Flash Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 5 minutes ago, Gee said: Hi Flash, did you fix your steering clunk? I have basically done the same fix on my steering as the hydraulic stuff was all shagged. There is no play in mine at low speed and smooth lock to lock but at 60mph on the motorway it clunks back and forth in the centre. It will do this in high speed corners too which is slightly unnerving but as the power valve has to move 5mm before the hydraulics assist I'm not sure if this is normal. I don't have another one to compare. I have the opposite issue to you with fumes. Stopped at idle it is pretty good, just normal carby stuff. At high speed with the main windows cracked it get a bit fumey but just using the front quarter windows it is ok. I think for mine I just need to check the tune to clean up the tailpipe. Yep, my steering is good now although I do get that slight play in the wheel when the power valve is at rest (ie travelling in a straight line). When you say it "clunks" are you hearing an actual noise or is it just the play ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gee Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Just play. It feels like a notch where it moves and you feel a little clunk in the hand before it moves. It does make sense that the shaft will need to move slightly before the power valve is engaged. It does not feel like an issue with ball joints or normal steering play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 4 hours ago, Gee said: Just play. It feels like a notch where it moves and you feel a little clunk in the hand before it moves. It does make sense that the shaft will need to move slightly before the power valve is engaged. It does not feel like an issue with ball joints or normal steering play. Yep, that's pretty much how mine feels too, so maybe that's how they all are with the ram type p/s. How new is your front rubber and I'm assuming you have had a pro do your wheel alignment? I took my car to 3 different wheel alignment guys before I got it right. The first two were just your usual tyre places, but the 3rd guy was a suspension specialist and whatever he did it made a huge difference to the road feel. Before that it would wander about a bit on a straight road and feel a bit iffy in corners, but now it feels better in corners and runs true if I let the wheel go when I'm travelling in a straight line. Unfortunately, the 3rd guy didn't give me a printout so I can't compare the settings that he did with the others, but I was hanging around while he did it and it looked to me like he spent a good bit of effort on the caster settings. I'm still struggling with fumes but it only occurs at idle when I've pulled to a stop at a traffic light or stop sign and only when I have the front windows open. Having EFI I'm able to just about infinitely tune the bloody thing and I've been playing around with the idle fuel settings at various temperatures as well as my AFR targets, but I still can't shake the smell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gee Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 I'm not sure what my settings were but I didn't think it was that stable. I'm used to my Fairmont which was a mile muncher. It was really easy to drive and quite stable at speed. The Mustang sits fine on the motorway but I found it a bit twitchy on the back roads to New Plymouth. That was probably why I was wanting to look at the steering again as it did require a bit of correction. They said they deviated from normal Mustang settings due to having wide radial tyres. I think that is just a camber thing but castor and toe will hold is straight, but I'm just guessing there. They did say to come back after 1000 km to get the settings checked. What tuning did you do on the EFI? Mine ran really well from first start but I got a dyno (no tune) and it picked up 10kw after the first pull. It tuned itself from running through the RPM range. The Mustang doesn't have that yet but it is better than the Fairmont with a blown power valve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 More positive caster makes a big difference, a lot of cars of this era had minimal or even negative caster settings from factory, with wider wheels and tyres they are not great to drive 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 1 hour ago, cletus said: More positive caster makes a big difference, a lot of cars of this era had minimal or even negative caster settings from factory, with wider wheels and tyres they are not great to drive Yep I reckon you are bang on the money Clint. The normal tyre places used the standard Mustang settings, but the suspension guys did their own thing and it made a massive difference. Next time I'm in town I'll drop by the shop as I'm sure they will have a record of the settings they used. This might help @Gee out with his setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 @Gee, in terms of the EFI setup I've just been experimenting on my own. Got to admit that I'm a total newbie when it comes to EFI. I'm not chasing performance at all, mainly focused on economy and driveability. The car runs really well apart from the fumes at idle issue and I'm now suspecting that I may have a dicky Idle Air Controller as I've set it up a number of times according to Fitech's "how to" video clip, but for some reason the IAC count at idle seems to climb after a bit of driving. Fitech use a "no name brand" copy of a genuine AC Delco part out of a mid 80s Camaro. I tried to order one in from Rockauto but the Delco one is NLA. They do list some other brands for the same part so I might just order one in when I've got some spare cash. At least then I can rule that out as the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gee Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Having some figures to compare would be great, thanks. Looking back through your Mustang thread it looks like you had fumes before you fitted the FiTech. Have you checked for vacuum leaks and ignition timing? I'm no expert on tuning so I'm just plucking from the internet. I probably need to check the same in mine. Like everything else I look at on my car it is old and probably not maintained unless it proper broke so I'm playing catch up. i also just looked at your alternator as I need a new one. Any issues with it coming online when you start up? Does your charge (belts) light still work correctly? The last time I fitted a bigger alternator I replaced a factory Bosch 55A with an almost identical Bosch 120A. The only issue I had (which seems common with 1-wire alternators) was it needed a blip on the throttle to come online initially. My ammeter doesn't work anyway or it would have picked up the overcharging or shown charging when I first jumped it so I may as well disconnect it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gee Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Strange how FiTechs can be either really good or a pain in the arse. I fitted one to my Fairmont as the Holley was giving me constant grief and the Fitech worked every time. I have heard about some quality issues though. Now I have a nice little Edelbrock carb with no choke that starts really easily and has nice throttle response (the Fairmont had neither) but I still have my FiTech system to fit. A Holley Sniper is probably a better system but spendy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted June 24 Author Share Posted June 24 I've had quite a few customers have problems with those bolt on efi things, one shit itself when I was starting it to road test it They often run like a carb with jets 10 sizes too big as well I think they have too many compromises to make them easy to bolt on 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Yep, I hear you guys. I think it's the quality of the components that they are using that lets them down. An example is the IAC which is a GM part out of an 80 something Camaro. Would have been okay if they had used a genuine AC Delco version instead of a cheap no name brand. I could have thrown a whole heap of cash at replacing every cheap component with good quality OEM equivalents, but I figured it was time to cut my losses and run. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 My old man had the same issues with his fairlane. 302 We took the 600 off it and put a brand new 465 holley on it, massive difference drove so much better and used half the fuel. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 14 hours ago, rusty360 said: My old man had the same issues with his fairlane. 302 We took the 600 off it and put a brand new 465 holley on it, massive difference drove so much better and used half the fuel. Thanks for that Rusty. I'm hoping for the same result. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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