dschmink

Lowered with prokits and Dspecs. Do I NEED adjustable LCAs or not? I have the relocation brackets and a BMR adj panhard bar. What is the best option for LCAs? I'm planning on getting the steeda adj. ucas. I'm just pretty lost on whether or not I absolutely need adj lcas.

It's a daily driver, never taken to drag strip or track since there isn't one around here. Definitely don't want a lot of road noise, but an increase is acceptable.

BMRFabricationTech

If you are already planning on the adjustable upper control arm there is no need for the adjustable lower.

We offer a nice basic poly/poly nonadjustable lower control arm for $134.95 They can be found here-

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/2005MustangSUSPENSION.htm

Let me know if you might have any questions I can help out with....

Lee S
(813)986-9302
lee@bmrfabrication.com

RodeoFlyer

a poly/rod end combo is a better choice. Everyone with poly/poly will have bushing failures at some point. I had them fail on 2 different brands of arms. The rear needs to articulate. The increased noise from a rod end on only the axle side is minimal.

as far as needing the arms in the first place - if you are taking the car to any sort of track it's probably a waste of money.

BMRFabricationTech

[quote]ORIGINAL: RodeoFlyer

for a track handling orientated car absolutley, not so for his application IMO. too general of a statement, everything fails at some point

. I had them fail on 2 different brands of arms. The rear needs to articulate. The increased noise from a rod end on only the axle side is minimal.

as far as needing the arms in the first place - if you are taking the car to any sort of track it's probably a waste of money.

Sam Strano

Knowing that I sell both all poly, poly/rod and rod/rod LCA's.... I think a poly/rod arm is the best choice. It's what I sell the most of, and offers the best combination of performance and cost out there.

I'll respectfully disagree that in this case suspension articulation doesn't matter.In fact on a street car is might matter more than on a track car that already rolls less. Putting a bind in the rear suspension isn't wise, and that's just what LCA's that have LCA's that don't flex do. The off-roaders know, Ford knows it (which is why the stock bushings have notches cut to allow flex beyond what the arm itself does). Now, if we are talking a car that is really only dragged, those simply all poly bushed arms work well because they don't much need to worry about bumps, humps, dips, railroad tracks, curbs, potholes, etc. on a drag strip.

A poly/rod is a great compromise. The rod-end allows the axle to pivot, but not to wind-up. The poly bushing is firm and takes care of a lot of wind-up and is quiet. BTW, the bushing is what mounts to the body. You could run all rod-ends. But that's overkill on the street because you get the articulation you need from a single rod-end and why listen to the noise if the car doesn't need every ounce of movement taken out? A drag car with a lot of power and stick, or a road-course car onlythose would get all rod-ended LCA's.

F1Fan

Hi dschmink,

No you don't need adjustable LCA's if you are going to install anadjustable UCA like the Steeda Adjustable Comp/Street UCA/UCA mount kit we've talked about. For a DD street car simply installing a pair of GT500 LCA's is cheap and effective and avoids the bushing maintainance and extra road& tire noise that comeswith poly bushed LCA's as RF mentions above. Don't get me wrong, I'm running poly bushings on both ends of my Steeda adjustable LCA's with an improved bushing sleeve design. I felt I had to redo the bushing sleeves to avoid crushing them which I found to be a problem on the common 0.095" wall thicknesstubing Steeda uses. I've just sent images and what I did tofix the problem to Steeda but have not heard back from them on this issue yet. Here is an image of the larger bushing sleeve I made, no more crushed sleeves when tightened down to full factory torque specs, I did both ends of the LCA's to avoid the bushing tubes from collapsing. There may be aslight increase in NVH but I'm not 100% sure if I really hear it or not.

[IMG]local://upfiles/14027/CD894A5EC7484DA790A3AC52A72D024D.jpg[/IMG]

There isa slight need for the LCA's to articulate as the axle moves up and down and the poly bushings can handle this withoutmuch trouble. The problem comeswhen the axle has rotate up onone side and down on the other causing the LCA'sto need to rotate on the axis of the LCA tube whichcauses binding that the poly bushings cannot deal with very well without eventually deforming permanently. This isjustone reason I have been telling people withcars that are 99% DD use cars thatfor the money and zero problems with bushing replacements the GT500 LCA's are a pretty good deal for $100. Nobodyelse making LCA's can beat the overall performance, ease of maintainence noise isolation, ride quality and priceof the FRPP GT500LCA's. Sure if you are a hard core drag racer and this was a dedciated drag car I say bring on the rod-ends but fora street car FRPPGT500 LCA's are the only really practicalchoice for the vast majority of the people out there.

I putabout 12K a year on my car most ofthat mileage is pleasure driving.I amalways under the car playing with something onthe suspension, alittle tweaking here an adjustment there, a new toy to install elsewhere and I am always cleaning,inspecting, lubing and checking suspension parts for issues on my car so for me it's not a big deal. I drivemy car very fast regularly and expect a lot out of it so I am always checking over the suspension to knowwhat the condition of the car is. But for a lot of people who really have to drive their cars every day commuting to work 30-60 miles a day5-7days a week this level of care is just not an option. This is why the FRPP GT500 LCA's make a lot of sense as they are an install and forget part and they come with all of the required per Ford hardware needed to install them short of the mechanics handtools,floor jack and jack stands.

HTH!