Fox upper control arms

ppost · Feb 11, 2020

do rear after market upper control arms work with lowering springs I have a 1989 gt looking for about 1" drop. I have
read the bushing will bind.

90sickfox · Feb 11, 2020

Aftermarket upper control arms with stiffer bushings do bind. Get ones with spherical bearings. Sounds like you want to do the right thing and set your pinion angle to match the lower stance. Thumbs up to you sir.

You will get higher NVH because you will loose the rubber isolation at the body.

If this will be a street car you'll get a little more life out of them if you grease the spherical end and use boots the size of the through bolt on each side. I don't know why companies don't include with the set. Even pump steer kits should have these to help keep road debris out and grease in.

Noobz347 · Feb 11, 2020

Stangnet Forum Tip #1: Meaningful Thread Titles

ppost · Feb 11, 2020

thank you for the answer New to this forum. I have owned my car since 91. Just starting to do upgrades as the stock parts are showing their age. One more thing
is a pan hard bar necessary for a drop of under an inch? thanks again for your help

revhead347 · Feb 11, 2020

Do not put spherical bushings on a street car.

Kurt

TOOLOW91 · Feb 11, 2020

revhead347 said:
Do not put spherical bushings on a street car.

Kurt

They are noisy , the NVH is greatly increased . Stock torque boxes take a beating
With that said my torque boxes are plated . My upper arms and rear end bushings are both spherical and my car is mainly a street car .

revhead347 · Feb 11, 2020

TOOLOW91 said:
They are noisy , the NVH is greatly increased . Stock torque boxes take a beating
With that said my torque boxes are plated . My upper arms and rear end bushings are both spherical and my car is mainly a street car .

This has been covered too many times. They are noisy, the break a lot, and the beat the snot out of your spine. It's just not practical. I mean some of these guys have their girlfriends and wives ride in their cars with them. Spherical bushings cause relationship troubles. They can seriously affect your sex life. My wife doesn't like any of my cars.

Kurt

TOOLOW91 · Feb 11, 2020

revhead347 said:
This has been covered too many times. They are noisy, the break a lot, and the beat the snot out of your spine. It's just not practical. I mean some of these guys have their girlfriends and wives ride in their cars with them. Spherical bushings cause relationship troubles. They can seriously affect your sex life. My wife doesn't like any of my cars.

Kurt

L M A O .

I will say Ihave the same upper arms for 5 years ( replacements are on the bench for when i swap the rear ) I have never broken one. I am not easy on my stuff either .

the rest of it youhave me dying laughing over here

Mustang5L5 · Feb 11, 2020

ppost said:
One more thing
is a pan hard bar necessary for a drop of under an inch? thanks again for your help

A PHB is not necessary at all. It’s a nice to have, but not a need to have.

It locates the rear end side to side. However, to run one your should ideally convert to a 3-link suspension (torque arm or poor man 3-link) vs leaving it with all 4 arms intact. The roll centers will be fighting each other. I know it’s been done plenty of times though.

The 4 arms on the stock suspension are lovingly referred to as “Quadra bind” for good reason.

Also don’t do sphericals on a street car for all the reasons mentioned above. Do quality lower arms and leave stock rubber bushings on the upper arms. Pick quality springs and shocks and enjoy driving the car.

ppost · Feb 12, 2020

thanks for the input. It sounds like if I stay with about a one inch drop and new shocks everything else should be ok.

revhead347 · Feb 12, 2020

ppost said:
thanks for the input. It sounds like if I stay with about a one inch drop and new shocks everything else should be ok.

Yup, a 1" drop is no problem. Budget it in caster/camber plates for the front to correct the alignment.

Kurt

7991LXnSHO · Feb 13, 2020

How about boxing the UCA’S? Do they need to twist/flex a little to lessen binding? What about boxing the LCA’s and using new bushings?

revhead347 · Feb 13, 2020

7991LXnSHO said:
How about boxing the UCA’S? Do they need to twist/flex a little to lessen binding? What about boxing the LCA’s and using new bushings?

Just buy new control arms. For the price they go for, it's not worth pressing out the bushings and welding them.

