I bought my 2009 GT500 in September of 2018. It had high miles but was in good condition with some decent mods on it. I bought it from a dealership and they had had it for a couple of months so I beat them up on the price a bit and was happy with the purchase. The only bad thing was I didn't know what all I had in the car, or what needed to be done, but I was willing to accept that there were things I was going to have to discover and learn as I go.
I daily drive this car, I am not one to have a car and keep it in the garage and look at it. I saw a 1999 Cobra the other day with 4800 miles on it. To me a big waste, these cars are meant to be driven, but hey, to each his own.
When I purchased the car it had coil overs and a bent right front strut. It was way too low for my liking and it rode like a shopping cart, so I had a different shop put FRPP lowering springs on it to raise it up and while they were at it I had new Koni orange shocks and struts with upgraded strut mounts from the '13-'14 GT500's installed as well. The car rode much better afterwards.
While we had the car in the air this fall and noticed the clutch assembly was red and I hoped I had a McLeod but due to really not much history on the car, I wasn't certain. I got her over to a friend of mine that works at a basic shop but the guy in the bay next to him is a "Mustang guy" Jack. He has a 2015 Coyote with some decent mods and his father has a 2017 Coyote with over 800hp at the wheels. With Jacks guidance we tackled a few things the last couple of months.
When they got it up on the lift to inspect and ultimately pull the clutch, he noticed the Panhard bar was bent, it still had the stock lower control arms and it had a Dynotech one piece drive shaft. He said with it being lowered, I needed to upgrade to adjustable lowers and upper control arm and I certainly needed to get a new Panhard bar. He said that the pinion angle had to be off since the car was lowered and he was surprised that I hadn't had issues with the universals on the drive shaft. He also noticed that one of the Koni shocks was blown on the drivers side. I called Koni and had them send me a warrantied replacement as I only had about 700 miles on them.
So I bit the bullet and got a new RTR upper mount (very beefy unit compared to stock) a BMR adjustable upper CA, as well as SA adjustable lowers with Heim joints on the bottom and greasable polyurethane upper mounts. When we pulled the clutch, it was in fact a McLeod RXT and I sent it off to them to be rebuilt, which saved about $1000 over buying another new one. I had no idea that they would rebuild one of their old clutches, but I guess that is one reason they are as expensive as they are. It took a little over 3 weeks to get the clutch back and it was killing me not driving the car since it has gotten warm, but we got it in yesterday (Sunday). McLeod recommends a 500 mile break in in "city" driving, with an estimated 1200 clutch engagements and disengagements in order to season the clutch and pressure plate. We finished up last evening around 5 and I put 81 miles on before bed. I am sooo happy to have the car back!
I took some pics of all the components I could during the process.
This is the BMR UCA and the RTR mount, they are nice pieces. The difference in the mount thickness is striking.
The old mount and BMR non adjustable UCA
Here's a look at one of the LCA's
Drive shaft
I daily drive this car, I am not one to have a car and keep it in the garage and look at it. I saw a 1999 Cobra the other day with 4800 miles on it. To me a big waste, these cars are meant to be driven, but hey, to each his own.
When I purchased the car it had coil overs and a bent right front strut. It was way too low for my liking and it rode like a shopping cart, so I had a different shop put FRPP lowering springs on it to raise it up and while they were at it I had new Koni orange shocks and struts with upgraded strut mounts from the '13-'14 GT500's installed as well. The car rode much better afterwards.
While we had the car in the air this fall and noticed the clutch assembly was red and I hoped I had a McLeod but due to really not much history on the car, I wasn't certain. I got her over to a friend of mine that works at a basic shop but the guy in the bay next to him is a "Mustang guy" Jack. He has a 2015 Coyote with some decent mods and his father has a 2017 Coyote with over 800hp at the wheels. With Jacks guidance we tackled a few things the last couple of months.
When they got it up on the lift to inspect and ultimately pull the clutch, he noticed the Panhard bar was bent, it still had the stock lower control arms and it had a Dynotech one piece drive shaft. He said with it being lowered, I needed to upgrade to adjustable lowers and upper control arm and I certainly needed to get a new Panhard bar. He said that the pinion angle had to be off since the car was lowered and he was surprised that I hadn't had issues with the universals on the drive shaft. He also noticed that one of the Koni shocks was blown on the drivers side. I called Koni and had them send me a warrantied replacement as I only had about 700 miles on them.
So I bit the bullet and got a new RTR upper mount (very beefy unit compared to stock) a BMR adjustable upper CA, as well as SA adjustable lowers with Heim joints on the bottom and greasable polyurethane upper mounts. When we pulled the clutch, it was in fact a McLeod RXT and I sent it off to them to be rebuilt, which saved about $1000 over buying another new one. I had no idea that they would rebuild one of their old clutches, but I guess that is one reason they are as expensive as they are. It took a little over 3 weeks to get the clutch back and it was killing me not driving the car since it has gotten warm, but we got it in yesterday (Sunday). McLeod recommends a 500 mile break in in "city" driving, with an estimated 1200 clutch engagements and disengagements in order to season the clutch and pressure plate. We finished up last evening around 5 and I put 81 miles on before bed. I am sooo happy to have the car back!
I took some pics of all the components I could during the process.
This is the BMR UCA and the RTR mount, they are nice pieces. The difference in the mount thickness is striking.
The old mount and BMR non adjustable UCA
Here's a look at one of the LCA's
Drive shaft
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