Let’s get it right this time. (‘87 Dip project)

[Lightning II]

Time for a very minor update!

in another thread I shared that I got the FFI Subframe bushings in, finally.
AND, I finally got ahold of the most '80's tach ever. The Sunpro Power Curve Tach!

I'm working on ideas for the rest of the gauge cluster surround, because I wanna go digital with it like the other Mopar cars had as options during that era.

oh, and the car finally hit 60,000 miles. Then the original carb decided to call it a life right before I went back on the road yesterday. Time to finally get that de-Lean Burn process underway. Hope I'll have more....complete progress next time I update this thread.

-Anthony

 

[Mikes5thAve]

That tach looks pretty cool

 

[Lightning II]

Update: So, it's been quite a bit since anything's happened. Back in October had to move since the owner of the house decided to do a reneviction.
So, I have no place to work on the car, and it's been trading daily-driver duties with my '93 Toyota pickup whenever I'm actually home.

The theme for the car has been more or less hammered out.
A "what if Chrysler actually was able to invest into the M-body platform during the '80's?"
So, it'll wind up being a never-made package. A R/T, a '80's version of a Super Bee, etc.

Engine will definitely be a 3rd Gen Hemi. I might get a Dana and sell the 8 3/4 because I'm toying with the idea of going turbo down the line, and would rather just do the rear end once.

Here's where I'm gonna go off the rails. The Front Suspension.
Over at Farley's a member by the handle Ice Cold (RIP dude) popped the idea of grabbing the front K-frame out of a Lexus SC300 and using it's steering rack, and control arms and such.
I did some measuring, and the width of the frame rails is roughly 1/4" within the same as the mounting holes for the SC300's K-frame. Also, the front track is about 1/2" difference between the F/J/M and the SC300 too. So that'll open up options for the front suspension outside of Firm Feel. And it'll lighten up the front of the car considerably.

 

[Duke5A]

Engine will definitely be a 3rd Gen Hemi. I might get a Dana and sell the 8 3/4 because I'm toying with the idea of going turbo down the line, and would rather just do the rear end once.

Here's where I'm gonna go off the rails. The Front Suspension.
Over at Farley's a member by the handle Ice Cold (RIP dude) popped the idea of grabbing the front K-frame out of a Lexus SC300 and using it's steering rack, and control arms and such.
I did some measuring, and the width of the frame rails is roughly 1/4" within the same as the mounting holes for the SC300's K-frame. Also, the front track is about 1/2" difference between the F/J/M and the SC300 too. So that'll open up options for the front suspension outside of Firm Feel. And it'll lighten up the front of the car considerably.

Think about keeping the 8.75" since you already have it. Turbo motors are a lot easier on axles than you think. Even more so if behind an automatic. You don't need steep gears or even wide ass tires. All the power comes on after you leave the line. A member on Moparts was running in the 10's on 275mm wide tires and a 2.9x gear. Was powered by a single turbo 360 with a stock bottom end.

For the cradle you might want to find something with more aftermarket support than a Lexus. Besides, Lexus cars are probably a lot lighter in the front end than an M. Wonder what the track widths are for Crown Vics or the LX cars.

 

[Lightning II]

Think about keeping the 8.75" since you already have it. Turbo motors are a lot easier on axles than you think. Even more so if behind an automatic. You don't need steep gears or even wide ass tires. All the power comes on after you leave the line. A member on Moparts was running in the 10's on 275mm wide tires and a 2.9x gear. Was powered by a single turbo 360 with a stock bottom end.

For the cradle you might want to find something with more aftermarket support than a Lexus. Besides, Lexus cars are probably a lot lighter in the front end than an M. Wonder what the track widths are for Crown Vics or the LX cars.

I'm still debating on what gear to run, the steepest I might go is a 3.55 if I get something with OD, otherwise it's gonna be a 2.93/2.94 if I can find it. If i went Dana I'd go for one of Dr. Diff's 3.23 gears. Tires will likely be 275's since they're not too expensive.

with the cradle, it actually will work in my our favor. Said Lexus shares it's whole suspension and setup with the Mk.4 Supra. Weight is about the same (3,500 pounds overall) as our stuff too and their engines are about 600 pounds with all the accessories and such, much like our small blocks. The one thing I will have to do is get some shock towers added to the front subframe rails. For that problem I've been looking at what the Jeep and other off-road guys have for sale that could be welded on.

Since I've been stuck I've been doing a lot of research.


EDIT: Speaking of research, I forgot to mention what I'm going to do with the steering. As I posted in another thread quite awhile ago, I was researching electric power-steering units.
I plan on getting a steering column out of the first-gen Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ for it's column-mounted EPS, and there's one company that has a plug-in unit to go with the ecu on the EPS that'll let you dial in how much assistance it'll give. Since I'm wanting to ditch the column shifter it'll be a good time to do this, and it'll clean up the engine bay since the PS pump and hoses are eliminated.
FR-S/BRZ columns are going for $75-200 on ebay, and salvage yards might have them for even less.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

For the cradle you might want to find something with more aftermarket support than a Lexus. Besides, Lexus cars are probably a lot lighter in the front end than an M. Wonder what the track widths are for Crown Vics or the LX cars.

That's becoming a common swap. Everything is self contained in one aluminum cradle for the Fords. Track width is several inches wider, years with that setup used fwd offset rims to bring it back to the narrower track.

Whaddya know, here's a post I found online about f bodies that has pics of both those suspensions. Maybe that's where ice got the idea.

Crown Victoria suspension question

 

[Lightning II]

The ending of that thread was one of the places where I started looking harder at the idea. Then I found another where a couple guys with early F-100 pickups were swapping that suspension over instead of using the F/J/M setup.

