When there's about 100k miles on a cart, the coolant should be changed. I was noticing that it was running hot during the summer when I had the AC on. The following winter revealed some weeping of coolant from the water pump and the radiator was also showing some signs of weeping where the plastic tanks on the right and left side meet the aluminum in the middle. I decided it was time to bring the cooling system up to date before there was a failure.
I won't get into too much detail on the fan. It had failed in the past and I had already replaced it with the equivalent ebay version of the fan. Nothing to upgrade, just remove and replace.
I went to www.summitracing.com for the radiator and water pump. I ordered stock replacement parts and They delivered the parts in two days. I picked up the gasket from my local parts store. The removal of the water pump is pretty straight forward. Remove the belt, then remove everything attached to the pump. Then remove the pump. I used a thin seal of blue RTV to hold the gasket in place when I bolted the new pump up to the timing cover. The radiator is also pretty straight forward. Drain the coolant, disconnect the lines, unbolt the brackets, unplug the fan and everything comes out. Unbolt the fan from the old radiator, and bolt it up to the new one. I jacked up the rear of the car which causes all the coolant to move to the front lower part of the motor. The majority of it will drain out of the water pump (which is not connected to any lines as of yet since the rad is out). I also hooked up a shop vac to the lower coolant line to get as much out as I could. I lowered the car, happy that I got the majority of the old coolant out.
I went down to the parts store and picked up two gallons of antifreeze. On the way back I stopped at the drug store and picked two gallons of distilled water. I have a few of the home depot 5 gallon buckets. I poured the antifreeze into the bucket, then followed with the distilled water. I now had four gallons of 50/50 mix.
Installation is the reverse of removal. I'm pretty sure I replaced the radiator cap too. They are inexpensive, so it was worth it. Once everything was hooked back up, I filled the radiator with fluid and checked for leaks. I started the car up and after a short while, when it warmed up, it seemed like all the antifreeze disappeared. I filled it up, filled up the overflow, let it run for a while longer and that was it. I think I maybe had to top off the overflow a day or two later after driving it regularly. I did all this using the 5 gallon bucket. When I was done, the excess fit in the two empty straight antifreeze containers. I labeled them as 50/50.
Some other Misc Stuff: Seats, stereo system, etc.
The driver's seat was ripped on the bolster by the door. The driver's seat is also power, so there is a lever / button that actuates a motor to move the seat forward and backward, up and down. The problem is that the down doesn't work, so the seat is stuck in the 'all the way up' position. I found an identical set of seats that someone was selling and went to pick them up. Before I left, I took out the passenger seat, and the back seat and left them in my garage. I also brought the tools with me to install the seats. I bought the seats from this guy and found that the rear seats are not the same. His seats came out of a coupe and I have a convertible. Live and learn. I still took them home. I was really just interested in the driver's seat.
I installed the new driver's seat and it worked. I was able to lower the seat down. I got home and gave all the seats a really good cleaning, and let them sit in the sun for a bit to dry out. You wouldn't believe how dirty the tweed seats can get to be.
Not too long passed and the motor died on the seat again. I found a set of manual seat tracks, CHEAP and installed those. They are lighter, and they will NEVER fail. Now the driver and passenger side seats are the same height, always!
Next was the stereo. Since I have an iPhone, I wanted something that had integration. I also wanted to replace the door speakers with some up to date models. I found a good set of Sony xPlode speakers on eBay. It was about 100 for 4 speakers, not a bad price. I also picked up a sony head unit that had iPhone and PANDORA integration. The installation was very straight forward. The vendor that I bought the stereo from (Sonic electronix) also gave me the correct wiring harness to install it in my car, no extra charge. I think the head unit was just over 100 shipped. I also ordered Sony's slimline xm1 mono amp, and installed a small subwoofer box in the trunk. The box is sealed, with two 8 inch drivers in it. I bridge the two drivers into a mono load and push it with the mono amp. It hits pretty hard for just 8's back there! I can't hear them too well with the top down, but when the top is up, it sounds really good!
This was not a competition stereo system. I did not go 'all out' with the wiring. I used a bunch of the stuff that I had laying around to do the install. I think that I ordered only one small installation kit for 20 dollars and didn't even use all the pieces.
The last piece that I installed was the Valentine V1 Radar detector. I actually hard wired it to the fuse box. It is allegedly the best detector on the market, and after having it for some months now, I totally trust it! Having it hard wired allowed me to put the detector wherever I wanted in the car. I ran the wire up along the A pillar and across the top of the windshield. I mounted the detector just above the passenger half of the rear view mirror. It works well up there!
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Friday, August 3, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
94 Mustang GT: Exhaust
When I bought the car, the exhaust was basically stock with the exception of some a Flowmaster 2 1/4 cat-back system. For those that do not know, the exhaust system on the Mustang is divided into three sections: Headers, Mid Pipe and Cat-Back.
The first problem I had was with a heat shield for one of the catalytic converters rattling. The stock mid pipe has not two, but FOUR cats. Its also VERY heavy. I decided to find a replacement for this. It didn't take me long to find a stainless steel H pipe, with cats. I had it shipped to my house for about 120$. The cats were hollowed out which basically made this an off-road mid pipe. Stainless also means no rusting! The nice part about where I live is that my county requires only a visual emissions inspection. That means that they look at the exhaust, see the cats are there, and I pass.
I spent some time removing the stock mid pipe and installing the new one. Without going into details, it takes some time laying under the car, and safety glasses are a must with all the rust falling into your face. I learned a few things while I was doing the installation. The studs on the headers were rusted almost completely away. I was able to get some of a nut threaded on there, but I was sure it was not going to hold for long. The best way to fix the headers is to, well, replace them with newer ones! I'll get to that part in a minute. The second thing I learned is that the mid pipe is 2.5 inch and the cat back was 2.25 inch. I was barely able to make the two seal up. the ball flanges on the mid pipe were just too big for the socket flange on the cat back. It worked, but I figured that the cat back will also need to be replaced. The Flowmaster cat back is made out of 'aluminized steel', and that rusts over time. It was definitely showing its age. I'll get to that part after I talk about the headers.
I did some shopping online and found a set of BBK ceramic unequal headers, used for 80$ They needed some work. The collector flange is threaded so that the header studs can be screwed into there, and replaced if needed. Apparently someone had stripped one and used a nut / bolt instead. I took the headers over to my buddy's place, along with some threaded bolts, the correct thread for the flanges - hardened steel. We used a band saw to cut the bolt heads off, then threaded them into the flanges. Then welded the flange to the bolt. We also straightened the flanges, and the collector ball flange as well. The BBK name plate also needed to be welded back onto the header. Once the headers were ready, I touched up some of the rust spots with some silver header paint. I then sourced some set screws, stainless lock washers and nuts from the hardware store and made myself a header stud kit. I bought the fel-pro exhaust gaskets and I was ready for the install.
I started on the drivers side and removed that header. I scraped off the old header gasket. These BBK headers did not have one solid flange where it meets the exhaust port. They were individual, and they had warped over time. This made the install a 'one bolt at a time' affair. I also had to employ a pry bar to line up some of the bolt holes for the set screws. This took much longer than I thought, but I eventually got it all to work. I moved onto the passenger side. I removed the cold air intake and began to work on the EGR tube. This is a tube that connects the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve with the header tube. I used a torch to heat the fittings and eventually was able to remove them. The tube came out, I removed all the bolts for the header and removed the stock one. Again I cleaned the gasket surfaces and began the affair of installing the header stud kit one bolt at a time. The left most and right most set screws are first, then I hang the exhaust gasket on them, and install the BBK header. I put each nut on with a couple turns and began the install of the rest. Eventually it was all tightened up. I would like to mention the reason behind using header studs rather than the bolts. The stock bolts typically work well, but they were very rusted. The header studs don't back out, and the stainless washers and nuts will not rust. They work well, and they last forever!
I came to the part where I needed to install the EGR tube, and its the wrong size. A quick call to BBK revealed that I needed their EGR tube, the stock one will not work. They sent it and a few days later it showed up. Because of this one detail, my car was in pieces for a few days. Live and learn! The new headers were installed, and I finished up installing the cold air and other parts I needed to remove to make room for the headers. When the EGR tube showed up, I installed it. The mid pipe and header install was a noticeable difference in the seat of the pants feel. It surely felt stronger! I was very happy with the mid pipe and headers.
A few months down the line, I developed an exhaust leak. I started my car getting ready to leave work and it made that aweful exhaust leak noise. I couldn't find where the leak was, so I drove home and put it up in the air. What I found was that the passenger side cat back socket flange had broken off where it meets the cat back exhaust tube that goes to the muffler. The rust had taken its casualty. The good part was that I had a spare set of mufflers with no tail pipes. They had 'turn downs' right on the end of the mufflers. Typically they are referred to as 'dumped'. I put them on for the time being. They were also a flow through muffler, so they were loud. It just wasn't right for my car. Time to do some shopping!
I ordered 2.5 polished stainless steel Thrush mufflers from Jegs. I also ordered the Pypes stainless steel flow tubes (connects the mufflers to the mid pipe). I also bought stainless steel tailpipes from LRS. I think that I had less than 350 into the cat back exahust. It did need to be welded together, so it was off to my buddy's place with a case of beer for the welding! He is a master of exhaust systems, and has built a few himself. Soon the exhaust was all in place. It sounded GREAT! The chambered mufflers were fantastic, and I did not have the flowmaster 'drone' cruising at highway speed. Since everything was stainless, it should last for the life of the car.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The first problem I had was with a heat shield for one of the catalytic converters rattling. The stock mid pipe has not two, but FOUR cats. Its also VERY heavy. I decided to find a replacement for this. It didn't take me long to find a stainless steel H pipe, with cats. I had it shipped to my house for about 120$. The cats were hollowed out which basically made this an off-road mid pipe. Stainless also means no rusting! The nice part about where I live is that my county requires only a visual emissions inspection. That means that they look at the exhaust, see the cats are there, and I pass.
I spent some time removing the stock mid pipe and installing the new one. Without going into details, it takes some time laying under the car, and safety glasses are a must with all the rust falling into your face. I learned a few things while I was doing the installation. The studs on the headers were rusted almost completely away. I was able to get some of a nut threaded on there, but I was sure it was not going to hold for long. The best way to fix the headers is to, well, replace them with newer ones! I'll get to that part in a minute. The second thing I learned is that the mid pipe is 2.5 inch and the cat back was 2.25 inch. I was barely able to make the two seal up. the ball flanges on the mid pipe were just too big for the socket flange on the cat back. It worked, but I figured that the cat back will also need to be replaced. The Flowmaster cat back is made out of 'aluminized steel', and that rusts over time. It was definitely showing its age. I'll get to that part after I talk about the headers.
I did some shopping online and found a set of BBK ceramic unequal headers, used for 80$ They needed some work. The collector flange is threaded so that the header studs can be screwed into there, and replaced if needed. Apparently someone had stripped one and used a nut / bolt instead. I took the headers over to my buddy's place, along with some threaded bolts, the correct thread for the flanges - hardened steel. We used a band saw to cut the bolt heads off, then threaded them into the flanges. Then welded the flange to the bolt. We also straightened the flanges, and the collector ball flange as well. The BBK name plate also needed to be welded back onto the header. Once the headers were ready, I touched up some of the rust spots with some silver header paint. I then sourced some set screws, stainless lock washers and nuts from the hardware store and made myself a header stud kit. I bought the fel-pro exhaust gaskets and I was ready for the install.
