79 cobra build

[Mikestang]

Attachment 116077wife has been bugging me to add this one. She loves daddy's car!

Always good to get the kiddos involved
Bumper turned out great

[2nd chance cobra]

she's on the ground with her alignment shoes on. Spent today tidying up my punch list, shortened driveshaft (1 5/ put back in, tranny filled( not gonna say what I put in it, and tightened up a bunch of bolts. Oh yeah and put away the pretty wheels till spring. I need to burn these off just to please me.

[erratic50]

Love the picture of your daughter with your car Shane! Super great to have the little ones excited about getting it mobile and going for their first ride in it eventually. Mine never talk about the cars they almost got to ride in but they sure remember getting to go for a spin in my 86GT all these years later. Rig up a camera and capture this first moments if you can. Now that my kiddos are 15 and 18 I wish I would have!!

Outstanding progress on the Cobra Shane!

I really hope you can get enough adjustment to put an alignment on it with the full set of SN frontend parts in place but it does concern me. You will battle for more positive while staying inside the fender lips about as much as I battled for any negative camber at all.

If you can't get there, I'd order a set of fox length A arms and swap in SN95 balljoints. When you redo control arm bushings with the kits they aren't bonded to the arm and the inner bushing like the stock stuff is. Leaves being forced to lube the bushing to inner insert and hoping they move there rather than destroying the K member....

[2nd chance cobra]

Yeah, i know. Ive pulled it as far as i can, and it looks short (neg). There may be some more there, we'll see. Trey? Isn't this how your p.c. is? When I worked for gm our upper strut holes were slotted for adjustment. Why can't I do that here? Or... the dreadded camber bolts, or camber plates. I have several sets of fox arms, so if I must I must. It looks really close. I'll find out saturday

[wraithracing]

Yeah, i know. Ive pulled it as far as i can, and it looks short (neg). There may be some more there, we'll see. Trey? Isn't this how your p.c. is? When I worked for gm our upper strut holes were slotted for adjustment. Why can't I do that here? Or... the dreadded camber bolts, or camber plates. I have several sets of fox arms, so if I must I must. It looks really close. I'll find out saturday

I am running the 94/95 spindles, but Fox length control arms. I do have the Maximum Motorsports CC Plates. I don't run the SN95 control arms because I am running 9" front wheels.

In my experience the MM CC Plates will often allow you enough adjustment to align the front end with the SN95 spindles. I have not tried using the SN95 spindles and SN95 control arms on a Fox since I normally run a 9" front wheel and the combo will not fit inside the fender on a average Fox. I believe it should work with the 8" front wheels you have with the addition of CC Plates. Good Luck!

[erratic50]

I sure hope you can catch a break here Shane!

[ZephyrEFI]

I don't see how you could possibly have any problem aligning it with all SN95 parts including control arms. Those parts are all meant to work together, after all. Even without C/C plates. Whether or not you can align it, AND fit the tires under the fenders.... therein lies the problem with SN95 control arms.

[2nd chance cobra]

Meant to work together after all... in a 94 or 95, not necessarily in a fox. Yes or no? Also, no comments on sloting my struts or camber bolts?

[ZephyrEFI]

Meant to work together after all... in a 94 or 95, not necessarily in a fox. Yes or no? Also, no comments on sloting my struts or camber bolts?

Haha well, i did try camber bolts on mine (i have Fox control arms), so I can't really judge. I broke them before I could get them all bolted down though. I just couldn't get everything to line up with the little tabs and stuff.

I guess it's possible the inner control arm mounting points were different in the SN95 (on the k-member), but the upper strut mounting point is the same. So, you may have a point. But the reason why you need c/c plates with Fox control arms is, since they are shorter, the ball joints sit further inboard from where the SN95 spindle is accustomed to their being. So, that coupled with the strut angle being built into the spindles, your alignment starting point is a bunch of positive camber. With SN95 control arms, the ball joint is farther out, so in theory, your starting point should be neutral. depending on if the k-member you have puts the inner control arm mounting points in a similar spot to SN95 factory. I have to say though, I've never heard they were different. Every aftermarket k-member you find is "79-04". You'd think if that was radically different, it would be common knowledge by this point. So there.

[2nd chance cobra]

So there too!I started at 1.4 neg camber. Using camber bolts we were able to get .4 neg and about 1.2 caster. So I was pretty happy... now to see if my pretty wheels will fit or tear up my fenders. Oh and to ditch the 94 gt rear springs. Too high. Probably too rough too.

[ZephyrEFI]

Nice!

[wraithracing]

So there too!I started at 1.4 neg camber. Using camber bolts we were able to get .4 neg and about 1.2 caster. So I was pretty happy... now to see if my pretty wheels will fit or tear up my fenders. Oh and to ditch the 94 gt rear springs. Too high. Probably too rough too.

Not bad place to start.

I know you are most likely sick of throwing money and time at the Cobra and just want to drive it finally!

When funds and time allow, I would still recommend a set of MM CC Plates. Personally I would like to see 0.75 degrees to 1.0 degrees of negative camber if possible and caster in the 3-4 degrees positive. The caster improvement alone can really be felt at high speeds in regards to stability. Good Luck now go drive the tires off of it!

