2015 Project Thread!

No, I'm sure it's all on the up and up. My boss just didn't like me for whatever reason. It may have had something to do with my crashing into an $18,000 tool box in a customer's car... haha. The pedal was stuck under the floor mat. I panicked and didn't think to just turn the thing off until it was too late. Or my ruining a $400 door panel on a Grand Marquis... and there were more, haha.

Yeah, when I set out on trips like that I just try to clear my mind. I'm sure it'll go well.

Check Engine lights, huh? That would be frustrating.

yeah the motor sat for 7 years, so I had a lot of sensors to replace.
FINALLY GOT SOME RELIF FROM THIS DAMNED MIGRAIN.......I started this part sooner but couldn't look at the screen.
yeah we have a couple of guys who on the first impressions gave me little reason to waste time training, however, upon reflection, they seem like they may be keepers. Sometimes the bosses just get it wrong and so we all do. It’s difficult to explain, I don’t believe in political correctness, Tell me the truth, I don’t care if they are struggling or lost, if they just try, and I’ll work with them till the job is done….simple. I am a bit abrasive at times I know, but only if I like them, otherwise I have few comments and bide my time till they leave or get the boot. We have a lot of good people who never succeed for one reason or another, some thru just bad luck. You just have to accept that things happen, or go wrong and continue in a forward manner.
Sorry for the rant, but in this trade, things happen, and we lose good people for the wrong reasons.
I am trying to make a shop light to hang under the hood when working on the cars. I have a rechargeable neon light from Snap-On and it’s on the way out, so I bought a couple of 12vlt 16 ft 5050 LED strips. I’m going to wrap them around a small PVC pipe, and the get a larger piece (to use as a shade) and cut a slit in it and insert the wrapped smaller piece inside. I tried it by wrapping it around a mop stick and hooked it up to the battery, it was blindingly bright with no shade, (maybe that’s why I had the migraine, too bright& WITHOUT A SHADE). I chose the 5050 led over the 5730 LED because I didn't want to go too bright, maybe I was wrong, but I wont really know until I get it all together.
Sometimes I wish I never saw an LED, I saw my first one in around 1975/6. The local electrical freak (now probably referred to as or called Geek) showed me one, and how it worked. I seem to have people asking questions all the time about their cars and even about lighting their houses. Now my wife wants to use the strip lights in the house, I don’t know where, but I think I agreed to it.

Sorry to hear about the migraine.

I had a guy tell me he liked carbs better because he hated having to hunt down bad sensors when drivability issues arise on EFI engines. And that carb drivability issues are "easily" solved with a screw driver. I told him I'd rather hunt down a bad sensor once or twice in a car's lifetime than fiddle with a screw driver every freakin' weekend. It was actually a post about a time capsule '80s Escort that a guy said he wanted. Another had posted about how he had bought a new '86 Escort and how terrible its cold start reliability was right out of the gate. And the dealer could never find anything wrong. I said it's hard to imagine a brand new car acting like that. And of course I had to gloat about EFI's rock solid cold start reliability. I'll tell you, if I can help it, I will never run a carb on anything. Even when I get my '69 Mach 1 one day, it'll have a 351W with one of those new self-learning CFI setups.

Oh, believe me. When I parted ways with Tousley Ford, I couldn't have been happier. The pressure was off. I never got used to that pressure. I'm sure you're well past it, but for me that pressure to push the repairs out as fast as possible was very difficult. I was part of a 5 man team where each guy's output was averaged and that determined whether the whole team made incentive time. If there was a guy that wasn't pulling his weight, there was a lot of resentment! The stupid thing was, I was a student so anything I did was over and above what they did. I didn't count against the average, but this one guy who had graduated a few years before was just an a-hole to me from the get-go. I don't know what his problem was. He was a spoiled little rich kid (I started tech school when I was 21, but he started when he was 18, so we were pretty much the same age). I don't know if he saw me as competition or what. And the team we were on were sort of the whiz kids of the shop. We were the most successful of anyone. So there was even more pressure for that reason.

