Testaments 1981 mercury capri LS-Turbo drag car

[Testament 8,182]

sssspppprooooooooooooooooooooooooooooiing

 

 

and continued with the weight reductions

 

 

 

 

 

[Testament 8,182]

diff head turned up from nelson

 

we had noticed a few more things about the car after getting it sandblasted and worked out it had taken a pretty decent hit in the front left at one point in its life so I was a little concerned about if it might be well out of whack - everyone told me not to even measure it "you don't want to know"  but I dont like having that on my mind, would rather know and be prepared for stuff.

 

So I made a plumb bob out of a bolt and string and marked out the suspension pickup points onto the floor and then measured it with a piece of box section and a tape.

 

turned out great!  or at least given the sloppy method  the results were well inside the margin of error - biggest difference in the diagonals was 3mm and I would guess I'd have to be at least +/-5mm on my markup on each poiint so anything up to 10mm would have been fine as far as I could divine

 

 

so with that done, given the spare tire wouldn't fit I felt I needed to do something about that

 

 

 

should make a bit of room for the coilovers and fuel system too

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so needed to get the locknuts off, boggled at a bit at it then asked a couple of people if they had done it - dave #7 suggested this

 

 

worked pretty good

 

 

but not as good as my new spring compressor

 

 

 

also oh my wow this car is so great.

 

 

anyways, project is pretty much finished now

 

 

 

 

Sitting on bumps,Rolls fine, and doesn't even rub on full lock either. - plus front crossmember is still 115mm from the ground, so silly america.

the front bumps will need slight adjustment/chopping/replacement to even it up with the new struts and whatnot installed and the factory rear bumps are going (bumps will be in ther rear coilovers). theres 20-30mm axle to chassis rail at the rear so its going to be about 20mm higher than where it is now  depending on tyre clearance with the larger drag radials, and +1" rear ride height due to those being taller.

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In the light of day/my eyes the goggles do nothing!

 

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First you must destroy (more), before you then create?

 

 

 

Need to figure a decent way of measuring 9 13/16" from the rear face before I grind the rest off but it's getting a bit late now.

 

something anyway, it's been a while between drinks for this fish

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now this fits here

 

 

just need to remember where all these things go now

 

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still didn't build the gearbox yet

but with some help from my freind dan and the little blue man we got some stuff done tonight

 

 

and still a little boy waits

 

[Testament 8,182]

So finally started on assembling the powerglide

 

 

measured the clutch pack clearances 3 times to be sure everything was legit. managed to fit 7 clutches in the high drum by using the high drum clutch piston from the other trans i dissassembled which was from a 6cyl car probably and had a thinner piston (thinner piston = more room in drum for clutches as the v8 drum im using is deeper than the 6cyl one)  I could have machined one of them down more to fit 10 clutches with the aftermarket clutch hub I got but A) not really necessary B ) less chance of stuff something up.

 

 

then the last bit of fettling on the front pump took forever as trying to get a 1/4 NPT grub screw/bung or a M14 bolt on a sunday in taupo proved rather difficult. in the end I managed to find a NPT to BSP adaptor at work that I could bastardise  into something suitable - fortunately the hole in the middle was not a issue as this is only for holding the spring for the pump priming valve in with more strength than the OE roll pin.

 

 

this meant I didn't get that far on sunday and also figured out I was missing a shift lever seal and new thrust washer. eventually the seal turned up in some other little bag inside a bag but the rebuild kit doesn't come with the washer so I will have to try and get one from a local/nz supplier tomorrow.

 

I did get the frictions soaking in atf before assembly, so they got well more than the suggested half hour.......

 

 

 

 

So then this morning got on with the high clutch drum

 

 

I noticed while I had ground down the tack welds I put on the sun gear/high gear drive plate they were still a little proud so machined them down in the lathe a little more then cleaned everything up and assembled the drum lubing what needed lube with vaseline and atf as required.

 

 

next was the front pump.  on closer inspection the convertor bushing had got a bit damaged removing the old convertor from the trans (it was super stuck on) and seeing as I had a new bushing plus a new front seal I tapped the old ones out and the new ones in then cleaned the bits of the pump again

 

 

lubed the gears up with vaseline and used the transmission case to align the two halves for assembly

 

 

all together and torqued up to 20ft lb

 

 

and fitted to the new billet convertor to check cogs turning freely

 

 

so remaining, refit shift lever and slector gubbins in case, rear clutch pack, install speedo drive gear on output shaft and then install shaft/planetary set to case, install 1st gear servo piston, insert 1stgear band with high clutch drum into case plus band adjuster, install front pump+input shaft and check thrust with old washer and hope new washer is the right thickness, install pump+ input shaft with new washer. fit tail housing, install valvebody and transbrake solenoid, install pan and done?

 

now it sounds like alot more than I was thinking before........

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another four hours of farting about and its still not done, another boring update of things no one else knows what they are. but starting to get close to finished now, one more session should have it all together.

 

shift lever and parking brake pawl

 

 

reverse piston and clutch pack

 

 

installed and tested low band servo./pointless video

 

 

 

installed planetary+output shaft and high clutch drum

 

 

then installed the low gear band and temporarily fitted the front pump to check thrust/endplay to work out what size thrust washer I need. A: 78 thou thrust washer, which I'll have to get sent down tomorrow from auto trans back in my northern stronghold of mt eden

 

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Something something, Friday afternoon hotspanner action before paella Friday

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probably stuffed something up but will see what happens

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front suspension fursday, of course these "bolt in" bolts never really are and spent a good couple of hours having to clearance a few things here and there and then realised i was missing some bolts

they are somewhere in this mess

ah there.

so bolted in camber plates and coilovers

then back on some turbos, with mexistance due to no engine/front anything

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also 150lb/in springs are just like the ones in campylobacters wank chariot

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I've got a golden flexplate?
 

 
I think these guys need to torque to eachother now
 

 

Hey there D

 

 

 

Don't want Mr. D's nose getting dirty or out of joint so make sure that crank spigot is clean

 

 

And happily ever after (well I hope so!)

 

[Testament 8,182]

got frustrated trying to solve fiat ecu problems so pointless work ensued

 

old klingon bird of prey control platform

 

New good guy grant

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got 10's but 255/60/15 would not fit

 

maori boys at the tyre shop told me they could jump through the gap between the bead and the rim

 

so will keep eye out for some 26x10.5's or 275/50/15s

 

 

I got 8s as well though so I got them put on those

 

 

haven't cut the tubs yet (it is imminent) but I could shove it this far, maybe has 10mm left to the top of the wheel tub but fouling on some other junk (which is gonna get cut out anyway)

 

 

 

will probably be sitting axle housing on frame rail at this height

 

 

then tried a 235/60/14

 

 

definitely C Notch time

 

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Measured some stuff and things and did some doodling

 

 

 

still have to work out where this puts the coilovers exactly, and bear in mind those numbers are not at an estimated ride height but just for definition of the relationship between the locations with respect to axle centerline which can then be played with to describe whats where with varying tyre size and ride height

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bags

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and