K member guys/guru's

[blksn955.o]

Well I will have my rear end done soon as far as susp. goes and have been thinking about what to do with the front in the next year or so.

I am wanting (at this point) to get a tube K member like an AJE, QA1, UPR. I also want to run 03 cobra lower control arms so I would need a maker that would work with those, I know some do and some dont. The springs are staying bullit as well as the struts. It should be a fairly straight forward setup and the QA1 K on ebay would make it fairly cheap as well.

What Kmembers have you guys found would work with this "planned" setup? and mild steel or moly? Car is NOT a DD, but prob. mainly street driven with 2 or so tracks trips a year.

 

[go-stang5.0]

Wait and get a MM one. Those other ones are soft and I wouldent trust them on the street. I mean a pothole could bend one of those..plus you will have the added benifit of more squeaks and rattles with one of those. Stick with stock or go stronger.

 

[Green 94 5.0]

Wait and get a MM one. Those other ones are soft and I wouldent trust them on the street. I mean a pothole could bend one of those..plus you will have the added benifit of more squeaks and rattles with one of those. Stick with stock or go stronger.

what are you basing this on? i have never heard of someone hitting a pothole and bending their k-member.

 

[Green 94 5.0]

Well I will have my rear end done soon as far as susp. goes and have been thinking about what to do with the front in the next year or so.

I am wanting (at this point) to get a tube K member like an AJE, QA1, UPR. I also want to run 03 cobra lower control arms so I would need a maker that would work with those, I know some do and some dont. The springs are staying bullit as well as the struts. It should be a fairly straight forward setup and the QA1 K on ebay would make it fairly cheap as well.

What Kmembers have you guys found would work with this "planned" setup? and mild steel or moly? Car is NOT a DD, but prob. mainly street driven with 2 or so tracks trips a year.

i cant speak for the other 2, but the qa1 k-member reqires a minimal amount of grinding to clear oem a-arms whether they be cobra pieces or stock gt units. with a die grinder, it took me about 10 minutes per side to get the to fit properly. aside from that, everything bolted up perfectly.

 

[blksn955.o]

Thanks green,

I have heard worries/issues with molly or mild steel on the street, I just cant remember what one was good...ie one was more track orien. while the other was better suited for the street. I wanna say mild steel was the street one while molly was track?

 

[1slow95]

The best "street" k member would be the Maximum Motorsports one, but you have to run coil overs with it. QA1 is probably the best choice if you want to use stock control arms and springs. When I was researching k members I found a couple guys on corral.net that had over 30k street miles on their QA1 k members. It's too weak for any kind of competitive racing like auto-x or open track without some additional bracing. It should be fine for street use and drag racing.

 

[1slow95]

Also keep in mind that the QA1 k member will lower the front of the car about 1/4" to 1/2"

 

[Green 94 5.0]

Also keep in mind that the QA1 k member will lower the front of the car about 1/4" to 1/2"

i can vouch for that. i had to get rid of the sportlines after the swap.

 

[blksn955.o]

I have bullit springs so I already have 1/2-3/4 drop so another 1/2 or so wont be bad. I actually kinda want my front to drop alittle more (been thinking of removing my isolators).

Qa1 too weak....is there a site/thread about more bracing if I go with them (really like the prices I found on Qa1 stuff). I do have a habbit of driving some back roads with some "spirit", I guess it would still be better than the stocker though just not for hours and hours of all out madness.

I like MM stuff and if I was to build an all out handler they would be the one hands down...but for this setup/car/goals I do not want to go coil over, I want to K.I.S.S and as stock/factory (albiet the "best" stock/factory) with some good parts in there.

Thanks guys...looks like QA1 will be the choice for me.

 

[go-stang5.0]

I dunno if they have changed them since, but a while ago I heard the qa1 k-members had some pretty flimsy control arm mounts and I have heard of people bending them. Thats why I mentioned not so street friendly. Also when I said pothole..I meant a really big pothole. If you can bend a wheel hitting a pothole you can prolly screw up a weak k member. It may be just me but the stock one is kinda sloppy so i cant imagine getting a weaker one, especially on the street.

 

[1slow95]

I have bullit springs so I already have 1/2-3/4 drop so another 1/2 or so wont be bad. I actually kinda want my front to drop alittle more (been thinking of removing my isolators).

Qa1 too weak....is there a site/thread about more bracing if I go with them (really like the prices I found on Qa1 stuff). I do have a habbit of driving some back roads with some "spirit", I guess it would still be better than the stocker though just not for hours and hours of all out madness.

I like MM stuff and if I was to build an all out handler they would be the one hands down...but for this setup/car/goals I do not want to go coil over, I want to K.I.S.S and as stock/factory (albiet the "best" stock/factory) with some good parts in there.

Thanks guys...looks like QA1 will be the choice for me.

There was a thread on corral where this guy took his car to an auto-x after installing the QA1 kmember and it understeered really bad. He found out the k member was flexing under hard cornering, so he fabricated a brace to mount between the frame rails underneath the engine and that fixed the understeering problem. I tried to find a pic but it's been taken down. It looked kinda like the convertible k brace, only much beefier.

I haven't pushed my car hard so I can't give you any first hand experience on that. I've got some suspension parts I plan on ordering very soon, and once they're installed I'm gonna go out and cruise some backroads.


According to MM, the stock k member is the strongest. But, it also weighs close to 60 pounds...

 

[blksn955.o]

cool thanks, I dont see adding a K-brace as that big of a deal, I could even buy a Kbrace and mod it to work with the aftermarket tube K.

I guess I will research the price of a QA1 with adding a kbrace into the price to mod.

and

what other brands work with stock control arms.

Just from what I have seen price wise on the QA1 its going to be hard to beat even with adding in buying a kbrace to mod.