Today I made the blanks for the top plates in the towers..... After that I had to clean up some, had way too much crap everywhere to even work..... Next I put the k-member and control arms back in..... Then I assembled the struts and spindles, I also put the brake caliper mounting brackets on and mounted the assemblies on the lower control arms.....

That's it for today, next week I will get the front rotors/hubs assembled and put on the spindles..... Then I will be able establish the correct front geometry and finish the top plates for the towers.....

Here are the top plates with a stepped edge to mount in the top of the towers from the underside.....








Here the k-member/control arms and strut/spindle assemblies are in all mounted.....

 

This morning didn't start out so well..... Among other things, when I got things out everything for the rotor/hub assemblies the inner bearings were rusty in the package(nice)..... I went and got some new ones, then proceeded to put them together and installed them on the spindles..... Then I took a wheel off my fathers 86 Mustang so I could check and compare angles on my set-up..... I got everything mocked up, but I need to do a final check before I drill any caster/camber plate mounting holes and start welding thing together..... I put a wheel on the pass side, and I will get the fender down in the morning for mock up so I can check ride height.....

Here is the rusty bearing out of a sealed package.....




Here is the rotor hub assemblies installed.....





After locating the strut to I tacked a temporary bracket on top of the tower, used it to mark location on the top tower plates and put the caster/camber plates in place check position.....







Here's one with the wheel in place.....

 

Everything really looks great Frank.

 

Thanks..... Yeah everything is coming together nicely, hopefully it works as good as it's looking.....

 

I got the front fender down this morning and mocked it back up on the car to establish ride height..... After figuring ride height I had to change the upper mounting point for the strut in order to get the camber correct..... I also put the hood in place so I could check clearance at the top of the strut, all looked good there..... I put the hood and fender away for now, then I had to redrill the tower top plates for the correct position..... Next I marked up the tower top plate for the large clearance hole that it will need and drill a 5/8" hole pattern, once everything has been fit for the final time I will cut that hole to the size of the circle around the hole pattern..... I also drilled the hole pattern in the top plates for the caster/camber plates..... I tacked the top tower plates in, removed the alignment strap across the top and then welded the plates to the towers.....

Here is the hood to strut clearance and how the tire will fit in the front fender openings(I like the fact the front tire is not way under the car like it was with the factory suspension).....






Here you can see how much I moved the top of the strut out from the original position I thought it would be.....




Here the tower top plates are drilled and then they are welded in the top of the tower.....

 

Nice work Frank.

I had to use a spacer in the front to clear my brake calipers and I like how it looks now with the skinny tires that are towards the outside of the wheel well opening. Looks like your set-up did the same thing.

Andrew

 

I bought Mustang control arms from AJE instead of Maverick ones, the Mustang one are over an inch longer them the Mavericks are..... That is what makes the track width wider and also what allowed me to be able to move the towers as much as I did.....

 

Today I removed all the suspension components "again", joy's of fitting and fabricating..... Then I cut the center out in the top of the towers, used a carbide to clean up the hole and used paper rolls to smooth the hole..... Nest I removed the tower, welded the underside of the top plate and angled filler piece..... After that I ground the top of the tower smooth, and welded the new caster/camber plate spacers I made to the top of the tower..... Last thing was to screw the towers back in place, weld the upper areas and grind them smooth.....

Here is the hole in the tower cut out, then ground round with a carbide and then paper rolled smooth.....






Here the towers are removed.....





Here the inside of the towers and lower filler are welded in, then the top ground smooth.....





Here the towers are back in, partially welded and ground smooth, spacers are also added.....






Here is how the out side of the towers fit the opening so far.....

 

Finished welding the towers back in the car today..... Got the engine compartment side all cleaned up..... Cleaned up my welding/grinding mess..... The put the k-member, control arms and spindle/strut/brake assemblies back in the car..... I need to modify and make a couple spacers for the strut/castor-camber plate assemblies, then I may have to slot the strut lower mounting holes to get the strut in the center of it's travel where I want it..... I will just have to see how the travel works out with the new/modified spacers in place.....

Here is the backside of one tower and then the engine compartment side.....

 

Looking good. Looks stock for someone not knowing fords.

 

Thanks..... I wanted it to look more like it belongs instead of like some flat plate welded in.....

 

Went to the shop yesterday thinking I would get it on the suspension, modify the steering column with a bearing and make the steering shaft(NOT!!!!!)..... I made some spacers for the top of the struts during the week, so I test fit the struts with them and I still wasn't in the center of the strut travel..... I didn't figure the new spacers were going to quite get it where I need it to be, it did make an improvement though..... So I remove the struts from the spindle, mark them up and mill slot upward 3/8" so I can slide the struts down on the spindle..... This worked out well, the struts have 6.25" total travel..... After spacers and slotting the struts I have 3.o62" downward and 3.187" upward travels from my established ride height..... I am very happy with that..... Everything going well so far on Saturday......

Here is the a pic of a strut in the mill, and a side by side of a slotted and non slotted struts.....






