Return of quad shocks

If you recall, in the beginning there were quad shocks. I selected to use 4 link rear suspension for its toughness. However, there are a lot of flaws with that design. These flaws were patched. One of these patches was the extra set of shocks mounted horizontally to prevent the wheel hop. So why did I remove those shocks if there were there to begin with? Well the coil overs did not clear. Something had to be removed. Horizontal shocks had to give way to vertical ones. But I had an idea. 

Yes. I cut the nut off of the mounts and put the shock on the outside of the mount on a long bolt with spacers. It actually gave me enough clearance around the coil over. However the body mount was not mating.

It looks perfect but with about an inch gap. I was thinking of creative ways to put a spacer there but soon realized that the shock would not clear the wheel. The body mount must be closer to the frame.The problem was that as soon as I bring the mount closer the angle of the mount and the shock mount plate were way different. The only option left was to rotate the mount to be parallel with the shock.

Once the mount was gone and after a lot of grinding and prepping, it was time to weld it back in.

The challenge was to weld all around. That includes the inside the mount too. There's not much space there with all the parts on the frame already.

That's after I smothered it with POR15 rust paint. The colour is noticeably off but it is a superb rust paint.

There rest was easy. Once, everything was bolted up, the horizontal shocks had about a finger width clearance from vertical counterparts. The wheel also had enough clearance but less than a finger. It's close but still comfortable. All in all project was success. I'll see how it drives later but it looks good already.

Rear suspension upgrade

One day I was reading up about the designs used in various Mustang generations. Turns out the four link design is not really a good one. The fact that the bushings in the suspension links must be soft to permit the movement of the suspension is just wrong. The way I understand is that the left to right movement is basically expected. If that's not enough, front to rear movement is happening too. Ford added quad shocks as the patch to solve the so called "problem". It's a set of horizontal shocks to dampen the horizontal movement of the axle. In the end, in 2005, Ford gave up on that design and went with 3 link design that is much more controlled and thus predictable for the drivers.

However, I still have the old 4 link design with the old 4 links. What can I do about it? Enter the aftermarket. Since this old design was around for a while and enough people complained about it, we have an unlimited supply of enhancement parts that patch the problem further.

I came across this post from steeda and got myself a set of lower control arms. These should keep the play to minimum yet be soft enough. At the very least they are aluminum and look much cooler then stock.

The upper control arms are tricky. Due to the design some softness is required. In fact the body roll that occurs during cornering would require the soft bushings in upper control arms. Yeah, I can't understand who thought that would be a good idea neither. Nonetheless, steeda created these heavy duty arms. They are basically stock except for the boxed off bottom part. Rumor has it, Ford Racing used to sell these as performance hop up. Rumor has it, that it was a performance hop up for drag guys. Well, the bushings are still rubber and should be soft enough.

These parts went on the car. Oh, remember that factory sway bar. It looked so good and black. Well, it's on the shelf now. Apparently, there's no traction at the back. We need all the body roll we can get. The sway bar would only make the rear end slide and come out more. I firmly believe that this car has enough oversteer tendency as is.

Next up is the quad shocks. The coil overs are too wide and the horizontal shocks just don't fit. Then, one day reciprocating saw went on sale. :)

No check engine light

As it stands, there's no check engine light on the car. I did not even think about the mounting spot for that light. However, if I had one and it was connected it would be off. It's a significant milestone in my wiring job!

After getting the engine to run my next big step in my wiring job was to connect all the components and ensure that all systems are operational. On my todo list I had: oxygen sensors, emissions control solenoids and transmission wiring. The trick was to trace all the wires that were too sort and extend them to reach the new location of the component. Some wires had to be pulled of the original wiring loom and rerouted differently. For example, my oxygen sensors are now on the sides of the car instead of the transmission tunnel. Each sensor has 4 wires that needed to be extended to reach the sensor. Luckily, two wires could be shared amongst two sensors, pre and post catalytic converter.  

To ensure the good quality connections I used only weatherproofed but connectors. If the join is close or above exhaust I would choose crimp connectors with heat-shrink sleeve. Elsewhere, I would reach for solder filled heat shrinks. Both types of connectors provide good quality join, however, the solder filled ones are easier to do since the crimping step is skipped.

Next up is the dash board.

Turn signal adapter

I am using the stock Ford wiring harness. It means that I have to replace the modern looking switches with the ones that look vintage. The turn signal had to be replaced. The switch that was provided by Factory Five as part of the kit was a simple toggle. It's supposed to be mounted on the dash. It looks a bit too DIY for me. So I ordered Russ Thompson turn signal. However, Ford's switch is rather complex and the VW part from Ross is very simple. I did not realize how complex it was until I found this ffcars forum link. So I ordered some parts from DigiKey and got to work.

I found a mounting spot just behind the steering wheel. It's perfect size and is accessible from the bottom if I have to replace relays.

Now that replaces the stock turn signal. I can see how Ford is saving money by using their simple switch design.

Hand brake relocation

I was given a lot of advices during this build. Most of them are simple: plan your build, then build according to that plan. The beauty of this project is that it's possible to build anything and everything. It is also the problem of the build. There's just no end to all the "good" ideas that "need" to be implemented.

However, sometimes things just don't work out. My hand brake was exactly that. I got all the parts out of the box. Then, I bolted everything in place. Then, I realised that it's all horribly busted.