Anyway, I had zero experience wrenching when I started school, where-as most guys had been doing it their whole lives. So, I had that counting against me too. I did well in school, but that's just because I was good at taking tests and otherwise skating by. I'd always hated school, so I'd sort of learned the bare minimum I needed to do to get by. So, you take the combination of no experience and add the fact that I didn't really take the time to actually learn in school, and I was doomed. There were a lot of unfortunate circumstances in the shop that didn't help either. Maybe if a number of things had been different, I could have succeeded, but I really have no problem with how things turned out. I had some trouble at the time no longer being able to think of myself as "a mechanic". I felt safe under that label, but no longer having it, I had to figure out who I was then.

Sounds like a cool light project. I have this cheap magnetic LED light thing that broke within a few months of my buying it. It was nice to have though. I'd buy another one, but the only one I can find out there is the same one I had that broke. I recently bought a pocket LED Maglight, but the stupid switch on that is already on the fritz. You know how you turn the head to get it to come on, it will just shut off at random while I'm using it. Pretty lame considering what I paid for it. I hate using my droplight too. Mine is fluorescent and it seems like you can never aim it the right way, or it's so bulky, you can never have it close enough to what you're doing. And of course, I'm always tripping over the cord. SIGHHHH. Why can't lights be better?

Well, you'd be proud of me. I loaded up the fam and burnt some gas yesterday. We went to the Minnetonka Drive-In for its last weekend of the season.



It was a very pleasant drive. I can tell my exhaust has vibrated its way over to the frame rail again and it vibrating against it. Not sure what to do about stopping that from happening yet. I was able to find out more about my cooling system too. Something is wonky about what my temp gauge reads vs. what my controller perceives is the temp. My gauge only reads 190, but when I check the temp on the controller, it thinks the temp is 205 or more. I think I can solve that by re-calibrating the controller skewing low a little bit vs. where the gauge is. I kind of wish I had a more definite way to know what the engine temp is. Maybe the controller is right and the gauge is wrong, you know?

On the drive home, my sticking brake issue returned. I've had that happen off and on ever since I first put the car together. At first it was because the brakelight switch would get stuck on the steering column mount and my pedal would stick down. I think I have that solved, so it shouldn't be that. Then my rear brakes were sticking because there was too much tension on the parking brake cables and it would pull the Lincoln calipers crooked. I thought I had had that one solved too, but this summer on one of my longer drives, I had the left rear brake sticking again. Those stupid Lincoln/SVO calipers seem really prone to that. It makes me want to tear the whole mess out and start over.

Last night, I don't really know which brake was sticking. I felt for excessive heat at each of the wheels, and didn't find one that was much hotter than the others. The fronts were hotter than the rears, which would make me believe they were all sticking, but I really have no idea why that would be happening. I was pretty pissed about it, so I just tried to forget about it last night.

My son has decided my Zeph's name is Percy. Here he is posing with his Percy toy and "Percy".



All of our cars have a corresponding Thomas and Friends name. The Fusion is Thomas because that's the car he usually rides in, and the Focus is James because it's red. At first I didn't like the Zeph being "Percy" because, if you know anything about Thomas and Friends, he's definitely one of the whinier, wimpier engines.



But, I think it could be okay, haha. A lot of guys give their F/Zs sort of quirky misfit type names, which fits the cars well. For example, Eric the Car Guy calls his "Oliver". So, maybe "Percy" could transcend his engine character and just be a quirky misfit name.

I’m truly happy you put some miles on “Percy”.  Aint nothing like taking the fam for a cruise. You may want to check your booster road length, if its too long it can cause all four brakes to frag, you’ll just have to wind it in a bit. Do you have the PBR fr calipers (twin piston) or normal 2 piston frt calipers.
do you know anybody with an infra-red temp gun like a ray-tech? they are fairly accurate, I use one at work to test overheating, stuck thermostats, catalytic convertors, brakes etc.

