Handful of things really chapped my ass about my (new) ‘95 Cobra:
1. the Alternator: bought a nice replacement. Should be an easy swap, even with the unreasonable location of the grey electrical plug in. Two bolts, couple of wires, bada bing bada boom! But NOOO! With the bracketry for the SVO supercharger, the inboard bolt is bass-akwards! WTF? The head of the bolt is butted up/wedged between the back side of the inner most bracket and the engine block. So basically there’s no way to remove it except by removing ALL the bracketry, then remove the old alternator, balance the new one in place while simultaneously reconnecting the bracketry, put in the outboard bolt( the easy-peasy one), reconnect the grey electrical wire, then run the white wire, cut the new 4ga power wire, assemble and install it. Piece of cake, right? My question is simply: who’s the freakin genius who out the outboard bolt in backwards? Because if the head of that bolt were on the radiator side of the bracketry vs being pinned in abutting the engine block, my new alternator would be in already.
My other 2 vents you already know about: the oil pressure sending unit and the lower IAF bolt. Are ya kidding me on both accounts? There were no better alternative engineering locations for these parts (which traditionally fail I’ve come to learn very quickly) than their next-to-impossible locations??
Slap me twice and call me Mary these are frustrating as all get out.
And don’t get me restarted on the oil pan gasket. Or the shape of the oil pan itself. What’s with the forward little belly with its own drain plug? Wouldn’t a graduated, sloped angle feeding back to the one rear drain plug like 99% of drain pans gave worked just fine? And would have been able to be removed without dropping the K member or hoisting the engine? I mean really? WTF Ford engineers???
Ahhhhh... I think that’s it for now. Venting complete. For now!
1. the Alternator: bought a nice replacement. Should be an easy swap, even with the unreasonable location of the grey electrical plug in. Two bolts, couple of wires, bada bing bada boom! But NOOO! With the bracketry for the SVO supercharger, the inboard bolt is bass-akwards! WTF? The head of the bolt is butted up/wedged between the back side of the inner most bracket and the engine block. So basically there’s no way to remove it except by removing ALL the bracketry, then remove the old alternator, balance the new one in place while simultaneously reconnecting the bracketry, put in the outboard bolt( the easy-peasy one), reconnect the grey electrical wire, then run the white wire, cut the new 4ga power wire, assemble and install it. Piece of cake, right? My question is simply: who’s the freakin genius who out the outboard bolt in backwards? Because if the head of that bolt were on the radiator side of the bracketry vs being pinned in abutting the engine block, my new alternator would be in already.
My other 2 vents you already know about: the oil pressure sending unit and the lower IAF bolt. Are ya kidding me on both accounts? There were no better alternative engineering locations for these parts (which traditionally fail I’ve come to learn very quickly) than their next-to-impossible locations??
Slap me twice and call me Mary these are frustrating as all get out.
And don’t get me restarted on the oil pan gasket. Or the shape of the oil pan itself. What’s with the forward little belly with its own drain plug? Wouldn’t a graduated, sloped angle feeding back to the one rear drain plug like 99% of drain pans gave worked just fine? And would have been able to be removed without dropping the K member or hoisting the engine? I mean really? WTF Ford engineers???
Ahhhhh... I think that’s it for now. Venting complete. For now!
