CHICAGOLAND COBRA 03 MEETING ON SUNDAY JULY 20TH

[Dana]

Miami Subs is good on Friday or Saturday nights. They had a car show there last Saturday. Missed most of that. Haven't eaten there yet. On 45th just west of Indianappolis Blvd.

Dukes is dead on the weekends. I think that that is one of the weekday night spots, but I forget what night. Anyone?

Dana

 

[ChicagoMike]

Mickey's Gyro's around 71st and Harlem has a lot of hot rods on Friday/Saturday night too.

Thanks for the hood mod stuff John - it's DONE! Also, thanks Dana for spotting the brake line massacre. Rizza told me to bring it in ASAP for safety reasons, so I'm dropping it off tomorrow morning at 7AM. They are aware I had the mess done at Westfield, but Rizza said I had the right to go elsewhere if another shop did a bad job.

Mike

 

[Dana]

Mike,
Considering the possible repercussions from that disaster, for lack of a better work, someone should be collecting unemployment.

I'd take a few pictures just the hell of it.
Dana

 

[ChicagoMike]

Tito has almost talked me into MM full length subframe connectors. I took his car for a drive and the bassani cat-back made a heck of a difference, but I don't know if the sf connectors actually made a difference in torque to the rear or was it just the intake/exhaust talking? Comments Dana? Your wisdom is golden to me.

Mike

 

[Dana]

Mike,
You're making me blush and after Friday night's bar-b-que, my face doesn't need to be any redder.
Anyway, considering the chassis is about 2 steps above tin foil on these cars, subs are a good idea if you plan on going beyond the stock HP, and maybe even if you don't plan on it.
I was going to do the roll cage and subs at the same time, but that may get adjusted because the roll cage is probably going to get postponed for a while. I'll just have to do the subs seperately. Both Tito and Tim are way ahead of me on this and MM would be my choice also.
As far as increased torque delivery to the rear, I would guess there might be a slight improvement because you are now not giving up some of the torque to try to twist the body, but it is insead delivered to the rear end. Even if that is not the case, I would still say it is a good idea. People who have installed them report that the handling is improved, which is enough reason to add them.

Let me know which way you are going on this.


Tito,
Who did your subs?

Dana

 

[Litespeed]

Hey Guys,

I had my SFC's installed by Cerra Racing in Rock Island. They use a drive on lift to install them, unlike KB. I'm not sure if there's a closer place that will install them properly. Perhaps Tim knows of one.


-Tito

 

[ChicagoMike]

Dang it .. I ordered them! Now I just need a place to install it!

 

[Dana]

Tim had his installed by a chassis shop in Lansing, I think. They did a nice job. Don't remember the name at the moment.

I would imagine Mike at the dyno shop also would do the install. I know he has the equipment and the knowledge.

Cerra Racing is a stocking dealer of MM products, so they may be a little cheaper, but the drive is a killer.

Where did you order them from Mike?
Which ones did you get?
I wish I would have known you intended to order them today, I would have told you to order a set for me.

Dana

 

[ChicagoMike]

I ordered them from MM. I was like around $130 or something, not bad at all.

Mike

 

[flyn high again]

You guys are just leaving me in the dust. I have to make my new house mortgage payments and finish my landscaping/brick patio if I don't want a divorce. I'm already saving for new wheels and snow tires for this winter. Exhaust and CAI by next year at least. Just keep showing me what works best! I appreciate it. I'm picking my car up from the dealer tonight. They ordered a driveshaft among other things so I guess it is "the vibe". Bummer. So far the people at Ron Tirapelli in Shorewood have been very friendly. I drove a rental Taurus today. Slight step down from the Cobra. I'll have to bring my car back to them when the parts come in. Later...

 

[Jpatte]

meeting

Mike,

The hood mod was a donation from Cliff at the meeting.

John

 

[ChicagoMike]

Thank you Cliff!

John, I will have stuff to donate in the future. I want to support the group a little.

Mike

 

[flyn high again]

You're welcome, Mike. Glad to help.
I'm starting to learn what you've been going through with your repairs.

I have to start reading every post on "the vibe" now. At least Tirapelli's service dept. seems cooperative. I forgot to check my mileage exactly when I brought it in, but I think they put about 40 miles on it. I'm not positive so I'll have to remember to record it next time. I know the clutch grabbed a little hard when I first got it back. It smoothed out after I drove it a little while. Does anyone think the driveshaft they ordered is going to cure my vibration? I'm not holding my breath.

What a difference in power from the Taurus!

John,
good job showing the rice boys what American muscle is like!

 

[Dana]

Ford has devised a method to diagnose the driveshaft vibe and if they followed it, and they determined it was in fact the DS, you're all set.
It has to do with the frequency and where, at what speeds the "vibe" happens.
Worst case scenaro is you got a new driveshaft and still have the vibe.
The DS was the culprit in the earlier '03's, but I had thought they resolved that with a production change quite some time ago.

I think the focus then moves to the differential, if the DS doesn't cure it. I'm pretty sure all the details are on this forum somewhere.

BTW, You're mileage should be listed on the repair order.

Dana

 

[flyn high again]

Dan,
Last night I read most if not all of the "vibe" posts. Like you say, Ford has devised a procedure to follow to diagnose "the vibe". According to what I read, if the vibration gets worse as speed increases , they replace the differential. If it stays the same, they replace the driveshaft.

