New Mid eye grab a tracks are on

[Boogerschnot 12]

Its way too low.. But I did figure out that the Grande' came stock with the rubber spring insulators.. it looks like this: in order of installation

 

-spring mount plate on rear end

-spacer

-bracket shaped like this: I__I (upside down) goes around the spring

-rubber pad inside the bracket

-leaf spring

-another rubber pad

-bottom plate (shock plate)

 

I tried installing using both the rubber pads but couldnt get the U bolts all the way through due to the extra 1/2 leaf, So I took off the bottom rubber pad and installed and the thing droped the car at least 2 inches.. So I looked up the exploded diagram and realized that I need to pull that spacer and the bracket/rubber out of there so that it sits right.. Right now all that suff is acting as a lowering block.. It sucks.. Im about 1.5 inches off of the tire in the rear.. and my camera quit working so Im stuck without any photos..

[jmlay 80]

Interesting but it does make sense they would have this like the Cougar's.

 

Mike

[Boogerschnot 12]

I posted this as a fair warning to any Grande' owners that are going to replace the leafs in the future..

 

I pulled the [_] shaped bracket/rubber off and stacked about 7 washers onto the u bolt so that I had enough thread to tighten the shock plate up to the spring and squish everything back together.. I noticed the U bolts were 2 inches longer than the regular stock bolts and only threaded about half the length up.. More threads were needed to tighten everything back up without the spacers, so I made due with the washers..

[Boogerschnot 12]

If you own a Grande' with original suspension just remember that when you replace the leafs you will either need new U bolts or lots of washers due to how far up the bolt the threads go.. and If you buy a lowering spring and decide to leave the rubber insulators on it is going to drop the car about 2 inches instead of 1..

[bnickel 10,004]

i still think you have a cougar rearend. the tapered spacer is used because to correct the pinion angle because the longer spring on the cougar moves the rearend back and puts the pinion at the wrong angle to the transmission. a grande doesn't need that tapered spacer since it doesn't have that problem due to it being the same wheelbase as the standard mustang.

[Boogerschnot 12]

It wasnt tapered though.. Just a spacer..

[bnickel 10,004]

there wasn't a wedge shaped spacer in it all ?

[Boogerschnot 12]

Nope.. Not wedge shaped.. Just a spacer about as thick as a pencil all the way around with two lips that snugged up around the spring perch

[bnickel 10,004]

hmm, well then i don't know what you've got there. i've still never seen a grande with a rear like that. i've been wrong before so maybe i'm wrong here too but i still don't think that's a factory mustang setup.

[vc351w 0]

I also have never seen a Grande with that spring/bracket/spacer set up. I agree it must be a Cougar rear end set up.

[Boogerschnot 12]

It sure looked like it had never been changed, I will try and get the part numbers off of the spacers tonight or tomorrow.. The rear is starting to settle so Im going to have to take out the spacer that I left on due to the idiotic back spacing the PO used on the rear wheels.. Its starting to rub on decent bumps.. I cant wait to get some that actually fit the car.