Bumpsteer Meets Baer Tracker

Cars have a tendency to change steering geometry and hence direction during suspension travel (called "bumpsteer"). Lowered cars are even more likely to bumpsteer. I bought a Baer Tracker bumpsteer kit which replaces the rusty, wimpy, stock tie rods and thin adjustment sleeves with these cool tubular units with hardened chrome-moly pins and Teflon-lined chrome-moly spherical bearings. Dallas Mustang has this kit for $110.

Starter Mystery?

Seemed prudent to replace the ancient starter that was on the car with a fresh rebuilt one that even had a lifetime warranty. For only $37. Interestingly, the starter that came off the car was for an automatic transmission Mustang, even though this car has supposedly had a manual transmission the whole time... I guess the lesson here is to remove and identify the old part first before buying a replacement. [Update: So I've been looking online and I think the reason for the automatic starter is the T5Z (or even just a T5) transmission swap...]

Cool Runnings

I bought an Old Air electric fan kit to replace the Flexlite mechanical fan blades. I hope to pick up some hp, and the Flexlite fan can chop some fingers off (or worse) if you are not paying attention. This particular kit was arranged for the classic Mustang and looks good.





The installation is only 3 wires (for no AC), and the fan itself installs with the 4 existing radiator bolts. AC systems require another inexpensive harness.





There's a temp probe that's inserted into the radiator fins to measure temperature and control an adjustable on/off switch for the fan. (The harness for the AC cars causes the fan to engage whenever the AC is on too.)





I also like that the fan shroud is fully integrated into the unit. You can find this fan for about $250 if you shop around.

'Round and 'Round

I bought a set of single-groove March underdrive pulleys #1550. Actually the crank pulley is underdriven and the alternator and water pump pulleys are about the same diameter.





The new pulleys required a smaller belt (1" smaller) but look pretty nice. I bought grade 5 hardware for the water pump. The crank pulley came with allen head bolts. The crank pulley also came with a centering ring. That ring can be slightly loose according to March. (Mine can be moved with a forceful push and that made me nervous so I called them.)





The water pump pulley required running some 180-grit sandpaper through the middle hole a few times to clear the water pump impeller shaft. I think the clear coat on the pulleys made the fit a bit too tight for my Edelbrock water pump.





I upgraded the alternator from 40amp to a new 65amp unit at the same time (for only $40). Hopefully the reduction in alternator function due to the pulleys won't cause problems. Perhaps the higher rpm rear axle gears will offset the alternator reduction... Having installed pulleys on my '89 5.0 back around 1992, I know they add hp you can really feel. (Edit: I'm having charging issues with the underive crank pulley. My alternator only puts out 12.6v at 2000rpms, which is too low. I'm looking for a single-groove billet crank pulley in the stock diameter... Edit again: I'm using the stock two-groove pulleys.)