Full Global West suspension system?

[Qcode351mach]

Appreciate you posting this information! I was just considering ordering the upper arms. My recent acquisition has new stock lower arms, but needs replacement uppers. I didn't realize you had to drill new holes for the mounting of the upper arms.

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

If you like, the street or track upper arms work perfect with no issues

No drilling required http://www.streetortrack.com/Tubular-Upper-Roller-Control-Arms-pr-24440.html

Pm for more details if you like, I have them installed on 2 cars

Well, new update: I had to move the mounting holes for the UCA's up 1/2". These control arms are made for 1967-1973 Mustangs, and the extra bracket in our cars is supposedly not always in the same locations, so the 1 3/8" drop may not be correct for all of our cars. Global west told me to weld the holes closed and move the holes up 1/2" from the center of the drop hole, that the UCA's are supposed to sit in the bottom of the UCA relief wells as low as they will go without interference. Sounds like some of us will get lucky with the template position, but some of us won't!!:huh:

I had a feeling looking at your pics that the lower holes weren't going to work properly with out further modification. I wonder why they spec a 1-3/8" drop vs the 1" ? Possibly the angle of the ball joint on the arm ? Well after removing a 1/2" your gonna be more in spec to the 1"

 

[mustang7173]

Omie01,

I with MeZapU on the Shelby drop. I thought Ford had built that in when they designed the 71- 73 Mustangs? Anyway, cannot wait to hear what the results are once your mustang is road worthy again.

mustang7173

 

[Omie01]

I did move them up the 1/2" last night and now everything is working fine!! Pics to come soon, I wanna get the springs and such in before posting all the pics so I can complete the saga!! Thanks for your interest!!

 

[Omie01]

Ok, after getting the UCA holes where they needed to be, the next step was lower control arms, the were pretty straight forward. You do install them with the eccentric bolts first, after the car gets aligned, you slip out the eccentric bolts, (if you opted for alignment locks) and install alignment locks. I just greased the ends and put them in the same location the old LCA's were in.


Next were the LCA struts, again pretty straight forward. A few things to remember: The 71-73 mustang have a left and right side, on the clevis side the radius on the bracket goes down, (it only fit one way). On my car the little centering ring was almost a press fit, so I tapped mine it with a soft blow hammer and just ran the threaded rod through. Note: The nut supplied with these is a 38mm and has to be torqued to 120 ft lbs. Be ready to spend $20 on a socket you will never need again in your life!! The other side attaches to the LCA, these bolts are a snug fit!! Do not fully tighten the strut to LCA bolts yet, one of the holes on the strut is an oval to assist with alignment movement, One down side: you cannot drive the car until the alignment has been done, so be ready to trailer it to an alignment shop when everything is done!!


At this point I attached the front sway bar, and installed the spindle. The sway bar helps hold the LCA up while trying to get spindle to attach to UCA. There is a small spacer that goes on top of the lower portion of your spindle for the LCA connection to take up some room for the castle nut to locate properly, don't forget it!!


Next was the UCA and coil springs. I made an aluminum plate mod for my spring compressor so I could just pull the springs up enough to install the UCA's while the spring was compressed up into the shock tower, At this point I torqued the UCA's to 80ft. lbs. Once the UCA was high enough to get the spindle attached I let the springs down making sure the spring toes were against the stops. Remember if you are using stock spring perches the spring toes have to be to the outside, Polyurethane or bearing saddles, toe to the inside according to the instructions. I then torqued upper and lower spindle nut to 65 ft. lbs. And installed coil spring covers.


Then finished up with rotor stone guards and rotors!

 

[Omie01]

OK, One more thing I just noticed this morning while I was installing the shocks. I noticed that the roller spring perch was just touching the inside tube of the UCA's. I did some research on this and there is a different company that warns about this if your using aftermarket spring perches, they say to grind an eighth inch off of the inside (toe side) of the perch to make sure the spring saddle does not interfere with the UCA tube. So anybody doing this install make sure the spring saddle articulates completely through its range of motion without hitting the UCA tubes. I wish Global west would say something about this in their literature. But at least now we have the info here!! Hope this helps!!

 

[mach71351c]

Great work. Awesome write up.

 

[Omie01]

Thank you, One of my biggest pet peeves is not being able to find specific information about mods made to our cars with aftermarket parts. I am very interested in using many of these performance upgrades for our cars but a lot of the time I'm afraid to do something because there is no info on installation and no real world descriptions about how these things work after they are installed. So to that end I tried to be as descriptive as I could be. If anybody has any questions about this project feel free to ask. The text did not line up with the pics when I put everything up so it may be a bit confusing, but I will answer any questions to the best of my ability. I will not know how the car handles until May-June when I get it back on the road, but I will do a full performance write up when I'm done!! Again, Thanks everybody!!!

