If it was me, I would make my own. Get some plate aluminum, the closest hole saw, drill and die grinder then go to town.

 

You know, I probably have material at home that thick. What a loser.

 

Alright, all my goodies came in. With the t bolts, the retainers bottom out on the seal before the backing plates as expected. I'm debating modifying them but I'll see if I'm right on the preload I need first.

Got a new poly trans mount, my old rubber one has had enough. I noticed it looks like my trans needs to come over maybe a half inch also, so I'll work on that and the bearing preload once I get the perches welded on. That's my goal for the weekend, finish up with the housing. Still need to get the new bearings in and set my backlash etc.

 

Had the wife sit on the trunk while I was watching the angle on the pinion (Not much gas in the tank). With her in there it goes to -1* and returns to 0* with her off. Trans is shimmed to -2* right now. I can get it down to about -3.5* at the trans if I remove all shims, I can shim it more if needed to get to about 0*.

Without knowing how much separation I have, does 3* difference between trans and pinion sound OK? It's 99.8% street car, so I want to be able to cruise vibration free but don't want to break anything under load.

Now using Calvert Split mono and caltrac bars, should limit angle change more than the worn out multi leaf spring but might increase separation. #ad

 

3 would be about the minimum. That might work out ok with the caltracs though. You can try it out. What's the angle of the engine at the carb pad?

 

The carb pad may not be parallel to the crank centerline, many are angled down in the front to level the carb.

 

I think the carb pad is angled, the top of the carb is 0ish while the trans yoke is 2*.

 

Yes, almost all of them are angled, even in the aftermarket... it's the easy button for setting the engine angle. Usually you want crank centerline a few degrees down toward the back of the trans (3ish). There are applications where you might want it straight, but flat carb pad is a good rule of thumb. That assumes the vehicle is sitting at ride height, or at least ride angle.

Manufacturers did that for a few reasons, angling the engine down at the back tends to give more firewall clearance, prevents oil from pooling in the engine, and generally makes setting up driveline angles easier. Since carbs tend to work best when they are approximately level it was dialed in to the carb pad.

 

Yup, that's about where I'm at. I sent it on the perches last night and got them welded. Im going to box them in on the ends then check straightness one last time. Then it's bearing time and set the gears up.

Pinion is a hair over 1* down and trans is between 2 and 3* down. Caltrac recommends 2-4 so that "should be good" but I will find out. Just ready to move on and get it back together.

 

New bearings are on the pinion and carrier, with any luck I'll have it together this weekend and ready to slide back under the car! #ad

 

Well I put the baby down and took advantage of the time. Got the new races and seal in the housing and pinion in with new crush sleeve and nut. Pinion was set to 20 in lb rotation with the new bearings. Put the carrier in with the new bearings and slid in the original shims. Backlash was right at .008 which is within Ford spec and I could still spin the carrier by hand. Might actually have it in the car and filled with oil this weekend, which I was not expecting.

 

Nice. Back together for the freshly salted streets, . I was shopping for insurance on the Fairlane,and when they COVERED the streets with brine and salt for last nights snow storm of zero inches,I'd figured I might as well wait a while.

 

Yeah I wanted to drive the old GMC to work the other day but to my dismay they had already salted. Glad they did, we really got walloped!

 

Any thoughts on Fords at Carlisle this year?

 

I'll have to check dates but that would be a good ride with the new gears. I might actually get decent mpg with this thing on the highway.

 

Got the rear back together and in the car. Brakes fit like stock, everything assembled easy. Now I just need to double check everything for alignment and zap the U bolts down.
#ad
#ad

 

Forgot to mention the c clip shims worked out pretty well. I want to check end play but they seemed to fit nicely in the bore of the backing plate around the seal. #ad

 

First drive success! No weird noises, bad smells, wheels were both cool when I came back. Speedo is dead on the money with the new gears, it was about 12 mph off cruising with the 3.73. Even built a little boost! I have a cruise vibration (who'd have thought?) in 2nd/3rd that goes away when it's in OD, so maybe it is in the trans. I did change to the poly trans mount from stock rubber so I'm feeling more than I would have before.

 

You lied to me.





The turbo LOVES the new gear. 3rd pulls like a freight train now. I've got the front shocks pretty loose. When I hit WOT in 3rd the front lifts and it just takes off. No more spinning, just going. It also makes another psi from the additional load, peaks just shy of 15 psi. I'll see if I can turn it up just a bit to hit my 15 mark and run it around a bit before going to the track.

 

You've got me curious how my build is gonna go... I swapped my turbo motor from my old chassis to the new one but I've not yet swapped the rear. I HAD 3.23's in the old chassis, but I've got 2.94's in the new one right now. I'm gonna run them for the time being and was curious with the extra load if I'm gonna care too much.

Nice to hear it really does make a difference.