New guy rear axle/ suspension rebuild.

[Dirtleg]

Ola'. 1st post. Just registered here as after looking around for a while this seems to be a fairly busy place for the 05-10 cars. Been on another forum for about 6 years but I'm not real active there and the 05-10 forum is pretty dead overall.

A little history. I bought my 07' in 2010 after 15 years of imports (Honda, BMW, RX7's) but had an 87' T-Bird Turbo Coupe (Couldn't find an SVO I could afford at the time) and a 94' Cobra (Bought New) prior to losing my way. In 2015, due to a laundry list of issues that had come to a head on the 07', I bought a 2015 EB as a daily driver. I still enjoyed the 07' but just didn't have the cash on hand/free time at the time to get things back to daily driver status.

So with that said now is the time to get the needed repairs and some desired mods done.

Parts:


Parts list so far is;
Ford Performance 3.55:1 ring and pinion. (stock ratio. works for my needs)
Ford Performance ring and pinion install kit + all bearings and seals.
Ford Performance Carbon Traction Lok clutch rebuild kit.
Ford Performance 07' GT500 front lower control arms.
Ford Performance 07' GT500 Strut Bearings.
BMR Upper Control Arm (Heim Joint) and Bracket for 11-14 S197. Improved geometry compared to 05-10 setup.
BMR Lower Control Arm relocation brackets.
BMR Lower Control Arms. (poly/poly)
Prothane Upper Control arm rear axle bushing.

Still thinking about springs just haven't decided on which ones. Since the rear axle is off the car and I'm replacing strut bearings might as well. Would like to do struts/shocks (Koni Yellows) too but the budget for them isn't there at the moment after everything else.

Didn't read up on how many posts required to post a picture so if the one I posted doesn't show up I apologize. Was kind of a test.

As I get time I'll be updating this thread until I've caught up with the work completed then as the work gets completed.

Greg.

 

[Dirtleg]

New guy working on 07' GT

So as of today things are still moving along slowly. But first let me catch up to where I'm currently at.

This resto/build started because well during the time immediately following my separation/divorce this was my daily driver and I was stupid flat broke. Having to rent a place, Spousal and child support and the fact that work just died off in 2012 meant I hardly had money for gas let alone proper maintenance. Yeah cry me a river. Not looking for sympathy, in fact definitely don't want any, it's just the reason this car wasn't maintained properly for about 3 years. But those days are behind me now.

So these days I'm full on ready to get this car back into good shape. It's been sitting the last 2 years and I've thought a lot about how to approach this minor resto-mod. I decided that even though I have done some performance mods to the 2015 I would halt all of that and focus instead on getting this car in good enough shape that I can start doing track days with it. That is something I've always wanted to do but was never at a point in my life before that it was financially possible. This is still a budget build for the most part but when ($$) and where a high quality part can be used it will be. That said there are some decidedly major things lacking on this initial phase of this project but the idea is to address those as time goes on and not overbuild a car that's never been to the track. Also to get a better understanding of what needs to be upgraded first as I learn this car in a track environment.

About 7 weeks ago I replaced the transmission (rebuilt 3650) and the clutch with a stock spec RAM unit. The car was doing this weird sort of heavy shudder/grinding that you could feel through the entire drivetrain at any amount of throttle input. It was so bad the car was undriveable. If I can put it in words, to me it felt like all the internals of the transmission were moving off their center line when the throttle was applied. And since the original transmission was making a lot of whining noise in 4th and 5th off throttle prior to the catastrophic change in the way the car drove I decided to just replace the transmission. I learned something there. I did not diagnose the problem correctly as the problem was still there after the new transmission just minus the whining in 4th and 5th gears. Now mind you the noise/grinding/shaking was quite severe and so my mind immediately went to the differential as the culprit. I expected to see a broken bearing and gear teeth in the bottom of the differential when I open it up. No such thinig.

Here is a picture of the ring gear after disassembly.


Certaiinly it's worn and by my estimate needed a little thicker pinion shim but it's not galled, cracked or chipped anywhere.

So I'll ask a question here in the event someone, anyone might know the answer. Is it possible that failed upper control arm bushings could have caused that crazy, ready to grenade at any moment, feeling the car had under throttle inputs? Just asking because I still am not sure where it was originating. Next thought would be driveshaft center bearing.

Buy anyhow, since I was digging into the rear end I took a good look at the control arms and did not like what I saw.


Bushings are shot and it makes sense that at this age and mileage all the bushings in the suspension would be in similar or not far from this condition. So suspension became the target for this project as well as rebuilding the diff.

One thing I didn't like was how crusty the rear axle was and since I needed to swap the bushing and upper control arm I decided to remove it and clean it up.






At this point I went a little further down the resto road and decided to paint it. I had gotten in some of the BMR parts I ordered and felt it would look out of place with new parts attached to it.

First I installed the new pinion bearing races.




Axle bearings and seals.


Ready for paint.


I'll end this here and pick up in the next post.

 

[Dirtleg]

Okay so where were we? Painting the rear axle. It took about 3 hours to prep using a couple different style wire wheels on a 4 1/2" angle grinder and some good old fashioned sand paper and elbow grease. Then I degreased it and started in on the primer.

After degreasing the axle housing.


Primed.


Painted.




Now that pesky upper control arm bushing.
Before cutting into it.


Drilled some holes in it with a 1/4"drill bit so I could get this in there.


Center of bushing liberated from its home.


Here was what was left at that point.


This was the perfect tool for removing the left over vulcanized rubber. It literally ate it off the bushing shell.


Rubber stripped by hole saw.


Here's the housing ready for the new bushing insert.


And new bushing installed.


And another good place to stop.

