[cobra-drifter]

Hey there,

I'm new to this forum but not necessarily new to Mustangs or Cars in general, however i come from a 240SX and RX7 background. I have always loved mustangs and finally after years and years was able to get my dream car: 96 Mystic Cobra! It's so sexy, i love it. The car runs fantastic, however after having it about 4 months now ive picked up on a few trouble ares.

1: The previous owner installed BBK long tubes. Now they sound great with my O/R Xpipe and 40series Flowmasters, but they scrape on everything!!! I'm a grassroots drifter and the mustang is my daily. In drifting you want your center of gravity and ride height to be as low as possible. Well i still have a good bit of fender-gap i'd like to lessen, but those long-tubes already scrape everywhere. Who makes some decent shorty/equal length headers for 4V 96-98 Cobras?

2: I understand that regardless of how cool it is that its a Cobra, it's also a loved and abused 16yr old car. It has a lot of squeaks and rattles. Specifically annoying is the the rear suspension. When I start off from a dead stop i hear a repeated metal rubbing sound that quiets up after i get up to about 35-40mph. What is that? I noticed right off the bat that the rear axle itself is offset on the passenger side. My brother said I need new control arms or atleast the bushings. You think this would solve that issue, or should an alignment shop look @ it first?

3: Drive-train vibration. When i'm going low-speed its un-noticeable, but on the interstate, anytime its pulling you hear/feel vibrations and almost a lack of smoothness that should be there.

For now this is my daily-driver, but i plan to transform this car into a Doug Van Den Brink kind of Monster!!! I need help resolving these issues to get track ready. Thanks for all your help and advice in advance

[LGHTNG02GT]

i've got a set of FRPP stainless steel short headers on my B head 4v. the general concensus seems to be that shorty headers do nothing for power. i cant confirm or deny this as i put the headers on upon swapping the 4v into my GT. the fit and finish of them is second-to-none. aside from being stainless steel, they are also jet-hot coated and they have been holding up great for me. you wont have a problem selling your current LT's as long as they arent completely destroyed. the only thing you will still need to watch out for is the midpipe. even with shorty headers, my midpipe is reallyyy lowww. as in like 2-3" MAX from the ground...

even if the cause of your squeaks isnt the rear lower control arms, you will probably want to replace them anyway because the stock ones arent that great. our local suspension expert on here recommends a LCA with a heim joint on one end and a poly bushing on the other. his name is Jazzer and he has a pretty helpful unofficial suspension guide in the how-to section stickied at the top of the 99-04 tech section. i think that would be a good read for you, so go check it out!! be be aware, most suspension mods you do there comes a trade off...and it usually involves NVH (noise, vibration, harshness)

[ReverendDexter]

OP - use the advanced search, and search for threads with "drift" and my username. I've written up a couple things on what you'll need to make a Mustang driftworthy that I'm feeling too lazy to retype out.

[termi_GT]

Are you feeling the vibration in the trans or the steering?


you can probably swap out the L/T's for a set of Bassani mid-lengths. You won't lose much power from this swap and should be able to tuck the mid-pipe up a bit more. It won't be great as the above post has stated but any little helps and they flow better then shortys.

[cobra-drifter]

Awesome guys, thank you! i'm gonna get right on looking this stuff up!

termi_gt: I feel it mostly coming from the transmission while driving on the freeway 60-80mph

[cobra-drifter]

I went ahead and tried the easiest stuff first, i.e. Changed the trans fluid w/adding some lucas, and changing the rear diff fluid. I discovered the previous owner was nice enough to add Steeda's driveshaft spacer, but left a bolt out and the other 3 were barely finger-tight. So i went ahead and replaced all the driveshaft bolts whiloe adding lock-washers and added blue loc-tite just to be safe

All this did help a little with the freeway drivetran vibration issues, but the squeaky start-off is still there. So I think next paycheck i'm gonna get some control arms from Mustangs unlimited. They have a full rear set brand new for like $154. They're not adjustable, but much adjustability do you really need from control arms on a solid rear axle car?!

any more suggestions?

[termi_GT]

I was going to suggest checking the driveshaft since the vibration seems to be in the tranny.

The squeaking is kinda tough to suggest what it may be but, I don't think it is the rear. I am betting its something in the clutch area, possible the throwout bearing. Do you know what clutch is in it?

[cobra-drifter]

No, I have no idea what clutch it has. I wonder if it might be something as simple as a worn wheel bearing??? It sounds like its coming from that passenger rear wheel area.