It's funny you mention booster rod length. I just found out those are adjustable, hahaha! Is that just at the pedal, you adjust that, or do I have to take the master cylinder off? I have the PBR twin piston calipers. My brake pedal is kind of soft for my liking, but it's not low or anything. And the brakes seem to work well. So, I don't know if that tells you anything about the rod adjustment.

I AM seriously considering starting over in the rear with all SN95 stuff instead of my Lincoln setup. I'm so tired of fiddling with them, and the SN95 setup has far more parts availability. The only thing I don't know is if they have the same type of sort of floating caliper like the Lincoln setup does, which would kind of put me back at square one since the parking brake cables could still tug them crooked. The Lincoln calipers aren't solidly mounted to the bracket at all, they just float on the pins.

I don't know anyone that has one of those laser temp guns, but I've been considering buying one for some time. Maybe this is the excuse I need, haha.

i have sn95 rear brakes to include the cables and have had no issue whatsoever, kind boring in my opinion as the coupe is longer than the box top.
yeah to adjust the booster rod length, you have to remove the m/cyl. before you do this, pump the brakes a few times to release all the vacuum from the booster. when you push the brake pedal, you should have aprox 1/4 in free travel. if less, (or too much) adjust the booster rod length.
there are 2 types of rotors, vented/non-vented and two types of pads, vented (thicker lining material)& non-vented (thinner lining material) pads for the sn95, however even the cobra uses the same calipers, there is plenty of info on the net to substantiate this.
if your out cruising and you suspect or feel the brakes are dragging, get out & feel the wheels with the back od your hands, if they are smoking no need to feel them. just crack the lines at the m/cyl to relieve the pressure & head home.

No issues is boring? Sounds great to me, haha. I'm pretty sure the coupe has the same wheelbase as all other F/Zs though.

Wait, so if my brakes are adjusted so that they will drag I should have 1/4" free travel? I'll bet what I have is more than that.

Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with the Cobra vs. GT differences on the SN95 setup. The Cobras use a different caliper bracket too, don't they? I imagine I'll want to go GT though with them, given how much money I've blown on my Lincoln setup. I'd like to do it as cheaply as possible.

Haha, well at least I've never had them smoke on me that I know of. I haven't had the chance to go out and investigate yet. Nor have I really wanted to. I'm still pretty sore about it. I'm so sick of fighting with these stupid things.

I started shopping for a temp gun. Looks like the cheapie ones don't even really work. I guess Fluke makes a decent entry level one though. I like my Fluke multimeter, and it seems to be a pretty good brand.

check this out...........

Raytek MT6 Non-contact MiniTemp Infrared Thermometer

I like raytek, they are pretty accurate as are fluke, you will find this out when researching you'll se why. This one is good for all sorts of things, brakes being one. Thermostats, hvac, road/ tire temps……
My old bud “mustang Bruce” had the Lincoln rear end in his 348 mustang, he didn’t care about parking brakes………he had other issues.
There are different rayteks for different temps. This gun may be a few degrees off here and there, so multiple readings may be required, I use it for comparisons of so many things, even exhaust cylinder temps at the headers, catalytic convertors ; it is a good gun. Use the lazer, make the test, evaluate and correct as necessary.
Tip of the day: grab a couple of wrenches to crack the lines on the m/cyl. jump in the car, grab a coke (or mountain dew) go for a ride along the HI way for 4-5 miles without using the brakes , make a normal stop, do the test, if all seems well, go another 5 miles or so, stop & retest. What you are looking for is the booster loading up the brake system . if all brakes look hot, (frt may be really hot) you have a booster issue, crack the lines to see if there is brake pressure being applied, and if so; head home, wind in the booster rod and retest. if only one wheel is hot, there is something else wrong.

what a bummer, I had to take my home made work light back home for modifications, one side seemed to run warmer than the other, so I got my "ray tec" out and was testing the temps to find out it was a knock-off....I've had this thing for years and never noticed. anyway got the light done, will continue to heat soak the damned thing, and just see what kind of load draw it does on the battery @ .9 amps. I'm going to add an on/off switch later, but I have got to find a better way to hang it.
I'm probably going to make some smaller ones later, way cheaper to make than buy.
hope all went well with the brake test.

