First off, I've been reading this board for a few years because of my interest in the best damn truck ever made. I mainly stayed on the SVT Performance board because I owned a 98 and 03 Snake.

I might be the first and only person to trade in an 03 Cobra for a 03 Lightning? I've heard of some Bullitt folks doing the same, but no 03 Cobra's?

I was on the fence when I bought the 03 Cobra. I wanted a Lightning, but the power of the Cobra was just too much to pass up.

I should have gotten the L and saved 9 grand but the Snake was
a sweet ride!

Anyway, I traded in my snake and got a Black L. No major mods so far, only 300 miles on the OD. I added the factory tonneau cover(soft), Belltech 2 inch and a drop in K&N.

The questions I have are, and thanks in advance...

Has anyone taken out or flipped the leaf shim to adjust the angle with the added drop? I have no vib that I can tell, but is keeping the shim in helping or hurting the change?

The corners of the tonneau stick up a little? Is there a fix or just live with it?

Mac

1 hour old below!

 

I traded my '03 Sonic Blue Cobra for an '03 Sonic Blue Lightning about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

The Cobra's are awsome when it comes to power. I had a magnaflow catted x-pipe, bassani cat back, 2.93 pulley with the diablo sport chip (455 HP / 460 TQ).

I think the L is a better buy plus it's more comfortable and more practical.

The shim is attached (welded) to the leaf springs. I don't know how hard it would be to remove it. .

 

Hey rob, where in Sugarland are you? I live near Lake Olympia, I will be coming home soon for a month or so, we should get together.

 

Congrats on the new truck. When I dropped mine I had a vibration at 20-27mph. Slight but there. Upon advice on this board I had the shims reversed and an alingment done. No shimmy. I used the JLP adjustables which gave me about 2.25" drop. Again congrats on the truck. I almost got a '03 cobra too but I really missed a pickup.

 

I live by Kempner High School (Hwy. 6 and Voss).

Let me know when you get into town and we'll plan something.

 

My father works up 6 a little ways so I make my way to that area a lot. I have a few friends that live inear you as well. I come home the evening of Thursday (June 26th) My e-mail address is ajhaley@olemiss.edu

 

Rob, How did you do on your Trade in. I worked with the same dealership I bought the Snake from and they did me right. My 03 Snake was a lot of fun and good people to hang out with, but I love this truck. The 03 was a daily driver and the clutch was not always a lot of fun in 1 to 2 hours stop and go traffic.

The L is more refined and it still puts you back in the seat. I will miss that INSANE rush of the Snake, but I'll be living the good life towing a boat in comfort!

Mac

 

The shims on the rear leafs on my 03 L weren't welded to anything. They have a bolt through them holding them to the bottom leaf, though. It seems there is a lot of information/opinions on removing these shims. I think the best information is to measure the pinion angle before and after the lowering. I've read that the angle should be 3.9 degrees. I used the 3" JLP shackles for about 2-2.25" effective drop. I removed the shims at first when I did it and I got a HUGE vibration above 70mph. So bad it would slosh your drink out if it was in the cupholder! I put them back in and it went away with a slight vibration still but now above 60mph and it levels out above 80mph. I am considering spinning them around 180 degrees to see what that does.

Do a search and you will find some good pics with overlays showing the overall effect lowering has on the pinion angle. I wish I had measured mine before I started.

Robert

 

I agree you should measure your pinion angle before arbitrarily flipping or removing anything. There is more info and the overlays Robert mention in this thread:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=118640

 

Got it.

I took a small hit on my trade in. What helped out was the lower interest rate that they gave me on the L plus the tax break for having a trade in. The dealership that i purchased my cobra from would only give me 25K for it. I found two other dealerships that were willing to negotiate and played them against each other.

The cobra is awsome and I enjoyed every minute of owning it. The L on the other hand offers the same awsome power with a little more comfort and practicality. In the end I am happy with my decision.

 

Hmm when I did my Drop kit on my 2000, there were no shims. Is this a new thing with the 03's cause of that bad rake you guys have??

 

robs03lightning,

Agreed.... The L actually gets more looks than the Snake did. Most people just think it's another Mustang. The L leaves no one thinking it's JUST A F 150!...

Did the dealer sell your Snake? The dealer sold mine in 5 days.

Being new to Texas, I had NO IDEA about the tax on the trade in! Man, what a GREAT surprise!

Mac..

 

Well, 2 days after i purchased my L, I got a call from my salesman who stated that they had a buyer for my car but the buyer had some questions regarding what mods I had done. My salesman wanted to know if he could give the guy my phone number so that he could call me.

Of course I asked, "what's in it for me"? We didn't agree that i was going to help them sell my car when i purchased the L. He offered to give me some free oil changes. I live 50 miles away from the dealership so i told him to keep the oil changes. I agreed to do it only because I wanted my baby to have a nice home.

The guy called and i gave him a run down of everything that i had done. I told him that all my mods were professionally installed. It had 6 coats of Zaino and had always been hand washed. It was a weekender that slept in the garage a majority of the time. It was babied from birth and there was NOTHING wrong with it.

I never heard whether he purchased it or not. If he didn't then he was a fool because, I was completely honest with him and had no reason to lie.

Yeah, my taxes were like $200 as opposed to $2,000 without a trade in.