Here's my temporary set-up until I invest in some coilovers next year.
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H&R Sports (front) and IRS w/ cut springs (rear) *pics*
- Thread starter GrimlokTT
- Start date
Looks killer. Only thing I don't like is the mud flaps. And is the lower part of your bumper filled in with black?
Yes, here's a pic:
nice. heres a pic of mine with the rear similar.
Looks good, Grim! I like how you got the height set so that the tire to body gap is consistent all the way around the wheel opening, too many lowered Mach1s (and other lowered cars, also) are lowered until it looks like the tires are tucked up into the wheel opening.
SB Lightning said:
Nice little touch with the line around it...
Mach1chuck said:
Thnx, Chuck. Hey, didn't we talk before about gears? If so, I've found a reputable shop; however, I'm worried if I go with any gears besides Ford's I could get more noticeable gear wine. How did your 3.90s come out?
yeah the mudflaps are for steers and queers...nice drop
GrimlokTT said:
Yeah, I put 3.90s in my Mach. I have been told that my 3.90s are pretty quiet by a friend who has ridden with me in the Mach, but to me they should be quieter. (My friend says that I have my hearing aids turned up too high, and they're picking up sounds that people wouldn't hear normally.) They are a nice improvement over the 3.55s, but I wonder if I should've stepped up for a set of FRPP 4.10s. I have a spare pumpkin, and a set of 4.10 Richmond gears that my brother got for his Cobra, but never used, so I may set them up and give them a try. Pulling the pumpkin is pretty easy, and I'm curious as to whether or not the Richmond 4.10s would run a little quieter than the Motive 3.90s. I'm pretty picky about trying to keep to OEM noise, vibration and harshness levels. On the other hand, the Detroit Truetrac is awesome in the IRS, I have NO wheelhop at all, and the car powerslides without any feeling of the differential locking up solid as with a conventinal limited slip.
^ The FRPP 4.10's I had in my GT were just as you described - quiet to most people, but I could hear them a little at 45mph or so.
Nice looking ride GrimlokTT. Your struts looks like they're about to poke through the hood! :coolman:
Nice looking ride GrimlokTT. Your struts looks like they're about to poke through the hood! :coolman:
todd4566 said:
Yea. They sit pretty high up there--don't they? They're not hitting anything, though.
Mach1chuck said:
What's it take to remove the pumpkin?
Mach1chuck said:
What's it take to remove the pumpkin?
To pull the pumpkin, support the rear of the car with the suspension unloaded (wheels hanging free). Pull the wheels off, then the parking brake cable guides (bolted to the lower control arms). Do not unbolt the shocks, but remove the lower bolt in the upright (knuckle). Remve the outer tie rods from the upright (use a puller). Remove the 36 mm nut on the end of the axle, and use and axle press (looks like a duck's foot with a bolt in the center of it) to push the axle out of the hub. Pull up the upright until you have room to pull the axle free of the hub, then pull the axle out of the pumpkin, being careful not to damage the seal. Same on both sides. Remove the cat-back, then the ABS sensors on the sides of the pumpkin. Remove the driveshaft. Take the bolts out of the front of the crossmember below the pumpkin, the nuts on the ends of the crossmember ( these nuts secure the front of the lower control arms), remove the crossmember, and take the bolts out of the rear pumpkin mount, and lower the pumpkin out. The aluminum pumpkin weighs 67 pounds, according to my scales, so use a jack, because it is a very awkward piece to handle. Assemble in reverse order, and use new nuts on the axle ends with red Locktite, torque to 240 ft/lbs.
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Wow. Sounds like a lot of steps and a few tools are needed for this. I think I may just leave that process to the installer...
It isn't too hard after you've done it once and know what sizes everything is, and where its at, but the first time will be agravating. I can pull the pumpkin in about an hour, and it takes a bit less time for reassembly. The labor to R & R the pumpkin will probably be 1/2 to 2/3 of the total labor cost to do a gear swap.
Maybe if you do swap again as you mentioned you may do, you could do a "How-To" thread with pictures and step-by-step instrucions...?
It isn't too hard to pull the pumpkin, but there is an excellent write up with some pictures available. It was written by Joe Lynch, and is located at www.lx.net/jlynch/pumpkin.htm. I used his directions the first time I pulled mine, and I have only noyed one thing that I do differently when I pull a pumpkin. In the section on pumpkin removal after pulling the half shafts, Joe says that you don't need to remove the brace under the yoke, but I think he means the brace that the damper weight is mounted to. If you are using an '03-'04 IRS, there is another brace which is the #4 crossmember. I found that it makes the pumpkin removal / reinstallation a lot easier with this bace out, but other than that, I follow his plan pretty closely.
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That is indeed a good write-up; however, I'd only save ~$125 doing that myself. It probably end up being a good 2+ hours taking my time to R&R + 30 minutes to pick-up needed tools and another 30 to return them adding up to 3hrs +. THAT...is if everything goes as planned and we all know that's never the case.
Good point about nothing ever going as planned, since you're only paying ~ $125 for pumpkin R & R, it wouldn't be worth the trouble. However, you might want to look at some of the other stuff that Joe has linked to that site, he has a wealth of information about the IRS that was interesting to learn. Good luck on the gear swap.
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