Automotive

1987 Shelby CSX #694 of 750

This is my 1987 Shelby CSX that I've owned since 1998.  It is number 694 out of 750 that were modified at Shelby Automobiles in Whittier, California.  You can read the back story here.  The car has somehow survived a move and a number of life change events, however I have not really done any serious work on it for about two decades.  That has recently started to change....

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The CSX: May 11, 2006

Posted on May 11, 2006.

The new trans seems to be working well.  It's an A555/A520 hybrid (A555 with the mainshaft and ring gear from an A520) with a 3.50:1 ratio.  This is the perfect gearing for this car.  This setup with the OBX torque biasing differential is a great combo.  The only weak point is the mainshaft bearing surface.  The bearing near the pinion gear rides right on the shaft and eventually the area starts to break up from surface fatigue.  This shaft has a bit of life left in it, but when it goes I won't have anything to put in its place.  The later transaxles (A523/A543/A568) have a real inner bearing race here.  The bearing itself is the same, so it may just be a matter of machining the shaft down to accept the race.  My main concern is the weakening of the shaft from removing the hardened surface in that area.  It may create a stress point at the base of the pinion gear.  If it were to break, the transmission would be destroyed.  That is not something I am willing to risk with this tranny.

The OBX is an interesting piece.  The car really wants to accelerate in a straight line, as the torque tends to get biased to the inside wheel.  The effect goes away when coasting.  I didn't beat on it too much since it is brand new and I also put in a new clutch that needs a little break-in time.  It is made in China and is basically a cheap knock-off of the Quaife unit that was designed for the Dodge Neon 420A transmission.  It definitely needs to be gone-through when received.  There are issues with the spring washer orientantion, the case bolt torques, and the axle fitment.  The machining on the element gears, the axle holes in the case, and the splines are also pretty rough and need to be checked/honed/deburred.  Time will tell on how they hold up down the road, but at one third the price of a Quaife they are an attractive option even with their flaws.  I will be changing the trans fluid once it gets a couple of hundred miles on it.

The CSX: May 7, 2006

Posted on May 07, 2006.

Well, it's running so sweet that I broke 2nd gear.  It was an A520, but it had the chrome-moly bearing retainer plate.  Time to accelerate the A555 build-up that I've been putting off, as the Daytona is still apart.  Picked up an OBX and JT hooked me up with some carrier bearings.  The main shaft in the A520 still looked pretty good.  It's got one little dink on the bearing surface...like it chewed something (a gear tooth perhaps...).  Hopefully it will hold for a while.  New shafts are no where to be found.  Gonna have to find a way to fix these things.

The CSX: May 2, 2006

Posted on May 02, 2006.

I was running 5psi of boost all winter, to save the Blizzaks.  That's why I didn't notice that my intermediate sprocket had jumped ahead a tooth when I swapped the cam.  When I turned up the boost, it misfired badly when I accelerated.  Set it to 10 degrees and now it is running sweet.

The CSX: January 15, 2006

Posted on January 15, 2006.

For reasons I don't quite understand, the #4 exhaust cam and follower got trashed.  The valve train was making some horrible sounds when I got home from the meeting last night.  I swapped the FM475 cam with an '88 TBI roller cam.  Also put in the PT Cruiser followers.  The valvetrain is very quite and the lope at idle is gone.  Idles real smooth, but runs a little rich now and lost some bottom-end and midrange torque.  Pulls OK at the top end.  Need an adjustible cam sprocket, as I can't remember if the donor car had the square tooth or round tooth sprocket.

The CSX: November 2, 2005

Posted on November 02, 2005.

Some dude switched lanes right in front of me while I was accelerating to merge into traffic and checking my blind spot.  I hit the brakes and swerved too hard to avoid him, came around and ended up in the guard rail while going backwards.  These cars are way too tail-happy when you are really on the hooks.  The car hit the front corner first, so the front fender and the door took the brunt of the damage.  They are a loss, but the rear quarter is definately fixable...it didn't even touch the tail light.  All four of my new tires have flat spots on them now, especially the fronts.  Grr....

I pushed the front-end underbody out with the Porta-Power, gave the fender some foot-stomping action out in the yard.  Also used the Porta-Power to push the door back out by the hinges.  Doesn't look half-bad, considering how little time I spent on it.  The Daytona is nowhere near being done, so the CSX still needs to put out.