I started on the drivers side and removed that header. I scraped off the old header gasket. These BBK headers did not have one solid flange where it meets the exhaust port. They were individual, and they had warped over time. This made the install a 'one bolt at a time' affair. I also had to employ a pry bar to line up some of the bolt holes for the set screws. This took much longer than I thought, but I eventually got it all to work. I moved onto the passenger side. I removed the cold air intake and began to work on the EGR tube. This is a tube that connects the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve with the header tube. I used a torch to heat the fittings and eventually was able to remove them. The tube came out, I removed all the bolts for the header and removed the stock one. Again I cleaned the gasket surfaces and began the affair of installing the header stud kit one bolt at a time. The left most and right most set screws are first, then I hang the exhaust gasket on them, and install the BBK header. I put each nut on with a couple turns and began the install of the rest. Eventually it was all tightened up. I would like to mention the reason behind using header studs rather than the bolts. The stock bolts typically work well, but they were very rusted. The header studs don't back out, and the stainless washers and nuts will not rust. They work well, and they last forever!
I came to the part where I needed to install the EGR tube, and its the wrong size. A quick call to BBK revealed that I needed their EGR tube, the stock one will not work. They sent it and a few days later it showed up. Because of this one detail, my car was in pieces for a few days. Live and learn! The new headers were installed, and I finished up installing the cold air and other parts I needed to remove to make room for the headers. When the EGR tube showed up, I installed it. The mid pipe and header install was a noticeable difference in the seat of the pants feel. It surely felt stronger! I was very happy with the mid pipe and headers.
A few months down the line, I developed an exhaust leak. I started my car getting ready to leave work and it made that aweful exhaust leak noise. I couldn't find where the leak was, so I drove home and put it up in the air. What I found was that the passenger side cat back socket flange had broken off where it meets the cat back exhaust tube that goes to the muffler. The rust had taken its casualty. The good part was that I had a spare set of mufflers with no tail pipes. They had 'turn downs' right on the end of the mufflers. Typically they are referred to as 'dumped'. I put them on for the time being. They were also a flow through muffler, so they were loud. It just wasn't right for my car. Time to do some shopping!
I ordered 2.5 polished stainless steel Thrush mufflers from Jegs. I also ordered the Pypes stainless steel flow tubes (connects the mufflers to the mid pipe). I also bought stainless steel tailpipes from LRS. I think that I had less than 350 into the cat back exahust. It did need to be welded together, so it was off to my buddy's place with a case of beer for the welding! He is a master of exhaust systems, and has built a few himself. Soon the exhaust was all in place. It sounded GREAT! The chambered mufflers were fantastic, and I did not have the flowmaster 'drone' cruising at highway speed. Since everything was stainless, it should last for the life of the car.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
94 Mustang GT: Shifter and Rear
I thought it would be nice to cover what I did for the Shifter and the Rear in the 94 GT. Since they are both related to the drivetrain, I decided to keep them in the same blog rather than separate.
Shifter:
I bought some various parts off a friend that upgraded his mustang transmission to a Tremec T600. There was a steeda tri-ax shifter (in pieces), the stock T5 transmission and the stock T600 shifter. I re-sold the stock transmission for what I paid for everything. I also rebuilt the tri-ax after giving it a very thorough cleaning. I had a Pro-50 in the car at the time, and I wanted to try something else. I removed the pro-50 and installed the tri-ax along with the new shift knob. The installation is VERY easy. remove the shift knob, remove the boot (it just pulls up, attached to the trim). Disconnect the cig lighter connections. Remove the lower boot (4 small bolts) and remove the shifter (4 bolts to the trans). clean the surface of the trans where the shifter mounts, lay a bead of black RTV, and install the new shifter. The trick is to adjust the stops correctly. When in gear, you should BARELY see daylight between the stop and the shifter in second and third gears. The rest of the installation is reverse of the removal. I also sold the Pro-50 for a profit. I think I got about 100$ for it. So by the time it was all said and done, I had about 150 in profit, swapped shifters and had a nice leather shift knob. Not a bad deal!
I really like the Tri-ax shifter. It leaves the option of installing the shifter handle on the drivers side OR passenger side of the shifter shaft. I chose the drivers side. There are also two mounts for the hight of the handle. I chose the lower height since I'm not too tall. It shifts so well that I actually removed the MGW shifter from my 03 Cobra and also installed a Tri-Ax. Thats it for the shifter!
Rear:
I know I didn't say this in the title, but I also had an aluminum driveshaft in the car for a short while. I installed that after buying it for a great price! I took the stock driveshaft and replaced the U joints with some new ones. Then I swapped back to the stock one and made a good bit of money on the aluminum driveshaft.
After one of my very long road trips, I noticed that the rear in the car was starting to make some noise. It was also showing some signs of wear in the posi. At 145k on the clock, I knew it was time to give it some attention. My goal was to completely rebuild it, upgrade the posi a bit and possibly change the gears. The stock gears are 3:08. I didn't think that 3.27 would be enough of a change, and 3.55's were a bit too much for highway / daily driving. I needed something in the middle. The new S197 GTs sometimes came with 3.31 gears. I found someone selling a used set with very low miles on them and bought them. They are called 'take off'. Its what happens when someone buys a new car and takes it to a shop to customize it. These gears had about 5k miles on them when I got them. I bought the ford FMS-M-4210-C kit. It includes everything you would need to completely rebuild the rear and install new gears.
The nice part about having gear-heads for friends is that they usually have parts laying around. My buddy had a stock Traction Loc posi unit on his shelf. He told me I could have it so long as I replaced it with the one that was coming out of my car. I already had the 3.31 gears, so I decided to rebuild the unit. I could do all of this without removing anything from my car. I purchased the rebuild kit for the Posi (FMS-M-4700-B) which is the standard rebuild kit. There is also a carbon fiber rebuild kit which is a bit more money, but this is my daily driver. The carbon fiber kit also requires an upgraded, and subsequently more expensive, gear oil. The stock gear oil is about 12 dollars a quart and it will work perfectly with the standard rebuild kit. I also bought the upgraded S spring (they use these in the 03/04 cobras and F150s). The S spring pushes against the spider gears / clutch packs. Having a bigger S Spring in there should tighten up the rear a bit.
Before I begin, please understand that there are many write-ups on installing gears. I'm going to cover this from a high level and may leave out some details. This is not a job for the average mechanic, and requires some specialty tools that are pricey. I borrowed some of these specialty tools from a friend, bought some of my own, and even had to make some. I also did all of the work with the rear housing still in the car. Never again will I do that! It will always come out and live on some saw horses for the rebuild.
Ok, back to rebuilding the posi. I removed the bolts that hold the ring gear to the posi, and removed the ring gear. I used a dead blow hammer and the ring gear did NOT come off easily. I used a puller to remove the carrier bearings (this is a loaded statement, there's a LOT to this). I removed the S Spring, and subsequently the clutch packs for the spider gears. I made sure I kept the cutch packs IN ORDER so I could match with the new packs. I took the friction disks for the new clutch packs and soaked them in gear oil / friction modifier. Then I installed the new clutch packs and the spider gears, and the upgraded S spring. I really had to get creative to compress the S spring / pry it in there. This is a lesson in hand strength. I've done it twice, and its a challenge each time. I then put the posi unit in the freezer, boiled some water and put the new 3.31 ring gear in the boiling water. after a few minutes I removed the ring gear, took the posi out of the freezer and the ring gear slid right onto the posi. I was able to line up a few bolt holes before I couldnt move the ring gear any more because the temperatures equalized. I installed all the bolts for the ring gear along with some thread locker, and torqued them to spec. I also installed the carrier bearings using a seal driver. The posi was ready. I had more than a few hours into this rebuild already. But since I was able to rebuild the posi without first tearing into my car, I definitely saved some time.
Next I put the car up on jack stands, under the frame, and dropped the rear down. I removed the rear cover, carefully, because the fluid will come pouring out. The way I did it was to remove all the bolts except the bottom one, then loosen that only a few turns, then pry the cover. This method allows the fluid to drain in a controlled manner, and keeps the cover still bolted to the car. While that was happening, I remove the rear wheels, brake rotors and calipers. I removed the rear cover completely, and removed the 5/15 retaining nut for the pinion shaft. I removed the pinion shaft, pushed the axels inward and remove the C clips. The axels now come out. I used a puller to remove the outer axel bearings and seals. Then I removed the bolts for carrier and noted the orientation and which side each cap came off of. The carrier will now come out. I moved to the front of the housing and removed the driveshaft, and the pinion nut. I also used a brass punch to remove the pinion gear. It needed some 'help' but eventually popped out. I used a slide hammer to remove the pinion races, and a seal driver to install the new ones. I also used a seal driver to install the outer axel bearings and seals.
Now comes the tricky part. I needed to check the pinion depth. There is measuring involved, using precision tools. I may add more detail to this section later. I also used an old bearing that had been 'modified' so that it just slides on and off the 3.31 pinion gear. This helped because I did not have to press the bearing on and off each time I needed to make a shim adjustment. Eventually I got the correct shim pack under the pinion bearing, and pressed on the new bearing. I installed the pinion gear, crush collar, oil slinger, outer pinion bearing and seal, and drive shaft flange. I also installed the pinion nut. This gets tightened not to a torque spec, but to a drag. The drag is measured by using a dial torque wrench on the pinion nut and measuring how much it takes to spin the pinion gear. When you get the right amount of pre-load, the drag will be in spec.
I moved on to the carrier. The carrier races and shims get installed together on each side, which is why it was important to keep the shim packs and caps on their respective sides. I used that as a starting point. I installed them with the carrier, and the caps and torqued to spec. Next step is to measure the backlash, or space between the gears. The shims are adjusted until the desired backlash is met. Again, this is a loaded statement. Once the posi is installed, I installed the axels and C clips. The challenge here is that the anti-lock sensor prevents the axels from sliding all the way in to install the C clips. with a little help from a friend (he pushes the axel in while the other person installs the clips) it goes easier. Once the clips were installed, I installed the pinion shaft and pinion shaft retaining bolt, and torqued that to spec. I needed to adjust the S spring a bit here for clearance.
I installed the rear cover and removed the vent fitting on the passenger side, and filled the fluid there. I also removed the stock fill hole. I mixed the friction modifier with one of the quarts of fluid and filled the rear through that vent hole until the fluid drained out of the fill hole. I put some thread sealer on the fill hole plug and installed the plug.
The last steps were to install the driveshaft and rear brakes, then then wheels. Lower the car down off the jack stands.
The test drive was great! There was a noticeable change in the seat of the pants feel. It had a little more pickup off the line, and the RPMs at 75 mph were just over 2000. Perfect! The rear also felt 'tighter', meaning the posi traction is working, and there is very limited slip in the differential. This is what I wanted.
There were some lessons learned here. I did NOT use paint to determine how the gears were meshing. I also installed used gears. Because of this, there was some whining on the coast side of the gears. Most likely a pinion depth issue and not an issue with the gears. Also, the axel seal on the passenger side did not seat correctly and subsequently leaked. I had to replace that seal, which means pulling the axel out again.
I would definitely be confident doing this upgrade again in the future! And other than those lessons learned, I think this was a great upgrade.