[ReverendDexter]

Originally Posted by cobra-drifter So I think next paycheck i'm gonna get some control arms from Mustangs unlimited. They have a full rear set brand new for like $154. They're not adjustable, but much adjustability do you really need from control arms on a solid rear axle car?! any more suggestions?

Which arms in particular are you looking at? If you're going to be drifting the car, your rear arms are going to be taking some abuse, and they're going to be sending at least some of that abuse to your torque boxes. It's just not a place to be trying to save $50.

[cobra-drifter]

Originally Posted by ReverendDexter Which arms in particular are you looking at? If you're going to be drifting the car, your rear arms are going to be taking some abuse, and there going to be sending at least some of that abuse to your torque boxes. It's just not a place to be trying to save $50.

Heres what I was looking at: Mustangs Unlimited - The Premier Source for Mustang, Shelby and Cougar Parts and Accessories

What do you think?

[ReverendDexter]

I'd keep my stockers over spending $150+shipping on those. The stockers I at least trust to have been tested by the OEM to last 200k miles.

Bushings look to be poly all around. Fine for NVH, bad for your torque boxes and suspension articulation. Especially bad in your UCAs, particularly for the loads your car is going to experience.

UCAs look like they'd perform no better or even worse than stock - the UCAs are supposed to twist, so either these are equally flexy, in which case, why go through the time to replace them, or they're stiffer, in which case they're not going to articulate correctly and can damage the chassis-side mounts (aka torque boxes).

On top of that, I inherently don't trust parts that someone doesn't put their name on. At best they're a good knock-off, but it's almost certain those are made overseas, and it's likely that they're using bad metal and have crap welds.

If you're going to keep the 4-link, I'd get spherically bushed UCAs, and I'd get LCAs that have a spherical bushing on one side if you care about noise, sphericals on both ends if you don't. Yes, these will be more expensive, but they'll be worth it for having the suspension work properly.

More than that, though, I'd recommend getting a panhard bar instead of replacing the UCAs. That's going to have a significant bump in price, though - $550 - $800 (kit with LCAs and a panhard bar) depending on what bushing configuration and how adjustable you want things. Rear Grip Packages (solid axle) : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!

[cobra-drifter]

Originally Posted by ReverendDexter I'd keep my stockers over spending $150+shipping on those. The stockers I at least trust to have been tested by the OEM to last 200k miles. Bushings look to be poly all around. Fine for NVH, bad for your torque boxes and suspension articulation. Especially bad in your UCAs, particularly for the loads your car is going to experience. UCAs look like they'd perform no better or even worse than stock - the UCAs are supposed to twist, so either these are equally flexy, in which case, why go through the time to replace them, or they're stiffer, in which case they're not going to articulate correctly and can damage the chassis-side mounts (aka torque boxes). On top of that, I inherently don't trust parts that someone doesn't put their name on. At best they're a good knock-off, but it's almost certain those are made overseas, and it's likely that they're using bad metal and have crap welds. If you're going to keep the 4-link, I'd get spherically bushed UCAs, and I'd get LCAs that have a spherical bushing on one side if you care about noise, sphericals on both ends if you don't. Yes, these will be more expensive, but they'll be worth it for having the suspension work properly. More than that, though, I'd recommend getting a panhard bar instead of replacing the UCAs. That's going to have a significant bump in price, though - $550 - $800 (kit with LCAs and a panhard bar) depending on what bushing configuration and how adjustable you want things. Rear Grip Packages (solid axle) : Maximum Motorsports, the Latemodel Mustang Performance Suspension Leader!

Awesome! Thanks, i'm gonna be weighing out which direction to go. For now though, how can i get my rear axle centered back up? Its all pushed to the driverside...???

[ReverendDexter]

Rear axle being out of line with the body isn't uncommon, the most direct way to get it recentered will be with an adjustable length panhard bar (which just so handily MM sells and is part of those kits I linked )

[cobra-drifter]

Originally Posted by ReverendDexter Rear axle being out of line with the body isn't uncommon, the most direct way to get it recentered will be with an adjustable length panhard bar (which just so handily MM sells and is part of those kits I linked )

It's just kinda goofy looking because I even have 2 18x10 Y2K cobra Rs on the back with 285 tires. The driver-side looks perfect, but the passenger-side still looks sunk in! Lol.

Yah I saw that. Thanks again for the helpful links.

[cobra-drifter]

Well since the other day, My brother got me the red rear LCAs from Mustangs Unlimited for my birthday and we installed them this weekend. It did indeed help some of my issues, and it definitely tightened things up in the rear, but the axle is still off-centered slightly, and i still have that whine when i turn left...I think it might be the torque boxes someone was talking about...