Build Thread My First Notch Build Thread - Remember me?!

@TOOLOW91 Thanks!

I went with this fuel system because it seemed like a quality kit, which it is, but I have to modify it and add to it which brings the cost up to what a GP or Aeromotive kit would have cost. So it just wasn't the big financial hit all at once.

hoopty5.0 said:

You sure its a UPR member? Is it stamped on there somewhere?

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At this point, there is NO WAY this is a UPR k-member. But I don't have the time or money to get one right now. It'll have to happen later.

hoopty5.0 said:

@stangboy Well, I definitely would NOT make any plans to head this way this weekend, unless its in a boat.

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I was there. The weather actually turned out great Thursday and Friday. Saturday was a washout but a couple of shops just did "dyno-nights". We had a great time as usual. Oh, BTW, my buddy's car wasn't ready either. He's actually STILL waiting for his new Tb plenum to arrive after going back and forth with Lightning Force Performance and their sh itty customer service.

As for my k-member, I think it's a QA-1 piece. I advise anybody thinking of buying one.....DON'T!!!!

Thanks @cleanLX My dad told me the same thing. Deep down I already knew it though, I just really wanted to have it ready this year for TX2K. Oh well, it'll be right for next year.

**UPDATE**
Wait...seems lie I have to fill you guys in on the last fitment problem I had. Well once the motor was sitting in the engine compartment like it should I started installing the transmission. Well when I went to put the crossmember(American Powertrain X-Factor crossmember that came in the transmission installation kit I bought when I bought the TKO600) on it didn't fit like it should. It was so far off that I thought the k-member was the problem...which wasn't far-fetched because the k-member gave me so many other fitment issues. But I called AP to let them know that the crossmember wasn't fitting and that it may have been in the bad batch that they said they had and recalled. They checked the date that mine was shipped and was sure that it wasn't part of the bad batch. So I figured at that point that the problem was the k-member.

Here is how far off it still was after improvising when I first tried to put the crossmember on. Notice how I sandwiched the front side of the bracket and used a nut to make up the space inside the bracket.


Well after that I still ended up here....not being able to get the piece that the mount bolts to in that section. Even if I would have modified that said piece I still wouldn't have been able to do anything because look at how the nut is too close to the crossmember which wouldn't allow me to get a wrench on the nut. But the 1 thing that kept making me think that the crossmember was the problem was that the shifter was right where it needed to be going through the floor.


So after brainstorming what my next move might be (buying a new k-member was not an option because my budget is gone), we figured that either I'd have to put the stock k-member back in or modify 1 of the crossmembers I have, the stock one or the AP one. Well I definitely didn't want to put the stock k-member back in so that was out. I don't know how to weld and didn't have money to pay somebody to do it. So we decided to basically mount the k-member, motor and tranny from back to front starting with the crossmember. But we would start off using the stock crossmember. So I loosened the k-member bolts took the nut off of the motor mounts and suspended the motor and tranny with the hoist and a floor jack. In order to use the stock crossmember I had to grind the welds off so it could be adjustable.

Fast-forward to Thursday night.....The k-member was NOT the problem!! The American Powertrain X-Factor crossmember was the problem just as I suspected. The stock crossmember worked like a champ once I made it adjustable. So now I have to call AP back and let them know that they did, in fact, send me a defective crossmember that they insisted they didn't. I'll be shipping it back along with the big a$$ transmission mount that came in the installation kit. I ended up using a stock sized polyurethane mount.

Now I can start making some progress again and hopefully have the thing running and tuned before mid summer. Wish me luck.

madmike1157 said:

So let me get this straight.......If in the end, the new cross member was the problem, wouldn't you have been able to verify that by simply putting the stocker back?



And, if you had to modify that stock cross member to get it to fit, you may want to omit that fact when you call AP for a refund.

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I guess if grinding some welds so it could be adjustable is considered modifying it then i guess you could say that....BUT their crossmember was made SPECIFICALLY to mount this transmission(well pretty much any manual bigger than a T5) into a fox body mustang and it DID NOT do what it was intended to do. So as far as I'm conserned they either owe me money or a credit....I don't think they have anything else I need right now so I'll take the cash. But I'll see when I talk to them tomorrow.

Well I was able to work on the car for a lil while today. I completely installed the passenger side A-arm, spindle, strut w/ coil-over kit, caster camber plate, and bumpsteer kit. The driver side, on the other hand, couldn't be completed. 1. I couldn't tighten the nut on the ball joint all the way because I didn't make a deep enough slot in the NAPA 94-95 ball joint that doesn't use a castle nut and cotter pin. 2. I couldn't find the stock nut that goes on the top of the strut so I couldn't install the strut and coil-over kit. I was able to install the c/c plate on that side tho.

Here are some pics of the completed side.

I didn't tighten the nut on the bottom side of the bumpsteer kit because it still needs to be adjusted later. I don't have the steering column in the car and I can't let the car down yet anyway.







Here's a question. Should I be able to extend and compress my Strange single adjustable 10-way struts by hand? I found this kinda odd.

Made a little bit of progress lately. I finally found a strut nut to lock the down the driverside of the front suspension. I put the front brakes on. I need to find the lines that I bought a while back and put them on. I got my measurement for my driveshaft and emailed it to American powertrain. So my driveshaft should be coming soon.

Here are a few pics


This new strut nut is so pretty I might put the other new one on the other side just to match it.






Took a few pics of the transmission mainly because I hadn't taken any since it's been in the car with a crossmember that fit. Please excuse the dirty hand-prints. Our hands weren't always clean when we wrestled that thing in and out of there all those times(5 times, I think)




BTW @madmike1157 I think my thread fits the criteria for a "Build Thread". Don't you think?

madmike1157 said:

Ohh I'm sorry, I you must've missed the part where drag car builds, regardless of who does them will not be allowed in the "build thread" category
.

Just kidding.

Boom.

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This is a street car..........that will be drag raced.

Thanks Mike!

It's amazing how much new carpet transforms an interior.