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Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Technical => Suspension/Steering => Topic started by: hunter4life on September 23, 2014, 06:58:46 PM

Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: hunter4life on September 23, 2014, 06:58:46 PM
Hello all, my 88 sports rack & pinnion has developed a pretty serious leak and needs to be replaced. The front end is very loose so i intend to replace & rebuild it. I priced ball joints and a-arm bushings from rock auto and it came up to around $55 per side using moog replacement pcs. I also priced moog a-arm from a 94-95 stang, which i believe are supposed to the same, at around $80 a piece. So for around $50 i can save the hedache of renting a press or taking it to a shop to have bushings and ball joints pressed in.  I intend to upgrade to 11'' brakes from a turbo coupe as i have all the pcs to do the swap. My question is if i use the 94-95 a-arms will the ball joints match up to the turbo coupe spindles?

I have sn-95 spindles for future 5-lug swap but cannot justify new wheels and tires at the moment.

Thanks,

Owen
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: thunderjet302 on September 23, 2014, 08:41:02 PM
You can use the SN-95 a-arm fine. It is the same dimensionally as the stock 87-88 Thunderbird/Cougar a-arm. The SN-95 ball joint won't work with the Turbo Coupe spindles as the ball joint nut won't fully engage. You have two options here:

1. Machine away some of the spindle mounting pad. Someone here did that to use SN-95 ball joints with Turbo Coupe spindles.
2. Replace the ball joints with Fox ball joints.

Another option would be to find a shorter ball joint nylock nut so the threads engage. I'm not sure how safe that option is however.
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: Chuck W on September 23, 2014, 10:09:30 PM
Quote from: thunderjet302;438259
You can use the SN-95 a-arm fine. It is the same dimensionally as the stock [COLOR="#FF0000"]87-88[/COLOR] Thunderbird/Cougar a-arm. T


Added a clarifier.
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: hunter4life on September 24, 2014, 01:47:50 AM
So fox ball joints are longer? 

Looks like I will go ahead and rebuild my a-arms with correct fox ball joints and bushings.

Thanks, guys!!!
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: Aerocoupe on September 24, 2014, 09:06:36 AM
Yes they are.  If it were me I would rebuild your existing control arms and when you are ready to upgrade to the SN95 brakes you only need 0.330" of hardened washers in height.  You will install these on the Fox ball joint between the top of the SN95 spindle and the castle nut.  This will allow the proper installed height of the castle nut to allow the cotter pin to be installed.  You can also search for someone that makes a hardened spacer but it costs money and I ran the hardened washers for over four years with zero issues before I switched to SN95 ball joints.

Darren
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: thunderjet302 on September 24, 2014, 03:21:59 PM
Quote from: Chuck W;438262
Added a clarifier.


Oops missed that. Thanks for catching it. I edited my post in case someone comes across it later.
Title: Sn-95 a-arms
Post by: Chuck W on September 25, 2014, 10:37:01 AM
Quote from: Aerocoupe;438272
You can also search for someone that makes a hardened spacer but it costs money and I ran the hardened washers for over four years with zero issues before I switched to SN95 ball joints.

Darren

I've done both ways, washers and a machined spacer. It makes no difference in the end.
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