Hello. First post to Cool Cats. Great site. My name is Jon, I have a 1985 TC 5-speed with a 5.0 conversion. I have some Lakewood rear lower control arms for a Fox Mustang and am wondering if anyone forsees a problem using these on the 83-88 Cougar/Thunderbird chassis. I read the Tech Center and see there is a minor length difference in the lowers. I see the CHE stuff but I already have the Lakewood lowers. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
They are shorter, resulting in moving the wheel forward in the wheel well (which may or may not be a problem depending on your wheel and tire combination) but it will change the pinion angle (assuming you use the stock upper control arms), rotating the housing nose up.
Sell the Stang ones and get the correct length control arms. Or spend more money on adjustable upper control arms to get the pinion angle correct.
Thanks for the info 86Bird. I do have the Lakewood adjustable uppers on order. I'll need to research the method for measuring pinion angle.
UNless they have adjustment for at least 1" longer in length, the Mustang uppers will be too short most likely.
Thanks. Yeah, unlike the lowers, the Lakewood uppers (PN 20154) I ordered actually spec the Thunderbird. I'll let you know when I get to the install. Appreciate the heads up.