SpectreH

Great job! That was a ton of work, but all done and ready for fun.

houtex

Epilogue, Part 1:

Remember that bolt? The One True(ly broken) Bolt? The one that helps to attach the K member to the frame?

Yeah. Finally hit the 'I win' button on that dang thing.

Monday, had someone drill it out, but they had to go, so that's where it stayed. Yesterday it didn't get tapped out. Today? Me and another guy worked on it and got it tapped. It was.. unpleasant. The thing was going in at a slight angle, but it was going. A drill through here... and another... and then a third, but to wallow out a little bit, because of that wonky angle... and... I worked on it... and got it in far enough. We tried... and yep! bolt went in, torqued to 85ish lb-ft, and Horace is my brother's uncle's mother's father's cow. Which makes us absolutely nothing. And the bolt's in, the car's *complete* from the entire job, and all it cost was 6 months (because reasons), a bunch of time, a bunch of tools, a bunch of parts, one broken bolt... and the self respect of one Starfleet officer.

I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.



Now, the top of the bolt is unthreaded. The middle to bottom is threaded, except the washer area (thick dang washer, btw.) The upper threads of that long nut sleeve thing the bolt goes in, I'm thinkin' the part at the top what was a the bigger problem is probably not near as important as the lower bit that was real real good, so I'm very hopeful that overall... things will be great. Fine at least. Acceptable will be acceptable, sure.

So yeah, all the bolts are finally back in place, so with that, she still needs alignment up front, 'cause new camber bolts and bumpsteer kit... which I need to add to the list down in the signature. On it.

Not sure there'll be a part 2, but just imagine that Epilogue, Part 2: is the alignment went well, and Awesome and I are ramming around the twisties and just enjoying life. Sounds about right, hopefully.

Paris MkVI

Great journey, friend. Thank you for letting us all ride shotgun.

houtex

Epilogue, Part 2
The Unexpected Entry.
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So I had to relate today's thing.

Re-Know herefore that houtex did remove the K member to access the oil pan, and in doing do, mushroomed the left tie rod end, making it useless and requiring replacement. Know also that he had a previously purchased, but not yet used, Whiteline bump steer kit, which is unavailable today. Know also that he did in fact swap the old tie rod ends with the bump steers. Know that he did attempt, but thought he got lost, then took his best guess, at the left side tie rod. The right, he got the count right. He was fairly sure that he had gotten the toe correct as possible for eyeball measuring.

Also continue to know that he put in the Eibach camber bolts for the upper knuckle connection for the strut. A rather simple matter. Know that he also attempted as best he could, given the instructions, to get the camber pre-set to a reasonable amount by spinning the bolt and special washer as directed.

Which now brings us to today, with Knowledge(tm).

I put the car on the alignment rack, had to get a little re-schooled in how to get the car moved back, sensors on, moved forward, swing the wheel back and forth and center and all that. Once that was all figured and the car set up to 'play with'...

I had hit it almost dead nuts on. All but the left camber were green. Meaning in spec. The right camber barely. The left toe barely. The left camber? Yeah, just a *little* out of spec.

Not bad for an eyeball alignment! I am still honestly a bit surprised and slightly amazed, but hey... I'm not terrible at things at the base of it, I suppose. I'm just hecka slow.

I went about trying to get that camber fixed and middled, but there's no way to do it easily. But that's ok, I've come up with a way to do it in the garage wheels off and on jack stands. I'll let you know if it works.

I then just reset the toe to *absolutely middled*, both sides. I was very pleased with my work. It's fiddly, but I dang well did it. I miss the sleeve kind of olden days, to be honest, but once you figure out what to and not move, it's not bad.

That done, tools put up, sensors stowed (but of course, I got a printout for to help me this weekend on the camber) and car lowered, I drove home. Man. That made a big difference. Tracks straight, responsive as heck, and bumps don't steer anymore. That's nice. Love it!

So yeah. Maybe one more Epilogue is in order for the camber.

houtex

Epilogue Encounters of the Third Kind.
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It Is Done. The Entire Thing. All of it. Complete. Finally.

