I dont know a lot about suspension parts for mustangs. I just bought my mustang like 2 months ago and have a problem hooking up. From what I have been reading is that lower control arms help with this problem. I was wondering if anyone here has used Metco LCA's? Also I was just looking for some reviews on any LCA or UCA out there. Thanks

 

The CHE LCA's seem to be the best LCA i have found. they do not need to be lubed with grease and also they have a little attachment for the parking brake cable so that you do not have to ziptie it. Lethalperformance.com (a forum sponsor) carries them for like 130 bucks shipped. the only metco ones i have seen are the billet ones on ebay. they are pretty and all, but wont perform any better than any other lca.

 

I have them on my car. I cant tell you how well they work yet since i havent actually done any hard street launches or went to the drag strip. They are a very heavy duty, well made piece. The only downside is that they use a poly/delrin bushing which will transmit more vibrations through the frame than a straight poly bushing. The upside is that the bushing wont deform under hard launches. I chose them since Metco is just right down the road from me and the local shop where i get all my work done highly recommended them since they are used on their drag cars.

 

How do you figure they wont perform any better than the rest of the lca's out there? To make that claim you would have to have used them first. I am not saying they are the best, but they are worth a look.

 

The big thing about most LCAs is that the bushings are stiffer than the OE rubber. What the arm itself looks like doesn't really matter in nearly all cases* - other than for appearance preference. IOW, anybody's LCA with 88A Durometer poly in the ends is going to perform the same as anybody else's with the same stuff. This you can know without driving with either.

Understand that poly-bushed LCAs are really strip-oriented parts that work OK in moderate street use but aren't entirely happy being thrown around corners really hard (think autocross or road course open-tracking here). I'm not particularly biased against their use, as long as it's in the right activity for the right reason(s).

* if in your case what the arm looks like does matter from a strength or stiffness point of view, you're past the range where poly is even good enough and you should be thinking about getting rod ends/Heim joints instead.


Norm

 

What is? There has to be a happy median between planting the power and being able to swing it around a curve.

 

Norm, do you think the GT 500 LCAs would be fine for corner carving?

 

There are a couple of possibilities (rod ended/Heim-jointed or "poly-ball" bushed), but they come with their own set of disadvantages in normal driving use. Noise and long-term durability to name a couple. There also are hard rubber rod end replacements that give up a little accuracy to gain back a bigger chunk of those streetable qualities. I don't know how the stiffness of the rubber rod ends compares to OE, OE GT500, or poly (though I have a suspicion).

Depending on what the poly bushing installation actually looks like, the poly itself can be modified to provide a lot less "roll bind", though this too comes with a likely loss in bushing lifespan.

People - including at least one of the "heavy-hitters" in this forum with lots of test experience - have played around with using slightly softer rear springs and/or softer rear sta-bar as a means of offsetting roll bind introduced by the use of poly bushings. What you get to keep as a "net benefit" is the smaller amount of axle steer due to bushing compliance. Hint: the cases I know of didn't involve a Mustang, so if you know about them it wouldn't likely have been from this site.


jahudso2 - the GT500 LCAs do come with somewhat stiffer bushings than does the rest of the Mustang model lineup and yes, they should be more than acceptable for most corner-carving. Certainly for any street corner-carving they will be adequate. Probably not at the C-Prepared Solo or any W2W competition levels where rod ends and wholesale geometry revision and suspension pivot relocations are permitted, though.


Norm

 

Thanks Norm!

 

I have the Metcos and they are holding up well. I had Spohns prior and they couldn't hold up to the hard launches. The bushings gave way. So far the Metcos have withstood everything I have thrown at them.