Saturday morning was spent finishing the installation of the torque arm on the Mustang, and starting the alignment process. Brandon and I started the morning with a cup of Starbucks and bleeding the rear brakes. We replaced the rubber hose for the rear center brake line with a stainless steel one from StopTech. After the brakes were bled the car was moved to the alignment rack where the car could be lifted by the tires, keeping the suspension loaded. With the sitting at ride height on the lift, we could measure the pinion angle and transmission angle. The torque arm needed all of the included shims to raise the pinion angle to be within one degree of the transmission. We may need more shims if there is any driveshaft vibration, but we won’t know that until we get the car on the highway for testing. With the pinion angle set, we began to torque all of the fasteners for the torque arm. Next up was the alignment process. We started with jack stands and string to set the toe to zero and center the steering wheel. After that was finished, we used the Smart Camber gauge to measure camber and caster. The car is set at 0’ toe, -2.2’ camber, and +3.5’ caster. Next weekend we will begin to set the bumpsteer curves and finish up a couple of loose ends. We still have over 240 fasteners to check the torque on, so there is more work ahead of us.

We also had a special guest at the shop with us this weekend. Dave Kujawski brought his 2007 Mustang GT to the shop to install a new MGW short throw shifter. His brother Paul and Todd Brand were also on hand to help with the install. Pictures from this weekend are on my Facebook page, and will be on the Racetech website shortly.

-Bryan