Lower control arms....what to get?
 

I'm having some last minute indicisions about what lower control arms i'm going to get. I know i'm going to get some adjustable uppers so i can play with my pinion angle.

I was going to get some Lower lift bars, but since i'm getting slicks i'm thinking that lift bars may be overkill and i don't much feel like ripping out my lower torque boxes from the hard launches.

My question is will lift bars be fine? What do you guys think i should get? I was going to buy some today, but i realized that i should look a little more into what i'm buying so i don't regret anything later.

Does anyone have a control arm success story. I don't have quad shocks so i really need to eliminate the HORRIBLE wheel hop/control arm bushing deflection i have right now.
Thanks,

Lower control arms
 

I used to run the Southside Machine lift bars and they helped me hook up awesome. But it's really not worth the damage it does to your torque boxes. My car is a weekend warrior so it sees some street driving. Going through driveways tears them up as well as launching with slicks at the track. I had to weld the boxes up with support brackets. I found an old article in MM&FF that showed the torque box fix...plus I added a couple more braces of my own. So I sold the lift bars and bought some used Lakewood Traction bars. They work great. Unfortunately I'm still running the stock upper & lowers, but for now the Lakewood slapper bars are helping out plenty. I'm pulling 1.6 60ft. times with 26x8.5 Hoosier drag slicks. I'm curious what upper/lower arms other people are running though, and how well they hold up to street/strip abuse.

WELD THE TORQUE BOXES, I use welded stock control arms with the small bushings.WELD THE TORQUE BOXES, right now I am changing the rubber bushings out with the poly ones. WELD THE TORQUE BOXES, we are also welding the torque boxes. I tried the SSM bars, for me they unloaded about 25ft out and the 60fts suffered. Any arm out there is better that the stockers. While you are in there and every thing is out the way WELD THE BOXES.:)

I agree. The boxes need some serious work. If you have never seen them, they are very flimsy looking. No matter if you plan to use the car for street driving, corner carving, or trips down a drag stip, beefing them up should be a priority. Contact Rick91GT (he's a member here, but hangs mostly on Stangnet I think). He makes his own reinforcements and sold me a set that I'm almost reluctant to ruin the finish on by welding them to the car. They are very nice.

As for the control arms, I have seen 1.4 60ft times on South Side's bars with slicks. I've never owned a set myself, but have ridden in a Stang at the strip with street tires that set me in the seat. They seem to hook very well from what I've seen of them.

You forgot to mention 5 STAR upper/lower control arms.
I've heard they are cheap and also good quality.
Sometimes they have special deals where if you buy the lowers for $150 then they throw in the uppers for just $50

I like the adjustable ride height options on the Griggs and Maximum pieces myself, but then again I'm more into cornering than drag. Anyone use Griggs or Maximum Motorsports arms on a drag car?

Who sells those? i've never even heard of them. It'd be interesting to get some info on them.

I also found out that the guy who owned the car before me, relocated the mounting points for the lower control arms on the axle for more "bite" which probably explains the horrible wheel hop (he got the Mustang Performance 2 book by mathis which has an article about doing that). He decided to weld in the old holes, so i guess i'll be double checking his work and the location of the holes and probably going with the maximum motorsports arms so i can regain ride height (i always wondered why the rear sat 1"+ lower than the front). The pinion angle is probably screwed too, so going to an adjustable upper and adjusting the angle will probably help out alot.

I was going to weld the torque boxes while i had the control arms out, thanks for reminding me though because i'm going to look up what different ways people have re-enforced them.

Are there any other control arms that you can adjust ride height as well? I might as well have info about as many manufacturers as i can get.

Thanks for the input guys, any more opinions/info?

I believe "5 Star" is the name of the company. I usually see them in Mustang mags.

adjustable ride height is the way to go. have some good advantages to offer.

I had CCM (central coast mustang) "ground pounder" adjustable lowers, and they are excellent company with excellent customer service. Even mailed me a second pair for free without wanting the first pair back, because I wanted some with sway bar mounts.

nothing... wheel hop is awesome!!!
 

LOL!!!!!!!!! ...I thought that was a good one. ehehehhehehehee

I had good results with nothing more than HPM Megabite Jr lowers and solid uppers. Mid 1.5x 60ft. times on slicks, along with 11.70's... on my old combo.

