OK well, even though I didn't think I would have much time this weekend to work on the car, I was able to accomplish a bit. First on Friday night, I was able to pull the stock K member. Everything (no matter how small) is a monumental task when you are doing it yourself...... If I only have 1 more set of hands.
Then Sunday night, we got back into town and I thought I would do a little more. But you know how it is.... once your in the garage, you want to do a little, then a little more and before you know it you have been in there for like 5 hours! I was able to get the AJE tubular K member hoisted into position and bolt it down. This K member is designed specifically for the 2005 Mustang Chassis, so it becomes a matter of swapping over all of your old suspension parts from the old K member to the new one. Once I had the new K member installed, It was on to removing the lover A arms from the stock unit, unbolting the Rack and pinion, and swapping over the hubs. If I wasn't going it by my lonesome, I would have just unbolted it all as one unit and hoisted it up onto the new K member, but no such luck. So I hade to unbolt each piece and reinstall back into its correct location. But before I got started, I thought met me take this time to clean off the coil overs since they are installed at the Saleen Factory and are really nice units. The springs are a hot red color and the N2 shocks are yellow. You wouldn't know this since they were an off color of gray from being driven around.... So after a little brake cleaner and some elbow grease... I got them looking quasi-new. Then I saw that Saleen also installed a front sway bar at their facility (same hot red color), so while I was able to access it, I unbolted it, gave it a good scrub down, and reinstalled. With suspension clean and shiny, It was a matter of re-bolting everything back in where it came from. Interesting thing is the AJE K member comes with its own hardware. While installing the stock Lower A arms, the bolts that came with the new K member did not fit. they had a non threaded portion of the bolt that when snugged down, would not allow the bolt to holt the part. I found this odd since it was designed for this car. So I just swapped their hardware for the OEM bolts that held it onto the stock K Member..... Worked perfectly! Long story short, it was just a matter of rebolting on the brakes and rotors, reinstalling the coil overs, reinstalling the ABS sensors and tightening everything down. Last item for the night was the rack and pinion. Taking Leny's advice, I did not want to move the wheel much from where it was located when the uninstall happened. For this I called in the wife!. The rack and pinion need to be installed into its mounting brackets at the same time the steering shaft is reconnected. Its sort of one fluid motion at an angle to get them to go together at the same time. So I asked my lovely assistant to holt the steering wheel still so that it would not more at all, and I hoisted the rack into position. As soon as the steering shaft touched the rack, it was clear it did not align. So as to hot break anything, I asked her to slightly rock the steering wheel only about 1 inch in each direction as I continued to push the rack into place. This worked perfectly. I then turned the hubs so the wheels would be pointing straight when installed and the steering wheel was exactly straight up and down...... Success. Then it was a matter of going back over each mounting point and making sure everything was tightened. Put on the wheels and dropped her back down to sit on her new suspension. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS!!! I am completely finished with anything I need to do to prep for the Cammer install. I am just awaiting the Aluminum crank spacer that Jay is machining out for me and the engine will be put into the car. Honestly at this point I am relieved and at the same time excited!!! I cannot wait to see that engine sitting in that car!!!!! So now I wait for Mr. Brown's handy work while I peek into the garage each night and giggle like a small school girl.
On a side note, there is a Lady that live 2 doors down from me. When we first moved in, she saw an old 36 Ford in my driveway and came over with her wife to introduce herself. She was telling me all about her Baby (a 2012 dodge Challenger - blue with white racing stripes) which is her pride and joy. Each weekend she has a rolling cart with detailing products and she goes to town detailing that car for at least 3 hours every Saturday. I don't think she has seen the Saleen since shortly after purchasing it, it was disassembled for this transformation and has been loced in the garage ever since, but I am sure we will be competing for attention throughout the neighborhood before the new year!
Below is a picture of the old stock K member after I had taken off all of the suspension parts, as well as a photo of the car sitting back on all "4's" with the new K Member installed. Lots of extra room!
