Best lowering springs for 86 bird?

Reply #15 – October 19, 2011, 10:56:53 AM

Is there any difference between the 83-86 cars and the 87-88 cars with regards to the springs? I know I tried a set of Fox lowering springs on my 83 and the fenders almost sat on the tires. I would assume that the rear springs on the Fox T-Birds are longer as the shocks on the Mustangs are shorter hence the reason Chuck makes the adapters to use the Fox Mustang shocks on our cars. Anyhow, food for thought.

Darren

Best lowering springs for 86 bird?

Reply #16 – October 19, 2011, 01:03:20 PM

There is a difference between them, but I never got any info about what that was. I know for the old FMS kits, 83-86 were the D's and 87-88 were the E's. Of course no one had any info when I tried to find out. It probably had a bit to do with the load rating, and not so much with spring rates. I just gave up on it once I figured out that the spring and load ratings were on the old tags on the springs, so I just messed around with the avail stock SN-95 Mustang stuff (at least for the rears).

Ford C-Kit fronts with poly isolators. I had a 1/8" to 1/4" of spacer on the top when the car was a 5.0/AOD. I pulled those out when I went to the 2.3T/T5. Rears are 94-98 Cobra Convertible, with the RLCA pick-up point @ the axle lowered 3/4". After finding the load rating of the rear TBird/Cougar springs, I was able to compare that to info I had on the Mustang springs. The SN-95 stuff was close, but still less than that of the TBird stuff. At one time, I had 3 sets of the 4 possible rear spring pairs for the 94-98 Mustangs.

Anyway, for a stock-type spring, the C-Kit is hands down my fave for the front of the Fox cars. The rears get tricky, but there are options. As been mentioned around the site, some folks like the Bullitt/Mach 1 set-up, which works out OK for our cars.

Best lowering springs for 86 bird?

Reply #17 – October 20, 2011, 04:35:23 PM

I put the machs on the front of mine,with a half " spacer on the left,it rubs the well on really bad dips. I took the mooges 8600 out for them, didn't gain much more lowering with the machs,but never rubbed with them. I don't think the mach springs are the best fit. Maybe on a 2.3?