Mustang5l5's Progress Thread - Archived Progress thread '08-'20.

[Mustang5L5]

More maximum motorsports stuff has arrived.

Bump steer kit.

Along with the bumpsteer guage. I really hate bumpsteer and since I'm going lower with the coil overs I really want to try and dial it out. I left this in the box for now

You'd think with what I spent at MM this fall they would give me these for free. Oh well. Guess I'm now a MM fanboy.

Front struts are in the mail from MM as well. After the holidays, we start on the rear suspension.

edit: just took advantage of their weekend deal and bought myself a pair of coated SFCs. Now I'm done for now

 

[Mustang5L5]

So I broke out all the boxes and set up a table and started laying out parts. Front struts should be here this week. I'll assemble the coil-overs, take one last "parts spread" photo and get to work under the rear of the car. Getting psyched about "real" mods now.

Started going though the various instructions. The rear springs and shocks are easy but the PHB will need me to slow down and concentrate. Then up front, the only part I'm not looking forward to is pulling out the Mach 1 springs. Ugh.

SFCs are also in the mail, but I'll need to wait on that install.

Unfortunately I can't uninstall my MM rear control arms for photo purposes. But they are there.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Struts arrived. Nice solid pieces. I went with the MM-spec bilstiens. These are identical to the standard yellow bilstein except beefed up around the spindle mount for coil over use.

But still made by bilstein

Paired with a 250# spring. I can go up to 325# with these, but let's see how this handles first.

I'll assemble the front coil-overs and CC plates this weekend.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Also, remember those seats and Mach amps I got for $100? Well I've slowly parted everything I got out, and made my money and then some.

Nobody wanted the front seats, but I ended up selling the tracks, switches and seat belt loops (go figure) for more than I wanted for just the seats complete.

So I made this. I'll prob make one more.

Don't worry, the mint ones I had in my car are safely stored away. These will be garage seats.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Well, final parts arrived. That was a patient couple of months researching an acquiring parts. Unsure how much I spent but I did my best to find deals and such. Did my final "parts spread" and now it's a matter of finding time to dig in. Hopefully after the holidays I can chip away.

Installing everything but the SFCs as I'll need to find a good local welder. But starting out back for now.

Quick rundown on whAt in doing. Everything was thought out with MMs recommendations

MM spec'Ed Bilstien (street) struts w/250# springs

Standard rear bilstiens with H&R sn95 super sport rear springs.

Standard fare FLSFCs, STB, PHB, C/Cs and Bumpsteer kit. Eibach rear sway bar. Mm short pinion snubber

MM adjustable rear control arms already on the car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

IT begins. Pretty sure these shocks are junk. They move so easily compared to the bilstiens. Well...they are 20 years old.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Pinion snubber comparison

 

[Mustang5L5]

How I left off for the night. I realized I parked the car way too close to the garage wall to have a good area to work to mount the upper PHB mount. So my goal is to get the rear of the car on the ground and start on the front. I'll come back to do the PHB mount at the end.

Btw as decent as the MM instructions are, I'm kinda glad Eric the car guy installed one and videoed it.


View: https://youtu.be/u01BmTY8iBg


Also decided to change the diff fluid. Regretted it when it came out clean. Oh well.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Oh and has anyone installed bilstein s? Seems I'm out of thread here. Lowershock moint is against the bumpstop and I can't get a nut on here. Wtf?

 

[Mustang5L5]

Found this thread that has the same issue, but not understanding his "fix". Apparently im just missing something

https://www.google.com/amp/s/forums...648-bilstein-shock-bushing-install.html?amp=1

 

[Mustang5L5]

Well, rear is done except for the top strut connection. Not enough threads. See my post in the tech forum. Can't figure it out

I mocked up chassis brace for PHB. It clears my exhaust, but in order to install I need to unbolt exhaust and let it hang down. Gonna be a PITA.....

 

[Mustang5L5]

Can you not use the jack under the axle to compress the shock (and lower bushing) to see if it will push it through enough for the bushing to have room on top and still get the nut on?

Tried it, but the car lifted before we got to that point.

I figured it out though. The stack-up was wrong. The inner most washer was installed (by the factory) on the wrong side of the clip

See this thread
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/bilstien-rear-shocks.907496/

 

[Mustang5L5]

So are they going to send you a new set? Or, do you just take off the clip?

Just take off the clip and fix it myself. Pretty easy. It's just a spiral type of C-clip

 

[Mustang5L5]

Flipped the washer around and shoc went together like it should. Had them on the car 10 mins later.

Everything bolted down and torqued. Need to fill diff with gear oil and then install the eibach sway bar.

I'll grab some pics of full down and full up with the MM adjustable arms. I can already tell you full down is way too low.

Giving the car the Bounce test....it's much firmer. Convinced my old tokicos were blown. Befor the rear would bounce up and down pretty well. Now it's hard to get to move

 

[Mustang5L5]

Rear is done and back on the ground. Did not do the PHB chassis brace yet. I did change diff fluid while I was here.

I set it down with MM arms adjusted to full low. With the h&r super sports, that translates to tires even with fender lips. I'm sure it will look badass, but a little too low for me. I adjusted the MM arms to middle range for now. Gave me about 1/2" gap. I might need to roll the fender lips with my 255's

Didn't try adjusting to full up yet. I'll play with ride height when I do the coil overs. First impression is the rear suspension seems much firmer than my blown tokicos were.

Time to out the front coil overs together


Here's how it sits.

Max down

Middle of adjustment

 

[Mustang5L5]

With adjustable control arms, half the reason for going rear coil-over is gone.

That's assuming I dial in the rear ride height to where I think is ideal. These h&r super sport springs are low. I have a feeling I'll be up near max height on the arms when I get the fronts on.

Speaking of which....did I mention these things are just so well built. MM takes the standard bilstein a bit further in customizing them for coilover use. And the clearances are spot on too. No slop or rattles. No wonder why I've turned into a MM junkie lately. Really nice stuff

 

[Mustang5L5]

Merry Christmas.....just ordered myself a custom camshaft from FTI

With suspension work about to wrap up in the next month or so...only one thing left to do. Time to get some power.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Had an hour or so today to myself, so instead of taking a much needed nap I put the front on jackstands and started taking things apart.

Hangup was I want to grab something to wrap the Caliper in to keep it safe. Spent too much time on these to chip them up.

Looks like I'll need to trim the dust shield a tad to clear the bumpsteer kit.

That's where I stopped for now. Need to protect the Caliper...and then I can proceed to my most hated task...front springs. Need to wash th inner gender liners as well. Going to paint them in some SEM trim black.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok wasn't that bad at all. This strut was junk. No resistance at all compared to the bilstiens.

Anyway. All parts out, time to clean up, repaint some parts and start reassembly.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Coilover assembly has begun. Gave my new chair a test run at my nice warm workbench in my basement...baby monitor inckuded

Assembled coil over assembly ready to install

New Caster Camber plate installed

How I left it for the night. On the fox cars, the brake line mount point needs to be relocated about 2" rearward. You can see how it's behind the strut. Some slight interference so gotta pull out the c/o and move it a tad. That's a Saturday job.

I also started installing the bumpsteer kit. Not going to set it up right now. Going to get everything installed, set my ride height, then start tweaking my alignment specs.

Per MMs advice Caster will be set full rear. So really I just need to dial in Camber and toe and work on bumpsteer. I need to set my final ride height and measure for that first.