Matt's 95 Stang

Hello all,
In the next few weeks I will be dramatically upgrading my suspension and would love some insight on the easiest way to do it. Being upgraded/installed are:
BMR PHB (and PHB brace)
BMR LCA's
Eibach Pro-Kit springs
Eibach Anti-roll bar sway kit (front and back sways)
GT500 mounts
and Koni STR.T shocks/struts.

I am doing all the work myself on jack stands so I know space under the car is going to be limited. I helped a friend do most of the same work last weekend so I have a good idea of what is involved but can always use more help.

Thanks,
Matthew

Esch

I did a bunch of research and followed tips from threads on various forums before doing my suspension. The one thing I remember being a key time saver though, is NOT taking the front brakes off. I recall using zip ties and anchoring them to a spot in the wheel well and let them hang. I was able to do this and still have the room to remove/reinstall the strut/spring assembly. That may make things a bit easier on you since the front suspension is more involved than the rear.

Matt's 95 Stang

Ok so dont take the brakes off. I plan on pre-installing the front front and rear sway linkage, and the front strut assembles (struts, springs, bumpstops, GT500 mounts) so that I can get them installed quickly.

Any other tips besides dont take the breaks apart?

Thanks guys,
Matthew

UrS4

Lots of good YouTube vids out there. I did all that stuff myself without help with just jack stands and ramps. It can be done, it just took a while.

Are the LCAs adjustable? Or the PHB? Just make sure you take accurate wheel well measurements before everything is apart so everything goes back together straight.

artdohc

Get some good spring compressors for disassembling the front strut/spring.

Consider caster/camber plates rather than GT500 mounts (wish I had).

Consider installing an adjustable UCA to fix the pinion angle for lowering a car, not doing that resulted in a squeaky driveshaft after about 15k miles on my car.

If there is a suspension piece you are considering but not 100% sold on…do it now. Additional parts have a tendency to sit for weeks until you get around to installing them.

An electric impact wrench is nice for all kinds of suspension part installs.

Plenty of grease and a grease gun is pretty much a requirement.

The pan hard bar needs big 21mm and 22mm wrenches and sockets, not something people generally have.

YouTube is your friend. Take your time. Torque everything twice. Torque everything again at your next oil change.

jimkaray

The PHB can be tricky once the rear shifts around. That was the biggest challenge for me. A come-along made repositioning it a lot easier if not possible. It might be smarter to try swap the PHB before anything else in the rear.

dabsevo

I did an entire rear end swap a few months ago on my 01 mustang GT. And 2 weeks ago I put in Tokico Dspec shocks and struts, steeda springs, GT500 strut mounts, BMR panhard bar on my 06 mustang GT. Did it all myself in one night. Wasn't quite sure if I could but I watched a few youtube videos and then just went for it. I got stuck twice but figured it out and that's where the real learning came.


Okay so here are some tips. Yes, make sure you take care of the springs and strut mounts and have everything ready to go so it is just an easy swap. No sense in waiting to pull things out before doing that.
I started with the rear. Once you jack it up and put the jack stands under the pinch welds, the first thing to do is to uncouple the sway bar endlinks. Do the drivers and passenger side and it should just plop down. Then you can start the other stuff. Undo the lower shock bolts and lower the axle so you can remove the springs. Then go into the trunk and loosen the top bolt with 2 wrenches (7mm and 10 I think?).

Tips:

1) When removing the shocks it helps to do one side at a time. Also helps tremendously to have a second floor jack as it allows you to adjust the tilt and angle and raise/lower one side to get the bolt holes to line up when putting things back together.

2) Go to harbor freight and buy the chicago electric impact if you dont have an impact already. Harbor freight's power tools are not good quality so just look at it as a temporary tool to use but even if it was a one-time use, it is worth it for the price. HF always gives 20% off one time coupons, and I got the chicago impact for $25. I use it to tap the lug nuts and it is a huge help for bolts. When I did my suspension stuff, it took about 40 mins to do the entire front end because the impact made it so much easier.

