Birddog0347 rescues a Fox

[bird_dog0347]

So about 2 years ago I got my current 92 Coupe 5.0/5spd in a trade from a guy in East Texas, I gave him a dirtbike and $1k for the car. My plan was to have a fun weekend car that I may some day do a

little auto x or an open track day in it. I don't really have an interest in drag racing so it needed to handle as well as possible. It was originally a 4 cylinder conversion, bright red with black

interior. It had weld Pro Star drag wheels on it, unkown crap ass springs, terrible suspension all the way around, disk rear, cowl hood, pretty stock motor that sounded like it had a cam in it (more on

that later), a 5 lug conversion, dumped flows, and a breathalyzer. So after I drove it home from East Tx I ended up driving it back the next weekend to get the breathalyzer pulled out of it as the ass-

hat lied and said it could be done in Dallas.

when it came home






Here's the list of problems it had that I immediately knew about.

No keys, ignition or doors (clean title though)
brakes were spongy as hell and I had to pump them to stop every time
it was eating serpantine belts
broken fan blades
terrible suspension
needed alignment
blinkers didn't work
paint is terrible
no e-brake


Anyways, the first order of business was to get an ignition key for it, the guy said his kid lost the keys... all of them. When he tried to replace the ignition key cylinder he pulled too much of it out

and lost the gear that goes behind the cylinder, so it had to be started with a flat head screw driver and could not be locked as there was no door key.

Then I wanted to be rid of those drag wheels so I swapped DJ for his FR500's but quickly realized they wouldn't work with the crappy 5 lug conversion that was done on the car. It had Lincoln Mk VII

rotors on the front and a 2000-ish disk rear end which made the wheels stick way too far out. Once I swapped the wheels I was pretty much commited to doing a proper 5 lug conversion so I found a used

set of SN95 brakes/spindles and tried that but the calipers were sooo bad that I decided to stop and go with Cobra brakes on the front. So, I got new rotors and bought the caplipers and brackets off

Corral. I also got new Tokico blue struts. I figured while I have it apart I might as well do the control arm bushings and sway bushings, and got MM solid steering rack bushings too. I also discovered

the reason the brakes SUCKED was due to the stock master cylinder and the disk rear end... so I got the proper master cylinder, new booster, prop valve, SVE lowering springs etc. and fixed it. I went

cheap on the springs since I knew I needed something for now but had to wait till I can afford it to get a full coil over set.

Before and after:

[bird_dog0347]

Then I ripped it all back out to do the bushings and the cobra brakes. Also the springs still had a serious raked look to them so LMR made it right for me and I got some Eibach sportlines and some MAC

caster/camber plates cause they were cheap and I needed something better than stock at the time. I also did the SVE rear control arms.






Now with the front suspension and brakes where I wanted it for the time being I had to start fixing things like the belt/pullies/fan/etc. I discovered why the belts were being eaten... the water pump

had some how walked the shaft forward which pushed that pulley out of alignment. It also pushed the fan into the radiator (explaining the broken blade) and meant I had to replace the radiator. So I got

another radiator, fan, fan clutch, water pump, 3G alternator, march alt bracket, underdrive pulleys, and a new belt and went to town. I still need to replace my power steering pump as it whines like a

little girl losing her virginity to a porn star.




I don't have pics of this part, but I also replaced the power window motors, all locks, door lock actuators and got the power windows/locks working again. I got the blinker issue resolved as well and took the black "tint" paint off the tail lights and polished them up all nice.

Now it was time to give it a little more power... not much but hey, it wasn't expensive. I found an Explorer intake for it and went to work on that and the exhaust. I hated the dumped flows it had and

love the look of tailpipes on a coupe but the mufflers were welded to what was left of the stock H pipe (that no longer was an H) and were offset inlet center outlet so tail pipes couldn't get hooked up

and it had stock headers. Which meant I had to replace the H pipe as well. So I pieced all the parts together for a whole new exhaust. BBK Long tube headers, BBK O/R H pipe, and 2 chamber flows with

chrome tail pipes. I also discovered at this point that the O2 sensors were cut and I was completely missing the O2 harness. So I got a harness and 2 new O2 sensors and it no longer sounds like it has a

big cam but it actually idles pretty nice now.

Before and after:

Nice man. Would love to have an IRS fox at some point.

[Sleeper]

What did you do with those cheap rear control arms. I need some for my zephyr.

[bird_dog0347]

After almost a year of having it and working on it all the time but not driving it, I finally drove it a little until the rear end started making some noise. And that was pretty much exactly the same

time when I saw a 04 Cobra IRS come up for sale for $500 so I jumped on it right away!I knew to get the rear end to handle like I wanted was going to cost at least another $1500 just to handle maybe as

well as the IRS so I went with the IRS instead as I already wanted 3.55 gears and it had them. Eventually I'll get different control arm bushings for the rear end, and coil overs, but for now it's got

the stock Bilstien's, cut stock springs, poly subframe and F/R diff mount bushings and a rear diff brace. So now it's got full Cobra brakes all the way around as well. Also I had to sell the exhaust I'd

just installed and control arms and rear end, so all in all I think the swap cost me maybe $250 after selling off my old stuff. I also got the e-brake working now too! Unfortunately I knew the 18x10

rear wheels weren't gonna fit on the rear with the IRS so I traded them for a set of 98 Cobra wheels.








