What's the deal w/ X-2 Ball Joints & Bumpsteer kits?

[cobrasvtcoupe25]

I'm going to be replacing my Mach 1 springs with Steeda Sports soon and I'm thinking about upgrading a few more suspension parts \/\/ I don't want to run CC's and I'm about 99% sure I will not need them with the Steeda Sport Springs. So what's the deal with...

Steeda X-2 Ball Joint Kit
Steeda Bumpsteer Kit (94-04)

Are these mods worth the $$$? Do I need them? Does the Steeda X-2 Ball Joint Kit lower the front a bit? Could I just do the Ball joints w/o the bumpsteer kit?

Any info would be great! Thanks NE Cobra's :rockon:

-Mike

 

[99cobra09]

I also would like to know, i know the bumsteer is for the car not to pull side to side on you when your going straight, allot of mustang owners experince this.

 

[cobraracer46]

On a mustang with a stock ride hight, the front control arms are parallel to the ground and once the vehicle is lowered, the front control arms are no longer parallel with the ground and this is bad because with the strut based front suspension, and upward movement of the control arm will induce more positive camber and this hurts handling.
The X2 ball joints have a longer shaft that allows the control arm on a lowered vehicle to maintain a more parallel position to the road. The steeda X2 kit also comes with spacers that go on top of the front springs to maintain the ride hight. Using the X2 ball joints Without the spacers will result in a loss of ride hight.


As for the bump steer kit, extreme changes in caster cause the bump curve to change and in the case of my car, I added offset front control arm bushings,camber plates and almost 6 degrees of castor so my car defiantly needed a bump steer kit. A mustang with a stock castor settings can get by without a bumpsteer kit

 

[cobraracer46]

i know the bumsteer is for the car not to pull side to side on you when your going straight, allot of mustang owners experince this.

Too much cross camber or castor will cause a pull when going straight, not bump steer. Bump steer is a toe change as the suspension compresses and rebounds and a large toe change would be felt under braking and cornering.

 

[olgreydog7]

Cobraracer is correct. MM doesn't recommend the X2's, but they don't make them, so who knows. I have the Steeda Sports now and you don't need CC plates with them. It was close, but I could always get the car aligned. Bumpsteer is a pain to set, most shops don't know how, and it is a long process unless you have coilovers. You can make a gauge to measure it but MM sells one for about $100. I would say that you probably don't need it. It would actually be better to get the CC plates than the balljoints and bumpsteer. I just did the ball joints on mine and had to take the arms to a shop to get pressed out and thenew ones put in. I bent the ball joint press I rented from Autozone trying to get the others out. All the CC plates needed was a hole drilled in the shock tower. Not hard at all.

 

[cobrasvtcoupe25]

Thanks guys :beer:

So should I just put the steeda X2 ball joints and the steeda sports springs on? Or just the springs?

The Steeda Sports SRA Springs lower the car about 1.25" front and rear. I shouldn't need CC's and sounds like I don't need the Steeda Bumpsteer Kit either.

 

[1badblownstang]

On a mustang with a stock ride hight, the front control arms are parallel to the ground and once the vehicle is lowered, the front control arms are no longer parallel with the ground and this is bad because with the strut based front suspension, and upward movement of the control arm will induce more positive camber and this hurts handling.
The X2 ball joints have a longer shaft that allows the control arm on a lowered vehicle to maintain a more parallel position to the road. The steeda X2 kit also comes with spacers that go on top of the front springs to maintain the ride hight. Using the X2 ball joints Without the spacers will result in a loss of ride hight.


As for the bump steer kit, extreme changes in caster cause the bump curve to change and in the case of my car, I added offset front control arm bushings,camber plates and almost 6 degrees of castor so my car defiantly needed a bump steer kit. A mustang with a stock castor settings can get by without a bumpsteer kit

This is not accurate.

The control arms maintaining a parallel position to the road has nothing to do with it. It comes down to steering geometry. You want the control arm and tie rod to maintain as close to the same arc as they can. The longer ball joints correct the geometery, by raising the control arm height and along with the spacer are used to correct the vehicles roll center.

When you lower the car you lower it's roll center. Lower it to much and roll center will actually be below the pavement. Now you can put stiffer springs and shocks on the car to help with the roll center problems but the proper way to fix it is to raise the vehicles steering geometry back to stock. This way softer springs/shocks can be ran with the same cornering ability. This what the x2's and spacers do.

What people think is bump steer is normally just tram lining, the tires catching grooves/bumps in the road due to tread pattern and/or width causing the steering to feel like it's been pulled one way or the other.

You cannot eyeball bumpsteer. Placing spacers in and making the control arm and tie rod appear parallel to each other is not setting bump steer. It must be done with the spring/strut off and with a gauge, through around 3" of motion in both directions.

As long as the alignment setting are proper and the relation between the control arm and tie rod are correct the control arms do not have to be parallel to the ground. Think about this, if your control arms are parallel to the ground what happens when 2 220lb guys get in the front seats. The suspension compreses and suddenly the controls are slightly angled upwards. Does this effect handling? of course not. The car will handle just as good as long the alignment/bumpsteer and roll center remains within specs.

The relationship of the control arms, tie rods and steering rack are most important.

Now onto CC plates. They should be one of the first things you do to your suspension. To do a proper alignment and get the most out of your performance vehicle you will need them. If your vehicle is lowered then your really going to need them. If you just want the stock alignment and not lowering to much some get away with not getting CC's. The other very important thing CC plates do is replace lost suspension travel due to lowering.

A performance alignment is one of the best upgrades you can do for your car. Ford recommends 3.6 pos caster, that should be put to 4.5, set neg camber to .5 (never positive) and factory toe in setting of .25.