 

[Dirtleg]

At this point I decided to install the upper control arm and mount. Here is the old vs the new mount.


The new mount and upper control arm are for a 2011-2014 car but I wanted the slight increase in length of the arm for whatever minor benefit it may have. As long as I was buying new ones might as well. I went with the Heim Joint BMR arm because looking at the size of that Heim it should be good. Will it be noisy? Yes. Will it eventually wear out? Yes as well but it will be an easy part to replace when it does.

I had to lower the gas tank to get the old mount off due to the front mounting bolt standoff being too tall to clear the hole with the tank all the way up. In a way I'm glad I did lower the tank as when trying to install the new mount the standoff in the new mount is a larger diameter than the old one and would not go in. After doing some investigating the sheet metal hole where the front mount bolt goes was off center to the actual hole it's supposed to fit into. So I got a carbide bit on a drill and from the top of the hole inside the car I care fully ground away the flange of sheet metal created by the misalignment. No more fitment problems.

The mount and arm on the car.


Here is the hole for the front mounting bolt. The new bolt is larger than the old and I have one on order just not here yet.


Okay so that is the bulk of what's been done suspension wise so far. Just scratched the surface for the most part.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

If you need to refresh most of the suspension, the Ford Racing Handling kit could be worth considering.

 

[stkjock]

threads merged

Welcome - please review the posting rule sticky threads

 

[46addict]

Nice parts list. H&R springs should go well with your Konis. Tein springs can be had for $180-ish if you're on a budget. Are you replacing the panhard bar?
For the money you spend on adjustable shocks + springs + camber plates/strut mounts, you could get a set of entry level coilovers for less than the total cost of the former. But that's just me.

 

[redfirepearlgt]

welcome to the site...and back from the ricer side. imgur.com is a great site for uploading photos and generating a direct .img link to copy into threads.

 

[Dirtleg]

Some other things arrived today as well.


18x10 et45 AMR wheels (cheap I know but a place to start) and Continental 285/40-18 tires.

I decided to do a test fitment of the wheel to see where it sat in relation to the strut.


It was pretty close but seems workable to me.


And a look at the wheel in the hole. Seems a little small without the tire.


So yeah that's caught up as of today. Long way to go still but i'm enjoying it.

 

[JUSTA3V]

Nice job. I would have welded the tubes before painting.

 

[Dirtleg]

Nice job. I would have welded the tubes before painting.

Thanks. On welding the axle tubes I had considered it and may still do it as a little sanding and touch up paint is not a big deal. But I don't have any plans for big horsepower on this car.

Is it common for axle tubes to twist at or near stock power levels? If it is then certainly I'll take the time to do it. I am just not aware that it is.

 

[JUSTA3V]

Not that I'm aware of. Just
My OCD talking.

 

[BMR Tech 2]

Looks great! Everything is coming along nicely!

 

[skwerl]

Very nice. Don't see too many suspension builds here any more. The BMR stuff is a great choice, they won't do you wrong.

Did you inspect the driveshaft closely for signs of wear that could contribute to your shudder/vibration? My stock driveshaft wasn't on my car long enough to wear out, went with a DSS before I had it 6 months.

 

[Dirtleg]

Did you inspect the driveshaft closely for signs of wear that could contribute to your shudder/vibration? My stock driveshaft wasn't on my car long enough to wear out, went with a DSS before I had it 6 months.

No I didn't inspect it thoroughly. I have tried 2 different driveshafts and it did the same thing with both. I'm not suggesting it isn't the problem as I really didn't look to closely so they may both be bad. I was just in a hurry at the time. I'll get a good look at it when there's time to work on it again next week.

 

[Dirtleg]

Well time for an update.

I've managed to get the diff carrier and pinion assembled with the new bearings and ring gear and the shim off the old pinion installed on the new pinion with the new bearing.

Old bearing was stuck on there pretty good.


Carrier with new bearings and ring gear installed.


Had the tires installed on the new wheels.


And there is certainly enough room between the strut and the tire.


Now I'm focusing back on the rear axle as it will be the thing that holds me up in getting this done in a timely manner. Decided to go ahead and weld the axle tubes.




And a shot of the welded tube.



So next up will be installing the gears and checking the pattern. Hoping it's dead on or close but we'll see soon enough.

 

[Sky Render]

Gosh dang it, now I want to remove my rear axle and paint it.

 

[BMR Tech]

Keep up the great work! Good choice on that UTCA038 - it's a bad mofo!

 

[Dirtleg]

Keep up the great work! Good choice on that UTCA038 - it's a bad mofo!

Thanks. I'm really looking forward to having this done and driving again.

 

[Dirtleg]

So I reassembled the rear axle and took the car for a drive. Crazy noise was still there. At this point I'm stumped. This noise has existed both before and after all of the work detailed below.

A brief overview history.
New RAM clutch.

Rebuilt transmission. Maybe 25 miles since installed.

Rebuilt rear end. All bearings, new Ford Performance 3.55 ring and pinion.

New Carbon clutch kit for the traction lok. Pinion drag set at 25 in-lbs and backlash at .008" Pattern was centered on ring gear although it seemed a little wide.

Replaces all rear upper and lower control arms with BMR items and added LCA Relocation Brackets.

New 1 piece aluminum driveshaft from DSS.

Car is making a bad noise when driven. Doesn't do it when on jackstands. Only on the road.

I finally had a little time to make some videos of the noise that's been eluding me.

This video represents the noise in more than 1 gear in an on/off throttle situation starting at about minute 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-KqxyeD3A&t=243s

This is a short video of the noise from inside the car. Again on/off throttle
without any use of the clutch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx7SMGlFbnM

So if anyone has any idea of what this is please let me know. I'm out of ideas at this point.