I love mine. All the pictures in this thread after the first page have H&R Race Springs.

 

Buying shocks and catback tomorrow. H&R Race springs are coming from MM hopefully next week. Then install next sunday.

 

Found out today that I don't have the bolts for the shocks... Not super happy, and a little curious what else I'm going to find to be missing...

 

Looks that you have those strange "drop in" shocks

But seriously, that sucks. Not a hard to find thing at least. Hope nothing more is missing.

 

Well it would be an easy fix if it weren't obsolete. The stealership wanted 28 bucks a side for the bolt/nut. Now I have to find it elsewhere. Oh well.

 

Well, if you go to the stealership they'll want a lot, but in a hardware store or Home depot you can get them. You just need to get the propper size and grade. Any thread will do, as long as the nut is of the locking type.

 

I also realized that I probably don't have the hardware for the rear subframe mount. I got the bracket, but I don't have the hardware. I don't know how much is a carry-over from the sra if any.

 

Ordered 40 bucks worth of bolts from MM today, they should be here tomorrow. For all the hardware I got from MM I could have bought two bolts from Ford. MM FTW.

 

And they'll probably be there by Friday. MM is in SoCal. They really are great!

 

Gotta love those places Parts for Mustangs are getting harder to find here, not to mention ridiculously expensive. I once asked in a Ford exclusive auto parts store for the Bullit springs and wanted $250, for EACH spring Sometimes I wish I lived on the 'states mainland

 

Yeah, I stopped in to check out their shop down in San Louis Obispo when I was down there, and they talked me into doing the IRS swap. Are you going to come down and help with the removal(friday) or install (saturday) Patrick?

 

You gonna get beefed-up IRS components from either MM or FTB?

 

I wish. I was even planning on just waiting til next pay period, but it's not worth 2k in one summer to me to buy an IRS, and then "beef it up," when I don't even know if it needs beefing. :P

 

Only the upper control arm bolts are left before the old axle is out, then all I have to do is put the IRS in. work will continue in the morning.

 

assuming its a 03-04 irs the only thing it needs is a differential cover brace, those crack, but don't waste your money on much else.

 

it's an 01. So it's still got a 31 spline carrier, but it doesn't have the cross brace or the tougher bushings that the 03/04s have.

 

and the axle is out. Finally. I'll have the IRS in by tonight.

 

 

sounds like you're making hella progess.

wish my projects would go that fast. Seems like everything I do tries to fight me and be a PITA.

Can't wait to start building hotrods and such, and I'll have them made so that it'll take mere minutes to fix most things

 

Honestly, if my buddy didn't come over and help me today I would have given up.

Quick rundown of what needs to be done: Remove driveshaft. Remove Exhaust. Remove upper control arms.(chassis side) Remove lower control arms. (chassis side) Remove shocks. Remove E-brake cables. Remove pinion snubber.

Things in red were things I forgot to do, or didn't think I had to do...

The shocks were a pain in the butt, because I expected them to be fine on the way out, but nope, not enough clearance to actually pull them out attached to the car. Not really a huge deal, just had to do it with the axle wobbling on the jack.

The install went as such: front subframes into the lower control arm torque boxes/ throw the bolts through as fast as you can.(much easier when the jack stands aren't in the way...) Lower IRS assembly so it pivots down by the front arms. Remove brake lines and thread them under the upper control arm. Install subframe brackets. Make sure you have all needed hardware... Install springs. Install shocks. * . Begin to raise IRS into place...

*This is where things got bad. I did not yet remember about the pinion snubber, which is ironic only because we had talked about the stupid thing earlier in the day as being a really bad thing to forget about. We jacked the IRS up, and absolutely could not get it to go into the brackets far enough to get the bolts through. We thought, stupidly, that it must be the springs, but completely neglected the fact that the springs on an IRS don't really do a whole lot to the subframe. It took me a whopping 45 minutes, and every curse word I knew to realize that it was the pinion snubber. Off comes the shocks, down comes the jack, just to get the three bolts off of it, and it goes up like butter.

Onto the next issue. Brakes. I have fairly new pads. Not excellent, but new ish. So I figured that since I have always been told that Cobras had thinner pads to clear the rotors, I believed it. I ran out to the parts store, and bought both a socket to tighten my MM subframe bolts, and new pads. They were exactly the same thickness as my GT pads. I was a little peeved. So we broke out pandora's box, and went at the caliper. (this was all my buddy. I take no credit.)The pads barely fit. And I mean barely. Like we had to put some PB Blaster on the rotor to slip it on. It was TIGHT. Anyhow, we got them on after about a half hour. Then the E-brake cables went on with absolutely no problems. I don't know why people make a big fuss over them extremely straight forward.

Now with the subframe up, and brakes on I bolted on the driveshaft and torqued down all other bolts. Subframe bracket bolts, Subframe bolts, Shock bolts, Driveshaft bolts, caliper bolts, and then tackled the exhaust. I was unaware that "Stock 04 Catback" Meant "Bent to hell" until I tried to install the exhaust. Really awful. The driver's side is absolutely perfect, but the passenger side stretched the hanger really far, and now it bounces and knocks against something constantly. Definitely calling that guy up tomorrow.

Moving on; The ride quality shot through the roof. I would have never believed how much better it would be even with Race springs than the SRA. So comfortable, and handles like a dream. I took a few roads a bit spirited to test it out, and what used to be edge of my seat the IRS yawned at. It was awesome, and I still haven't even gotten it aligned yet.

That's all I have for tonight. Wish I took pics of everything, but didn't want to deal with stopping and having to clean my hands to take pics after each step. I did get a good one with no axle in the car, but none with the IRS in place. I'll have to shoot some pictures soon.