Kirkham Assembly Manual - Questions Thread...

[big-boss]

David: IN the pictures with the engine in the car-the inner fenders have either been removed or not installed. I have a roller-to install the engine should I be removing these items before engine? Thanks

[David Kirkham]

Neil,

I will be doing a polishing thread soon...unless my fingers fall off first.

Big-Boss,

Yes, it makes everything MUCH easier to remove the interior panels before installing the engines. You don't have to remove them, however, if you have Elasigirl's phone number handy.

David

[FFR428]

David do you guys make that water pump pulley or are they aftermarket?

Great thread and pics!! Gives you a great look into the quality of your cars. Very nice!

G.

[David Kirkham]

FFR428,

We make the pulley in house. Along with the harmonic balancer pulley and a lot of other specific FE parts.

Thanks for the kind words!

David

[big-boss]

David,
Alum. Dif. Question: What is torque on the bracket/ MOunts? Should I use loctite? Which color do you recommend? Also I am going to use the jag diff cover- so I plan to just utilize the factory vent- Should be Ok, Right?

[David Kirkham]

big-boss,

We torque them to 35 foot pounds. We use red or blue Locktite. Red is MUCH harder to remove, but blue seems to work well enough so there is no reason to use red...unless you are out of blue when you need some.

There should be no problem using the factory diff cover and vent set up.

David

[rsimoes]

David,

I just saw this thread. . . you're welcome for the Pizza. . ..

[bbyrd]

the manual shows diff with a 3.42 gear w/ Auburn Limited Slip.

You said there were several choices for lockers.. What others would you consider and of course why?

As far as the 3.42 goes is this the most popular (50-70%) and what others would be appropriate for street, track or combo. Used by many

Thanks

B Byrd

[David Kirkham]

BByrd,

There are several different choices for "Limited Slip/Locking" differential carriers.

Auburn
cone type clutch differential
Easily available
Best Warranty--4 years
works very well
% slip varies with temperature

Detroit Locker
original to Shelby GT350
Terrible to drive
Totally NOT recommended
not affected by temperature

Detroit True Trac
Gear type differential
Harder to get a hold of
Works well
not really affected by temperature

Quaiffe
worm gear type differential
absolutely the best to drive
almost impossible to get a hold of
extremely expensive (like $2000 for the differential alone)
minimally affected by temperature

Power Lock
Original to the AC Cobra
clutch type differential
comes in 2 versions--2 spider and 4 spider. 2 spider units are worthless
works quite well
very inconsistent to get a hold of
% slip varies with temperature

Spool
no slip action--permanently locked
very cheap
terrible to drive on the street
not affected by temperature

3:73 gears were original (actually 3:77) to 289 and 427 S/C Cobras. In our cars, small block guys who are crazy get these as the engine winds up pretty quickly.

3:54 gears are original to Cobra 427 Street Cobras and late 289 street Cobras. In our cars, they are usually used in small block cars that want to be pretty tame.

3:42 is by far the most popular gear ratio with a 5 speed and a 427 engine. About 95% of our differentials are this gear ratio.

3:31 gears are most popular for guys with top loader transmissions with wide ratio gears.

3:23 gears stink in my opinion

David

[Tom Kirkham]

for info on what was raced by the team cars:

http://www.thecobraferrariwars.com/files/16817400.pdf

[PaulProe]

Tom,
Been following this thread with great interest. But the build manual thread seems to have stopped at July 3rd. I understand why no updates due to the holiday. Do you intend to continue on or is it on hold indefinitely?

Paul

[big-boss]

David, Tom
Come on guys, Like you are in a striptees with the shoes & hat off- Show us the SKIN!

[David Kirkham]

Paul, big-boss,

Last week we were at the SAAC convention which just ended this Monday. This weekend there is a HUGE NASCAR race at the track and we are running cars back and forth all week. It has also been a huge week for sales. I feel like I am drowning. Of course, that is a good feeling.

Miller Motorsports got two cars from us to use in their driving school and we have only finished one right now, (the one we used in the assembly manual). Miller is giving hot lap rides in our car up at the track so we are working on keeping the car going and putting in all of the updates that they want--double roll bars, passenger grab handle, puke tanks, etc.

