bushing question

95scfan

Registered User
i am going to re do the suspension on the car both front and rear what kinds of parts do i need i am getting new shocks and springs and i need to know what bushing kits to get over at the spinningwheels-sc site any input would be appreciated

thanks
cody
 
I got pretty much every piece of poly-urethane that's sold for our SC's. It's great. However, some people say that if you replace the bushings with rubber that the car's suspension will work better because it was originally designed to operate with rubber (softer).

I think there's a front end kit, and a rear end kit. get the differential bushings and sway-bar bushings too. Spring isolators for the rear too.
 
so i pretty much need to go crazy with the new bushings i can do that but that makes it a lil longer before i can do the suspension

thanks
cody
 
Yeah... but it'll definitely be worth it. Especially with the new shocks and springs. btw, what shox and springs are you getting?

Also, get 2 new Toe-Link-Compensators from ford. they're expensive, but, the job really isn't done w/out them.

If you want to go ALL THE WAY, you'll need to get some new rubber bushings from MOOG (i think) for the inner bushings on both the upper and lower control arms for the rear. Last time I checked, there weren't any poly for those 2. However, I've talked to a few guys who said that those inner bushings don't really need to be changed b/c they're very strong and don't see much wear. I had to have a guy at the Ford Dealership take out and put in the inner-bushings on the upper control arms for the rear. He said he used an air tool (I didn't have one). I tried to take the old ones out with a small press, but I just ended up bending the control arm.

Also, you could look into welding in some extra pieces of metal in that upper-rear control arms in an attempt to strenghten them.
 
i do want to go pretty far with it i am getting kyb shocks and eibach springs i have problems with the car wandering around the road i have real wide tires and i think someone told me it was the tie rods maybe? but i'm not for sure

thanks for the info
cody
 
That somebody is probably right. a test for tie-rod ends is to jack up the front of the car so that both front wheels are freely hanging. Have a buddy hold one tire at 3 & 9 o'clock while you grab the other front tire at 3 & 9 o'clock and alternate pushing and pulling. If there's play in the wheel, most likely your tie-rod ends are loose.

My wife's '90 has that problem. and it was MUCH worse with wider tires. Every change in the road would pull the car around and you really had to white-knuckle the steering wheel to keep straight. Now, with BFG's on there it still pulls, but it's more annoying than anything else.

The only tip I heard when taking apart the tie-rod ends is that there's a retaining pin somewhere in the assebmly that needs to come out before you can completely dissassemble the tie-rod.
 
Some people have had issues when they've put poly bushings in the strut rods on the front suspension. Those are the rods that run from the front of the subframe, to the lower control arms. Because those bushings have to allow the rods to articulate through their travel as the suspension moves up and down, having too much stiffness in those bushings may end forcing the rods to push right through the middle of them. I'd recommend that you go with the MOOG replacement or Ford OEM replacement bushings on the strut rods.

Bad front end parts can cause wandering, and it will be exaggerated by wide, low profile tires. Once you have all the parts replaced that are worn, or are being upgraded, make sure you get a good alignment done on all 4 wheels. Toe and camber can stay within stock specs, even on a lowered car. Too much negative camber will destroy the insides of yout tires in short order on a lowered MN-12 car. To help with the straight-line tracking when running wide tires, have the alignment shop max out the caster setting as much as possible. They should be able to get somewhere around 5.5 to 6 degrees positive caster ... you want as much as you can, while making it equal on both sides. More positive caster gives better steering feel as well.

cheers
Ed N.
 
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thanks guys, i'm going on the 2nd year for this car and eventually i'll have the thing figured out to where i can run to the tracks and events but a paint job is in order first

thanks
cody

any more info?
 
If you're lowering the car, I'd recommend going with a cheap set of tires to begin with. I've gone through a few tires on my front end while the allignment places get the front end dialed in correctly. I was getting a lot of inner wear like Ed was saying.
 
thats not what i wanted to hear i have 550 in tires on the car right now can i use some from an lx? my bro has an lx with some cheap tires but the 15 inch rims can they still dial it in with the smaller rim?

thanks
cody
 
ok good but will it throw off the caster and camber when i go up to the 16 inch wheels?

thanks
cody
 
Depends on the tire size. If the 15" wheels have 215/70/15 tires, and your 16" wheels have the stock SC size 225/60/16 tires, then you'll be close enough. If you have tires that are changed from stock size on the SC wheels, the settings could be affected.


cheers
Ed N.
 
245/50/16 is a full inch smaller in diameter than the stock size. So yes, the alignment will be affected when you change to that size.
 
ok glad i asked so should i just use the good tires and hope for the best? or is there a way around this inch of rubber?

thanks
cody
 
I would stay with your 16" rubber. Just make sure that the negative camber and toe settings aren't out of spec once the alignment is done. Sometimes they will have trouble getting the camber within spec on a lowered MN12 car, but that can be dealt with by slotting the mounting holes on the upper rear control arms, where they attach to the knuckles.


cheers
Ed N.
 
cool thanks for all the info guys i hope to get everything done in the near future and hope to get some more suspension mods would it be possible to fit some 18's under the car with the drop?

thanks
cody
 
Sure, lots of people have 18s on lowered SCs. You just have to pick the right size wheels & tires.


cheers
Ed N.
 
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