Frith hammers the new axle...
Frith hammers the new axle seals into place before installing the new axles.
With the new pinion installed, Frith installed the Truetrac, along with the new bearings, and began to set backlash. Once backlash was set at 0.009 inch, some paint was applied to the teeth on the gears to ensure they mesh properly.
When everything was in its proper location, Jones shifted his attention to the new Yukon axles. The 31-spline Yukon axles offer a massive strength improvement over the stock shafts. Before sliding our new shafts into place, Jones pressed the new ABS rings into place and installed the 3-inch Racing Wheel Studs from Steeda Autosports.
With our rearend fortified, the last thing to do was bolt on the new differential cover and fill the rearend with fluid. Fore Precision Works sent us its Solid Rear Axle differential cover. The solid billet construction adds a ton of strength over the stock cover, and the preload bolts help prevent deflection of the main caps under heavy acceleration.
After pressing on the wheel...
After pressing on the wheel studs and ABS rings, Chris Jones slides the new axles into place.
After buttoning up the rearend, the guys at BBR switched their attention to the engine. AmericanMuscle.com supplied us with a set of stainless steel long-tube headers and an X-style midpipe with high-flow cats from SLP. These aluminum-ceramic-coated headers use 1 3/4-inch primaries and venturi-style velocity collectors to optimize exhaust flow.
The next addition was the SLP X-style midpipe assembly. Exhaust flows into the high-flow catalytic converters and X-style midpipe, before exiting through the existing Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system.
With the work on the underside of the Mach 1 finished, Jones and Frith lowered the lift and began working under the hood. Being that we purchased our Mach 1 with over 85,000 miles on the clock, a full tune-up was in order, and AmericanMuscle sent us everything we needed for our Mach.
We started by draining all of the fluids and added Royal Purple 5W-20 synthetic oil and a K&N oil filter to ensure the moving parts stay lubricated. Next we removed the stock coils and spark plugs, and replaced them with ZEX Power Tune plugs, which are designed for naturally aspirated applications. We also added 4V Pro Series coils from Granatelli Motor Sports to handle our spark needs.
We replaced our stock rearend...
We replaced our stock rearend cover with a stronger version from Fore Precision Works. The billet cover not only looks great but adds an incredible amount of strength to our 8.8-inch rearend.
Although we already had an...
Although we already had an aftermarket x-style mid-pipe, we wanted to add a set of long-tube headers.
Jones removed the stock manifolds...
Jones removed the stock manifolds to make way for the new SLP headers from AmericanMuscle.com.
With the headers in place,...
With the headers in place, Jones slides the high-flow cats into place before installing the new SLP X-style midpipe. AmericanMuscle.com sent us a matched exhaust system for the best possible performance.
With over 85,000 on the clock,...
With over 85,000 on the clock, our Mach 1 was in need for a tune up. AmericanMuscle sent us everything we needed to get the job done, including a K&N oil filter, Royal Purple oil, ZEX spark plugs and Granatelli Motor Sports coils. We also added a new fuel filter, serpentine belt, and tensioner to keep everything fresh.