3) Panhard bar. I did this last, completely irrelevant to the other parts. After the shocks and springs were in and bolted up (before final torque), I removed the panhard bar. It was in there really nice and tight, I could not remove it. I seriously thought I would be stuck given that you have such little space under the car, you have no leverage.
After what seemed like an eternity, there's a freaking BOLT to loosen the panhard bar mount. It's on the passenger side. One for the actual panhard bar and another going perpendicular to that one that just loosens/tightens the housing the pnb goes into.
Use a mallet and whack the **** out of the bar until it pops out. Careful to not be under it or you'll lose a tooth or something. WD40 helps.
Use grease to put the new one back in but if you loosened that bolt, it should be almost too loose, it'll just slide in.

4) GT500 strut mounts and the front suspension. This has been discussed many times. The GT500 strut mounts have arrows that point OUT. It's "supposed" to point OUT i.e. away from the engine. But based on what I read on the forums, you can just rotate the strut mounts so the arrow points IN (towards the engine) and this corrects the negative camber that results from when you install it with the arrows pointed out. You'll notice that it's less canted too.
Unless you want to mess with your alignment and have negative camber, point that arrow IN.
Use an impact and zap a few bolts, should be easy peasy. Fronts are easier than the rear if you have an impact because everything is right there.

5) Don't remove brakes. PITA, just use zip ties and make sure you unbolt the brake cable bracket so there is slack. In the front, I used a floor jack to hold up the rotor once you uncouple the strut so that it doesn't overextend the brake cable. Not removing the brakes will save a good chunk of time. The first time I did suspensions, I removed it and drained everything and had to bleed the brakes.


Since I did not do the LCAs on my car, that might mess up the order in which you do things but I would imagine you would just use a floor jack to hold up one side of the car's axle while you swap out everything on the other side. Unbolt the lower shock bolts, lower driver's side axle down while using a floor jack to keep the passenger side up. Remove springs. Remove shocks. use a jack stand to hold up driver's side axle now. Remove LCA. Install new LCA. Install springs and install shock top mount.
Switch sides.

Matt's 95 Stang

I will be sure to check out youtube for some good videos. The LCA's are not adjustable but the PHB is on car adjustable.

I was going to rent a pair of spring compressors from AutoZone for the springs. I hate them but I dont want to pay for a tool I use once every 10 years.

I was thinking of getting CC plates (I have MM CC plates on my '95) but being I am only dropping 1'', and I was worried about increased sound on this car (as it is my DD) I decided against them and used the extra money elsewhere.

I am still torn on UCA or not. Being the drop is minimal and the price of a good BMR adjustable UCA. I have heard/read I dont need it but it would be good to have. I am just asking myself "What is overkill on a non track car?" If money was no option hell yeah I would get it but...

I do have a cheap electric impact that I will have by my side the whole time. Its big and bulky but I will make it fit .

I have a tube of grease already but need to get a good gun. Any recommendations?

I will have to go buy wrenches for the PHB, thanks for the sizes.

I am going to get a grease pencil so I can make the bolts as I tq them down just to make sure I dont forget to tq something.

I was planning on doing the PHB last so I had room to tq all the other bolts. But I will see how it turns out.

1. Yup. Did the same thing with my buddies and worked great.
2. Already bought one a year ago. It doesnt have much power but it gets the job done.
3. We had the same problem on my buddies and grease, a hammer, and a crow bar helped alot.
4. THANK YOU. This was one of those questions I had not got answered yet.
5. I was planning on keeping the brakes in place just so I dont have to mess with bleeding the lines or anything like that.

I have BMR's directions on replacing the LCA's so I think it shouldnt be to hard but we all know how working on cars is.

Thanks guy; I'm all ears if anybody else has tips.

Matthew

RedFire281

The two best pieces of advice I've ever gotten regarding suspension work is: Remember the purpose of a bushing is to reduce NVH (noise, vibration, harshness). Whenever you install a part with a bushing (LCA, sway bar end links, etc.) always be sure that the suspension is FULLY LOADED before you torque to spec. Second, always torque to spec. Otherwise, you may end up with squeaks or thumps and you'll have a hell of a time trying to determine where it's coming from.

157dB

The next best piece of advice is to not reuse the one time use torque to yield OEM fasteners.
But is yo must, use some blue threadlocker...