[RICK LAKE]

Shelby Racer John, thanks for the pictures. Now for the bad news.IMO and I am not a person that did 4-8 years of college, this setup is junk in my eyes.
#1 the upper support is bolted to the splindle plate. How many bolts are in this? 2, or 3? Why is it not welded or both?? This looks like something a 10 year built with a band saw and drill press.
#2 There are NO washers on the bottom of the Allen heads bolts to help spread out the load to the flat plate.
#3 What material is the assembly made with? Part steel, Part Aluminum? I work on Vettes, C4 and up. The hub assemblys are 4 bolt to the spindle with 10mm threaded bolts with loctite. The hubs look the same as 1/2 ton truck units. This micky mouse setup scares me just to look at. If this was the original setup from the 60's no wonder they had wobbling in turns from the side load put on this setup. I know they are ran wire wheels until mags came along.
#4 An Axle nut that is pined to hold this assembly together, IMO is not as strong as a solid splindle to hold a brake rotor to the spindle. How do you load the bearings on this setup?? You can perload them, roadtest the car a couple of times, but then need to recheck them for wheel play and tighen them until you get a lite drag. This works good on a pinion setup for a rearend of a car but not where you need only 5-10 inch pounds of drag on the hub for the bearings to be set. Too tight and you wear out the bearings.
#5 Heat cycles will also cause a problem with looseness. Any combo of steel an Aluminum will cause to different metals expanding and contracting at to different speeds. This is why on my hats and rotors every bolt is safty wired to the next to pervent the bolts coming loose. I see no safety wire on any of these bolts in the pictures. If the nuts are nyloc, that's OK unless they are under extreme heat and the nyloc plastic melts.
#6 The lower ball joint is CLAMPED to the splindle plate??? 2 bolts taking almost 1"G" and all the weight of the car?? Mine are pressed in and now tack welded to insure they don't come loose.
I will get off my soap box now and let the smarter people hand this. I am gald that I didn't have the money to buy a CSX car for the POOR ENGINEERING DESIGNS I see in this car with a valve of $100K. There are 12 year old kids from India that could do a better job in design an this. I can see why they have changed the design if this is true. I wonder how many other Shelby owners with this frontend setup have had problems or have a problem and just don't know it with this series of car??? This could have been engineered so much better and make have even saved money for SAI. Anybody get a low speed vibration in the car when cruising or a come and go vibration in the steering wheel? I would jack up the front end and try and see if there is ANY PLAY. If there is, Locate it and have it checked and fixed. Rick L.