Yesterday (Sunday), I acquired 6 more quarts of High Mileage Mobil 1 oil, and a Mobil 1 filter, because sale or something. I'm supposed to also get a remote car. Didn't really care about that, but hey, I might figure that out, some sorta mail in thing. As you may or may not recall, I had put in that High Mileage Mobil 1 oil for the last fill up as break in oil. It's now been about 250 miles, and that was the point I figured the cam followers and lash adjusters, the chain, the tensioners and guides and the oil pump and all the things(tm) that needed to seat/break in would be sufficiently so, at least as far as this first round of break in oil is concerned. Also flushing whatever else I can't see, but may be there, of the old exploded guide. The time to change the oil has arrived.

I therefore puttered about with the car, putting her on jackstands on all four corners again. The 6 ton ones. I checked, they're not under the Harriet Freak recall thing (CHECK YOURS THOUGH. The three ton ones too, IIRC, might fall under this.) Even on their lowest setting, I can scoot about under the car on my crawler comfortably. They tall.

After rewarming her up a little... First, the oil drain plug. And no matter how I planned it, and was careful... dang oil gets to places it oughtn't. That said, there weren't *any* drips/seeps from the whole experience, so that's very good indeed. Oil was a little dark from when it went in, and compared to the new stuff, but I expected that because breaking in. I left that to drip for a bit into the large pan I have (so how I missed at all is still a mystery...)

As you might recall also, I had the K member out, and put it back. This also required me to swap those outer tie rod ends for the bumpsteer kit (an interesting discussion of which me and my father had... it was a slight bit heated here and there, but nevermind...),and after putting all that back together (that frame bolt too, 'member?) I had to get her aligned, and I sort of did. The camber was *way* off though on the left side. Right side was *just* in 'spec', but the very last part of the range. Left side needed to have the top come out about a whole degree, the right side about a half of a degree. But I still got the toe done anyway, as I couldn't get wrenches were I needed to previously, and while she did steer straight... there was a loose spot. I thought it was the camber affecting things. But I figured I'd check everything steering... the rack's tight, the ends are tight, nothing loose there... hm... maybe the column link shaft...

Yeah. There it is. That Bolt. That I didn't tighten. The one on the u-joint collar to the rack shaft. Oh, it was on, and 'worked', and the bolt was there... but I somehow missed that. A little scary thinking on it. I rotated it to where my flex head ratchet 13mm would get to it, and got that stinkin' thing tight. We shall see what that does.

Oil done dripping, plug back in, I then went for the filter removal... and that's just a mess. Power steering hose RIGHT THERE. Could be worse, I hear the F150s get oil all OVER the K member or such... But still. This is why remote oil filter mounts are a thing, and I wish I had now... but it wasn't that terrible, just a little messy, and I did a yeoman's job not making *too* much of a mess... Got it off, put it on the special filter drain part of the oil drain pan, and proceeded to put the new filter on (old gasket accounted for, new gasket oiled, hand tightened... then a *teensy* bit more with the filter wrench. Just sort of a 'click' in my head. Won't be hard to get off, promise.)

Oil drain done, I then went about and greased *all the zerks*. There's 11 of them. 2 on the front sway bar mounts, the remainder 9 for the entire rear suspension, except the sway bar links and the top axle bushing. Not real sure why that one doesn't get a zerk. But she was really noisy, because racecar suspension, and I gotta grease 'em every so often. I really like the shorty Lucas grease gun I have. Small cartridges, less waste... only thing I need to do is upgrade the fitting to the clip on kind, as the push on/pull off kind you normally get... doesn't pull back off the zerks all that easy. Real irritating.

All greased up, I then attack the camber issue. I needed to learn how to approach it, how to deal with it, and I also had a Plan(tm). I had acquired an angle meter. One that'd zero out on an angle. And was magnetic. I pulled the left wheel off. And I attached the angle meter to the hub. Zeroed it out. And then proceeded to adjust the camber bolts, easily gotten, with the 15mm on the (upper) camber bolt, and the 18MM for the camber bolt nut and the lower knuckle bolt, and fiddled and adjusted and tweaked and tightened and eventually got exactly 1 degree outward from where it was. I figure no matter what the suspension was, since it was the knuckle to strut adjustment that was needing to be affected, and it's based on the center of the hub, then a properly aligned angle meter in the right place would show that correctly, and therefore get me the adjustment! I repeated that miserableness on the right side too. Wheels back on...

