Mustang5l5's Progress Thread - Archived Progress thread '08-'20.

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I think you are right. I found info online that states 1988 has a measurement of 31 5/8" to the outside bolts in that location. The brace measures 28.5". That means there should only be 1.5" between the two bolts. If there is, then my car is off.

Looking at the pic..it looks a little more than 1.5"

Edit: found the info. 45mm or 1.8" is the spacing. That means the inner bolt holes should be 28".

The bar measures around 28.5". That looks like it's off 1/2" right?

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yeah at least... where are you measuring the bar from... I can go out and lay under mine real quick and measure the bar.... are you measuring the to back bar ( the one in pic) to the other side? I want to make sure I'm measuring it the same as you...
 
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I measured to center of the bolt over to the opposite side. Just under 28.5 is what I get on that back bar.

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that the numbers I'm getting on mine... so your saying your bolt holes are correct then, but the bar center is more then 28 1/2"?


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Damn. That's not good then. Means the brace is correct and my K-member is tweaked for some reason. Appreciate you crawling under there for me. Those are the same exact measurements I got on mine.


So now looking forward, I wonder if i'll be able to bolt a full MM K-member in place. I certainly hope so.
 
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Unfortunately no good news. I tried a few things and it's definitely off. I even did some crude measurements of the front wheels to rear wheels and "think" the drivers side front wheel is 1/2" close to the rear wheel than the pass side.

I spent a good hour under he car searching for signs of damage and came up empty. Nothing seems creased or dented. Even looking at the subframe where the k member bolts up, its straight as an arrow and seems to be properly in place.

So, looks like I'll just forgo the brace and go for the full k member and fix this issue that way. Hopefully bolting up the rear bolts is not an issue.

I'm still bummed by this news. I just hope I don't find any surprises when I remove the stock k member down the road.
 
Also while under the car tonight I changed out the tran fluid and started swapping out the speedo cable. Seems like it melted a tad by the clip near the front cat converter. Yes...I still have a stock h pipe...for now.

Unfortunately spinning it by hand did not produce the whirring noise I was hearing when car was cold.

I feel like once I change out this cable...I need a break from the mustang for a few weeks.

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Sorry to hear man. I'm just thinking out loud here but wouldn't the new MM K member have the exact same bolt spacing as their brace?

I thought the same too, but the issue is the brace doesn't line up with holes on the k member itself. The subframe has a lot more clearance and there's actually a speed nut plate that sits loose on top that you are threading the bolts in.

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So my thinking is that the bolt spacing on the subframe is fine and if I swap k members I can correct this issue.

I hope.


Regardless, car drove perfectly fine all these years without me knowing. But know that I know....I gotta fix it. Of course tolerance on a 30 year old car will never be perfect but I feel like a new k member and squaring it up should at least get both my wheels even in the wells.

I guess I'm more motivated that ever to pull the engine and yank the k member off now. But I want to at least drive it a couple months this summer first.

Next 10% off sale LMR has ill order up a k member and a arms.
 
Lift numbers won't effect idle like duration will. Best way I have heard it dumbed down was this: lift should complement flow characteristics of your heads, so lift the valves as high as the heads flow. Duration should be dictated by cubic inches, rpm range and idle characteristics. So low duration for nice drivability and larger duration for most power and higher rpm range.

Joe

That makes sense considering what I asked for. The cam has some pretty decent lift (0.565/0.558) but the duration is short (214/220) and it's -3* of overlap. My basic understanding is this should make for a decent idle and vacuum and give my nice low end torque.
 
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your front mount point for the mm brace is correct right? and you got the other back side on, so its just that one side that your off on??

Nope. That hole is off as well. It's off the same distance as the rearward mount position. I'd have to elongate both of those to center the brace and then elongate the rear holes to match. So both points are shifted inwards 1/2". The bolts show no signs of sliding from an impact at all. In fact none of the bolts do. I also see no movement in any of the surrounding sheetmetal. If something moved 1/2", i'm sure something would have torn or buckled. I don't see any of that, nor any kinks in the k-member indicating movement. The "tool catcher" lip on the underside of the k-member is intact and straight. Is it possible to fabricate the K-member incorrectly? Who knows. Would ford QC in 1988 catch such an issue? Who knows?

