Boom's Boosted Bullitt

[Boom]

I get it. I agree for the most part about keeping the original look or having it look like it could've come from the factory equipped with these parts. I feel like these headlights are the best compromise i could find of a stock look and integrating a modern projector setup. The stock headlights are just terrible on these cars.

I also went ahead and ordered some Bilstein front struts. My goal is to get the coordinating parts to have Bilstein coilovers front and rear. I have Maximum Motorsports parts on the rear and they also offer the front setup.

 

[Horseplay]

The stock headlights are just terrible on these cars.

Made me chuckle. I am not ancient by any means but you younger guys have no idea how spoiled you are at times. My first car was a worn out '65 mustang coupe with original everything including the lighting and wiring. I logged countless thousands of miles in that thing across unlit rural country sides at all hours of the night. I managed not to hit any deer or meandering cattle just fine. Yellow headlights and all. I'm not sure I'd label something made in the last 20 years as having "terrible" headlights.
I do get the appeal of having brighter vision, etc. Just not a fan of those "canned" bulbs.

 

[kb3]

I put a similar headlight setup in the 2003 Mach 1. They worked ok, but I know I pissed off a lot of other drivers. It sounds like you have a way to deal with aiming them a bit better. I also installed LED taillights and a third brake light. The latter kept causing the brake light fuse to blow. Never figured it out. After all was said and done I wish I had kept all the stock lights, seems Ford did some engineering work to make things go together.

 

[Boom]

I havent driven it at night yet. I definitely need to ensure the lights are adjusted properly.

Finally got around to working on the IRS. I finished disassembling the uprights/spindles. Want to clean them up a bit before pressing on the new spherical bushings and new bearing.






I have the new gears and a trutrac to install. I just don't look forward to setting the gear lash.

 

[Boom]

Got the cross axis bushings and wheel bearing installed in each spindle. Wasn't too difficult, definitely a lil nerve wracking since the spindles are aluminum and everything's pressed in.

Just need to press the hub on tomorrow and the spindles should be done.

 

[Horseplay]

You are steadily moving forward as usual. Making the most of your available time windows, I bet. Nice work.

 

[Boom]

Got the hubs pressed in this morning.



The trutrac unit I picked up was an open box item. Didn't appear to be used ever, but it did have bearings pressed on the ends. Had to use this pulley setup to get it off. The rod only had a 1/2" square drive on it. Had to do small increments since it was hard to get much leverage to twist while using such a small wrench.



Found some time after lunch to drop the diff housing out of the subframe. The ring gear and diff itself did not want to come out without a fight.




Did finally get it out. Used the old rag in the gears to get it to push out.

Gonna clean this up a bit tomorrow and maybe start tossing the new bearing and seals on. Stock this diff only had the two large shims, no smaller ones. Maybe I'll get lucky and thats all I'll need to do for backlash lol

 

[Boom]

Spent quite a bit of time getting the new races pressed in the housing. They kept wanting to go in crooked. Also was able to press the new bearings on the carrier.

I dusted off the Ford Racing gears to get ready for install




Took a bit of work to get the rear gear seated, still jeed to torque the bolts, but they're snug.

Feel good about the progress I made today. I need to see what the tips are for installing the pinion bearing. Seems like a piece of pipe or cutting the old bearing sleeve might be a good option to press the bearing on. The outter shell sticks up so I can't use a normal press plate




Got a new part in too for the front suspension.

 

[tarafied1]

I made a homemade case separator to do the gears in Bill's Cobra. It was a PITA

 

[Boom]

Thats where I'm stuck right now. I need to see if I can get a case spreader for a reasonable amount. OTC wants like $750 for theirs, I daw another brand for way less but idk yet if it'll fit.

This is the current state of my diff. Pinion is set with proper preload. Don't have a way to torque the ring gear bolts (no way to hold diff while torquing). Way gonna try after diff is assembled.




I did get my new Bilstien front struts in and thr coilover kit from Maximum Motorsports



I need to grease a few parts on them but they're mostly ready to go in with the new C&C plates. Planned to wait till doing IRS install so car can get a good 4 wheel alignment.

I've been having a slight issue lately where my car stalls or seems to lose its tune. I generally just reflash the pcm with the tune file andnits good to go. Definitely annoying and needs to he looked into more. My tuner doesn't work when I try datalogging so the AM tuners say they aren't sure what causes it. I'm thinking maybe (way out in left field) That my old exhaust is leaking bad enough that as the pcm "learns" it causes afr issues and stalls out. Reflashing makes the car run off specified values for a set period I believe.

 

[tarafied1]

Thats where I'm stuck right now. I need to see if I can get a case spreader for a reasonable amount. OTC wants like $750 for theirs, I daw another brand for way less but idk yet if it'll fit.

That's why I built mine. I couldn't pay that much for something I'd only use a few times.

 

[Boom]

I ended up calling around and got in touch with a local ish hotrod shop. They had a bunch of great cars there, fully redone early Bronco and an old F1 on a lift.

I figure it shouldn't cost more then the tool and they said they set gears all the time. So piece of mind, too.

He said he'll do it next week. So I can shift to other projects for now