[2nd chance cobra]

I should gain some more caster when the rear comes down. We went a tad more tire wear to handling with camber. I hope that it drives well. You're right on c.c plates though if I want more caster that's what it will take. Side note, there must be a small diff in strut location between fox and an cars. K member must be the same, as mentioned before. If any sn guy wants to make some quick measurements on strut locations between the 2 it would be interesting. In my fox it took camber bolts and struts pushed all the way out.

[wraithracing]

The strut towers changed in 1990 for the Fox Mustang to gain more caster and other geometry improvements. That is why MM offers CC Plates for the 79-89 and 90-93. The Strut towers on the 94/04 cars is unique to those years as Ford went to a 4 bolt design for the CC plates rather than the triangulated 3 bolts of the Foxes.

Aftermarket K members are generally for the 79-95 models, although the 79/80 cars often require modifications due to differences in the rear K member bolts. The 94/95 cars are a bit different too, but even as shown with my 82 GT a 2003/04 K member can be made to fit with just a bit of cutting and welding.

Now geometry differences over the years is a bit of a different story. Good Luck!

[droopie85gt]

Not to trash this thread, but Trey, what's the advantage of a 03/04 K on the 82?

[2nd chance cobra]

Have you seen the welds and quality of such on the early cars? That's my opinion anyway. I think also they are attached to the car that donates all the other goodies.

[2nd chance cobra]

Went for a short spin today. There is still plenty to do but... I couldn't resist. It's been a long time since I've driven a manual or anything with power. Itss such a barbaric experience. Ive definately been spoiled driving newish stuff in the last many years. I'm GOING to get in trouble with this car. Even a stock 94 motor with 3.55s in a what, 2800 lb car. This thing will rost the tires rolling into 2nd at a lowly 25 mph. I don't think my smile could be removed with surgery right now. Totally worth it! And erratic, you said i need a camera to record the kids riding in it the first time. I needed a camera for my face!

[84StangSVT]

Went for a short spin today. There is still plenty to do but... I couldn't resist. It's been a long time since I've driven a manual or anything with power. Itss such a barbaric experience. Ive definately been spoiled driving newish stuff in the last many years. I'm GOING to get in trouble with this car. Even a stock 94 motor with 3.55s in a what, 2800 lb car. This thing will rost the tires rolling into 2nd at a lowly 25 mph. I don't think my smile could be removed with surgery right now. Totally worth it! And erratic, you said i need a camera to record the kids riding in it the first time. I needed a camera for my face!

Welcome to the dark side. Who woulda thought that such a primitive piece of equipment could be so enjoyable. Rude, crude and yet so fun!
Glad you were able to get a quick spin in. Now that you have been bitten by the bug, I see work commencing even quicker so she is 100% ready by spring.

[2nd chance cobra]

Yup gotta start getting stuff buttoned up. Took kids to school today. Except now instead of a mom soccer van I have become trash driving some old broke down car cause I can't buy the new suv. Jerks! Oh well, few will know and appreciate the work that goes into a project like this. Gonna get a few more town miles logged before I head out of town

[Davedacarpainter]

I'm excited for you Shane. How cool to be cruising in it.

[2nd chance cobra]

Ok so, I have been able to start the engine for a while, but it won't start while cranking. It starts when you let off the key.The voltage drops off. I'm taking voltage from circuit 16 and 20 r&lg and w & lb at the ignition switch. By looking at the diagram (thanks to whoever posted those) there seems to be no voltage to the coil and ign module during cranking. Which clearly doesn't make sense. Maybe it's enough for a coil just not enough for a pcm. Where are others getting cranking power, or do I use a relay to get it

[2nd chance cobra]

So, there is voltage there during crank upon further studying. That makes more sense.... buuut it drops off to about 7 volts while cranking (dying ign. switch?). Solution, relay on r.g. wire going to pcm right next to pcm in pass foot well. I pulled some batt voltage off the big yellow in rh kick panel area. Ground to kick ground screw and then just cut my r.g. wire, place on relay, and Bob's your uncle. It pops right off now. Also hooked up alternated green wire. I've been adding fuses into the fuse panel to keep it cleaner . No to big a deal if you have saved all your junk from your parts cars. This thing will be street ready in no time.

[2nd chance cobra]

Winter goals: paint a bunch of black trim,get the inside put together, get my gt hatch painted the right color and installed, and a few other little punch list things, just mabey get a new driver door done and installed. Oh yeah and get the interior swap done on the wife's volvo and make it run and drive. Wheeww!??!

[wraithracing]

Not to trash this thread, but Trey, what's the advantage of a 03/04 K on the 82?

Sorry, been a bit out of it lately with dealing with my Dad, so I missed this.

Not to hijack the Cobra thread here, but the 03/04 K member in my 82 is because of the Mod motor 5.4 DOHC. Made it easier to fit the engine without having to go with the Maximum Motorsports K member that I really want! Since the project is stalled right now, maybe Santa will bring me the K member for Christmas this year!

[2nd chance cobra]

I got ice cream today with the boy. Better late than never. For some reason I cant post the pic, it says its too big. I dunno, it s the same phone taking the same pics it has been for two years