Front Suspension

[Jimjific 23]

Well, I’m finally getting to posting some pictures of my front suspension upgrades that I did this past summer. Out of the 10+ Mustangs that I’ve had the pleasure to own, this one was probably the worst handling car I’ve ever had. The front end was downright scary to drive.

 

The plan is to pull the old suspension out including the power system and replace with a rack set-up (I will go over this debacle on another thread), coil overs (TCP), 1 1/8†sway bar w/poly bushings, disc brakes and hiem jointed lower struts (Already made these and installed them).

 

This is what I basically started with. I already took out the jointed front strut that I made.

 

Left side completely disassembled. Looks like someone reinforced the lower part of the shock tower at some time. They only did the left side, not sure why.

 

Here is the old power steering unit and drum brakes.

 

Here is probably one of the reasons that the car handled so bad. Notice the stacking of the washers on this sway bar link. They had the one washer on the wrong side of the bushing so the spacer just pushed through the bushing which made the sway way less effective.

 

New 1 1/8†sway bar alone will help out greatly.

 

Old Upper Arm next to the new Upper Arm. Notice the difference? I’ve never seen the style that I pulled off on a Mustang before. I’m not really sure where they came from, but I assume that they aren’t original. More on this to come….

 

I drew up a quick template to do the “Shelby†drop. I then cut it out using my laser cutter/engraver. I used a material called hardboard. It is very similar to the material used in clip boards.

 

Here is the finished template. The upper holes are ½†same as the Upper Arms. The lower holes are for holding the punch to mark the shock tower in the new position. If anyone would like one of these, let me know, I will give you one.

 

This picture shows the welds done during a previous reinforcement or repair. Not sure since I didn’t do this.

 

The weld will cause on issue with the new arm position lying flat. As you can see by the templates right side which represents the Upper Arm contact area, there will be an interference with the weld. So out comes the grinder.

 

Here’s the template being held in place by two ½†bolts on the right side of the car.

 

Finished drilled holes. Ignore the new brake line. The new brake line is wrong for Disk Brakes.

 

So I installed the upper arms. I noticed something seemed weird when I did the passenger side. I torqued the bolt on and it just kept going. Huh? At first I thought that the stud was spinning in the arm but it wasn’t. It turns out that the stud was striped. How did this happen?

 

Well it turns out that my old arms used a fine pitch threaded stud vs. the new ones used a coarse pitch. It never dawned on me to think of this and since I was using a long handled wrench, I never felt the thread miss match.

 

So now all of my nuts and the new arm studs are all ruined. A run to my local hardware store got me some fine pitch nuts and I pressed out the studs and switched them with my old arms studs. By the way, if you don’t have a press, get one! They are only ~$100 and it bales me out all of the time. It has definitely paid for itself.

 

Here is the upper spring mount removed and the coil over re-enforcement plate temporarily put in. Three spot welds and some clean up was all it took to get this out.

[Jimjific 23]

So with the Upper Arms installed, It was time to put together the new coil overs. Here I’m using a straight edge to line up the lower mounts. It turns out that this step isn’t super important. I didn’t install the spring yet since I wanted to install it and see the range of motion.

Lower Arm mounted with jointed strut rod. I also have the sway bar installed. I made a video of how nice the jointed struts work by pushing up one lower arm and how the opposite arm moves with ease once the sway bar is attached. I will post if I figure out how.

Here I’ve got the shock temporarily attached to check the range of motion.

Next was getting the spring onto the shock. I thought this was going to be simple. But it needs to be compressed just a little to get the upper spring holder to slip in. My neighbor had a set of spring compressors but they were too big. So being frustrated, I needed to find a different way. I noticed that the lower spring perch could still go further if the shock adjust knob wasn’t there so I removed it.

Once removed, I was able to twist the lower spring perch some more and was able to get the spring on without a compressor. Yea!

Here is the suspension with the coil over installed.

Onto the disk brakes. I got these from a guy here on this site, who will remain nameless, that took me for quite a bit of money on really sub par parts and a rack system that didn’t work that was supposed to be new. The brakes I got from him were described to me as, “All you will need to do is bolt them up and goâ€. Hmmm. Here is a picture of one of them. Needless to say, I’m glad I took them apart before just bolting them on and going.

 

Here is the assembly on the bench. Both brake lines had needed to be replaced.

 

Here are the caliper pins. Notice how corroded they are.

It may have happened because all of the boots were ripped.