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Shifter:
I bought some various parts off a friend that upgraded his mustang transmission to a Tremec T600. There was a steeda tri-ax shifter (in pieces), the stock T5 transmission and the stock T600 shifter. I re-sold the stock transmission for what I paid for everything. I also rebuilt the tri-ax after giving it a very thorough cleaning. I had a Pro-50 in the car at the time, and I wanted to try something else. I removed the pro-50 and installed the tri-ax along with the new shift knob. The installation is VERY easy. remove the shift knob, remove the boot (it just pulls up, attached to the trim). Disconnect the cig lighter connections. Remove the lower boot (4 small bolts) and remove the shifter (4 bolts to the trans). clean the surface of the trans where the shifter mounts, lay a bead of black RTV, and install the new shifter. The trick is to adjust the stops correctly. When in gear, you should BARELY see daylight between the stop and the shifter in second and third gears. The rest of the installation is reverse of the removal. I also sold the Pro-50 for a profit. I think I got about 100$ for it. So by the time it was all said and done, I had about 150 in profit, swapped shifters and had a nice leather shift knob. Not a bad deal!
I really like the Tri-ax shifter. It leaves the option of installing the shifter handle on the drivers side OR passenger side of the shifter shaft. I chose the drivers side. There are also two mounts for the hight of the handle. I chose the lower height since I'm not too tall. It shifts so well that I actually removed the MGW shifter from my 03 Cobra and also installed a Tri-Ax. Thats it for the shifter!
Rear:
I know I didn't say this in the title, but I also had an aluminum driveshaft in the car for a short while. I installed that after buying it for a great price! I took the stock driveshaft and replaced the U joints with some new ones. Then I swapped back to the stock one and made a good bit of money on the aluminum driveshaft.
After one of my very long road trips, I noticed that the rear in the car was starting to make some noise. It was also showing some signs of wear in the posi. At 145k on the clock, I knew it was time to give it some attention. My goal was to completely rebuild it, upgrade the posi a bit and possibly change the gears. The stock gears are 3:08. I didn't think that 3.27 would be enough of a change, and 3.55's were a bit too much for highway / daily driving. I needed something in the middle. The new S197 GTs sometimes came with 3.31 gears. I found someone selling a used set with very low miles on them and bought them. They are called 'take off'. Its what happens when someone buys a new car and takes it to a shop to customize it. These gears had about 5k miles on them when I got them. I bought the ford FMS-M-4210-C kit. It includes everything you would need to completely rebuild the rear and install new gears.
The nice part about having gear-heads for friends is that they usually have parts laying around. My buddy had a stock Traction Loc posi unit on his shelf. He told me I could have it so long as I replaced it with the one that was coming out of my car. I already had the 3.31 gears, so I decided to rebuild the unit. I could do all of this without removing anything from my car. I purchased the rebuild kit for the Posi (FMS-M-4700-B) which is the standard rebuild kit. There is also a carbon fiber rebuild kit which is a bit more money, but this is my daily driver. The carbon fiber kit also requires an upgraded, and subsequently more expensive, gear oil. The stock gear oil is about 12 dollars a quart and it will work perfectly with the standard rebuild kit. I also bought the upgraded S spring (they use these in the 03/04 cobras and F150s). The S spring pushes against the spider gears / clutch packs. Having a bigger S Spring in there should tighten up the rear a bit.
Before I begin, please understand that there are many write-ups on installing gears. I'm going to cover this from a high level and may leave out some details. This is not a job for the average mechanic, and requires some specialty tools that are pricey. I borrowed some of these specialty tools from a friend, bought some of my own, and even had to make some. I also did all of the work with the rear housing still in the car. Never again will I do that! It will always come out and live on some saw horses for the rebuild.
Ok, back to rebuilding the posi. I removed the bolts that hold the ring gear to the posi, and removed the ring gear. I used a dead blow hammer and the ring gear did NOT come off easily. I used a puller to remove the carrier bearings (this is a loaded statement, there's a LOT to this). I removed the S Spring, and subsequently the clutch packs for the spider gears. I made sure I kept the cutch packs IN ORDER so I could match with the new packs. I took the friction disks for the new clutch packs and soaked them in gear oil / friction modifier. Then I installed the new clutch packs and the spider gears, and the upgraded S spring. I really had to get creative to compress the S spring / pry it in there. This is a lesson in hand strength. I've done it twice, and its a challenge each time. I then put the posi unit in the freezer, boiled some water and put the new 3.31 ring gear in the boiling water. after a few minutes I removed the ring gear, took the posi out of the freezer and the ring gear slid right onto the posi. I was able to line up a few bolt holes before I couldnt move the ring gear any more because the temperatures equalized. I installed all the bolts for the ring gear along with some thread locker, and torqued them to spec. I also installed the carrier bearings using a seal driver. The posi was ready. I had more than a few hours into this rebuild already. But since I was able to rebuild the posi without first tearing into my car, I definitely saved some time.
Next I put the car up on jack stands, under the frame, and dropped the rear down. I removed the rear cover, carefully, because the fluid will come pouring out. The way I did it was to remove all the bolts except the bottom one, then loosen that only a few turns, then pry the cover. This method allows the fluid to drain in a controlled manner, and keeps the cover still bolted to the car. While that was happening, I remove the rear wheels, brake rotors and calipers. I removed the rear cover completely, and removed the 5/15 retaining nut for the pinion shaft. I removed the pinion shaft, pushed the axels inward and remove the C clips. The axels now come out. I used a puller to remove the outer axel bearings and seals. Then I removed the bolts for carrier and noted the orientation and which side each cap came off of. The carrier will now come out. I moved to the front of the housing and removed the driveshaft, and the pinion nut. I also used a brass punch to remove the pinion gear. It needed some 'help' but eventually popped out. I used a slide hammer to remove the pinion races, and a seal driver to install the new ones. I also used a seal driver to install the outer axel bearings and seals.
Now comes the tricky part. I needed to check the pinion depth. There is measuring involved, using precision tools. I may add more detail to this section later. I also used an old bearing that had been 'modified' so that it just slides on and off the 3.31 pinion gear. This helped because I did not have to press the bearing on and off each time I needed to make a shim adjustment. Eventually I got the correct shim pack under the pinion bearing, and pressed on the new bearing. I installed the pinion gear, crush collar, oil slinger, outer pinion bearing and seal, and drive shaft flange. I also installed the pinion nut. This gets tightened not to a torque spec, but to a drag. The drag is measured by using a dial torque wrench on the pinion nut and measuring how much it takes to spin the pinion gear. When you get the right amount of pre-load, the drag will be in spec.
I moved on to the carrier. The carrier races and shims get installed together on each side, which is why it was important to keep the shim packs and caps on their respective sides. I used that as a starting point. I installed them with the carrier, and the caps and torqued to spec. Next step is to measure the backlash, or space between the gears. The shims are adjusted until the desired backlash is met. Again, this is a loaded statement. Once the posi is installed, I installed the axels and C clips. The challenge here is that the anti-lock sensor prevents the axels from sliding all the way in to install the C clips. with a little help from a friend (he pushes the axel in while the other person installs the clips) it goes easier. Once the clips were installed, I installed the pinion shaft and pinion shaft retaining bolt, and torqued that to spec. I needed to adjust the S spring a bit here for clearance.
I installed the rear cover and removed the vent fitting on the passenger side, and filled the fluid there. I also removed the stock fill hole. I mixed the friction modifier with one of the quarts of fluid and filled the rear through that vent hole until the fluid drained out of the fill hole. I put some thread sealer on the fill hole plug and installed the plug.
The last steps were to install the driveshaft and rear brakes, then then wheels. Lower the car down off the jack stands.
The test drive was great! There was a noticeable change in the seat of the pants feel. It had a little more pickup off the line, and the RPMs at 75 mph were just over 2000. Perfect! The rear also felt 'tighter', meaning the posi traction is working, and there is very limited slip in the differential. This is what I wanted.
There were some lessons learned here. I did NOT use paint to determine how the gears were meshing. I also installed used gears. Because of this, there was some whining on the coast side of the gears. Most likely a pinion depth issue and not an issue with the gears. Also, the axel seal on the passenger side did not seat correctly and subsequently leaked. I had to replace that seal, which means pulling the axel out again.
I would definitely be confident doing this upgrade again in the future! And other than those lessons learned, I think this was a great upgrade.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
94 Mustang GT: Ignition
I knew that it was getting time to do the ignition in the car. It was running a little rough and I know from past experience that it was due to spark. I run an autolite 24 plug in the car since it still has the iron heads. The stock plug is an autolite 25. The 24 is one heat range colder. I figured that if I was going to do it, I was going to source everything first.
I ordered Motorcraft wires. I figured if the originals went 100k miles, these should also. I also ordered motorcraft cap and rotor for the distributor, and also picked up a Streetfire coil from my friend since he had one on the shelf. As I mentioned before, I also ordered the Autolite 24 plugs, 8 of course.
The installation is pretty straightforward. I gap my plugs for the sole reason that I have always done that. Talk to any engine builder and they will tell you that gapping is unnecessary, as long as the plug is 'good'. Remove a plug boot, remove the plug, replace with a new spark plug, change that wire with one of the same length. Plug the wire into the NEW distributor cap, in the same location. By the time you are done, all the wires are and plugs have been replaced and the wires are connected to the new distributor cap. Remove the old cap and rotor. Install the new rotor, and place the new cap (with all the wires on it) onto the distributor. Sometimes the wires are numbered, which helps if you know the firing order. Using the method above takes the guess work out of it all. While replacing the number 4 wire (passenger side, all the way in the back) I noticed that it was not seated correctly. This was probably the root cause of the car running a bit rough.
I moved on to the coil, which is a very simple remove and replace. Its right on top of the engine which makes it very easy. I also decided to check the timing. It was set at 10*, which is perfect. I started up the car, and everything worked perfectly. And it ran much smoother. I now have 17k miles on those plugs / wires. Since they are a copper plug, It may be worth it to replace them at 20k since they are only one dollar or so per plug.
This was one of the easier upgrades, and I did it for less than 60 dollars in parts, shipped to my door.
I was told that adding an MSD ignition box or equivalent may help with gas mileage. I have not yet done that, so I won't comment at this time.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I ordered Motorcraft wires. I figured if the originals went 100k miles, these should also. I also ordered motorcraft cap and rotor for the distributor, and also picked up a Streetfire coil from my friend since he had one on the shelf. As I mentioned before, I also ordered the Autolite 24 plugs, 8 of course.
The installation is pretty straightforward. I gap my plugs for the sole reason that I have always done that. Talk to any engine builder and they will tell you that gapping is unnecessary, as long as the plug is 'good'. Remove a plug boot, remove the plug, replace with a new spark plug, change that wire with one of the same length. Plug the wire into the NEW distributor cap, in the same location. By the time you are done, all the wires are and plugs have been replaced and the wires are connected to the new distributor cap. Remove the old cap and rotor. Install the new rotor, and place the new cap (with all the wires on it) onto the distributor. Sometimes the wires are numbered, which helps if you know the firing order. Using the method above takes the guess work out of it all. While replacing the number 4 wire (passenger side, all the way in the back) I noticed that it was not seated correctly. This was probably the root cause of the car running a bit rough.
I moved on to the coil, which is a very simple remove and replace. Its right on top of the engine which makes it very easy. I also decided to check the timing. It was set at 10*, which is perfect. I started up the car, and everything worked perfectly. And it ran much smoother. I now have 17k miles on those plugs / wires. Since they are a copper plug, It may be worth it to replace them at 20k since they are only one dollar or so per plug.
