Black Jack: Now a little less of a rust bucket

I tried to clearance the banjo bolt, but I'm afraid to go any further. I can still crack it loose, but if I take anymore off, I don't think I'll be able to service the brakes... It's very, very close but still contacting wheel.

KRUISR said:

Not to be ignorant, what is the current brake set up you need to clearance.

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Post in thread 'Black Jack: Weld Draglites. I guess I'm hosed' https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/884727/post-9385485

@Noobz347 The spacer idea may still be workable, but I discovered another issue while looking into it. These older Draglites use long shank-style lug nuts, and with the proper single washer the shanks protrude past the rear mounting surface of the wheel and bottom against the rotor before the wheel clamps. A spacer thick enough to address that and clear the banjo bolt would need to be properly made for the application, and I would also need longer wheel studs.

A 3/16-inch spacer might solve both clearance problems, but it would also move the slick outward by 3/16 inch. I have not purchased the slick yet, so I cannot mount the complete package and determine whether that new position will actually fit under the car. There is not much spare room with a 10-inch wheel under a Fox, and I do not want to order a custom spacer, longer studs, and tires only to discover that the combination rubs somewhere else.

At this point I am probably better off selling these for a little more than I paid and looking for a wheel that clears the banjo bolt, seats squarely without a spacer, has the correct lug hardware, and works with my existing roughly 1.5-inch studs. It may cost more up front, but I do not want to keep chasing custom solutions to make a $275 pair of wheels work. This definitely did not become the budget drag-wheel setup I imagined.

@KRUISR I updated the link to a better post that covers the rotor sizes.

Ps. I stripped the rear interior down and got the car to a chassis guy to weld in Battle Boxes, install new WBO2 bungs a bit farther back while clearing the stifflers D/S safety loop, and see if he can do any kind of welding to seal the leaking $1k-to-replace Ron Davis radiator. It's a minor leak, but obviously it's preventing the cooling system from pressurizing, even if it still does a fine job of keeping everything cool.

The good news: Black Jack is less of a rust bucket now, the shop that installed the torque boxes also cleaned up some rust holes in the rear floor pan, and now the Wild Rides "Battle boxes" are in, the axle tubes are welded up, & the Stifflers D/S safety loop is in. So, it's ready for slicks and driveline violence!

The bad news: It has a bad engine vibration above 2k RPM. This happened simultaneously with picking it up from the shop, but I think the problem is the stock balancer, as I *think* I can see alit wobble at idle. It needs a front main seal anyways. So, do any of you have a quality but affordable balancer or brand you prefer? I'm not looking to sink big money into this motor while I'm prepping to build another engine in another year or so, but I also don't want to install something cheap that may come with problems, either. Just a quality stock replacement would be nice.

Here's some of the floor pan work:

AeroCoupe said:

If you are going to build another motor go ahead and pop for a good balancer that can go zero, 28 oz, or 50 oz and just reuse it on the new motor. I have a FMS one that does this and swapped the 50 oz weight to the 28 oz weight when I swapped the 351 in the car.

If you are going to sell or use the existing motor and want to leave the balancer on it then I would go with a Power Bond. Good thread on balancer discussion here:

Post in thread 'Harmonic balancer wobble.'

Dec 12, 2023

The FMS unit is about $375 or an ATI Super Damper is about $425 and both are great units. I run the ATI on my Coupe and the FMS on the T-Bird as they both have fairly high end motors. If I were running a HCI 302 motor I would probably just run the $100 OEM replacement Power Bond unit and move on.

• AeroCoupe

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I knew they did that with flywheels, but not balancers. Cool. I'll look into it. Powerbond is what ChatGPT recommended too. Will read the thread.