Progress on #782

[ERA Chas]

Dan, I have to ask; why your mania on where the wipers park? You have and ERA; fuses on the firewall, rectangular tails, non-street flairs and plenty other accommodations to practicality the ERA way.
I know it's your hobby and dough but will this really end the Cobra universe for you?
Are you this anal with the 'correctness' of your 'Vette??

[DanEC]

It started out as a simple observation after installing my wiper blades because the ERAs wipers parking on the right side which is appropriate for a right hand drive car such as it originally was - but a picture of what I think is an original car, that I happen to stare at on my computer screen all day at work, shows just the reverse. Now, I've browsed through the Cobra pictorial site for originals and found that some park to the right and some park to the left.

COBRA

Hell - I even have two scale models of Cobras and one parks right and the other parks left. I guess either is correct and were somehow installed interchangeably over the years. This would have been better posted in the Originality forum but escalated more than I expected. It's become simply a strange piece of Cobra trivia.

Now I'm over it and will resume regularly scheduled programming - I reinstalled my transmission tailhousing after applying serious amounts of Permetex and re-filled it this evening.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

This would have been better posted in the Originality forum but escalated more than I expected. It's become simply a strange piece of Cobra trivia.

Naah, it's been over there for a while. See: Wiper blade direction / orientation And I think the "originals" that you see that are parked to the driver side might have started out the other way and then got "restored" over to the wrong side. From simply a driving standpoint, I'd rather not have the wipers in front of me when I'm driving anyway -- meaning, I'd rather have them over on the passenger side even if that wasn't the correct side (which it is). So, the question remains, Why are the CSX4xxx cars, just about every Kirkham, and every SPF car putting them over in front of the driver?

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by patrickt

From simply a driving standpoint, I'd rather not have the wipers in front of me when I'm driving anyway -- meaning, I'd rather have them over on the passenger side even if that wasn't the correct side (which it is).

So you could park the blade on the rubber instead of the glass and cap the pass side...

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

So you could park the blade on the rubber instead of the glass and cap the pass side...

Yes, that's a possibility. Is there some sort of goofball shortage of motors that would explain three of the top four replica makers putting the wipers over on the wrong side?

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Yes, that's a possibility. Is there some sort of goofball shortage of motors that would explain three of the top four replica makers putting the wipers over on the wrong side?

Send David a PM and ask him.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Yes, that's a possibility. Is there some sort of goofball shortage of motors that would explain three of the top four replica makers putting the wipers over on the wrong side?

Let it go Patrick - I have.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Let it go Patrick - I have.

No, it's like understanding the integral and the derivative. If you let it go, then you never get there.

[DanEC]

Good progress today. Received my top bows back from the powder coater this week.

Today I adjusted the rear ride heigth and aligned the front end. I took 1/2 inch out of the rear heigth and now have a 5 inch chassis heigth in the front and 5-1/4 inches in the rear. Looks better in my opinion and pretty well gets rid of the dead cat space. I think ERAChas will approve.



I used a camber/caster gage that I've had for years and used to align some of my other old cars. It's not much to look at but works well and gives repetitive results over and over as long as precautions are taken to level the car, take care to align the wheels straight for camber and use precise 20 deg turn in and turn outs for caster, and take care to hold the gage perfectly vertical when taking gage readings. When I bought my new Ford Lightning back in 2003 I immediately suspected the suspension might have been a little askew because of how it hunted and darted around on anything by smooth roads. I checked it with my gage and got some readings that definately didn't look right so I took it back to the dealer to check. Sure enough it was out of spec and they had to install the service camber washers and re-align it to spec.

It took awhile to move the car around in the garage and find a sweet spot where I could get the chassis level. I checked the front crossmember and the crossmember behind the seats and checked the floor to frame dimensions to get the car level. I left my dollies on the car as their adjustments helped in leveling and they made turning the front wheels in and out during caster checks easy.

I used a right angle to mark an equal distance off of the frame rail and then used a 4 ft straight edge to get the front wheel parallel to the car/frame before checking camber.

I used an adjustable protractor tool to mark 20 deg hashmarks on the floor for the caster checks.

I taped a level to the gage in order to keep it vertical for each reading.

After caster/camber were dialed in I used a toe tram to check toe in. It took a little fiddling with because the oil pan interfers with it on the backside of the tires. I finally laid it on it's side with the leg and dial arm pointing straight up and resting on the rear sidewalls.

The camber was a little out of spec on the negative side starting out but it had plenty of caster. After using the guidance in the manual to figure out how many shims to add or subtract I set up again and re-ran the checks. I ended up with 1/8 deg positve camber on both sides and 4-11/16 deg caster on both sides. Pretty amazing it came out exactly the same on both sides. The information in the manual on how much change to expect from shim adjustments was right on. Toe in is set at 1/16 inch


Tomorrow I hope to get the rear bulkhead vinyl done while the weather is warm and install the resister on the ignition warning light to see if I can get the voltage regulator to start regulating.

[ERA Chas]

Yes Dan, I approve but you can go a scoch more...

