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My Tech Installs & Technical info on the Modular motored Mustang
Maximum Motorsports LCA install how to
Maximum Motorsports LCA install(MMRLCA-1)
Tools needed:
3 jack stands
Floor jack
2 1/2" drive ratchet
1 1/4" drive
2 18mm sockets
1 21MM deep socket for the lugnuts
1 13 mm socket
1 8mm socket
1 flathead screwdriver
1 pry bar
This can be done using hand tools. However, power tools are recommended to get the job done
alot faster.
1. Place the car in Nuetral and the emergency brake is off. Chock the front wheels
and jack the rear of the car up and place 2 floor jacks supporting the chasis.3rd
jack stand will sit under the axle on one side.
2. Next remove the rear wheels and on the lower control arm remove the Parking brake
and ABS cable brackets. Also remove the rear sway bar4 bolts, 2 per side. Some of
the 94 and newer cars abs/parking brake bracket is on the swaybar bolt.
3. Now under the vehicle where the LCA mounts into the chasis loosen up the mounting
bolt that holds the LCA to the chasis, but do not remove it yet.
4. Place Floor jack under LCA where it bolts onto the axle mount and rear shock.Raise
the axle slightly to where the axle is just above full droop. Then remove the rear
bolt that holds the LCA to the axle mount.
5. Slowly lower the floor jack to allow the rear coil spring to extend itself to where
it can come out of the spring mount and LCA. You can use a chain to keep the spring
from shooting out. ( please use caution when lowering as spring is under pressure)
6. Once that is done you can remove the LCA chasis mounting bolt from the chasis.
7. You can use this time to remove the parking brake by removing the safety clip and
remove the parking brake cable and slide the cable brackets out and flip the brackets
upside down and reinstall the emergency brake cable back onto the rear brakes.
8. Take the LCA and the supplied grease, 3 bushings, metal sleeve. There are 2 big
bushings which go on the outer and inner part of the LCA and a smaller bushing that
will go inbetween them both. Make sure you install the metal sleeve through the center
of the bushing's. You can use a flathead screw driver to pack the grease or put it on
before you install the bushings.
9. Now grease up the outside of the bushing and insert into the chasis and insert the
chasis mounting bolt, but do not tighten just yet. Re insert the spring and lower
isolator and make sure the springs pigtail is facing rearward.
10.Jack up the LCA and using a pry bar or a buddy pry the axle back into position to allow
the axle bolt to go into the LCA and tighten the bolts. Once that is tightended, go and
tighten the chasis mounting bolt.
11. Install the parking brake/abs bracket back onto the LCA.
For the opposite side, follow steps 3 through 11.
12. If you have quad shocks, you can either leave them on or remove them as the MM LCA
eliminates the need for them. The bottom bolt where it bolts onto the axle is a 15 mm
and the top where it bolts to the chasis is an 18mm.
13. Re install the rear wheels and torque down the lugnuts to around 95 ft/lbs and lower
the car off the jackstands.
The car feels more sturdier than before and the rear feels more planted. I can feel every
bit of the road and the bumps are more stable. Kind of like having an overinflated tire.
There really isn't any NVH as many say are supposed to with these arms as they have spherical
bushing and all. Maybe I am deaf?
Overall I like em and simple to install. A good product for a normal driven car that will
be seeing some track time again.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at phil@svt4u2try.com
Steeda Tri-Ax shifter Install
1. Remove the stock shifter knob, outer shift boot, and auxillary jack(94-98 models) traction control(99+ models).
2. Remove the inner shift boot using a socket set.
3. With a socket set, remove the stock shifters mounting bolts and discard them.
4. With a mallet, tap the stock shifter to break the seal allowing the shifter to come off.
5. Remove shifter, and clean off shifter mount of any excess dirt, and pieces of the gasket.
6. Run a bead of RVT sealant on the shifter mount and install the Tri-Ax with the supplied bolts.
7. Install the shifter handle to the base part of the shifter using the supplied bolts. You can have the handle in the high or low position.
8.Now you must set the shift stops. Place the shifter in each gear and place a folded index card between the shift handle and the bolt stop. make
sure it is flush with the index card.
9. Repeat this process until all gears are finished. This may require you to take a short test drive to test for proper shifting.
10. Once the shift stops are tightened correctly, re-install the inner shift bolt, and fasten down the bolts.
11. Re-install the auxillary jack(94-98 models) traction control(99+ models), outer shift boot, and shift knob.
This mod will help extend the life of your transmission in your 94-03 Mustang. This will prevent the shift forks from being damaged.
