usual plentiful surface rust for the exposed parts on any motor that's sat for a while in somebody's dank garage. Lifter valley looked pretty clean, still damp with a film of oil. Pulled a head and it was carbon city....I may be in trouble with the High Priest Algore for running an unlicensed sequestration facility and not paying him royalties. This thing was not running very well in its previous life. A thin layer of carbon was flaking off the top of the pistons. Most of it was already lifting and it came off pretty easily.


The cylinder walls looked pretty good, still some crosshatch visible. No gouge or uneven wear marks on this side. I'll pull the other side tomorrow.

[Joe Campbell]

I was delinquent last weekend with the update, but had too much other stuff going on.

I found a buyer for the 302 motor and tranny assembly that used to power the beast...that money will go toward rebuilding the new motor. After stripping the 351 motor down to (almost) just the short block on Jan. 10, I took it over to Performance Automotive Machine here in Idaho Falls to have them check it over and see if the rotating assembly is still any good, or if I'll need to get a new crank, rods, etc. Wouldn't it just suck to have to get a stroker kit for it, gosh darn. Even a stock stroke 351, with the top end pieces I'm going to be using should be good for at least 400 horsepower. A 392 or 408 stroker would push it closer to 500hp and would probably necessitate some high-dollar half-shafts for the rear. In this shot Mikey supervises as I get ready to load the '96 hydraulic roller 351 block into the pickup.


One of the upgrades (actually a few of them) I decided on was the 'Grand Slam' kit from FFMetal.com. This kit includes the enlarged passenger footbox with thicker (.090) aluminum floor panels, a thicker, relocated firewall panel that gives more room behind the dash for wiring and accessories, and a box to locate the battery underneath the trunk floor. In this shot I'm in the process of fitting the passenger footbox using cleco pins to temporarily hold the panels in place and drill the rivet holes for the final installation. I tried to match up the holes from the old footbox panels so I didn't make any more holes in the frame than were necessary, but it made the panels a bit harder to line up as easily as it would have been otherwise.


Here's a couple of the frame mods I'm making... In the upper photo of this pair, you can see one of the tubes marked in red to be removed, and where two new cross pieces will be welded in. I will be switching to a 'mid-shift' transmission that will relocate the shifter about 8" further forward, so that tube had to go. In the other shot you can see where I marked where an additional steel plate will be welded in to provide a solid location to mount the 5th point of the seat harness. Also, the 3/4" tube across the bottom of that shot will be updated to 2x2".


The frame was finally ready to be worked on by my welder, same guy who did several welding tasks for me on my last FFR build as well. Here he is carting the frame off to his shop. I'd better make sure I don't want to make any more changes before I send it off to the powdercoater.


While the engine and frame are out, just got a lot of aluminum panels to clean.

[mfennell]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

Here's a couple of the frame mods I'm making... In the upper photo of this pair, you can see one of the tubes marked in red to be removed, and where two new cross pieces will be welded in. I will be switching to a 'mid-shift' transmission that will relocate the shifter about 8" further forward, so that tube had to go.

You may want to try to run that by Dave Borden. IIRC, he has a Grape model of the chassis and removing that tube eliminates most of the torsional rigidity gain from the center tunnel. The question is how much your new tubes get back.

[Joe Campbell]

Hmmm, good point. I don't want to give up any of that. I'll have to do something to accommodate the mid-shift location, though.

You can probably see they used fairly skinny round tubes on the foremost legs that reach into the engine compartment, maybe I should replace those too.

[stephen wilson]

I agree, those new tubes won't do much to replace the the diagonal you're removing.

You can use tubes @ 90 degrees to creat boxes, and triangulate each box. I'd have to see exacty how much space the shifter occupies to be much help.

[Joe Campbell]

Not really a full update, I'm just stoked to have the frame back sooner than I thought...

This last weekend was nothing but cleaning silicone, road grime, old paint, and carpet adhesive off of the rest of the aluminum panels, and waiting for powdercoating on the frame and engine bay panels. I was expecting a couple of weeks turnaround, but got the call yesterday on the first batch of panels and on the frame today.

Let's just say it's a bit more striking shade of blue than I thought it would be, but it still looks pretty cool:


With the dark mottled finish I'm having done on the panels and aluminum rivets, it should look pretty sharp.


I've still got the last two cockpit aluminum panels, the largest ones, to finish cleaning before I can take those over for coating. I thought I'd have another weekend or two to finish cleaning all the other parts - suspension, gas tank, etc. Oh, well. Gonna have to get a few other miscellaneous bushings and other parts I'll need, and it'll be time to start the reassembly phase!

