Kirk! We're under attack!! Suspension help.
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Time to upgrade Suspension and and ready to shell outbthe dough.
Hey CR owners I'm fairly new to the club and I am thoroughly enjoying the ride, well not exactly. When cruising I'll see a bump coming and its like a scene from Das Boot where they have to brace for a depth charge or better yet when Kirk and the crew have to brace on the bridge for a Klingon attack. I come upon the bump and grit my teeth and squint my eyes and bam!. I quickly take crude inventory of whether I see parts flying off from the rear etc... Its even worse when I have a passenger. Anyway I have been reading any thread I can find on the subject and I have narrowed it down to the solution. I just need some final advise as to any reccomened specs and or missing items. Current set up.1997 CR *mustang 2 Front year? and 8.8 rear. Pictures attached. *351W. 15"with avon 245 and 295.Love the avons * 11" wilwood front brakes installed and drums on the back. *Front sway bar no rear. I want a hybrid ride with 30% track time and 70% street. When on street I am not just drag racing but taking corners too and of course cruising. I also want to hopefully bolt on and go. What I know or think I know is the following: I want the best quality for performance. Price is secondary or not a major concern. *Install QA1 2 way adjustable coilovers in the rear with what lb spring 250-300lb? Should I leave spring that is currently installed? (some have mentioned that here) *Replace front A arms with tubular but what kind Heidts, as already mentioned I have a wilwood front setup? So many options my eyes glaze over. I want the best. QA1 adjuatable coil overs in front? Spring rate front? *FYI, Phase 2 I plan on upgrading to Ididit steering column and steering gear for more precise input. *Not an expert at all so anything else I should do on this first phase or things to be aware of like replace bushings, fabrication(I will but would prefer not to have to weld brackets?) P.S. Just want to send a shout out to Texas Snake.This forum has been very helpful in that I lost a spinner awhile back and Texas Snake came to the rescue. Thanks!! |
I take it that the front sway bar is the one that came with the kit.. Ditch that as it's made for a Bronco and WAY to hefty for a Cobra... It's 1.25" I think... Handling will improve tremendously. This is per DV...
The CR should have something like a 7/8" bar. If you find one that fits. let me know what it's out of.. It's the lower arms and going to a-arms that's supposed to be the next upgrade, but if you are doing that, the upper A's might as well get updated to. |
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I'm currently doing the same exact updates and in final stages of picking Heidt's. You are correct, there are 2 different types of coil overs for Mustang II suspensions, the first and easier upgrade changes Upper and Lower a arms, the lower still maintains the strut bar or not (your choice, you'd need to weld a bracket for a lower tubular a arm if you want to eliminate the strut Rod). This set-up uses the "stock" upper coil spring perch and shock mount while the lower A-Arm hold the adjustable coil over and shock. Fairly quick and easy if you elect to keep the lower strut arm, just replace with a tubular unit with poly bushings. The second and a little more involved is to go to "true" coil overs where you also need to cut off the upper "stock" spring perch and shock mount and weld in a new upper coil over shock mount or perch. Your coil overs in this set-up would then have a single bolt in the upper mount and a single bolt in the lower a - arm. I don't think these are done to our cars very often due to complexity of suspension geometry. If you weld the new upper perch in wrong, suspension geometry will be affected. This is not very difficult to do, just requires patience and good measurements. I'm I-Car certified welder and have my own TIG and MIG machines, so I'm not worried about that. I'm leaning to #2 as I think it's a cleaner look and I believe provides more adjustability options. Also, one of the fundamental problems with MII suspensions that I have never liked is when you take weight of the front suspension (when the frame is supported by a lift or jackstands), the downstop that carries ALL of the unsprung weight of the car is the upper shock bushing. In stock MII cars, this frequently destroys the upper shock bushing and also can damage the internal shock valving if left for extended periods (Like 4-6 months of storing on jack stands to eliminate tire flat spots). Is this what you were referring to? |
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Have you ever found a front bar that worked. I've read DV posts and also agree, this bar is WAY too big for a 2200lb car. I will be talking with the Reps at Heidt's this week to see if they have a smaller bar. Problem is where the stock bar mounts to the frame inside the front chin scoop. I've never liked the look, but don't know if there are any other options. Let me know if you have any info and if Heidt's has something, I'll respond as well. |
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BTW, mine has both front and rear sway bars, but I don't see any sign of a rear bar on yours. I have looked at going to tubular control arms for my Mustang II front end, but haven't yet seen enough value in making the change. Perhaps others could shed some light on the benefits. BTW, here's a thread you may want to check out: http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/clas...sion-help.html |
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If I'm hearing you wrong my appologies but what if I juat replaced the whole set for something like this except the Wilwood brake set up that I already have in place? Plus does it look like coil over QA1 will simply bolt on at the back of 8.8 rear or do you think there will be clearance issues? Thanks! |
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Also from some of my other reading it states tubular is for looks. I've talked with Shell Valley and I can get QA1 reolacement for the MII i currently have. |
I took both sway bars off
I took both the front and rear bars off years ago and the car runs beautifully without them. Nice crisp handling along with a great ride. Not harsh anymore.
