If there were an award for how badly someone can screw up an install of Jim Turner's kit, my 63GT may be eligible. I bought the car 5 years ago from a guy in AZ, who had also owned it several years while living in Los Angeles. In LA, the car had been maintained by a well reputed Stude shop that is likely long gone by now. The PO was not much of a mechanic, so he must have paid dearly to that shop over the years.
Upon receipt, I went through the car's mechanicals, and discovered lots of goofy mistakes, some of which I did not even know were possible, i.e. the rear motor mounts were reversed, and to make that possible, the front mounts were in the wrong holes.
Today was the goofiest discovery of all: The car came to me with Turner brakes that appeared to be 1980s-90s vintage with calipers in front of the king pins. The brakes worked OK, but there were major clearance problems between calipers and frame; I could not turn the last half turn of the steering wheel, either direction, without the calipers scraping the frame. Previously, someone had ground the frame lips extensively, and welded a metal plate behind the octopus to limit steering linkage travel by mechanical interference, but that plate was welded over the pivot pin grease fitting, so I removed it. Jim told me a trick to put the calipers behind the king pins, so today I began that task. Upon removal of the mount plates, each plate was stenciled plain as day, "RIGHT", and "LEFT". Problem was, they were reversed. So it was an easy fix, just needed to put the RIGHT on the right, and the LEFT on the left, to locate the calipers behind the king pins.
When I first got the car, it was impossible to grease the king pins because the Turner plates above, blocked access to the fittings. So I installed 90 degree fittings, but never once thought someone could be stupid enough to have installed everything backwards. Never underestimate the power of incompetence!
Upon receipt, I went through the car's mechanicals, and discovered lots of goofy mistakes, some of which I did not even know were possible, i.e. the rear motor mounts were reversed, and to make that possible, the front mounts were in the wrong holes.
Today was the goofiest discovery of all: The car came to me with Turner brakes that appeared to be 1980s-90s vintage with calipers in front of the king pins. The brakes worked OK, but there were major clearance problems between calipers and frame; I could not turn the last half turn of the steering wheel, either direction, without the calipers scraping the frame. Previously, someone had ground the frame lips extensively, and welded a metal plate behind the octopus to limit steering linkage travel by mechanical interference, but that plate was welded over the pivot pin grease fitting, so I removed it. Jim told me a trick to put the calipers behind the king pins, so today I began that task. Upon removal of the mount plates, each plate was stenciled plain as day, "RIGHT", and "LEFT". Problem was, they were reversed. So it was an easy fix, just needed to put the RIGHT on the right, and the LEFT on the left, to locate the calipers behind the king pins.
When I first got the car, it was impossible to grease the king pins because the Turner plates above, blocked access to the fittings. So I installed 90 degree fittings, but never once thought someone could be stupid enough to have installed everything backwards. Never underestimate the power of incompetence!
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