Yeah it'll be SVO style, split at the trims on the doors.

I'm glad to hear some support for it, as i have a hopeless imagination and cant fully picture it.

As for colour scheme, the top half will be AU3 "Liquid silver" and maybe with a lilac pearl, but i'm still undecided on bottom half colour. Was thinking some sort of champagne colour would look phat, but still not sure. I kinda want it to look factory and not attract the wrong attention, but still be noticed from fellow ford enthusiasts.

Dan you have pm.

Cheers guys, Andrew

That's an easy fix mate, there is a special diff bump stop you can buy from ford, it's factory fit to some car's with lowered suspension. It has a part number that starts with XA and it's not very expensive. I can't remember the part number.....

I had to get one for my EB, my tailshaft was hitting the floor, and i'm only on kings lows! No issues since fitting the bump stop. It fits above the front of the diff, there will usually be 2 marks on the body to drill the holes, then fit it with some bolts. Diff will bump the rubber stop before the tailshaft can hit the floor.

It's cheap insurance to stop you damaging your tailshaft to the point it might fail.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

I dont understand how some cars do this, i'm lower than ultra and i dont have this problem. :/

Good question man. I've got lows in my car, and i didn't have the issue when i had std length shocks in it, but when i changed to shorter shocks, pedders whites, i then had the issue. I also have an LPG tank sitting over the diff and that probably doesn't help things. The car sat 10mm higher in the rear without the LPG tank.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Yeah i have short shocks also, still dont have the problem.

Come to think of it, its probably because i have custom springs, not just generic kings or similar. My higher spring rate would be the one to thank for that, hehe.

You *can* change the pinion angle - IE - Point the diff at the ground. I did this when changing to the LSD in the wagon... I got half an inch extra clearance... I put a layer of anti rust paint all over my drive shaft tunnel (which was scratched to hell, and the driveshaft also has lathe like marks the whole way around at the point under the rear seat...) The paint is still there and I don't get any scraping or banging or metal tearing noises now - Even when landing from being air borne!

Now, the thing is --- Changing the pinion angle is frowned upon by anyone other than super 4WD experts who know damn well that ""huge torque + wrong pinion angle + being bogged / trying to hit vertical cliffs while under boost from standing start = problems""

f**k.

If you've watched the V8 Supercars you would have seen a camera angle that was the camera mounted on the floor pan of the car looking at the diff. Look carefully... The diff is jumping down three inches every time they hit the brakes hard. See when they bottom out in the dipper or what have you... Even when they hit the go fast pedal on the right the a*** of the car sqwats and the diff goes up a couple of inches. All this movement means that the pinion angle is constantly changing.

A perfect pinion angle would be to draw a line from centre of rear axle through to the front harmonic balancer... IE - One perfectly straight drive train.

This is flawed for a few reasons.

One is that you would more than likely get vibration (harmonic) issues.
One is that the gearbox mounting position puts a slight kink in the system (on purpose maybe?)
One is that you would probably need a higher tunnel through the middle of your plush interior to accommodate the drive shaft and prevent the distinct possibility that your rear passengers will get sick of the thumping on the soles of their feet.

By turning the pinion towards the ground you are not doing as much harm as you may think. Ah, for crissakes... Here's one I prepared earlier...


The serious 4WD boys have to change pinion angles to prevent driveshafts from turning into corkscrews when they're doing their serious 4WD stuff. Although the angles in this graffic I produced aren't greatly exagerated like they would be for huge suspension and raised 4WD's, you can see the angle the drive shaft is on compared to car body and when you "lower" your car.

You see - When you lower your car you don't change the engine or gearbox mounts - but you are raising the rear axle height. Therefore you have actually changed the pinion angle and moved the driveshaft closer to the body of the car.

My goodness. Am I making sense here?

Do I need to hit CTRL_ALT_DELETE and try again?


PS - I am sorry to everyone who told me never to change pinion angles. I did, and it's fine to date, in fact - better than factory. When it blows up (it won't) I'll come and apologise for not listening.

Fiend, if you have a WAGON or UTE you can easily change the pinion angle as you have done, as they have cart springs in them.

If you have a sedan, with coil springs and 4 link trailing arm setup, your only option is to source XR based upper control arms, redrill the upper control arm diff bracket and go from there.

BenJ

Quite right...

But it isn't that easy to change the pinion angle on the wagons or ute either BenJ... Unless separating the leaf mounting plates from the diff axles, fabricating and welding on new ones is "easy"... Guess it is "easy" really. But so is rebuilding an engine now that we've all done it.

Then again --- Adjusting control arms is "easy" too then!


Anyway, my message still stands... Point the diff at the ground a little, gain more clearance and put the drivetrain under less stress whilst you're at it.

Agreed!

BenJ

I suppose you **could** change the pinion angle on the wagon / ute / cart sprung rear ends by putting spacers at on one side of the mounting plate (!!) or making a WEDGE shaped spacer to place between mounts and leaf springs....

That would be easy. Quite right.


Not sure how "proper" it would be if you needed a certification mind you.

[edit]Pssst - Don't tell anyone, but I am going to start finding some billet and get some wedges machined! All those lowered old leaf sprung owners will lap them up --- Two inch lowering blocks with pinion angle adjusted... I feel an EBAY moment coming on.

I don't think adding a wedge under existing blocks is a wise idea.

Putting in blocks with a built in angle is an idea worth doing.

BenJ

Stop it - You're telling everyone my idea before it saves me from bankruptcy.

And, with that, Fiend promises to shut the phuck up. I know, I know. You've heard that before, right? Well, this time I mean it. Honest.

if you can make an angled 3" block for under $80 you will have my business

I'm sure you would have a fair bit of business.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Agreed, that s**t would sell like hot cakes i reckon.