BUT-you don't want positive camber.
My specs:
CASTER CAMBER TOE
FRONT 4˚ NEG 1/2˚ POS 1/8"
REAR NEG 3/4˚ POS 1/16"
This was fine for the street and acceptable for some track work. Straight tracking above 100 MPH, excellent turn-in, and no appreciable tire wear before they were at replacement age anyway. Makes it very responsive to steering input without being 'nervous' on the highway.
Tucking the tops in will also aid any further lowering.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Yes Dan, I approve but you can go a scoch more...

BUT-you don't want positive camber.
My specs:
CASTER CAMBER TOE
FRONT 4˚ NEG 1/2˚ POS 1/8"
REAR NEG 3/4˚ POS 1/16"
This was fine for the street and acceptable for some track work. Straight tracking above 100 MPH, excellent turn-in, and no appreciable tire wear before they were at replacement age anyway. Makes it very responsive to steering input without being 'nervous' on the highway.
Tucking the tops in will also aid any further lowering.

Chas - I was using ERA's specs - camber - 0 +/- 1/4, caster 4-1/2 +/- 1/4. Where did these come from? Actually, not to argue I was shooting for as close to 0 camber as I could get but I did get a bit more correction on camber from a certain dimension shim than the ERA manual indicated. The manual said a 1/8 inch shim F&R would change camber 1/4 deg. I started out with neg 11/16 deg and added 3/16 inch of shims and got 1/8 positive. It looks like I should have just added a 1/8 inch shim.

I plan to check ride heigth and re-run everything once I've had a chance to put a few miles on it and I'll pull a little of the positive camber out of it then. Not sure about 1/2 deg negative though??

Not sure I will want to go any lower - my mufflers hang down about 1/2 inch below the frame rails which comes out of my clearance also. I have them sucked up about as high as ERA's header collectors will let me without putting a bend in them. But, I'm not sure I want them much closer to the floor pan. So, I'm going to have to watch for speed bumps and curbs both on the nose and mid-way between the wheels.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Not sure I will want to go any lower - my mufflers hang down about 1/2 inch below the frame rails which comes out of my clearance also. I have them sucked up about as high as ERA's header collectors will let me without putting a bend in them. But, I'm not sure I want them much closer to the floor pan.

I forgot about your undercar system so you're right to leave it where you have it now.
I probably used my car more aggressively than you intend. But the negative setting had no ill effects on street driving and definitely improved track and autocross cornering.
But at the very least, strive for zero or maybe 1/4 degree neg.

[DanEC]

I'll pull it back to a little on the negative side. Looks like my electrical charging problems are not solved so I guess that will be occupying my time for awhile.

[patrickt]

Then pull the plug on the voltage regulator, and on the alternator side of the connection, jump a wire across the field and power fields. This will be the first wire U/G and third wire Y/R. Then start the car and rev it to no more than 1500 RPM or so while you stare at the ammeter. Tell us if you have a charge condition on the ammeter.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Then pull the plug on the voltage regulator, and on the alternator side of the connection, jump a wire across the field and power fields. This will be the first wire U/G and third wire Y/R. Then start the car and rev it to no more than 1500 RPM or so while you stare at the ammeter. Tell us if you have a charge condition on the ammeter.

Here is what I got when I did this last Feb:

"From orange wire terminal on back of alternator to ground for voltage regulator - 12.5 volts (battery geting a little low). No change when I reved it up. The regulator was plugged in.

Unplugging the regulator and jumping the two terminals the voltage from alternator to regulator ground was 14.5 volts and as I reved it, it was climbing to 17 to 18 volts."

Next warm day I guess I will start testing all over again. I may put the solid state VR back in.

[patrickt]

Hmmmm, maybe a faulty ground at the voltage regulator. Try a little jump wire from the casing wire to a known good ground.

[DanEC]

Finished up the vinyl behind the seats. Pass side wheel hump came out pretty good but I had a little trouble with the driver side and it is a little rough. Been working it over with some heat which is helping. If it bothers me I guess I'll pull it off and do another piece. The pocket is from ERA.

Other than bolting the interior in this was pretty much the last piece of the puzzle. Well, except for the blasted thing won't charge. My last box of parts is pretty empty except for the seat belts and the shifter and trim ring. Also the convertible top fitting I guess.

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[kevins2]

Hi Dan,

I know the vinyl on the driver's side bugs you but, before ripping it out, you might set the seat in place and see if it is even noticeable.

Looks really good and I hope you can resolve that charging issue soon.

Kevin

[DanEC]

Kevin,

I'm leaving it for now. I'm going to concentrate on getting to the bottom of this charging issue if I have to replace the alternator, voltage regulator, fuses, wiring harness, battery - etc, etc. It's all stock Ford stuff except the harness - it shouldn't be this tough. Otherwise I'm going to have a very expensive, non-functional, full scale model of a Cobra taking up garage space.

[mickmate]

It looks absolutely stunning sitting on the ground. Stay the course you're almost ready for spring.