Lincoln Mark VIII front strut installation
Installation By Craig S.
The factory Lincoln struts are yet another option for the front of a Thunderbird. This page shows the mod ifications needed to speed them up a little bit. With This strut the front will not lay, but it will be really low. I have been hearing it puts the cross member about 1" off the ground when the struts are empty. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
This first pic (above) shows the area on the mark strut where the sensor originally mounted. Craig, of course, cut these off. The second (upper right) pic shows how small the opening is into the bag once the cut is made. The third (right) pic is after he redrilled and tapped it. Craig used a 5/16" drill bit and then a 1/8" npt tap. Unless you cut it flush, that is probably as big of a fitting as you can get. It can be cut flush and then tapped, however, the metal is very thin so he didn't do it. It should seal fine but I would not recomend screwing the fitting in very many times. If he were to keep the mark struts for very long, He would cut it flush and weld a nut or something of the sort on there to get a larger fitting. It is quite slow with the 1/8" fitting.
(below) just shows the new fitting on the bag. I couldn't get a 1/8" thread with 1/2" line fitting so I had to use the reducer. This makes the fitting assembly rather long.
These pictures above show the fittings when installed in the car. The bags can be mounted two ways, either with the fitting facing the front of the car and towards the back like mine, or with it facing the back of the car and towards the outside. However, it would be pretty close to the upper control arm that way.
These pictures above show the front upper mount from the engine bay.
The red arrow (lower left picture) shows where Craig drilled a hole for the fitting and air line.The large center hole, indicated by the blue arrow, needs to be opened up slightly other wise the bag rubs and makes a god awful noise.