Have bought a complete set of EL XR6 springs for $150NZ and sold the rears -- Am a little shocked at the price of shocks for the front... Shocking...

...... ahem ......

Have not put the low springs in front yet, as figure I should do something about the only just functioning shocks at the same time.


Okay, I got some Monroe shocks from a local garage for $45... GOOD NEWS --- I put the new (old) shocks in the back and like them way better than the old (new) Monroes - The "new" ones are actually some real old school ones that close easily, but are hard to open --- Should give me the exact thing I need for the solid new leafs. Other good news... The nuts at bottom of U-Bolts are turning (well, only checked three out of eight, but they all managed to turn a couple of turns). That's way better than having to wait for long U-Bolts if I had to hacksaw them off!

Tomorrow, since the weather isn't weathering, I'm going to fit the 6 or 7 leaf ute springs in place of the 3 or 4 currently and see what the a** end ride height is. This will give me some idea of the amount of lowering required (and hence the need for longer U-bolts and lowering blocks)...





I am also meant to be trying on some 17 x 9 " rims in the morning, but may put it off... They are a 10 or 15 offset, so am thinking that they may just wipe out something vital in the front at full lock... Ho hum, worth a crack... Might fit okay, might not.



Got a new pod filter on order, was meant to be here by now, but not here yet. Am going to leave the current snorkel as is, but completely remove the air box and remove the bit of plastic above left hand headlight to allow air through the gaps around like. Have experimented with bonnet positions of XR6 intakes, but the Fairlane bonnet is not really suited to it... I am going to build a reasonably air tight wall between the engine bay proper and the cavity left by air box removal which will have a rubber down the top to seal against the bonnet lining when lid is shut.

YAY - That's another headache out the way. The air thing was annoying the hell out of my - Even looked at running flexible piping from the underside of the front guard and all sorts of things.


Have also figured (way into the future) that my new "airbox space" would suit a small supercharger running from what used to be the AIR CON pully area. I don't need air con, so out it goes - Will leave the pully there to hold the serpintine belt in place, but it'll be doing nothing at all - until it gets replaced by a baby charger from a Toyota 2-litre that will be hopefully able to survive half a year or so before I burns its bearings or whatever happens to little super chargers spinning too fast. For $250 a unit, I don't care!


Mind you - I could do with every $250 I have in order to get the paint in order.......

The ticking you talk of is what happens when you put slotted rotors on. The tick is the slot passing over the pad. Nothing to worry about, and it cannot be removed or made to go away
Brett

Kinda figured that! I don't mind the ticking actually... Some people even look at the car slightly confused by it as I glide down hills and the like... Ho hum.

Was VERY VERY wet here on Saturday and I was quite surprised how badly the slotted rotors worked in the extreme wet. Mind you, I don't think anyones brakes were working that well - I spent more time aqua planning and understeering than I managed to go straight. Being an old motorbike Fiend from way back probably taught me a few things about front end sliding... Hmmph...

Right - The sun is out, the birds are singing and the smoke is started to pour from my ears. It's time to bugger off and skin some knuckles on the underside of the Futurlane's rear end.

I picked up an EF XR6 wagon diff, they're LSD and have the 3.45 diff ratio.

As for the springs, I got the lowered King Springs, they have an extra leaf over the original GLi ones and sit lower. i then got a Whiteline rear swaybar kit and Ironman Load Plus (these are adjustable for stiffer as well), after that she rides well and can carry heaps.

Yeah, that's all good... But mine has so far cost me $75NZ! That's two brand new shocks and the leafs from a 1 tonne ute (7 leafs)

I got the right hand one on today... Took some effort. I had to pull all the leafs apart and replace the longest leaf with the original one from the stationwagon. The buggers change the way the driveshaft compresses from "truck" to "car" configurations... The forward mounting pivot on the wagon is oblong to allow movement forward and backwards as the wheel moves up or down - The UTE doesn't have this feature - It's driveshaft was made of two bits that stretched or contracted.

Anyway - The right hand on is in, and BOY - Does it work bloody well. I am so damn happy with this - It isn't real real stiff ... It's just bloody perfect! Totally fluked it with my $75. Real happy!

Quite cool pulling all the leafs apart too. Whilst at it I cleaned them all up with wire wheel on grinder and did a quick coat of rust converter and blue zinc (72 rated corrosion factor - whatever that means) and then topped it all off with a light spray of metallic charcoal. The metallic charcoal paint actually looks like old clean steel, highly recommend it for the subtle look - your brake callipers and the like look new and clean, not bright bloody orange. I don't mind bright orange callipers of course - but mine are totally standard Ford EF crap pots, so I'm not drawing attention to them, thanks!


The ride height has gone up 37mm - I thought it would be more... Am glad about that too, as I think the 2inch lowering blocks (once my new XR6 front springs get put in) will sit the vehicle quite nicely. At least - from my short drive with the test configuration it seems that way....

Hmmmm, still keeping my eye out for the fabled LSD, but little (no) money.

I now have XR6 front springs to put in.... They are sitting on the floor at my feet just begging me to put them in....

But, I am thinking. And that is dangerous.


Picture one contains a graphic of a cross section from the middle of the original leaf springs...

Picture two is what they look like now I have put the seven leafs in...

