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.

I know how you feel about stripping the whole lot. I am down to the firewall in the white Fairmont and have most of the engine bay open, other than having snapped the head off an allen key when attempting to take out the air inlet manifold bit. I really want to get my hands on the coil packs and will clean up and polish the alloy air system from the Fairmont to go into the Futurlane.

Am still a little ill at ease with tearing the Futura apart totally... I am not 100% about putting all the bits I have back in yet!..

I have arranged to pull the gearbox out of the Fairmont this coming week... Am giving the mechanic who does my warrant of fitness checks the DIFF, and he's going to take out the gearbox and everything else of value from the engine bay for me. He actually uses the same EF motor in two of his stock cars and drives an EL wagon to tow the stockcars. Funny how these things happen when all you do is take the car for a "quick warrant" in your lunch break.


I must say that the one tonne springs I got were rusted together as well as yours. So well that the pin was hacksawed through (by me). I made a new pin using D8 stainless and the original spacers from the wagon (about 15-20mm long "nuts" with no thread).

I was a little confused about the way the wagon spring terminates at front end by being OBLONG, where as the other springs are all ROUND. The oblong rubber must do something, so all things considered (and a headache or two along the way) I think keeping the top leaf from the wagon was the way to go. Just hope the warrant guy doesn't look too closely at it before I have a chance to get the lowered system in place... It looks slightly dodgy with the two original plates being about 25mm shy of meeting each other.


All good. And, that, is me for the night. Thanks for the feedback...

I did have trouble as the u-bolts from the wagon were a larger diameter than the ute so I was like you with a hybrid set up. I didn't have a 16mm drill bit to help it all fit. This reminds me I must take the brackets into the workshop at my work to drill them out for the fairmont conversion.

I've been chasing blue poly bushes (similar to nolathane except softer), and it seems from part numbers, the oval front spring eye seems to have been around since XD or even earlier, while the equivalent commercial vehicle has round bushes. The EA-EL wagons have the same wheelbase as the XH. The spring stretch is taken up by the rear shackles. I have no idea what the oval bush is supposed to do.
The upper two leafs should have separater discs between them also - to help movement and to cut wear.
The wagons are around 120kg heavier than the utes and panelvans - I would suspect the 1 tonne springs would help to cancel some of this, whilst the equivalent ride would be better than an unladen ute or van I would think.
The XH rear springs have 2 front eyelet diameters, 51mm or 54mm - I'm suspecting they are 750kg and 1 tonne respectively, if you guys get a chance to measure yours, please let me know what the measurement is.

WOW. SNAP, ya da man. As I did not use the top leaf (as mentioned, I was put off by the OBLONG bit - thought it may provide a bit of dampening against aggressive knocks or something..!) I have the original upper leaf from the UTE sitting under my mates car port - Am due there tommorow as he is SPEWING that I have left the Fairmont sedan (with no front end) in his garage! <ahem!>

I will have a quick measure of the 51 or 54mm thing for you... And yes, I put all the seperator disks back in. The ute had them from the top leaf down to about the fourth. The stationwagon only had them on top two.

You stationwagon sounds like what I want mine to be.,... Especially the """F/Lane Dome Lt, Climate Ctrl, T5 Conversion""" bits...! hehehe... Am still working on the Climate Control - Finally painted the dash black and have prices for new heater hoses. I am seriously thinking that I will remove all the air conditioning system tho - Which may play havoc with the climate control sensors. Still - If it blows hot when I ask it to, I'll be happy.

Yeah Dude, if you could measure the one tonne eyelets, that'd be much appreciated.
A 30mm front swaybar will make a big difference - you may not need a 20mm rear due to the stiffer rear springs. Both my cars have this setup.
See http://www.fordmods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54891 for info and another link.
Unfortunately, a manual option wasn't available on the EF/EL futura/fairmont wagons - so you need to improvise.

I think a rear swaybar is called for actually old mate! Although the rear end body roll is miles better than what it was standard (remember I *always* have about 300kg in boot...)....

What do these cars weigh as standard? Last time I went to the tip without a trailor I weighed 2215kg on the way in and 1964 on the way out.

Any hoooo....

http://www.fordmods.com/forums/post739569.html
I liked this thread the best (becuase of the pictures, of course...) I had trouble thinking how a rear swar bar would work. I still have a bit of an odd question -- Wouldn't linking the axle up like this mean that each wheel would try and go up and down with the other? If, for instance, the sway bar was 100% rigid (impossible, but let's just say it was) then both wheels would move up and down even if there was only a bump on one side...?!

I am now keeping my eyes open for a similar thing...

Still have not got the front XR6 (EL) springs in... Am getting a little confused as to why my Fairmont dash loom has had some wires chopped, but seems to function perfectly and thus have been wasting huge amounts of brain power on other stuff.

Am towing the old white Fairmont carcass tomorow. Not really "towing"... There's NOTHING left of brakes other than a brake peddle. No ABS computer - No brake lines intact - No disks, rotors - No pads - No nothing! Oh - There is still disks on the front, purely to put some wheels on to get the tow guy to lift the arsse end up and drag its sorry butt to the Ford heaven known as chineese scrap metal purchaser.