Your temp gun is a knock off? Nice. Where did you get it?

I haven't gotten the chance to do anything with my brakes yet. I was up at Lake Superior until yesterday evening. Beautiful fall colors up there right now!

Anyway, one thing I don't get here though, is that if my booster rod wasn't adjusted correctly, why would the problem be intermittent? I mean, I can tell when my brakes are dragging. It's only done it twice this year, and I've put over 500 miles on the thing. The first time was definitely a rear caliper, and this last time, I only noticed that the front brakes were hotter than the rears, possibly indicating that they were all dragging. I don't know. I'll keep you in the loop.

Aren't you using LEDs for your worklight? I thought those weren't supposed to get hot at all.

I got the ray tec from a tool distribuyor from St David. I was happy with it till the other day, but I have to say it hasgotten me out of the poop loads of times, I guess its like calling all drinks coke....
he was a good tool guy, dealt with cash only, he had loads of stuff, all different brands, so there was plenty of choice.
I am using 5050 led strip lights, each has 300 led's, I had hooked them up in series, I think that's why the frt half was running warmer that the back half. So I re-wired them parallel. seems same temp all the way down now, & much cooler. I wanted to use 5730's, but I thought that may be too bright.
also bought some different LED lights from a company called Aaron led on amazon (cheapo), they were rated at 800 lumens, I find them no brighter than the Diode Dynamics LED. we have some friends with smoked-out tail lamps, and the incandescent bulbs jus aren't bright enough in the day time, I was doing a heat-soak test for around 2 hours to see if the bulbs overheat and was using an old socket wired up to my wife's battery, the bulb did not over-heat, but the socket was pretty stiff as it's my tester, I couldn't get the bulb out, so I jerked it out and broke the bulb, pulled it out of the base. cant really blame the bulb...
if the brake booster rod is properly adjusted, the brakes should never drag. the frt brakes will always run warmer than the rears, but shouldn't be hot from normal cruising.
I love to see different scenery, it's nature at it's best, isn't that where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down?

We love to visit Lake Superior. We go as often as we can. We'll move up there one day. Yeah, the Edmund Fitzgerald took her last load at Superior, Wisconsin, which is right by Duluth. She sunk about halfway across the lake, by Whitefish Point. I still see the boat that accompanied her, the Arthur M. Anderson, all the time when I go up there.

Smoked out taillights are illegal here. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another way to attract the wrong kind of attention.

We had a guy at my dealer that sold S-K tools and some other random stuff. For a while he was the only alternative to the rip-off Snap-On guy. I bought quite a bit of stuff from him. I have this cool 3/8" drive ratchet with tiny teeth. The only thing is, now it's frozen, and I don't know where I'd even go to warranty it.

I just stumbled upon a tip that the '99-04 GT PBR front calipers have a reputation for sticking. It has something to do with the plastic pistons or something. So, I guess i'll have to look into that too. So, I managed to not only choose unreliable rear brakes, but front brakes too! Good for me!

Probably won't have the time to investigate what the actual problem is until this weekend.

I've been with ford for many years, never replaced a PBR yet.......maybe its a regional thing.
I personally think that smoked tail lamps just give you a better chance to be hit up the rear. some look good and are visible, others are just done wrong. we did a light smoke on my sons 81 Firebird, it looked ok and the lights were still highly visible in daylight.
I have always been interested in ship wrecks of the mighty, Titanic, Bismarck, Hood, etc, it's always a shame.
soak your ratchet in brake fluid, that should free it up. when I was a kid we used brake fluid for penetrating oil some times.

Brake fluid?! Weird. I never woulda thought. haha

Good to know about those calipers.

