Well guys I'm currently on the hunt looking for a set of A-arms for my Tbird because the guys who said they could "press" the bushings out used an airchisel instead of a press to remove them. So while the A-Arms are salvageable the sleeves that hold the bushings are not...........
But!! I just remembered that my 87-88 arms are supposed to be the same as 94-98 mustang arms so my question is are the bushings from 87-88 tbird the same as bushings from 94-98 mustang?
Because if that is the case than I can order the mustang bushings which come with the bushing sleeves and salvage my a-arms. And if not than I can hopefully locate some tbird arms (which I might have done already on this site).
The arms are the same length, but they are not the same bushing-wise.
shiznit
My energy suspension front bushings came with the shells on them. If the arms aren't to messed up you might be able to use those.
What year are the bushings and what is the diameter of the shell? The diameter on my a-arms is 2.5 inches on the big one and about 1.5 on the little one. And I think I might have located a pair of a-arms to use so don't knock yourself out looking for the sleeves if you don't have to.
Thanks,
Tony
I just got the whole car kit. It also said mustang on the box. Everything went right in.
87-88TCs use a different set of bushings than the earlier cars (which use the Fox Mustang bushings).
UPDATE!!! I called carquest today and turns out that you can order the a-arm bushings with the outer bushing sleeves!!!!! So I've got them coming in tomorrow and once they arrive I'll double check that they fit and hopefully no a-arms will need to be removed!!
Any rubber bushing will come with the sleeve. The rubber is bonded to the inner and outer bushing. This is why you tighten rubber control arm bushing at ride height. If you do so at any other position, it adds a preload to the suspension.
Jeremy is right. I was amazed the first time I tore apart a front suspension with the rubber bushings.
I used the Global West Del-Alum bushings, and it was one of the single best things I did to my suspension.
First time I went to change front springs, I popped the lower ball joint and had to fight to push the LCA down to remove the spring.
After the GW bushings, I popped the balljoint and the LCA fell to hang straight down and swung like a pendulum, and the spring fell out and went rolling across the floor.
I wouldn't mess rebuilding the A arms. I went with the FMS-3075-D control arms on my 87 Sport. They are a bargain at $160 for the pair and have the bushings and ball joints in them all ready. Put some new sway bar bushings and coil spring isolators and it'll handle better than new.
Do the SN95 ball joints work with Fox spindles?
I installed the FMS-3075-D "A" arms complete out of the box with my T-Bird sport spindles and KYB GR-2 struts. The only difference I can see is that the spring cups appear to be 1/2" deeper on the new A arms compared to the old. I was hoping it would have lowered the front end that 1/2" but I also used new spring isolators so the front end remained at the stock height. If I were to do the job again, I probably would cut 3-4" off the end each coil to get the lowered height I was looking for but the handling and ride is better than new.
A little birdie (http://"http://foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showpost.php?p=166782&postcount=7") told me it wouldn't work...
New BJs and bushings from Moog will run ~$165.
The same from Spicer's "service grade" will run ~$40.
I have yet to see a Fox splindle that was narrow enough at the ball joint boss for an SN-95 ball joint to work.
This is where I got the idea from. It worked on my car.
--->http://www.coolcats.net/tech/advanced/controlarms.html
i would double check the thread engagement on the balljoints....
What he said. Spindle/balljoint separation while driving will not be a pleasant experience.
I thought about drilling a hole through mine and securing it with a pin or safety wire. But since SN-95 brakes are sooo gosh darn cool I went with the whole SN-95 shabazz.
You are absolutely right. It wouldn't be any fun to have the ball joint separate. I did crawl under there and check the nuts and they are still tight. I will put it on my things to check when I do my periodic servicing for piece of mind.
Just a word of caution, please make sure that the ball joint nut does indeed tighten. Due to the nylon-locking nut it appears to tighten but then the taper shaft of the ball joint just spins. If the nut doesn't tighten down then it is not tight. It should tighten and be torqued to specification and not free turn. Stay safe!
From the other thread I started, I decided to ensure a couple of threads of the bolt is showing to ensure the locknut is locked...
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e360/Domeskull/DSCF1120.jpg)
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e360/Domeskull/DSCF1121.jpg)
So I have a question. What is the big deal with just changing out the ball joints? Not to detract from the work that Cougar5.0 is doing, but wouldn't it be easier to just have the SN95 joints pressed out and new Fox ones pressed in? Am I missing something here? Are the Fox ball joints inferior or will they not fit into the control arms properly or something?
They fit the arms just fine.
The SN-95 ball joints that come in the arms are the long-life, no service type and they would need to be replaced with the "std" type. However, I'm sure a high-quality version is available. It's just the added cost of 2 ball joints.
The ball joints that were in the old FMS replacement Fox arms had the same type of ball joints in them (Fox-correct though)
Yeah, I like the low-friction sealed ball-joints the M-3075-D arms came with. Between the cost of the new ball joints, the labor to press the old (new) joints out and replace them with perhaps inferior joints, it just seemed like it would be easier to machine the boss down a bit (once I figured out the angles that is :D ).
If I'm gonna have to add labor, I'd rather it be to the old spindles rather than the nice new arms that are already assembled and ready for action.
Off hand, (maybe I didn't see this) can't you switch the Fox and SN95 ball joints?
Are the replacement ball joints from Motorcraft not the same "low frction" BJs that come in the M-3075-A ?