Whatsup Guys and Gals, in this write up FJD Performance is covering part 1 of a 3 part write up covering the work we’re doing leading up to our big trip for the Mare’s new engine.

This weekend we got our shipments in for our Maximum Motorsports firewall adjuster and aluminum clutch quadrant and our 340LPH Quantum fuel pump and High flow Viton fuel pump check valve. We won’t mention how we ordered a e brake cable from our local Ford store, and that they claimed the cable would be at the store Saturday the 2nd at 3PM and actually arrived today the 4th… nope, not salty one bit…

Anywho! Back to the installs!

Being that we had to drop the fuel tank about 2 years ago, this was no big deal. However getting that 20 bucks we just put in the car the other day meant we had to drive the car quite frequently so we could loose some weight with dropping, and reinstalling the tank. Needless to say, we still had a lot of fuel in the tank, but dropped it anyways.

We got the car in the garage, chocked the front wheels and got to getting the rear of the car off the ground. We used a skateboard, some wood and a brake rotor box to keep the gas tank level and get it down, and out of the car without damaging the lines or filler neck and gasket (whoop, done that twice now!). Getting the fuel pump housing out wasn’t that hard, but we soon remembered the little rubber grommet/cap that got damaged last time was completely toast, so getting a new one that would work was one of the longest portions of this install. The actual longest part of the install was getting the hose lengths for the check valve to fit properly without kinking or getting damaged. Once the check valve was all squared away it was time to get the housing back in the tank properly (kind of a pain) and then getting that heavy ol’ tank back in the car. Complete install was maybe 1.5/2 hours.

If you’re unaware: when starting the project of dropping your tank you have to unbolt the 3 bolts inside your gas tank filler door. They should be 13 or 10 MM sockets. After you unbolt those you have to unbolt the 8MM bolt holding the filler neck brace to the tank, and make sure the brace is on when you put the car back together. Once those are done get to the three 13MM bolts holding your tank to the chassis, and make sure you have something under the tank, like a jack, to lower it slowly. When it’s down enough to unplug the wires get them off and slowly push the tank the opposite side of the filler neck as you want to make sure you don’t damage the gasket. Using some lube can make the job easier. Make sure you can safely get the tank on the ground, and get the fuel pump housing out of the tank without destroying the fuel lines. You can always undo the lines from the housing, but being the Mare is old, and from Illinois (Its pronounced Ill-eh-Noise, Andrew), we couldn’t really get them off easily. Once you have it all off and out it should be fairly simple and straight forward. At least that previous statement should be true if you’re dropping your own fuel tank.

Sunday we tackled the Firewall adjuster and clutch quadrant. By the time we finished with the fuel pump it was already too late to start with the MM parts since we still had an appearance to make at a family party; First thing in the morning we pulled the Mare in the garage once again and started with the Firewall adjuster. We gotta say… the OEM firewall clip was the HARDEST OEM part to remove yet… That thing was a Dick. Once we had the clutch cable off the factory quadrant and out of the factory firewall assembly it was on to fitting and installing the MM firewall adjuster which, in all honestly, takes like 20 seconds. But why should all part installs be difficult? I for one like when its as easy as taking a breath. Next was getting the factory clutch quadrant off, which was a bit tricky because we didn’t want to break the assembly in case it needed to be reused. Once the stock plastic part was off it was time to install the MM part and adjust the cable.

The project didn’t take too long to complete; we spent most of the time getting the plastic firewall clip off and after that it came down to adjusting the cable.