Now I run the whole TRZ rear suspension setup and get some mid to low 1.4's ..even though I should be seeing high 1.3's, but I need some new slicks (M/T's)

No personal experience with SSM lift bars, but I've read plenty of horror stories, and some good, but very few good stories...

Oh, WELD THE TORQUE BOXES (upper arm mounts as well) ...along with installing some 'battle boxes' if you plan on launching with slicks anytime soon. ;)

About the '5 Star' ...are you guys talking about Factory 5 upper/lowers? Or is this 5 Star a new company?

Yeah, that's it. Factory 5 is the name I was thinking of.
Sorry for the confusion.

yea it is factory five who has that deal but MAC has about the same deal and i have no complaints about mine...just make sure yuor axels tubes are firm into your pumpkin becaue on my last rear they werent and i still got axel hop until one day my drivers side tube ripped right out the mid section..neeedles to say i build another rear and welded the axel tubes to the pumpkin

BTW my vote would be for a box style(MAC) not tubular..tubes are better for sub frames but not for control arms IMO

I have ssm uppers and lowers on my cobra and d&d motorsports upper and lowers on my coupe both companys have excellent products the ssm are supposed to play hell on the torque boxes but if you plan on slpping some slicks on the car you definately need to weld the torque boxes and add subframe connectors if you don't have them. i paid like $205 to my door for the d&d upper and lowers off of e-bay from a dealer.

I have the Factory 5's on for almost 3 years. They're fine. My friend has the Macs. They're really nice too.

Go to www.jdsperformance.com

He has an upper/lower set for $180. My other friend just got them and they're really nice. He also has adjustable uppers for $135 and adjustable ride height lowers for a really good price.

Dave

Nutty 5.0, what do you know about JDsPerformance? Those prices are almost too good to be true. I emailed them about their adjustable uppers and weight jacker lowers and i'm seriously considering buying them. The price for the weight jacker lowers is 1/2 that of the maximum motorsports wieght jacker lowers, but i'd like to be able to drive it on the street without the bushing binding or any surprises.

Sorry if i sound skeptical, but those prices are just awesome!

I paid $340 for my weight jacker lowers from CCM, and they look very similar to the ones JDS performance is selling for $195.00

I would say that is a good deal.

I did have bushing bind after awhile, but mine didnt have the grease fittings, which might be enough to eliminate that problem.

I agree, the prices are good! Tell him Dave from Pa sent you. He took care of me.

Anyway, I bought the adj. uppers, but traded with my friend to get my old ones back and he gave me the money I paid=$135. They are too noisy, I mean the Heim joint has just enough play that there is clunking over bumps and on/off the gas. I have a loud car, but the play in the thing drove me nuts. If you can find some from him or elsewhere that are adjustable with the poly ends instead of the Heim joint, it should be fine. Just an FYI.

But they were very nice and Dave from Jd's is very upfront and honest. I highly recommend him/them.

The adjustable lowers for spring height should be fine though.

=)

Dave

Thanks Dave,
on a side note, i did see your car and was drooling over it when i first got the issue of Muscle Mustangs.....Very clean and beautiful car! I read your sig then got the connection between your avatar and the magazine.

Anyways, i got an email from Dave Lohrey the guy you're talking about and said that those arms are made by granatelli motorsports for them. They are identical when i looked at the pictures, so that puts me at ease because i know from word of mouth that granatelli makes quality stuff. The funny thing is that Granatelli slaps their name on those arms and sells them for $269.95 for the weight jacker lowers (this is from their home page). The uppers they sell for 199.95!
Isn't that unbelievable! That's an AWESOME deal through JDsPerformance. I'm sold on them now.

I also found out that as you said that they make noise, but i'm pretty sure i'm willing to live with that as i already live with no sound deadening and fairly loud exhaust. Plus it's my fun car anyways not my daily driver anymore.

Thanks again to everyone who replied to this post!

Thanks for the compliments, the article is a little off, but its still cool.

I am glad you like Jd's. I can't say enough good about them. Too many places get a bad rap, but the good ones don't get enough. I am looking at those weight jackers myself...

Good luck!
Dave

when you say "WELD THE TORQUE BOXES" what would you be refering to?