Front suspension

[oldguy668]

I know this probably should be in the FIA forum, but it is a little generic and this forum gets more exposure:

Due to the narrowness of the front of the FIA body, and because I'm retrofitting it to a MK4 frame, I have a couple of front suspension questions.

I am switching to pin-drive lower control arms. I put them in and moved the upper arm mounting to the top holes. It looks like I'll have to narrow the rack a bit, perhaps by cutting some of the excess thread off. I'd like an idea of how much I should cut, since anyone who's installed pin drive arms has had to do it. I also have to do something about the upper control arm adjusting sleeves, because I'm about 1 light year away from zero camber. Do I cut them or order shorter ones?

[Jeff Kleiner]

RE: upper arm sleeves---I'm thinking that given the vintage of your kit you probably have the SPC arms with black adjusters and gold anodized ball joint plates and links. I've cut them in the past when running out of travel but you can get other lengths from SPC. Be aware though that you may run out of threads internally and need to cut back the male stubs a bit. Sorry, can't cite a dimension for the rack; maybe send a message to Erik T. to see of he had to do so when using the same control arm configuration (think he may be running a power rack though).

Jeff

[oldguy668]

I took a deep breath and cut the tie rods already. I'm hoping to get some guidance on the UCA issue.

[Erik W. Treves]

post a picture of what you have....I was JUST in and didn't cut anything. To do over again I would have cut them a little though :)

[oldguy668]

Here's what I have for UCA's. I moved them to the inner mounting holes, screwed the sleeves in all the way, and installed FFR pin-drive LCA's in the outboard (lower) holes. I still have about 5 degrees of positive camber. The bottom of the tire is where I want it, but the top is still 1" outside the fender lip. This is the left side. The right side has the black adjuster to the front, so I'm guessing at least one of the uppers is in backasswards.

41961

[Jeff Kleiner]

Two things Joe,
First, what spindles and adapters are you using? When going pin drive you generally use SN95 spindles with the specific pin drive spindle adapters (they'll only have 2 holes vs. 4 holes in the standard width variety). Using standard width adapters with pin drive lowers results in a bunch of positive camber...just like what it sounds like you have.

Secondly, you actually have the earlier zero degree ball joint uppers. They would have been delivered with 3 3/4" long black adjuster sleeves on both ends. The longer gold anodized sleeve is used in the front position to achieve higher caster ranges (>5 or 6 degrees positive) when using power steering. You have manual and will ultimately want something more like 3 degrees (unless you want to huff and puff your way through the high steering effort that much caster will cause) which will require changing back to the original shorter adjusters. I've got a few sets of them around here so if you need a pair just say the word and I'll send 'em.

Jeff

[first time builder]

What Jeff said ,might install the black shorter sleeves on all 4 places ,might move the ball joint in and forward.
Kenny

[oldguy668]

Jeff, I have 94-95 spindles and 4-hole adapters that FFR told me (repeatedly) were specific to pin drive. Lowest holes for 94-95 and upper holes for FOX. There seemed to be a little confusion at FFR the day I picked them up. I questioned Nate when he gave them to me because I was under the assumption that pin-drive adapters only had two holes. In any case, I'll call Jesper Monday and make sure i have the right ones. The previous owner of the kit probably swapped the gold colored adjusters in because he was planning power steering.

[Jeff Kleiner]

It's really pretty clear:

STANDARD WIDTH SPINDLE ADAPTER (http://www.factoryfiveparts.com/1987-2004-spindle-adapter-bracket/)



Product Description
...these 13819 brackets are for a standard width front suspension with 1987-2004 Mustang spindles.

PIN DRIVE WIDTH SPINDLE ADAPTER (http://www.factoryfiveparts.com/pin-drive-width-spindle-adapter-bracket/)



Product Description
...these 12507 brackets are for a pin-drive width front suspension with 1987-2004 Mustang spindles.

Jeff

[oldguy668]

Jeff, I stood at FFR between Dave, Nate and Jesper, questioning why the adapters in my hand had 4 holes. Who do you think won the argument? I'll get on the horn Monday AM.

[CraigS]

Take him up on his offer for a pair of the shorter sleeves. that gold sleeve is 5 in long which moves your BJ outward a ton. I recently did an alignment and later found that my wheel adapter had slipped out of position on one wheel and I had 1 deg less negative camber on that wheel. I had about 15 minutes to fix it and found that a single turn on both sleeves got me my camber back.

[oldguy668]

I actually found the black sleeves that the previous owner had swapped out. I just have to convince FFR that they gave me the wrong adapters.

[oldguy668]

Changed the gold sleeves to black and the difference is dramatic. I'm right about zero camber but out of adjustment. Can't cut the black tubes because I'm 1/4" away from the spring so I'm hoping the correct spindle adapter will do the trick.

[CraigS]

You can change the spacers at the top coil over mount to move the coil over rearward. I have only about 1/4 inch to the rear of the shock and a much longer one at the front.