Progress Thread Fixing Up A '93 Gt - Project Done

I finally had a little while and decided to try the replacement Dyna Mod TFI. I installed it and the car was missing just like the first one. In case you don't recall, this is what the first one looked like after it stranded me at the bottom of the hill near my house on the test drive and cost me a tow.



I got as far as my neighbors driveway 100 ft. from mine before I backed up and pulled back in mine. This is what it looked like after around 30 seconds of run time.



You can see some of the black goo already trying to make it's way out of the TFI and rip the back off again. If I gave it another minute it probably would've blown the back off and stranded me like the last one. Makes me kind of want to get rid of the PDI "Screamin' Demon" coil pack I put on also. I really don't want anything PDI on my car.

I now keep a packet with a spare TFI, the little wrench and a distributor wrench in the glovebox. I can change one of these out quick now. Most of the time is spent cleaning up the goop.

mikestang63 said:

where is the dielectric grease?

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It came with it's own goop. Already cleaned off so I can hopefully pack it up and ship it off for a refund. The fingerprints are the remnants. I put their packet on, it made complete nice contact. There was some minor squeeze out upon installation and a nice contact patch left on both sides upon removal. Not the problem unless their supplied goop doesn't do the job.

My friend I eat lunch with most days said it best when he introduced me to someone. He said "he's a really good backyard mechanic, but he has a black cloud hanging over his head". On to the next debacle. I started the weekend with the plan that I'd at least get rid of the underdrive pulleys on the car and fix the bad rag joint. I had a set of new LMR pulleys in hand and a MM steering shaft.
First up, pulleys. Typical of the PO, he didn't actually put a underdrive pulley set on the car. Half-assed as usual, just a smaller crank pulley. I replaced the crank pulley and figured I'd put the new water pump pulley on also. The replacement alternator already had a nice new one on it. The new water pump pulley wouldn't fit over the center pin on the water pump. It probably needed some of the thick paint scraped off, but I opted to keep the original Ford one on there. It was the same size and is in really good shape. Off to the auto parts store for some belt size roulette. After trying a few different belts, it became clear the one I needed was the one they didn't have in stock. duh.
Onto the new steering shaft. Things started great. I got the old shaft out pretty quickly. I had done my research and seen enough videos that I knew exactly what to do. Then I went to stab the MM shaft into the steering column. Nope. Ughhh, here we go.
First attempt: The MM instructions say to tap it in. So, small hammer out tap, tap, whack, whack ... no go. 20 minutes later and lots of cussing and I managed to wrangle it back out. So, I quit for the night thinking of creative ways of destroying the MM shaft. I stopped at the auto parts joint on the way to dinner and picked up a replacement rag joint. I was fully expecting to send back the MM shaft and just replace the rag joint.
Today, I awoke thinking a little more clearly. I mic'ed the original and the MM and found the MM was actually smaller in every dimension. Theoretically it should go in easier. But, the concave side of the thing wasn't as clearly shaped. I suspected it was hanging up because the concave machining wasn't wide enough. So, out came the die grinder and I widened it a bit. It went in a little deeper before hanging up. Good sign. A little more grinding and a few light hammer taps and it was in. 15 minutes later it was bolted up. I did the steering check and it came out that everything was straight. Still need a test drive, but seems good. Just need to wait on a belt to show up.

Here's the MM steering shaft after declaring victory over the ***** thing. It's the shiny thing next to the header.


Next I cleaned it up and hit it with some POR15. Now it's the shiny black thing next to the header. My paint job isn't show car worthy, but should keep the rust at bay. Good enough it won't be embarassing at the local cars & coffee either.



Next up, put the rear suspension parts in. You can see with the new springs on the front and stockers on the back it's got a little '70s rake going. The extra wheel well in the back is more obvious in person than in the pic.

Test drive complete.

Bad:
-Now that underdrive is gone, the PS pump was hissing like a banshee. Bled the fluid, it was nasty. Better but still loud, even for a Ford. Probably needs a pump eventually. Little play in the steering still, probably needs a rack eventually.

Good:
-The tendency for bumps to try and rip the steering wheel out of my hand is gone. Slight variations of RPM at idle don't cause the voltage to drop anymore.

