 This is the non - adjustable lower arm with Delron bushings and multiple adjustment holes for ride height. There are also holes provided for you street guys to reinstall the factory anti sway bar. Part # C8002 |
Following along the guidelines of the rules for Stock Eliminator I couldn’t use just any type of control arms I wanted. The upper links are allowed to be adjustable for setting pinion angle and preload, the lowers are not allowed to be adjustable. Probably the “trickest” component I’m going to install is a anti-roll bar made specifically to fit inside of the Mustang frame rails, or any other “Fox” chassis Ford, that will allow me to fine tune the rear suspension for the straightest launches possible and let me pitch the air bag that has been taking abuse in the passenger side coil spring for the last 14 years. Finishing off the complete package is a pair of Moroso “Trick” rear springs that are made with a different spring rate for the right and left sides of the car to help promote a even distribution of weight during acceleration. That’s the plan, now let's see how it all comes together.
The first step in removing the old suspension is to jack up the car and support it on six well placed jack stands on a level surface. If you have any concern for your own safety do not under any circumstances climb under a vehicle that is supported solely by a floor jack. I have been guilty of this myself in the past but not anymore.
Second step is to remove the drive shaft. If you place two of the jack stands under the axle housing tubes you can use a floor jack to support the lower control arms one side at a time to take the tension off of the arm and remove the bolt that secures the rear of the arm
to the housing bracket. After removing the bolt you can slowly lower the arm from the housing and the spring will fall out. Congratulations, that was the hard part!
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I also removed the sumped Aeromotive fuel tank for more access to the suspension. This particular job is made easier if you first drain the tank of as much fuel as possible. The tank is simply held in by two straps that cradle the tank and they are released by removing the two bolts at the front of the straps. With a little twisting motion applied you can wiggle the tank off of the fill spout and you're done.
Now that the lower control arms and fuel tank are removed, if you are not removing the entire rear end like I am the next step is to install the new Competition Engineering lower arms. By installing these now you will still have a stable attachment between the housing and chassis when you remove the upper arms. I am however removing the complete assembly so I will cover the control arm installation later on.
The next step is to remove the lower shock retaining bolt from the housing bracket on each side. I have Competition Engineering three-way adjustable shocks on the car already and they are not gas charged so I simply collapse them closed and leave them hanging. If you have gas charged shocks you will need to remove them from the car to get them out of the way.
Next up you need to unhook the brake line that is attached to a bracket with a horseshoe type clip. Try to keep from getting any brake fluid in your mouth because it really doesn’t taste good. At least that’s what I was told because I would never do something so stupid. Anyway, cap off the brake line on the chassis with a rubber sleeve and remember not to hit the brakes! The only thing left is to remove the bolts (2) that connect the upper arms to the chassis and carefully lower the housing out from under the car. Now that the housing has been successfully extracted from the chassis the real work begins!
Actually, if you are just replacing the control arms the job is half way done. But, if you are installing the Competition Engineering anti-roll bar kit like me follow along and bring your welder. Installing the anti-roll bar is by far the most involved part of the project and even though it is a relatively straight forward process it should only be attempted by someone with a pretty good mechanical aptitude.