 

[Duke5A]

I'm still debating on what gear to run, the steepest I might go is a 3.55 if I get something with OD, otherwise it's gonna be a 2.93/2.94 if I can find it. If i went Dana I'd go for one of Dr. Diff's 3.23 gears. Tires will likely be 275's since they're not too expensive.

with the cradle, it actually will work in my our favor. Said Lexus shares it's whole suspension and setup with the Mk.4 Supra. Weight is about the same (3,500 pounds overall) as our stuff too and their engines are about 600 pounds with all the accessories and such, much like our small blocks. The one thing I will have to do is get some shock towers added to the front subframe rails. For that problem I've been looking at what the Jeep and other off-road guys have for sale that could be welded on.

Since I've been stuck I've been doing a lot of research.


EDIT: Speaking of research, I forgot to mention what I'm going to do with the steering. As I posted in another thread quite awhile ago, I was researching electric power-steering units.
I plan on getting a steering column out of the first-gen Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ for it's column-mounted EPS, and there's one company that has a plug-in unit to go with the ecu on the EPS that'll let you dial in how much assistance it'll give. Since I'm wanting to ditch the column shifter it'll be a good time to do this, and it'll clean up the engine bay since the PS pump and hoses are eliminated.
FR-S/BRZ columns are going for $75-200 on ebay, and salvage yards might have them for even less.

That is really interesting. I'm already well invested in the factory front end, so it's too late for me (was able to get a set of FF bars). It's too bad you're out of state now, I would love to help you with this project.

The lowest numerical gear available for a D60 is 3.54.

 

[Lightning II]

Yeah, one of these times when I’m making a delivery up near your area I need to hit you up.

The lowest numerical gear available for a D60 is 3.54.

Dr. Diff is showing a 3.23 on his site.

Dana 60 Ring and Pinion

 

[Lightning II]

well, time for a small, lame update. I have at finally bought a rear end gear for the 741 carrier. A 2.94 one.

It only took me 18 months to finally pick a gear for the damn thing.

 

[Lightning II]

New Update!

Nothing much, except I've now moved to Augusta, and will be house/apartment-looking.
On the plus side, I got a promotion and now I'm off of the road. On the downside, I had to move again. heh.

I'm really hoping to get some kind of progress done on the car by this point next year.

 

[Lightning II]

A small, but needed update!

Right after I had put the car up for sale, the main reason why I put it up for sale got resolved: the lack of a place to work on it. Now it’s got a garage to sleep in. Just need to get a table to work on, and storage racks, and I can start making real progress on the car.

 

[Lightning II]

Well, time for an update.

I’ve actually made some progress, even though I’ve dove down the wiring rabbit hole. Wound up switching to the GM HEI setup with the HEI module mounted on the bottom of the distributor, and I added in a couple relays. One for the coil, the other for the voltage regulator.

Did the ammeter-bypass too….which has now led to adding more gauges to the dash….the wiring snowball continues.

If I ever get a large corkboard for the garage, I’m probably going to just make a new harness by the end of the year at the rate I’m learning how to do wiring.

 

[Duke5A]

Why are you installing relays for the coil and VR? Also, the ammeter on F/J/M cars is already shunted. It's not like on A/B/C/E cars where the full output of the alternator went through the gauge.

 

[Lightning II]

At the time adding the relays sounded like a good idea. That and the two months’ worth of researching and going back and forth as to wether to do it or not. I just got carried away.

As to the ammeter, I think I may have read the wiring diagram wrong and thought that it was not shunted. I’ll go back and check again. I’ve still got the original aux gauge panel together so I can swap it back in if need be.

 

[Duke5A]

At the time adding the relays sounded like a good idea. That and the two months’ worth of researching and going back and forth as to wether to do it or not. I just got carried away.

As to the ammeter, I think I may have read the wiring diagram wrong and thought that it was not shunted. I’ll go back and check again. I’ve still got the original aux gauge panel together so I can swap it back in if need be.

Get rid of the relays, those are only used for high draw items like electric fans, fuel pumps, etc. Ditch the ammeter and use a volt meter instead. If you want to do relays on anything use two of them of them on the headlights: one for low beam and another for high beam. It'll make the the lights noticeably brighter since they're not drawing all the current through the headlight switch.

If you have any questions regarding wiring then feel free to hit me up in PM or call me if you still have my number.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

I've never liked the ammeter in these cars. Usually it takes a pretty big load to make them move. Probably one of the drawbacks of the way they were wired in but a lot safer then the older cars where you had the potential of loose connections to the guage, bad connections at the bulkhead connector etc causing problems.

 

[Lightning II]

I wanna at least keep the relay for the coil since I’ve swapped to an e-core coil off of a early ‘90’s T-bird. I don’t want for the wiring I’ve done to this point to be a total waste. I’ll do relays for the headlights later.

The Ammeter is in the process of getting swapped out. I’m not in a hurry since this isn’t my daily.

EDIT: I’ve lost your number at some point while switching phones Mark. I’ll DM you later.

 

[LSM360]

Why are you installing relays for the coil and VR? Also, the ammeter on F/J/M cars is already shunted. It's not like on A/B/C/E cars where the full output of the alternator went through the gauge.

...and the tin grille trucks

 

[LSM360]

I've never liked the ammeter in these cars. Usually it takes a pretty big load to make them move. Probably one of the drawbacks of the way they were wired in but a lot safer then the older cars where you had the potential of loose connections to the guage, bad connections at the bulkhead connector etc causing problems.

Yeah they are practically useless. Mine rarely moves at all.