Yeah, shipwrecks are interesting. My wife is into them too. What's annoying to me though is if you want to watch a TV documentary about them, they usually spend more than half the time talking about some random dude who's apparently spent his life wanting to look for this shipwreck, and all the drama about how he finally got funding... and maybe the crew of the research vessel doesn't get along or something... how happy they are when they find it... I don't care about any of that. It's as if the people that produce the shows about it just want another reality show and don't really care about the story of the ship itself. Or they assume you already know. Most of the time I don't know the story of the ship. Or at least they could possibly include a part of it that I didn't know. Tell me THAT stuff. Not the story of the random dude who's looking for it.

I'm trying to educate myself about SN95 brakes. I may try to get Cobra rears on my car. We'll see if I can get them cheaply enough for it to be worthwhile. It seems to me like the "kits" out there are a rip-off, and you can do better piecing together everything you need.

year I always try to find used stuff, except gas, oil & antifreeze....
try Netflix, they have some really good stuff, you may have to dig for it, but it's all good documentaries, I hate commercials & drama.
there is usually such a loss of life which is always sad. I was hoping they would find the survivors from recent ship lost in the storm, wouldn't that be a bit of good news.
The ships, their history, the people who traveled on etc. and of course “the big MO” which never sank, but such a history…
We had a 900hp dyno tuned mustang in yesterday; it threw the alternator belt, so I had the job. It sounds terrible when it is cold, when is finally warms up, it still sounds bad, it’s so loud when it revs up. It is street legal, I didn’t do the road test myself, my head was pounding, I don’t like driving when I have a bad one, and you have to pay attention with this car. An old man own owns it.

Yeah, and the way Great Lakes freighters are designed, they're kind of asking to sink. No water tight cargo holds, no support for the hull, just essentially a big tub for hauling as much cargo as possible for the size of vessel. Ocean going ships are at least designed to withstand some weather and waves, but no so Great Lakes ones. Pretty much it's a hazardous job, and the sailors are aware of that when they sign up. The captain of the Fitzgerald was kind of a cowboy who would load more cargo than the ship was designed for, and proceed through weather he really shouldn't have. Yeah, it really shocked people when she sank, but all the communications, radar, and satellite technology does you no good when the ship isn't strong enough to withstand the weather. That's the part people didn't know. At the time, a crew of 29 worked a ship like that, but now it's quite a bit less.

Oh, I LOVE the Iowa class ships. Pretty much the Missouri is my only reason for wanting to visit Hawaii, haha. I'd like to see what's left of those other two battleships besides the Arizona that were never salvaged, and just essentially left there to rot. Can't remember which two it was. Utah, maybe? One time when I was visiting San Francisco, I made my friend take me over to Suisin Bay where the Iowa was so we could try to get a look at it. From the shore we could juuust get a look at the long bow, number 61 and first turret through binoculars. I was so glad they saved her. How cool would it have been to ride along when she was towed to LA? I really hope they save the Enterprise. They're scrapping supercarriers like crazy lately, but I think they understand the "Big E" is special.

Hahaha, 900hp, that's ridiculous. Personally, I see no point to a street car having more than say 450hp. Really, all the rest is wasted in wheelspin or stifled by electronic nannies like in the case of the Hellcat or GT500. It's just silly. It's a bragging rights number.

I think I may have settled on a full "95 GT" brake system. Supposedly the '94-98 calipers actually produce MORE brake torque than the '99-04 ones, according to Maximum Motorsports. My master cylinder and booster are already from that application. I do like the parts availability of the SN95 rear brakes too. And I like the idea of going NEW with the calipers just because there should be no question they'll work the way they're supposed to. It's just a warm fuzzy, haha. And if I have a whole system that was designed to work together, it SHOULD solve my spongy pedal issue.

