New to mustangs

[dubbsix]

Hey guys. Just bought a 89 Mustang and it needs some serious help. The purpose of the car is just occasional strip but mostly cruising. I am usually working on camaro's so i am just lost lol.

I wanted to start with beefing up the suspension:
New bushings all around
Performance shocks/springs <--- but not dedicated drag
Rear control arms
Anything else????

Are there any big brake kits for the 89 or any cobra take offs i can swap on?

 

[txstang84]

welcome to stangnet!

and yes there are several ways you can go about a bigger brake/rear disc setup...

http://mjbobbitt.home.comcast.net/mustang/5lug.html

this is one that helped me out a ton!

if you look in my sig, you'll see the 95 front spindles...you can source them from a local salvage yard for about 150 for rotors, calipers and spindles-possibly less dependant upon the yard. You can use 94-95 spindles or '96-'98 spindles. The latter will bring your front end out 8mm on each side, but will decrease bump steer and ackerman steer. There are other mods you have to do to make them fit though...but all that info is on the site I pasted above-good luck!

btw...the spindle swap also makes your front end 5 lug, and Summit has a kit now for swapping the rear axles to 5 lug for $210. It includes axles, bearings, seals, and studs. The only thing you'd need after that would be a set of drums

 

[dubbsix]

Wow

Thanks for the quick response. Are there any 'weak' points i should address before others? The car has about 150K on it so im assuming just about every rubber piece on the suspension is in need of replacement.

 

[MyBad70]

subframes and torque boxes

 

[stangjunkie]

+1 subframes and gears should be first mods IMHO

 

[BOWTIEKILLR]

u/lca's, shifter, subframes, gears, headers, o/r mid pipe and catback, full poly bushings, timing advance are typical first mods. if you are looking to go 5 lug do a sn95 swap like txstang84 said, and try to get 94-95 spindles, i have 96+ and they are alittle wide for my taste. for the rear while you are in the junkyard look for late 80s axels from the longe side(off 2 cars) and they should be about $80ish, then hit up the local parts store and get some 5 lug drums for 20ish each. before they go in i would throw some long wheel studs in so yo can run spacers to fill out the fender wells better depending on offset. that should be a pretty decent setup

 

[bullitstang1313]

You will need to decide if you want the 5 lug conversion before you start changing springs. If you go with to large of wheels you could run into rubbing issues with different springs.

Suspension is definetely the right way to start on a car like these.

By the way welcome to Stangnet and to Mustangs.

 

[dubbsix]

All, this is all great info. What are the advantages of swaping to 5 lug configuration?

 

[BOWTIEKILLR]

ALOT more wheel choices, a little bit stronger because the extra lug, and best of all cheaper brake upgrades.

 

[dubbsix]

Hmm i see. How involved is the 5 lug swap? I am sure this is a discussion thats taken place alot on this board.... so i'll use the search feature.

Do you swap just the spindles? I had saw something about axles too.. can anyone clue me in?

 

[dubbsix]

Guys.. does an LX have the same suspension as the GT?