a few quick suspension questions
 

Hey everyone, I have a few quick questions.

I got the rear and front sway bars from the Shelby store, and when it got here I realized the front is adjustable, but the rear is not.

1. Is this a problem? The front sway is in the middle setting and the rear is installed as instructed.

2. Since I have a v6, I had no rear sway bar hardware for the linkage to the body. I tried to go to ford yesterday but their parts department was closed and is also closed today, will some grade 8 hardware work instead?

3. Should the arrows on the shock mounts be pointing towards the engine or outside the car? I've heard both. I just want to settle the issue.

Thank you for any help.

The ability to adjust one sway bar and not the other is not an issue. Whether you get an adjustable bar or not is basically personal preference. Whether you liketo have the ability to adjust it to your driving instead of having only one setting or going through multiple sway bars.

And the strut mount direction doesn't really matter a whole lot. Usually people place them the opposite of the directions when they are lowering the car to regain some camber lost when lowering. If you look up on YouTube there are a few videos that will tell you how to install them, including which direction to face the mount.

thanks for the help!

I installed the same roll bars with some high grade bolts from a local hardware store. I also put the front bar on the third setting! try it out!

1. For most people and virtually all street driving, this isn't a big deal. Only when you're trying to fine-tune the handling understeer/oversteer balance instead of just cutting the amount of roll down.

2. Grade 8 hardware should be fine, but if there's too much clearance between the bolts and any metric-sized holes you'll be somewhat more apt to get a clunk.

3. Which way you point the arrows depends on where your cambers end up after lowering and partly on how enthusiastically you're going to be taking corners.


Norm

I'm more of the corner carver kinda guy.. and I've heard that a little bit of negative camber is good for that, but I've also heard that is a myth and just will kill the life of my tires. So do I need to leave them as they are with the arrows pointing into the engine bay or swap it around?

about 2/3rds of my driving is commuting on the highway at about 80mph, the rest is when I take the curvy back roads, if it is relevant.

I installed my GT500 strut mounts the same way they are from the factory. (arrows out?) I ended up at -1.8° camber, and it picked up front grip.

I'll try to link this pic from UPR's facebook. Don't know if it'll work:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...76043418_n.jpg

OE camber is -0.75°, which is Ford's estimate of what the average driver needs to balance cornering grip, braking grip, and tire life. I think the driving you describe can probably use camber that's somewhere between -1.0° and -1.25°.

Mildly aggressive camber like that isn't particularly hard on tire life, it's bad toe that eats tires, and toe will shift slightly as your cambers are changed by lowering.

Ford's tolerance extends out to -1.5°, but that's just the point at which they'd be required to do something about it, not a good setting for everybody. Out past -1.5° as a daily-driver setting is best reserved for those whose cornering averages out to being far more aggressive than how the typical car owner drives.

I'm afraid that I don't know which way the arrows should point - my car actually came delivered with an unusually high amount of negative camber and I wasn't particularly paying attention when I swapped up to Konis and camber-adjustable Steeda HD mounts.


Sharad - the link works just fine, even the corporate internet filter didn't blink.


Norm

thanks for all the help guys.

I think my camber is a little too much, I'm going to flip around my mounts and see if that will help correct it a little. I'll finally schedule a alignment and see what they can do. if a degree of negative camber would help, can I tell the guy at the alignment shop where to set the camber or what?