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

You did a great job. I'm very impressed by your write up.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Totally agree - nice write-up and pics. ::thumb::

Not to be negative - I'm truly curious and not knowing, but what exactly is the benefit of the aftermarket control arms? Would not a set of new stock components with urethane bushings and/or bearing replacement kits [for the bushings] perform just as well? I understand the strut rods offer more adjustability, different springs make a huge difference, and I get having the 'roller' spring perches to reduce friction - but can those not be mounted to the stock control arms? TCP has some bolt-in coil-overs that fit the stock UCAs (which I'm looking at to lower my front end about an inch or so), as well as a complete set of replacement urethane bushings and bushing replacement bearings for the stock control arms. Our model years were purported to be the best-handling of the classics - why spend the [significantly] extra money for potentially barely noticeable difference in performance (vs. all-new stock components)?

Again - totally curiosity and lack of education here. I'm not bashing anybody's choices of components or recipes. :chin:

 

[Omie01]

This is the Negative roll setup, it has a positive 3 caster built into the upper ball joint location for more stability at higher speeds. Its an almost friction free suspension system. I installed all new "stock" stuff last year and there IS a noticeable difference in strength of components. I have a little experience with polyurethane bushings and in the right places they are not bad, but for major suspension components I just don't care for it. (personal choice). This system is meant for bigger rims/tires I will admit that, but I personally feel its an upgrade either way. I feel the stock Ford stuff is just way too restrictive in movement to be all that good. Not to mention one of the biggest complaints I hear about our cars is the lack of movement ability in the front end. I am doing all of this for my own experience because I have never tried any of these mods before, so instead of taking someone else's word about things, I figured I would give it a try myself!!

 

[Mister 4x4]

That's cool. Frictionless suspension is a good thing, and I can totally get behind that. ::thumb::

I'm still on the fence though about aftermarket pieces being 'stronger' than the original factory components. Unless the stamped steel control arms are actually flexing during movement (which they very well could be - I don't know...) I would think they would actually be stronger than the aftermarket pieces - because their mounting surfaces are one with the piece, and don't have critical pieces exclusively held on by welds that can [potentially] fail. I'm not saying they have any kind of real chance to actually fail, but there is always that possibility... which I would think would be higher than the failure of many layers of thick stamped steel. I've seen ball-joint mounting plates welded onto control arm loops fail before - granted, only twice, and they were on rock crawling rigs running 38" tires. I don't recall the manufacturer, but it was a popular off-road suspension company, and those pieces are designed for that kind of abuse - yet failed. It happens - welds fail... tubes can bend, is all I'm saying - just like bent stock components. The likelihood of such a failure on our applications is extremely low though, and usually only occur from major abuse.

The stock pieces are also definitely heavier, so there is weight savings to be had with the aftermarket pieces, I'm sure.

BTW - I'm not arguing the virtues of stock components vs. aftermarket here... I went with stock components myself, and still have yet to drive mine with any kind of meaningful wheel time (on/off trailers and around the neighborhood doesn't qualify in anybody's book ). I just see a LOT of aftermarket kits out there being sold for ridiculous amounts of money, and I can't help but think that maybe there's a less expensive way to get the same results by simply eliminating the friction in the pivot points and dialing-in the spring rate - which is WAY cheaper than the wholesale replacement of everything. Obviously, racing-style set-ups and adjustability cannot really be achieved with stock components, but is it really necessary to use racing-style (and priced) components to get the best handling and performance a street car will need? I guess that's what I'm wondering.

Just thinking out loud here. I totally respect what you're doing, Omie! :bravo:

 

[Omie01]

Being a welder/fabricator myself I thought about beefing up the stock components because I know it has been done in the past to good effect. But my car had a lot of steering wander even after installing all new stock components and it drove more like a 1975 Mercury Marquis than a Mustang. I just envision more road feel with a quicker steering ratio, and more steering stability in general with this system, not to mention a better articulating suspension system. I am in no way an expert and do agree this stuff is expensive, but that being said I can't build these parts for the price I paid because I just don't have the tooling. I do like that the ball joints are replaceable on these new pieces. And the welding is superb on these parts versus other nightmares I have seen. I don't think there is much of a weight savings though, these control arms are HEAVY DUTY!!! My biggest issue with the Ford stuff is the rubber bushings, I think they just SUCK!! Maybe good for a stock daily driver, but I plan to drive the Hell out of this car when I get done. I also realize I am giving up driving "comfort" for a much stiffer ride but hey, sometimes you can't have your cake and eat it too! I respect that everybody has an idea of what is right for their build and in America we have that right!!! As long as we love what we build thats the whole point!! My father has 2 1973 Mach 1 Q codes that he refuses to alter anything on and I completely understand his reasoning as well. I think we all have that "PERFECT" car in our heads and the differences in them is what makes all of this fun!!:thankyouyellow:

 

[Otto]

Appreciate you posting this information! I was just considering ordering the upper arms. My recent acquisition has new stock lower arms, but needs replacement uppers. I didn't realize you had to drill new holes for the mounting of the upper arms.

