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Install a High-Performance Front SuspensionBulletproof upper and lower control arms and strut rods for vintage Mustangs are direct replacements for the stock pieces From the November, 2005 issue of Mustang Monthly All contributors: Miles Cook
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Here are the new pieces installed... Here are the new pieces installed on our '69 Mustang subject car. While not as radical as a coilover setup, the Blue Moon and Global West pieces are a huge step up from the factory suspension bits. If you want to be on the path to a good-handling vintage Mustang street car, these tough-as-nails components are about as good as it gets, short of going to a more expensive coilover system. For at least the past 10 years, various manufacturers have been producing suspension parts for vintage Mustangs that are much better than the original components. Several areas have been addressed, including strength, suspension geometry, adjustability, and more. Best of all, many of these items are virtually invisible to the casual observer, which is the case with the front upper and lower control arms we're featuring here. Unless you peer inside the fender or have the car on a hoist, no one will know you've updated a daily driven vintage Mustang with suspension bits that take advantage of modern technology. We're all for anything that makes an old Mustang more enjoyable to drive. Available from any of National... Available from any of National Parts Depot's four warehouses, the Blue Moon Motorsports upper and lower control arms are built like Fort Knox. Marketed under the Control Freak name, several applications cover '65-'66, '67, and '68-'73 Mustangs. They're also available in the black powdercoat finish shown here or a polished stainless steel finish. The arms include Grade 8 hardware and are made from 1.050x.154-inch-wall seamless tubing. Equally durable are Global West's tubular adjustable strut rods (top) that allow for more caster adjustment than stock strut rods. With that in mind, we checked out a set of tubular upper and lower control arms being installed on our '69 fastback project car. A pair of adjustable strut rods is also part of the mix. These parts are a major step up in performance front-suspension components that retain the original architecture of the '65-'73 Mustang front suspension. The next step would be to go to a full coilover system, which is slick but considerably more expensive than what we're showing here. The Control Freak upper and lower control arms are made by Blue Moon Motorsports, and the strut rods are produced by Global West Suspension Systems. These suspension goodies and numerous other vintage Mustang parts are available from National Parts Depot, which has warehouses in California, Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina. We've also established a new working relationship with another shop in the Los Angeles area that, among other things, specializes in vintage Mustang repair and upgrade work. If you're in the area, Don & Harold's Automotive Center is a worthy resource for anyone interested in professional help with early Mustangs.  We arrived at Don & Harold's...  We arrived at Don & Harold's ready to begin the installation and discovered the shop has a fully computerized alignment rack, which meant a trip to an alignment shop wouldn't be necessary. We began by unbolting the shock from the spring perch and upper control arm before raising the front wheels off the ramps of the alignment rack/vehicle hoist. This avoids having to contend with the shock being extended before separating it from the spring perch.  Unbolt the shock from the...  Unbolt the shock from the top of the tower by removing the three bolts. The shock then lifts out of the tower as shown.  Next, remove the dust shield...  Next, remove the dust shield inside the fenderwell, which is held in place with six bolts. This allows better access to the coil spring to facilitate its removal.  A spring compressor is required...  A spring compressor is required to remove the spring. You must know what you're doing here because the spring must be compressed enough to get it off the spring perch and out of the shock tower. The force of the compressed spring can be deadly if mishandled. While we've tackled this type of procedure before, it was nice to have seasoned experts at Don & Harold's handle it safely. Once the spring is adequately squeezed together with the compressor, it can be safely removed.  With the spring out, removal...  With the spring out, removal of the stock parts gets underway, and we begin by unbolting the upper control arm from the spindle as shown. Don & Harold's has compressed air, which is another advantage. Although the arms can be installed with handtools, the air-powered tools make the job move along faster.  After several strong hits...  After several strong hits on the spindle with a hammer, the spindle separates from the ball joint of the stock upper arm.  With the upper arm separated...  With the upper arm separated from the spindle, it can be unbolted from the shock tower. This involves getting a wrench on the nut on the underhood side of the shock tower and a socket inside the fender. It's a big help to have two people for this step--one to hold the wrench under the hood and one to unbolt the arm from inside the fender.  With all fasteners out, the...  With all fasteners out, the upper control arm is removed from the car.  You can go two ways here....  You can go two ways here. Either use new spring perches if required or reuse the ones on the stock arms. Ours were recently replaced, so they were in good enough shape to be reused. They were therefore removed from the stock arms as shown.  