Shiftlight/Tach
When installing the Tachometer or shiftlight, make sure you have all necessary hardware.
I did not used the supplied mounting screws being they are junk and won't hold the tach on the dashboard. Instead I used 1/4" x 2" hex bolts and
washers to attache the tach and hold it firm in place. Just find a spot that is suited for you.
For a v8 mustang, you will have to use only 4 wires, the red,black, white, and green. For a v6 there is an additional brown or orange wire you use
(refer to your instructions).
First the red wire needs to go to anything that runs off of a 12v power and will only run when the vehicle is on. A good spot for this is the 12v
power plug in the car. Run the power wire directly into the power supply wire of the 12v plug.
The black wire is the ground wire. Basically attach that to any bolt or mounting screw that is metal and tighten the bolt back up with the black wire
between the bolt and whatever it screws back into.
The green wire will tap into your Tach sensor wire which is either orange/white or tan/yellow. You can tap right into it behind the tach or in the
PCM.
The white wire must go to a keyed source that controls the headlights. That way the light in the tach won't be on unless the headlights are and it
saves bulb life.
Now for a 99+ Mustang, you will need a tach adapter for this(may want to call the tach manufacture to verify)
DMP Speedcal
1. Remove the negative battery cable.
2. Set bank 2 switch settings as follows 1000000
3. Remove the shift knob, outer shift boot, and inner shift boot. It will be easier to remove the cigarette lighter/auxillery jack/traction control. The
outer boot can be snapped off with eas. The inner boot requires an 8mm socket.
4. Route the Speedcal harness down the drivers side of the transmission, and re-install inner boot. Place the Speedcal to either the front or rear
of the inner boot. I placed it to the front under the cd player.
5. Using a scrotch lock, connect the red power wire of the Speedcal to a 12 volt power supply, like the cigarette lighter hot wire. Usually this is a
blue/white wire.
6. Under the vehicle , locate and remove the Vehicle Speed Sensor(VSS) located on the driver's side of the transmission.
*** not the Output Shaft Sensor (OSS) which is located at the rear***
7. Pull out the VSS and with a small flat head screw driver remove the red thin contact lock from the connector shell. Then carefully slide the
screwdriver down each side of the contacts and pop the retainers and remove both contacts from the connector shell.
8. Take the connector shell and lay in down where the flat part is down. Then install the green wire from the speedcal in the left contact hole, and
the blue wire in the right contact hole until you hear a faint click. Then re-install the red contact lock.
** If the contacts are locked in properly, you will not be able to pull the wires out unless you release the contact retainer**
9. Reconnect the VSS back on the transmission.
10. Now the two old VSS wire you need to determine which wire is the ground wire. On a 94-98 Mustang it is a pink/orange wire, and on a 99+ it is a
gray/red wire.
11. Find the supplied connector shell from the Speedcal package, and wire in the ground wire from the old VSS, making sure it will match up with
the gray wire from the main harness on the Speedcal. Then install the final old VSS wire in the only other connector hole in the connector shell
and snap that into the Speedcals main harness connector making sure the old power wire matches up with the gray wire on the speedcal. You can
hold up the excess wiring by using EZ ties.
** these are held in the same way as the VSS connectors are**
12. Reconnect the battery and set the bank 1 switches for the proper ratio. You can access this formula and others here
Troubleshooting.
The Speedometer does not move at all.
Make sure the red power wire is installed
Make sure that Bank 2 is set 1000000
Make sure all wires are installed properly and in order
Make sure you did not blow a fuse
I hope this helps you to have an easy install of your DMP Speedcal
Gear install
Tools needed; Lift or jack stands, impact gun, heavy duty socket set with long extensions, PB blaster, mallet, bearing press, pry bar, and Micro
caliper.
Gear set should include ring & pinion, shims, crush sleeve, friction modifier, rear end bearing kit, 2-3 quarts of gear oil.
1. First place the car in neutral, and the E brake off. Chock the front tires, and either jack the car up, or on the lift.
2. Remove both rear wheels, and remove the brake calipers, rotor clips, and rotors and abs sensor.
3. Then remove the driveshaft from the rear pinion. Then open the rear end cover and drain the oil( this will have a foul odor in most cases).
4. Once the oil is drained unbolt the nut and remove the center retaining pin so the c clips can be removed allowing the axles to slide outwards.
