Identifying stock upper control arms?

SVT CAMR

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I'm looking at a set. they have a date of 2008. seller says bought from Ford in 2009! I do not see Ford stamps on them. I do not have my stockers available to see what stamps are on them. by the date there is also a name saying SHILOH

After some thought and advice from MM and another person on this forum I decided to go back to stock uppers since my car will not be seeing extreme duty no more.

Are these real?????? When did ford stop making stock uppers?
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CobraHuck

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Can't help ya on whether or not ford stamped them "ford" or not, but I just bought some Motorcraft (ford) Terminator front LCAs from RockAuto and they're date stamped '12, so that's certainly possible
 

2DXTRM

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I have a set from a Mach 1 here, no Ford stamping on them. Same kind of numbers stamped in (3 , 2 digit numbers) and instead of the Shiloh stamp, these have an MTD stamp.
 

SVT CAMR

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I have a set from a Mach 1 here, no Ford stamping on them. Same kind of numbers stamped in (3 , 2 digit numbers) and instead of the Shiloh stamp, these have an MTD stamp.
That is exactly what is throwing me off. The ones on MM's site say MTD as well.
Thank for the reply.
 

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2DXTRM

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Ok that's great news! So do you think because of the 2008 date these arms are the newer stiffer bushing? Like the M-5500-A ford racing control arms that were discontinued?

I looked at the numbers on the Mach 1 upper arms here, the numbers on them are "12 18 02", so if its 2002 built, then correct for an 03 Mach 1. So those ones you're looking at should basically be the M5500A arms.
 

SVT CAMR

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After snooping around I found some more info on stock length upper control arms. Ford in some where in early 1998 switched the length of the upper control arms. (A fix for NHV) so there are 2 sizes a 237mm and 242mm center to center hole measurement. This person says he thinks the 242mm (roughly 9.50") is the newer FRPP one. The 237mm (roughly 9 3/8") is the earlier one.

With this said My car is a 98 cobra #455 build date is 10/15/97 I remember measuring my uppers before selling them and they were 9 3/8" center to center.

All of my aftermarket ones were 9 3/8" as well. I will report back with the length of these 2008 stamp dated ones when I receive them. Either way it is 5mm and will not change much. probably would not see 1 degree of pinion angle out of that measurement.

I have also read the sn-95 arms are the same as the FRPP ones Ford use to carry. I also read that it is also a bad idea to try to box the factory arms to strengthen them. Ford wanted them to flex for a reason.

Bottom line if a person is not drag racing their car they do not need aftermarket upper or even should want them from what I understand. If you are drag racing I understand you will not want to chance breaking a upper control arm at very high speeds and launching hard. So the risk of damage to the torque boxes is worth having an aftermarket piece.

If road racing or auto-crossing and can't afford or don't want a torque arm set up you will want to use the stock uppers over any aftermarket pieces. These racers look at the entire Factory ford 4 link as a disaster and call it a quadrabind. They say if you must use upper control arms look no further than stock pieces.

Nothing like taking a lame stock upper control arm thread and shedding some hopefully useful info. Thanks to all that have contributed to it.
 
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SVT CAMR

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I looked at the numbers on the Mach 1 upper arms here, the numbers on them are "12 18 02", so if its 2002 built, then correct for an 03 Mach 1. So those ones you're looking at should basically be the M5500A arms.

Cool what is the measurement center to center at the mounting holes?
Thanks.
 

CobraHuck

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After snooping around I found some more info on stock length upper control arms. Ford in some where in early 1998 switched the length of the upper control arms. (A fix for NHV) so there are 2 sizes a 237mm and 242mm center to center hole measurement. This person says he thinks the 242mm (roughly 9.50") is the newer FRPP one. The 237mm (roughly 9 3/8") is the earlier one.

With this said My car is a 98 cobra #455 build date is 10/15/97 I remember measuring my uppers before selling them and they were 9 3/8" center to center.

All of my aftermarket ones were 9 3/8" as well. I will report back with the length of these 2008 stamp dated ones when I receive them. Either way it is 5mm and will not change much. probably would not see 1 degree of pinion angle out of that measurement.