Okay then - this looks interesting. Now, if only I could find an online price (and even better - a wreck with one on!)

 

 

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Bugger me - Keep forgetting to measure the bloody things for you. SORRY, will do sometime soon...

Now - Where / Whom can I get to supply a Whiteline rear sway bar for my EF wagon cheap?.. Was quoted $380NZ from local supplier, and they cannot even get one here for two months.

I reckon just make one from parts from another car at the wreckers.

You bloody would suggest that wouldn't you Rick... Now you've got me thinking again, and that (as has been proven) can be dangerous. Will have a hunt around wreckers tomorrow - I want to see if they still have the EL wagon with the bench front seat and column shift. I am going to see if I can pull out the column shift and it's linkages and sell it as a conversion... Have had interest in the column shift and the bench front seat for $260NZ.

I STILL HAVE NOT MEASURED THE FRONT MOUNT BUSH HOLE on the leaf... Sorry sorry sorry...

I measured the front bushes on the one tonne springs I have for the project.
They are 49mm inside the rings.

Incidentally I recall I got the springs currently fitted to my classic from a panelvan. The ones I have for the Fairmont were from a ute. I dont know if there is a difference but I am now starting to wonder. I will definitely be stripping these ones down and making up a hybrid set with the old one from my wagon as the starting point.
I had an extra leaf added to my old EL wagon that I wrote off. I wasted a heap of money on the suspension, wheels, tyres on that car. I lowered the fronts 2.5" fitted GT shocks all round and camber adjustment kits. It did handle like a sports car though. Awesome through the winding mountain roads at speed.

The Classic has very worn and soft original Monroe struts but surprisingly they are not buggered altogether. Monroe do make very good shocks.
The rears were very stuffed though and It was simple to fit GT's when I got the car 7 1/2 years ago.
When the EL was done I asked the specialist what were the "BEST" and he said Monroe had 2 years warranty, everything else was one year.

Hi again Rick ol' bean...

I finally got the EL XR6 front springs in today! Yay... Ended up taking off the brake callipers and undoing the four nuts holding the "yolk hinges" and taking off the nut at bottom of swaybar linkage. And that is by far the simplest way I could think of after spending an hour thinking about it. Had the first one in within four hours (mainly because me and my mate left out a couple of washers so had to pull it out FOUR TIMES and recompress and re-assemble and put back in... Only to find he had left something else sitting in the bottom of the pit, or in his pocket... Basically --- Every single bit of rubber or washer on the shock was left off at one point or another!.. SOD!)

Anyhoooooo...

The second one was out, replaced and back in within fourty minutes. Whilst I was there I put slightly different front brake pads and fixed a couple of intermitant electric issues with the cornering lamps. I also found that (even tho it is a FUTURA - no climate control) that the horn loom appears to have the wires there - now it is up to me to find them in the cabin.... Eeek.)

Right --- I now have a car that sits about an inch above the 205/65/15's in the front, and about 3.5 inches at the back! Hehehehehe....


Tell you what tho Rick, I know you hate an old sqwatting dog and all... The bloody thing is handling better than it ever has. Bloody great. I turn into sweepers at a high enough speed to start thinking about new rubber up front!!!! Never would have even contemplated hitting sweeping corners at these sort of speeds before (unless foot planted on gas at time..)

I have kept the Monroes too. I played around with a few adjustable ones in out their packets in the shop and I actually like the way the old school Monroes (that cost me $45 for rear and $75 for fronts inclusive by the way!!) compress easily but take a lot of effort to pull open. With the stiff springs they work real bloody nice thank-you-very much mister and missus "I only drive Bilstien with $800 sway bars"....

The most expensive bit on my whole car is (thus far) the brakes at $320NZ for slotted and dimpled rotors.

Am going to pull the leafs and diff out of the old Fairmont donor and use the bits that clamp around the leafs to make my "custom lowering block"... The wagon could definately do with a swaybar in a***, but the whole package is sitting beaut so far.

Thanks for all the advice and ideas.

If you can find an old school garage with a shelf full on brand new 1993 shocks I suggest buying them!


Oh - I found a few bushes that were pretty phucked, and since I couldn't get to repco or anywhere I put them in upside down and that has stopped the slight knocking for a while. Will see about some Nolathanes or what have you next time I feel like skinning those particular knuckles.





The original front bushes on the ute ones appear slightly bigger, but seem to have a metal sleeve which would make the actual bush similar. Again, I looked and forgot to measure. What a d**k.

At least NZ won the rugby, now the country can get back to work.

The ends are in the large white connector block behind the inside fusebox - be careful, as these wires meander between the small and large white connectors.
Saves on wiring up through the engine bay though.

I measured my front leaf eyes, and they seem to be 54mm ?? This is 3/4 tonne, so 1 tonne may have smaller eyes ???

My spare 1 ton leafs are from something pretty old.
I haven't gotten the calipers under the rear of the Classic to see what they are.

I suspect the newer cars have larger eyes and bushes for greater comfort. Those big oblong things on the wagons probably help comfort too.