2000 GT:

Mustang5L5 · Nov 8, 2023

2Blue2 said:
The bushing and ball joint are showing there age so Tie rods maybe?
I like how the new scoops are looking.

I think i'm going to anyway. I mean I might as well. I'm right here and need to do an alignment anyway...

Noobz347 · Nov 8, 2023

Did you already look at the rear bushings? I would guess that they are similarly worn.

Mustang5L5 · Nov 8, 2023

Noobz347 said:
Did you already look at the rear bushings? I would guess that they are similarly worn.

I did look at them. They aren't too bad. Not changing them out now, but they might be something i do in the near future.

I ordered tie-rod inners and outers. I figure while i'm here....

TIGGER · Nov 9, 2023

Mustang5L5 said:
Bushing and balljoints trashed. No play on the BJ so no risk of it failing.

I see a TON of balljoint failures on the new edge forums on FB. Every week someone has one fail. Guess it’s a PSA to check your balljoints!

My PSA is to not buy cheap ball joints when you replace them. When I lowered my wifes 96 GT vert, I had to do it on the cheap. It had a bad inner tie rod and outers were squeaking because they were original and had no grease zerks. Ball joints were iffy too so since I had to order parts I ordered 2 Mevotech ball joints. Put everything together and got it aligned. Everything was good. A couple years later my wife was complaining the car did not feel right. I thought to myself, that is werid, the front end is fairly new. I drove it but I did not notice anything weird. When I did the next oil change, I took a good look under it and still no smoking gun. Well, shortly after, my wife was on her way home from the barn where she worked, with my youngest son, well the ball joint let go and came out of the socket on the pass side when she was at speed on a country back road. Luckily nothing happened to her, my son, or the car. Ball joint had about 9,000 miles on it and was 2-2.5 years old at that point. I replaced them both with Moog. Never again will I use Mevotech.

Man those control arms look rough. Hard to believe they barely have 70K on them.

Mustang5L5 · Nov 9, 2023

The control arms really are the worst part of the car in terms of rust. Front springs too. The actual body of the car is in fine shape, I still have stock exhaust on it and it’s solid and pretty rust free. No idea why the control arms got so crusty.

anyway…making progress. I did order new tie rods. Ford Motorcraft. I figure I was here and needed to align the car anyway. Tie rods not here yet however, so I had to stop.

New..

Control arm
Shock
Eibach pro-kit springs
Poly isolators
MM caster camper plates
Poly endlinks
Poly steering rack bushings
Inner tie rod
Outer tie rod
Painted the spindle.
Cobra calipers and rotors

I did mangle the dust shield a tad. Gonna bend it back best I can as I’m not paying $60 for replacements. A bent shield is fine.

I need to get some nut marking paint and mark my nuts. I’m paranoid about that sort of stuff, especially ball joints

Mustang5L5 · Nov 10, 2023

One side done.

Well, except for the tie rod castle nut. Looks like I had aftermarket tie rod ends on this car. Looked like Moog. The Motorcraft ones didn’t come with a nut, and of course they are different thread

I think I need an M12 nut so on the hunt.

Fastener marking paint shows tomorrow, so other than this nut, this side ready to put on the
ground

Mustang5L5 · Nov 11, 2023

Bugs me because I have 2-3 free hours today and held up because of the castle nut. I could be working on the rear. Rear springs are simple.

I scooted the car way over to one side of the garage near the wall since it’s tight in my garage with two Mustangs. Because of this I can’t access the tires on the other side to remove it to undo the quad shock and pull the spring.

nickyb · Nov 11, 2023

I gotta say i never painted my nuts, Never Ever. When i did the cobra brakes four years ago i just drove it normally.
I figure my daily drive of one winding twisty posted at 25 mph taken at 65mph and a 10 minute hyway ride at 75-80 mph should test my work.
Then on my weekend i recheck my nuts. this has proven to be the way to go for all the work ive done on my stang for the last 16 years.
But then again i belive God has always looked out for me .

Mustang5L5 · Nov 11, 2023

I trust my work, but a quick visual to see if anything had backed off won’t hurt.