This is where it sits today, and still needs a number of things as well as a list of "wants". Before I can drive it regularly I'll need the registration/inspection stickers and I've got what sounds like

a dragging brake pad that I've got to find and fix what's causing it. Very soon I'll NEED to replace the power steering pump as it's a very annoying sound, new motor mounts, and new front tires (one bad

might as well replace both).

I also WANT subframe connectors, arm rest covers for the interior, new seats as I've got the gangster lean driver's seat, and I'll add the A/C kit from LMR as most of my current A/C stuff is missing but

the heater does work well.

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by talisman

Nice man. Would love to have an IRS fox at some point.

Thanks man, it was a lot of work to get it all in there correctly and I certainly learned a lot, but I think it was well worth it. I've only put like 2 miles on it so not all the bugs are worked out of it yet and I can't give a good comparison before/after since I screwed around and didn't drive it for a year.

Originally Posted by Sleeper

What did you do with those cheap rear control arms. I need some for my zephyr.

Sorry man, sold all the SRA stuff a long time ago.

Also I fixed all the pics, the links were all screwed up.

[Back N Black]

how much you want for it as it sits?

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by Back N Black

how much you want for it as it sits?

Too much I'm sure... you can make me an offer, but I'm not really looking to sell it.

[Josh.0]

looking good man

[CJ]

Remus likes.

[Baron Von Crowder]

baddass!

[SEB]

I always had a love for your coupe man! Def had a lot of work put in to it. You get the AC working yet

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by SEB

I always had a love for your coupe man! Def had a lot of work put in to it. You get the AC working yet

No, I don't have most of the original AC parts so I plan to just buy the kit from LMR next year. $750 for a whole new system that uses new freon, I think that's better than piecing together old crap that may or may not work.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...R-12-To-R-134A

[AIFOX]

How hard was the IRS swap? Thinking of going that route in my coupe as well.

[samuel642000]

Very nice man, I'm pretty envious of not having that car.

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by AIFOX

How hard was the IRS swap? Thinking of going that route in my coupe as well.

Truth be told it wasn't all that difficult but there was a lot of time that I just didn't stay motivated or wasted time needing help getting it done. The "hardest" part was getting the subframe front mounts into the lower torque boxes with the new poly bushings. That took me and my dad helping almost 2.5 hours to get it in there while it was stripped of all the other IRS components (to save weight). I had to get the front mounts in before I could locate and drill the holes for the rear mounts. Then there's the brake lines, you have to fab up those parts to make it work. If anyone on here ever tries to install an IRS in their Fox just let me know and I'll get you the Napa part numbers you'll need in order to make the brake lines work.

Then there was the dumbass mistake I made very early on... I removed the pinion flange off the IRS pumpkin to swap with the one off my stick axle (to make sure the driveshaft would mount up) and then left it off for a few weeks which caused all the fluid to leak out and ruined the seal so I had to replace all that.

If you have an able bodied helper that can be available for a full weekend and all the parts lined up ahead of time it can be done in a weekend, but it's a lot of work.

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

Looks good sitting on the ground with the 98 Cobras man!

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

Really liking these fr500s lol..

[bird_dog0347]

Yeah, love those wheels on your car, but I also agree the hood isn't great.

As for my car, I found the noise that it was making that I thought was a dragging brake. Turns out it was the e-brake equalizer sitting on top of the drive shaft as my e-brake cables weren't tight enough to keep it up off of there. The PITA part of it was that I had to remove the exhaust and the drive shaft to adjust the cables and I also put in a hanger to keep it off the DS forever. It's all good now... I just need at least 1 new front tire, alignment and some stickers to start driving it.

[bird_dog0347]

So I finally got it all ready to go, stickers and all. I drove it to work last week and was pleased with it overall, but the rear tires rub on large bumps as they are 275 tires and are too wide for the 8" rim and the offset. Tonight I plan to try to swap the front and rear wheels as the fronts are 245/40/17 and while I know it will look goofy for a short while I want to see if they still rub in the back. If not I'll just swap the rear tires and drive the shit out of it for a while.

I also want to jack it up and check out all the bolts underneath on the IRS after putting close to 100 miles on it since getting it all done. It has a valve cover gasket leak which I hope to have time to address this weekend, and I need to check the header bolts as well since it almost sounded like a header leak while I was driving it but I'm also used to my nice quiet 2014 GT so it could just be I need to get used to the additional NVH.