But taking crude reference points it does appear one wheel is set back slightly more than the other. Of course i'm also using a tape measure to figure this out referencing the rear axle, which could also be off slightly as well. I'd imagine this would throw my caster off and I've never had it reported to me that the caster was bad on this car considering it was non-adjustable with the stock C/C plates.

I think at this point, i'll forgo the MM 4-pt and install this 2-pt brace I installed on the car 20 years ago. No clue who makes it and I had to drill holes to mount it. I took it off when I did my AOD-to-T5 swap and never put it back on. I'll just throw it on now and it will probably accomplish the same thing for now.
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The K-member will be addressed in the future. I'll need to pick one up and start making my plans to remove the motor so I can do that as well as investigate this. My hope is that installing the new MM k-member and squaring it up doesn't cause any issues with mounting and i'm able to address the front suspension and get everything back in spec again.

When you own a car 20+ years you feel like you know every little square inch of it. This was a surprise.
 
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If the frame rail that the k member bolts to is square to the floor...and the pinch welds at the floor aren't stressed then it probably isn't bent. If that area moves the frame will have to twist with it. ( I would think ).

I'm interested to see how this plays out.

I actually don't think the car was hit now. I just think this k member is off for some reason.

I took a half day and came back to work on the car. Tried again for the third time to mount this brace.

I removed all 4 bolts and removed the nut plate. I only took a pic of the drivers side, but here's what I saw

Drivers side with center of car to right
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As you can see, the k member itself is sitting to the inside of the subframe mounting tab. Both sides are like this with the k member being inboard. You can see how the two bolts cheat to the outside. Now 1/2" is a 1/4" each side and if I were to slot these, it would fit. Problem is the two inner holes would be needing to be slotted as well.

I just think my k member was built narrow. I'm not going to drill these out...not when I'm going to put a new k member in anyway.

As for my wheels being off center. I measured to the rear axle. If that's off 1/4" each side that would give me my 1/2" so I can't read too much into that right now

So I threw that 2pt brace on and called it a day. Probably accomplishing the same thing as the MM brace did
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I'll investigate further when I pull the motor and remove this k member
 
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Other things I did today.

Swap out my melted speedo cable. Interior work is easy when you can easily pull the steering wheel off
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Little tip I did last time and will do this time as well. A little marine grade heat shrink with adhesive helps prevent trans fluid leaks from the crimp.
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I also pulled my o2 harness out. It's loaded with grime and the loom is disintegrating. I'll clean it up, reloom it, and repin the jumper for a manual trans.
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Next up...perform the mass air swap!
 
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A couple sellers on eBay unloading NOS oil pans. I specifically wanted one with the low oil sensor that was a ford piece. The motorsport pan lacks the sender bung.

F4 pans, but I think they fit all 86-95s. Date code appears to be 1997.

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My current pan has some questionable rust and both drain plugs leak a bit despite trying new plugs and gaskets each time I change the oil. This should fix that problem
 
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Not much to update. Too damn cold to work on the car. Garage is insulated but not heated so with it 0 outside it hovers around 40 degrees unless I open the door...which my wife seems to love to do. Had to unplug it to keep what little heat I have in there.

Anyway, mass air swap done at the ECU. Still neeed to install the o2 harness and wire in the vSS to the ECU. Then I can crank it up and see if it works.

Also, snagged some 96-04 spindles off eBay for $80/shipped. I'll use them with the MM k-member. I'll swap my new moog hubs over and ditch the dust shields.

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Mass air swap done. Fired it up and no issues at all. Cranked right over and settled down to a stable idle.


Pulled the car out to flip it around again in the garage. Did a quick walk around. Unfortunately the iPhone picks up all the high frequency engine noise and not the exhaust note


View: https://youtu.be/4wVIzMzStR0


Played around a bit with theride height. I think the rear needs to drop a bit. Car is toed out so I need to adjust that and align it again.

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Going to take a little break. Got some house projects to tackle. After that....time to put this in

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Picked up some rear lap belts. They look black, but what's curious is they are dated 1985. As far as I know 1985 didn't have a black interior option.

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Compared to my front belts, they are black just have a different shine than the factory belts.

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They do say Must on the receiver, but what could they have come in?
 
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