Remove the U bolts that hold the differential in place, and pull on the differential( this should take a little bit of pressure and not just fall out).
. Once the diff is out remove all bearings, shims, carriers, and the ring gear off the diff. Then remove the pinion gear, race bearing and carriers.
6. Take brake cleaner and thoroughly clean the rear housing, and differential.
7. Now you can either measure the entire rear to get the proper shim or, you can shim the pinion gear and measure it that way with a micro
caliper.
8. Install the pinion gear with race bearing and outer bearings.
9. Install the new bearings, carriers, and ring gear on the diff. and install that and shim to proper specs. test the wear pattern, by adding shims for
pinion depth, and for checking backlash. This will take the longest, and must be done correctly for a long lasting rear gear. Backlash is set from .
008" and .015"
10. Once the wear pattern is good remove the pinion gear and slide on the crush sleeve, and tighten down the pinion gear, and install the diff,
and u bolts. Double check wear pattern.
11. Reinstall the axles, c clips and center pin, and rear end housing, driveshaft, rotors, rotor clips and brake calipers, and wheels. Then add
enough gear oil and the entire bottle of friction modifer(Ford modifier is the best) until you feel the fluid with your finger.
With this your speedometer will be off, so you need to correct this. For 1994-1998 Mustangs you can use a speedo gear to correct this up to a 4.10
gear. Anything steeper will require a DMP Speedcal (best) or an Abott ERA. For the 99+ Mustang you CAN NOT use a speedo gear. If the car is an
automatic (manual will not work), then a chip can be used to correct this.
You should give the gears at least 3 cycles of warming up and then cooling down( roughly 25 miles) to establish the wear pattern before you
decide to get on it. If you don't the gear will not cure and will become soft, causing troubles down the road.
Lakewood Drive shaft Loop
1. Jack up the car using a floor jack under the k member and then support the car with jackstands.
2. First thing you do is find the location where the d/s loop will be mounted on the car. This is roughly 6 inches from where the driveshaft goes
into the transmission.
3. Assmeble the d/s loop* and check to see if the d/s clears the loop and you got the location right.
4. Score in the holes on the bottom floorpan from the mounting bracket .
5. Remove the drivers seat,power seat harness, and the passenger seats. Then remove the trim panels on the floor, and allowing the carpeting to
come up**.
6. Drill the hole into the floorpan from where you scored the drill marks earlier.
7. Assemble the d/s loop passenger and driver side brackets. The passenger side will have an extra plate to fill in the gap from the floorpan and
d/s loop bracket.
8. Now that the brackets are tightened, install the top and bottom halves of the loop. Make sure everything is tight. Rotate the driveshaft and
check for clearance issues.
9. Re-install the drivers seat, and take the car out to test the loop. If there are any rubbing, slapping of any kind(you will feel it in the seat),
readjust the loop for clearance. This may require some slight bending.
10. If everything fits fine and no problems press down the carpet, and re-install the floor trim, passenger seat, and make sure you plug in the
drivers side power seat harness.
* You will not tighten the bolts. This is just to check to see if the loop can be mounted on the car.
**You can also cut through the carpet if you are not worried about looks.
The driveshaft loop used was the lakewood model, and it was not a 1 piece d/s loop. The one piece would be installed the same way except the d/s
would have to be removed and slipped inside the d/s loop.
H or X Pipe install
Tools needed; PB blaster, socket set with universal(swivel) joint, O2 sensor wrench, Long extensions, anti sieze.
1. Raise the car either on a lift or using jackstands. Once you have the car raised up, spray some PB blaster on the bolts of the H pipe mating with
the cat back, and the header bolts mating up with the H pipe.
2. Unplug the O2 sensors from the O2's front and rear.
3. Then you will remove the H pipe bolts from the catback, and slip the h pipe off it. Then you will remove the front O2 sensors.
4. Once the front O2's are gone remove the header bolts from the h pipe. The driver side will not be a problem. However, the passenger side
upper header bolt may cause a problem unless you use the universal joint.
5. Once you have all the bolts removed un hook the rubber connector from the hanger that helps hold the H pipe on the car, and remove the h
pipe off the car.
6. Tak all the O2 sensors and put them on the new h pipe. You will now reinstall the new h pipe the same way you took the stock one off starting
with the headers. You will coat the bolts with anti sieze to prevent the bolts from rusting and siezing up. Also you can use the stock gasket that is
used on the one header mounting on the h pipe.
