Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

February 2005

2/6/05 - Today's task was simply to clean up the "outer" CV joints (the two in the middle) and get them painted. Using the Metal Ready, I removed more of the rust from the joints. The rust is pretty much surface but these was some stubborn areas that even a wire wheel wasn't removing. Since these things aren't going to really be much of a problem painted or not, I simply just removed as much rust as possible and decided it was time to paint. Using some high-temp engine paint (silver), I put on a few coats and it looks pretty good in my opinion and can call it done for now; I still need to buy new boots, grease and clamps but without the axles, I'm done with them until 2007.

2/17/05 - Today I received the first of two packages from Five Star Ford. The prices and shipping costs, due to being in AZ, makes this company one of my favorite places to buy FRPP. I ordered the following items from Max:

M-11000-A50.......... Mini Starter
M-4204-T28............ T2 Torsen 28 spline differential
M-2410-B............... 8.8" Ring & Pinion installation kit
M-4413-A............... 8.8" IRS Bearing & Seal kit.
M-6397-A302......... Pressure Plate Bolt & Dowel Kit
M-6375-D302......... 0 balanced steel billet flywheel

I received the first 4 items today and should recieve the flywheel parts hopefully in the next week or two. Here are some shots of the stuff that's come in today:

2/17/05 - Todays task was to get the ring installed to the torsen differential. I had read and re-read the article on corral.net which included installation of the ring gear using heat to expand the ring to make it easier to install. However, I felt it would still go on just fine using a more straight-forward method.

I purchased a set of 7/16"-20x1.25" bolts to help draw-in the ring to the differential. In restrospect I probably should of used 7/8" long bolts. In any event, the point was to evenly tighten the bolts in a cross pattern, about 1/4 turn at a time until more bolts could be installed. This was a little time consuming but it worked very well. Eventually all 10 holes were populated and I continued turn all bolts in a cross pattern. Once the ring bottomed out, I removed the bolts and applied Loc-Tite Blue on all the ring bolts and re-installed them. Torque was applied in three stages: 25, 50 and 80 ft-lbs. in a star-cross pattern.

The next step was pressing in the roller bearings on either end of the diff. The pneumatic press made quick work of this:.

2/23/05 - The T2 differential assembly from last week was finally installed at Rearend Specialties located in Santa Clara. This came upon recommendations from several members on FFCobra.com as well as a being mentioned by numerous people on CAFords.com. The total cost to install and set pinion depth and backlash and preload, was $150! Had I started this on my own, the Proform tool alone would of been $100 shipped. When the pumpkin returned home, I pressed in the axle bearings and seals. For the moment, the rear end is done for now. Since there won't be any oil in the thing for awhile, I'll put the cover back on w/o the gasket and mask off the axle holes and a note indicating there is NO gasket installed.

Also, the steel billet flywheel arrived with metric bolts and dowels:

2/27/05 - The next piece of work to be done eventually, is the drive shaft. FFR specifies a 10.5" length from the rear-end pinion flange, to the base of the yoke going into the T5 transmission, just at the point where the splined shaft begins on the yoke:

And in thiking about the driveshaft, I decided that since Harbor Freight was having a sale, I dropped by and picked up a ball joint and u-joint removal kit. The kit includes several sleeves for pressing out ball joints, and one end of the "C" clamp has a hole for pushing out U-joints. I did a preliminary pressing since I've never used this before and it was rather simple to operate:

I pressed the bearing back in and will have the shaft taken to a shop for shortening. Hoping Rearend Specialties can do this for me since they did a great job with my rearend ths week.