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

If you like, the street or track upper arms work perfect with no issues

No drilling required http://www.streetortrack.com/Tubular-Upper-Roller-Control-Arms-pr-24440.html

Pm for more details if you like, I have them installed on 2 cars

Well, new update: I had to move the mounting holes for the UCA's up 1/2". These control arms are made for 1967-1973 Mustangs, and the extra bracket in our cars is supposedly not always in the same locations, so the 1 3/8" drop may not be correct for all of our cars. Global west told me to weld the holes closed and move the holes up 1/2" from the center of the drop hole, that the UCA's are supposed to sit in the bottom of the UCA relief wells as low as they will go without interference. Sounds like some of us will get lucky with the template position, but some of us won't!!:huh:

I had a feeling looking at your pics that the lower holes weren't going to work properly with out further modification. I wonder why they spec a 1-3/8" drop vs the 1" ? Possibly the angle of the ball joint on the arm ? Well after removing a 1/2" your gonna be more in spec to the 1"

First off, great job Omie!!! You are answering many questions we all had about this system. I think you also provided a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to us all, like the re-drilling of the mounting holes. My only turn off to this system is the need for drilling. Which brings up the above reference.

I just took a look at the Street and Track set up. It looks like it is exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to drill my shock towers due to some issues with cracks that were repaired and reinforced until I replace the front clip. Omie and I are almost parallel versions of each other. I just completed my rebuild of my steering (3 turn box), front brakes (SSBC) and suspension (Moog, Scott Drake).

I went with the Moog "stock" upper and lower control arm along with Scott Drake strut rods and Drake strut bushings (elastomer). I wanted to do this so I have a "stock" style set up to compare future modifications to. I was considering Global West and Total Control but kept hesitating. I think it was fate. I am now sold on the Street or Track system. Expect to see a similar thread in the future to this with a Street or Track system. I am looking forward the system because I am a believer in spirited driving.

I have the pleasure of having a route to and from work that allows my average speed to be 85 mph and almost non existent police presence, so I plan to take full advantage of the system. I will also be trying Caltracs and different sway bar set ups. Expect posts regarding all these as soon as my Mach 1 is up and running. Thank you very much Omie and everyone else for the great info. I'm sorry if I'm long winded, but those that read my intro thread are not suprised. Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Omie01]

Thanks Otto, I look forward to your project and assessment, I don't think there is one "right" way to do things, just a lot of things to try. Thats why I feel its important to get all the info together in one place such as this forum. The hole drilling was not my favorite way to go either, but all my sheet metal is strong and I am confident in my welding skills so I gave it a shot!! The nice thing about metal is that you can always put back what you remove! Sometimes its a PITA, but what else would I do?lollerz Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all!!

 

[Qcode351mach]

I am now sold on the Street or Track system.

I have the street or track system on 2 of my 72's

Pm me for more info (I can get a discount for members here) but heres the installs

 

[Otto]

I completely agree with you Omie. Each builder has different intentions for their cars. Some like show cars, some like cruisers, some like high performance. As far as myself, I enjoy fun cars that don't need to be pretty. In fact, I don't like pretty or shiny. I enjoy the drive, the symbiotic relationship when the car and driver communicate and achieve great performance. I became addicted to that at an early age and to this day enjoy it driver after drive. What you have accomplished for yourself is great. It's a car you love that you put hard work into with your own two hands to achieve that higher lever of enjoyment. When people ask me what I have done and what they can do to their own cars, I start off with a question. What are you looking to do with the car? I think everything that follows should be built on that foundation. I am glad you posted your build because it did answer a number of questions I had and it is great to see what someone else is accomplishing with their passion. I look forward to seeing more.

Talk to you soon Qcode and thank you

 

[Steve1973M1]

Hi,
I used this negative wedge kit with 1 1/4 lowering template and bump steer corrector. It seams to work OK. Not a perfect setup as you could use adjustable bump steer but this works good. When you lower upper control arm you have to lower tie rod mounting