FirstCoastCobraClub

Still chipping away at the old rock pile…

Received the new Moog LbJ today and got to work removing the old one…well, old in the sense that it’s been on the car a lot of years, but certainly not worn out other than the two piece grease boot.

I had to modify the bj remover some more to fit the lbj. The lower joint popped loose easier than the uppers, which was a relief. The new joint was poorly packaged and the threads needed some Swiss file attention, but the newer designed accordion style boot looked and fit well. Rechecked camber after install and still shows -1.25 degrees!

I’m still waiting for the safety washers from McMaster-Carr, now they’re telling me they’ll be delivered on Monday.

While I’m waiting, I decided to remove the rusty sway bar down link fittings to clean and paint them. I have them soaking in evaporust and I’ll paint them tomorrow.

The steering was thrown out of alignment by the geometry changes, visibly showing quite a bit of toe out, so that will need to be corrected and realigned.

I’ve also noticed the driver side front brake caliper has a bit of a loose wiggle to it. I’ll have to look into that as well.

That’s it for today.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time sorting out the front suspension, and I think I have it at a pretty good point. Lots of up and down, tires on and off, make changes, recheck alignment, etc…

I won’t bore you with nitty gritty details, end result is as follows:

Camber:
LF 3/4 degree negative
RF 5/8 degree negative

Caster: LF & RF 3.0 degrees positive

Toe In: 3/32”

I also had to raise up the front from 3.75” to 4.25”, it was just a bit too low.

I started the motor and let it get up to temp, then I ran it at high idle for a good while to see if any leaks develop. No leaks and AC still blowing cool air. Temp gauge did climb to about 200 on the gauge with the fans blowing, but that’s with the car sitting in a warm garage with not much fresh air circulating through the radiator. I’m ready to take it for a test run when anyone is available to perform chase car duties…

Great update....Have you put together a road test yet...

Thx Ken…no, nothing formal, I’ll just run it at different speeds/RPMs, monitor gauges, listen for any unusual noises, make mental notes of anything I’ll need to look into. Any suggestions for a more formal rundown?

Nothing comes to mind. I think you got it covered. I would think any issues should show up fairly quickly in a few heat cycles.
Ken

Haven’t taken it out yet, but noticed a small puddle of antifreeze under the front of the motor as I was finishing up a few small things yesterday…

Guessing it was from running it last week and heat soaking at high idle…

If I can’t spot the leak from above, I may have to reconnect the quick jacks and put it up in the air again to see where it leaked from. Oh well, that’s the hobby, take it or leave it…

As expected, the coolant leak appears to be at the hose connection to the water pump inlet, so I ordered a T-bolt clamp to replace the worm drive clamp, which should apply stronger clamping force.

While I was under there, I spotted a refrigerant leakage source in the AC system. It’s a swaged collar on a short section of fabricated hose, connecting one of the two long hoses inside the center tunnel, to the compressor. Unfortunately, I’ll have to evacuate the system, remove the hose, have a new one made, replace the receiver/dryer, and then recharge the system…

Yep...A/C work is almost always a pain, and uncertainty that it really took.
Wishing you luck.

Time for an update of sorts. The coolant leak appears to be under control after installing the t-bolt clamp. I’ve run the motor on several occasions getting up to full temp, which looks to hold steady at 185.

I’ve run several laps around my neighborhood to verify everything functions as it should. Suspension and steering seems to track well, brakes are solid. Engine runs well, no hiccups.

Backed it into the garage for the first time, which will make it easier to take out, not so much jockeying of vehicles required vs nosing it in. Backing up is always a challenge in this thing, rearward visibility is almost non-existent. Backup camera helps immensely, but I still don’t have a good feel for the car’s perimeter. The cobra is much easier to maneuver by far…

Next step is to get it back out on the open road and start laying down some miles…

The five point race harness is a real PITA, think I’m going to replace them with simple three point system like in most production cars…getting too old to be inconvenienced…

Darn good looking garage there Mike...Good job.