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  1. #51

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    Finally got a weekend with nice weather and no kids. Spent every minute of it doing the front spindle/brake upgrade. Got it all buttoned up by noon today. The afternoon was spent aligning it. I have a Longacre bubble alignment tool and toe plates to do it myself.

    Even after backing up and pulling forward to settle the suspension, I could tell by looking at it that it had positive camber so I started by moving the camber plates as far in as they would go. Lucked out on the passenger side and it was at -0.75° camber. The driver side was at -0.25°. Not quite enough so I tore it apart again and hogged out the holes in the struts then shoved the spindle in while tightening the bolts. That got the camber to -0.75°.

    The next couple hours were spent setting the toe and centering the steering wheel. I'd make an adjustment, back up, pull forward, measure again, then repeat util it had 1/8" toe in. With that set, I'd drive around the block to check the centering of the steering wheel. Pull in, make adjustments, left and right, counting 1/4 turns so as not to mess up the toe, then repeat until centered. Neighbor popped over to see why I was constantly pulling out and coming back. Finally, double check that it still has 1/8" toe in.

    That was a lot of work but the brakes feel really nice and it's driving better now than it ever has. It was definitely worth all the busted knuckles.

  2. #52
    FEP Super Member gr79's Avatar
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    Just wonderin' how many turns it took to center the wheel?
    And, with the wheel spoke like a clock hand, what 'time' was the wheel before starting to center it?
    Basically, how many turns of the tie rod does it take to move the steering wheel x amount?
    Or how many degrees or 'clock numbers' will the wheel move with, say, one full turn of a tie rod?

  3. #53

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    Such a great thread. Thanks for sharing!
    You are super talented keep it up
    79 Zephyr, 4.6L 4v/4r70w swap, with team z front and rear suspension, 8.8 and upgraded brakes and coil overs. Running Holley Terminator X Max.

  4. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by gr79 View Post
    Just wonderin' how many turns it took to center the wheel?
    And, with the wheel spoke like a clock hand, what 'time' was the wheel before starting to center it?
    Basically, how many turns of the tie rod does it take to move the steering wheel x amount?
    Or how many degrees or 'clock numbers' will the wheel move with, say, one full turn of a tie rod?
    The steering wheel was probably about 1-o'clock after making course eyeball adjustments. [All adjustments were in 1/4-turn increments because that's the largest single movement I could make before the ChannelLocks ran into something.] Turning it two 1/4-turns (half a revolution) brought it about half way to 12-o'clock from 1-o'clock. Two more 1/4-turns overshot 12-o'clock. Clearly, there isn't an exact relation between turns and steering wheel angle. Moved it back a 1/4-turn and it overshot the other way. Not by much, it was really close, but with all the work I've put into this thing there is no sense stopping at "really close". One more little tweak and now it's straight.

  5. #55
    FEP Super Member gr79's Avatar
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    Great. Much appreciated that. Will save me some time and crawling i hope.
    I use a pipe wrench. No slipping or squeezing. And index mark the tie rod.

  6. #56

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    Got home on Friday and there were cold-air ducts sitting on my doorstep. My cousin, Lucas, found them while digging through Uncle Jeff's garage so he dropped them off to me.



    Hopefully he'll run across the original valve covers at some point.

  7. #57

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    My Tripminder died and I haven't been successful at repairing it. While I had the dash apart to extract the Tripminder, I also pulled out the AM/FM radio to install an auxiliary port for playing CDs/MP3s through it. Luckily I had more success with that than the Tripminder.

    It took a couple days to dissect it. I literally had to cut the case off of the circuit board. Tracing the circuits revealed a perfect place to tap into the signal path.



    Those were unused holes covered in solder. I poked a probe through the solder to open the holes. The upper-left hole in the picture is the left channel, the center hole is common, and the lower-right hole is the right channel. This point in the circuit is already capacitor-coupled to the pre-amp through a 6.8k resistor and capacitor-coupled to the volume control.



    I added a 1.1k resistor to each lead to prevent shorting the output of the CD/MP3 player when the balance control is moved all the way to the left or right. The MP3 player I was using for testing didn't actually mind that but I figured, "better safe than sorry." The resistor value is not critical at all. I used 1.1k cause that's the first one I found without digging. You want it at least 10 Ohms and less than 6.8k so it'll overpower the signal from the radio when an external player is plugged in.



    I put a little heat shrink around them then soldered them into the board.





    The wire was snuck around to the back of the case then soldered to a 3.5mm jack that was screwed into an open hole.



    With the stereo installed back into the dash, I was able to plug in a 3.5mm extension cable then run it under the console and poke out by the shift boot. I also plugged a USB adapter into the cigarette lighter and ran the cable up and out of the ashtray behind the dash and under the console. The USB adapter is small enough to be able to close the ashtray so the only exposed wire is the short bit by the shifter.

    The little MP3 player shown here is one designed to fit into a tape deck. I bought it for my van but it didn't work with that tape deck. Have the same one in my Pontiac (does work in that tape deck) and it's been a solid little player. As long as it's plugged into a USB charger constantly. The internal battery doesn't last long at all.
    Last edited by mrriggs; 07-07-2020 at 09:47 PM.

  8. #58

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    It was discussed in another thread, but the Tripminder is working again. Car is running well, gets driven regularly, and is a hoot to drive. The way this car corners now, after upgrading the spindles and giving it a decent alignment, is absolutely amazing! It always pushed badly before, but now there is zero under-steer [or over-steer]. No matter how hot I pile into a corner, it just hunkers down and tracks through like it's on rails.

    This car still needs a lot of major repairs; exhaust, rear suspension, and paint are big ones left on the list. However, that doesn't stop me from blowing money on trivial things like this...



    That is a heater control from an '82 T-Bird with rear defrost and no AC. The styling of it is identical to my AC heater control (except for the chrome knobs which I can change). Why bother swapping out a heater control, you ask? This car hasn't had AC since the 80's so the AC control isn't needed. It's not the unused AC detent that is the issue, it's the fact that Ford eliminated the floor/defrost mix option to make room for the AC detent. When I drive this car in the winter, I'm constantly switching back and forth between floor and defrost. Can't see... [flip] now my feet are cold... [flip] oh man, the windows are fogging up again... [flip]

    It may seem like a small quibble but every little refinement goes a long way toward creating a car that is truly pleasurable to drive.

  9. #59

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    You machine stuff in your garage...you trace out 25 year old circuit boards......is there anything you can't do? Love following what you are doing!

  10. #60

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    Quote Originally Posted by Coffeejoejava View Post
    You machine stuff in your garage...you trace out 25 year old circuit boards......is there anything you can't do? Love following what you are doing!
    Thanks, man. Jack of all trades, master of none. Truth is... I just hate asking anyone for help.

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