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Yes, the Heidt's stuff is great. Keep in mind, you wont be using their crossmember kit as the stock CR has the crossmember already. Also, Heidt's has various levels of A Arms, disc brake options, etc. I'm going tubular upper and lower with QA1 shocks. On the back 8.8 I originally installed the 4 link, anti sway bar, AND the horizontal "anti wheel hop" shock absorbers. I'm going to chat with DV and also Heidt's soon and discuss best options for rear upgrades as I also want to convert to Willwood 11" discs in the rear (with E-Brake Option) and 4 Link upgrades to tubular adjustable. |
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Yes, 2200 is a little light. Mine is actually just under 2400. I was actually just throwing out a number to state that these cars are very light. Heck, even my C6 Vette is around 3300lbs |
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Also I did measure on the back axle for the current shock clearance was 12 7/8 from center of lower bolt attachment to upper bolt attachment. Picture above. The width was about 2 1/2 ". Doubt without a newly welded bracket that any coil over would simply bolt up here. |
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Holy Smokes I can't believe a bunch of posts on this thread got erased. Multiply that by everyone else equals =Sucks a Big One. It looks like they rolled back to last backup.
I went to my clipboard file and low and behold I still had my last post, lol! Lets try this again. Someone needs to step up here. Looks like broken strings in db. Hell I dont know. ------------------ Alright so some progress reports and pics. Brakes are sweet! You can see the difference between the little iddy biddy wilwood calipers I had and the new ones going on. One of the pics show where the two brackets will be welded for lower A-arms support Taking DV's advise and ditching front sway bar. Looking into sleedway to fabricate a more suitable one. 7/8? While in there I found a whole bunch of assembly errors which are too many to mention, but figured I'd mention a couple below. A completely mismatched carb at 850 cfm. What??? Went with double pumper holly 570 cfm for 351w. On the phone with Holly tech we calculated size based on zip code, my stunning good looks, cat rangling skills and my ability to talk my way out of 3 tickets when going over 100mph(dont belive me ask my wife). I live in Colorado so altitude was a factor. My car was drowning in gas. Relocating fuel filter to gas tank which should help with vapor lock. Relocated coil to front of block where factory typicaly mounts them. It was dangling on the inner fender area. Remounted alternator. It was crunching coolant house so probably chocking off coolant. Resealed gas filler cap. All new fuel houses. Resucured loose wiring. New Oil PCV to flow back via braided lines to engine and not spray all over the place like a sh&t faced frat boy on Saturday night. Since the calipers were a close fit in the back wheel we grinded them to fit perfectly. Sending back to powder coater to make it look like nothing ever happened (Plug for Allstate) They do this with the Porsche race cars when calipres are tight. Hope this post stays put. |
I wounder if this sway bar would work with the Classic Roadster chassis?
https://www.fabquest.com/mustang-ii/...-ifs-kits.html Also RedHawk, do the new rotors bolt up to your old Wilwood hubs? |
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Update:
Below are pictures of recent progress.
Lastly while installing rear brakes I had decided to inspect the rear end and although the gears looked in perfect condition I decided to see what the ratio was. 411?! Does this make any sense? This isn't my area of expertise, but doesn't this seem pretty high? I guess it does help with the kick in the pants acceleration, but wondered if anyone had a better recommendation. |
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