OLD CROW 3V Mustang: Rear Suspension and Wheels and Tires installed!

 Big update in this post! PanteraCorey and I spent 5 hours Friday night and 3 more hours Saturday morning underneath the Old Crow to install all the rear suspension. Everything went pretty smoothly except for the removal of the upper control arm. When I watched a YouTube video the guy made it look like the upper arm would just come out once unbolted. False! haha After fiddling with it for awhile, we began slowly lowering the gas tank. I found another YouTube video and that guy said you're going to have to lower the tank. So, once we lowered the tank, boom! it came right out and the new Kenny Brown piece went in. 

Big shout out to Corey for allowing me to use his lift, tools and himself! I don't know how long it would have taken me to do that on my own or with my own tools. I know I don't have all the tools so I would have needed to borrow them or go buy some. 

Here it is up on Corey's lift Friday night

Here it is at my house today as I put my new wheels and tires on the rears. I adjusted the lower control arms because the pinion angle was -3 degrees. I adjusted it to -1 degree with shortening up of the LCAs. Corey and I had adjusted them to be longer than OEM on initial install. That was the wrong direction. 

When I test drove the car after initial install I could hear some rear end gear noise. I think that was due to too much angle. After a very brief test drive today, I didn't hear the rear end noise! Boom!

I still need to adjust the panhard bar a little. It's about 1/4" to the driver side. Brent says shortening the panhard bar will move it to the passenger side. I need an 18mm socket to unbolt the panhard bar so that will wait until Corey and I get it up on the lift next week, hopefully. 

Today I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 1/2" drive 50-150 ft-lbs torque wrench, some 1/2" drive extension and some bigger adjustable crescent wrenches so I could adjust control arms and panhard bar.

Luckily I had bought a slimmer 13/16" socket because the oem lug wrench doesn't fit my wheels lug hole openings. I've always tighten lug nuts by feel. I've never torqued them. I'm feeling official!

This is a great beauty shot! I'm purposely not showing the front end because its stock ride height and wheels LOL

This is a cool pic with it jacked up! I think the 2" MM lowering springs will be great for the street and a big improvement over the stock stuff when driving it hard.

And here's the Mullet Mustang shot! LOL 

Overall I'm really loving the look of the car with the new wheels and tires! The blacked out rear trunk panel, the rear spoiler, front lip and future canards look killer!!! I'm loving it so much!!!

I ordered a couple more parts. Corey convinced me to order the control arms and install them with the rest of the suspension. He's 100% right for saying so. I was fully planning on buying them in the future. I guess I was trying to keep the budget down but it just makes more sense to install these while everything, and I mean everything, is apart up front.

And, while I was at it, I threw in these matte black OEM+ looking headlights from LMR.com. I had a 6% discount from reviewing my other parts so I figured I'd get these ordered so they're here and ready when I do the front fender and rear bumper paint.

Stay tuned...

OLD CROW 3V Mustang: Suspension Parts Arrive and Wheels/Tires Mounted

 Parts have been arriving for Old Crow the last month plus. I wanted to show them off here. The plan is to start installing the rear end parts first as I'm still waiting for Maximum Motorsports to ship the last of the parts for the brake upgrade. The Stainless Steel lines are a week plus out still. MM will ship the lines, the Dot4 fluid and HP+ front brake pads all together. So, I'll do the front suspension parts and brakes all at the same time in a week or 2. 

First up are the wheels and tires. I didn't want to go to Burt Bros again for mounting and balance. Last time I went there, the balance weights fell off before they even got home. I got a recommendation from Bryce C to go to Discount Tire in Layton where he takes his Porsche track wheels and tires. 

Here's a good look at the view of the tire shoulder as it relates to the wheel lip. It's a very slight stretch to fit a 295mm (theoretical 11.61" width) to an 11.0" wide wheel. Technically the wheels are 12" wide from the outer edge of the wheel lips. The 11" width is from the inside of the wheel lip. Interesting tidbit.

Front brakes were actually the first thing to arrive. I probably didn't need to do these just yet but I shopped on Rockauto.com and the price was so good I couldn't pass it up. It was $290 for both sets of 4 piston calipers and 14" steel blank rotors shipped. The rotors were actually $13/ea. The calipers have a nice black gloss paint applied. They are remanufactured and they are one of the alternate brands for replacement parts for the S197 Boss 302, GT500 and 2011-14 Performance Pack 4 piston/14" brake set up.

Here's the box of Cortex Racing parts. 19mm black anodized spacers for the front along with open ended lug nuts, front sway bar end links and front bumper steer kit.

I ordered a set of front hubs from LMR. They are Ford Racing new units with ARP extended studs. I went this route because of the simplicity of the assembly already with pressed in studs. The car has 131k miles on the front hubs and I was looking for an easier assembly. 

As part of the Maximum Motorsports Road & Track Grip kit for the 2005-2010 GT, it comes with this Eibach adjustable front sway bar that measures 36mm in diameter. It is a beefy piece. I'm sure it adds weight haha. 

For sway bar bushings, the unit on the left is the MM supplied poly bushing. The one of the right I bought from Kenny Brown and is also poly. In my research I didn't see mention of poly bushings coming with the Eibach sway bar. I believe the bushing I bought from KB on the right is meant for a stock sway bar diameter. It may fit thicker bars with the slit you can see in the picture. Who knows. I'm going to run what MM provided.

Here are pics of the Koni single adjustable front struts and rear shocks that come with the Maximum Motorsports Road&Track Grip kit. These are spec'd out specifically by MM for the S197 with their spec'd springs, rear control arms and panhard bar. 

Springs are progressive spring rates as you can see by the shape and have the following specs:

Lowering

• 1.8"-2.0" front
• 1.9"-2.1" rear

Lowering amounts are approximate and will vary with year and model due to differences in car weight.

Spring rates

• Front: 320-360 lb/in. The rate is progressive and approximate, ramping up from 320 lb/in at ride height to 360 lb/in at 2" of spring compression (about 1.9" of wheel travel).
• Rear: 260-380 lb/in. The rate is progressive and approximate, ramping up from 260 lb/in at ride height to approximately 380 lb/in at 2" spring compression. Wheel travel is also 2" because the rear spring is on the axle.

Here's the aluminum adjustable panhard bar from MM as well. This polished aluminum panhard rod features PTFE-lined spherical bearing rod ends with machined aluminum inserts.

To supplement the MM Grip kit, I ordered up Kenny Brown rear lower relocation brackets. These drop the control arm mounting location to improve the geometry.

This is the Kenny Brown U-link, which is the rear upper control arm or the "3rd member" for the 3-link rear end Ford designed for the Mustangs solid rear axle. The KB unit changes/improves the geometry of the stock arm and adds the spherical bearing. These are nice pieces and look good in the dark grey paint. They kind of match the wheels! 

Finally, I also ordered up a new passenger front fender from LMR. This is a nice OEM replacement fender. 

Also from LMR.com is this OEM replacement rear bumper cover. 

These body pieces will be painted in a couple months after weather warms up here in Utah. I'll be doing these in Corey's garage. What a good friend! haha I'll buy the paint supplies from a local paint shop in Centerville. It should really get the Old Crow looking sharp!

Stay tuned for the install pics!