Couple weeks ago on the FB groups someone put brand new control arms and had the nut back off the balljoint and it came loose. I didn’t say this, but my gut feeling is he never torqued the balljoint but down.

So I went around and double checked everything but I’ve done a paint mark in the past on critical hardware. Can’t hurt, especially when you take so much apart and you have kids distracting you

Mustang5L5 · Nov 11, 2023

Helps with a quick visual. 99-04s don’t use castle nuts on the balljoints so this helps for a quick check to see if it’s spun. I torqued this sucker to 150 ft-lbs, so it shouldn’t.

Castle nut arrives tomorrow and hopefully it’s the correct size. Itching to get this on the ground so I can flip the car around and work on the rear springs.

nickyb · Nov 11, 2023

i used the 93 ball joints with mm spacer so i got the mr. kotter pins.

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

nut showed up. Got it all together and took car for a drive to see if spring would settle. I torqued the control arms at ride height, but the before and after measurement is exactly the same

I mean it’s only one spring so let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

Decided to play with the new convertible boot I got. There are two styles. 99-00 and 01-04. I got the 01-04 version. Fits ok but it needs a day in the hot sun to flatten it out. Will revisit in the spring, but I like the look

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

Started workin on the rear. I’ll have to inspect the control arms closely. Quads seem to be ok but maybe I should grab some Gabriel replacements. I will not be putting aftermarket control arms in.

Gonna check these calipers and slide pins, replace the brake hoses due to age, and paint up the rotors/calipers a bit.

I think I see signs the fuel filter grommet is leaking, so that’s on the list. I think the 98+ version doesn’t need the tank dropped, but correct me if I’m weong

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

Rears are done. Lower control arms were in decent shape. Uppers look like the inner sleeve has torn away. Not destroyed yet, but I’ll put a set of uppers on the list for winter tasks

That’s the OE exhaust pipe to the right. For a New England car and 23 years….that’s pretty damn good.

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

Did the pass side front ball joint was in rough shape, which is what prompted this. Fortunately when I got it out, it was still tight so wasn’t close to popping out…yet.

Bushings are trashed as expected

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

And here’s something you don’t see everyday. Spring was RUSTED into the perch. Couldn’t get it out: had to loosen the control arm bolts to swing the arm down far enough to pry from the top. Sketchy as hell

Yeah…that’s one solid peice

Mustang5L5 · Nov 12, 2023

Got to this point and called it a night.

Need to install the MM caster/camber plate, and clean up the spindle first.

Mustang5L5 · Nov 17, 2023

Ok car is back on the ground. Everything is done except for alignment and the front control arms being torqued at ride height. The bolts are snug, but loose enough that there is no bind.

Before height:

28.25” rear. (26.0” OD tire)
27.75” front (25.0” OD tire)

After
27.5” rear
27.5” front

So looks like I got about 3/4” drop in the rear, but the front barely moved. If you add in 1/2” if I had the same size tire all around, my front fender to ground measurement is taller than the rear. Hmm

I may have to swap the poly isolators for rubber up front, but I’m gonna take it for a quick spin around the block and see if that settles in the isolators a bit.

All the pics of the pro-kit I see online at much lower. I mean I’m glad it’s not slammed because I need to daily this car over speed bumps and such, but I was hoping for 26.75” in the front.

Stay tuned. I’ll snap pics over the weekend because now it gets dark at 4pm these days and can’t see outside

Mustang5L5 · Nov 18, 2023

I’m ok with the rear. Front hasn’t moved. I may swap the top isolators back to the original rubber, and try clocking the springs a bit deeper into the spring cups on the a-arms.

I drove around the block a few times. Don’t want to go much further until I can torque the arms at ride height. I’m just not happy where that is right now.

Here’s pre-drop

Noobz347 · Nov 18, 2023

In your case, since they're the old springs and all, and you don't have far you want to go, I might just heat the crap out of them until you get the height you want.

2000 GT:

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

I gotta say i never painted my nuts, Never Ever

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

I gotta say i never painted my nuts, Never Ever

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

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