Pulled the dust cap off and there was no cotter pin on through the spindle.

 

After replacing the pin boots and tearing down and building back up, I put the rotors and brakes on the rotors. One other thing to look for when doing disk brakes is to make sure that you have the calipers on the correct side since they are not interchangeable and you will not be able to get all of the air out when bleeding. Don't ask how I know this.

 

Next up my Rack and Pinion debacle.

 

Jim

[70mstang 11]

Great info! I'm debating doing a coil over swap.

[Jimjific 23]

For the limited miles I've been able to drive the car I've really enjoyed the way they handle. One cool thing about having them is when you work on your suspension, they come out really easy with no spring compressors required. I haven't been able to play with the different shock settings since I'm working out the rack set-up and now it is winter in upstate, NY.

 

Jim

[Ry-speeed 14]

Projects make surviving the long winter months easier!

 

Make sure to update about the install.

 

Which company r&r are you installing? Manual or power?

[Jimjific 23]

I first started with a power Randalls rack and it was a disaster. Then Larry turned me on to his design and I installed that with much success. I will be posting the install when I get a chance.

 

Jim

[ashleesmach1 28]

keep it up! Looks great!

[Junior2561 10]

Great write up and pics

[Mike65 475]

For the limited miles I've been able to drive the car I've really enjoyed the way they handle. One cool thing about having them is when you work on your suspension, they come out really easy with no spring compressors required. I haven't been able to play with the different shock settings since I'm working out the rack set-up and now it is winter in upstate, NY.

 

Jim

 

Jim,

What brand coil overs are you using? Where did you get them?. They look great & seem to be easy to install. Any more updates or info about what rack system you are going to use?.

Mike.

[RPM 1,190]

Mike, they are TCP's own brand, Vari Shock I believe.

 

Bob

[Mike65 475]

Mike, they are TCP's own brand, Vari Shock I believe.

 

Bob

 

Bob, thank you for the info.

[Jimjific 23]

Mike,

 

Yes, they are TCP Vari Shock. I went with the single adjustable since it didn't seem worth the extra $200 for something I probably wouldn't need.

 

As far as the rack set up, it is coming. I've got the pictures uploaded, I just need to organize how I'm going to write it up. I also detailed how I modifief the steering shaft.

 

Jim

[Mike65 475]

Mike,

 

Yes, they are TCP Vari Shock. I went with the single adjustable since it didn't seem worth the extra $200 for something I probably wouldn't need.

 

As far as the rack set up, it is coming. I've got the pictures uploaded, I just need to organize how I'm going to write it up. I also detailed how I modifief the steering shaft.

 

Jim

 

Thanks Jim.

[70mstang 11]

Subscribed so I can get instant updates .. tax refund came in so got a little $$

[Silver_69_Coupe 31]

Mike,

 

Yes, they are TCP Vari Shock. I went with the single adjustable since it didn't seem worth the extra $200 for something I probably wouldn't need.

 

As far as the rack set up, it is coming. I've got the pictures uploaded, I just need to organize how I'm going to write it up. I also detailed how I modifief the steering shaft.

 

Jim

 

 

I am planning on doing this and am at the point of purchasing the shocks. but I am not sure what ones to get. I was thinking 350 to 400 lb springs. but I am not sure what length of shock to use. I am dropping the front a couple of inches. I measured mine setting on the spring and it was 9" from the perch to the base of the tower. That is with 1 coil cut out of the spring. (I am guessing that at factory ride height this would be about 11") I am thinking of using a 13 to 14 extended single adjustable shock with about 4 inches of travel.

 

What rating of springs are you using and what are the compressed and extended length on the shock?

[Jimjific 23]

Sorry for the late reply. Being in upstate NY the weather makes it not a lot of fun to work on the car. But, I did get to work on it this weekend. I took some measurements of my coil over springs. Uncompressed both sides measure 8-7/8" from bottom seat to upper seat. On the ground and compressed the springs measure 6-1/4". I'm not sure what the spring rates are. I will have to find my paperwork. I got them through Mustangs Unlimited and it just asked what engine I had which is a 302.

 

Jim

[Jimjific 23]

Update. My springs are marked 500.

 

One bummer thing about the coil overs is that you can't really adjust the ride height like I was thinking. Since the spring doesn't mount to the body, when you adjust the lower perch upwards it compresses the spring (Or pre-loads it) so that when you sit the car down it actually lifts the car.

