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LOWERING SPRINGS
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As most people know, stock mustangs sit up like a 4 wheel drive...LOL! Well this not only affects the looks of the car, but how it handles as well.

The best fix for both is to replace the stock springs with a high quality aftermarket lowering spring. I chose Eibach. They are a good reputable company with a great product. They have 2 choices. The Prokit with a 1.25 to 1.5inch drop and the Sportline kit with a 1.75 to 2 inch drop. The Prokit would allow the car to retain its stock strut plates, but the sportline kit requires a swap to an aftermarket caster camber plate. On a Mustang, when you drop it over 1.5 the alignment is not fully adjustable w/o this kit. The kit allows for more adjustment then factory.

So the final decision was to go for the best handling and looking choice. The Sportlines and Steeda's caster camber plates.

Before ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After

Before ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After

Before ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After

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INSTALLATION
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Now came the crazy part.... installing it ouselves...

Ok alot of this is fuzzy. I did the install months ago and did not take alot of pics. I will put down what I remember though and correct it later...

I have seen springs swapped on an f-body twice and assisted, but this was my first solo atttempt. Sadly, I knew nothing of installing a camber caster kit, nor did the kit come with directions. This was interesting, but I got the whole thing done, front and rear, on a Saturday and still got it to the alignmnent shop by 5pm.

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Installation of the Front
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And yes we were doing both the spings and camber caster plates at once. When you do any major spring change you need to get an alignment done anyway, so why pay to do it twice. Plus we had just swapped to the new wheels and tires as well. So we did it all at the same time.

First we jacked up the car, using jack stands placed on the frame rails for stablity. I recommend using a heavy duty jack, not one of those autozone specials.... Now after you install the lowering springs and are taking the car off the jack stands, it will be lower then before and your big jack might get hung. I recomend having a spare small autozone special to jack up at another point if needed to free the larger jack.

***Now the best thing to do is do one side at a time so you can always reference how to put it back together with the untouched side!***

Then we had to make a choice as to where to break the suspension loose to lower the A-Arm enough to replace the spring. After some careful thought it was decided that taking the strut completely loose and removing the strut plate and dropping the whole thing down would give just enough clearance to get out the old spring. It's actually the cheaters way to do it! Thus killing two birds with one stone.

Wheel off...

Then a jack is placed under the a-arm to control its descent when the time comes. Its best to slightly jack up the a-arm to be sure to slightly load the suspension to be sure nothing moves. Plus it helps stabilize the car further while you are working on it.

There are a few items that need to be taken loose to lower the a-arm:

The Front sway bar end links must be detached

***Not many pics from here on, got too into the project...

Once the bolt is off, the rubber Cushion can be taken off and the end link can be freed from the sway bar.
(no pics)
You also have to detach the steering arm from the a-arm. It requires removing the pin and then taking out the pin and removing the castle nut. I want to be sure there is not way I bend anything important.
(no pics)
The brake line can stay attached, but you must pull off the caliper so you don't snatch the line off when you lower the a-arm. The caliper is a 2 piece version. The top half, which holds the pads, actually comes off with 2 bolts accessed from the back side. You have to use a box end wrench to hold the Caliper bolt nut in place as you loosen the bolt. You can tuck the caliper to the back behind the strut. There is a bit of a ledge there. Be sure to unclip the ABS wiring behind the caliper so it does not snag as you lower the strut.
(no pic)
Its seems like alot, but it was really not bad.

Ok now on to the engine bay to remove the old strut plates...

How to do it without air tools...

Ford made it easier then GM. The strut has a nice groove made into the top bolt. The nut leaves this exposed. Use a box end wrench or an adjustable on the nut and a Super long screw drive in the slot. Hold on to the screw drive and turn the nut or vice a versa. Believe it or not it works. Its tedious, but it gets the job done.

You also need to remove the old strut plate at this point to free the strut. There are 2 nuts and one bolt holding the strut tower plate together. The top and bottom plate simply sandwich the car's strut tower. The strut goes thru these two plates. These are 2 bolts come thru the factory strut tower from below and teh bolt runs down from the top to the bottom portion of the plate.

Once the 2 plates are separated from another the strut is clear to be lowered. Now with everything loose, you can lower the A-arm and guide the strut down and out of the wheel well. Lower the jack under the a-arm slowly to be sure nothing snags or catches. The bottom strut plate comes down with the strut. There are dust shields and the like on the strut. Play close attention to how they come off to get them all back on right. You may have to press down on the end of the strut to get the shaft to depress enough to clear the strut tower.

Once you have eveything loose and stable at the arms lowest point, you can work on the spring.

The spring is loaded with alot of energy being depressed like that. If you are not careful, it will shoot out and hurt you or the car. But with the A-arm all the way down most of the pressure is released and the spring can actually be pryed out.