The guy is older than me......he uses it for auto cross. It’s not for me, I'm happy where I am.
I did not know that about the calipers, I got my fronts from a 2000 mustang, back in 01 or 02. I threw away the 97 single piston calipers when I cleaned-up, dumass, see shoulda kept them.....
My shop light is over at the diesel techs stall, they have a cab-off engine out job, it's working great.
I’m happy with the bad assed high mounted stop light, that works just great, nice & bright. However im still looking for a mirror with compass & camera………..
Thinking about going back to fox LCA so I can run wider frt tires, gotta find the right wheels first, I’m thinking of sticking with the 16’s. I’d like to find a set of steel wheels like the 69 mustang had with the GT emblem in the center. I haven’t ever seen a set of in 16’s. I may try wheel vintiques or some other sites, but the cash flow is still down.

AUTO CROSS??!! 900hp for auto cross. That makes NO sense. haha. I don't do it myself, but from what I understand, power really doesn't help you that much in auto cross. It's all about handling and driver skill. Too much power (i think it's fair to say 900hp is too much) is actually a HINDERANCE. Whatever makes him happy, I guess. Hahahahaha!

Oh, you got your 3rd brakelight done, huh? cool! I've got all the parts for my rear deck refurbish job, I just need to find the time to do it. New fabric, rear seat shoulder belts, and 3rd brakelight.

I still can't believe you have sn95 control arms on your car and don't have SERIOUS tire rubbing issues. You'll want caster/camber plates if you go to the Fox arms though. Getting the camber right is flat out NOT POSSIBLE without them.

Those steel wheels you're talking about are sweet! That will look really cool! I think Summit carries some brand of wheels that makes oversize versions of classic wheels.

Today's the day I investigate my brake issues. I really want to get rid of those Lincoln rears no matter what I find. I'm so sick of dealing with problems with the brakes. It'll probably end up being like I did with the suspension, replacing all the used crap that never worked very well with nice new stuff. The only question though is whether to pony up the money for the Cobra rear setup. I've seen used axle flange brackets for the GT setup for pretty cheap. The main point of contention though is the fact that the rear calipers are pretty expensive, whether reman or new. The Cobra ones (which really only have a different caliper bracket, the caliper itself is the same), only cost a little bit more. And if I get the new Cobra axle flange kit, it comes with the anti-moan brackets, shields, and rotors. It's hard to pass up. BUT, considering that this year's budget was blown well before we took that fateful drive when they STUPID brakes started sticking again, it'll be hard to get this one past "the committee". We're looking at a good $700.

I will investigate the wheels on summit, those are my all-time favorite steel wheels, Chrysler even had a similar set on their old muscle cars.
Year group of guys with ferrais, cobras, camaors, corvetts, all king of cars did a meet in New Mexico a couple of weeks ago, they really pound them on the straight-back, this guy got a 160 on a smaller course near us in Douglas AZ……sounds like a death wish club for rich-folk. This car does 9’s in the ¼. They also do something called a rolling 50mph quarter, I don’t know……..but I’m lucky; I don’t have the money to waste, I don’t have the skills, and most importantly I don’t have the intestinal fortitude to risk destroying project/baby. My wife would have a stroke…….i used to be into micro-lites, and wind sailing, we argued and argued when I went to buy my own micro-lite, when I finally went to do the deed and bring it home, I was thinking about her, the cash, and safety issues, my dumb-ass problems with excess and obsessions, etc, and came back empty handed. That was the best day in her life, and that was priceless to me…..we haven’t talked about it since.
I hate reliability issues, so I’d do the same, get the brakes sorted. Just a question; are your parking brake cables binding or too tight? First step is to diagnose the concern, find-out why/when it is happening, and rectify it. I seem to remember that somebody also sells the adjustable front parking brake cable for either the SVO or cobra fox body. Maybe disconnect the parking brake cables, and reevaluate. like i said, I'm using the stock 97 mustang parking brake cables and have no issues...Then I remember a site a long time ago about some guy using Taurus parking brake cables and having problems. I think it was on a mustang, does that make sense; Taurus/mustang.
I’m lucky in some areas and fall short on others, if I pound the car into a corner, the front wheels will scrape the fenders in a steep roll, this may be corrected by using the larger fox body frt anti-roll bar, but you really got to stuff it in there, normal driving all is well. However I have been wanting to change the wheels for a couple of months now, maybe I should give-in and do a cheap ass stereo that plays CD’s & USB until I wear this set of tires out.

