8.8 in. 5-bolt done - ***56K Warning!***

[SilentNoise]

Here's the diary of the day..... in point form anyway.

Huge thanks to 4 of my friends who lent a hand all day: Kent, Whitey, Kraft and Parslow. Kent was a workhorse on this project for me from idea to reality since he's done this twice before. We did the work at his place since he had all of the tools already and had it in the air and ripped out the ass end Friday night after I dropped the car off. When we showed up at 9 this morning he was already working on the front end.

Unfortunately the front A-arms and bushings fought us for a good long while and I ended up having to open the wallet for a new set of FRPP A-arms because they got destroyed (I'll let Whitey cover that topic :P). It's just money, right? Yeesh.

There's still a couple hours of work left however before she's on the road:
- Brakes not functional right now - I never even thought of new drum hardware (this is why Kent hates me now), so I need to replace the brake cylinders and get some new bleeders.
- Clearance the rear passenger side exhaust EVEN MORE... Parslow beat the hell out of the pipe already but it was just enough to get a rolling chassis for now.
- Steering alignment

God damn that's a lot of crap!


Kent was working when we showed up


Ummmm..... I think something is missing!


Out with the old and in with the new


Whitey working on the other side (take note of his safety shoes)


Kraft and Parslow showed up not long after we did


Whitey then give us his opinion of the situation


A-arms are out, but the bushings are a royal bitch


Obligatory project ass shot


Shot of me getting the steer rack bushing out


This is what one of the bushings on one of the A-arms looked like..... DAMN! WTF?!?! It exploded!


Putting the 8.8 in


Kent working on the rear drums (BTW, I think Kent hates me and my drums now)


A-arms out. Steering rack down for the count.


Stupid drums


Close-up of Whitey's "safety shoes"


I think Whitey's bolting up the strut here


Parslow hard at work


Front end together


Back end together (gonna repaint the drums black so they don't stand out like a sore thumb)


Not sure what's happening here.... work continues anyway


NO MORE TURBINES!


Good shot by Parslow


Pushing it back to get some running room at the trailer before going home


One last shot

[hottcobra]

very nice

[bullitt482]

Several things....

Dammit, I love me some bullitt's on a 4 eye.

Who's teal notch?

I saw Nitto DR's j/k

Looking real good. Congrats on almost finishing it!!!

[SilentNoise]

Ya, that part about almost finishing is a piss off after working on it all day, but hey, shit happens. I should be able to button it up on Monday after work (I could go and get the brake pieces today and do it.... but I don't feel like getting off the couch today)


The 93 Notch LX is Kent's. It's a purpose-built road racer - full cage, coil-overs, torque arm, panhard bar, in-the-floor and under-car subframes, N/A DSS 331 shortblock putting out 308 RWHP and 316 RWTQ, TKO600 trans..... a lot more

There's a full write-up on it on our club site: 1993 Mustang LX - - 5.0 Fugitive’s Photo Gallery



As for the DRs.... yup, that's right.

Here's a list of all the crap that was in the truck in that pic:
* Completely rebuilt 8.8 rear end with new seals, bearings, diff clutches and upper control arm bushings
* FRPP 3.73 gears
* 5-bolt axles and drums (budget not allowing the disc upgrade for now)
* Speedo gear
* Steeda 4500-series aluminum LCAs
* FRPP HD upper control arms
* 1995 Mustang spindles and calipers
* Steeda X2 Ball joints
* Powerslot slotted front rotors
* Max Motorsports Caster Camber plates
* Koni Special Series gas struts and shocks
* Energy Suspension steering rack bushings
* Energy Suspension front control arm bushings
* 2003 OEM Bullitt wheels
* Nitto NT555R 275/40/17 drag radials for the rears
* Continental ContiProContact 245/45/17s in front

[bullitt482]

You silly canadians call them bolts, but we call them lugs...
















But in reality, we're both wrong it's a 5 wheel stud setup...

[SilentNoise]

lugs, bolts... I use them both. Everyone knows what you're talking about either way, but like you say, both are still technically wrong

[bullitt482]

I just had to call you a silly canadian and I couldn't find another reason .

