1983 Ford Mustang

From what I can tell so far (thanks loumash), I probably don't really want the "lift bars" in there. For now, I think I'll probably just swap out to some stock control arms the next time I do significant work back there. (I have no fewer than 3 sets of stock ones. I'll have to see if the SN95 ones are different and/or offer any advantage.

I think I should probably get some better shocks as first priority, springs the nextest priority, and fancy suspension bits after that. And frankly, the front will probably get attention first. Time will tell.

I'm using stock heads from the '93. I didn't really say much about it earlier, but I ended up with some Ford Motorsport stainless shorty headers with ceramic coating. So far, so good. If the coating holds up, I'll be very happy with them. And if it doesn't...at least the stainless should last a while ;)

I'm running the same headers on my 302. So far, they are holding up nicely.

If you are on a budget, then for rear suspension I'd use stock lowers and the "police/taxi" uppers. If budget allows, . Or you can find them used, I'd go with maximum motorsoports lowers. A good set of bilstiens would be nice too.

Any drag oriented suspension stuff will be 180 deg from where you want to be.

Cool project, btw!

The best bang for the buck brake upgrade is the stock 94-98 Mustang stuff. Even the v6 cars have rear disks and are a huge improvement over the pre 87 or 87-93 parts. Cobra stiff is obviously better still, but the base stuff is miles better than the 80's generation.

As far as springs you don't want to lower it too much. If you was a decent ride the 93 cobra uses a 4cyl rear non progressive rear spring combined with a stiffer front spring.

93 Mustang Cobra rate is f./r. 425-530 160

If you want somethhing stiffer I'd suggest an FMS C spring which has only .5-.8". drop and front 425/530. Rear 200/300 rates. They are only $189 at lmr.com.

I spent the weekend being frustrated with Brakes. Trying to bleed the rears after the rear brake line work left us with a tripped safety valve in the proportioning/distribution/warning light block. And I couldn't get it to reset for the life of me. I tried opening a front bleeder and slowly pumping the brake pedal. I tried a sledge hammer on the pedal (again with a front bleeder open). I tried compressed air on both ends of both ends of the brakes (you read it right...not a typo ).

Finally, I got to reading about other peoples' rear disk swaps. It seems the thing to do there is "gut" the proportioning valve and put an adjustable valve in the rear brake line.

So...I went that route. I pulled some partsandpieces out of the proportioning/distribution/switch block and welded the hole in the cap.

I'm still not sure why or how, exactly, but this enabled me to get fluid flowing so I could successfully bleed the brakes. All 4 corners.

And I now have a Summit adjustable proportioning valve en route. A couple of test drives don't indicate any major misbalance of braking...but I haven't tested under conditions that would really tell me much. I'll plumb the adjustable valve in and then be ready for the disk brakes in the rear when that happens.

Disk brakes could happen soon. I picked up an 8.8" rearend with good gears and disk brakes this weekend too!

The aforementioned test drives made clear the lack of sway bar on the front of the car. One was in the car when I bought it (like...inside the interior just laying there)...and I pulled another off of the '93 Parts car. So tonight I wire-wheeled one up and applied some of the Rustoleum "Hammered" paint that Woody mentioned earlier in the thread. Also, I picked up some new sway bar end links at work this morning. In a couple days, I'll throw it together and see how it feels.

loumash wrote: The best bang for the buck brake upgrade is the stock 94-98 Mustang stuff. Even the v6 cars have rear disks and are a huge improvement over the pre 87 or 87-93 parts. Cobra stiff is obviously better still, but the base stuff is miles better than the 80's generation.

I actually have most of the parts to do this! (Harvested from the SN95 Parts car and then an 8.8 I got this weekend...lots of parts.) That is my plan for budget brakes that should be sufficient for my goals with the car.

I put the sway bar on the front tonight and took it for a spin (not literally). That made a world of difference for the better.

Every improvement reveals the next scariest thing with the car. Now it's the tires. But I'm not putting new tires on until I have the front suspension freshened up. So...I'd better start doing something about that, I guess.

I eliminated the proportioning valve on my '87 Mark VII, which is, for most intents and purposes, basically a heavy, long wheelbase Fox Mustang GT. I liked the unmuddled, direct feedback and I didn't notice any dangerous behavior, even in snow. It locked up all four brakes simultaniously when pushed past the limit of adhesion. It had disc brakes all around.

