Suspension Upgrades -

delling3

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I have a 96 GT Convertible with a shade under 100K miles on the clock. Has full length SFC's already installed, but otherwise stock chassis/suspension.

I have a set of lowering springs, tokico shocks, and camber caster plates sitting waiting to install.

I am thinking about the control arms. The car exhibits some handling sloppiness over uneven pavement (which we have a shit-load of). The current suspension is set up with OE springs and Monroe shocks and struts with only about 2500 miles on them, so I know they are good. This is the first live axle car (my pickup doesn't count) I have driven in a long time, and I don't know if the handling I am experiencing will be improved greatly by changing the control arms out back, or if this is simply a characteristic of a solid rear axle? It is a weekend cruiser/occasional road-trip car, not currently used in HPDE of any type.

Do I replace the LCA's while I have everything apart? Can't see the benefit of going to the effort of changing the bushings only - I figure either stick with whats there of swap in a set of tubular LCA's Then, if I do that, what about the Uppers?

Obviously I am putting some $$ into the car with these changes, and I don't have a bottomless wallet. Thoughts?
 

evilcw311

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I have a 96 GT Convertible with a shade under 100K miles on the clock. Has full length SFC's already installed, but otherwise stock chassis/suspension.

I have a set of lowering springs, tokico shocks, and camber caster plates sitting waiting to install.

I am thinking about the control arms. The car exhibits some handling sloppiness over uneven pavement (which we have a shit-load of). The current suspension is set up with OE springs and Monroe shocks and struts with only about 2500 miles on them, so I know they are good. This is the first live axle car (my pickup doesn't count) I have driven in a long time, and I don't know if the handling I am experiencing will be improved greatly by changing the control arms out back, or if this is simply a characteristic of a solid rear axle? It is a weekend cruiser/occasional road-trip car, not currently used in HPDE of any type.

Do I replace the LCA's while I have everything apart? Can't see the benefit of going to the effort of changing the bushings only - I figure either stick with whats there of swap in a set of tubular LCA's Then, if I do that, what about the Uppers?

Obviously I am putting some $$ into the car with these changes, and I don't have a bottomless wallet. Thoughts?

Here’s my ¢.02.

If your bushings are all original then that needs to be upgraded first. To upgrade the bushings you gotta remove the arms. So why not replace the arms while your at it?!?! But if your gonna go as far as replacing the arms, why not go ahead and do the k member while under there?!?

It’s a slippery slope as you can see. Question is how far do you wanna go, what’s the budget, and how well do you want it to ride/handle?!?!?


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beyondEOD

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I'd say look at the bushing condition. You can do the lowers and uppers separately to spread out the cost. Replace the ones in the worst condition first.

My 95 had 75k mile on it and the bushings were not torn but it did feel sloppy.

I went with MM HD lowers and their OE Uppers. Replaced Upper axle bushings with new rubber aswell. New KYB quadshocks. Car feels totally different. It's like a go cart compared to before.

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delling3

delling3

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Going to retain the stock front end - no budget for a new K-Member. I will replace the front control arm bushings as a matter of course. More the rear end that I am concerned with. Seems like the the "sloppiness" I am feeling is more coming from the back end. I have crawled under the car and done a visual inspection - likewise had the car inspected by a professional before I bought it, and cannot "see" any obvious signs of bushing deterioration, but I assume that there is probably some dry rot that has occured over 25 years.

I had understood that upgrading to tubular LCA's would eliminate the need for the quad shocks. Is this a fallacy? Or more of a "belt and suspenders" approach?
 

beyondEOD

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Yes and no, you will read tons of posts saying so. MM told me to keep them so I did.

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PinkieT

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If you lower your car, your pinion snubber may need to be replaced with an aftermarket unit that is shorter. I dropped both my cars an inch to an inch and a half and can't fit my finger between the snubber and the plate on the axle nose it hits. I have urethane snubbers on back order...
 

ttocs

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If you lower your car, your pinion snubber may need to be replaced with an aftermarket unit that is shorter. I dropped both my cars an inch to an inch and a half and can't fit my finger between the snubber and the plate on the axle nose it hits. I have urethane snubbers on back order...

Which ones did you order? I need some for mine...
 

Warhorse Racing

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Going to retain the stock front end - no budget for a new K-Member. I will replace the front control arm bushings as a matter of course. More the rear end that I am concerned with. Seems like the the "sloppiness" I am feeling is more coming from the back end. I have crawled under the car and done a visual inspection - likewise had the car inspected by a professional before I bought it, and cannot "see" any obvious signs of bushing deterioration, but I assume that there is probably some dry rot that has occured over 25 years.

I had understood that upgrading to tubular LCA's would eliminate the need for the quad shocks. Is this a fallacy? Or more of a "belt and suspenders" approach?

Rubber bushings can look fine, but be bad. It's a safe bet that your 25 year-old bushings are part of the reason your car feels sloppy. Just replacing/upgrading the bushings will make the car feel better.

Most poly replacement bushing sets include 1 or 2-piece poly bushings. For regular street use, these will make the car feel "tighter". But, if you push the car, you will discover they don't do much to help with bind.

Improved UCAs with 3-piece poly bushings will make the car feel less "nervous". Steeda makes an economical set of steel UCAs that also include a poly bushing for the differential housing. For a street car, that setup will work fine. If you plan on pushing the car hard, you might want to consider a spherical upper differential housing bushing. That will push the limit of traction further out, and help the car feel composed at the limit. But, if you aren't using the car for performance driving, the spherical upper differential housing bushing isn't necessary.

Improved LCAs help with launches, traction, and grip while cornering. I've used Steeda LCAs with 3-piece poly bushings on my autocross cars for years. They perform really well and they don't damage the torque boxes.

I prefer to keep the quad shocks on my SRA cars. Having autocrossed with them and without them, I can tell you my car feels better with them installed. The OEM quad shocks on most of our cars aren't working anymore. So, when people remove them, they don't feel a difference. That's made a lot of people think that quad shocks don't really do much. A set of functioning quad shocks will make the car handle better, even if you're upgrading the UCAs/LCAs. I've used KYB quad shocks in the past; they are inexpensive and work well. They do have a covered piston that might keep some wide rear tires from fitting. The more expensive quad shocks don't have covered pistons.

I hope that info helps. I'm including a link to a video about mods that helped solve the rear end handling issues on my SRA autocross cars. It covers all the parts I mentioned in this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0fMKnKEnI&t
 

TrickVert

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Out back, my '95 has MM LCA' s, Steeda boxed uppers, and new rubber UCA bushings. I also installed new Gabriel quad shocks. (You can't just chuck them and expect everything to be OK. Sometimes, yes, often, no.) My Eibach Pro-Kit springs came with a shorter snubber, and Eibach anti-sway bars and Tokico Illumina shocks round out the package (along with new '03 Cobra front LCA' s). I'm *very* happy with the on-road handling, and am thinking about finally trying a HPDE day this year to really see how it works.
 

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