What are micro-lites?

Hell, I have a hard time destroying my tires doing a burnout, let alone my car. haha

I'm certain the parking brake setup is part of the problem I'm having. I think those calipers are just prone to being yanked off center, dragging, and wearing the pads crooked. No only that, it has that stupid system where the return spring is that super long, weak one that wraps around the cable. It's all just a stupid design and needs to go.

From what I've seen, the sleeves on the SN95 rear parking brake cables are MUCH longer, so it should be way easier to get them to behave, I think.

I'm also going to check the lines and make sure the hoses aren't stretched or kinked or anything. They are braided stainless, so there really shouldn't be issues, but I know the line brackets may not be in exactly the most ideal spot to avoid problems. If I have to redo some of the hardlines to make it work, I'm okay with that, much as I hate doing flares. I don't blame myself for not optimizing that stuff in the past. There definitely comes a time when a system works WELL ENOUGH, and I just need to be done working on it or I'll end up pulling what's left of my hair out.

The motion to buy new brakes this year did not pass, so it's next season, I guess. And I investigated the pedal to see if anything was interfering with it, and nothing is. The stupid brakes aren't even sticking anymore, so there was only so much diagnosis I could do yesterday. Oh well.

A micro lite or ultra lite is kind of like a hand glider with an engine. They were all the rage in the 80’s.
When I did the disc brake conversion , I thought about it, I wondered if the hard lines from the SN95 would fit, so when I finally got around to going with the 3.08, I changed the whole unit over, I skimmed the discs, replaced the pads. I used the hard lines from the SN95 and they fit almost perfect, I used the Fairmont brake line on the right rear of the car, cut it and flared it, bent it and added a small extension tube to mate-up the lines, job done, and it looks much much better. Needless to say; my fuel mileage on the highway suffered with that c-4 and 3.08 combo. The SN95 combo works just fine. I used the SN95 parking brake cables also, parking brake works just fine.

Oh, okay. I've seen those. How high did you go? Did you have to file flight paths and stuff?

That's cool you were able to use SN95 lines. I could do that, but at this point, it would require finding a junk Mustang, and that's no small task here in MN. As for the body brake lines, mine are the same way as yours, with an extension to the center to mate up with the 8.8 soft line. I think when I swap brakes over, I might go with the '96 and up arrangement for lines and use the ones that attach to the body instead of the axle housing. The brackets I made to hold where the hard line attaches to the hoses at the calipers kind of interferes with the shocks now that the car is sitting at a proper ride height. I'd just as soon keep the brakelines away from there. We'll see how much money I can free up.

Yeah, your parking brake arrangement SHOULD work great. It's got all the newer arrangement with the handle in the console and stuff. I'm using the pedal type with the stupid weak return springs.

It's funny to think about poor gas mileage with a 3.08 gear. I can only imagine what those fire-breathing big block cars got in the muscle car era with their no overdrive, giant carbs and 3.73 gears and stuff. "I'm pretty happy with 2 miles per gallon... " Hahahaha!

yeah the old c4 is just a 3 spd. it I had put a 5 spd trans in, it would have been great! sux about the brakes not binding when you need them to act up. I reckon that SN95 set up will do you justice, I'm not sure about your braided lines fitting the hardlines.
I never investigated any of that tech stuff, I just saw people flying them willy nilly. i'm sure you'd need all that nowadays.

Yeah, I figure I'd have to buy new braided lines (again) at the calipers. The ones for the on-axle arrangement are very short.

I'll probably maybe just try burning up what gas is remaining in the tank and do the fuel pump swap sooner than later. That way I can reasonably do a test drive and not be doing that work during the really cold months. It sucks to be just "letting it ride" with the brakes, but if there's no money, there's no money.