All that done, I put her back on the ground. And let me tell you, a Mustang at about a 35 degree lean to the left is quite the sight... I put her up using the pinch weld like a NiceCAR jackman does... except something like a foot and a half on a side at a time... Can't say it's my favorite, but garage is what it is, and low Mustang can't really be gotten from the back/front, even with a low profile jack... if one end is up in the air. After this last time, though, I'm going to do the 3 tons first all 'round, then a second 'round with the 6 tons. All at once to/from the 6 tons is just... yeah.. But for a small while, it looks really cool, but can't be good to do... right?

Right, anyway, back on the ground. Torqued the wheel lugs, because can't do that in the air. Fill the oil with the new 6 quarts. Oil level is good. Top off the washer fluid, 'cause I have it there. And also top off the coolant, as it was cold enough again and I noticed it was a little low in the overflow tank. Can't have that. Start her up... oil pressure, no issues, check for leaks... we good to go!

And so I do. Just a little drive to see how things are. And... well, the dead spot is gone. That's good! The car pulls some left. That's... well, that's ok. I expected that with the camber adjustments...

...which brings us to today. At the end of work, I got Awesome on the alignment rack, and long story short ("too late..." - Everyone reading this), I got the camber right on the left side! I am talking *exactly* right on the mark. My little trick worked! But the right side.. yeesh. I'm.. not sure what the heck happened. I had worried about that, to be honest... Somehow, I had *added* and not subtracted... still not sure what I did wrong... But thankfully, the learning last day meant I brought *all the tools* to fix that while it was on the alignment machine this time, and sure enough, after fiddling with it long enough, I got both cambers *dead (small cylindrical hollow items with an angled ramp carved inside them used to fasten bolts) on*. The caster is set, as we know, unless you get plates, and I don't. I then attacked the toe, which fought and fought and FOUGHT me... but yet another "I win!" button was eventually pressed (and the same exact spec hitting happened on it!) and... now I can't get the car off the alignment machine. Oh, they shut down the compressors. Need air to unlock the locks... heh.

They got me the air, I got the car off the ramps and...

YESSS.... She's nice now. Tracks straight. Comes back to center. No wandering. Turns like she ought.

Funny thing is, in all the years I've had her, and through various alignments... *she still points to the left just a little* on the steering wheel. And while I am just a smidge perturbed by the continuance of that little quirk... It's actually normal, and if that's what she wants to do, fine. Never ate tires before, not gonna now, I think, if the camber's set right and stays that way. I will live with the slight tilt, because this fight was long enough. Like Frodo said to Gandalf, I say unto Awesome...

Go ahead then... keep your secret tilt.

I'm more than ever convinced something happened to her on that left side. It'd explain the tilt, the broken frame bolt... lots of little things I noticed. Not that it overall matters, she drives like a champ regardless. As if someone *almost*, but not quite, got her back to factory specs after... whatever happened... if it happened... I dunno. Maybe I'm just crazy.

Whatever the reason might be (maybe all and me who'd attempted to align her are bad at it...?) it's a small price to pay for the entire journey that this has been. Not enough to worry about, not going to do anything about it. She drives straight. I'm happy with that, she didn't even use to do that, mostly pulling right JUST a little bit... I'll take it, now she doesn't pull. THAT is good stuff right there after all these years, frankly.

What a learning experience. And a new accomplishment, new skills. Not that I'm being all 'look at me' (although, why do I type this then...? ), I just... yeah. I'm just kinda happy to have it done, to be enjoying Awesome again... So many grins since she got back out of the garage, even with her temporarily messed up underpinnings and having to wait those 250 miles before acting normal....

....And oh yes. We acted normal today. A good amount of normal. Yes indeed.







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In closing...

Thanks to all who helped me. Thanks to you who read along.

I'm so happy with the end result overall. Took too long, but... that's life for ya.

Oh yeah... Sorry about the mess. *flips a coin to the bartender*

Until the next adventure, may it be a long long time a'comin! (because honestly, I could use a break from this kind of adventure for a bit...

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Fin.