 

Jim

[TexasEd 188]

Great step by step explanation.

[Jimjific 23]

So here is the start of my rack and pinion steering journey.

 

I did the typical research and just couldn’t afford the TCP unit especially since I wanted to have a power rack (By the end of all of this, I could have bought a TCP unit and more). So I decided on Randall’s Rack for the price and the good reviews that I read and also since they had a good solution for any bump steer. My big mistake was buying one used from someone on this site. I got a good bargain that turned out costing me way more than it was worth. I was told that the unit was new but installed and never run and the only thing wrong with it was the hard lines where messed up for some reason. At the time I thought it would be no big deal.

 

The Randall's rack uses a modified early 90’s GM rack from cars like a Cavalier (J Car Bodies). So since I needed new hard lines, I figured I’d by a new rack unit. They are relatively cheap. I got a remanufactured one off of e-bay for about $65. I mainly wanted it for the lines and figured I’d have an extra rack for parts if needed.

 

One thing that Randall's does is rotate the valve body slightly so that the hard lines point straight out or parallel to the brackets/frame. This makes it so that you can’t just replace the lines with OEM units. I called Randell and asked if he sold just the lines and after some attitude, he gave me some ridiculous price. One annoying thing about these lines, is that GM uses a normal flare on one end and a special flare on the other that uses an o-ring. I’m not really sure why the need for the special end since they use a typical flare on the other. So, to get things moving, I figured I could re-bend the ones that came off the one I bought. One issue was that the remanufactured unit had a repair on one of the lines and when I was modifying it I tweaked it and assumed that it might leak. But this was going to be only a temporary solution anyway since I wanted to bend some new lines that would look cleaner.

 

So here is the rack after I bent the lines. Ugly, sure, but this was only going to be temporary.

 

Here is a picture of a hole in the boot of the rack that supposedly was new.

 

Here I am straightening out one of the tie rod ends that was bent. At this point I was feeling pretty much like a sucker on the “It is new†description.

 

The rack I bought didn’t come with the correct steering shaft bearing either. So I needed to make a way to attach the DD solid shaft to the double universal shaft that goes between the column and the rack unit. To do this, I made up a shaft with a u-shape in it to capture the DD. The other end would need two flats cut into it so that it would slip into the universal shaft. Note: None of this was my preferred way of doing the linkage between the steering column and the rack. This was a band aide until I could do it better. That post will come in a bit.

 

I was able to mount an XY vise onto my band saw so I could feed the bar stock in evenly. As hokey as it was, it worked surprisingly well.

 

Here it the finished shaft. I pre drilled the shaft to get the radius on the inside of the fork. This helps reduce stress. Not shown is a collar that I machined that slips over this fork and then was roll pinned in. The collar made sure fork couldn’t expand.

 

Here is the steering shaft put back together. All that was left was to cut the bar stock to length and put to flat on it so that it could fit into the DD u-joint linkage. Note the bearing insert at the end of the column.

 

 

So after hooking everything up and getting power to the rack these next photos show what happened. The pressure lines bent and ruptured and thus spewed all of the fluid. After several attempts to solve this and spending a couple of hundred dollars on new lines that would just end up looking like this. My thoughts are that this rack system was anything but new and was probably installed and hit something hard bending the tie rod and damaging something internally. I gave up and ran the rack without power for a while.

 

Same result with lines that I had made up.

 

Here are the issues I see with Randall’s Rack:

- - The rack itself is not a standard GM J body rack. So you have to get one that is modified by Randall.

- - No other way to put this, but when I called Randall, he was pretty much a jerk. Thus issue above, becomes a bigger problem.

- - The turning radius loss is more severe than the magazines tell you.

- You lose the tubular cross member.

 

Next up….. A better solution using brackets made by Larry which saved my rack and pinion experience.

 

Jim

[sixt9stang 36]

Sorry to see you go through all of the trouble. Pretty sure I am going with a Borgeson box.

[Jimjific 23]

The trouble I went through has a good ending as the next installment of photo's will show. I love the rack set up I have now and it is the best handling Mustang I have ever owned. I have no experience with the Borgeson boxes, but the research I did suggested that they have some serious issues with returning to center.

 

Jim

[Rsanter 152]

I am installing the CPP integral power box in my 69

I chose those over the borgeson for a couple of reasons.

Part of the return to center is actually in the caster of the alignment so depending on if you go from manual to power verses power to power you may have to add some caster

 

Bob