[Joe Campbell]

Over this weekend I was able to scrape, gouge and chisel the last silicone goop and carpet adhesive off the last two cockpit panels. I'm quite comfortable believing I'll never ever have to do this nasty work again...if I ever build another one of these, like the newly-announced Mark IV model or the '33 coupe, it'll be from scratch!

I realized, though, that before I could take them over for powdercoating I'd need to modify several of them first. The transmission tunnel cover will need a new hole cut 8" forward of the existing location, and the existing hole will need to be closed up with a piece of aluminum. I'll be modifying the T-5Z transmission I have to use the tailhousing from an S-10 pickup:


Another panel mod is the trunk storage box kit from Dark Water Customs, yet another cottage industry making nifty add-ons for Cobra replica builders. These boxes make use of the dead space over the left side of the Mustang gas tank. Any extra room in the trunk is very handy for long trips:


The forward trunk floor panel also needed a big section cut out to provide access for the under-floor battery box made by FFMetal (who did the firewall and footbox kit I'm also using):


And for the very first actual 'assembly' work... A few trigger pulls on the air riveter, and voila. I do like the contrast of the silver, black, and blue. Although, once the car is done, this panel won't be seen (at least from this side) by anyone unless they're changing my right front tire:


I have a few suspension and some aluminum differential bushings and other parts on the way so I can hopefully start installing the suspension, differential, and steering gear in next weekend.

[.RJ]

I really like the blue frame. Keep posting the updates

[79coupe]

Great project Joe. This is one of the threads that I look forward to reading. I'm always glad to see the Monday updates of the weekend's work.

[Jag]

I'm luving that shade of blue!

[Drew]

You should definitely stop updating this thread, hell delete it all together. Every time I read one of these threads it gives me bad ideas about building a car in my garage!

The MK4 hasn't helped either, neither do my my visits to the ffcobra forums...

[Joe Campbell]

The diff bushings and SAI mod kit arrived this week, so I was able to get to some suspension assembly finally...

Thought I might as well get the nastiest part of it done first, shoehorning the differential into place. There simply is no graceful way to do it and not enough clearance for a straight shot into position. Without a helper on hand it was a matter of bench-pressing a rather heavy chunk of cast iron (the pretty aluminum color is just a fancy ceramic spray-on coating a friend had used on his FFR) into place while twisting it this way and that, cursing a blue streak, trying to find the right angle to wiggle it past the framework. I ended up having to somersault it upside down past the rear X-member, then rotate it about the longitudinal axis before I could bolt it into place...


And this shot has the best angle on the aluminum bushings up front. These should, along with the poly knuckle bushings to be installed later, eliminate most of the wheel hop issues on hard launches off the line. We'll see once she's back on the road.


That little ordeal took a good hour or so of grunting and swearing while trying to keep from gouging up the fancy framework (it'll need some touching up). Got a call from my engine builder that they needed my flywheel to do the balance work (oops), so I was able to grab some photos of the work in progress on that.

And the motor getting a torque-plate honing on #2:


And the crank on the balancing machine, waiting for a flywheel to complete the picture...


And today it was back to suspension work, installing the SAI mod kit. The first part of the SAI mod (Steering Axis Inclination) is these brackets which relocate the upper control arm mounting points. The UCA normally attached directly to the horizontal frame plate using the vertical bolt holes seen in this shot, but will be attached on the horizontal bolts instead...notice the angle change in the height of the bolts. The closest bolt had some interference with the frame plate...


I ground off a bit of a corner of the head of those bolts, and it fit very nicely. New style lower control arms installed in this shot as well.


I need to get the steering rack cleaned up and installed before I can complete the front suspension...need to move the entire suspension through the full range of travel up and down, and left and right, to make sure the SAI mod doesn't create any other interference points that will need some adjusting (read: grinding).

[Tobey]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

Thought I might as well get the nastiest part of it done first, shoehorning the differential into place. There simply is no graceful way to do it and not enough clearance for a straight shot into position. Without a helper on hand it was a matter of bench-pressing a rather heavy chunk of cast iron (the pretty aluminum color is just a fancy ceramic spray-on coating a friend had used on his FFR) into place while twisting it this way and that, cursing a blue streak, trying to find the right angle to wiggle it past the framework. I ended up having to somersault it upside down past the rear X-member, then rotate it about the longitudinal axis before I could bolt it into place...

You did that by yourself? I hope I never piss you off..
When we installed the one in my buddy's Cobra, it took 2 of us and a chain hoist on an A-Frame to get it done. FFR just barely left room to get that thing in there.

