A lot of good discussion here! With all the chat about M2 spindles, I am surprised that nobody has used a reverse taper in the steering arm, to allow use of the oe rack from Flaming River. As most would know, the M2 tie rod end enters the spindle from below, but the OE rack set up enters from above. If you mill out the steering arm of the M2 spindle and make a reverse steel taper, you can mount the oe rack and tie rod end from above and save a lot of reverse engineering. It has worked pretty well for me. On the control arms, the screw in ball joint sleeves are readily available from just about any racer supply, and they use the Mopar screw in ball joint, K772, which has the same taper as the stock M2 unit.
I have read with interest Three Peaks discussion about the TBird rear, and I would ask him to check out an Explorer unit instead, as the mounting is beefier, as are the axles. Use Tbird uprights and mount the hubs from a 99 Mustang Cobra in them. The Cobra has 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern already drilled and the bearings are the same so it is an easy swap.
Let's keep this thread alive (and hopefully un-hijacked
) as it is one that CC has been needing for a LONG time!