Control Arm Problems???

[cobralvr01]

So long story short, I decided to rebuild the suspension including bushings, shocks/struts, and control arms. I decided to go with the Koni Yellows and SR Performance U/LCA's but keep my stock springs. This was about 6 months ago. The ride quality on my car now could not be shittier. I go over a poor road, and the vibrations and rattling will almost make your teeth fall out and it sounds like the all of the panels in the car will fall off. I read some more reviews and it turns out theat the SR performance control arms aren't that great of quality. When I installed these, I raised the rear end so I could mate it up with them. When I let the jack down, the rear end went down maybe 2 inches...yes that's all! So, could these control arms be binding up and not allowing any articulation for the rear suspension causing a more violent ride quality?

If these are the problem, would MM upper/lower CA's with spherical bearings fix this issue?

For reference, these are what I purchased.
http://www.americanmuscle.com/sr-rear-control-kit-7904-black.html

 

[rgoddard57]

If anyone knows. Please let us know. I just swapped springs and shocks also have the same problem. My rear still sits extremely high.

 

[cobralvr01]

Is your ride quality jarring? I mean, I've had a lowered cobra on Eibach sports with stock shocks. However, I didn't hear and fell every small bump or even the porousness of the road. I have new shocks, bushings and stock springs. It shouldn't be this bad. My wife won't ride in it because it's that bad.

 

[NastyNate420]

Is the spring rubber isolator up top not fully seated? I had a problem when I swapped my springs out it slipped ****-eyed caused the rear to sit higher

 

[cobralvr01]

Did that cause extremely bad ride quality?
Nope, it's properly seated.

 

[MysticChaos]

What are the bushings made of in the upper control arms? Maximum Motorsports recommends only running rubber bushings in the upper control arms on our cars because anything else doesn't allow the arms to move properly and can cause the the suspension to bind. (Not that their word is law, but might be worth looking into)

 

[cbrown9064]

Unless you are drag racing, run stock bushings in the upper control arm. Stock upper arms are fine too. Was there something wrong with your stock uppers? Put them back in.

Maximum Motorsports makes a nice adjustable LCA. You can dial in weight (or use to set ride height if you don't care about weight).

 

[cobralvr01]

What are the bushings made of in the upper control arms? Maximum Motorsports recommends only running rubber bushings in the upper control arms on our cars because anything else doesn't allow the arms to move properly and can cause the the suspension to bind. (Not that their word is law, but might be worth looking into)

FEATURES

Improves Traction, Reduces Wheel Hop
Fixed - Non-adjustable Control Arms
Tubular DOM Steel Construction
Durable Black Powder Coated Finish
Polyurethane Bushings
2 Upper and 2 Lower Control Arms Included
Fits All 1979 to 2004 Mustangs, Excluding IRS Equipped Cobra
I think that's the problem. I've read that if you can, get the arms with spherical bearings or delrin bushings.

Unless you are drag racing, run stock bushings in the upper control arm. Stock upper arms are fine too. Was there something wrong with your stock uppers? Put them back in.

Maximum Motorsports makes a nice adjustable LCA. You can dial in weight (or use to set ride height if you don't care about weight).

I originally wanted to keep them but I guess the car had taken a hell of a jolt resulting in the passenger UCA's bushing sleeve hole to deform....badly. The bushing actually just fell out on its own with no force.

 

[superjojo]

steeda arm on my car work great... designed to minimise the bind of the diff on turn and bump... try to loose all the bolt arm and re-tight with the weight of the car on the spring... your bushing will be on right angle...

superjojo from montreal

 

[cobralvr01]

steeda arm on my car work great... designed to minimise the bind of the diff on turn and bump... try to loose all the bolt arm and re-tight with the weight of the car on the spring... your bushing will be on right angle...

superjojo from montreal

I'll try this tonight. With the chattering in the rear diff and the ride quality, if I have to fork over money for new CA's then I'm going to look into the possibility of an IRS swap. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

 

[superjojo]

does it work ???

 

[cobralvr01]

Nope, didn't work at all. It still binds up. It actually makes a loud popping noise when I turn into a drive way that has a bump. This is obviously a binding issue. I basically just said f*** it, I'm tired of dealing with it so I should be receiving an IRS system this Thursday. Not to bash, but I also think I'll be staying away from SR performance products and only buying MMR or FTBR stuff.

 

[Corbic]

SRs are certainly not poly bushings. They are some sort of garbage jello.

This is like after 1000 miles.

 

[2DXTRM]

This is what happens when the aftermarket gets saturated with companies that peddle and promote garbage. Quality parts get pushed back on the shelf.
Sure the price of these things lured you in as a buyer, but you'll pay twice later.

Ive been into the Mustang scene since the mid 90s. Seems like since these online companies have popped up, they have started to sell shit just to make an extra buck and they're laughing all the way to the bank. All because the consumer/buyer didn't do their homework. Price point should not be a buying point.

 

[mcaligiuri]

Maximum motorsports all the way. My car came with all this cheap garbage when I bought it. Slowly doing it right and its night and day in feel. Do it right and shoot maximum a email they are more than happy to direct you in the right direction.

 

[Snagmaster]

When I bought the upper and lower control arms for my vert the uppers were new Whiteline and the lowers are Edelbrock/Hotchkis that have been on at least three cars now.

The bushings were still like new and are greasable but were taken apart, cleaned and inspected before installation.

I noticed esp on the uppers at the diff that the bolts weren't quite as long as they needed to be due to the arms ears not even touching the new poly bushings, when torqued the nuts were barely past the last two threads on the bolt.

I took a factory bolt to compare and bought extra length shouldered bolts and used a pair of nylock nuts on each bolt, this way I could close any gap between the metal ears on every mount but torqued the nuts against each other to the factory specs.

It took a little dialing in but now everything is tight and since the fasteners hold the clamping force in the nuts the suspension actually articulates with no binding using plain poly bushings.

There's is around 40 ft lbs on each bolt to take up what little space there was between the arms and mounts themselves but I get no noise or movement in the suspension now, you can't lubricate the upper arms but they're not binding and I've had no issues so far.

 

[wr450]

Steeda bushings dont have grease zerks they lube them up with that clear.marine grease when make them and say.they never need.to be greased agiain im gonna go with steeda on that i also have them on my 95 cobra and have never heatd a peep from them i think steeda knowa what their talking about rememger they work closely with ford