about control arms.

[MustangPrideV8]

Ok, i am about to buy some upper and lower control arms for the gt, i got some brand new nittos on the back and they don't hold traction anymore and i need some advice. How hard is it to change out the control arms myself on the driveway. What do i need to do and how do i need to do it. Is it simple to change out in the drive way? I am getting the adjustable control arms. Plus, if i unbolt one at a time and put the new one on and then go to the next what preperations do i need to do? All the input you give me will really help out and will be very appreciated. Please help me guys, i have never done control arms before and i really the advice.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[MustangPrideV8]

So you're telling me nobody on this site knows anything about putting control arms in the car. People know about cams and timing and how to tune so well they don't know anything about suspension in the rear. Come on guys, this is a pretty simple question and nobody knows the answer to it?

 

[my_03GT]

I personaly have never installed LCA's, but I did do a search after I read your thread....search was installing LCA....and found several threads on this subject and one was specificaly about doing it in you drive way

 

[jaidedeye]

whoa!! easy fella!!

well first of all you need two jack stands and a floor jack ......concrete would be nice too....

once you get the wheels off..and the car is jacked up by the pumpkin put the jack stands undr the car near the torque boxes....set her down on the jack stands with tension still on the floor jack....disconnect the sway brace, then the shocks. then unbolt you upper control arms from your rear end...also, you may have to deal with unbolting brakelines from you rearend.......then slowly lower you rear end down so you have room to get to the upper control arms to unbolt them from the chassis...at the same time your rear springs will come out......once you get you upper bolted to the chassis remove the lower's from the rear end and the the chassis....while your at it check for any damage of you torque boxes......install the new lower control arms to the body and then to the rear end.....this may take a little muscle and skills with the floor jack. at this point you are gonna install your springs onto your new LCA's.....again a little skill and muscle may come in handy. once you have gotten them in there and they wont fall out slowly jack the rear end up until the holes start to line up for the uppers to mount to the rear end.....now your pinion angle is gonna be off because of the floor jack..so what i do is either have someone push up on the front of the pumpkin of use another floor jack and jack up the front of the rear end...once you have the holes lined for the uppers to the pumpkin lined up put the bolts in and tighten them down...re install your sway bar, shocks, brake line bracket and make sure everything is tight ......put the wheels back on and rock and roll

i have southside lower liftbars and steeda adjustable uppers.....along with moroso trick drag springs and lakewood 50/50 shocks ...may car squats and hooks hard.....i run 275/50/15's nitto 555r's on weld rodlite wheels...i have lakewood 90/10's in the fron with drag springs and 3.5 inch rod lites with 165/60/15 tires...

 

[1low03gt]

Exactly what jaidedeye said.Did them on my 5.0L back a few years ago,and know am gonna do my '03GT.

 

[mr. jones1]

I would add that if your cars suspension is not altered (lowered).
Try to get a tool to measure pinion angle before you jack up the car. Then you will be able to adjuct the new control arms to achieve the same angle. You will also probably need to install new bushings in the top diff. housing. If you use poly I would recommend the upper control arms with the spherical bearing at the body.
This is what I used and it really worked well. took out that sideways movement in the turns and hits hard on shifts.

 

[Fast02]

I installed the Steeda Aluminum uppers and lowers.
The uppers are a PITA. Why you ask? Becuase there is a rubber bushing that you have to grind out. I used a large drill then a large 6ft X 1in solid steel bar to smash this old bushing out...then used a high speed air tool with a dremmel bit to remove whatever was left over.

The lowers are very easy 4 bolts on each side.

The rear end is PLANTED now, no more wish wash or that wiggle feeling that makes you turn an ear to hear for a broken part noise.

Just doing the uppers pretty much fixed the rear wiggle...with the lowers its like a adding rebar to concrete.
Comparison of the lowers.

Dont install the arm backwards like I did here....just remember spring perch closest to the rearend :damnit:

Grind off the little tab for the ebrake

It took me about 10minutes to figure out how to bolt on the sway bar so here is a blurry pic of how to bolt the swaybar onto the new LCA.

 

[Torinalth]

there is a sway bar in that pic?!? wow, granted i'm not visually attuned to the suspension items, but wow.

question on the steeda LCAs. i noticed that the new LCA has a welded vertical bracket on the bottom that the stock does not. reason for this?

Torinalth

 

[Fast02]

there is a sway bar in that pic?!? wow, granted i'm not visually attuned to the suspension items, but wow.

question on the steeda LCAs. i noticed that the new LCA has a welded vertical bracket on the bottom that the stock does not. reason for this?

Torinalth

The swaybar bolts to that welded bracket.

The picture is a close up looking up at the drivers side LCA -Swaybar mount point.

 

[MustangPrideV8]

thanks for all the input guys, out of all the work you did on installing them do you think it was well worth it and how much of an improvement did you see after installing them.

 

[Fast02]

thanks for all the input guys, out of all the work you did on installing them do you think it was well worth it and how much of an improvement did you see after installing them.

For me it was worth it because I think the wet noodle feel of the rear end is a safety issue. I dont think you need both upper and lowers for a daily driver...The uppers take out about 75-90% of the side to side play.

I wish I had tried just the lowers first becuase if it stopped the side to side play I wouldnt have touched the uppers.

Good luck and have fun doing it!

 

[kolkid]

do you have the pics for the installation of the upper arm? or how it looks like at the end of the intallion?

well i should just ask you does ANYBODY have any pics off upper arm installion or one of how looks at the end of intallion doesnt have to be steeda