On the wheel hop: In the GTO world, the only wheel hop solution that seems to have worked with the high-HP, high-traction drag racers is different sized axle shafts. Basically, they make one shaft a larger diameter than the other. Something about the different torsional twisting rates. I've heard that it works in the Cadillacs also. Has anyone discussed this with the FFRs?

[Jag]

Originally posted by Joe Campbell
And this shot has the best angle on the aluminum bushings up front. These should, along with the poly knuckle bushings to be installed later, eliminate most of the wheel hop issues on hard launches off the line. We'll see once she's back on the road.

As a fellow FFR owner, my brother and I came up with those many years ago to make the differential solid at all points. FFR made the rear mount solid, while left the front mounts rubber. The T-bird was rubber at all points. There was never any issues with breakage at the rear mount, but it was probably a poor way of doing it anyway. It should of been either solid at all points, or rubber/poly at all points. People were using the poly units from energy suspension, but we decided to sell these to fellow FFR owners. I doubt they will do anything to reduce wheel hop, but they are a smart choice.

I hope you were able to get the differential in without harming your nice paint job. Thats one of the frustrating parts of having a nice paint job.

[David Borden]

Joe,

Really nice job on your FFR 'restore'! The chassis bracket from the SAI mod changes the angle to reduce anti-dive a bit from approx 20% to 10%. I found it made brake modulation better. I think the original angle was determined by the kickback of the spindle which is normally designed for a strut.

As far as wheel hop goes, spherical bearings in the lower spindle races should nearly eliminate it. If you end up having a bit, you can get rid of it with the quad shocks. I havent run them in years since going with a better bushing. IMO, Id stay away from urethane. They seize up over time, even when greased well.

David

[Joe Campbell]

Originally Posted by Tobey

When we installed the one in my buddy's Cobra, it took 2 of us and a chain hoist on an A-Frame to get it done. FFR just barely left room to get that thing in there.

If you figured out a 'barely' method, I'm curious, though it's now a moot point for me. That thing ain't coming back out now, ever.

On the wheel hop: In the GTO world, the only wheel hop solution that seems to have worked with the high-HP, high-traction drag racers is different sized axle shafts. Basically, they make one shaft a larger diameter than the other. Something about the different torsional twisting rates. I've heard that it works in the Cadillacs also. Has anyone discussed this with the FFRs?

For the FFR IRS's, the solution, as Dave alludes to, is to use solid and/or heim bushings. GTO's and Caddy's are a different beast, but you'll have to go over to the CTS-V thread (or the Cadillacforums if you're feeling masochistic) to find that discussion.

Originally Posted by Dave

Really nice job on your FFR 'restore'! The chassis bracket from the SAI mod changes the angle to reduce anti-dive a bit from approx 20% to 10%. I found it made brake modulation better. I think the original angle was determined by the kickback of the spindle which is normally designed for a strut.

Thanks. I do like to think of it as 'restoring an original...FFR,' although if I had held off a couple of months I'd have just sold 3144 and gotten a Mk IV!

As far as wheel hop goes, spherical bearings in the lower spindle races should nearly eliminate it. If you end up having a bit, you can get rid of it with the quad shocks. I havent run them in years since going with a better bushing. IMO, Id stay away from urethane. They seize up over time, even when greased well.

Assuming you mean you haven't run the quad shocks...that's good to hear. I will be getting your spherical bushings from Whitby's at some point, but decided to go with the lower-buck poly in the knuckles for the time being to at least get rid of some of the deflection. I'm wayyyy over budget on this project already.

Although going through some of my research pictures I found the shots of the old roadster frame you had modified to increase the frame rigidity, and I'm kicking myself for not adding some of that in while I was doing those mods!

[Joe Campbell]

This was pretty much a crappy build weekend. Sometimes stuff isn't going right and you need to take a step back, work on something else for a while, and come back to the trouble spot later. Each time I did that this weekend, something else went crappy too. On the third time I decided to bag it and go play some GTA. The while I'm workin on the blog update I notice...um...mixed up right and left parts attached on the wrong sides. (Facepalm moment).

First, the steering rack. Cleaned it up, threw some nice aluminum-ish looking paint on it to clean it up a bit. Attempted to install with the offset aluminum bushings. The right hand bolt wouldn't quite line up after the left one was in. No problem. Take the left bolt out, install the right bolt first, now the left one won't go through. The interference from other parts of the frame make it just about impossible to get any good leverage to move the rack enough. Grrrr...OK, let's try working on something else. I know, how about the upper control arms? Oh, wait. The balljoints in the upper arms need to be reversed. They won't budge. Rent a balljoint socket. Apply heat from propane torch. Still won't. @#$@#$. Let's try something else.



