Traded One Connect For Another.. The Adventure Continues

[LostlnTransit]

June will be a very busy month for us as we're getting several new parts for the van, Plus doing the sound dampening.. But most importantly, Last Fri we ordered the front splitter for the van. This custom product will take 8-10 weeks to create and for delivery from Poland.

 

[LostlnTransit]

To anyone who owners a 2019-2023 Transit Connect, this is going one of the hardest things you'll have to replace. A parking bulb no bigger than the tip of your small finger went out after four years. It took the shop 3 Hours+ just to replace the small parking light located inside the passenger side head light housing.. Reason being is the AC condenser is in the way and part of the front bumper cover needed to be removed.. The drivers side is not like this can can be easily accessed.

 

[LostlnTransit]

The New Bilstein B6 shocks have been ordered and are on their way from Mich.. also, while cleaning the van this weekend I took a measurement of the rear coil springs. We're going to have to locate coil spring sleeves just to firm up both of the rear springs. if you're not familiar with what coil spring sleeve are.. these are rigid plastic/rubber molding that fit onto your springs.

 

[LostlnTransit]

After 2 years of riding on blue painted calipers, we've finally changed things up..

 

[LostlnTransit]

[Connect Owners] Important Info About Your Transmission

The connect has bene know to have shuddering issue with the van. But April this year I switched things up. In order to find out why these vans have these types of issues, Most TC owners would take their vans back to the dealership. The wife and I do not have a good relation ship with the dealership so we've had to locate other shop to handle our installation.

My main issue has been that I'm not able to locate a shop willing to use the BG Products on the van. Until last April. I went in for a trans service and we hit with two options.. both seemed reasonable. however along the way, the shop change their quotes as the trans cooler lines are too difficult to access.. I wasn't pleased with this arrangement. I took the least expensive route which still included the BG products line, but without the flush and fill option.

For the last month, We've not experienced ANY shuddering issues as I feel the BG products have finally worked their way into the system. Now that I know "other" fluids are a better option than the motorcraft option from Ford, we'll be looking at adding better fluids from alternative sources. case in point, Motul a French motor oil has unofficially taken on the support of our project this means that at some point when we're ready, we'll be switching over from the BG products line to the Low Viscosity ATF trans fluid by Motul.

it's obvious that the Motorcraft fluid is what is causing these issue with the transmission on ALL of these connect van and some other Ford cars who use the same type of transmissions and we'll never go back to the motorcraft brand again.

 

[LostlnTransit]

 

[LostlnTransit]

Youtube and Instagram have not bene very pleasant towards my postings. But life goes on.. our trip os Sept really took a toll on the van. We left VA beach at 4:30 am for western NC. While on route 58 through Suffolk VA we hit something in the road and we weren't the only ones.. there was at least a dozen cars and trucks along side the road with damaged cars etc from what ever was in the road.. This hit took out our passenger frotn tire and damaged the rim edge along with surface damage on the frotn and rear passenger side rims. I'm sure if many of you travel like we do, you're going to encounter issues like we did.

Route 58 was so packed with cars and tracks we had no where to turn off the road and access the damage till a few blocks down the road where we pulled into this guys front yard under a street lamp.. there was a half dollar size hole in our 2 week old tire and the rim edge was badly damaged. I was able to install the balloon spare and limp to Franklin, VA and wait for the tire shop to open.. whcih was 3 hours wait..

Needless to say.. the tire shop had the size that would fit but not a matching tire.. In order to keep us on time and in route.. we drove on 3 same tires and one oddball tire which we hated cause it was the wrong load rating.. Since then, there's been a clunk in the frotn end of the van and we've spent almost 7k to have the entire front end replaced.. yet we're not done. most if not all of these parts were on my list to upgrade anyway. but with the damaged tire and wheel.. this threw another expense at my performance build whcih I wasn't expecting. Then add in our 2 year old Cobra suspension rear coil springs are failing.. bouncy and bad.. Fortunately there a coil spring company in KS who's taken on the challenge of designing a set f coil springs just for the van.. these springs will be shorter than factory and 25% stiffer than factory.. those springs are 2 weeks away..

Then we had to get a new set of wheels.. but the shop in UK only had two wheels.. So now the passenger side has the damaged wheels and the drives side has the new silver wheels from UK.. the other two undamaged wheels have bene sent out to the powder coaters for a color match.

Nearly everything had to be replaced, control arms, bushings, Barings, struts, coil springs etc.. the only thing left that could be making this clunking sound is that I've seen someone on youtube suggest that if there's play in the sway bar bushing.. the sway bar would clunk back and forth.. Well it was in the works anyway cause we had already order the sway bar 2 years ago and had it in the house since then. The new 28mm sway bar will be installed Nov 6th.. finger crossed no more clunking..

 

[LostlnTransit]

Once the sway bar has been installed, it's time for another short road trip.. a buddy of mine in Goldsboro NC has a mustang shop that does a lot of body moldings he's taken on the challenge of attaching my frotn splitter or air dam on the van.. Going to make a mini vacation out of this and set up in an area where we can walk to stores etc just so the van can site for at least 24 hours to allow the glue etc to cure. The thing is, all of these mods we had on our to do list needs to be finished before the end of the year..

A bit more details about the new custom rear coil springs.. as I said above, these are suppose to be 2'' shorter than factory springs and 25% stiff then factory.. what this means is, that it will retain the tow and hauling characteristics as the factory springs but have a low profile. With the factory springs on a cargo connect, there always was a 4''+ gap between the tire edge and fender edge.. with these new springs.. that gap should no be approx 2''. Plus this is great news for the connect owner.. Now you have a choice based on our design. you can thank me later.

 

[LostlnTransit]

We're extremely happy to report that my assumptions are correct. We installed the 28mm hardrace sway bar meant for another car onto our 2020 transit connect. Although we've not driven the van enough to get a true feel of the stiffness of the suspension, We've actually had to upgrade and replace everything on the front suspension due to knocking or squeaking. This upgrade cost us nearly 4K and some parts had to be purchased multiple times.. like the front struts. We're nearing the end of the suspension part of the build and can devote more time to the interior build aspect.