Build Thread Bird_dog0347's Frankenstang, sure is nice of us to build a car around the fuel filler door

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I ordered the 190LPH Walbro pump cause the 255 was out of stock and I'm impatient and don't care... I also got a new fuel level sending unit and filler neck grommet while I was at it. Supposed to be delivered tomorrow but with the wife out of town a few more days and kids and stuff I'm not expecting to have it done before maybe this weekend. Once I drop the tank I'll also mount my battery box in the trunk and make sure the proper holes are in place so that I can relocate the battery this summer as well. I just want to drive it, but the tank being dropped is necessary to install the box so I can do that quickly without having to extend the downtime.
 
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Well, something seems to be missing here...

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Trying the whole alignment thing again now that the fuel system is working. Hopefully I'll be able to drive it now and get back to working on the tune.
 
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Well, she's home.. no incidents other than they said they can't get it perfect as far as the alignment settings go as I'm out of caster with my stock K and control arms and the toe isn't quite perfect cause they were worried they'd run out of threads.

All that said, WOW what a difference! The steering upgrades (03/04 Cobra rack, new pump, hoses, MM hybrid shaft, MM solid rack bushings) are one of the best things I've done to the car. The most expensive part was the MM shaft, but all in all I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. The old PS pump whine is also gone and man it sounds sooooo much better now. If I can get out tonight to a get together I plan to take it.
 
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Just curious, would you say the solid MM steering shaft made a big difference in the feel? I have a pretty new reman'd rack and pump but have been considering the MM shaft...

It's hard to say, I replaced ALL of it at the same time and using the Cobra rack in the fox requires a different solid shaft to work so I wasn't going to be able to try it with the stock one. But, I can tell you it's a bad ass piece of equipment and way better quality than a 25 year old stock unit.
 
It's hard to say, I replaced ALL of it at the same time and using the Cobra rack in the fox requires a different solid shaft to work so I wasn't going to be able to try it with the stock one. But, I can tell you it's a bad ass piece of equipment and way better quality than a 25 year old stock unit.
Awesome man, glad to hear it's such a huge improvement! Yeah MM quality always impresses me, I just did upper control arms/bushings the other night and their removal tool was a damn lifesaver. Thanks for the info, I'm adding the solid shaft to my wish list :)
 
Just curious, would you say the solid MM steering shaft made a big difference in the feel? I have a pretty new reman'd rack and pump but have been considering the MM shaft...

Hard to describe the difference really. You know when you put your hand on the 6 oclock position of the steering wheel and rock it side to side at highway speed? It might feel a bit numb and slow to respond. Well after the MM shaft..you simply won't do that because it responds very quickly and the car will react instantly. It just eliminates slop. How much you notice it depends on the amount of slop you get. I'd consider the shaft an upgrade in itself

The cobra rack just firms up the steering, especially at slow speed. Creeping around my garage and driveway you need to actually put some effort into turning the whwel and the effort at speed is higher than stock, but nothing that stands out drastically.

I did both at the same time and it really tightened up the steering
 
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Hard to describe the difference really. You know when you put your hand on the 6 oclock position of the steering wheel and rock it side to side at highway speed? It might feel a bit numb and slow to respond. Well after the MM shaft..you simply won't do that because it responds very quickly and the car will react instantly. It just eliminates slop. How much you notice it depends on the amount of slop you get. I'd consider the shaft an upgrade in itself

The cobra rack just firms up the steering, especially at slow speed. Creeping around my garage and driveway you need to actually put some effort into turning the whwel and the effort at speed is higher than stock, but nothing that stands out drastically.

I did both at the same time and it really tightened up the steering
Makes sense, since the stock shaft has the rag joint vs the MM soild one. It's been so long since I've driven my car, let alone at highway speeds I'll have to get back to you on how that test goes ;) If this rack ever goes out on me, I'll definitely look into finding a cobra rack to replace it with.

Kind of unrelated, but I'm really wishing I would have done the SN95/5-lug swap when I did the discs in the back since my turning radius is TERRIBLE with the 9" wide front wheels I have. I put in rack limiters to stop them grinding on the control arms but of course that made the radius even worse. Lots of lessons learned for me on this project haha :doh:
 
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I really don't see why they had to drive your car. Alignment specs are alignment specs. If they had just done what you asked and aligned the car it would be done and out of your hair and then you would only need to fix your fuel pump and could actually drive your car. I would not have been happy about what they did