The rear suspension should be easy. At least this side was. The other side seemed to be off just a hair making it impossible to get the spacer washers in between the spherical bearings and the frame tabs for the lower arms. Then I took a look at the photos from before I disassembled the whole thing and notice I have the lower arms reversed right-to-left and upside-down. D'OH! Oh well, too annoyed to flip them over this weekend. Stero amp in the garage was on the blink. Sometime life is telling you you just need to go do something else for a while.


Anyway, in between all that I did manage to do a couple of things right. Cleaned up the gas tank and plastic shield and made it look all perty.


Hopefully better luck next week. Winter seems like it's on its lasp gasps around here, so I'd better get crackin!

[LumbermanSVO]

I just saw where you are located, I sometimes deliver there on Mondays. The next time I'm headed there I'll shoot you a PM and see if you need an extra hand on the previous Sunday afternoon.

[Nick C]

Originally Posted by Joe Campbell

Neat project.. is that a quad shock from a fox mustang?

-Nick

[Joe Campbell]

Yes, but with FFR's IRS they only serve to help control wheel hop. They probably won't be needed since I'm ditching the rubber bushings and going with solid diff bushings and poly knuckle bushings. Later on I'll spring for the spherical knuckle bushings and they shouldn't be needed at all (see Dave's comments above).

[Joe Campbell]

Another weekend of not as much progress as I'd hoped, mostly because I spent most of it with ice on my foot...woke up Friday thinking someone had pounded a 16-penny nail through the top of it. No fracture, says the doc. Tendonitis. Ibuprofen and stay off it. Yeah, right, I've got work to do, dammit! Spring's coming!

Anyway. One broken steering rack bolt later, the rack is finally in place. Things would not line up correctly with the rack in the raised position for some strange reason, but when I rotated the bushings so they'd lower the rack, the bolts went through with only a slight nudge on the driver side. The threads were messed up enough by all the twisting and nudging that the nut seized halfway on. I tried the cheater bar trick to get it to budge and it just broke the grade 5 bolt. D'oh. Went and grabbed a pair of clean ones and it's done.


Compare that with the shot before I disassembled, and you can see the changes the SAI kit makes in the UCA mounting location and where the upper balljoint ends up in relation to the spindle:
http://myweb.cableone.net/campbelljl...ion_123009.jpg

And an overall shot of the front suspension, mocked up with the SAI pieces in place so I can run it through the full range of motion to check for interference points that might need clearancing. We'll see next weekend...found another problem. The upper balljoint stud threads and/or the threads on the castle nut are tweaked enough they won't attach. I had no luck breaking the balljoints loose from the arms before, even using a borrowed balljoint socket, so I'll just be replacing the outer pieces on the control arms, and the balljoints. More on the front later.


Shifted back to the rear suspension. Corrected my misplaced lower arm mix-up from last weekend first, then it was time to replace the knuckle bushings. The stock rubber bushings are one of the most likely culprits for wheelhop in the IRS-equipped FFR's, so some stiffer polyurethane bushings should help...if not there are better options I can try later. After trying several brute-force techniques to remove the rubber bushings, I did a little bit of research for some tricks of the trade on FFCobra.com. Some folks there came up with this little gem that made rediculously easy work out of pressing the old bushings out and putting new ones in. Just need a 2" pipe cap (with a hole drilled through the center), a 3-4"-length of 2"-dia. pipe nipple, a length of threaded rod, and a few nuts and large washers sized for the threaded rod.

Assemble like so, and the bushing pressed out just by cranking down the nuts on the opposite ends. The 2" pipe is wide enough to rest against the knuckle around the outside edge of the ~1.75" diameter bushing. The threaded rod pushes the bushing out of the knuckle and into the pipe. To press the new bushing in, you remove the 2" pipe section and only use the pipe cap (the pipe cap goes on the 'receiving' end so there's room for the smaller lip of the bushing to pop through and seat in the knuckle). Grease up the new bushing with the uber-sticky megagrease they supply with the poly bushings, and it zips right in.


Here's a shot of the old new bushings for one knuckle. As it turns out, the old rubber bushings were not squishy or broken down at all. Except for the upper bushing, in the middle on this shot...a victim of my earlier unpersuasive attempts to persuade it out. (Crushing the end of the sleeve in a vice, hacksawing it, smacking it with a BFH, and cursing at it all proved ineffective). The rubber on the old bushings was very tough, and the lowers were impregnated with some reinforcing steel...they certainly seem stiff enough that the poly ones might not provide much benefit at all, but we'll see once it's on the road.


And a completed knuckle, ready for reassembly in the car.


Hopefully my foot is better by next weekend and I can get past the suspension finally!

[Bart Carter]

Why did you not go with the spherical bearings?

Do you have steering rack extenders?