The Blue Moon upper control...  The Blue Moon upper control arms come with a pair of machined spacer plates that must be used with the new arms. They slip into place like this before the arm is installed in the car to prevent the tubular arm from hitting the shock tower.  As was done on '65 Shelby...  As was done on '65 Shelby GT350s, the Blue Moon instructions state to drill new holes in the shock towers to relocate (lower) the upper arms in the shock tower using supplied templates as guides. Although Blue Moon recommends relocating the upper arm for optimum performance and geometry, we decided to forgo that for now and install the arms in the stock holes, which Blue Moon also said is adequate for a street car. But we had to enlarge the stock holes to accept Blue Moon's 9/16-inch hardware.  Whether or not you drill new...  Whether or not you drill new holes, the remaining installation procedure is the same. The new arms install into the shock tower using the supplied hardware. The Blue Moon arm is a direct replacement for the stock arm and reinstalls as such. The bolts go through the shock tower (with the spacer plate between the arm and shock tower) and attach with the supplied nuts on the other side of the tower.  With the arm installed, reconnect...  With the arm installed, reconnect the spindle to the new arm with the supplied hardware. Be sure to install the supplied cotter pin once the castle nut is tightened.  With the upper arm installed,...  With the upper arm installed, the techs at Don & Harold's use a block of wood to keep the upper arm and spindle up and out of the way while they remove the lower arm and strut rod. In this photo, the spindle has already been disconnected from the lower arm.  The next step is to remove...  The next step is to remove the strut rod, which is a fairly easy task. Unbolt the large nut at the front of the rod and remove the rod from the lower control arm by loosening and removing the two bolts.  After disconnecting the antisway...  After disconnecting the antisway bar from the lower arm and removing the bolt that holds the other end of the lower arm in place near the oil pan, the lower arm is removed from the car.  The Blue Moon lower arm installs...  The Blue Moon lower arm installs in place of the stock arm. You might have to spread the mounting ears slightly where the lower arm attaches to the car near the oil pan; otherwise, the Blue Moon arm is a direct replacement. Use the car's existing hardware (be sure to include the alignment eccentric) to secure the lower arm in place.  As with the other parts, the...  As with the other parts, the Global West strut rods are a direct replacement and come with all required hardware. Attach the front of the strut rod and secure into place with the supplied hardware. The Global West rods also replace the stock rubber bushings where the rod attaches at the front of the car. Tighten the large nut as shown.  Here, the antisway bar has...  Here, the antisway bar has already been reattached to the Blue Moon lower arm using the existing hardware. Next, attach the strut rod to the lower control arm with the supplied bolt and one bolt from the stock strut rod. This bolt installs next to the steering stop on the Global West strut rod. Securely tighten the bolts and nuts to complete the installation of the strut rod.  Next, the lower arm and spindle...  Next, the lower arm and spindle are connected and secured together with the supplied castle nut and cotter pin.  Remove the stock bolts from...  Remove the stock bolts from the spring perch by tapping them out with a hammer. This is best achieved while the perch is placed in a bench vise.  Remove the supplied hardware...  Remove the supplied hardware on the Blue Moon upper arm and install the longer bolts into the spring perch. The longer bolts are required to run through the thicker perch-mounts on the Blue Moon upper arm.  According to the Blue Moon...  According to the Blue Moon instructions, some spring perches must be trimmed for clearance on the upper arm. We determined our perches would need trimming to clear the tubular construction of the Blue Moon arm when the suspension is in motion. We took off about 1/8 inch of material with a die grinder.  The perch is installed onto...  The perch is installed onto the upper control arm...  ...and secured into place...  ...and secured into place with the supplied hardware.  By reinstalling the spring,...  By reinstalling the spring, installation is almost complete.  Reinstall the shock, and lubricate...  Reinstall the shock, and lubricate the upper and lower ball joints with grease.  Have the car aligned to complete...  Have the car aligned to complete the installation. Don & Harold's has a fully computerized Hunter alignment rack and did it on the spot. Caster was set at about 2 degrees positive (tops of spindles tilted toward the back of the car), camber at about 3/4 degree negative (tops of wheels tilting in toward the center of the car), and toe-in at 1/16 of an inch--all fairly typical street-oriented settings. For more sporting open-track activity, set camber to around 2-3 degrees negative, caster to around 3 degrees positive, and toe-in about the same or slightly less at 1/32 inch. If ride height changes and you want to retain the height you had before installation, the coil springs might need to be trimmed. Each car is different. We trimmed three quarters of a coil from our front springs with a cutoff wheel to get the height we wanted, which was slightly lower than where we began. For more information on this subject, see page 54 of our August '04 issue.
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