I have also read the sn-95 arms are the same as the FRPP ones Ford use to carry. I also read that it is also a bad idea to try to box the factory arms to strengthen them. Ford wanted them to flex for a reason.

Bottom line if a person is not drag racing their car they do not need aftermarket upper or even should want them from what I understand. If you are drag racing I understand you will not want to chance breaking a upper control arm at very high speeds and launching hard. So the risk of damage to the torque boxes is worth having an aftermarket piece.

If road racing or auto-crossing and can't afford or don't want a torque arm set up you will want to use the stock uppers over any aftermarket pieces. These races look at the entire Factor ford 4 link as a disaster and call it a quadrabind. They say if you must use upper control arms look no further than stock pieces.

Nothing like taking a lame stock upper control arm thread and shedding some hopefully useful info. Thanks to all that have contributed to it.

Good info, I've read some about anything after market uppers not being needed for a street/occasional track car but that's literally all I got out of it. Thanks for shedding some light!
 

SVT CAMR

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Roughly 9 3/8 with a made in china measuring tape.

From your finding on a maybe the earlier arms were the longer 242mm (9.5") I don't know. Either way 5mm will not make a difference on a street car.

A guy named Randy S. put this info out there on the corral. He is considered very knowledgable. worked at FORD and raced with the NMRA back in the day.

Anybody out there with a set of uppers from a fox body or a 96 cobra feel like taking a measurement of the stock uppers center to center? trying to figure out if it is true that there are 2 different length stock upper control arms.
 

blacksheep-1

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If road racing or auto-crossing and can't afford or don't want a torque arm set up you will want to use the stock uppers over any aftermarket pieces. These races look at the entire Factor ford 4 link as a disaster and call it a quadrabind. They say if you must use upper control arms look no further than stock pieces.

a golden nugget of truth
 

SVT CAMR

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The upper arms in the pis arrived today. I measured them and C to C they were 9.25" (9 1/4") I was surprised. all the arms I measure are 9 3/8". May be that was what they were talking about with the 2 different sizes. It makes no sense though because these were made and bought in 2008-2009. The AD on ebay did say they were for fox body. They appears to measure 1/8 shorter than my stockers and the fixed upper I bought from J&M last spring. I'm not going to sweat it and just install them.

From what I remember when setting up my adjustable upper it would take 3/16" shorting to create 1 degree of pinion angle. (your results may vary). I hate when things do not make sense. Ford would not sell 2 set of arms in 2008! So they are 1/8" smaller C to C. Thats all I got for ya on this subject right now. it would be interesting to see what other measure if any of you guys can remember to do so and state the year they are stamped and car they came off of. Thanks
 

blacksheep-1

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FWIW and I would take this with a grain of salt, when I raced NASA and had to use the stock uppers, I would soak them in a bucket of kerosene to soften them up and make them more pliable. Now that was a dedicated race car so I don't know that I'd do that on the street, but ti did seem to take some of the "snap oversteer" out of the car when the rear tried to center itself coming off of a corner.
 

SVT CAMR

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The upper arms in the pis arrived today. I measured them and C to C they were 9.25" (9 1/4") I was surprised. all the arms I measure are 9 3/8". May be that was what they were talking about with the 2 different sizes. It makes no sense though because these were made and bought in 2008-2009. The AD on ebay did say they were for fox body. They appears to measure 1/8 shorter than my stockers and the fixed upper I bought from J&M last spring. I'm not going to sweat it and just install them.

From what I remember when setting up my adjustable upper it would take 3/16" shorting to create 1 degree of pinion angle. (your results may vary). I hate when things do not make sense. Ford would not sell 2 set of arms in 2008! So they are 1/8" smaller C to C. Thats all I got for ya on this subject right now. it would be interesting to see what other measure if any of you guys can remember to do so and state the year they are stamped and car they came off of. Thanks

Well I opened my mouth and now I need to retract. I pulled the J&M's off the car a little while ago and measured them. They are 9 1/4" DOH! So what ever. I installed the stockers and went for a ride with the there was no difference positive or negative. So the stock uppers are staying in!

Black sheep that is very interesting. Never knew people do that.
 
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