Black Jack: The show must go on... Installing the TMOSS GT40 Lower

[AeroCoupe]

I used the farthest back original holes on the seat tracks and then used the aluminum flat bar as an adapter for the Corbeau's. Had to scrounge around but found a couple pics of when I did this on the T-Bird as it has the same seats:

Believe I had to grind the tops on the rivets but not 100% sure as this was years ago:

That should give you the idea. Also, you can shave 1" off the bottom cushion and that helps alot. I ordered them that way for the Coupe and forgot on the T-Bird so had to do that and it makes a lot of difference. I still sit nowhere near as low as the old Turbo Coupe seats I had in there and regret selling them to this day.

I have the Griggs Racing upper subframes in both cars so I set the seat back as far as it would go. With the seat all the way back the rear of the bottom seat frame is about 1/8" of an inch from the top of the upper sub frame on both cars. This limits me from using their extenders so I never even tried them.

 

[rednotch]

My favorite color is probably the 87-89 grey that's darker than the grey in the later years, & black is a close 2nd. There's no way around a hot interior in the places I've lived, except getting window deflectors to keep the rain out and cracking the windows. Plus, I hated the discoloration in my other '91's grey over time. The way the handle is a different color that the rest of the glove box, for example.

Regarding sun fade, Black Jack is going to spend some time in the Sun when I'm at work, but will be garaged, otherwise. Further, the tint is reasonably dark. So, hopefully that helps the seats last a while. Couldn't pass up the deal, need something to keep me in place at the autocross, and I don't share everyone's love for the original seats. They're comfy/fine, but aesthetically, I don't have any attachment.



Now, without the extender, I'm low enough, again. Are you saying that you fabricated a seat extender using aluminum bar? i.e. you mounted the seats back a couple inches?

Titanium turns tanish with age and discolors the worst on the plastics and seat vinyl, Opal and smoke ages ok if you take care of the vinyl, opal is just a pita to find since its 93 only. I just don't care for those giant head rest on 87-89 seats and the taller backs, don't think I've ever used the heads rest in these car as a driver, my heads generally above all of them. I have the same issue as you with stock seats and the headlner, even without a helmet.

The power tracks sit a tiny bit lower then manual all the way down and I tend to use those but there getting harder to find in pick u pulls from 94 up cars and are obsolete from ford, I kind of have to sit with ganster lean in these and most cars lol. You can gain a little bit of leg room redrilling and tapping the seat to rail mounting points and not add any height but its not a huge amount, not sure if it can be done to the frames on those seats though.

 

[FastDriver]

I am a mechanical genius, for I have installed... wait for it... rack limiters!

 

[Noobz347]

Like father like son.



Wait for it...

 

[FastDriver]

Like father like son.



Wait for it...

Dayumn! That was pretty damned good.

 

[Rdub6]

I'd like to point out, prior to any judgement, that I bought this car back for $3,800 just under 1 year ago. Many hours went into this interior, and it's a really nice place to be, now. Especially for a daily driver.

About a month ago, I was going back and forth on whether to go with Corbeau GTS II seats or a pair of Recaros, similar to the Recaro SE ones in Grover. The Corbeaus were about 1/2 the price of the Recaros. A couple weeks ago, I came across a listing in the other forum that shall not be named for the Corbeaus with Brackets & rear seat covers BNIB. Paid $851 to my door! From Summit, they'd cost $959 for the seats, $139*2 for the brackets. Didn't care too much for covers, but that would've been another $200. Would have been $1,437 + tax + shipping (if any). So, that made my decision a cinch.

Oops, just realized I forgot to pull the belt buckles back through.

Interior looks great man! Especially with the rear to match. Always liked those Corbeaus.

I’d love to just put halo headrests in my seats, but it seems each retailer is playing the “I know what I got” game, even for the repos!

 

[FastDriver]

Thanks, bud. Hope to get the last rear cover on in the next few weeks.

I'm pretty blown away by the cost of seats, in general. You don't get the heaters, coolers, butt massagers... Pretty much everything is pretty basic and costs thousands. I just bought Recaros for the other Black car and it was twice as much as everything that came with both Corbeaus for EACH seat. Still need brackets, too.

 

[rednotch]

I am a mechanical genius, for I have installed... wait for it... rack limiters!

Lol I steal those out of every old rack....

Headrest I think lmr has black halos for a bill still under there resto brand, rest are tmi and there prices since Rona pretty much doubled or trippled on everything. I paid $500 for the first leather kit I bought from them, wasn't even a sale, now its like 1200 just for the upholstery. Door panels are like $800 ffs and not even a good repo lol.

 

[FastDriver]

Had another blast out at Rockingham at today's autocross event. Black Jack was actually pretty competitive. It's just amazingly fun to drive at the limit. Getting a lot of one wheel peel when accelerating out of tight curves. Probably going to start looking at Eaton true-tracs as a potential future mod... not in a hurry though. It's hard to imagine having more fun.

Thanks again to @Warhorse Racing for the instruction. Definitely made me faster today.

 

[Noobz347]

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[FastDriver]

I think I have one somewhere. Just need to break it out and figure out how to mount.

 

[General karthief]

Duct tape,,,,gorilla glue,,,,, zip ties,,,,,
Need I go on?

 

[limp]

Duct tape,,,,gorilla glue,,,,, zip ties,,,,,
Need I go on?

A few minutes ago I used to help pit a cross country Motorcycle.... Zip Ties could win a race......

 

[General karthief]

A few minutes ago I used to help pit a cross country Motorcycle.... Zip Ties could win a race......

Wait ........ A FEW minutes???

 

[limp]

Wait ........ A FEW minutes???

