NEW GEAR BOX

and front end work!

Poor little Shelby had a terrible steering problem. The steering wheel had about 5" of side

to side play in the wheel. Of course the car wondered all over the road as well. SO!

New FLAMING RIVER gear box to be installed. Quick ratio 16 to 1!

I ordered it directly from Flaming River and it arrived in record speed. Packaged

like you wouldn't believe. A very nice piece and well packed. Cost $499 plus shipping.

Total $520.76

Along with new upper ball joints, a new right tie rod and both ends, and a good alignment!

I ordered the balls joints and tie rod from an on-line Mustang parts company

(which I won't mention) because it took about a month to get the parts!!!!!

I took SHELBY to a local front end shop called Network Alignment here in Mesa to have

the new parts installed. Since the gear box had to be installed from BELOW I didn't like

the idea of what I might have to do to get the old one out and the new one in, laying on my

back. This later proved t be a WISE move. Read on!

I worked along side the mechanic as the work progressed. It didn't take long to get the

steering wheel off and the column sleeve removed. That went easy.

Then the car went up in the air for the bottom work. We read all the instructions provided

by Flaming River and it seemed pretty straight forward and should be relatively easy. HA!

They didn't bother mentioning that IF you have headers on your car that the motor has to

be pushed WAY to other side of the car to get the box OUT! 

After disconnecting: the fuel pump, fuel line, motor mounts, and frame brackets, removing the

Monte Carlo bar (it would push the distributor into it otherwise), and using an air hammer to

pound a dent in one of the header pipes we thought we had it made. NOPE!

They also neglected to mention that IF you have a COBRA 7 qt aluminum oil pan on your car

it TOO MUST BE REMOVED! Yep, you got it. Now we removed the starter and drained the 

oil (7 new quarts of MOBIL 1). NOW the gear box would clear, just barely! Boy that shaft is 

LONG!

In went the new gear box and everything put back in place again. HOURS later and $600 

worth of labor, I had a new gear box. OUCH!

By the way, if you have 1970 disc brakes on your car, the outer tie rod end for a 65 Mustang

doesn't work either, you have to use one for a 1970 disc brake car. I learned this a bit late as well

which also slowed things up a bit when we were installing the upper ball joints and tie rod.

I must say, it was worth it in the end. Now that I have driven the car. It's a completely different

car now with a fresh alignment and new tires. It handles beautifully and the steering is quick and 

responsive. Oh yea! I put an all NEW set of BF Goodrich T/A Raised White letter tires on it

as well. The tires that were on the car had new looking rubber but they were put on the car in

1995 and were all weather checked and the rubber was too hard to use safely. 

SHELBY had 215x60 15's on it all around when I first purchased it but the front tires rubbed 

a bit. So I reduced the front tire size to 205x60x15's and increased the rear tires to 225x60's for a 

bit more bite! All is well now and it handles great. FINALLY!

Gear box $522.76

Front end parts $75.00

Labor $600.00

4-New Tires $435.00

TOTAL $1,632.76

Here's my West Coast tubular upper control arms with new upper ball joints installed

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