This was one of the easier upgrades, and I did it for less than 60 dollars in parts, shipped to my door.
I was told that adding an MSD ignition box or equivalent may help with gas mileage. I have not yet done that, so I won't comment at this time.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
94 Mustang GT: Brakes
Brakes are really important. They could mean the difference between being in an accident, or avoiding an accident. I've always been a big fan of stopping power. There came a time where I needed to change my brakes in the 94 GT Convertible. I had just recently bought the car, so my great idea was to go budget. The brakes are already 'good'. I'll just get the rotors cut and put some cheap pads on there. That's exactly what I did, and I did it for less than 100$ for all four corners. I took the car out, bedded the brakes and began using them. Everything seemed fine to me. Some time during my lovely 74 mile commute to work, I needed to execute a panic stop. I came around a blind corner going 70MPH and traffic was absolutely stopped. I jammed on the brakes and after about 3 seconds, fade crept in. For those that don't know, fade feels exactly what it sounds like - the brakes almost feel like they get wet and slippery. This is due to a build up of gasses between the pad and rotor. Another root cause is the pad material. I needed to do some pumping of the brakes and some serious downshifting in order to stop in time. After that, I didn't really trust the brakes anymore. Time for an upgrade.
One of the common bolt-on upgrades for the 94 mustang GT is 1999 to 2004 front calipers. They are called PBR calipers, and they are dual piston. the two pistons add up to more stopping power than the single large piston caliper that came stock on the 94. I found a set of good working used PBR calipers and had them shipped to my house. I also had a set of stock rear calipers on the shelf - they were for another project that never came to light. I did some research on brake pads and everything was pointing to the hawk HPS pads. I also wanted to do some cross drilled and slotted rotors on the car. I found a company that gave me a great deal on the four rotors and pads for my car so I ordered them. I also needed to get new front brake lines, so I decided to upgrade the rubber lines to braided stainless steel. I ordered the stainless steel braided brake line kit from summit. I dont remember what the part number or manufacturer was. Probably Earls Performance.
At this point I had front and rear calipers, front and rear hawk HPS pads, Front and rear cross drilled and slotted rotors and the stainless steel braided brake lines. I decided to get a fresh coat of paint on the calipers. I took the calipers over to my friend's house who has a sand blasting cabinet. We spent some time chasing the threads in the brackets and on the bolts. We also taped off the important areas and into the cabinet they went. When they came out, they looked fantastic! I'll note here that we really don't use sand, its shards of glass. I picked up a bucket from McMaster Carr for my buddy since he helped me out. I took the calipers home, and gave them a few coats of Dupont black engine enamel. I gave it some time in between coats, and hung them in the garage to dry.
Finally it was time to do the install. Everything went very smoothly. The calipers were remove and replace, the rotors were new, there were no surprises. The step was bleeding the brakes. After that was done, I installed the wheels and tires, torqued the lugs and it was off to bed the brakes. The idea is to go from 50 to 10mph without coming to a full stop. This was repeated 5 to 8 times. Then, I need to drive around - not using the brakes is preferred - to let them cool for about 5-10 minutes. The brakes should have a 'bite' to them after the third full stop. This was not the case for me. After the fourth stop, I realized that something wasn't right. The brakes felt better, but it just didn't throw me out of my seat like I expected.
I opened up a discussion thread on the Corral.net to hopefully get to the bottom of it. About a day into the discussion, we found the problem. The master cylinder in the 94 GT is TOO BIG for the 1999 GT calipers. The 1999 mustang used a smaller master cylinder so the root cause was a mis-match between the calipers and master cylinder. I could either put the stock calipers back on (which means I also needed different brake pads) or I could change my master cylinder. I chose to change the master cylinder. It turns out that the 1993 mustang cobra master cylinder was the perfect match. I bought one from RockAuto.com and installed it. Of course it was nice to bleed the brakes yet again. The difference was night and day. The stopping power I had now was way better than it had ever been. Brake upgrade - Complete.
One more thing to note. The hawk HPS pads create a lot of brake dust. I have 42k miles on this set up and its getting close to me needing to replace the front pads again. I went through the same company and installed the cross drilled and slotted rotors with centric posi-quiet pads on my 04 Expedition when that needed the brakes done. There's really no brake dust problem there. In hind site, I should have went with the posi-quiet pads instead of the hawk. The hawk would have been a great upgrade if I was not going with the cross drilled and slotted rotors. I'm still up in the air about replacing the front AND back pads in the mustang with the posi-quiet pads for 70$ shipped OR just replacing the fronts with the hawk pads for 80$ shipped.
Stay Tuned!
One of the common bolt-on upgrades for the 94 mustang GT is 1999 to 2004 front calipers. They are called PBR calipers, and they are dual piston. the two pistons add up to more stopping power than the single large piston caliper that came stock on the 94. I found a set of good working used PBR calipers and had them shipped to my house. I also had a set of stock rear calipers on the shelf - they were for another project that never came to light. I did some research on brake pads and everything was pointing to the hawk HPS pads. I also wanted to do some cross drilled and slotted rotors on the car. I found a company that gave me a great deal on the four rotors and pads for my car so I ordered them. I also needed to get new front brake lines, so I decided to upgrade the rubber lines to braided stainless steel. I ordered the stainless steel braided brake line kit from summit. I dont remember what the part number or manufacturer was. Probably Earls Performance.
At this point I had front and rear calipers, front and rear hawk HPS pads, Front and rear cross drilled and slotted rotors and the stainless steel braided brake lines. I decided to get a fresh coat of paint on the calipers. I took the calipers over to my friend's house who has a sand blasting cabinet. We spent some time chasing the threads in the brackets and on the bolts. We also taped off the important areas and into the cabinet they went. When they came out, they looked fantastic! I'll note here that we really don't use sand, its shards of glass. I picked up a bucket from McMaster Carr for my buddy since he helped me out. I took the calipers home, and gave them a few coats of Dupont black engine enamel. I gave it some time in between coats, and hung them in the garage to dry.
Finally it was time to do the install. Everything went very smoothly. The calipers were remove and replace, the rotors were new, there were no surprises. The step was bleeding the brakes. After that was done, I installed the wheels and tires, torqued the lugs and it was off to bed the brakes. The idea is to go from 50 to 10mph without coming to a full stop. This was repeated 5 to 8 times. Then, I need to drive around - not using the brakes is preferred - to let them cool for about 5-10 minutes. The brakes should have a 'bite' to them after the third full stop. This was not the case for me. After the fourth stop, I realized that something wasn't right. The brakes felt better, but it just didn't throw me out of my seat like I expected.
I opened up a discussion thread on the Corral.net to hopefully get to the bottom of it. About a day into the discussion, we found the problem. The master cylinder in the 94 GT is TOO BIG for the 1999 GT calipers. The 1999 mustang used a smaller master cylinder so the root cause was a mis-match between the calipers and master cylinder. I could either put the stock calipers back on (which means I also needed different brake pads) or I could change my master cylinder. I chose to change the master cylinder. It turns out that the 1993 mustang cobra master cylinder was the perfect match. I bought one from RockAuto.com and installed it. Of course it was nice to bleed the brakes yet again. The difference was night and day. The stopping power I had now was way better than it had ever been. Brake upgrade - Complete.
One more thing to note. The hawk HPS pads create a lot of brake dust. I have 42k miles on this set up and its getting close to me needing to replace the front pads again. I went through the same company and installed the cross drilled and slotted rotors with centric posi-quiet pads on my 04 Expedition when that needed the brakes done. There's really no brake dust problem there. In hind site, I should have went with the posi-quiet pads instead of the hawk. The hawk would have been a great upgrade if I was not going with the cross drilled and slotted rotors. I'm still up in the air about replacing the front AND back pads in the mustang with the posi-quiet pads for 70$ shipped OR just replacing the fronts with the hawk pads for 80$ shipped.
Stay Tuned!
94 Mustang GT: Wheels and Tires
I would like to continue on about the brakes wheels and tires on the 94 GT convertible. The stock wheels on the 94 GT have been nicknamed 'ponies'. They are a 16x7 wheel, and thy are just UGLY. I knew that they had to go, and my plan was to upgrade when I needed new tires. The tires that were on the car when I bought it were fuzions, and they were just horrible. They are probably the cheapest tire money can buy. I couldn't wait for them to wear down and because of that, I probably did one too many burnouts!
I began my search for some wheels. I didn't need tires since I was going to choose my own - More on that in a minute. My search brought me to the corral where someone had a set of original Mach 1 wheels, with snow tires and the stock tires. I was told by the guy that the tires were shot. The nice part is that he only wanted 125 for all four. The wheels did have some scuffs and some curb rash, but from 20 feet away, they didn't look too bad. And they definitely looked better than the stock wheels! This guy was in connecticut, and it just so happened that my brother was heading from Boston to Saylorsburg PA to come and visit me. This was going to save me a trip. I put my brother and he in touch with each other. They met up and I had my brother call me just to make sure everything is OK. When he called he said "its 125 total right, not just for one wheel?!?" Apparently they were in better shape then I thought! When they showed up, I checked them out. The tires were definitely shot, and there were plenty of blemishes, but they were exactly what I needed. I gave them a very thorough cleaning, put a couple of coats of carnuba wax on them, and I was happy. They are also a bigger wheel, measuring in at 17x8. The next step was to get some tires!
Any self respecting gear-head always takes to the TireRack.com when they are doing their research. I wanted a performance all season tire that was going to offer some good tread wear - meaning they were going to last me at least 45k miles. I also have an edge here. My best friend works as the manager of a tire shop, and has been there for years. Needless to say, he knows everything there is to know about tires. I touched base with him first, and collected the key points to check out when shopping for a tire.
I also wanted to increase the side wall of the tire just a bit. I figured going from 16x7 to a 17x8 would fill out the wheel well a little more. If i was able to take up just one more inch, I would probably be able to get away with NOT lowering the car. If I kept the stock ride height / springs, I could still put a few people in the car without it bottoming out. I could also pack the car without worrying about rolling the fenders or the fenders cutting the tires. A little bit of research revealed that I would be able to increase the side wall by 1/2 inch (one inch overall) and it wouldn't make that much of a difference. The tire size after all the math worked out to be 235/50 17. For reference, the stock size for the mach 1 is 245/45 17. There are a bunch of tire size calculators out there. Feel free to look them up!
On the TireRack there is UTQG rating - this is the industry standard scientific test for traction, temperature and treadwear. The first number in the UTQG is the treadwear. The higher the number, the longer the tire will last. The next letter is the traction rating and the final letter is the temperature rating. I won't get into too much detail here. If you want to read more, just follow this link and it will tell you everything you need to know: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=48
The final step was to choose a tire. I sorted all the tires available in this size by the UTQG rating. Then I de-selected everything except all season tires. This narrowed the field to 22 tires. The Kuhmo Ecsta LX Platinum rose right to the top. It had a UTQG of 600 A A, which is a great tread wear rating! Its also a 96W rated tire, it also has a ZR rating. These are all good things! They were also very affordable. Sometimes they have rebates / good deals too. At the time I'm looking at them right now, they are offering a 50$ mail in rebate. Basically, that will cover the shipping. They were 143$ per tire. Thats not a bad price! I ordered them. Actually, I'm on my second set of them. I'll talk about that for a second.