When we had the cars dyno'd, Mike showed me that my driver's rear wheel was moving from side to side so I still think that MAY be all or part of the problem. I'll let them put the driveshaft in and see what happens. Hopefully they are right.

I'll look at the repair order after I get it to check the mileage. My memory says around 40 miles or so. I'm actually not too worried about a tech driving it. I doubt if he could do more to it than I sometimes do. It's nearly brand new [2900 miles] so if they break anything, they can fix it. Hopefully they won't ride the clutch! On the other hand if someone else from the dealership was joyriding, then I would be pissed. I watched the porter pull it around for me. I don't think he saw me watching but he was VERY careful.

Thanks for the info! :beer:

 

[dun4791]

Hey guys,

Sorry I missed you Sunday. Things have been hectic at work with getting ready for the new car-lots of contractors-. None of them Graycor though Mike.

Back on normal schedule as of yesterday, so keep me informed of anything coming up.

Oh yea, the Ford weekend is at 66 this weekend if you guys want to get together and throw some bean bags and BBQ this weekend-we could all meet at my place-since I think im the closest to the track- and a pretty good BBQ artist. Let me know. I think its 25 to get in the event.

Sorry about not returning some phone calls-Had a hard time mowing my lawn-not enough time in a day I guess.

Oh I bought some of the trim for the hood mod that Dana has on his car and I have some left if someone needs it.

Later guys,,Lyle

 

[Dana]

After we talked, I thought maybe you could also just swap wheels from front to rear and see if that changes the "vibe" at all. If it feels different, then maybe it is just a bad wheel/tire.

The "vibe" is also more pronounced at certain speeds, depending on its origin. I think it was that the higher speeds pointed more toward the D/S and the lower (40 - 60mph) speeds pointed toward the differential, although these indicators were not significant enough by themselves to establish the cause.

I doubt if he could do more to it than I sometimes do.

If you decide to borrow my tires to help narrow down the problem, maybe we should put them in the front and move your fronts to the rear?! ;-) j/k.

Dana

 

[Dana]

Mike,
You shamed me into it. I ordered mine today too.
Won't arrive until next week though.

Dana

 

[flyn high again]

Originally posted by Dana
After we talked, I thought maybe you could also just swap wheels from front to rear and see if that changes the "vibe" at all. If it feels different, then maybe it is just a bad wheel/tire.

The "vibe" is also more pronounced at certain speeds, depending on its origin. I think it was that the higher speeds pointed more toward the D/S and the lower (40 - 60mph) speeds pointed toward the differential, although these indicators were not significant enough by themselves to establish the cause.

If you decide to borrow my tires to help narrow down the problem, maybe we should put them in the front and move your fronts to the rear?! ;-) j/k.

Dana

I was thinking the same thing about swapping fronts and rears, Dan.

If I swap my fronts and rears and it is a bad tire, I should be able to feel it more up front. If it's bad enough, I might get some shaking from the steering wheel. If the driveshaft doesn't completely solve the problem I'll take it back to the dealer and have them put it on a lift while spinning the wheel by hand. It pretty obviously wobbled back and forth on the dyno.

My vibration begins around 80 mph and continues over 100 mph. Sometimes it doesn't do it at all. If I get on it and it starts, I let off and coast down to a slower speed. I really want to find out the top speed so I want to get rid of this vibration. If you read my Firestones are letting me down thread, you know I don't enjoy blowing tires at highway speeds. So I don't want to blow a tire at 150!

I really appreciate your offer to borrow your tires, but I'll save that as a last resort. I don't want to give you slicks back. My fronts wear pretty fast also! LOL.


Lyle, How's it going? I wanted to ask you if you wanted some hood mod trim as I decided it was stupid to hoard it if you could use it. From your post, I see you bought some. I should have offered some to you sooner. Sorry...I did offer it to John when I didn't hear from you as a door prize and he mentioned that Mike could use it so we did get use out of it.

I hired a new guy who's starting Sat. so that day's out for me. If you want to BBQ or go up to the track Sun., I could go. The Ford Nationals are cool to watch. Their website says Bill Glidden, Joe Silva, and others will be running. The swap meet is where I got my horse's head antenna on my old LX. Centerforce is having a burnout contest! Here's the link if anyone wants to see it:

http://www.chicagolandspeedway.com/cgi-bin/r.cgi/r66/event.html?SESSION=ipj9l0tOr&N=a&EventID=546

OMG this is turning into a book...Later :beer:

 

[ChicagoMike]

Hey Dan... Westfield Ford said *I* pulled the wires and it's abuse and neglect and that I probably did it when I installed the new K&N filter and heatshield. They said they will void my warranty now. He treated me like a complete butthole (the service advisor).

He scribbled the ford 800 number on his card and told me I have to pay to have it fixed, 4 hours of labor @ $90/hour for beginners. I am going to post the entire story shortly.

I opened a case with Ford. I'm shocked, I feel helpless and screwed beyond belief. I wanted to punch the guy in the nose. I was thinking "damn I wish Dan was here" because the service guy really made me feel like crap and blamed everything on me. I even yelled B.S. and he was just concerned about pushing me out of the service dept. and they never even took the car back to have a tech look at it.

Mike