Kurt

7991LXnSHO · Feb 13, 2020

I figured that was still the case. But, I saw recent pictures of an SN/95 with the aftermarket LCA loop end ripped open. I’d rather run stock than risk the cheap ones that are a piece of thin pipe with two loops welded on and a sway bar tab.

ppost · Feb 14, 2020

This subject has got me on a mission. Every set of after market control arms I have seen have polyurethane bushings. I sent a question into L.M.C.
about the after market urethane bushing binding and you should use rubber. The answer that the urethane is an upgrade to rubber and you should grease them.
Maximum motorsport replied saying only rubber on the uca"s. My question to you is why sell them if they bind. break and don't work. I bought my control arms from cj poney. I had to hunt down correct bolts. They sent me 8.8 instead off 10.9. I am starting to think the after market world is just selling junk.
Are the problems with breaking contributed to the higher horse power vs a mostly stock engine. They should have a disclaimer on the products they sell if that is the case. I know very long winded.

OldManRiver · Feb 14, 2020

Binding in the rear suspension isn't an aftermarket problem,it's a factory Ford problem.Companies like Griggs and Maximum Motorsports have aftermarket solutions for this,all it takes is spending $$$.
I'm pretty sure Grade 10.9 is the metric equivalent to grade 8.8 SAE.
99% of breaking issues come from poor manufacturing and the use of Chinese steel,along with the end user purchasing the least expensive parts they can get they're hands on.

RekeHavoc · Feb 14, 2020

Upper Control Arms

General tech about rear lower control arms

Mustang5L5 · Feb 14, 2020

ppost said:
My question to you is why sell them if they bind. break and don't work.

Because they make money on them, and many people who mod Mustangs really have no idea why they do they things they do. They just think Aftermarket stuff must be better.

The issue is Ford's design introduces a lot of bind. Then you have the mindset that rubber bushings are sloppy, so lets stiffen them up with urethane, and you just make the bind worse and uncontrolled, which can lead to snap oversteer.

The herd mentality is also strong. Hop on Facebook and make a post stating you want to keep your quad shocks on yoru car and see what happens. You'll get 100 posts laughing at you telling you to throw them in the trash and buy aftermarket arms with the stiffest bushings you can find. Nobody wants to actually listen about the correct way to modify a suspension. (which unfortunately is expensive).

The best Fox Mustang rear suspensions do away with the Quadra-link setup and convert to a 3-link, or 5-link setup. With a panhard bar setup you can even try a Poor-mans 3-link setup. Hop on youtube or google and you'll see a ton of info on these setups. EricthecarGuy did an awesome series on installing an entire Max Motorsports suspension setup on his fairlane. I've got most of it on my car other than the torque arm (for now).

But...what are your actual goals with the car? You don't need a torque arm to cruise to local car shows. In fact, the NVH increase from one may be a discouraging factor.

ppost · Feb 14, 2020

Just a cruiser no racing planned. I have seen some of his videos. Good stuff. I love all of the advice. I'm just having fun with a car I have owned for 28 years.
Great retirement project. Love these forums, back in the old days you got info by hanging out at your local speed shop or downtown on Friday night.
thanks to all for the advice.
Below is a response for L.M.R.

To help clear this up, if you are not running a panhard bar on the car than the polyurethane bushings are perfectly fine. If you are using a panhard or things of that nature than the rubber bushings would be better for that kind of application. Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Andrew Perry
Customer Care Rep lmr

Thought I would share this. any thoughts?

General karthief · Feb 14, 2020

My thoughts are just replace the uppers with quality replacements and quality lowers like MM have and get on with life. I did that with mine over 30k miles ago and I hammer on my ride all the time. No issues.
Unless it is a race car no need for fancy high dollar stuff.
JMO and based on real world driving the streets and tossing it sideways as often as I can. It corners extremely well and is very fun to drive.

Fox upper control arms

Member

Wasn't a pretty sight...and I've got big hands

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Member

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.

If you're the village idiot what's that make me?

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.

If you're the village idiot what's that make me?

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

Member

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.

wanna catch the space herp

Apparently my ex-husband made that mistake.

wanna catch the space herp

Member

Active Member

Member

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

Member

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency