A 52 TD had a front track of 47.4 and rear of 50 while the Pinto/Mustang II is 56.5.  I don’t know how close these bodies are to the TD’s width, but if it’s close, that difference explains the whole problem.. I looked real close at the inside wheel clearance on mine and it looks like the upper A arm and the upper ball joint won’t allow anything…[Read more]

In short, that’s exactly what I said, move the driveshaft exactly one turn and measure how much less than one turn the tire moves. For example, on a 3.00 rear end the tire will move 1/3 of a revolution for a full turn of the driveshaft.

Being hopelessly forever an engineer, I came up with a method to accurately measure the gear ratio. Raise one wheel and block the other. Let both wheels turn if you have posi. Make a mark (via masking tape and magic
marker) on each of rear yoke and diff housing. Put a piece of masking
tape around the entire tire and make a start mark using a chair…[Read more]

That rear is just a placeholder. It came with my parts car. Yesterday I bought a rear from a 76 Cobra II, a Ford 8″. Looks a lot beefier.

Progress. I spent all day getting the front square to the plywood frame platform and then getting the angles right for the front frame risers. Tomorrow I’ll use some pocket screws to hold these parts together.Next I need to work on the rear arch.

The front wheels are from a shopping cart I and the rears are from Lowe’s. Both have ball bearings, so it rolls fairly easily, in spite of the weight of the stuff onboard. I estimate it to be close to 400 lbs total.

Received a plasma cutter for Christmas: a Locos 520D, which is also a TIG welder. I finally got to the point that I ran out of floor space, so first project it to make a welder cart that combines my old MIG, an Oxy-Acetylene and my chop saw.First step is to lay out for welder and bottles.Looks like a frameWith wheelsLoaded with chop saw on topwith…[Read more]

At this point Sherlock would have said Aha! Your two problems could be related. Real likely that someone broke a bolt in that hole and drilled it out off center. Then repaired that with a helicoil, again somewhat off-center. Then forced the bolt in and screwed everything up. If that is true, then I would drill an oversized hole in the manifold and…[Read more]

You could have gotten this done by simply adding one new optional field to the existing registry. The lowest four digits of the VIN would have been enough to provide all the traceability you were seeking. I don”t think your alternate approach would have gotten much participation.

This guy is the Phd of brake systems

PMOSSBERG2012-12-19 10:05:34

If the exhaust manifold is too short, get the block as cold as possible (open to outside overnight for example) and the exhaust manifold as warm as possible (baked slowly in an oven or barbecue grill) and then see if it fits better. Just don’t heat the exhaust manifold unevenly because cast iron can be brittle. Don’t forget to use oven mitts. If…[Read more]

Further thinking about it, I got it backwards in one part: a small MC is more powerful because it is the lbs/square inch of the MC that gets sent to the slave cylinder as the same lbs/square inch.  Pressure in a fluid is the same everywhere within the same container. So a small MC bore connected to a much bigger caliper Cylinder is where the…[Read more]

Makes sense. The donor Pinto was 94.2. Thanks for the measurement. I will use this to lay out my chassis.

Having read the discussion on the links, I have some basic engineering thoughts. The brake system works as a series of mechanical systems the purpose of which is to take longer and smaller pressure movements of your leg and translate these into shorter and larger pressure movements of a slave cylinder. The first force multiplier is the brake pedal…[Read more]

Anyone know what the wheelbase of a CMC/Fiberfab Pinto-based car is?

On the Mustang that crossarm is what the strut rods connect to and the whole assembly serves as an additional isolation bushing to the subframe. I left it together to help in locating to location of the strut bushing hole and will probably only use that part of the structure welded to the new frame. You are right, my next step is to bolt on the strut arms.

Next step: I plan on making a dummy frame out of wood to make sure everything fits before I make the real one. Then I’ll have an exact model to copy the angles and lengths. I’m more of a woodworker than a car builder so this is easy for me.

I made a shock absorber dummy out of a threaded rod and 3 inches of pipe so I could set the crossmember height. The bottom of it ended up 6 1/4 inches from the floor. The bigger plywood platform is 5 inches tall and will be used to lay out the frame at that height. This is the equivalent of a 1 1/4″ drop spindle.

Big milestone yesterday. I’ve finally stopped taking things apart and degreasing them and started putting the new front end together.

I have a date tomorrow to pick up a complete 1983 2.8 Ranger engine in Front Royal. Same 60 degree block but a few years newer. BTW, this same block was later a 2.9 and then the popular 4.0 used in many Rangers and Explorers. The 2.8 was the last to be carburetor fed.