The first set of these tires went 47k miles before hitting the wear bars. These wear bars are tread wear indicators that live in between the treads. the feel like little speed bumps between the tread grooves of the tire. If those are flush with the tread - the tires are DONE and need to be replaced. I was rotating the tires every other oil change (10k miles). At the end of it all, there were still some tires that wore differently than others. Two of the tires absolutely needed to be replaced. One should have been replaced and one was kind of OK. This was interesting because I had been rotating the tires regularly! I inquired with my best friend as to why this would happen. His reply was pretty interesting - its my driving style. This made sense to me. My question was - how do I get the tires to wear more evenly? He told me to rotate the tires more often, or change my driving style. For this set of tires, I'm going to rotate every 5k miles. the front tires to go the back, the back tires criss cross going to the front. Another contributor to the tires not wearing evenly is any suspension issues. During the time that the first set was on the car, the ball joints and a tie rod end both needed to be replaced. The second set of these tires did not have any suspension issues. the suspension is solid!
I also added a spacer between the rear axels and the wheels. This is a hub-centric spacer. The spacer bolts to the axel with special smaller lug nuts, then the wheel bolts to the spacer. This keeps it centered and there's no 'out of balance' issues that may lead to a vibration at speed. The spacer brings the rear tires closer to the lip of the fender. Without the spacer, the rear wheels are tucked way under the car. I could have gone with a 10 inch wide wheel to compensate, but then I couldn't rotate the tires like I need to. The wheel spacer is 1 inch billet aluminum.
One more thing to note is that these tires perform very well. The cornering is very crisp, traction is great and driving in the rain was manageable even when the tread wear was getting low. The tires were even able to get through some light snow. I wouldn't say that they are good in the snow, this is a mustang, and they are not dedicated snow tires. If I expected to drive this car in the snow, I would put a set of dedicated snow tires on it. But I dont need to do that, I have a Ford Expedition XLT for that task! I expect to get additional mileage out of the second set of these Kuhmo's due to the additional tire rotation... and maybe less burning rubber. ... Maybe ...
I began my search for some wheels. I didn't need tires since I was going to choose my own - More on that in a minute. My search brought me to the corral where someone had a set of original Mach 1 wheels, with snow tires and the stock tires. I was told by the guy that the tires were shot. The nice part is that he only wanted 125 for all four. The wheels did have some scuffs and some curb rash, but from 20 feet away, they didn't look too bad. And they definitely looked better than the stock wheels! This guy was in connecticut, and it just so happened that my brother was heading from Boston to Saylorsburg PA to come and visit me. This was going to save me a trip. I put my brother and he in touch with each other. They met up and I had my brother call me just to make sure everything is OK. When he called he said "its 125 total right, not just for one wheel?!?" Apparently they were in better shape then I thought! When they showed up, I checked them out. The tires were definitely shot, and there were plenty of blemishes, but they were exactly what I needed. I gave them a very thorough cleaning, put a couple of coats of carnuba wax on them, and I was happy. They are also a bigger wheel, measuring in at 17x8. The next step was to get some tires!
Any self respecting gear-head always takes to the TireRack.com when they are doing their research. I wanted a performance all season tire that was going to offer some good tread wear - meaning they were going to last me at least 45k miles. I also have an edge here. My best friend works as the manager of a tire shop, and has been there for years. Needless to say, he knows everything there is to know about tires. I touched base with him first, and collected the key points to check out when shopping for a tire.
I also wanted to increase the side wall of the tire just a bit. I figured going from 16x7 to a 17x8 would fill out the wheel well a little more. If i was able to take up just one more inch, I would probably be able to get away with NOT lowering the car. If I kept the stock ride height / springs, I could still put a few people in the car without it bottoming out. I could also pack the car without worrying about rolling the fenders or the fenders cutting the tires. A little bit of research revealed that I would be able to increase the side wall by 1/2 inch (one inch overall) and it wouldn't make that much of a difference. The tire size after all the math worked out to be 235/50 17. For reference, the stock size for the mach 1 is 245/45 17. There are a bunch of tire size calculators out there. Feel free to look them up!
On the TireRack there is UTQG rating - this is the industry standard scientific test for traction, temperature and treadwear. The first number in the UTQG is the treadwear. The higher the number, the longer the tire will last. The next letter is the traction rating and the final letter is the temperature rating. I won't get into too much detail here. If you want to read more, just follow this link and it will tell you everything you need to know: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=48
The final step was to choose a tire. I sorted all the tires available in this size by the UTQG rating. Then I de-selected everything except all season tires. This narrowed the field to 22 tires. The Kuhmo Ecsta LX Platinum rose right to the top. It had a UTQG of 600 A A, which is a great tread wear rating! Its also a 96W rated tire, it also has a ZR rating. These are all good things! They were also very affordable. Sometimes they have rebates / good deals too. At the time I'm looking at them right now, they are offering a 50$ mail in rebate. Basically, that will cover the shipping. They were 143$ per tire. Thats not a bad price! I ordered them. Actually, I'm on my second set of them. I'll talk about that for a second.
The first set of these tires went 47k miles before hitting the wear bars. These wear bars are tread wear indicators that live in between the treads. the feel like little speed bumps between the tread grooves of the tire. If those are flush with the tread - the tires are DONE and need to be replaced. I was rotating the tires every other oil change (10k miles). At the end of it all, there were still some tires that wore differently than others. Two of the tires absolutely needed to be replaced. One should have been replaced and one was kind of OK. This was interesting because I had been rotating the tires regularly! I inquired with my best friend as to why this would happen. His reply was pretty interesting - its my driving style. This made sense to me. My question was - how do I get the tires to wear more evenly? He told me to rotate the tires more often, or change my driving style. For this set of tires, I'm going to rotate every 5k miles. the front tires to go the back, the back tires criss cross going to the front. Another contributor to the tires not wearing evenly is any suspension issues. During the time that the first set was on the car, the ball joints and a tie rod end both needed to be replaced. The second set of these tires did not have any suspension issues. the suspension is solid!
I also added a spacer between the rear axels and the wheels. This is a hub-centric spacer. The spacer bolts to the axel with special smaller lug nuts, then the wheel bolts to the spacer. This keeps it centered and there's no 'out of balance' issues that may lead to a vibration at speed. The spacer brings the rear tires closer to the lip of the fender. Without the spacer, the rear wheels are tucked way under the car. I could have gone with a 10 inch wide wheel to compensate, but then I couldn't rotate the tires like I need to. The wheel spacer is 1 inch billet aluminum.
One more thing to note is that these tires perform very well. The cornering is very crisp, traction is great and driving in the rain was manageable even when the tread wear was getting low. The tires were even able to get through some light snow. I wouldn't say that they are good in the snow, this is a mustang, and they are not dedicated snow tires. If I expected to drive this car in the snow, I would put a set of dedicated snow tires on it. But I dont need to do that, I have a Ford Expedition XLT for that task! I expect to get additional mileage out of the second set of these Kuhmo's due to the additional tire rotation... and maybe less burning rubber. ... Maybe ...
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
94 Mustang GT: Suspension
I've upgraded the suspension over the course of the time that I have owned the car. It is a convertible, so it already had a strut tower and K member brace up front, but there was plenty of areas for improvement:
Shocks and Struts
Subframe connectors
Rear upper and lower control arms and 8.8 housing bushings
Front lower control arms, front sway bar bushings and end links
Shocks and Struts:
The first thing I did to the car was the shocks and struts. I ordered the Tokico HP's (blues) from an eBay vendor online. The car went up in the air and I put it on jack stands (under the frame, not on the rear) and removed the wheels. I started with the rear shocks. Because its a convertible, I had to dig into the trunk to find the nuts that hold the rear shocks to the car. I removed the body panels, and removed the top nut. Then I moved onto the quad shocks. An impact gun made quick work of removing them. Then I put a jack under the rear to support it (the shocks are keeping the springs compressed). I pulled the bolts for the shocks from the rear and the shocks came out. I installed the new shock, put the bolt into the bottom and installed the nut on the top until the bushings were slightly compressed. The rear was now done. I let the jack down (car is still on jack stands) and moved to the front. The first thing I did under the hood was hit the strut nut with an impact gun. short bursts allow it to come right off. I put the jack under the front control arm to support it, and removed the two nuts / bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle using the impact gun. the strut came right out. I installed the new strut, put the bolts / nuts back on the knuckle and the self locking nut on the top. I hit the self locking nut with the impact gun, and torqued the bolts / nuts on the knuckle to 150 foot pounds. Shocks have now been replaced. After the test drive, it feels completely different. The suspension was much more crisp!
Subframe connectors:
Subframe connectors on a convertible are absolutely essential. Due to the unibody construction, the front and rear frame rails are not connected to each other. Also, its a convertible - so there is no roof to add to the rigidity. A good set of subframe connectors connects the front and rear frame rails and stops the car from twisting and restores the lost rigidity. I ordered a set of Maximum Motorsports full length SFCs. These are the weld in type, and also bolt to the seat bolts under the car. My buddy Lou - also known as Shifter in the online mustang forums - has a welder. We took the car to his place for the installation. The car must be put in the air in a way that the suspension is loaded. We put the front wheels on ramps, and jack stands under the rear axle. We removed the seat bolts, and prepped the front and rear frame rails on the drivers side for the welding. We use a small jack to hold up the SFC at first, then the weld will support it. While he is welding the front, I prep the other side. Now we need to line up the SFC on the drivers side with rear frame rail. sometimes we need to pull it / pry it and use a jack. the location of the muffler also adds to the challenge. Once it is tacked into place, he continues the welding. The seat brace is also welded into place. Installation on the passenger side is the same. Its important to paint the SFCs and the welds after they cool or they will rust very quickly. They are bare metal. I like to use the DuPont 1635 black engine enamel. The test drive after the install was great. I could instantly tell the difference. The car felt much more solid. It did highlight the need for attention on the rear suspension though. I'll talk about that next.
Rear Upper and Lower Control Arms and 8.8 Housing bushings:
The rubber bushings in the rear are adequate at best. Over time and constant beatings, they just get destroyed. My goal was to replace the rear upper and lower control arms and while they were out, replace the 8.8 housing bushings with urethane ones. At the time, I was working on a 1990 Mustang GT street / strip car and I decided to upgrade the rear suspension in that to something fully adjustable. I took the Hotchkins solid rear lower control arms and used them for my 1994. I also bought a set of used BBK Gripp Upper control arms - non adjustable, but both the uppers and lowers had the urethane bushings. Installation was pretty straight forward, remove and replace. There is a neat trick for doing the bushings in the 8.8 housing. with the rear dropped down as far as it will go - upper and lower control arms disconnected and shocks unbolted, the rear can drop down. Using a 3/8 drill bit, circle the inner sleeve at a slow speed. this will eventually work the sleeve out. do the same between the rubber bushing and outer sleeve, same for the other side and install the new urethane 8.8 housing bushings. Torque all the control arms to 60 foot pounds.