7. Then you will bolt the h pipe back up on the catback. Check for tightness.
8. If the H pipe is an O/R H Pipe you will need to install a set of Malfunction Indicator Light(MIL) Eliminators on the rear(downstream) O2 sensors.
These will plug directly between the O2, and the harness.
9. Lower the car and start it. Then check for any exhaust leaks. If there are none, then you are done this project. if there are some leaks, then
repeat the install process and troubleshoot your steps
Gearing, What minimum gear to get, and the benefits.
Probably the most frequently asked question on every mustang message board, gears are not debatable. 4.10s minimum on a daily driven 4.6L N/A
mustang. I’ll get to why in a minute but to realize why there is no debate, we must first look at what gears do. Gears live in the rearend, bolted to
the pumpkin and driven by the driveshaft. The job of gears is to multiply the engine’s torque. So with a 250 TQ engine with 4.10 gears, your
multiplied torque will be 1025. You might be thinking, “Why the hell do we need that much torque?” Well, the truth is, without a multiplication of
torque, our cars will not move. For some visual information about gears and differentials, go here. Most stock mustangs have 3.27 gears from the
factory. I have no idea why Ford put these gears in our cars because they’re awful.
Despite what some “experts” might tell you, gears will not decrease your top speed in a mustang; in fact, they’ll probably increase it. If you were
to top out your car with 3.27 gears, you’ll notice that the power just stops when you shift to 5th gear. This is because you are not in the car’s
powerband to pull the car up to higher speeds. Not only will steeper gears allow you to pull quicker but also they’ll keep you in your powerband
which will, in turn, enable you to pull in 5th gear; something you could NOT do before. Other experts claim that you will lose gas mileage due to
the higher RPMs that your car will now be traveling at on the highway. In reality, you’ll lose maybe 1 MPG at best. By far, the biggest
misconception out there is that 4.10s are “too much gear” for a car. These people that tell you this are morons. Those people are stuck in the
pushrod days where the cars can’t rev past 5500 RPMs. Our cars rev to 6000 RPMs for a SOHC and 7000 RPMs for a DOHC. Our torque comes on
later than the pushrods, hence the need for the steeper gears. Sure, there are instances where you might want to get a different gear ratio if you
have a poweradder or are a drag only car, but be it Auto-Xer, Open Tracker or Drag Racer, do NOT get less than 4.10 gears for a daily driven N/A
mustang. For those who want to play around with gear ratios, go here.
The recommended brands for gears are FMS, FRPP. FMS and FRPP are the same gears however. Ford has two markets for the same rearend;
one is the SUV market and one is the Mustang market. The SUV market isn’t as high performance and not as willing to spend the big bucks for
items like the Mustang market is, so they take the gears they make and label one FMS and one FRPP even though they’re the exact same thing. In
the end, just get whatever is the cheapest. I recommend getting a shop to do the install as this is a pretty complex thing to do. The install kit
depends on how many miles you have on your car. If you have more than 35k miles, I recommend stage 2. If you have more than 75k miles, I
recommend stage 3.
Will gears affect my rear wheel horsepower readings?
(From a Dynojet Rep)
QUESTION:
A car having 3:27 rear end gears is placed on a DynoJet chassis dyno and has a dyno performed. Then this same car is taken off the DynoJet
chassis dyno and has the rear end gears changed to 4:10. The car is then placed back on the DynoJet chassis dyno and another dyno is
performed. Will the second dyno show a loss of horse power caused by the 3:27 to 4:10 gear change?
ANSWER:
Yes
EXPLANATION:
"The 4:10 gear will show less horsepower than the 3:27. The reason is due
to rate of acceleration changes. The rate of acceleration is quicker with
the 4:10 because of torque multiplication being increased to the rear
wheel. The horsepower will show less because the targeted RPM is met
before the horsepower has a chance to overcome the rotational mass (dyno,
drive line, etc.) or moment of inertia in speed. Because the speed is
decreased and the RPM is met faster, the horsepower never has a chance to
catch up with itself, so to speak. The overall ratio of 1:1 will always
produce the most horsepower on the chassis dyno. Having said this, a
similar problem can occur with horsepower loss when the rear gear is too
high. The horsepower is being absorbed in just trying to keep the
rotational mass spinning. Please keep in mind that your engine's
horsepower never changes but what gets to the dyno or drive surface
does.