Frustrated Canuck in need of suspension help!!

[cobra1966]

Good day everyone,

I have a CR that has the mustang2 front suspension on it and unfortunately with our wonderful roads here it keeps going out of alignment almost yearly and it also is a bit stiff in the front end as well. Now that I did a Chris Allison chassis upgrade on the rear with coilovers im spoiled on the back end of this car and now want to change the front over to a coilover system ..

1- what tubular system is the easiest and best install for these cars ?? there are so many bloody choices!
2- I will be sticking with QA 1 shocks as well same as rear with the dual adjustment and what spring weight should I be using? Powerplant is a iron block 302 opened up .060 with trickflow twisted wedge heads and alum intake.
3-is there a point to keeping the Bronco2 front sway bar lol???

I don't mind doing some welding if need be for the suspension I just want a kit that is decent to put on and will stay put once its aligned again .

Any help on this would be great even a few pics would be good as well as it really helps clarify sometimes.

Also I want to thank DV for always always always having great input and great ideas , its a pleasure having this kind of knowledge on this site...I raise my bottle of Kokanee beer to you DV

[cycleguy55]

I would think most of the tubular suspension arms are pretty similar, but I still have the Mustang II UCAs and LCAs on mine, though the UCA bushings have all been changed to Energy Suspension Urethane (black, as those have graphite and are far less prone to squeaking than the red ones).

I have QA1 coilovers on the front with 465 lbs/inch springs, but I'm running a WCC with a 96" wheelbase, a heavy 460 (with iron heads) and a car that's probably pushing 3,000 lbs. Your CR should be a few hundred pounds lighter, especially on the front end, so spring choice will be different.

I'd suggest first getting your car weighed with separate weights for front and rear, if you haven't already done so, then call QA1 tech support. I used them when I went to QA1 shocks in the rear, and they were bang on with their suggestion. They will want to know axle weight and ride height, at a minimum.

[JEwalt]

I purchased a tubular front end (with coilovers) for my CR from Tom Beroth in 1997.
It also came with the large Ford Granada disc brakes. 450 # springs were fine with 351W. I eventually removed the front sway bar altogether.

You can do a search of this forum for "Tom Beroth" and find many post and comments on his products. Also, see:

Bethania Garage Inc. & Harddog Fabrication Home

Jeff

[C5GTO]

On my CR, I used Carrera coil-over shocks and a spring that fits the coil-over on the bottom but widens out to fit the normal MII upper spring perch. I think they call these helical wound springs. You get most of the benefits of coil-overs, like adjustable ride height, but don't need to alter the CR frame/chassis. The lower control arm needs to accept a coil-over versus the regular spring and shock. I used tubular control arms on my car.

I don't know if these units are still available as I bought them 20 years ago. What I can say is that 20 years and 36K miles later I'm still very happy with the setup. I think the spring rate is 500lbs. which works great with the iron block/aluminum head 5.0L motor in the car. Great handling but still a good ride.

I can take a picture and post if you're interested.

Just looked on Speedway, they still sell them: QA1 version, http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Mustan...cks,35903.html Carrera version is $100 less.

[Double Venom]

I have found the MIi tubular kit that wins hand down for road cours racing, over the road comfort, and talk ease of assembly is "HEIDTS" . If you want to go crazy at the same time put WILWOODS" MII 11" discs on the front too! There! You've spent $600.00 bucks and you have a new Cobra! ��
DV

[cobra1966]

Thanks for all the input guys that's all great help to me. C5GTO I would love to see a couple of front suspension pics that would be great. DV as always your knowledge is impecabble when it comes to CRs I really don't know where half of us would be without that background of yours. Do you happen to know the HEIDTS kit number or name? would you have any pics you could send me?

[Double Venom]

Buddy
Just contact Heidts. Tell them , Classic Roadsters Cobra and tell.them what you want. They will tell you everything you ever wanted to know on a CR Cobra! There is one minor brace that needs welded in to get rid of the STRUT ROD! Very simple, your welding in a wedge-- piece of cake!

GET RID OF THE BRONCO SWAY BAR! It is much to big fora CR front end!!! The bar should be half the thickness of the Broncos.
If you road race you WILL take full Seconds off your track time.

