I'm the junkyard king! Thoughts of weight saving from Mark VIII parts?

[metalman]

It feels like Chirstmas. I'm very happy. My brother and I just plucked a Mark VIII clean like a holiday turkey!

I got the spindels from a Mark last summer and I just got my 13" Cobra Brakes/Rotors in the mail yesterday! Woo Hoo

And this week I got the driveshaft, rear upper and lower control arms, and differential housing.

What do you think the weight saving are from switching out my steel part with the aluminum ones from the Mark?

I got it all for a freaking steal. U-Wrench-It is like the Walmart of junkyards

They advertise the aluminum differental for the 2003 cobras and Mark in the mustang mags for what like $300 or something...at the junkyard...

differential housing- $20
4 rear control arms (2 upper/2 lower)- $11 each
driveshaft- $20

To those of you I asked questions to, thank you very much. That airbag suspension was a new thing to me

I can't wait to start throwing it all on my car now

Metalman

[89SCK@t]

Batard!!

[Scott Long]

Are you putting the air shocks on your car w/ a compressor and switch box and valves?

[metalman]

No, The airshocks looked great, but I would know where to start with the wiring. I would have to research it for a while. I asked about the airbag to forumers, cuase I need to learn how to release the pressure and remove them. That would be an interesting switch-springs to airbags, hmmmm . I have done a fair share of wiring in my car though. When I put a new dashboard in my car last summer, I had to reconfigure the wiring because I added the auto-dimming headlight feature and motorized antennae which were not part of my original options on the car. I also added an auto-dimming rearview mirror, and third brake light on the SHO spoiler and a few other things.


That dashboard wiring harness was a bitch to figure out. I pulled wiring schematics from the Central Library, borrowed books. Z, can tell ya. He saw the miles of wiring that is back there. I had to open up all most every cluster of wiring and replace, splice, or add wires to them. At first it was like looking at the Matrix, but I finally started to understand what the hell I was looking at, and in the end it all worked out. That was a big lesson learned. Wrenching on nuts and bolts is one thing. They are something that is tangible, you can touch bolts. But, wiring was kind of obsure to me. Electricity isn't something you can just grad and say "this connects to that", cause the goes from this harness to that harness and splits off here and reconnects there. But, like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

But anyway...anybody know the weight saving from the aluminum parts to steel?

[doodaa]

Originally Posted by metalman

I asked about the airbag to forumers, cuase I need to learn how to release the pressure and remove them.

Don't know for sure about the fronts but on the the rear air springs the solenoids have a two step rotation. Rotate to the first stop should vent the pressure without making a missile of it, once bag is deflated rotate to second stop and remove solenoid.

[metalman]

Thanks Dooda. I should have wrote that in the past tense, thought. I asked others about that last week. I should have wrote: "I NEEDED to learn how to release the pressure... I pulled the A-arms off on friday.


Any thoughts on about how much weight and track time I am saving on doing these swaps?

Thanks

Metalman

[racecougar]

Originally Posted by metalman

Any thoughts on about how much weight and track time I am saving on doing these swaps?

The rear lower control arms and diff housing save a fair amount of weight. I should have weighed the parts when I put all of that stuff on my 90 XR7.

By the way, you know you'll need something like these to put springs in the rear lower control arms, don't you?



The spring pockets in the Mark 8 rear lower control arms are too large to just drop the springs into. You'll need to have a set of perches fabricated to locate the springs correctly.

-Rod

[metalman]

No, I didn't know that. Thanks! Where do I get something like that??????

[racecougar]

There was a GP over at tccoa awhile back for them. You can probably get the CAD drawing for them from someone over there and have a machine shop make them for you.

-Rod

[Mercury267]

It is good to save the weight, but I was told last week that the rear (upper or lower... I forget which set) is so much WEAKER than the steel ones from the SC or even the LX. I was told they have lightening holes drilled in them and they are not as wide (beefy) as the SC ones. Is this bad information I was given... I haven't yet been able to see a pair side by side.


Thanks,

mercury267@juno.com

Mercy Jantz
Baltimore, MD 21229

[racecougar]

Originally Posted by Mercury267

It is good to save the weight, but I was told last week that the rear (upper or lower... I forget which set) is so much WEAKER than the steel ones from the SC or even the LX. I was told they have lightening holes drilled in them and they are not as wide (beefy) as the SC ones. Is

Yes, the rear upper Mark 8 control arms do have holes/slots in them. They may be a little weaker. I have yet to really put a load on my setup, but if those pose a problem down the road, I'll just swap in a pair of MN12 rear upper control arms.

You can see the slot in the upper control arm in this picture:




-Rod

[Nettlesd]

Rod,

Do you happen to have a set of upper and lower control arms from a SC that you could donate. When I say donate, a set that Heartland could look at to see if they could reproduce the item in aluminum. Not to say that they would but it never hurts to ask.

[racecougar]

Originally Posted by Nettlesd

Rod,

Do you happen to have a set of upper and lower control arms from a SC that you could donate. When I say donate, a set that Heartland could look at to see if they could reproduce the item in aluminum. Not to say that they would but it never hurts to ask.

I should have a set of lowers lying around, but I'm all out of uppers right now. If I was paid for boxing them up and shipping them, I could donate a pair.

-Rod

[Nettlesd]

That sounds fair. Could you get me some nice digital pictures of them? The pictures might tell the story if they want to tackle the job or not. If they do, then we can go from there.

If you can do the pictures, just make sure you get good quality pictures of them at different angles, so that, they can see what needs to be done to reproduce them.

[Kurt K]

Originally Posted by Nettlesd

That sounds fair. Could you get me some nice digital pictures of them? The pictures might tell the story if they want to tackle the job or not. If they do, then we can go from there.

If you can do the pictures, just make sure you get good quality pictures of them at different angles, so that, they can see what needs to be done to reproduce them.

Duane, if you save room in your SC when you return home from WFC, Rod lives in the area....no shipping