Front Suspension:
At about 175k miles, the ball joints were shot in the front lower control arms. It failed inspection because of this. A common upgrade is to replace the control arms with those from a 2003 cobra. Its a direct replacement with better bushings and ball joints. I decided while I was at it to replace the front sway bar bushings and end links. We start out by removing the brake caliper and rotor, then support the lower control arm with a jack. Remove the strut and tie rod. Remove the sway bar end link. we used a chain to keep the spring compressed. wrap the chain around the inside few coils at the compressed side and secure the chain with a nut and bolt. slowly lower the control arm to remove the spring pressure and remove the spring. Please note, if that spring becomes a projectile due to unloading, it WILL remove appendages. Once the spring is out remove the castle nut on the ball joint. Use a small gear puller to put pressure on the ball joint while pulling up on the knuckle. Then, using a substantial hammer, whack the knuckle. A few good blows should cause the knuckle to separate from the ball joint. Apply more pressure to the puller if needed. Once that is done, remove the lower control arm. Installation is the reverse of removal with one note: torquing the lower control arm to k-member bolts is the VERY last step. The wheels need to be on and the suspension under load. Then torque these bolts to 150 foot pounds. The car passed inspection, and while it was at the shop I had them do an alignment.
I must say that after all of these suspension changes, the car handles VERY well.
Shocks and Struts
Subframe connectors
Rear upper and lower control arms and 8.8 housing bushings
Front lower control arms, front sway bar bushings and end links
Shocks and Struts:
The first thing I did to the car was the shocks and struts. I ordered the Tokico HP's (blues) from an eBay vendor online. The car went up in the air and I put it on jack stands (under the frame, not on the rear) and removed the wheels. I started with the rear shocks. Because its a convertible, I had to dig into the trunk to find the nuts that hold the rear shocks to the car. I removed the body panels, and removed the top nut. Then I moved onto the quad shocks. An impact gun made quick work of removing them. Then I put a jack under the rear to support it (the shocks are keeping the springs compressed). I pulled the bolts for the shocks from the rear and the shocks came out. I installed the new shock, put the bolt into the bottom and installed the nut on the top until the bushings were slightly compressed. The rear was now done. I let the jack down (car is still on jack stands) and moved to the front. The first thing I did under the hood was hit the strut nut with an impact gun. short bursts allow it to come right off. I put the jack under the front control arm to support it, and removed the two nuts / bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle using the impact gun. the strut came right out. I installed the new strut, put the bolts / nuts back on the knuckle and the self locking nut on the top. I hit the self locking nut with the impact gun, and torqued the bolts / nuts on the knuckle to 150 foot pounds. Shocks have now been replaced. After the test drive, it feels completely different. The suspension was much more crisp!
Subframe connectors:
Subframe connectors on a convertible are absolutely essential. Due to the unibody construction, the front and rear frame rails are not connected to each other. Also, its a convertible - so there is no roof to add to the rigidity. A good set of subframe connectors connects the front and rear frame rails and stops the car from twisting and restores the lost rigidity. I ordered a set of Maximum Motorsports full length SFCs. These are the weld in type, and also bolt to the seat bolts under the car. My buddy Lou - also known as Shifter in the online mustang forums - has a welder. We took the car to his place for the installation. The car must be put in the air in a way that the suspension is loaded. We put the front wheels on ramps, and jack stands under the rear axle. We removed the seat bolts, and prepped the front and rear frame rails on the drivers side for the welding. We use a small jack to hold up the SFC at first, then the weld will support it. While he is welding the front, I prep the other side. Now we need to line up the SFC on the drivers side with rear frame rail. sometimes we need to pull it / pry it and use a jack. the location of the muffler also adds to the challenge. Once it is tacked into place, he continues the welding. The seat brace is also welded into place. Installation on the passenger side is the same. Its important to paint the SFCs and the welds after they cool or they will rust very quickly. They are bare metal. I like to use the DuPont 1635 black engine enamel. The test drive after the install was great. I could instantly tell the difference. The car felt much more solid. It did highlight the need for attention on the rear suspension though. I'll talk about that next.
Rear Upper and Lower Control Arms and 8.8 Housing bushings:
The rubber bushings in the rear are adequate at best. Over time and constant beatings, they just get destroyed. My goal was to replace the rear upper and lower control arms and while they were out, replace the 8.8 housing bushings with urethane ones. At the time, I was working on a 1990 Mustang GT street / strip car and I decided to upgrade the rear suspension in that to something fully adjustable. I took the Hotchkins solid rear lower control arms and used them for my 1994. I also bought a set of used BBK Gripp Upper control arms - non adjustable, but both the uppers and lowers had the urethane bushings. Installation was pretty straight forward, remove and replace. There is a neat trick for doing the bushings in the 8.8 housing. with the rear dropped down as far as it will go - upper and lower control arms disconnected and shocks unbolted, the rear can drop down. Using a 3/8 drill bit, circle the inner sleeve at a slow speed. this will eventually work the sleeve out. do the same between the rubber bushing and outer sleeve, same for the other side and install the new urethane 8.8 housing bushings. Torque all the control arms to 60 foot pounds.
Front Suspension:
At about 175k miles, the ball joints were shot in the front lower control arms. It failed inspection because of this. A common upgrade is to replace the control arms with those from a 2003 cobra. Its a direct replacement with better bushings and ball joints. I decided while I was at it to replace the front sway bar bushings and end links. We start out by removing the brake caliper and rotor, then support the lower control arm with a jack. Remove the strut and tie rod. Remove the sway bar end link. we used a chain to keep the spring compressed. wrap the chain around the inside few coils at the compressed side and secure the chain with a nut and bolt. slowly lower the control arm to remove the spring pressure and remove the spring. Please note, if that spring becomes a projectile due to unloading, it WILL remove appendages. Once the spring is out remove the castle nut on the ball joint. Use a small gear puller to put pressure on the ball joint while pulling up on the knuckle. Then, using a substantial hammer, whack the knuckle. A few good blows should cause the knuckle to separate from the ball joint. Apply more pressure to the puller if needed. Once that is done, remove the lower control arm. Installation is the reverse of removal with one note: torquing the lower control arm to k-member bolts is the VERY last step. The wheels need to be on and the suspension under load. Then torque these bolts to 150 foot pounds. The car passed inspection, and while it was at the shop I had them do an alignment.
I must say that after all of these suspension changes, the car handles VERY well.
94 Mustang GT: Background
I'll start with a little bit of a background. A few years ago, I picked up a 1994 Mustang GT convertible for $4k. It had 102k miles on it, and it was basically un-touched. By that I mean that there was nothing more than the exhaust done. Everything else on the car was stock. My goal at the time when I bought the mustang was to have a reliable daily driver that gives me at least 22 mpg to and from work (150 mile round trip).
It has far surpassed that goal. I average 22.5 mpg and the car now has 187k miles on it. It has only left me stranded once, and thats because the TFI ignition module failed. I have spent $4334 in maintenance and upgrades since 2009.
I set a guideline that if any parts needed replacing because they were worn or defective, I would upgrade them to something better if I could.
Here are the upgrades I have made so far. I'll detail each one in a separate blog post:
Suspension
Brakes, Wheels and Tires
Ignition
Shifter / Rear
Exhaust
Cooling System
Stereo System / Seats
Misc: Cold Air Intake, Alternator and Balancer
I also have GT40 Iron heads and an original Cobra Intake to install, which is the current project. That should bring the Mustang GT up to (or past) 1994 Cobra specifications.
I'll cover the above in order and outline all the details as I go along!
It has far surpassed that goal. I average 22.5 mpg and the car now has 187k miles on it. It has only left me stranded once, and thats because the TFI ignition module failed. I have spent $4334 in maintenance and upgrades since 2009.
I set a guideline that if any parts needed replacing because they were worn or defective, I would upgrade them to something better if I could.
Here are the upgrades I have made so far. I'll detail each one in a separate blog post:
Suspension
Brakes, Wheels and Tires
Ignition
Shifter / Rear
Exhaust
Cooling System
Stereo System / Seats
Misc: Cold Air Intake, Alternator and Balancer
I also have GT40 Iron heads and an original Cobra Intake to install, which is the current project. That should bring the Mustang GT up to (or past) 1994 Cobra specifications.
I'll cover the above in order and outline all the details as I go along!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
My Journey into the Post PC Era: Final Note
This has definitely been an interesting exercise. It is also a great conversation piece being that I have to live in the IT world. Since I am a performance engineer, people often ask what kind of a 'rig' I have as a personal computer, thinking I must have something significant. I just tell them that I only have my iPhone and my iPad, along with some supporting accessories. The reaction is always interesting.
There is definitely a learning curve here, and I'm sure that I will still uncover some new things. I'll keep a record here to cover anything that I'm NOT able to do, or anything else that I learn along the way, or need to learn.
There is definitely a learning curve here, and I'm sure that I will still uncover some new things. I'll keep a record here to cover anything that I'm NOT able to do, or anything else that I learn along the way, or need to learn.
My Journey into the post PC Era: Printer
I know that its been a while, but I had a bit of an issue with the printer showing up at my house! The last hurdle I needed to jump to complete my journey into the post PC Era was the printer. My research using the helpful reviews over at cnet.com led me to a pretty neat little printer! The review is here for the Epson Stylus NX430 "Small-In-One" printer:
http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/epson-stylus-nx430-small/4505-3181_7-35027589.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1r
The price was right so I ordered it from Office Max. They even gave me free shipping. I'm pretty sure I had to pay for tax though since they are a local chain. I ordered the printer and in the order summary it tells me that the printer is on backorder. Funny, it didn't mention that when I was placing the order. I sent an email to customer service and just as I got a reply back the next day, the printer shipped. I was going to cancel the order if the backorder wait time was too long. Since it was on its way I was happy! They provided the FedEx tracking number in the email. I tracked the package up until it was delivered. I couldn't wait to get home and hook it up! I got to my house later that day and there was no printer there. Disappointment. I called FedEx the next day and they put a trace on the package. The associate on the phone informed me that the package was 'mis-delivered'. This was a term I was unfamiliar with, so I had to ask the question, "What does that mean?". The associate told me that the printer was delivered to the wrong address. A few minutes later she informed me that it would probably be a day or two before its delivered. This was on a Thursday, which meant that I wouldn't see the printer until Monday. Long story short, it showed up yesterday!
When I got home from work, I unboxed the printer. I had to remove all the packaging / retaining tape so that the printer would function. I followed the quick start guide and literally five minutes later, the printer was up and running on my wireless network.
Let me start by saying that this printer is not an Air Print capable printer. It is a wireless N printer though. Epson offers an IOS app called iPrint. Catchy name! I downloaded the app to my iPhone and attempted to print out a document. It worked like a charm! Next I printed a 4x6 photo, then a 5x7 photo. Flawless. The iPrint application also lets me print from my photo library (including photo stream), Online Storage (drop box, evernote, google docs or Box), Saved documents or even a web page location (copy the URL into the iPrint address bar, it pulls up the page and will let you print it out). There is even an icon there to scan a document. Scanning will put the doc into your Saved Documents, and you can also print it from there.
The printer also has the popular removable storage slots for camera memory cards. The display on the printer is nice, and the touch screen is a nice... touch.