Other Notes:
-I still need to look for vacuum leaks, but I've gotten to the point where all of the upfront stuff is taken care of in the idle surge checklist. Pretty sure it'll be a vacuum leak. Ugh.

-I was nowhere close to the belt lengths that I've seen called out for a stock 5.0 with PS/AC minus smog pump. Most say 84.5". I was 78".

I was hoping to get more done this weekend. I changed the oil and bled the PS some more. PS is slightly quieter, down to normal Ford hiss volume now.
My rear brakes were clunking and the pedal was starting to engage lower. Ugh. I put all new hardware on the rear drums. I frigging hate drum brakes. But, that seemed to fix the problem and the e-brake is working much better also. Hopefully the last time I will have to mess with them before I convert to rear disk. Hopefully nobody in the neighborhood was walking by as I was screaming curse words at them. They might not know that screaming loud curse words is the correct way to get drum brakes to seat correctly.

Today I finished doing the rear springs, shocks, and rear axle bearings (w/fluid change). I'll start with the result, no more '70s rake. Nice level car at the right height. Now I just need more tire in the wheel wells.



First thing I did was the rear axle bearings. Drained the fluid, pulled the axles, and used a slide hammer with axle bearing puller to get the bearings out. Made a mistake here, I did too quick of a check and used the middle size bearing puller. It was just a tiny bit too big and gouged the inside of the axle a little. I caught it when one bearing flew out and I figured something was wrong. So I didn't make too bad of a boo boo. It's the small one ... use the small one.

I used the Centric rear axle "repair" bearings from LMR. They offset the bearings a little on the axle in case the axle is worn. The axles were OK, but these things have an o-ring seal that wasn't in the damaged area. I didn't have to try to put some RTV around my boo boo and they shouldn't leak. I did initially try to put the first one in backwards, realized it before I screwed anything up.
I used the LubeLocker seal instead of RTV on the rear end cover. I highly suggest this. Makes things real easy. Bonus, they gave me a sticker that I threw on the cabinet that I've been sticker-bombing lately.



Refilling the rear-end wasn't as easy as they show on the video. My Al drive shaft and flowmasters were in the way of getting the bottle in there to just squeeze the fluid in. So I had to get out the transmission fluid pump. Ughhh, it doesn't really fit in any bottle correctly so I wind up pouring the fluid into a solo cup and sucking it out of there. By the time I finish the whole garage is a toxic waste dump. I also needed 2.5 quarts of the gear lube (plus the friction modifier), so another trip to the store to get the 3rd quart.



Getting the shocks out required me to go shopping again. I needed offset wrenches to get down to the top shock bolt. I needed a 15mm to get the stock one off and a 14mm to put the new one on. The wrenches are 13/15 and 12/14. Since I needed two wrenches, it was just a few more bucks for the full set.



Doing the springs ... again life is not like the videos. I had to use death sticks to get the springs in. Only had to compress them a couple inches, but still couldn't just shove them in like the videos show. Done and ready to clean up.



All the rear end noise is gone now. Plus the car feels much tighter. The only downside of all this is that I have to put the car up on a 2x to get the jack under the back GT lip. I have a solution to that in mind, but probably not this month.

Mustang5L5 said:

Not that you want to hear this now...but if you unbolt the main and quad shock out back, you can lower the rear far enough to do both springs by hand. No compressor needed.

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Nope, that's exactly what I did. I could pry the stock springs out with a pry bar, but couldn't get the new ones in. I was expecting it to be much easier based on the videos on LMR.

mikestang63 said:

unbolt the quad and rear shock and place a jack under the other side of the rear end under the conrol arm and jack it up.. then the spring on the opposite side should fall out

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That I didn't do. I'll remember that when I change the control arms. Thanks.

I forgot to mention that I have new rear control arms, but it was clear I was going to have to drop the exhaust to make that happen. It was 100 degrees outside and I wanted to get done. So, control arms are still in the box.

If I didn't have evil IRS thoughts, I would have bought one of the covers that has a fill/drain hole and call it serviceable. I will be pulling the axles a couple more times before that though