graygt07

i have done the search for lca. i have gotten alot of mixed info. i know anything will be better then stock, so what i want to know is which lca's will make a small amount of noise as a dd? which bushing are the best? please anyone that has installed them or is driving with them chime in thanks

cobra443

The strongest are the billet lca's. With your hp and tq you are only going to want these. Call up Brenspeed and order either the BMR or the Steeda Billet Lca's.

F1Fan

Hi graygt07,

With your blower I'd suggest GT500 LCA's and Steeda Com/Street UCA/UCA mount kit #555-4109. Go to Steeda's website and punch in that number for a look at one. That UCA is the best UCA kit on the market bar none and it works for both dragstrip use and for corner carvers.

HTH!

mygt500

here is a link to how the LCA's work and why they do what they do...I feel BMR and STEEDA and Spohn are great companies and all should be looked into...
http://www.cherod.com/mustang/HowTo/LCA%20_adj.htm

ybnormal

And you thought your supercharger was exspensive.
I am in the process of installing ( and learning ) about my suspension mods. It does cost to change the stuff, I ended up coming up with a plan of what I liked and didnt on the car. Based on that I have ordered and am waiting to afford my susp set up.
I lowered my car and Have not changed shocks and struts but will soon.
I decided my car is neither drag or full time track car so I have been sticking with steeda parts. trying to bring it up to mid level in there trak paks. When changing susp. parts you need to do it in one or stage because of alignment/tire costs
I did install relocation brackets (welded and steeda billet LCA)
they do make a big difference in the planting of the rear end straight line I still cant tell to much cornering. If you plan on lowering you (should ) do springs/struts shocks/adj panhard bar and (adj or relocatin brkt) LCA at one time.{AT MIN.} of coarse an alignment with printout. then you can continue to work on your susp. read what norm, f1 and sam have to say.
Im sure your car has a lot of unusable power right know with your SC hooking up will be your next project.
I am no expert just a newbie reading learning and sharing from my mistakes[:@] and few sucesses[&:]

Norm Peterson

I'm a little uneasy about aluminum LCAs in a daily-driver. Make that more than just a little uneasy. Aluminum does not have what's called an "endurance limit", which isa stress level that if you stay below the part won't fail. And aluminum is more easily damaged. They certainly LOOK beefier, but since strength depends on more than what you can tell by just looking I'm not ready to say that they really are stronger. Bottom line: they're fine for a show car, or a track car that gets regular inspection of things you don't even think of for your daily. So they do have their place. Just not in a high powered car with the "install it and forget it" attitude that goes with most peoples' daily driver mods (sooner or later).

I think properly sized steel LCAs are the better choice here. The lb or two per side will never show up as anything you'd notice performance-wise, and not likely ride quality-wise either.

What is needed for bushings/rod ends depends on the driving. Poly/poly will cope well enough with drag-only, and reasonably well with mild street driving, though the ride will stiffen slightly. Not bad like shocks with way too much damping or with tires inflated way up in the 40's, more like slightly stiffer springs or a larger sta-bar.

If cornering with any enthusiasm at all is expected, poly/poly is not the hot tip, with the possible exception of three-piece bushing arrangements or thoughtfully modified poly bushings. Otherwise, you'll want to be looking at a poly/rod end setup. The one poly end will take a lot of the "sting" out of a pure rod-ended set of LCAs, the one rod end takes most of the "roll bind" off the LCA, and the poly end may actually help the rod end last a little longer by reducing the impact loading on it a little. IIRC, there is a hard rubber link end/pivot that can be swapped in in place of one rod end on a rod end/rod end LCA, so that's another option.


Norm

F1Fan

Hi graygt07,

I hope I got it right, you want to improve you rear-end grip by reducing wheel hop but at the same time keep your car asquiet as possible. The idea of improving your car's driving traits is fine but you will find that Ford made the compromises they did for a reason. Almost every change you can possibly make to the suspension or related componentsto "improve" some aspect of handling,grip or performance will have a price in terms of additional NVH (road and tirenoise, vibration and harshness). This is why the car was delivered as it was by the Ford Motor Company, to make it as suitableas possible for as many people as reasonably possible within the target sales group. Now it would seem that everyone who has an S197GTis a Mustang enthusist and I've found this to be broadly true but the large majority of people who have driven theS197GT think the car is great just as it is, not tosoft and not too "sporty." There is also aslightly smaller group whofeelsthe car rides poorly andis too noisy (to which I say goahead andtry to find a $25,000 car that rides better, seats 4, has 300bhp with the body of an American classic, high-line Honda Civicswill costmore!) and an even smaller percentage group wish it was a sharper handling car. It's a good thing so many people are in love with the image and American heritagethis car representsorFord could not have cooked upa business plan to support spending the money to develop the S197GT.