I was able to download a PDF from my FTP server via the iFTP App on my phone, preview the PDF, Open it in iPrint and print it out. My printing solution is complete!
http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/epson-stylus-nx430-small/4505-3181_7-35027589.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1r
The price was right so I ordered it from Office Max. They even gave me free shipping. I'm pretty sure I had to pay for tax though since they are a local chain. I ordered the printer and in the order summary it tells me that the printer is on backorder. Funny, it didn't mention that when I was placing the order. I sent an email to customer service and just as I got a reply back the next day, the printer shipped. I was going to cancel the order if the backorder wait time was too long. Since it was on its way I was happy! They provided the FedEx tracking number in the email. I tracked the package up until it was delivered. I couldn't wait to get home and hook it up! I got to my house later that day and there was no printer there. Disappointment. I called FedEx the next day and they put a trace on the package. The associate on the phone informed me that the package was 'mis-delivered'. This was a term I was unfamiliar with, so I had to ask the question, "What does that mean?". The associate told me that the printer was delivered to the wrong address. A few minutes later she informed me that it would probably be a day or two before its delivered. This was on a Thursday, which meant that I wouldn't see the printer until Monday. Long story short, it showed up yesterday!
When I got home from work, I unboxed the printer. I had to remove all the packaging / retaining tape so that the printer would function. I followed the quick start guide and literally five minutes later, the printer was up and running on my wireless network.
Let me start by saying that this printer is not an Air Print capable printer. It is a wireless N printer though. Epson offers an IOS app called iPrint. Catchy name! I downloaded the app to my iPhone and attempted to print out a document. It worked like a charm! Next I printed a 4x6 photo, then a 5x7 photo. Flawless. The iPrint application also lets me print from my photo library (including photo stream), Online Storage (drop box, evernote, google docs or Box), Saved documents or even a web page location (copy the URL into the iPrint address bar, it pulls up the page and will let you print it out). There is even an icon there to scan a document. Scanning will put the doc into your Saved Documents, and you can also print it from there.
The printer also has the popular removable storage slots for camera memory cards. The display on the printer is nice, and the touch screen is a nice... touch.
I was able to download a PDF from my FTP server via the iFTP App on my phone, preview the PDF, Open it in iPrint and print it out. My printing solution is complete!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
My Journey into the post PC Era: Storage
In the 'Baseline' blog, I lay out the configuration of my home computer. So you can reference that for more details. To be brief, the storage (hard drives) in my home computer were redundant (RAID1), 250GB capacity usable. I had about 100GB in use.
I needed to set up some kind of solution that I could access that data from my home network, or better yet, the internets.
I'll start by talking about my NetGear n900 home router. It has a USB port on it so that I can plug an external hard drive in there. I have an external Antec USB SATA drive enclosure, with an old 120GB drive in there. I plugged that into the USB port on the n900 and accessed the router. I changed some settings - the UI is pretty easy to use - and I was off and running. Not only was I able to access the drive via my old computer by mapping a drive, but I was also able to access the data from the internets via FTP. The router acts as an FTP server. NICE!
I took the 100GB that I needed and transferred it from my computer to the Antec. I now needed a way to access that data from my iPad or iPhone. I did some research and found that an app called iFTP. for 99 cents, I downloaded it to try it out. It worked like a charm. It did exactly what I needed it to do! I was able to take a file from my email, open it in iFTP, and upload it to the site. I was also able to download a file from the the site and put it on my local device. I now had a way to backup my photos!
The one thing that I did not have at this point was redundancy. The drive attached to my router was just a single drive. Ideally, I would like to find a chassis that would house my two 250GB drives that came out of my home computer in a RAID1 configuration. The problem I encountered is that those drives are PATA. All the external enclosures that support RAID1 were SATA. Looks like I was going to need to take the plunge and buy a SATA enclosure and some drives. The reviews lead me to NewEgg where I found a Vantec chassis that supported RAID1 and up to 2TB drives. I grabbed some OLD 80 GB drives that were laying around for a proof of concept. It turns out I needed to format both drives first, individually, via the Antec enclosure. Then install the two 80GB drives into the chassis. Then reset the chassis and at that point, it was RAID1. I plugged it into the router, and was able to access it from my iPad, iPhone and home computer. I put a movie out there from my home computer - encoded for my apple TV. I downloaded it to my iPad. This is the interesting part! The Video app on the iPad could not find the movie. So I did the only thing that I could and save it to my photo library. i went to my photo library and there was the movie! The iPad thinks it was a movie that I took with the camera on the iPad. I was able to play it back just as if I took the vid with my iPad or iPhone.
I learned how to bring a movie from the FTP server to my iPad or iPhone, and the proof of concept for the Vantec chassis was successful. On to ordering the hard drives!
Might as well go big right? I found a good price on Seagate barracuda 2TB drives via TigerDirect. I didn't need killer performance from these drives. The USB 2.0 interface was going to be the bottleneck anyway. That saved me some money. A few days later, they arrived. I formatted each one individually - by the way - this formatting was an overnight process. 2TB is a LOT of space. Once the drives were ready I installed them in the chassis, plugged the chassis into the router and turned it on. I quick trip through the router's configuration (called ReadyShare by the way) and the chassis was ready to be used. I dumped my 100GB of data onto the chassis and there it was! My redundant solution, available on my home network, and the internet. I spent the next few days cleaning things up via iFTP from my iPhone and iPad.
This next piece of info isn't really important, but I thought it would be nice to include it. I had a VERY old Maxtor external USB drive that had bricked (Read: no worky no more). Because of it's age, I thought it MUST be PATA and not SATA. I cracked open the enclosure. I did it surgically, but it was still pretty destructive. The drive was enclosed in a metal cage that I convinced to open. Sure enough, I was able to remove the drive and it was PATA!!! I filed the bricked drive into my pile of eWaste. Then I grabbed one of the two 250GB PATA drives that came out of my old computer and plugged that in. Plugged in the power cord, and USB to my father's laptop to test it and sure enough, I was able to get to all of my data on that drive. You know, just in case. So now I have two 250 PATA HDDs, a PATA external USB interface, a SATA encosure via the Antec, and my Vantec chassis plugged into my router with 1863 GB available.
Storage solution: Complete.
I needed to set up some kind of solution that I could access that data from my home network, or better yet, the internets.
I'll start by talking about my NetGear n900 home router. It has a USB port on it so that I can plug an external hard drive in there. I have an external Antec USB SATA drive enclosure, with an old 120GB drive in there. I plugged that into the USB port on the n900 and accessed the router. I changed some settings - the UI is pretty easy to use - and I was off and running. Not only was I able to access the drive via my old computer by mapping a drive, but I was also able to access the data from the internets via FTP. The router acts as an FTP server. NICE!
I took the 100GB that I needed and transferred it from my computer to the Antec. I now needed a way to access that data from my iPad or iPhone. I did some research and found that an app called iFTP. for 99 cents, I downloaded it to try it out. It worked like a charm. It did exactly what I needed it to do! I was able to take a file from my email, open it in iFTP, and upload it to the site. I was also able to download a file from the the site and put it on my local device. I now had a way to backup my photos!
The one thing that I did not have at this point was redundancy. The drive attached to my router was just a single drive. Ideally, I would like to find a chassis that would house my two 250GB drives that came out of my home computer in a RAID1 configuration. The problem I encountered is that those drives are PATA. All the external enclosures that support RAID1 were SATA. Looks like I was going to need to take the plunge and buy a SATA enclosure and some drives. The reviews lead me to NewEgg where I found a Vantec chassis that supported RAID1 and up to 2TB drives. I grabbed some OLD 80 GB drives that were laying around for a proof of concept. It turns out I needed to format both drives first, individually, via the Antec enclosure. Then install the two 80GB drives into the chassis. Then reset the chassis and at that point, it was RAID1. I plugged it into the router, and was able to access it from my iPad, iPhone and home computer. I put a movie out there from my home computer - encoded for my apple TV. I downloaded it to my iPad. This is the interesting part! The Video app on the iPad could not find the movie. So I did the only thing that I could and save it to my photo library. i went to my photo library and there was the movie! The iPad thinks it was a movie that I took with the camera on the iPad. I was able to play it back just as if I took the vid with my iPad or iPhone.
I learned how to bring a movie from the FTP server to my iPad or iPhone, and the proof of concept for the Vantec chassis was successful. On to ordering the hard drives!
Might as well go big right? I found a good price on Seagate barracuda 2TB drives via TigerDirect. I didn't need killer performance from these drives. The USB 2.0 interface was going to be the bottleneck anyway. That saved me some money. A few days later, they arrived. I formatted each one individually - by the way - this formatting was an overnight process. 2TB is a LOT of space. Once the drives were ready I installed them in the chassis, plugged the chassis into the router and turned it on. I quick trip through the router's configuration (called ReadyShare by the way) and the chassis was ready to be used. I dumped my 100GB of data onto the chassis and there it was! My redundant solution, available on my home network, and the internet. I spent the next few days cleaning things up via iFTP from my iPhone and iPad.
This next piece of info isn't really important, but I thought it would be nice to include it. I had a VERY old Maxtor external USB drive that had bricked (Read: no worky no more). Because of it's age, I thought it MUST be PATA and not SATA. I cracked open the enclosure. I did it surgically, but it was still pretty destructive. The drive was enclosed in a metal cage that I convinced to open. Sure enough, I was able to remove the drive and it was PATA!!! I filed the bricked drive into my pile of eWaste. Then I grabbed one of the two 250GB PATA drives that came out of my old computer and plugged that in. Plugged in the power cord, and USB to my father's laptop to test it and sure enough, I was able to get to all of my data on that drive. You know, just in case. So now I have two 250 PATA HDDs, a PATA external USB interface, a SATA encosure via the Antec, and my Vantec chassis plugged into my router with 1863 GB available.
Storage solution: Complete.
Friday, May 18, 2012
My Journey into the Post PC Era: iTunes
When I shut down my computer, I immediately realized that all my music was still on that computer's hard drive, and I could only use iTunes to put it onto my iPad / iPod. I also came to realize that my backups were stored in iTunes as well, including my photos. I needed to address these three issues if I was to keep my computer shut down, and never use it again.
Music:
I have a pretty significant collection of music on my computer. I was managing it manually because I didn't really 'trust' iTunes. I was about to take a pretty big leap of faith in that aspect. Apple announced iTunes match a while back, but I never paid it any mind. It didn't appeal to or interest me because I did not have a need for it. All my music was already on my PC, managed by myself, and the storage on my PC was running in a RAID1 configuration (redundant).
I did some research and found out how iTunes match works. When you turn it on (and pay the yearly fee), iTunes analyzes your library. If it finds any songs that it offers in the cloud, it makes them available to you for download, and permanently adds them to your purchase history. If there are songs that iTunes does not recognize, it will upload them. Once your music is in the iCloud, you can download it, stream it, delete it from your device and download it again if you want. I decided to take the plunge.
My library is about 60GB. The first thing I did was turn my old computer back on. I told iTunes to find all the media on my computer and add it to my library. This took some time, but eventually completed. The next thing I did was turn on iTunes Match. This took WAY more time. I think it finished eventually two days later. The duration could be attributed a bit to the wonderful windows update that installed and rebooted my PC in the middle of the night. Then there was a power outage that also caused the PC to reboot. iTunes recovered gracefully, and eventually finished. At that point, all my music was... well, out there! I opened the Music app on my iPhone and something interesting happened. Genius came to life! I've been using Pandora pretty regularly. Genius allowed me to pick genres, and the neat part is that this is all my music! I'm still learning more about this, but its pretty neat. Music was now taken care of.
Backups:
Syncing my iPhone and iPad to my local computer meant that I didn't need to backup to my free 5GB of iCloud storage. This storage is used up by photo stream and if you want to backup your device to iCloud. I decided to turn on the backup to my iCloud storage. What I found was that it took a few GB! This wasn't going to work. It did make me wonder where all the space was being taken up. Further digging revealed that 1.5GB of the 2.1GB was just my pictures! I turned off camera roll, and the resulting backup was about 650MB. This will work! The same held true for both devices.