***NOTE***
Some people like Spring compressors, but I have found them to be cumbersome and even more dangerous. I heard a story where a set slipped and nearly cut off a guy's fingers. After you get the spring in, then how do you get them back off???

So for me it was the pry method! Now pay attention to the orientaion of the spring. You want to install the new spring the same way. There are recesses in the body and a-arm for the ends of the spring coil to seat. I got the spring out easily with a crow bar. I just pryed a bit down at the bottom and it popped out. There was so little tension it did not even shoot out.

Check the difference between the stock and new spring.

(rear)

Now be sure to take the rubber spring isolator off the stock spring and put it on the new spring.

Now to put in the new spring, simply reverse the process! LOL.

Since I was working with Sportlines, the spring was simple to install as it was so much shorter then stock. Again I checked the orientation to be sure I had the spring in the right way and turned so the ends of the coils lines up with the spring pockets.

Then start to jack up the a-arm. Guide the strut up thru the strut tower and hole. You might have to compress the shaft of the strut again. Watch your lines so they don't snag. We reused the factory strut dust cover. Once it was even with the hole in the strut tower, we put on the new camber caster plates.

There was an "L" shaped plate you installed from below. It had bolts welded to it. These bolts installed thru the factory holes. Then the top plate was installed from above. New nuts were used to mount the top and bottom plates together. Once all was loosely tightened, the strut can be raised further so as to attach the factory strut nut.

It is tighten in the opposite fashion from its removal. Again with the wrench & long handled screw driver. To make the conversion I had to leave off the rubber piece. Once it was lined up, I tightened the 3 nuts on the plate down tight and finished raising the A-arm.

Don't forget to guide the sway bar end link and steering arm to their holes as you raise the a-arm. Once they are in their holes you can reattach bolts. Reattach the Caliper and snap the lines in their hangers.

Then back to the strut bolt. Raise the a-arm until the car tries to lift and you know you have the suspension loaded. Then tigthen the strut bolt to the factory foot lbs. Once it was done I finished, the final tightening on all the lower nuts. Don't forget to replace the pin on top of the castle nut.

Now you can start all over again on the other side...

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Installation of the rear
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Once the front is done, wheels reinstalled, and the car's front end safely lowered to the ground, you can start the rear.

You need to place a jack under the Chunk or Differental of the rear axle. Jack up the rear and place jack stands again under the frame of the car in the rear. Allow the car to gently seat on the stands.

Off with the rear wheels....

Now with the car stable you can raise the rearend again. You only need to just enough to allow the rear shocks to relax so you can loosen and remove their connection to the rear end. You must do the same to the factory "quad shock". Both are simple Bolts that slide thru with nuts. Best method is using 2 box end wrenches or socket wrenches.

Once all the shocks are free from the rear end (2 per side), you can slowly lower the rearend. Once fully lowered the axle hangs low enough to remove tension from the rear springs. Now notice the orientation of the spring on the car. You must match this with the new spring. You can use a pry bar to pop the lower portion of the spring free from the spring seat. Remember to again transfer the rubber isolator to the new spring (Sometimes they stick up in the spring hole of the body.)

To keep them in place on the new spring, use some electrical tape to hold it in place. Again they are smaller then stock so they should go in place with ease. Check the new spring's orientation. Swap the spring on the other side.

Now again place the jack under the differential and raise it up slowly. You want to raise it till the shocks all line up with their mounting points. You may have to raise and lower the jack to get it just so they slip in with ease. Now tighten them all up and raise the car till its free of the jack stands. Now you can lower the car and pray the jack comes out.... LOL....

Stand back and admire your work...

Now hurry to the Alignment shop before they close!

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DIRECTORY FOR TINKERBELL_TOO SITE
01 Intro
02 Exhaust Mods
03 Rims
04 Lowering Springs <<<
05 Exterior: Graphics
06 Exterior: Grilles
07 Exterior: Honeycomb Tailpanel & Rear Valance Insert
08 Exterior: Emblems & Stainless Bumper Letter Inserts
09 Exterior: Brakes
10 Exterior: Projection Headlights
11 Exterior: Accident
12 Exterior: Paint & Roush Nose 
13 Exterior: Tail Light Tint 
14 Interior: Billet Accents
15 Interior: Gauge Insert
16 Interior: Paint
17 Interior: Trunk Mat
18 Interior: Door Panel Inserts
19 Interior: Shift, E-Brake boots, and Console Cover
20 Interior: Miscellaneous 
21 Interior: Stereo 
22 Engine: Stainless Radiator Cover 
23 Engine: JLT True Cold Air Intake 
24 Engine: Bright Work 
25 Engine: Hood Struts 
++ Seriously cool pics of my Stang
++ Show Results Page
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