Opentracker

My boy in the back seat with our GPS tells me how fast I'm going and when I'm speeding almost every mile we drive down the road.

You do not want to use the factory settings. They don't have enough caster and allow for positive camber. I have these settings on my street car. 0 - camber 2.5deg positive caster 1/8" toe in We have some performance specs on our web site.

2 The other option was to move the spring perch out on upper control arm approx. 1 inch and use stock small block spring and trim as needed to obtain ride height. This is a track/road race modification that he said would help with handling. I corrected the post a little. We often move the spring perch out on the upper arm closer to the ball joint to get a better motion ratio. it doesn't upset the angle of the coil and it does enhance the handling of the cars. The " one inch perch move " as we call it adds about 125lbs to the spring rate and raises the car 1/2". I suggested using the small block spring with the perch move because it would raise the spring rate to something close to the stock big block spring. My thinking is that a 450lb-ish spring would work good for this application. BandBSTANGS wants to do some drag racing with the car so I recommended not using the 600# spring so the car would leave the line a little better. He wants good handling on the street too so the #1 or #2 option would do that for him without being too stiff.

It looks like the perch is pointed at the shock tower cover, not the center of the upper spring seat ( hole the shock goes through). To bow a spring, the top or the bottom has to be at an odd angle. With the car sitting like it is in the bottom photo, try and rotate the perch to see if you can get the bow out of the spring.

Is the bow inward or outward?

It will be interesting to see how the mid eyes fit. With 5.5" of backspacing, your about as far inwards as you can go with that. Getting the cars to sit right can take a lot of effort. I hope this works out for you.

I put 275's on the back of our 68 Ranchero without any mods, not even rolling the fender lip. The wheel I used on the Ranchero had 5 1/4" of backspacing on a 8" wheel. Your tire should fit in the wheel well with the right backspacing. How much room do you have between the inside of the tire and the leaf spring?

I think the mid eye spring will hold the fender lip above the tire but driving the car over just a medium sized bump, the tire would hit the fender lip. With a full tank of gas and someone in the back seat, it would be worse. Sorry to say but the ride height you have now isn't safe from tire rub. With some weight in the car, the car could easily have tire rub. If the fender lip hasn't been rolled, it would cut the tire, not just rub it. It looks kinda cool the way it sits. I like it but it's your car and your the one that has to be happy walking up to it.

You can but having the rear end housing spaced an inch away from the leaf springs gives the torque leverage to stretch, bend or break the U-bolts. The lowering blocks can crack as well. If you try the lowering blocks, keep an eye on them and don't do any hard burnouts. The lowering blocks would be a good way to test if the mid eye leafs will work for you.

I would go with the mid eye leafs. I haven't had a set of leafs settle a huge amount. I don't think your going to get a full inch drop from where you are now just by driving the car for a while.

We sell the Scott Drake springs. The rate on the 4.5 is 175lbs. Did you torque the front bolt with the car up in the air? The mid eye normally holds the car with the fender lip about an inch above the tire.

I cut the threaded rod on mine about 3". I put it in the spring where I wanted it and cut the rest off. I've used it like that for years and it works good. They come with a long rod so they can be used on tall springs. Ours are short so the rod needs to be shorter and yes, it is a real pain in the perch.

I have the 4 finger compressor. I cut the threaded rod a little shorter so it's easier to use. The issue with getting the spring out and in is to have the suspension relaxed enough so the upper arm is resting on the frame. If the upper arm isn't dropped all the way, the spring is harder to remove / install. Nice looking suspension !

John - I'll be around tonight if you want to call.

The leaf springs on our site are from Scott Drake but we can get the leafs from Mustangs Plus as well. The 5 leaf has a spring rate of 195lbs. You won't get a lot of travel with them unless you have people in the back seat. I would call them stiff from a ride quality standpoint. I agree with 1969_Mach1. It is very difficult to guess final ride height because the cars are all a little different. The 295/50 is 26.7" tall, just tad taller than a 245/60. My best guess is that with the 5 leaf standard height spring, your finder lip will be more than 1" above the tire. Most of the time, the mid eye leafs hold the car about an inch above the tire. You can shoot me an email or I can give you a call if you like. I can work with you on a return if your not happy with the ride height but our vendors won't take the springs back if they have been scratched up. They need to look new so they can resell them.

