i am impressed, you pulled out some of the top stangnet suspension guys here... including tom (who i learned a bit from) and sanman.
ok, here we go... i think you really need to see if you want to drop a load of cash on it at once, or if you want to do stages.... stages might be a better choice primarily since you are not familier with the entire suspension area it will allow you to feel what parts are doing as you progress, thus giving you some information of your own to base ideas on as well as see if you need to address certain areas vs leaving others alone... this can save cash in the long run.
to touch on a few things you brought up i want to give a slight overview of the GT suspension then get into your other questions you have posted. the GT suspension is garbage, from front to back. the reason for this is Fords idea to please as many people as possible with the mustang... and they have done well overall since they put the camaro out of production. the rear end is the main weak link, the axle goes all over the place both rotating its self under acceleration (upper arms try and prevent this) moving forward and back under acceleration (LCAs flex allowing this) and moves side to side under hard cornering (MM says it moves up to an inch either side under cornering loads... the UCAs try and limit this)
beacuse you have parts that are made for comfort (many people complain about the camaro rise quality) to keep people interested in the GT, those that like the ability to rage into a corner chasing a S2000 have a large hurdle to overcome. this is why the rear of the car has so many options: Torque arm, panhard rod, watts linkage, trilink, steeda 5 link, etc.
to fortify the rear end you need new LCAs to strengthen the lower bond of the axle to the frame, keeping it from moving forward and back. due to 3 piece urethane bushings and depending on the company a combo of urethane on one end and spherical rods on the other, and even spherical on both ends, the LCAs of todays aftermarket keep the axle strait and happy. new LCAs that DO their job make the need for the quadshocks irrelivant. so once you get the LCAs you can remove these units, as they are dead weight and creating more bind (bind is when the suspension is trying to move and having to figt its other components to do so)
the upper arms are a very very poor setup, they are at an angle kinda like this __/__\__ where the narrow end attaches to the frame. because they are off angle they are inherantly weaker in doing its main job of keeping axle rotation down (when the axle tries to move in time with with the wheels) the reason for the angle was to assist in keeping the axle from moving from side to side, as i stated earlier. the side to side movement is best fixed with the use of either a watts linkage, or a panard rod. both of these have the single use of keeping the axle from moving around back and forth.
here i am going to add a quick explanation of each PHB and watts to give you an idea of what they do. the PHB has a rod connecting the lowe parts of the shock mounts then from one of the mounts (the passenger side in the case of the MM bar)attaches at an angle from the bottom right to the top left. because of the angle bar it resists the angle from going side to side. the one down side is that from full extension to full compression of the rear suspension you can notice a slight movement in the axle back and forth... this really isnt a big deal as its controled instead of random as it is in the stock suspension.... the MM uses a larger bar then most other PHB to limit the amount of side to side movement under suspension loads.
the watts linkage has two ways of working, but i'll talk about one. there is a housing that mounts on the differential that has an axle, the axle has a vertical tie bar and uses the axle as a pivot point for rotation. the top of the vertical bar attaches to a rod that is connected to one side of the frame, while the bottom connects to the other side of the frame. this style keeps the axle from moving anywhere either side to side under any location in suspension travel. to see how one is designed go to
www.evolutionmsports.com and see theirs.
back to the UCAs, the axle wind up can be fixed with either a trilink (name from evolution motorsports) or a torqu arm. either one can be used, and both are technically a trilink. each link is an arm, 2 lowers 2 uppers, quad link, 2 lowers and 1 upper is a trilink. the evo trilink is just that, a single arm attaching to the differential housing that then attaches to the molded tunnel under the back seats. i really like this method as it weighs less than a torque arm and is easier to install. the guys over at corner carvers apparently love it.
the TA has a different usage of the same theory being put into place... instead of attaching close to the axle the TA runs under the drive shaft and attaches to the subframe connectors just befind the tranny. i unfortunatl do not know the reasoning of the TA over the trilink... just thats its been a loved and proven method for just about forever. i am still deciding between the TA and trilink for my car.
the final idea on upper control arms is just replacing them with stronger ones that do not flex as much. Many people do not like this way as it does create more bind because of stiffer bushings and more overall resistance due to less flex. some go this route for cost effectiveness, others dont. my bushings are shot in my UCAs, so i am going an entirely different route.
that really about covers it for the rear. unfortunatly i dont know enough about the front to give as detailed as i did about the rear.
to give some more insight on stages.... MM does recommend exactly what Sanman said above me. and honestly you miht want to take that route... its hard to say whats best as suspension is massivly effected by how each person wants the car to handle. we can only give you insight and then you make the call. i did springs and shocks, followed by swaybars (MM recomends these to be last), but i would never give mine up after having them... now i may have to get different ones later on once i get farther in my suspension setup... but i am willing to take that hit to the wallet.
wow, i wrote too much, going to look for a mountain dew.
Torinalth