I am planning on filling in the large gaps in the manual when we put the 2nd car together for Miller.

Thanks for the interest!!!

David

[xlr8or]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Paul, big-boss,

Miller is giving hot lap rides in our car up at the track so we are working on keeping the car going and putting in all of the updates that they want--double roll bars, passenger grab handle, puke tanks, etc.

Is the puke tank for the engine or the passenger?

[big-boss]

Thanks David for the update, now get back to work!

[big-boss]

David,I am going to use the MSD-6 Dig but I will probably use my Ford Duraspark Distributor. Is the pink wire labled Coil/ Ignition actully the wire from the ign switch? Where do yo run the coil & Dist wires? From what side of the dash & what side of the engine? Thanks

[What'saCobra?]

Nobody asked me for my 2¢, but i used the MSD distributor and gave the FORD unit away to a low budget Mustang hotrodder. The MSD dist is more reliable and fires the 6AL properly with a minimum of installation confusion. Similarly with the MSD coil, which is matched to the amp/CD system of the MSD.

It worked perfectly upon installation and triggers the multiple sparks correctly below 3000 rpm for which the MSD (Multiple Spark Discharge) coil is engineered. It significantly calmed the engine down at idle and kept the plugs cleaner at idle and starting than the old DuraSpark unit.

But, this doesn't mean i know the DuraSpark won't work; i didn't even bother to try. Probably, because i had such a hard time with the FORD unit working properly at idle and high rpm previously, i was happy to tank it.

Years and years ago, with a hot street 289 and Webers, i suffered the old ignition systems and fouled plugs w/lousy starting/idling seemingly forever until i discovered a fine Capacitive Discharge system from DELTA. It was in kit form, but easy to assemble and mount on its heat sink. CD was a fantastic improvement at the time and something of a hot rodders secret. Best $20 i ever spent at the time.

MSD, a modern CD system, is like that kind of improvement plus, with much more engineering improvements and the multiple sparks at lower rpm (where there is enough time between TDC frequencies to allow multiple pulses and allow coil field saturation).

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by What'saCobra?

Years and years ago, with a hot street 289 and Webers, i suffered the old ignition systems and fouled plugs w/lousy starting/idling seemingly forever until i discovered a fine Capacitive Discharge system from DELTA. It was in kit form, but easy to assemble and mount on its heat sink. CD was a fantastic improvement at the time and something of a hot rodders secret.

you, too? ..I had one on my GT-350 back then.

[What'saCobra?]

Oh, yea!

Now, i'm talking about 1964 here. The DELTA CD was rudimentary, but it put out a 1 inch spark with lots of energy with a hot hot coil with a higher windings ratio.

i'm having trouble recalling if i bot the Delta Electronics CD amp/driver mail order, which i think is true, or from either Radio Shack or Allied Electronics, since they both sold lots of kits to me. i went through my fair share (and then some) of HeathKits ("We won't let you fail") and Elco Electronics of many sorts at the time leading up to 1964. So, the DELTA CD system was child's play by that time (my mid twenties-something).

i even seem to remember an early Tektronics scope kit, which was very difficult to build and use, for looking at the "square" wave ignition switching of the dual point ford distributor on my first FE (and other transient electronic switch systems), which was also lousy (the dual point ignition, that is).

But, the MSD is like a gift from the power gods and the custom distributor works perfectly.

The only serious improvement would be to use a crank trigger, but i don't like the wet-weather lesser-reliability of CT's. We raced in the rain and i also used the car for ski trips to Jay Peak, Killington and Sugarloaf. CT's were not street friendly, particularly in NE salty roads at that time.

Certainly the current owner has no idea how much salt reacted the electrolysis between the aly skin and the dirt-road rusty chassis in those days.

Little did i know that the car would be so valuable 40+ years latter.

i would have painted it with more black Glyptal undersides.

[big-boss]

David, where does the "Puke" tank go? My firewall does not have the three drilled in holes. Thanks.