Suspension Overhaul

[Galucha]

Actually I hadn't considered another possibility, which is that the SoT upper control arms could just be longer.

 

[tony-muscle]

I am with you. There has to be something different in the Granada spindle. I hope someone in this forum can shed light on the subject. It will be nice to see side-by-side pictures. Hard to make conclusions based on our pictures, but it appears that the spindle leg to the upper ball joint is more angled in my picture than yours.

I don't think a long UCA should be an issue since that will also push the wheel out. The issue seems to be the location of the upper ball joint on the spindle. Like you say, they may have more camber built in and/or the spacing is different.

In any case, that won't matter to you as long as you can align your car to the newer specs. You have a great new suspension and with those tires you will have a very good handling car.

What are your alignment numbers for camber and caster? Right now I am at -0.5 camber and 5 caster, but I may eventually increase the camber to -1.0.

 

[Galucha]

I am with you. There has to be something different in the Granada spindle. I hope someone in this forum can shed light on the subject. It will be nice to see side-by-side pictures. Hard to make conclusions based on our pictures, but it appears that the spindle leg to the upper ball joint is more angled in my picture than yours.

I don't think a long UCA should be an issue since that will also push the wheel out. The issue seems to be the location of the upper ball joint on the spindle. Like you say, they may have more camber built in and/or the spacing is different.

In any case, that won't matter to you as long as you can align your car to the newer specs. You have a great new suspension and with those tires you will have a very good handling car.

What are your alignment numbers for camber and caster? Right now I am at -0.5 camber and 5 caster, but I may eventually increase the camber to -1.0.

Yeah I'd be curious as well to see what the exact differences are. If anyone has a junk mustang disc brake spindle they'd be willing to part with, I'd be happy to do an in depth comparison. 

Current alignment specs are the same as yours. Getting 5 degrees of caster was a little tricky, but we got there by adjusting the length of the UCA heim joints. I think -1 of camber would be pretty good for track use, but -.5 gives a good compromise for street driving. Plus if you have the camber adjustment plates instead of the round eccentric, you can find out what combination of plates give you various camber settings and quickly swap them out at track without needing an alignment rack, which is pretty nice.

 

[Galucha]

Very exciting day as the rear wheels and tires came in. The front and rear spacing is about as perfect as I could ask for. The clearance between the wheel and fender lip is almost exactly the same as the front wheels (15/16"), although I may have to roll the fenders as these tires have a taller cross section and may rub.

On the back side, I have at least 1.5" of clearance to the shock mount bracket. These wheels have +12mm of backspacing, so I'm glad I went with them.

I think I will look at getting some hub centric rings made to close the gap between the axle hub (72.6mm) and the wheel center bore (63mm).

Will be getting some more video footage next week after I get the tires mounted and balanced.

 

[Galucha]

Another clearance check after getting the rear tires mounted. Will definitely need to roll the fenders, as the inner lip is making contact with the tire at about 1.5" of suspension travel. I know I have exactly 2.87" of rear suspension travel at full compression, so rolling them should get me plenty of additional clearance.

I will say it's very close with 285s, so I bet 275s would not have any issues on these wheels. Will be borrowing a fender rolling tool this weekend to get that done.

 

[Galucha]

Ok have a concern regarding wheel centering that maybe someone can help me with. Right now I'm using these lug nuts I bought on summit.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gor-21183et

The extended shank fits snugly into the wheels, which in turn helps to center them when I install them onto the car. I believe this would be a lug-centric setup?

Would there be any benefit to getting hub-centric rings to center the wheel instead, or would that just be unnecessary? My thought is that if I don't get any vibration at speed with my current setup, I shouldn't need to get hub-centric rings. Trying to get the safest setup and wondering which system is better.