Kind of miss that car.

Last night I took it for a spin and a tire came apart. Fortunately, I was pretty much expecting that from these old junk tires. No drama.

 Today I put a spare on and pulled it into the barn and started pulling out the rearend.

That last one is just a couple of bolts and one parking brake cable shy of the rearend being free from the car.

I now have an 8.8" rearend with disk brakes! Unfortunately (or not...) I ended up with one that is from an SN95 car. It's a little wide, but I don't think it will be too wide. In the long run, I may end up with a narrower one (fox body width) but this will hopefully do for how.

Stuff that has changed since the last post: -8.8 limited slip rear with 3.27 gears and disk brakes (7.5 LSD with as yet unknown gears and drum brakes came out) -Stock rear lower control arms with (old) rubber bushings (Southside Machine arms came out) -Springs from the '93 Convertible with 1/2 coil cut off. -21mm rear sway bar (what came out was 18mm) that I pulled off the '94 or '95 parts car. -KYB AGX adjustable shock absorbers. I took it for a test drive and I'm mostly happy. Last time I drove the car, the front end felt solid and the rearend creaked, popped, and would bind up and snap-oversteer. With these changes the rear feels solid and the front end feels sloppy again. Like I said before...every issue I address brings out the next scariest aspect of the car One unfortunate change is that the car now has wheel hop coincident with wheel spin under throttle. I assume the solid bushings in the drag-race control arms in there before may have helped avoid this. I'm not sure. Does anyone know if urethane bushing in lower control arms (only) might help alleviate this? Overall, it was a good step in the right direction. The front suspension is the next major point to address.

Oh also...the right side is now riding higher than the left. I expect it might be that I didn't get a spring seated quite right or there is some preload on the rear suspension bushings from not tightening them in the correct/balanced state. Or maybe the springs are just way different. Their history is unknown to me before I pulled them out of the parts car. It's also been sitting on the ground for about 30 minutes in these photos. So, I'm not too worried about it...I'll figure it out one way or the other (and rear springs are easy relative to front springs).

 Here are some shots, also, showing what an SN95 rear looks like in a fox body. These are the Bullitt style wheels. I'll have to refresh my memory on the tire size on there (and yes, the tires are completely bald). 

The southsides help alot for wheelhop on non quad shock cars. Lakewoods rear shocks (50/50s) really helped my capri with wheelhop but there pretty much drag race oriented.

My wagon doesnt wheel hop but its a combination of lack of power and monroe severe duty shocks. Its either planted or spinning with no inbetween.

I'm running fresh bushings on the chassis side and sphericals from UPR on the axle side for my upper control arms. Running Maximum motorsport lowers. I removed the dog bone and quad shocks. Haven't had a wheel hop yet.

There are lots of options for arms. Just don't stiffen the upper body side or bad things happen unless you are just going to drag race it.

I also went to an SN95 rear, used a 93 cobra master, three to two line adapter and a Ford Racing prop valve. So far so good.

Those wheels fit nice, what size are they? I'm running 17 x 8 Ponys with a 25mm offset. Some day when I get some track wheels I'll look for 17 or 18 x 8.5 or 9" with a 35 to 45 offset. This is a real common size for lots of Jap cars and works well with the SN95 axle.

In reply to ClemSparks:

That looks badass!

petegossett wrote: In reply to ClemSparks: That looks badass!

Thanks! Though, I'm personally looking forward to seeing it with matching front wheels (and brakes, and struts, etc).

Speaking of front-end stuff...

I have SN95 Spindles and brakes to go on. From what research I've done (of other peoples' experience) it sounds like I should stick with a Strut for a fox body application. If anyone knows or believes otherwise...holler.

I've talked myself into keeping the stock fox body lower control arms. I think the SN95s will give me too much track width (and therefore fender/tire clearance issues). I think just using the SN95 spindles/hubs (on Fox control arms) will increase track width a bit...but not "too much". Someone correct me if I'm wrong here as well.

I also need to put some ball joints for an SN95 into my fox control arms I think. The other fix is to use spacers/washers...but might as well do it right since I will be replacing ball joints anyway.