[A5295]

looks great man!!! Good luck on getting it finished - When i did mine, i thought id never be done, but if it werent for some good buddies hangin out, ida gone nuts.

great job with the upgrades you did while you did everything else.
doing work like that with the car on jackstands is a PITA. Id have been there at least that long, if not longer, if i hadnt had use of a lift (work)

[Herbstang]

Very Nice !!!!

[SilentNoise]

Quote: Originally Posted by A5295 looks great man!!! Good luck on getting it finished - When i did mine, i thought id never be done, but if it werent for some good buddies hangin out, ida gone nuts. great job with the upgrades you did while you did everything else. doing work like that with the car on jackstands is a PITA. Id have been there at least that long, if not longer, if i hadnt had use of a lift (work)

We started at 9am on Saturday and finished around 6pm-ish. I was under the car for at least half of the day, but it wasn't too bad. Kent had the car about a foot and a half in the air, so there was lots of room to maneuver around under there. I just took a nother couple hours to button up the rest of it last night and it was in for an alignment first thing this morning. I just picked it up about an hour ago, and I'm really happy with the results.



One thing that I'm not happy with is some noise I'm getting from my steering whenever I turn now though. I didn't replace the hubs when I picked up the used spindles, so maybe it's just bearings, but I can do that easy now that everything's done. I was also thinking that maybe it had to do with the new slotted rotors rubbing on the pads because it is a cycling noise... not a grinding noise. The brakes were a little tight and we had to take the backing plates off the pads to get them to fit over, but if that's the case, it'll go away after a little driving and braking.

.... and I keep forgetting to put my damn speedo gear in whenever I have the car off the ground.... grrrrr.

[A5295]

hmmm... does it do it every time you turn? high or low speed? you can check for bearing play by picking up the wheels, and trying to shake them. no movement=good bearing.

Id also recheck all my nuts/bolts, just to be sure

mine has a constant squeak that im still tryin to figure out, but nothing seems to be wrong. could just be the pads making some noise.

[SilentNoise]

Ya, at any speed. I can pull out of a parallel parking spot and it'll make the noise right now.

It's supposed to be nice today (yesterday was friggin cold: over 20*C (68*) all week and then 8*C (46*) yesterday and today back to 20 again... WTF?), so I'll get my lazy butt back in the garage to do the speedo and check the wheel play after work. I had a friend price me out a set of hubs yesterday just in case I end up needing them, and if that's the case, hopefully I'll be able to get them early enough to change out this afternoon before we head out for a drive tonight.

[SilentNoise]

Well, I'm hope on my break right now, and have the car in the air. I tried to shake the wheel side-to-side will move the steering before it'll move the bearings, but if I shake it top-to-bottom, it'll move just a hair.... this is the same on both sides of the car. Is that normal or are they on their way out?

I also spun the wheels while I was at it - the passenger side makes a noticeable scraping sound, but the driver side you can barely hear a thing, which leads me to believe that I'm just hearing the brakes and that means it's not a big deal because it'll go away.

..... but I'm confused about why I can only hear it when I'm not going straight.... even at 5km/h when I'm pulling out of a parallel parking spot, you can hear it, and it's really noticeable when I'm making a 90* turn.

[A5295]

silentnoise, you shouldnt have any play at all.. that noise could be from a bad bearing. do you get any kind of vibration? make sure your bolts are tight, and try it again. If it does move, even a little, those bearings are bad.

Check your lugs as well, and make sure they arent bottoming out, rather than actually tightening the wheel completely. I had to swap out my lug nuts, because the ones i had on the car originally were too shallow, and allowed one of my wheels to actually come off. Trust me, I wouldnt wish that on anyone.

[SilentNoise]

Lugs are solid.

Anyway, I went out to the track tonight to watch some friends run. I've taken the car up to 80km/h a few times since the swap without problems, but when I hit 110 on the highway things just shook like the car was a giant snow globe.

..... so ya, time for new hubs.

[A5295]

thats sucks man... at least you figured it out now, not later when something broke. If you wouldnt mind, shoot me a pm and give me an idea about what your new hubs cost.

Good luck!

[SilentNoise]

I've got a friend who can get me a deal through his work for $68/side. He works for a wrecker but they rebuild a lot of vehicles in their shops as well, so they've got a bunch of friends out there.