http://www.americanmuscle.com/rear-c...-kit-7998.html

This is a new product from AM but it seems to good to be true uppers and lowers for $170

I trust AM and all but I keep thinking you get what you pay for

The welds on the picture look fine to me but I'm not a welder so I really don't know


what do you guys think

 

Stick w/ name brand. Plus boxed uppers w/ poly bushings isn't a good idea, unless you drag only.

 

Welds don't look that good, but that's really beside the point. You shouldn't upgrade your upper control arms. Just as bassman alluded to, decreasing the upper control arm's ability to move with poly bushings will make handling work and cause snap oversteer. It's because the upper control arms are trying to do two jobs at once and so they don't do either very well. Stick with rubber bushings, and stock uppers. On another note, wow those things are cheap, I spent twice that on just my lowers.

 

In that case MM lowers it is

 

Excellent choice. I know that MM parts are more expensive than most.....all, and therefore people are less likely to pay out for it, but your paying for more than just a part. Peace of mind, and confidence are major players in suspension parts and mission critical pieces. I was cheap with my v6 mustang, and it started to show eventually, and I was unhappy. It is said that if you buy cheap, you buy twice. You will have a better end result by not upgrading the stock uppers and investing and top notch lowers with the possibility of complete compatibility of future upgrades that will work together as a system with much R&D.

 

I figure that I will keep all my stock suspension stuff so if I upgrade to a gt later I can swap the good stuff over or sell it if the parts aren't compatible so I will be spending alot now but it will retain more of it's value than a no name part

 

those are GMS (Granatelli, aka big piles of ****) arms that they ripped the design off from MM on. I have a few issues with those:

1. poly upper bushings show a lack of understanding of mustang suspension in the first place
2. GMS makes big piles of ****
3. GMS rips off other peoples designs and sells inferior copies for stupid people to die using
4. The welds on their PHOTO SAMPLE look like ***. True looks don't mean **** but, you get what you pay for in welding.
5. I didn't have a 5th item but only 4 items in the list seemed kinda paltry.

Buy the real deal from Maximum motorsports or Griggs racing. Others are not recommended by me due to lousy records or ripped off designs. I know you'll have good parts and better handling with a correct package from either of those 2 outfits. I know you'll have variable durability and hit-and-miss to downright unstable/unsafe handling with the wrong parts.

 

I wonder why they dont tell you they are GMS pieces. Mostly because they are piles of ****. They have had many people break there lower control arms just from regular street driving. Then there is their coil on plug setups they make and the list goes on and on.

On another hand here, I under stand that for corning a poly bushing is bad for handling because it can bind up. So what is the better option? using a spherical bushing on the end that connects to the car and a poly on the rear end?

 

I appreciate the heads up guys

 

The best option would be to use a combination of a panhard bar or watts link and a Torque arm or 3-link. I am going with the Panhard bar / Tq. Arm route since MM has designed thier parts to work as such.

Edit: The reason that the best option is to get rid of the upper control arms all together is because they raise the rear roll center so high. The Tq. Arm lowers it, therefore providing better handleing. The front of the car has a roll center also, you want it low to the ground. A race car has a front and rear roll center such as that if you drew a line from the front to the rear it would be flat. The higher the rear roll center and the lower the front roll center the worse the handleing will be.

 

I always wondered that too, if for uppers, a poly (or 3 piece poly) and spherical combo would solve that problem. It seems like if the spherical bearing had the right size, it would provide all the flexibility needed. However, I'll let the gurus chime in on this.

 

See 01FR500's comment below for the best solution.

In truth the stock bushings for the upper control arms are in fact the best option short of spherical bearings which are noisy as **** on the street, or going to a better designed setup like the MM 3-link (which I run and can attest to being bad-fuggin-***). Boxed uppers from MM (they're just FRPP boxed uppers) are about it unless you're drag racing a lot in which case you'd want an adjustable upper set to dial in the pinion angle.

A set of MM lowers and their FRPP uppers should be great. For the lowers, poly front and spherical rear is a good combo. A little gain in NVH but a lot smoother axle articulation. MM won't sell you an improperly bushed control arm that'll bind. Call them, they'll help you figure out which part is best for your needs. Seriously... they're hella cool... call.

w00t to that. It's a major change in suspension setup but man is it worth it. Just the PHB was a huge difference in overall stability and provided a decently planted feel (but induced bind with the 4-link still in place). The tq arm really changed the car into a much better handling machine. I couldn't imagine a mustang without one.

A spherical at the axle end of the uppers does help to solve the binding problem but it adds a pretty substantial NVH penalty (noise, vibration, harshness). IIRC steeda sells some sphericals for the uppers for the axle end.

 

MM has a kit for their standard lower control arms and a panhard bar and by getting that kit I will save myself a few bucks a opposed to getting them separately so I think I'll wait and save a few extra dollars and get my stuff done the right way.

 

Big Thumbs up to waiting for the PHB also. I did pretty much the same thing, upgrade the LCA and get a PHB at the same time, except ZigZag321 gave me a tremendous deal on his PHB, which had never been taken out of the wrapping, so I bought the LCA and PHB seprate. BIG IMPROVEMENT, dude, you better watch out, suspension mods are more addicting than any other mods.

 

I have an itch I think I need full length SFCs.... Note to self find some one that can weld

the raw steel ones from MM should work with a couple rattle cans of bedliner

 

Yeah get the raw steel and a couple of cans of paint, that will be fine. If you get the powder coated ones it has to be grinded off to weld. And a buddy that welds would be perfect. I kinda took it up the *** to get mine welded on. But atleast it was done by a dedicated race car fabrication shop. (still got raped in the *** on the price though, fugit overpriced labor.)

I think the SFC, on my car, made one of the biggest differences. Because it changes so much. The pulls the front of the car together with the rear, makes it feel like one car. Reduces the rattles and creaks. So much is improved. I'd spend money to put SFC on a stock car just because of how much it improves the ride quality.

 

Those will be coming very soon my buddy who welds (actually welds well) gets out of the millitary in 7 days may have to buy him a few beers and get some work done

 

making good choices like those will make your mustang driving days much more enjoyable. The PHB is one of those watershed changes that makes you realize exactly how bad the stock setup is. SFC's should be among the first things anyone does to a 79-04 stang along with a brake upgrade and a short shifter.

01fr500 makes a good point about the addiction. Once I started putting really good quality suspension bits on it the car turned into something different and I couldn't get enough. Just keep the parts balanced and meant for what you'll use it for.