My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[packman]

What year Thunderbird did you get that heat sink from? Also, is that boot covering a MSD dizzy? Awesome work btw!!!


Packman

[Piece-it pete]

Remote TFI for the win!

Pete

[87gtVIC]

Looks good! What year marq did the belly pan come from? Looks like a great aero mod, I assume by the pictures you have to take it down to change the oil filter/drain the front plug?

Don't know year. Filter can be removed but not front drain plug. So it will need to be removed for oil changes.

What year Thunderbird did you get that heat sink from? Also, is that boot covering a MSD dizzy? Awesome work btw!!!


Packman

Mid 90's. Don't know exact year. Boot is covering an MSD cap only.

[87gtVIC]

Began the rear end tear down and rebuild Friday night. New 3.73 gears and rear discs are the goal. Here are some pics of the progress thus far.

mmmmm 373 pinion



The pinion depth was checked with the ford factory tool.

The differential was painted and so were the rear disc backing plates







Backlash was set properly





And everything was happy inside



Fancy new cover on





Painted the rear sway bar



And hardware



And here are some the of the part numbers thus far



Left to do is fill up the rear with fluid and reattach the aluminum driveshaft, hook up and route the parking/emergency brake cables, figure out the brake hose situation/mounting of the hose, and get all that gack installed as well as install the springs, new rear shocks, correct speedometer gear and tires!

[gadget73]

How were your axles? No wear at the bearing I hope?

[87gtVIC]

I was fully suspecting the axles to be shot but they were fine much to my surprise.

[gadget73]

Good. Not all surprises are of the flaming bag of dog turds variety.

[packman]

Nice!!! I couldn't get the backlash set properly and ended up handing it off to the mechanic. It was just as well since I couldn't get the rear down in the driveway anyways. Have you taken it out for a test drive yet? I hear the gears when I am coasting, but the're quiet when accelarating. I guess that's what they mean when they say "for offroad use only".


Packman

[87gtVIC]

No test driving yet. Still on jack stands in the back yard and now I am in Florida for a week because of work.

We first reinstalled the original carrier bearing shims in the rear but there was too much tolerance. We looked up the spec sheet and it told us we need to subtract .012 from one side and add .012 to another. Dad had a HUGE bag of carrier bearing shims so we found the right ones (No need to stack them to get the proper size) and popped them in place. Threw the carrier back in and it was right on the money where he wanted to set it at.

[1987cp]

Must have been a huge help to have someone around to guide you on a project like that!

[87gtVIC]

Yeah..Oh yeah. Nice having the proper tools on hand as well.

Shoveled around the car this afternoon and filled the rear up with fluids and modifier. Bolted up the driveshaft, popped on the new speedometer gear and installed the parking brake cables fully mating them to the stock box front cable. Used a stock parking brake cable coupler modified of course to adapt to a stainless turnbuckle and looped the cable from the back half of the car around the turn buckle using a wire thimble and clamping the wire to itself with wire clamps. Looks neat. Now to adjust the turnbuckle to the proper tension....whatever that may be to utilize the parking/emergency brakes.

[87gtVIC]

Rotor and calipers are installed with properly adjusted parking brake cable. Flexy brake line off of caliper is installed and bolted to axle at same point as the caliper braces. Just need to mate up the hard line to the rubber ones. Also installed the rear sway bar. Getting closer...

[rellik god]

got any pics of the parking brake cables setup.ill be doing my rear discs this summer ?

[rellik god]

this is from an 98 crown and i made a bracket to weld to frame for the cables.i couldnt find any other pics of the routing

[87gtVIC]

you already have the hole in the frame needed, well at least my car did. I'll grab a few pics once the weather clears.

I Just adapted the 1992 CV parking brakes to the front of the 87 parking brake cable. Pretty simple actually once it is all laid out.