Front suspension questions

[swice]

Keep in mind the bump steer after happens when you lower your car from stock height because it changes the steering geometry in relation to the suspension. I kept mine stock but went with a higher spring rate. I have almost no perceptible body roll and don't have to slow down much for irregularities in the roadway. If you lower the car, the benefits sometimes outweigh the problems that come with it. If you just cruise, it's not an issue. If you like to drive in a spirited fashion, you might want stock height to avoid bottoming out on roadways. Regardless of what you do, always make sure the steering linkage is parallel to the lower control arm to avoid bump steer.

 

[swice]

In my rebuild I took a chance on new front springs one inch lower than stock, ordered bilstein shocks, one inch front stabilizer bar, 1 1/4 rear. It was a nice look and handled well but I needed to buy slightly more narrow front tires as on sharp turns the inside of the tires hit the linkage.

 

[rcadd1ct]

Factory stuff is OK for normal driving. However, I myself will never again use nor recommend factory spring perches with rubber bushings. The difference in ride quality using roller perches was that great for me. Although easy, the upper arms and perches are the biggest hassle to deal with due to the coil spring. If you get those two sorted first, the other components can be done at anytime.

Hard for me to compare roller to stock perches. Last time it was driven on stock perches was 35ish years prior.

 

[Paul M]

I am about to redo my front suspension, (1973 vert 351c 400hp T5) I don't really understand the difference (functionally) of the various options (oem control arms, tubular, opentracker's performance arms, roller). How much of a difference do each of the options make (and are the roller arms worth (in terms of appreciable street performance) the vast difference in price?

I have heard that opentracker has discontinued the roller idler arms for our cars, is there another option and again, how much does it matter?

Has anyone written a good primer on our cars front suspension. and upgrading it? I have the factory front discs, redid the steering to the close ration box, I just am not sure what to do about the suspension. Also what bushings are recommended.

Any insights and recommendations are appreciated.

I redid my complete suspension @ a year ago. I personally wouldn't change a thing. This car drives like a smaller sports model. I didn't spend a fortune either. I have a 73 so the front bumper had to be swapped to eliminate 90+lbs of bad ballast that far in front of the tires. Plus battery relocation and aluminum intake n water pump. I ended up removing @200lbs of weight up front. I swapped the front springs from the stock .650 to the 1" drop that are .720 thicker and stiffer, then added a 3/8" spacer to bring them back up to 3/4" below stock ride ht. I used the grease insert saddles because the cheap replacements were making noise. I went with the 5 leaf rear springs with the stock spring eyes then added 1" shackles to clear my wide rear tires on hard corners and large dips in the road. I have a competition suspension, so it has the rear sway bar. Maybe it helps but this car handles great. I had to change out my battery hold down and secure my rear speakers because I'm driving it pretty hard. You can spend more money if you want. I also have 60 series tires up ft, since I consider this a heavy car. My Gto had the skinny ft tires & they are terrible for cornering. I changed out to fatter coils on that one also to avoid some rollover. The tires were still a hindrance. As far as bushings rubber gives you some movement and urethane is stiffer.

 

[tony-muscle]

As said, stock suspension works well up to a point. A huge improvement is adding better gripping tires like a set of 200 or 300tw. When I was running the stock suspension I switched from Radial T/As to Michelin Pilot 4s, which are 320tw and the car was in a completely different ball park. At some point I also switched to roller perches and I have to say that the difference was negligible. Now I run a full coilover suspension from Mike Maier, which is in a completely different universe (performance and budget) above stock. Bottom line, unless you are taking the car to Autocross or road racing, stick with stock and a good sway bar with PUR bushings, but invest in good super high performance tires in the 200-300tw range. Any little bit that you can lower the car is also a step in the right direction. For the rear a good pair of 4.5 leaf springs is a huge improvement.

 

[Paul M]

As said, stock suspension works well up to a point. A huge improvement is adding better gripping tires like a set of 200 or 300tw. When I was running the stock suspension I switched for Radial T/As to Michelin Pilot 4s, which are 320tw and the car was in a completely different ball park. At some point I also switched to roller perches and I have to say that the difference was negligible. Now I run a full coilover suspension from Mike Maier, which is in a completely different universe (performance and budget) above stock. Bottom line, unless you are taking the car to Autocross or road racing, stick with stock and a good sway bar with PUR bushings, but invest in good super high performance tires in the 200-300tw range. Any little bit that you can lower the car is also a step in the right direction. For the rear a good pair of 4.5 leaf springs is a huge improvement.

That car must corner excellently w/ 320tw and a full coil over suspension from Mike Maier. I also like some of the global west stuff some of these guys have. There's a few of you who have some bad ass 71-3's on here.

 

[tony-muscle]

That car must corner excellently w/ 320tw and a full coil over suspension from Mike Maier. I also like some of the global west stuff some of these guys have. There's a few of you who have some bad ass 71-3's on here.

Even better with the 200tw Bridgestone RE-71RS that I am running now. So I use the PS4s for "street" and the "RE71rs" for racing.