Just trying to be more " up to date" here..... Thats what all of the you toobers call it......

 

[Warhorse Racing]

Had another blast out at Rockingham at today's autocross event. Black Jack was actually pretty competitive. It's just amazingly fun to drive at the limit. Getting a lot of one wheel peel when accelerating out of tight curves. Probably going to start looking at Eaton true-tracs as a potential future mod... not in a hurry though. It's hard to imagine having more fun.

Thanks again to @Warhorse Racing for the instruction. Definitely made me faster today.

@FastDriver ended up finishing in 4th place out of 30 novices at this event. He also ran .056 seconds FASTER than my CAM-T winning time in my 2004 IRS-swapped V6. I was really glad I got an opportunity to jump into the passenger seat and offer some instruction. And it was great to see him put that instruction into practice and make some "Fox Body Magic" happen out on course.

One of my favorite things about helping Mustang drivers at events is watching them discover how capable and fun these cars can be!

 

[FastDriver]

Ok... I'm trying to restore speedo & cruise control functionality. I think the best way to do this is going to involve wiring to a signal converter and I don't want to cut the stock wiring. To get from the '03 Cobra VSS/OSS to the converter, it's simple: I use a replacement VSS pigtail like this:

But, to go from the converter back to the computer's signal, I'd like a pigtail that's opposite that the stock computer's pigtail will connect to. Don't need the whole VSS. Just want the Can anyone point me in the right direction. I've been google searching to no avail.

If the above is the female connector, then I need the male connector, like the following pic, but with wires instead of in a VSS body:

If I can't find one, I'll just splice into the EEC's signal wire, but I'd prefer the cleanness of actual connectors. 'preciate any help.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I don’t see it in the connector listings.

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/dam/ford-motorcraft/en_us/motorcraft_global/products/wire_sets_wiring/18376-Pigtail-Book-2016.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2uO418H2VMD6TaFoEMgVPw-XLqq3TBFeYITwTU5MCElwH36jUt-XxDyvo

If you need both sides, why not just grab a known male/female connector and just use that vs the actual VSS connector and trying to find a mate. Given that you aren’t connecting to an actual VSS sensor, you have flexibility.

 

[FastDriver]

I don’t see it in the connector listings.

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/dam/ford-motorcraft/en_us/motorcraft_global/products/wire_sets_wiring/18376-Pigtail-Book-2016.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2uO418H2VMD6TaFoEMgVPw-XLqq3TBFeYITwTU5MCElwH36jUt-XxDyvo

If you need both sides, why not just grab a known male/female connector and just use that vs the actual VSS connector and trying to find a mate. Given that you aren’t connecting to an actual VSS sensor, you have flexibility.

Thanks for the quick response. Maybe I'm misunderstanding. I actually am connecting to the VSS on the Transmission side (same connector out of the '03 Cobra T56 -- see below). Then, I must also connect to the computer's 'male' connector on the opposite side. That or I have to splice in.



FYSA, here's what I'm thinking:

VSS/OSS at transmission -->

--> female pigtail -->

--> Dakota signal converter SGI-100BT (converts signal pulse count by a factor of up to 4 in either direction): --> (2 outs)

1st out from Dakota --> missing male pigtail, where to find? --> EEC female connector already on car (hopefully without splicing) --> EEC-IV

--> 2nd out from Dakota --> Abbott Cable-X -->

--> Speedo cable --> Gauge cluster

 

[FastDriver]

Never found an appropriate pigtail. So, I spliced into the computer's signal wire.

For my own future reference, the Computer ground is run to the ground on the VSS pigtail, which is an Orange wire from the Computer & a purple wire on the replacement pigtail that I connected to the VSS. The signal from the VSS (Yellow) runs to a black wire (because I reversed the wires I soldered in before I figured out my error -- I suck at electronic stuff), which runs into the Speed "Input" terminal (between 'Spd'+ & 'Spd-' on the Dakota SGI-100BT.

The power & ground for the Dakota unit are run to the same power/ground that powers my reverse lockout & line-lock. I tried to run the Abbott-tach Cable-X speed cable box off of the same lines, but I guess the electric motor induced some interference & it caused the Dakota to read a signal when the car was stopped. It also caused the line-lock to stay locked until I press and released the thumb switch. So, I ended up running a separate ground under the dash & spliced into the A/C blower for its power line.

Edit/update (12Jul23): Moved the Dakota's power and ground to the same power as the Cable-X. It seems the ground, at least, from the line-lock & reverse lockout was causing a glitch erratic signal to the Dakota, especially when stopped.

The Cable-X signal runs from the same port as the computer's signal on the Cable-X. This allows me to adjust the Dakota's signal multiplier and get consistent signals to both. I'm just a little worried about the Cable-X's earlier interference, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

The cable-x box apparently has a little warm up routine when I start the car that spins the speedo needle somewhat erratically. But after 10-15 seconds it calmed down. Cruise control works really well, now. A quick tweak or two had the speedo needle working with acceptable accuracy +/- 2mph at most speeds I checked & the multiplier was almost precisely what my calculations expected, validating that I had a reasonable understanding of all of the processes in play from the Trans -> Dakota -> Cable-X -> gauge cluster.

It does bounce a bit at lower speeds, which is probably just something cable driven cars have to live with. It might be better if I got them to make me a custom length cable with less bends, but it'll have to do for now, as I move on to other projects. Lastly, because I piped into the power from the HVAC blower circuit, the speedo does jump momentarily when I go from blower-off to full on, but then quickly recovers to what seems to be the same speed on my first tests.

I don't have a lot of pics to share on this one. Most of the stuff is under the dash & just amounts to ugly wiring & cable routing.