Installing New Front Suspension

The old mustand is a weak, saggy, 1960's technology - p.o.s. with the turning prowess of a Winnebago. It is my goal to bring it up to today's standards. I took off the upper and lower control arms, the coil springs, shock towers, and strut rod. Steering replacement will have to wait for more $$$.

The removal was straightforward but I would highly recommend to do this with the engine out for ease of installing the new upper control arms. I used global west upper and lower arms, strut ruds, and coil springs. I used koni shocks and open-tracker roller coil spring perches. I also welded-in earlier the Pro-Motorsport Shock Tower Reinforcement kit (blogged at an earler post). I purchased the vario-eccentric lower control arm kit as well.

I drilled new holes for the upper control arms (with one of those $30 step down bits - worth the money, trust me). The strut rod required a monster 1.5" socket with a 3/4" adaptor to install!! Can't use a wrench because of clearnence isssues.

The lower control arm installation required an hour or two of machining the housing to fit the new arm. Further welding and machining with a die-grinder was required to fit the new Vario-Eccentric kit which allows you to set camber by adjusting the lower control arm pivot point. This was a pain in the ass, and once again, Pro-Motorsports expects too much of their shade-tree mechanics.

Nevertheless, I installed all the components, sans sway bar (not needed for test drive). The car is totally out of alignment, but I can still drive out of the house for once! Well, not really. As soon as I pulled out of the garage, my brakes failed. Doh! With the help of some neighbors, we pushed the car back in. A week later, I replaced the master cyliner, bled the brakes, and tada, drove the car out of the garage.

The alignment was really bad and I left tire marks (from the front tires) for the two blocks I had to drive the car to my fiance's house. I was renting out my house and moving into my fiance's house, so I had to move the car; not a minute too late - as my renters were moving in right when I drove her out!