wcgman

I'm really old and only have partial use of my right hand, no left hand, broken tail bone, blind in my right eye. All of my friends call me "Lucky". lol

Seriously, thanks for the insight. I've got some larger open end/box end wrenches both SAE and Metric so hopefully that should cover all of the bases.

wcgman

I have that very same angle finder. Good for pinion angle as well as working on building a deck.

I_Call_D.I.B.s

Might be time for me to replace the rod ends, then. They aren't terribly noisy, but they do squeak a bit driving over speed bumps and road imperfections (potholes, divots, etc.) at low speed.

That's one other thing I should mention to OP is to make sure everything is tightened down properly, or else it will be very noisy.

Norm Peterson

If all they're doing is squeaking with no detectable play, you can probably get away with shooting them with a little WD-40 and running the car a bit to get it worked into the joints. Gently dab off any liquid excess just to avoid collecting grit, dampness will evaporate. This is basically the same occasional maintenance I've been doing with rod ended front bar endlinks for several years.


Norm

Sam Strano

Rod-ends that are bad will generally give a clunking noise. A squeak, if you are sure it's from the rod-end, it typical of them just getting dirty and needing some lubrication to help them stay nice and free, like Norm mentioned.

Jande063

Thanks for posting those directions. I just got mine on the car two days ago, it's a whole different beast now.

mighted1987

if im running coil over and doesnt really notice any Wheel hop (Except if i dont remove the traction control), should i consider skipping the lca and uca/pan hard bar and directly jump on the watt link? and maybe sway bar, or only front sway bar with the watt...any suggestion?

Norm Peterson

I hope I've unraveled your question the right way . . . though I'm still not sure what you're getting at with what not removing traction control means in terms of wheel hop (are you getting hop with TC off or left on?). If it helps you understand why I'm asking this, I don't ever drive with TC intentionally left on, and other than for an occasional autocross I don't normally drive to get down toward minimum 60-foot or 0 - 60 mph times.

If you aren't getting wheel hop, there isn't much reason for doing anything with the UCA unless its bushings have started to deteriorate . . . in which case I'd expect you wouldn't be too far away from having wheel hop under more conditions.

If all that LCAs did was help alleviate wheel hop and you aren't getting any I wouldn't touch them either (save for the same bushing matter). But at least LCAs also improve cornering a little by mostly eliminating axle steer due to bushing compression (aka "compliance steer").

If there is even a halfway serious chance that there's a Watts link in your car's future, don't bother with an upgraded PHB. If a WL becomes out of the question, then upgrading the PHB would be your call based on other reasons (such as if you were to make a major change in ride height or you clearly want to stiffen up the axle's lateral location). IOW, do the rear axle lateral location improvement just once instead of ending up with two unused PHBs cluttering up your garage.

What you do with swapping in different sta-bars doesn't really depend on those other modifications - unless you get into changing your rear roll center height by adjusting a Watts link to a significantly different height than what the PHB midpoint height is now. Normally, bars are used to change the handling balance, and since aftermarket bars tend to be stiffer than the OE bars you end up with a little less roll and the car may take a cornering set just a little more quickly

A setup to favor drag racing at some expense in cornering goodness would be somewhat different, but there isn't enough information so far for me make that assumption.


Norm

Sam Strano

This is a perfect example of how the internet pollutes the brains of folks. Parts do a job. If the parts you have do the job you need the way you want, it's pretty silly to change them. Which is why when it comes to things like control arms, I probably sell far fewer than any other Mustang shop (I'm sure they are most biggest movers). Sometimes we have a need, usually we don't.

Now I'm more handling oriented than most places too and the more you drag race the more control arms would move up the list. But yeah, if the car doesn't wheelhop on acceleration and you want handling you have bigger fish to fry.

mighted1987

Norm, that was pretty complet, im sorry if im not really clear this isnt my main language, when it come to suspension im really getting lost, i still dont really know what should i upgrade or not, what i mesn to say about TC is if i leave it on, the car seem to jerk and wheel hop on full throttle but i do not ge any wheel hop when it off, im dropped pretty low with the coilover and the car handle great, i still think switching lane doesnt feel tight enought from the front, i just want to make the best out of my suspension handling for street use and drag racing, i have switched to softer 5.5kg rear spring instead of 8kg from my coilover, supposed to help better launching at the track, i figure id like to upgrade stuff that could help drag launching and street fun (agressiv 90 degree launch/turn and get the car to get straight real quick instead of over steering in a 180 deg movement). Stuff like that if it can make any sens.