The hand brake assembly was hitting the mounting bracket.

If you were to look inside the transmission tunnel from the top, you'd see the cable rubbing against the frame.

Also the aluminum panels would not let the hand brake move freely.

I checked with others and it was consistent. Lots of trimming and filing would be required to get the assembly working correctly. And then, some creative tricks to help the cable move around the frame. All that meant the modifications had to happen one way or another. I picked up my cutting tools and ...

The cable bracket was not so complicated and was easy to fabricate new.

After some welding in very awkward poses, it looked like this.

Of course, a double coat of rust proof paint made it look like it was meant to be there in the first place.

And all assembled it looks like so

A side from making the hand brake work, there was another added benefit from moving the hand brake from the passenger side of transmission tunnel closer to the driver. Apparently, the driver with all the harness buckles done up cannot rich for the hand brake. If you are like me and put your seat belts on as a first thing getting into the car without even thinking about it, then you'd find yourself undoing the seatbelts to release the hand brake. It sounds like frustration already. Throw in the five point harness without easy release button and the frustration grows to the whole new level. The new location is just between the driver seat and gear shifter. It's very accessible and looks better too.

Lights on

Here's the story. The wiring is this scary monster that no one wants to deal with. I know many car guys around here. None of them would advise me to mess with the wiring. Frankly, I am the same.

However, during my planning stage of the build I evaluated my options:

1. Do it the Factory Five way. Take all the donor wiring and shove it wherever possible. It's easy. It should work. It just does not sound right.
2. Do it the right way. Take a box. Put all the wires in it. Mail it to Art at wirediet.com. Enjoy your life. But I am cheap and don't know any better. Hence, I ain't doing it this way too.
3. Do it the hard way. Well, if the guy in US has a business that does it for big money I can do it myself. This is a sort of logical progression of thoughts, no? Too bad you were not there to tell me otherwise. I am going this route.

The idea is simple. The donor car is a complex car that has a lot of electrical systems. Moreover, the donor car has a lot of mechanical systems with additional electrical systems controlling them. Now, my cobra has significantly less mechanical and a fraction of electrical systems. Take air conditioning for example. Obviously, the hardware is not required. That alone means that the clutch and pump wiring is not required. But that's not all, Ford has a monitoring system in place to keep the pressure in check. Also, we have wiring for ECU that ensures that the motor runs well with the additional load and that the cooling fan is operating at proper speed. I did not mention yet that the blower motor is not reused and all the controls and knobs are in the garbage bin too. I think it's clear. There's a bit of unused wires. Extrapolate it to include Ford's fancy sound system, convertible top, day time running lights, air bags and collision detection, power seats, power doors, power windows, and even, wipers and windshield washer. This now sounds like a lot of extra wiring. The wires are heavy and bulky. This is where the diet is required to loose some unwanted weight for the sake of going fast.

This is what I have to start with

 It looks manageable from this angle

  

I also armed my self with the official Ford wiring diagrams. It's amazing how Ford makes it's documentation available to everyone for a small fee. I paid for 3 day subscription to access wiring diagrams on motorcraftservice.com. I basically went through all the diagrams and printed the relevant ones.

Next step was to ensure that I don't mess it up. I wanted to be able to get the engine running. This would mean that all the essentials are there. More importantly, the OBD2 would give me hints at what is broken.

It is not pretty but it does not have to be. It just has to work.

And work it did! Let's tone the hype back. After all, all I did was connect all the plugs together as they were originally in Mustang. If it worked there it'll work here. Time to have a beer anyways.

Cooling system goes live

The task at hand is to mount the radiator and run some hoses. How hard can that get? There's even a page in the build manual with step by step instructions and illustrations. It reads like this: step 1, take a metal bracket and rivet it to aluminum radiator ... That's where I put the book down. That manual never stops to crack me up. If I were to do exactly as they say, the aluminum radiator will come loose after a few heat cycles. After all, the hot aluminum will expand far more than the mild steel and eventually loosen up all the rivets. I generally avoid dropping vital parts while driving. 

Let's look at what Ford had for their radiator support. No surprises here. We have some steel brackets with rubber bushes. I like that. I will use that. Of course they don't fit. Cut, weld, drill, spray paint, bolt it up.

Nice! It looks like it was meant to be there from insertion. Yes, the peg you see is the one that usually holds your kitchen cabinet shelves in place. There was no room for another bolt but that peg will do the job of preventing mount from rotating.

And the radiator is in! It's never that easy. I still need to come up with some sort of lower radiator support. For now, a bunch of zip ties will hold it up. 

This is the lower hose with the fill tube build into it. It has to stay but with a small alteration. 

Time to connect the dots.

Here all the parts were joined with stainless steel tubing and the cooling system was completely sealed and ready for water, at least in theory. I did fire it up and run it. The system was burped accordingly and eventually the heater joints showed the signs of leaks. It turns out there are some missing o-rings in those fittings. It would be nice if they were included as part of the heater kit or at least mentioned somewhere in the documentation. I found out about their existence after intense googling. 

So maybe I was too ambitions to say the system was "going live". However, as with many aspects of this build, is anything ever done or finished? The o-rings will be put in once I do the wiring behind the dash and pull the heater out. The lower rad support will be built once the body is on and the final incline of the radiator is determined. For now, it's done.