negative wedge kit question

My car was lowered by cutting aprx. 1-1/3 coils from 620 springs. Obviously this created issues for the ball joints so I had the neg. wedge kit installed. However, because the car was already low, we didn't do the A-arm relocation. Will this create any problems for me? Is this a half-a$$ fix?
I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy new springs again and start all over trying to get the ride height I want. What do you guys think, will this be O.K.?
 
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If you read the pro-motorsports web site, you'll see that they talk about a 2" drop of the UCA mounting points for the best geometry ('69 and '70 models only IIRC). I have no idea what that means as far as the science of suspension goes. I know you want camber gain, but I haven't measured, sketched or calculated anything to see what exactly the change does.

My answer is: I would be very surprised if it created any problems. You just won't get the handling benefit from the geometry change. You will get a handling benefit from lowering the car, though. So the end result should be improved handling even without changing the UCA mounting point.

One thing on my car, when I did a 2" relocation and added homemade wedges I had to shim the UCAs out from the shock tower to get the correct camber. Otherwise I had run out of adjustment from the lower control arms. You may find with lowering your car this much that you have a similar problem.

I found a place (edit: AMK products) that sells the original style press in bolts that attach the UCA shaft to the shock tower. If you have to shim very much with the original bolts, you will run out of length. However, the 65-66 UCA bolts are 1/2" longer, since they are meant to be shimmed. I will be using the 65-66 UCA bolts in my car.
 
Do the arm relocation to get the better geometry, then install 1" spring spacers that most Mustang vendors sell to get the ride height back up. Might do it myself some day to keep my bellhousing from scraping the ground.
 
As far as I can figure, cutting springs to lower the car shouldn't put your ball joint in a jam, it's simply going to bottom out all the sooner because it's lower, but it will bottom out before it gets in a jam. Lowering the control arm more than an inch...now that can put it in a jam before it hits bottom.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Dave
 
Your car will be fine. The wedge kit isn't needed but it won't hurt anything. You can drive it just like it is.


Pathfinder65 said:
As far as I can figure, cutting springs to lower the car shouldn't put your ball joint in a jam, it's simply going to bottom out all the sooner because it's lower, but it will bottom out before it gets in a jam. Lowering the control arm more than an inch...now that can put it in a jam before it hits bottom.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Dave


Your right - the UCA will hit the bump stop before any ball joint angle issues come into play with the UCA mounted in the stock location, no matter how low the car is. I have never seen a issue with UCA ball joint bind, with just a 1" drop of the UCA either.


John
 
Thanks for the info guys. I'll try leaving it as is for now. If I can't get my suspension probs ironed out I'll try ron67fb's idea. Btw, does anyone know if there are any adjustments that can be made to Flaming Rivers 1969 steering box? After having replaced almost every single part of the front suspension (except the control valve for p.s.) and adding a front sway bar, the car still feels like it's all over the road. Is there some other way to tighten it up?
 
all over the road that probally is thecontrol valve the springs in them will get soft and make it wander easily and i dont think u will have any problem with the negative wedge it probally put the ball joint in the pivot location it was originally ment to run in good luck
 
As far as the tires go, they are in pretty good shape. They are the stock rims and tires (bullitts) that had only been used for a very short time on a 2002 gt. The owner of the gt got some 18'' cobra r's and put these rims in storage until about 5 months ago when I bought them. As far as the alignment, it was also recently done by a very reputable shop. In fact, after trying three other shops, Marlon's was the only place that got it right. The car tracks straight on a nice road but any bumps or irregularities and it becomes a two-fisted affair. Damn, if it is the control valve, I knew I should have replaced it when the whole thing was apart :bang: Oh well, try to save a buck and end up spending more. Thanks for the help guys.