Did a search and came up empty, besides CHE, who makes upper control arms?
I have CHE lowers. Just wondering what choices I have.
Give Mike a call at TRZ Motorsports in Florida, they can set you up with whatever you need. I have a set of upper and lower double adjustable arms from them.
Donnie
Thanks!!
Welcome
I can't find the thread now, but older Chevelle arms will fit as well. 68-72 IIRC.
I would never put anything from gm on my car. But thanks anyway.
It's okay. The GM arms are within .040" of what our cars require. Direct bolt-ins, no mods necessary. Why reinvent the wheel?
Besides...my convertible is about 20% GM but you don't see me not driving it because of that fact. ;)
I would rather have my mom in a whouse, than my sister in a chevy. One of my favorite sayings. I despise chevy anything. I really do.
Global West sells the correct Upper and Lower Control arms but they are pricey compared to the CHE units. Griggs and Maximum Motorsports both sell the lowers but they are pricey. I have Griggs lowers and GW uppers on my Bird and the Maximum lower with their torque arm on my Mustang.
Darren
I have heard that CHE might take awhile to get.Thats why I was checking to see who else offered them. I will check GW, Thanks Darren.
I see they offer just a lower arm, maybe I should call.
The part number for the double adjustable units (what I have) is TBF-88 and it is not on their website so you will have to call. Let them know you are a member of the forum and ask when they are going to make the seat braces for the subframe connectors they make for our cars. I know its a shameless thing to do but a few of us really want them.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?32834-Seat-Bracess-For-Global-West-Sub-Frame-Connectors
Darren
Im under the impression that mustang control arms for the same year dont fit? Sorry for a possibly stupid question, i was under the impression most mustang stuff fits.
Nope. Lowers are 5/8" longer and the uppers are 1-1/8" longer in the rear. For the front control arms 83-86 cars use the Fox Mustang control arms and the 87-88 cars use the SN95 control arms.
Darren
I am in no means fighting your knowledge, but i just thought ide dig deeper into this since i thought a fox chassis is a fox chassis.
I e-mailed Jegs technical support staff and asked if there were any dimension differences between the 7.5 and 8.8 housings used on t-birds and mustangs for the same year and also asked if suspension parts are interchangeable. His response was this,
"Hello:
Thank you for giving JEGS the opportunity to assist you with your technical question.
In reference to your question regarding the Ford 7.5” and 8.8” rear ends, the mount brackets and dimensions are same between the two. Most of the suspension pieces are interchangeable between the Thunderbird and Mustang chassis from years 1979 thru 2004. This should be a pretty straight forward swap."
Which is what i always thought. I checked around google for a while and found alot of different answers too. Some say lowers fit fine, but the uppers are only a 1/4" shorter on a stang and that adjustables would fix that problem. Then somewhere else, a guy said that 94-98 stang control arms, along with shocks and struts, for both front and rear, fit the fox chassis with no issues.
So i continued to rip all my hair out ; )
I dont mean to hijack this thread. Im about to invest alot of money into this new rear and dont want to waste time or money. I also figured all this different info and responses would be beneficial to anyone in the future.
The Jegs guy is talking out his ass. You believe him or random Google searches over a group of guys devoted to these cars?
Aerocoupe has the info right. (The difference in length of the lowers might be off, as we've seen anywhere from 3/8-5/8" difference, depending on who's measuring them, and how old the arms are). The upper difference is spot on, and there are few adjustable Mustang arms that will still be safe at that kind of adjustment.
On the struts/shocks. Mustang front struts will work. Rear shocks are too short to use out of the box.
Also, if you take the time to search this forum, you'll find the proper answers on the rear end differences as well.
Aerocoupe is correct.
Yeah, it's close enough on the lowers. When I measured them back in '98 or '99 @ KB's, the difference I had in my notes was 1/2". The rest of the info is spot on.
Chuck,
That was very admirable of you not to shamelessly plug your rear shock brackets.
Cougarbird86,
Get a set of Chuck's rear shock adapters so that you can run any of the Fox/SN95 rear shocks. I have a set and few others here do as well and for the money you cannot beat them as it opens up the world on rear shock selection. For the record the Fox and SN95 cars use the same length shock.
http://turbochuck.com/
I noticed the new site (nice work by the way Chuck!) does not show the rear adapters but I am betting he still makes them. Good luck with the project!
Darren
Oops, I didn't spot that Chuck, thanks for pointing that out. In hindsight I was more focused on the correct front A-arm information.
I figured it at about 1/2" difference for the rear LCA's as well. In fact I had run some Mustang bars in one of my old Cougars and they worked just fine, no difference in ride, and the pinion angle was within spec (0 to 4 degrees).
I'd never trust a desk jockey with numbers on a computer screen over Chuck and Aerocoupe's suspension knowledge of these cars.
And since it kinda touches base..can someone please sticky the k member/control arm thread again please. I feel it would cut down on this sort of needless over and over again stuff :)
Yeah, I tend to not pimp my stuff out. I'm a lousy salesman. :p I still have a few sets on hand.
I think it's hard to get a good idea about the actual length difference without having new, or very lightly used arms to compare. In *most* cases, Mustang RLCAs can work on a TBird/Cougar but the uppers are a no-go.
Ok, my apologies. I worded my response the wrong way and did not mean for it to sound like "Nope all of you are wrong, look what i found out." I did not mean that in any way.
what i completley forgot to include were the conversation i had with Jegs the other day about the order i almost purchased for control arms and the fact he said they work, and then another tech who wrote that message said they worked, so i was kind of appauled that they DONT work. I would have thought they might have run into this issue before but, oh well, i guess not. I could of got screwed.
The other reason i posted up the other responses i found on google was because i became confused with all the different ressponses everyone has about the control arms. I kind of meant for them to maybe spark up some other problem/solution people ran into. Thats why i also ended with saying that i hope all this info might help other people in the future who ran into the "same" issue i had with responses.
I hope that clarifies what i meant and that i did not rub off on anyone as being an asshole
I was not getting the whole asshole vib at all. You posted up something that a lot of us here have been over a few times but it still comes up quite a bit. The search function takes a little getting used to but the more you use it the better you get at it. I still find myself posting up stuff that has been answered in the past but I could not find it after searching for a bit.
As far as suspension on these cars go, I am by no means any kind of expert or have near the working knowledge about them that Chuck does. i do appreciate the accolade(s) but I know what I know from turning wrenches on my car and friends cars the last twenty or so years. I just research the out of whatever I am going to do and then I ask the vendor and/or manufacturer a lot of questions about the product before I buy anything if I have not seen it work first hand. I am pretty lucky to have a really good friend that is a Maximum Motorsports and Griggs dealer so I get a lot of questions answered that route. Anyhow, just trying to diffuse any kind of suspension guru title as that is something I am not comfortable with.
This forum has taught me a ton and the guys here are pretty impressive group willing to help out.
Darren
I was woundering can you use upper and lower rear controll arms from a mustang? If so wouldn't just move the rear axle foward? Just want to know because I have a set that i was going to put on my 84 Tbrid
Yes it will move the rear end forward in the vehicle, I saw a picture of a bird with the mustang control arms and the tires were close to the body. Give Mike or Todd at TRZ Motorsports (http://www.trzmotorsports.com) in Florida a call, they can put together a nice set of arms for you. I will take pics of my control arms when i get a chance and post them.