hey kevin, do you know how much the 620's actually dropped your car down? versus the stock sagging springs. I really dont want to have to cut any coils off these things to get the car to sit down where i want it.

 

I think you'll be ok with the 620's for the kind of driving you're doing. Stick to a 15/16" front sway bar and it'll probably be just fine.

Hard to say about the ride height until you get the springs on the car and let them settle.

The Shelby drop is perfectly safe for a street car, and in fact should be done on every street car. Many people on the forum, myself included, have done it to their car. You can run into ball joint binding issues if you do more than the 1" drop, or if you race the car regularly, but otherwise you'll be fine.

I believe the idler bushings need to be pressed in and out of the arm. Could be wrong, though.

 

you think that there will be that much of a difference between the 15/16 bar and a 1 inch bar? im not questioning you, just really asking. And btw, thanks for all your input. i also think the bushings for the idler arm have to be pressed out, but it needs to be done so i'll have to take it to a shop sometime this week.

 

I'd rather shoot low with 620 springs. I have a 15/16" bar on my car with 540lb springs, roller perches, and the shelby drop. The only time I notice excess body roll is when I'm racing around back roads, pushing the limits of the suspension. I'll probably be moving to a 1-1/8" front bar with a 3/4" rear bar in the future due to my driving style. I wouldn't recommend this for you.

A bigger sway bar has a side effect of increasing the effective spring rate of your car when going over potholes and bumps. Sway bar stiffness isn't linear, either, it's exponential. For example, a 2" bar is going to be 4 times stiffer than a 1" bar, not twice as stiff. Figure the stock bar is 5/8" or so (at least my non-GT bar was). 7/8" to 15/16" makes for a slightly stiffer ride but significantly less body roll and better handling. 1" would probably be fine with 540lb springs, but may cause the front end to skip over rough road with 620lb springs.

It's all kind of an educated guess until you actually get it on the car, but with sway bars I think it's better to shoot a little low than a little high. You can always upgrade later, and it'll be more manageable to deal with a bar that's a little too small than a little too big.

 

i had to cut 3/4 of a coil off my 620s which were allready supposed to be 1" lowering. Its all based on what you want todo.

The idler arm bushings can be removed with a vise and socket and a new one installed the same way. No need for a press.

Id keep the 1" bar why buy another one?

I would also NEVER run a rear sway bar on a rear wheel drive classic mustang regardless of the purpose of the car. Total waste of money and it is a proven fact.

Want some good reading, head to this website on suspension stuff:
www.corner-carvers.com

 

I barely noticed a damn thing performing a 1.25" drop, except it lowered the front end a tad.

Roller perches made a huge deal, along with full roller uca's, lcas, and roller strut rods.

And to add a 1" spring perch relocation made a difference.

 

Then you weren't paying attention, or you had something wrong with the suspension (alignment?), or your tires are very narrow. I did the drop and noticed a significant improvement in handling ability. Beforehand, the car would tend to understeer severely and body roll was significant. After the drop, body roll in most corners was negligible and the front end was much more willing to carve through corners.

There's a reason Shelby did the drop on all of the early GT350's. The stock suspension geometry is plain crap. The drop is by far the single most affective handling improvement for 65-70 Mustangs.

I do agree, roller perches are great and should be installed, but they do completely different things for the suspension than the UCA drop. They remove the bind of the stock rubber bushings, allowing the springs to do what they're supposed to. This provides a smoother ride and helps keep the tires on the ground on rougher roads, especially during cornering. There is some handling improvement from removing suspension bind, but it's not going to be as drastic as the improvement from the UCA drop.

As far as a rear bar goes, it's not a 'proven fact' that they're a waste of money. That's a bunch of garbage. They have their uses. True, the vast majority of street-driven classic Mustangs don't need them and will end up with a nasty oversteer condition while running them on the street, but they do have advantages for cars that get tracked or driven hard on windy country roads. My car has a nasty body roll problem in the rear during hard cornering, and short of switching to coilovers (which I'm not willing to do), there's nothing else that's going to fix that problem. A small rear sway bar with a larger front bar to compensate for the oversteer effect should do the trick. My slightly softer front springs should allow for the larger front bar without much problem. It'll probably be a bit squirrelly on the street, but that's just how it goes. If I really feel it's unacceptable, I'll leave it off until I get to the track.

 

the subject has been beaten up many many times on other sites... do some searches on corner carvers or maybe some other sites...

After my research the cars I looked into did not run a bar and it was not recommended by one person I spoke with. in fact these are some pictures of true track cars and only track cars.




this was the only modification done to the rear on all the cars I inspected aside from traction bars.


rear bars as you said have their place... and 95% of the time its on a front wheel drive car.

Sorry for the pictures being the wrong direction

 

That must be why most mid-size or larger modern vehicles, be it FWD or RWD, have rear bars.

All the forum arguments in the world can't make up for simple trial and error. If you've been in my car or driven behind it while I've been cornering hard, you'd know that the *** end rolls like a fat pig on an acid trip. Even the front end rolls a little more than I want. Also, considering I still have an open rear, and will continue to run one for now, I don't think oversteer is going to be a huge issue. Hell, I'd like to actually have a little oversteer.

When I get around to it, I'm going to look for the smallest rear bar I can find. I understand your point, and I wouldn't recommend it to hardly anyone else, but my driving style isn't exactly common in the classic Mustang community.


To the OP: Sorry for the thread hijack.