I stock height 5 leaf spring should work for you. The original leafs have most likely sagged at least one inch over the years so a new set of 5 leafs in standard height should raise the car 1" or more. We have them for $210 pr.

I would agree . The mid eye leaf will hold the car about where that car is in the photo. A reverse eye leaf will be lower than that. That car looks to be about an inch lower than stock. That's what the mid eye leaf does. The reverse spring is about a 2" drop from stock. The top of the tire would match the fender lip with a reverse eye leaf. We have both on our site if your interested.

We've been selling the Viking double adjustable shock for a couple of years and everyone likes them. If your going to spend the money for a double adjustable shock, the Viking is a better value than the other double adjustable shocks on the market. The Bilstein is a very good shock for a non-adjustable shock. For a non-adjustable, they would get my vote.

We have the Cal-Trac on our site and the feedback we have is they don't add a lot of road noise. The front alum bushing pivots freely and stops the twist of the leaf spring in the corners so the cars ride a little smoother and handle better. Being adjustable, they let the user set them so the car will leave straight. We haven't had any bad feedback at all and they do absolutely stop the wheel hop. http://opentrackerracing.com/product/calvert-racing-cal-tracs/

The rubber bushing in the spring perch holds the perch at a particular angle and it won't move from that angle. After the perch is bolted to the upper arm and the shock is bolted to the spring perch, you have to move the upper arm to align the top of the shock with the upper shock mount. When you move the suspension from that point, the perch puts side load on the shock, causing bind. With a freely moving spring perch, like a roller perch, there isn't the side load on the shock and the suspension moves without the bind.

Yes, I've had that happen many times before I started using roller spring perches. The rubber bushing perches don't like to rotate so you have to move the suspension up or down until the top of the shock lines up with the top mount. When you move the suspension, the rubber bushing perches put a huge side load on the shock. The suspension pivot points should all move freely for a good ride quality and good handling.

Those rubber bushing spring perches don't like to pivot but if they did, we could see that the curved cut out in the front of the perch is there to clear the ball joint dome as the suspension compresses. If you turn the perch around ( with the tab towards the wheel ) the perch body would hit the ball joint dome when the perch rotated. The brown rust dist round the perch bolt means the bolt is loose and the perch is rocking. If left alone, it will crack the upper arm if it hasn't already.

The ball joint dome on your upper arms looks to be elongated. Some of the aftermarket arms, like the one in the photo below, have a ball joint dome that is more round and may give more tire clearance. The 4.25 backspacing on the wheel should fit as that is the optimum backspacing. The TA radial tires have more bulge on the side wall than some other tires, that could be part of the issue as well. Grinding back the dome is a good idea. I've done that before to get a wheel with 4.5" of backspacing to fit.

The upper arms do come pre-greased so it may be a case that the shaft kit has enough grease. You don't want to push too hard with the grease gun. That could push out the O ring dust seal around the shaft kit. If later on you have issues with it taking grease let me know and I'll send you another set of fittings. We like to take care of our customers long after the sale. There may be too much grease in the ball joint.. Those dust boots come off by prying up with a screw driver. There is a metal ring around the bottom that holds it on to the ball joint body. You could take it off and remove some of the grease. I agree with the others that having the dust boot too full can cause a split. You will like those arms. The time we spend on them to make sure the shaft kit is centered and the bushings are adjusted properly makes for a long lasting upper arm that moves smooth, fits the car well and won't squeak.

We install the grease fitting extender kits in the upper arms we sell so I have a lot of those 90deg fittings that we get with our Scott Drake upper arms and they take grease pretty well. I'll send you a set for free if you'll pay the shipping. Send me an email .