IRS Overhaul wtih FTBR kit!

[FiveOhJoe]

Just wanted to share my excitement with you guys and post some pics of everythin when I get the project rolling

Ordered the following:
FTBR FT 5001 (full kit with the lowering mount for the rear of the diff)
FTBR FT 1050 (eccentric camber bolts)
FTBR Milled Ford Racing Diff Cover
And of course the tool kit

Bruce and the gang at FTBR got everything shipped within I think 12 hours. Ordered it Wednesday night and it will be here Today.

Got all of this stuff from Tousley:
Ford Racing Diff rebuild kit with all the bearings and shims, etc.
Ford Racing axle carrier bearings
Ford Racing Trac-Lok carbon fiber clutches
2 brand new IRS hubs
2 new bearings for the hubs
2 brand new half shafts.
New pinion flange
New fuel filter

As you can see, I think I have everything needed to completely refresh the IRS. Right now mine is completely stock so I have the usual obnoxious clunk and dancing ass end when I get on it.

I will be starting this on the 25th hopefully and be done by Monday but I'm in no rush

Only question I have is do you guys thing the bump-steer kit will make a huge difference given I am installing all of his bushings? I get the impression that the difference with a bump-steer kit is moreso necessary on stock rubber bushing car.

 

[SVT_Troy]

you didnt mention the halfshaft nuts.

Ask Bruce about his bumpsteer, he talked me into getting it! I'm still waiting on my box to show up

 

[FiveOhJoe]

Yes got two new halfshaft nuts as well from Tousley.

 

[FiveOhJoe]

UPS man dropped this off today......

 

[earico]

Sweet. Best mod I have done to my car...hands down.

I didn't need halfshaft nuts. There is another way if you are interested. If you just unbolt the knuckle and tie rod you can pull the halfshaft, knuckle, tierod and hub as one unit. You have to remove the knuckle from the upper and lower control arms anyways to install the bushings and grease fittings. So just remove the upper and lower axis joint nuts and the knuckle will come off. Also have to disconnect the tie rod and this is easiest if unbolted from the end closest to the pumpkin. If you try to unbolt the tie rod at the knuckle you have to press it out.

It's hard to tell in this pic but look on the right side. That's the halfshaft, knuckle, hub and tie rod all bolted together as one unit. You can see the other one at the top left as well.

 

[FiveOhJoe]

That is probably the way to go if you are just installing the bushings but I'm doing new bearings and hubs in the carriers, as well as cleaning them up and painting them

 

[shurur]

consider a detroit truetrac diffy...while you're in there...

 

[earico]

That is probably the way to go if you are just installing the bushings but I'm doing new bearings and hubs in the carriers, as well as cleaning them up and painting them

Ah. Nice, that will look great! :beer:

 

[03cobraracer]

how much were the 2 new halfshafts from tousley if you dont mind me asking? i wanna do this kit so bad but i gotta my car running and back on the road first

 

[FiveOhJoe]

consider a detroit truetrac diffy...while you're in there...

I considdered it but I go to the strip maybe 5-7 times a year and honestly I just could not justify the added cost right now. I think a refreshed Trutrac with good fluid will perform well, but that's just me talking about things I don't know about:??:

how much were the 2 new halfshafts from tousley if you dont mind me asking? i wanna do this kit so bad but i gotta my car running and back on the road first

They were 325 each from Tousley.



I just bought a bumpsteer kit from MM. Don't have the money right now for the FTBR kit so I picked up a scratch and dent kit from Maximum Motorsports. $115

 

[nextime]

Pretty cool system you got there.

My car is currently at Full Tilt Boogie right now on Bruce's lift getting FTBR FT 5001, FT 1860, and FT 1350M installed now.

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...-211/906970-ftbr-install-underbody-shots.html

 

[P49Y-CY]

sounds good, best of luck with it! definitely a worthwhile upgrade

bruce also sells some very nice refurbished hub/bearing assemblies

 

[FiveOhJoe]

Got started on things today. Here are some pics:

Parts pile:
(the two bolts on the bottom left of the picture are new rear subframe mounting bolts. Ditching the MM button head bolts)

Got the car on stands. MM instructions say you need 19" of clearance from the ground to the pinch weld, but that is totally unnecessary. I have 16" here and there was room to spare

Measured my pinion angles......