Picture three is what this set up would look like with lowering blocks...

Picture four is what I am hopefully going to weld up this weekend...


Check it out... Although the pictures have loaded in the opposite order. Ooops, what the hell. Check it out anyway...



!!

Also have new pod filter installed. Am going to make a box with an open top - will run rubbers around the top of the walls to make a relatively air tight seal against bonnet lining and leave the current snorkel in place, as well as let more air in above the left headlight by removing some covering plastic and running heat shield right through into the headlight.

 

 

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File comment: What it would look like with standard lowering blocks ford_rear_blocks.jpg [ 72.88 KiB | Viewed 1012 times ]

File comment: It now looks like this - Much stiffer and 1.5 inches higher ford_rear_currently.jpg [ 69.75 KiB | Viewed 1014 times ]

File comment: Originally the stationwagon leaf set up looked something like this ford_rear_original.jpg [ 60.56 KiB | Viewed 1035 times ]

Hi guys I did the 1 ton leaf swap several years ago and like Fiend it cost me $15 each. I think I told him to go them for his car a few weeks ago. I am extremely happy with the result. I was lazy and just straight swapped the lot. The binder bolt was rusted to the point of needing a grinder so I just left it alone. I have picked up another set for the fairmont and I will be putting them in soon.
This time i will be stripping them down and making up a hybrid like our NZ cousin. I used to carry heavy loads a lot building sheds, carrying bricks, tiles etc for our new house.
When I had the std springs I was always bottoming out and damaged the exhaust several times.
My rear ride is height is higher but it is tight as a drum but still very comfortable.

see the picture in my gallery with about 700kg of tiles in the back

Unfortunately I have not taken a picture of my wagon with all the tools and other building gear in the back before starting work on this conversion. Bugger it - But, yes, it did look like a dog squatting rather than a proud pit bull warrior!

Hmmmph.

And, yes, my wagon was scrapping itself and leaving it's mark on off camber corners and speed bumps.

Even with the lowering "blocks" bringing it back to slightly under standard height, I will not be dragging the poor girls a*** on the ground. I had a 80KG guy stand on the towball before I put springs in, and it dropped about 15mm at the wheels. Now it drops 5mm. As you can tell, multiply this by spreading load above axle (rather than on towball) and you see I should be able to carry three times the load and actually have the same ground clearance, and actually have more chance of not bottoming out over bumps as the springs are much more taught.


And, YES - You did tell me to do this... And I am doing it... Thanks for all the skinned knuckles... Thanks for the runny snotty nose from spending two afternoons on the ground under and around a Futurlane Wagon in a 110MK/h southerly with horizontal rain...


Thanks - Seriously. It is working bloody brilliantly!


Yes Rick, my Fairmont and Futura both looked like the example in your picture gallery when loaded with tools... I was surprised it didn't get much lower when loaded with an additional 400kg of cement in rear seats, 150kg of wood on roof rack and a trailor with 1 tonne of builders mix and another 300 or so of wood...! Top speed of 60km in the 80km zone with that lot... And I passed three Police check points (who thankfully decided I wasn't a commercial vehicle so they wouldn't bother wieghing me...! Although a couple of the younger Police chicks looked very interested and tried pointing me out to their seniors - who were more interested in harrasing truck drivers...)

And the poor overheating motor managed all that for about 100km up a few bloody big hills. Poor old car, I owe it a decent paint job...

Oh --- The above picture is RICKS wagon... Not one of mine... Just to be clear. This is my 1.5 wagons....

Right. Note to self... Must stop linking to FordMods pictures.

It used to drag that low with only 200kg of tools before the spring job.

why fit 1 ton springs?
I dont have a ute.

but i do tow a trailer which might have held 3 ton of pavers a couple of times........

 

 

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File comment: bricks are heavy LOL Image003(1).jpg [ 242.02 KiB | Viewed 1003 times ]

Boy Rick - I lot more work turning a GLI into a Fairmont that turning my Futura into a Fairmont... At least I had all the wiring for electric doors installed for me by Ford. Not sure about the GLI's... I just wish they had put the wiring for the door lamps and the individual "door open sensors" so I could move up to the NF or LTD instrument cluster. Presently have the Fairmont... What the hell, is all good. Even found a guy with some Fairlane door trims, yay. Getting there. Still aiming for the first Fairlane stationwagon. But all those extra wires!... Will have to think about putting the dash back in carefully. Must remember to run three pairs of extra wires to every door, including the boot...

Rightiho, that's it from me for the night. Will get off my lazy a*** and do something with some photos when I give my kid back to her stink Mum...

L8R

The brick photo cracks me up brother Rick.

That is EXACTLY how my poor wagon feels on a daily basis. It is loving me at the moment as I have most of the tools in the shed as been off work for a while.

Just shows you that Ford decided that these things would be passenger vehicles with a dog in the back or company rep's with a few Cadbury samples to hand out. I think they totally got it wrong from the AU onwards with their wagons.

Bastards expect you to buy a UTE... No self respecting driver would drive one of those new horrible bloody things. IDIOTS!

In another few years we'll all be chanting "Bring back the straight 6."

I will have to post some pics of all the parts in the sardine tin (garage).
Stripping the WHOLE car at the moment .. slowly when I find an hour or so here and there.