Anyway the short story is that I suggested the GT500 LCA's for their reasonably good axle location and excellent isolation and control of NVH. The GT500 LCA's are a very good compromise in these terms and when you consider the $100 they cost well you have a no brainer for all but the most dedicated drag strip or handling freak. When you combine the FRPP GT500 LA's with one of Steeda's Adjustable Comp/Street UCA/UCA mount kits you will have plenty of rear axle control (evey bit as much as an all poly bushed LCA/UCA setup)fora 500RWHP car withoutany of the nasty NVHand potential artifical spring rate that an all poly bushing or 50/50 poly/rod-end LCA/UCA setup can have. This is why I picked this combo for your application and indeed why it is an excellent fit for any high-performance street car running N/A or moderatelyboosted blower motors. The cost for this rear-end control arm setup runs about $380,about $60 lessthan if you boughtBMR's lesssophisticated UCA mount and BMR adjustable UCA with their least expensive non-adjustable LCA's both with poly bushings. With the BMR setup you would have a less effective rear-axle control arm setup which is noisier and harsher riding. Even if you buy no-name parts from Sam Strano (which he does vouch for by all accounts even his own, JK Sam!) and added BMR's adjustable UCA mountyou will still have more money in a less effective and noisier rear-axlecontrol arm setup.

There is notwisting load carried by the LCA's or UCA so you have no needfor the more expensive 3D structural features ofbillet LCA's. As a matter of fact except for the need to keep the stamped OE style LCA's upright and straight under tension and compression loads the S197's LCA's could be flat strips ofsteel. It is lighter,stiffer and cheaperto add the reinforcing doublersnear the bushings and the multiple cutoutswhich help save weight,adddepth (stiffness)tothe OE stamped LCA's. Alsodue to the different waythe O.E. stylebonded rubber bushings work compared to poly bushings the GT500 LCA's also contribute much less bushing bind than anypoly bushing control arm setups though there is some artifical spring rate added but at least it's linear. This iswhythe 50/50 combo LCA setup works well in terms of the rear-axle's freedom of movement which is good for handling and locationbut not sogood for NVH.

AnywayIMO making everything out of billetis a fad that is beingpushed on the buying public for no goodreason except that it is pretty andall the people who bought CNC 5 axis machines and/or water-jet cutters need to keep them busy to make the strokes on all that expensive machinery. Sure alloy billet is a finechoice for some critical parts where the cost is justified like for rods or cams or say the chassis bridge onLotus'composite chassis. But where high volume is concerned and structural requirements can be met at 1/4 theprice with stampings or structural steel pieceswhat is the point except for appearance which will fade very quickly once you expose them to the elements under a road going car. Additionally aluminum alloy is not forgiving andcannot deform and keepworking as a steel part can. When you damage a billet LCA you are riding in the tow truck where aswith a steel LCA you likely would be able to driveithome assumming that you didn't Biff some other important part of the chassis or yourself.

HTH!

<< RE-EDITED for clarity, missed thoughts and typos >>

graygt07

f1fan

are these the part numbers you are talking about from leathel performance
lca #m-5538-a
relocation bracket #555-8116
uca #555-4106 or #555-4105 or #555-4096 which one?

thanks

wicked stang

I dont know very much at all about these suspensions but I know that most gt500 owners switch out their lca's. My father has a gt500 thats stock. i follow the gt500 forums very closely and have driven my fathers car many times and the gt500's have really bad wheel hop problems. i was driving the gt500 once and it wheel hopped so bad that i thought something actually broke. gt500 owners usually switch out the lca's which helps very much and uca's if they still have a little bit of a problem. they usually switch to the bmr or steeda stuff or any major brands. So basically im sayin that you might as well switch to a better lca, especially at the power level you have.

F1Fan

Hi graygt07,

The FRPP SVT GT500 LCA's are FRPP PN# M-5538A, order themfrom Brother's Performance Warehouse for $100, best suspension deal in town!They look like this:




The best LCA relocation brackets on the market are the Steeda LCA relocation brackets because you have more adjustment options unlike CHE or BMR these have more holes for setting the LCA angles but you only really need these if you are into drag racingor are running a lowering spring and want to improve rear axle grip and corning exit. The Steeda LCA relocation brackets arePN#555-8116 and look like this:



This is thebest darned UCA/UCA bracket kit on the market by FAR. But the image here shows he LCA bolted into the WRONG position you need to use the front hole to take advantage of the longer LCA and the much improved rear axle geometry. TheSteeda Adjustable Comp/Street UCA/UCA mount kit is SteedaPN#555-4109 and looks like this:






Hope this clears it up for you!

Cheers!