And then things got interesting. let me first say that the car was reported as being in an accident a few years ago, and the IRS subframe was replaced as a result. I know that because the subframe has UPS Second Day Air stickers on it. Pretty sure Ford wasn't UPS'ing these to the assembly line lol. So I start looking around underneath the car just because I wanted to get a good feel of what I'm doing. And I noticed the nut was missing from the bolt that holds the front/left subframe mount in the car. That may cause some clunk!

Then I find this.....one of the reasons I went with the full FTBR kit was to correct my drive-line angles. I had nasty vibes almost all the time. Here is what I find.......3 of the 4 ds to pinion flange bolts are backed out. The other one was just finger tight. That may cause some vibrations huh?

And after about 4 hours....VOILA! it's out.

Dropped off the differential today to get completely rebuilt. Tomorrow I will clean up the subframe, press the new bearings and hub in on each side, paint what needs re-painting, then start installing the FTBR components

 

[FiveOhJoe]

Cleaned up the subframe and all the other suspension components for paint tomorrow. Got some bad news about my differential. Needs a new carrier because one of the bearings spun on it.

The pinion bearing was causing a lot of noise on my car. There is pitting like this on the opposite side as well. (not the outside, the inside, but the other side)

 

[lightninmike]

Yeah that bearing is toast
PM'ed ya back

 

[whitedevil95]

Have it all done yet?

 

[FiveOhJoe]

Yes all finished. Just been too lazy to make this post

First order of business was to get the diff all fixed up. Hans at Dean's Performance took care. of that. Then all I had to do was put the milled diff cover on. I used the Ford Gray RTV that is for diesel oil pans since it seems most guys have good luck with it. 200 miles later and it's still dry. Then I filled it with about 1.7L of Amsoil Severe Gear and the ford friction modifier.

One of the things I wanted to do with the whole assembly out is clean up the splattered and caked on diff fluid all over the bottom of the car. It was terrible, took 12 cans of brake cleaner to remove all of it, and that was after scraping it away with a plastic scraper. Replaced the fuel filter while I was in there.
Here is where I got a little worried, as you will see in the pic, the body of the car has been smashed in. Looks like it was done to accommodate the SRA that was in there at one point. Am I right about that?

Everything went pretty smoothly with all the bushings. I would say the hardest part is actually getting the whole thing back into the car. I had to take a 120gritt flap wheel to the inner mounting ears on the IRS and shave down the delrin and aluminum sleeve by about half of it's thickness to get it back in the car. My car was in an accident in a former life on the rear passenger side that messed up the passenger side front mounting ear on the car. Port-a-power wouldn't open it up enough.

I got it in by lining up and installing the back mounting locations first. There was no way I was getting the front in first, not with what i had to clearance to get the damn thing back in. Ditched the MM low profile bolts for a pair of brand new OEM bolts. To get the front larger bolts in, the key is to slowly pull it in with leverage. I used a thick screwdriver in the mouting holes that were closest to being lined up and pried at that to get the other side perfectly straight to slide the new big bolt in. I had to hammer it in at the end. Then the other one went in with some prying at the subframe with a prybar.
Here is a mid-way pic. This was when I got the rear all bolted up. I got a scratch & dent MM bumpsteer kit. I don't care about the bumpsteer aspect of it. I just wanted something with heim joints. Couldn't afford the FTBR kit at the time.

When I got it back in the car I got everything torqued down. Then I put the driveshaft back on. Torquing those bolts is a pain in the ass. The damn driveshaft gets in the way of and socket or wrench you put in there. Got it done though. Lots of blue loc-tite so it doesn't come loose again.

Then I put the brakes and the rest of that boring stuff back together.

Measured my pinion angles again. Ended up with +2.5 on the pinon flange which perfectly cancels out my +2.5 on the trans. I used all the washers that came with the kit with one on top, and the rest below. The thicker locating bushing on the bottom of course. Damn near as high as it will go.

So far I have ZERO and I mean ZERO drive-line vibrations at any speed. Such a nice feeling to have that gone. I should note that my tires are also road-force balanced. I had even worse vibrations before I had that done. Wheel hop is gone and it pulls straight now.

My only complaint is the gear noise. It's obnoxious when there is light load on the gears. Starts at around 35mph and doesn't drone itself out until 65mph. I have lots of dynamat in the entire trunk and under the seats and acoustic foam so I guess I will just deal with it.



Here is the assembly ready to go back in the car

 

[03mustang92]

Wouldnt the gear noise be due to bad pinion angle or not properly shimmed pinion/ring?

 

[FiveOhJoe]

Pinion angle is perfect. Not sure about the shimming. He set backspace at 12 thousandths.

 

[nextime]

Nice job man!