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De-Modding the Mustang

3K views 25 replies 16 participants last post by  blownstang 
#1 ·
For seven years and 50,000-60,000 miles I've been running UPR extreme duty adjustable Upper and Lower Control Arms with spherical bushings (metal on metal) in the differential. From day one I didn't like the additional NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) and lately it sounds like the rear end is coming out of the car. I'm sure the spherical bushings are worn out.

I called Maximum Motorsport to see what I could do. Talking to their tech support the best thing to reduce NVH for my daily driver is to put stock upper control arms with rubber bushings back in. The parts are on the way.

Sometime in our excitement we over-mod the car for its purpose. The NVH from the control arms was the only mod that I actually hated. But there are other mods I wouldn't do if I had it to do all over again.
 
#5 ·
#3 ·
I can relate. I've done quite a lot of suspension work on my car. Sometimes, when I drive over a rough section of road, the relatively harsh ride can be irritating. In the end, though, I appreciate the improved handling, better steering feel, and lower ride height enough to overlook the increased NVH.
 
#4 ·
Hard to beat stock control arms if you're not taking the car to the track often. My car is a nightmare of thumping, grinding and howling with all the solid mounts. Also the Tru-trac and a ring and pinion that's been used in 3 different set-ups don't help!
 
#6 ·
I feel this. I'm on the fence about what I want to do with this car now and whether i'm gonna be over modding it. I'ts honestly gotten to the point where I just mod it to sit in the garage because its becoming unstreetable and I have a daily. I've been thinking more and more lately to just fully strip it and make it into a full blown autocross car.
 
#8 ·
GoIt's not the lcas that make all the racket. Spherical bushings in the uca make a hell of a racket. I don't drive my car enough to make it miserable, it just adds to the racecar experience
 
#9 ·
No need for aggressive arms on a street car. Best 60' on the GT was 1.67. Best on the Mach is 1.63. Never heard any noise from them. FRPP uppers and MM HD lowers on the GT. J&M uppers and MM HD lowers on the Mach.
 
#10 ·
I regret doing solid bearing on the upper axle side but thats it. I still have stock uppers, and J&M lowers with the solid bearing on the axle side of that as well.

I wish I would have spent some money on decent shocks/struts...that is where my ride suffers horribly. In time those will be upgraded.
 
#14 ·
I LOVE my steeda upper arms. I've never had an issue with them. They've been on for about 2 years now. I run the STEEDA UPPERS and MM Adjustable Lowers. I have the torque box reinforcements also done for top and bottoms. My car has had nothing but 315 NT555R drag radials on it for years behind 600rwhp with a T56 (2.97 1st gear). I've managed 1.60s on the 555Rs. Never blown out a control arm to date. My car has alot done in the terms of weight over the back axle... battery, 3 gallon coolant tank for supercharger and 3 gallon meth tank are all in the trunk. Its probably an added 150lbs directly over the back axle... its very obvious when launching the car that all the weight is in back and not up front.

The reason I went Steeda arms is because Steeda has a special body side bushing in their arms that allows the arm to articulate which prevents binding but its also rubber so minimal noise. I love them. I have the Steel Version which is only like 150 bucks I think but here is the link for the aluminum ones. Both versions have the Steeda Bushings in them. I love them. Best 150 I spent on the back axle.

Steeda 1979-04 Mustang Light-Weight Upper Rear Control Arms - Made in the USA 555-4802 | Free Shipping!

https://goo.gl/images/KEDRze
 
#15 ·
Update:

Maximum Motorsports FRPP upper control arms are on. NVH is down. The slight gear whine is completely gone. Between the new shocks and the new control arms things just seem tighter in the back. The rough sounds when going over bumps is gone. I very happy with the de-mod.

I was surprised that the spherical bushings that were taken out of the differential seem to have no wear at all. They have some tooling scars from where they were taken out but nothing that would affect performance. The heim joint on the frame side of the upper control arm seems to have a tiny bit of wear but not much.
control arms:http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-chrome-moly-double-adjustable-upper-control-arms.html
spherical bushings: http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-billet-spherical-bushings-8-inch.html

Send me a PM if you want them. Right now they are just collecting dust and I don't intend to use them.
 
#16 ·
In my case the noise from the (Baseline) UCA spherical bushings depended on which differential I had in. With the Ford Tracloc, they were perfectly tolerable. Then when I switched to a Detroit Tru-trac, the noise was very loud, embarrassing and unbearable. I actually was convinced there was a problem with the Tru-trac. But then I switched to the Steeda UCAs, and the noise disappeared:

https://lmr.com/item/ST-5554802/79-...ms-Aluminium?gclid=COeC7dvbtdACFZtMDQodWK0L6A

It was a pleasure to drive the car on the street again...and the punchline is that my 60ft times on the strip didn't change
 
#17 ·
Second Update:

I now have around 350 miles on the de-mod. I love it. The Koni shocks & struts make the suspension feel a lot tighter and the NVH from the upper control arms is way down. I can now listen to my radio at 1/2 volume instead of 5/8-3/4 volume. I can hear my exhaust a lot better. Just normally accelerating from 2000 rpm I can hear that deep throated exhaust where before it was mixed with higher frequency noises and vibrations.

This is a night and day difference. I will never recommend changing upper control arms on a daily driver unless you go with the FRPP ones (now sold by Maximum Motorsport). Why? We are not suppose to run poly on the UCAs. It can cause snap oversteer and damage the torque boxes. (Note: From Nightmare67's comments Steeda is probably OK.) The ones with spherical bushings prevent damage to the torque boxes but they have way too much NVH on any car that is driven a lot. And, I will have to evaluate this later, I may want to get a MM panhard bar. I've wanted one a very long time but couldn't run it with the UCAs that I had.
 
#20 ·
I had some steeda adjustable uca's that the threads got ripped out on. Installed the mm uca's and swapped the bearings using their tool. Can't say I noticed the nvh getting better, but can't complain about the parts. Especially the bearing tool, that thing worked awesomely. I do need to work on my rear suspension though. I recently redid the entire front when the engine was out, back needs some love. Going to go with koni adjustable and coil overs.
 
#22 ·
I had some steeda adjustable uca's that the threads got ripped out on. Installed the mm uca's and swapped the bearings using their tool. Can't say I noticed the nvh getting better, but can't complain about the parts. Especially the bearing tool, that thing worked awesomely. I do need to work on my rear suspension though. I recently redid the entire front when the engine was out, back needs some love. Going to go with koni adjustable and coil overs.
Giggity
 
#23 ·
I've never bought into the hyp of spending a ton of money on a drag oriented suspension as the gains are minimal especially on a street car. IMO the tire has more to do with traction than anything else. 1.63 (auto) and 1.67 (stick) out of both of my full weight cars with stock style suspension and lowering springs. The ride on the street is great and moves out at the track. For durability if you're doing a ton of drag racing then the solid stuff will handle more abuse than a rubber bushing and you may or may not run a better 60'.
 
#25 ·
Well, I did buy into it. I thought I needed solid, adjustable control arms to properly adjust the pinion angle. After the pinion angle was set for drag racing I ran through pinion seals like nothing. I had three replaced for leaking since installing the solid UCAs. Now that I have stock back I hope I can keep the pinion seals from leaking.
 
#26 ·
If not then the pinion angle might not be your issue, which I'm thinking it might not be.
 
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