Help Identify This Part! Brilliant Ford Engineering, Or Useless Weight?

Which is it?


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chubbza5

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May 4, 2017
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Hey guys, first post here!
A buddy of mine has a 2001 mustang GT and sent me a picture from under his car. He believes that there's a bad bushing or broken bolt, and he says this piece is "loose" (I'm assuming broken bolt). I don't have ANY idea what this piece would be. Maybe a jacking point? Skid plate for diff? Structural brace for diff housing?

Any input would be great. I'd like to help him fix it but I can't even find what it is. Without being there to look at it I'm stumped. I've tried all the keywords!
 

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It's a harmonic damper they put on the diff to reduce the noises being transmitted to the interior. They did the same with the exhaust on the Panther platform cars and on some chassis components of some of the trucks and SUVs.
 
It is called the harmonic damper or also referred to as the "dog bone". I found that it is useless weight on your Ford Mustang. All it is there for is to reduced vibrations and noise that go's from the bottom of your car to your interior. One of the first things I did to my Ford Mustang was remove this and I really didn't notice any difference in interior noise. If you remove this it is pretty heavy like about 25 lbs. or a little more I would say. It is held on by two bolts on the bottom of it but be careful removing it is quite heavy.
 
Right on I'll take it off and see if he can deal with it! I'd imagine if the upper mounts were worn out it may be noticable, surely better than having it hanging by one side and flopping around. His cars a convertible too, I couldn't seem to find any dog bones on the 01's mostly the older styles. I guess it's specific to the 8.08 rear?
 
Well it should be on all the 1994-2004 Ford Mustangs from what I have seen unless the owner removed it from their car. The stock ring and pinion in the 8.8" rear end is 3.27's unless your friend choose to install difference gears or it had difference gears installed by a previous owner/s. Also this is a good chance to help your friend out by checking the driveshaft for any play in it. You can check the driveshaft bolts to make sure they are tight and check for any possibe leaks too. Good preventive maintenance on your Ford Mustang.
 
In my experience I have observed that in general engineers of all disciplines are lazy (some might use the term efficient). That is they never add or change anything without a compelling reason.

Further. Car makers when designing a car deal in 10's to 100's of thousands of units. Any cost savings realized are multiplied by some large numbers.

Bottom line. IF Ford adds something to a part/subsystem used on one application but not on others likely there's a REASON. It may not always be the best reason. Or an obvious reason.

The weight is there to help reduce wheel hop by keeping the front pinion from rotating up during high torque loads. By keeping the pinion down this also improves the performance of the U-joints (angle of the drive line).

Let's think about this. Why would Ford pay extra to add this part to a Mustang but not the other cars that use the same 8.8 rear end? Could it be that a greater percentage of Mustang owners are more likely to drive aggressively? Or could it be that the Mustang has more power compared to the weight of the car and thus a greater chance of inducing wheel hop?

Is it possible that the "dog bone" is a cheaper solution than other live axle methods to reduce wheel hop (think Panhard bar)? Count on it.

Is it fair to conclude that a part is totally "useless" because nothing bad happens when it's removed? What about the owner that removes the part but never drives aggressively? That owner would likely never see a negative effect from removing the part.

In the same vein. What about the owner that "soups up" their ride and still has problems with wheel hop? Can we conclude that the weight is useless because it doesn't prevent wheel hop? Remember that Ford designed the part be an engineering compromise of cost vs function.

Final thought. Is the part required? No. Will anything bad happen IF it's removed? Depends on how you drive. Wheel hop can be a bad thing. It can damage parts. So you choose based upon HOW you intend to use the vehicle and your repair budget.
 
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In my experience I have observed that in general engineers of all disciplines are lazy (some might use the term efficient). That is they never add or change anything without a compelling reason.

Further. Car makers when designing a car dealing in 10's to 100's of thousands of units. Any cost savings realized are multiplied by large numbers.

Bottom line. IF Ford adds something to a part/subsystem used on one application but not on others likely there's a REASON. It may not always be a good reason.

The weight is there to help reduce wheel hop by keeping the front pinion from rotating up during high torque loads. By keeping the pinion down this also improves the performance of the U-joints (angle of the drive line).

Let's think about this. Why would Ford pay extra to add this part to a Mustang but not the other cars that use the same 8.8 rear end? Could it be that a greater percentage of Mustang owners are more likely to drive aggressively? Or could it be that the Mustang has more power compared to the weight of the car and thus a greater chance of inducing wheel hop?

Is it fair to conclude that a part is totally "useless" because nothing bad happens when it's removed? What about the owner that removes the part but never drives aggressively? That owner would likely never see a negative effect from removing the part.

In the same vein. What about the owner that "soups up" their ride and still has problems with wheel hop? Can we conclude that the weight is useless? Remember that Ford designed the part be an engineering compromise of cost vs function.

Final thought. Is the part required? No. Will anything bad happen IF it's removed? Depends on how you drive. Wheel hop can be a bad thing. It can damage parts. So you choose based upon HOW you intend to use the vehicle.

Yes. This.

You will not see any performance improvement by taking it off in anything less than a full blown race car. Even then, you won't notice whatever little change it makes. It's there for a reason. It probably helps more than it hurts. Im not in the business of messing with things I don't fully understand. That's why it stays on my cars.