 

[Predatorbird]

Does anyone have an exact measurement of how much the x2 ball joints lower the car with and without the spacer? What does the spacer look like?

 

[quik6]

The spacer is just a metal ring.

I can take some pics later as I have both the x2 ball joints, and the bumpsteer kit sitting in the garage waiting for install.

 

[Predatorbird]

The spacer is just a metal ring.

I can take some pics later as I have both the x2 ball joints, and the bumpsteer kit sitting in the garage waiting for install.

Yeah that would be cool. I'm curious to see what it looks like. I want to play around with my height and lower it a little more. I might leave out the spacer and install one iso to get a little more drop.

 

[CobraRed01]

Nice tech...1badblownstang...but one correction...
"As long as the alignment setting are proper and the relation between the control arm and tie rod are correct the control arms do not have to be parallel to the ground. Think about this, if your control arms are parallel to the ground what happens when 2 220lb guys get in the front seats. The suspension compreses and suddenly the controls are slightly angled upwards. Does this effect handling? of course not. The car will handle just as good as long the alignment/bumpsteer and roll center remains within specs."

Actually, when the front control arms angle upward (from pickup point to splindle) when the car is lowered too much you also get positive camber gain as the suspension compresses....which can adversely affect handling. This is a major why MM CC plates are used...to increase static negative camber to thwart dynamic camber gain in hard cornering situations.

Here's an interesting link with a lot of information about Mustang suspensions:

Late Model Mustang Suspension Basics

Frankly, the animation of the front suspension variations are not exactly correct. It's the "unsprung weight" (wheels, spindle and control arms) that does the moving more...not the entire chassis as shown. The positive camber gain on the strut suspension is being masked by an incorrect change in angle in the animation of the upper strut relative to the strut body. Usually, the top of the spindle is pushed out by the struts movement in compression in a strut suspension. Positive camber gain is a major issue with strut suspensions...upper angling control arms don't help.

 

[cobrasvtcoupe25]

Just got off the phone w/ Steeda and they said do CC's over the Steeda X-2 Ball Joint Kit and Steeda Bumpsteer Kit. This way I know its in spec.

Since I know a lot of people don't run CC's w/ the Steeda Sports I'll probably just get an alinment after I drive the car 20/30 miles.

 

[01SVTSnake]

drive more than 20-30 miles. I ran mine for 2 weeks on new H&R Race springs to wait for them to really settle out

 

[1badblownstang]

Nice tech...1badblownstang...but one correction...

Actually, when the front control arms angle upward (from pickup point to splindle) when the car is lowered too much you also get positive camber gain as the suspension compresses....which can adversely affect handling. This is a major why MM CC plates are used...to increase static negative camber to thwart dynamic camber gain in hard cornering situations.
.

thanks and I agree, I was trying to make the point that the control arms not being parallel is not a big concern if alignment settings and steering geometry are correct. Good article, BTW.

 

[cobraracer46]

This is not accurate.

The control arms maintaining a parallel position to the road has nothing to do with it. It comes down to steering geometry.

My response to this thread was correct.

If you are familiar with the limitations of the factory based SN 95 mustang or any 1979-2004 mustang strut suspension for that mater, then you should know that as the front control arm moves up in it's rang of travel, the camber goes positive due to the fixed location of the upper strut mount.

Knowing this, it comes as no surprise that on a 1979-2004 mustang that has ben lowered, the front control arm is no longer parallel with the ground with the vehicle at rest. The control arm is now angled slightly upward so now during cornering, the vehicle will loose even more negative camber or gain more positive camber and as a result, more negative camber will need to be dialed in during the Alignment to compensate for this.

The Steeda X2 ball joint is essentially a band aid fix for a lowered strut suspension that actually works reasonably well( My Cobra has the X2 ball joints)

Of course, the real solution to solving the geometry flaws of a lowered Mustang front strut suspension is to scrap it and install a short long arm front suspension (SLA)

Maybe one day I'll install a Griggs SLA front suspension on my car.:burnout:

 

[BreBar21]

Yeah that would be cool. I'm curious to see what it looks like. I want to play around with my height and lower it a little more. I might leave out the spacer and install one iso to get a little more drop.

Like he said, it's just a metal ring. I have the X2's with the spacer and am probably going to yank the spacer when I change my struts to get a little more of a drop in the front. I believe you can expect it to fall an additional 1/2".

 

[01SVTSnake]

Like he said, it's just a metal ring. I have the X2's with the spacer and am probably going to yank the spacer when I change my struts to get a little more of a drop in the front. I believe you can expect it to fall an additional 1/2".

Mine was between 3/8ths to 1/2. Adds a nice touch to the front end

 

[CobraRed01]

Of course, the real solution to solving the geometry flaws of a lowered Mustang front strut suspension is to scrap it and install a short long arm front suspension (SLA)

Maybe one day I'll install a Griggs SLA front suspension on my car.:burnout:

+1!!! There's the ticket. Agent 47 makes one too and MM showed a prototype of there own SLA at SEMA awhile back AND and an IRS....

Maximum Motorsports shows off IRS suspension for Mustang — Autoblog

Since they didn't build them... I wonder if they would sell the plans??? ;-)

 

[CobraRed01]

thanks and I agree, I was trying to make the point that the control arms not being parallel is not a big concern if alignment settings and steering geometry are correct. Good article, BTW.

No problemo...I liked your tech info as well. It's nice when people take the time to enlighten. I find this stuff interesting and I like to share info and links to all who might be interested. Cool stuff. :thumbsup:

 

[quik6]

If anyone wants to buy some of these I just put a brand new set of x-2 balljoints, and a bumpsteer kit up. I'll post some pics of those rings later today. Sorry for the hold up.