AND, the driving experience is a triple star Improvement!
DV

[Double Venom]

PS.... TOMMY BEROTH TOPS! Might e

[Double Venom]

Oops!
Beroth & I were short time partners Years ago. He might even be cheaper than Heidts?
DV

[C5GTO]

Warning: not very good pictures because taken at night with halogen lighting.





These pictures are with the car on a jack, wheels hanging so the suspension is not a normal ride height. It's a daily driver as evidenced by the grease/grime build-up. I've got 36K miles since it was last aligned and even tire wear tells me it's still doing fine. The Carrera shocks aren't adjustable for dampening but the similar QA1 shock looked to be. These are adjustable for ride height.

I did do one other front suspension enhancement by putting a cross brace between the right and left suspension towers. I also put a panhard bar on the 9" rear. I can't say how much these two things helps with handling as I've had them on there almost since the car was built. I can say that the car handles like it's on rails though

Speak up if you'd like to see a picture of the front suspension brace. I can put up a pic.

[cobra1966]

Those pics are great thank you... which brand of arms are those? also in the last pic there is a gold colored bar going back towards the frame? what is that? and yes id like to see the cross bar for sure. I notice you've also kept the front sway bar I think im gonna remove mine , I really think with the right shock and spring combo plus the fact im running a small block with plenty of aluminum that the sway bar is doing squat?

[cobrajim1]

Well: I've been auto crossing my classic roadster for a few years now and used to have to get the alignment redone every few races. What I found was the upper A-arms were moving in the adjustment slots. It was worse on rough courses. So I went to adjustable tubular upper A-arms and welded washers around the mounting bolts to hold them in place. The adjustability in the A-arms allows me to make changes to the alignment when needed. The rest of the time everything stays where I put it...

[C5GTO]

Originally Posted by cobra1966

Those pics are great thank you... which brand of arms are those? also in the last pic there is a gold colored bar going back towards the frame? what is that? and yes id like to see the cross bar for sure. I notice you've also kept the front sway bar I think im gonna remove mine , I really think with the right shock and spring combo plus the fact im running a small block with plenty of aluminum that the sway bar is doing squat?

I don't recall the brand on the control arms as I bought them 20 years ago. The gold colored arm is the standard MII bottom arm triangulation link, it's just an after-market aluminum one instead of steel. Less un-sprung weight.

Here's a couple more pics, better as taken with natural light and at normal ride height.





Here's pics of the cross bar:







I'm not a suspension expert, but my opinion is that I benefit from the sway bars on my CR Cobra. I've got them on front and rear. The car stays very flat in turns. I'm not sure how much I benefit but I certainly wouldn't remove them if they're already installed. My 2 cents, take it for what it's worth.

[markantioch]

Did those cross braces come with the kit, or were they specially made? The same goes for the strut bar replacement. If they were ordered, I'd be interested in a link were I could purchase them.

[sunman]

Tom Beroth is out of the Cobra business
I talked to him recently about the alignment savers and anti dive
Heidts is the way to go
If you got the cash put a complete Super Ride IRS in the back
Do you have any photos of the panhard bar?

[Roylerumble]

JPL street rods sells a kit for about $1200. Its Heidts, can uprgrade to QA1's, add a sway bar. A guy I know used it and is very pleased, bolted right in. He sent me photos. Not sure if he needed shock extensions or got a different shock length. There are threads on here about cutting down the upper perch too. Here is the ebay link, but you can order directly. A google search will get their contact info. I spoke with them and they seemed very knowledgeable. I can't upload the photos he sent me, but if you pm me your email or throw it up here I'll send them to you.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-MUSTAN...2470264?_ul=CR

[Roylerumble]

was able to upload one of the pics of the kits supplied by JPL hotrods.

[markantioch]

I was looking at the cross bars that ran across the shock towers in the pictures above. I'm running 255/15 upfront, and I have a lil shake in my steering wheel, and I can't seem to get rid of it.

[markantioch]

Some say, get rid of the sway bar, it's not needed on these light cars to begin with.

[sunman]

“Some say” are DV, Tom Beroth, Don Scott, RCC and many guys on this forum for street cars
Ford wrote papers about excessive Fox body rear end roll bind that acts as sway bar