Next thing was to install the rack and pinion assembly, this is where it all starts to go wrong..... The rack bolted in fine, so I check the fit on the pass side with the bump steer kit( no surprise I need to cut an inch off the inner tie rods, my car is just over 2" narrower in the track width the a fox Mustang - all steering components are fox Mustang )..... So I cut the inner tie rods, reinstall the rack - center the rack in it's travel and hook up the pass side(everything looks good)..... I set the length on the driver side the same and hook it up(problem is the rotor on this sit is pointed out a good amount)..... Upon further examination the rack is off center to the driver side approximately 3/4", at this point I am WTF..... I was pissed off and just had to get away from it for the day.....

I did some research Sat afternoon, from what I could tell in all the pic's I could find of the AJE k-members this is how all the newest ones are..... I guess nobody else checks things to the extent I do, I am really a pain in my own *** sometimes..... This is a big problem to me and something I must address..... I went back to the shop this morning and removed the boots of the inner joints on the rack assembly so I could check things more accurately, I verified I had the rack at the center of it's travel..... Sure enough I could easily see both inner tie rod pivot points were obviously to the left of the lower control arm pivot points..... After measuring everything there is a 1.5" difference from one side to the other, the rack definitely needs to go 3/4" to the right so it will be properly centered..... So I said F it and remove the k-member and rack once again, I got it up on the bench and rechecked it again coming to the same conclusion.....

At this point I know the motor was probably not going to be mounted in the position I want it to be..... I was going to give there position a try because they were there, but what the hell - I cut the motor mounts off the k-member and I will get it mounted how I want it when the time comes..... Next I drilled new mounting holes for the rack, which was no big deal..... The next problem is to deal with the old mounting holes which right next to the new ones, on the back side of the tube I made a reinforcement plate with 1 hole in the center of it..... Bolted it in position on the k-member and weld them to it..... Next weekend I will make some for the front of the tube and weld them to it also..... Rant over!!!!!(for now anyways).....

Here if you look at the inner tie rods you can see the rack is clearly shifter towards the driver side.....





Here I drilled new mounting holes in the k-member for the rack, and then where I made and welded on the reinforcement plates to the backside of the tube.....

 

That sucks Frank. You're right, I bet most people aren't as meticulous as you or they just don't care, and then they wonder why their cars wants to change lanes when they hit a bump...

You might have been better off building your own parts. You seem pretty capable.

Andrew

 

I'm almost willing to bet he would have if he'd known he was going to have to modify this much. I know I've been in that position before but "your like well I've already bought this pos and I'm not sending this **** back". Then again I've bought parts knowing good and well I was going to cut it up and modify the heck out of it. I guess it's just one of those thing sometimes...

 

I bought this one knowing I would probably be moving the mounts, but thought everything else would be fine(that was easier the building from scratch)..... And I think I will have another problem I will have to address, but I need to make these changes so I can properly evaluate the other possible issue.....


This all comes under the category of **** happens..... Most things you buy for a specific application these days just means it is close not exact..... I work on Muscle cars - Restorations and Restomods all the time at work, and run into these kinds of issues quite often.....

 

While this might be a statement regarding reality, it shouldn't have to be this way!!!

Andrew

 

I got the front rack mount reinforcement plates made and installed this morning..... Then I put the k-member back in once again, the rack I properly centered now..... I put the boots back on the ends of the rack and remounted..... The QA1 bumpsteer kit I got is not long enough to get the proper tie rod angle, I am weighing my options for this one.....

Now the other problem I figured I was going to have, the bottom of the brake caliper at the attaching bolt will hit the rear bar of the lower control arm on the back side at maximum turn point..... It doesn't hit by much but it does hit, I will have to make a couple control arm mods now?????

Here is the front rack mount reinforcement plate I made and then it welded in place.....





Here with the k-member/rack bolted back in you can see it is centered.....




Here the front wheels are mocked up so I could set toe in and check change through the range of travel.....

 

How's the bump steer? I bet it was terrible before with the rack not centered. Does that kit require a front or rear sump pan?

Andrew

 

I did not check the bump steer before but I could see there was going to be a problem.....

Rear sump or a Fox Body pan for a Ford motor.....

 

I put a brake caliper on the driver side this morning so I could check the clearance on the back side of the control arm..... Big surprise it hit and I still had a quarter turn to go on the racks pinion....




So I marked up the driver side control arm, took it off and cut a big notch in the back tube..... Then I put it back on and checked the clearance.....





Since the clearance didn't look to bad I removed it, I adjusted the notch, made a boxing plate for it, tacked it in place and then tried the control arm again..... It has some clearance now but the lower caliper bolt is a little to close..... I am going to get some button head bolts to replace the lower caliper bolt with, then it should have an acceptable amount of clearance.....





Last thing I did today was to remove both control arms and I made a cardboard pattern for a reinforcement plate to weld in the control arm..... I am also going to order a UPR extreme bump steer kit(it has a longer stud to should work better for my application).....