This presented a problem - I needed a way to back up all of my photos. I'll cover this in my next blog about the storage.
The backups are kind of neat. When your device is charging and locked - the backup happens. I don't have to tell it to do anything. I like that. Every now and then I check the storage and backup (iCloud in settings) and see when the last backup happened. It makes me happy to see it there, and I didn't have to do anything.
The last part is the updates. Apple introduced over the air updates in iOS5. Plug into power, go to settings, click update and it does it. No problem!
The only thing I didn't try yet is to restore from the backup that is already out there. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!
Music:
I have a pretty significant collection of music on my computer. I was managing it manually because I didn't really 'trust' iTunes. I was about to take a pretty big leap of faith in that aspect. Apple announced iTunes match a while back, but I never paid it any mind. It didn't appeal to or interest me because I did not have a need for it. All my music was already on my PC, managed by myself, and the storage on my PC was running in a RAID1 configuration (redundant).
I did some research and found out how iTunes match works. When you turn it on (and pay the yearly fee), iTunes analyzes your library. If it finds any songs that it offers in the cloud, it makes them available to you for download, and permanently adds them to your purchase history. If there are songs that iTunes does not recognize, it will upload them. Once your music is in the iCloud, you can download it, stream it, delete it from your device and download it again if you want. I decided to take the plunge.
My library is about 60GB. The first thing I did was turn my old computer back on. I told iTunes to find all the media on my computer and add it to my library. This took some time, but eventually completed. The next thing I did was turn on iTunes Match. This took WAY more time. I think it finished eventually two days later. The duration could be attributed a bit to the wonderful windows update that installed and rebooted my PC in the middle of the night. Then there was a power outage that also caused the PC to reboot. iTunes recovered gracefully, and eventually finished. At that point, all my music was... well, out there! I opened the Music app on my iPhone and something interesting happened. Genius came to life! I've been using Pandora pretty regularly. Genius allowed me to pick genres, and the neat part is that this is all my music! I'm still learning more about this, but its pretty neat. Music was now taken care of.
Backups:
Syncing my iPhone and iPad to my local computer meant that I didn't need to backup to my free 5GB of iCloud storage. This storage is used up by photo stream and if you want to backup your device to iCloud. I decided to turn on the backup to my iCloud storage. What I found was that it took a few GB! This wasn't going to work. It did make me wonder where all the space was being taken up. Further digging revealed that 1.5GB of the 2.1GB was just my pictures! I turned off camera roll, and the resulting backup was about 650MB. This will work! The same held true for both devices.
This presented a problem - I needed a way to back up all of my photos. I'll cover this in my next blog about the storage.
The backups are kind of neat. When your device is charging and locked - the backup happens. I don't have to tell it to do anything. I like that. Every now and then I check the storage and backup (iCloud in settings) and see when the last backup happened. It makes me happy to see it there, and I didn't have to do anything.
The last part is the updates. Apple introduced over the air updates in iOS5. Plug into power, go to settings, click update and it does it. No problem!
The only thing I didn't try yet is to restore from the backup that is already out there. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!
My Journey into the Post PC Era: Monitor and Speakers
So in the last post, I mentioned that I now have this beautiful Acer H233H monitor sitting on my desk, not connected to anything. I also have the Logitech 2.1 powered speakers, with the sub woofer also sitting on the desk not hooked up.
I figured that my iPad had a decent CPU in it. Maybe I can put that in place. So unpacked my AV Adapter for the iPad. This is the one with the male dock connector on one side (plugs into the iPad), and female HDMI and dock connector on the other side. I plugged the adapter into the iPad, the sync cable hooked up to my 10w charger into the wall and the other side into the adapter. Then I took the HDMI cable that connected my monitor to the PC and plugged it into the AV cable. The Monitor came to life. This was pretty neat!
I could see a mirror of everything that was on the iPad screen. And since the iPad was plugged into power, the screen would dim, but never shut completely off (no need to unlock the iPad every so often).
At that point I grabbed my bluetooth apple keyboard. I paired it with the iPad and now it almost seems as if I have my computer back!
On to the speakers!
The Logitech 2.1 speakers have two 3.5mm jacks on the side of one of the speakers - the speaker with the volume and bass controls. One of the jacks is for headphones. The other jack has a music note above it. This is for your iPod / MP3 player. I took a male to male 3.5mm cable and plugged one end into the speaker. I took the other side and plugged it into the headphone jack of the iPad, launched Pandora, and I was instantly streaming music.
At this point I was pleased with the way the iPad so easily took the (physical) place of my old home computer.
One thing that was interesting is that when the monitor is mirroring the iPad, the black 'pillars' exist on either side of the monitor. The image on the monitor is definitely 'bigger' but the aspect ratio is the same as the iPad screen. It doesn't take up the entire monitor. This got me thinking. I opened up NetFlix, selected an episode of Man vs. Wild and hit the play button. The iPad screen went blank for a moment and a message came up that the video was playing on the TV. It sure was! Full screen, HD and all. This works with anything video related on the iPad. NICE!
Throughout all of this, My USB Keyboard and mouse were still sitting on the desk. I already mentioned that I am using the apple BT keyboard, so I wrapped up the USB keyboard and put that in the closet. The mouse is a different story. Turns out that there is really no way to use a mouse with the iPad. All my research suggests that is because apple doesn't want to hurt their MacBook sales. Makes sense, doesn't hurt my feelings. I could JailBrake the iPad and use a BT mouse - but for now thats not the direction I'm going. I'll just use the iPad touch screen / gestures for the time being.
I figured that my iPad had a decent CPU in it. Maybe I can put that in place. So unpacked my AV Adapter for the iPad. This is the one with the male dock connector on one side (plugs into the iPad), and female HDMI and dock connector on the other side. I plugged the adapter into the iPad, the sync cable hooked up to my 10w charger into the wall and the other side into the adapter. Then I took the HDMI cable that connected my monitor to the PC and plugged it into the AV cable. The Monitor came to life. This was pretty neat!
I could see a mirror of everything that was on the iPad screen. And since the iPad was plugged into power, the screen would dim, but never shut completely off (no need to unlock the iPad every so often).
At that point I grabbed my bluetooth apple keyboard. I paired it with the iPad and now it almost seems as if I have my computer back!
On to the speakers!
The Logitech 2.1 speakers have two 3.5mm jacks on the side of one of the speakers - the speaker with the volume and bass controls. One of the jacks is for headphones. The other jack has a music note above it. This is for your iPod / MP3 player. I took a male to male 3.5mm cable and plugged one end into the speaker. I took the other side and plugged it into the headphone jack of the iPad, launched Pandora, and I was instantly streaming music.
At this point I was pleased with the way the iPad so easily took the (physical) place of my old home computer.
One thing that was interesting is that when the monitor is mirroring the iPad, the black 'pillars' exist on either side of the monitor. The image on the monitor is definitely 'bigger' but the aspect ratio is the same as the iPad screen. It doesn't take up the entire monitor. This got me thinking. I opened up NetFlix, selected an episode of Man vs. Wild and hit the play button. The iPad screen went blank for a moment and a message came up that the video was playing on the TV. It sure was! Full screen, HD and all. This works with anything video related on the iPad. NICE!
Throughout all of this, My USB Keyboard and mouse were still sitting on the desk. I already mentioned that I am using the apple BT keyboard, so I wrapped up the USB keyboard and put that in the closet. The mouse is a different story. Turns out that there is really no way to use a mouse with the iPad. All my research suggests that is because apple doesn't want to hurt their MacBook sales. Makes sense, doesn't hurt my feelings. I could JailBrake the iPad and use a BT mouse - but for now thats not the direction I'm going. I'll just use the iPad touch screen / gestures for the time being.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
My journey into the Post PC Era: Shutting down the home PC
I figured that the best way to attack the process was to just dive right in. That being said, I shut down my home computer. I did exactly that. I shut it down, unplugged it and moved it into the closet. Then I put the keyboard and mouse right on top of it and shut the door.
The first thing that I learned was that My desk felt pretty empty without the Keyboard and mouse there. Also, the 23 inch monitor and fairly decent sound system / speakers were just taking up space.
The next thing that I realized was that all my storage was still sitting in my computer, which now lived in the closet.
That also made me realize that I used that home computer for iTunes, specifically for managing my music, movies and backups.
The final thing that surfaced was when I needed to print something. The USB cable for the printer was just dangling next to the desk, not connected to anything.
I found solutions for each one of these things. I'll outline them in separate blogs so that I can concentrate on each one:
1. Monitor / Speakers
2. iTunes
3. Storage
4. Printer
My journey into the Post PC Era: Baseline
I should talk a bit about my home setup.
My home computer is a dell optiplex tower with a good video card in the PCIe slot, capable of HDMI, DVI and VGA out. I am pretty sure that there is 512 MB ram on the video card. The computer itself is a single core pentium 4 processor with hyper threading turned on. The OS sees two logical CPU. There is 1GB RAM on the board, and I have a RAID controller plugged into the PCI slot. The controller has two Parallel ATA hard drives connected to it via the ribbon. The two 250GB drives are in a RAID1 (mirrored) configuration.
Attached to that computer, I have an H233H Acer monitor, and Logitec 2.1 speakers. I also have an Epson CX 7400 printer / scanner. Typical USB keyboard and Mouse.
For my home network I am using a cable modem and I pay for the highest bandwidth available. I use a motorola SB6120 (docsis 3.0) cable modem. Connected to that is a NetGear n900 Router. At the time of this post, it was the top of the line home router that NetGear offered. The router has 4 Gigabit ethernet ports, the connection to the cable modem is also at Gigabit speed. There are two wireless networks, 2 and 5 Ghz. There are also two USB ports on the Router. The technology used is called ReadyShare to make those USB ports usable for storage and a printer.
I also have a laptop that is issued by my place of employment. My friends also have a laptop if I need to use it.
My journey into the The Post PC Era: Introduction
In one of his keynote speeches, Mr Steve Jobs was presenting the the iPad. He mentioned a 'Post PC Era' where people would no longer have the need for a personal computer. He said that tablets and mobile devices will take the place of the home computer.
I remember when he said this, and it was a VERY powerful statement. I'm the proud owner of the iPad 2 and an iPhone 4 I have been using them increasingly more and more, and I found myself using my home computer less and less. There were some routine tasks that I still ran to the computer for, but for the most part I could leave my home PC turned off.
I had a guest at my house recently and I was talking about my struggle to justify upgrading to a more recent PC. They quickly replied with "let me know when you get rid of your old one, I'll take it". This sparked a crazy thought in my head. I thought to myself, I'll just sell my old PC and take it from there. The thought stuck. Days later I shut down my old tower and began the learning experience of what I needed to do to take the plunge into the 'Post PC Era'. The next few blogs will cover this step by step and tell you exactly what I did to accomplish this. It will cover the hurdles and learning experiences along the way. I'll get into as much detail as I possibly can, and even post part numbers if I am able.
To sum it up, my goal is to get by using my iPad and iPhone only. No more personal computer for me.
Stay Tuned!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
1994 Mustang GT Convertible Upgrade
#Cobra intake and gt40 heads are officially in hand. The 94 #Mustang GT vert is due for an upgrade!
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