And for bushings. I see there are urethane bushing available withOUT the metal outer shell. I infer that means I can remove the rubber bushing from the existing shell and just slide the new bushing in. Has anyone done this? Did it work out ok? (I've never replaced bushings on street car control arms before and I'm pretty much dreading it...but this sounds a little easier). The alternative would be to get the bushings WITH the metal outer shells and just pay the local machine shop to press them out and back in for me. I'm open to discussion on what's best here. I have zero qualms paying someone to do it right and save myself some aggravation.

akylekoz wrote: Those wheels fit nice, what size are they?

Thanks for the info on rear suspension and brake master. I have the '95 master cylinder from the parts car. I think I've read that will work...but I don't know what all I'll have to do to make it work. I'll have to figure that out. Or...if a '93 Cobra one works better (or is easier to plumb in) I may go that route.

Back to the wheels. They're 17". I'm not really sure on the width but I assume 8". Also not sure on backspace or offset, but I could check the backspace. I picked up a spare (with a different, lighter gray paint) that has no tire on it (easier to measure backspace).

For spindles stick with 94-95, with stock ball joint length. Another option is 96 and newer spindles with Steeda X2 ball joints. The difference between the 95 and 96 spindle is the tie rod end location, there is about 1" different in height. If you use 96 and newer spindles with stock length ball joints you will get terrible bump steer.

One more thing on the spindles 94-95 are about the same width the 96 up are around 3/8 wider per side. My avatar has 1998 with cobra brakes, 1" offset wheels.

Another trick to help it handle is to remove the steering rack and remove 1/4" from the back where it mounts to the K-member. Foxes have reverse ackerman steering anything you can do here helps. I have a jig if you have access to a mill.

Yes, my SN95 spindles are from the '94/'95 parts car I dismantled earlier in the thread. The fact that these are the good spindles to use (bump steer considerations) are one of the big reasons I bought that car.

ClemSparks wrote: And for bushings. I see there are urethane bushing available withOUT the metal outer shell. I infer that means I can remove the rubber bushing from the existing shell and just slide the new bushing in. Has anyone done this? Did it work out ok? (I've never replaced bushings on street car control arms before and I'm pretty much dreading it...but this sounds a little easier). The alternative would be to get the bushings WITH the metal outer shells and just pay the local machine shop to press them out and back in for me. I'm open to discussion on what's best here. I have zero qualms paying someone to do it right and save myself some aggravation.

You can burn out the rubber bushings and install poly in their place. I did it with a cheap propane torch, it is a pretty nasty job, make sure you do it in a very well ventilated space.

Well...I suppose 16 acres is well-ventilated enough. We'll see how this experiment goes. I lit one control arm worth of bushings (2) on fire this evening.

One thing I noticed was little smoking meteors the size of grains of sand shooting off of the bushings while they burned. When I came into the house and had some good light, I found that some of these landed on my hands and forearms. It hadn't burned or hurt...but the residue from them was some nasty, greasy, black tar. Let's just say if this stuff were available commercially, the MSDS would likely contain a warning against getting it on your hootus.

Anyway...they're out there smoldering in the gravel driveway now. It could be great...or I could swear myself off this method forever. I'll let you know.

On the rear suspension. I checked the rear springs yesterday and it did look like the one on the right wasn't quite seated right. Point of reference for those who don't already know: cutting rear springs on a fox body doesn't work very well. The top end (that I cut) is "flattened" and when you cut it, it doesn't want to go back in and seat properly. The bottom end is a reduced diameter coil ("pigtail" I guess) so you can't really cut that end.

I cut another half coil off the rear springs, got them seated properly, twisted some bolts back together, and drove it 3 miles. the right side was still noticeably higher than the left.

I looked things over, loosened all the rear suspension bolts, and came to the conclusion that (hopefully) the springs are just out-of-whack. That's a technical term meaning maybe the one I had in the left has just "worn out" over time, settled, something. What I know about materials says the spring rate shouldn't change over time. But what the internet says about springs is that it happens in the real world.

I want the thing to sit a little lower. Loumash, I appreciate your advice not to lower it too much...but would be interested in further discussion on this.

It's sitting like a monster truck on the springs that I've had in it. I'm more into function...but I would like it to look good, too. (well...good is a stretch for this car, but you probably understand what I mean by now).

I do realize that lowering the front does bad things for camber gain. Not sure how bad that is. I'd prefer to put drop spindles on it...but I don't know if there is such a thing and if there is, I'm guessing the price tag will make me grimmace. I wasn't even wanting to spend ~$200 on lowering springs...but I might.