Shelby drop reversing

[towm8er 10]

my mustang has ben Shelby dropped according to a friend how do i reverse this. I want to go with a one inch drop in the end

[latoracing 256]

Does your shock tower have an extra set of holes drilled 1" lower than the stock holes, like this?

 

 

Those hole are the "Shelby" drop which relocate the UCA in order to give the front suspension more camber. The location does little for actual ride height, but more for handling. If these holes are present on your ride, use the lower bolt holes. If it doesn't have them, I would suggest drilling some. Your springs are where the ride height is adjusted.

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Why would you want to reverse it?

 

Maybe some reading for the purpose of it is in order. The following is from: http://dazecars.com/dazed/drop.html

 

A Little History:

- The Upper Control Arm, or UCA drop AKA Shelby Drop, or Arning drop, is one of the more beneficial and easily the most cost effective suspension upgrade that can be made to a 1965 to 1970 Mustang (also works for Falcons and Cougars). This simple act of lowering the mounting point of the upper control arm does more for the way a classic Mustang handles than many expensive aftermarket components, and the best part is, other than the cost of your time, the modification is free, or almost free. Most refer to this performance upgrade as the Shelby Drop. This is due to the fact that the only Mustangs that arrived on the showroom floor with this modification were the 1965 and early 1966 Shelby models. The UCA drop was just one of the many modifications made by Shelby and his crew to these Mustangs. Even though most refer to this modification as the Shelby drop, in all actuality, if this modification were to be more accurately named we would call it the Arning Drop. Klaus Arning was a Ford suspension engineer who designed this modification to go with a rear IRS system he had designed for the early Mustang. Ford decided against the beter camber UCA location on the production line, however Arning was able to pass the info for the UCA relocation on to Shelby, who incorporated it into his cars.

- Most likely the reason ford located the UCA where they did was to create a camber curve that lent it self to understeer. Understeer is a situation where due to slight traction loss in the front wheels the car does not corner to a degree of sharpness that the angle of the tires would suggest. It is common practice among automobile manufacturers to configure production cars deliberately to have a slight understeer. If a car understeers slightly, it tends to be more stable (with drivers of less ability) if a violent change of direction occurs, thus improving safety. This does not mean the UCA drop is unsafe, it just means if you are going to make the steering more responsive and you need to drive the car with that in mind.

 

What Does The UCA Drop Do?

- Three factors make lowering the UCA an improvement in handling. First, this modification to the suspension lowers the center of gravity on the front of the car; second, body roll is reduced by 7% to 9%; and third, the camber curve is improved.

- The center of gravity is a geometric property that relates to any shape, but to keep things simple and related to the topic of automobiles, it is basically the internal balancing point from all directions of a car. When you do the UCA drop, you moderately lower the overall height of the front of the car, which in turn lowers the center of gravity. Easier understanding the application of the center of gravity and how it plays a role in vehicle stability can be illustrated by looking at the stability changes in a canoe based on passenger position. If you sit down on the floor of a canoe (low center of gravity) then the boat is extremely stable and nearly impossible to overturn. If you rise up and sit on the seats, the canoe becomes noticeably less stable, but still functional. Finally, if you stand up in a canoe (high center of gravity), the boat becomes completely unstable and will most likely overturn. In the same way the lower the center of gravity is on a vehicle, the more stable it will be.

 

- Body roll is a major issue in classic Mustangs. The structure of the Ford Mustang is what is referred to as a unibody design. This means that rather than a stiff full-length frame, the body is built in such a way that it is self-supporting. This design is lighter and was more cost effective for Ford, however, during cornering, especially as you first enter and begin to exit a corner, the Mustang body flexes and results in reduced handling accuracy. When you lower the UCA, you reduce the leverage that the UCA has on the inner fender/shock tower, which in turn reduces the force applied to the body during cornering and thus reduces body roll.

- The biggest improvements afforded by the UCA drop come from an improved camber curve. Camber is the leaning in or out of the tires. The more negative camber you have the more rubber to road contact you have. If the top of the wheels leans in toward the engine compartment, the wheel has negative camber, whereas if the top of the wheels leans out away from the engine, the wheel has positive camber. In the same way, during cornering or when encountering inconsistencies in the road, if, due to suspension travel, the top of the wheels leans in toward the engine compartment, the wheel has a negative camber curve, or if the top of the wheels leans out away from the engine, due to suspension travel, then the wheel has a positive camber curve. The stock camber curve of the Mustang is positive so, as you corner or if you hit a bump, the top of the wheels leans out, reducing camber, and thus, reducing rubber to road contact which results in inferior handling. By relocating the UCA, the Mustang camber curve is changed from positive to negative, which significantly improves handling. Also, another added benefit of the UCA drop is that the arc of the camber curve is flattened, which results in a much smaller change in camber during full range of suspension motion. So, the camber of the wheels stays closer to the specification it was aligned to during a full range of suspension motion.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Grabber70Mach
To add text

[towm8er 10]

Looks like i need to pull my car apart a little more before taking someone elses advice. .... i do know the front end is slammed and bottos out

[RPM 1,190]

Keep the Shelby drop if it's done. The one inch lowering of the upper control arms is not the reason your suspension is bottoming out. Someone probably cut the springs too much. Hard to tell without pics.

 

Bob

[towm8er 10]

As soon as i can get pictures ill post some

[towm8er 10]

Thank you for all the information i hope thete is a Shelby drop. Now to find out why my front end is d

Slammed.

[very fat and very dumb 40]

My Mach has the drop, if you jack up the car with the suspension hanging the sway bar hits the harmonic balancer hard enough to stop the engine. It has perplexed me for 30+ years. I replaced the sway bar and hardware, no difference.

I just got the car back from paint and was planning to go back to the stock holes, any thoughts on this?

[very fat and very dumb 40]

My Mach has the drop, if you jack up the car with the suspension hanging the sway bar hits the harmonic balancer hard enough to stop the engine. It has perplexed me for 30+ years. I replaced the sway bar and hardware, no difference.

I just got the car back from paint and was planning to go back to the stock holes, any thoughts on this?

[zstang 10]

My Mach has the drop, if you jack up the car with the suspension hanging the sway bar hits the harmonic balancer hard enough to stop the engine. It has perplexed me for 30+ years. I replaced the sway bar and hardware, no difference.

I just got the car back from paint and was planning to go back to the stock holes, any thoughts on this?

 

Use the "Big Block" sway bar it hangs lower and also kind of acts like a oil pan guard. The 1" is the one I went with.

[zstang 10]

My Mach has the drop, if you jack up the car with the suspension hanging the sway bar hits the harmonic balancer hard enough to stop the engine. It has perplexed me for 30+ years. I replaced the sway bar and hardware, no difference.

I just got the car back from paint and was planning to go back to the stock holes, any thoughts on this?

 

Use the "Big Block" sway bar it hangs lower and also kind of acts like a oil pan guard. The 1" is the one I went with.