SVO-ish Suspension Rebuild

[Desert Patina]

I have the front control arms with new ball joints. I tried a few machine shops, most wouldn't touch any suspension parts even if the modification had a tried and proven track record. One would charge me master machinist time to figure everything out. And Rare Parts wound up being $100 more per side than just going through O'Reilley's.

Luckily a local veteran who had his own CNC mill, and modified his own cars, was up for the challenge. I left a picture of his card in this post, he is fine with doing this work in the future. You will have to discuss price with him, but he quoted me a price better than what anyone else offered.

I used the TRW no-friction ball joints for the SN-95 Mustangs and Crown Victorias. He, like JTurbo's friend, was leery of using the larger Mark X? ball joints.
IMG_20210701_143710717.jpg

[Desert Patina]

The front is back together, poly bushings, new Koni Red shocks, and a used swaybar.

A few points I learned:
- The little hacked together tools sold by Maximum Motorsports are quite possibly the best things ever. The stock front springs would have been impossible to put in place without their tool.
- A three arm 6" gear puller with a race bearing press kit is not bad at removing bushings, but it isn't very good either
- The poly bushings aren't more stiff necessarily, but bumps are reported much louder with them
- I hope 130lb/ft of torque is good enough for the shock brace and front arm pins because that is about as much as I can do, but for at least one bolt per item, I did get to 148
- the lightest setting on the new shocks is still plenty stiff

[Desert Patina]

So one chink in the armor. The good news is that I was finally able to get it aligned. The bad news is that I'm in 1.6 degrees of tow on the driver's side, and the tech says he can't get it any better than that. Do I need to find longer tie rods?

[Chuck]

I'd recommend alignment by Jack's Alignment at 2902 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix. Been in business forever and they do not take appointments (just drive on in). Let the expert do the analysis before modifying anything further.

Chuck