RV6 wrote:

I may be wrong, but I don't think any of those kits are an improvement over the stock spring setup using a good set of shocks along with roller perches.

I agree 100%. To me these "coil over" kits are a buzz word. A true coil over offers improved motion ratio mounting the spring as close as possible to the spindle on the lower arm. This also allows for a longer shock that can hold more fluid, run cooler and have more finite control. Same goes with the spring. Longer spring, more control and comfort. I too have a regular spring and shock assembly with roller spring perches. My shocks are the custom valved Bilsteins that Street or Track sells. Very happy with my set up. Comfortable ride

lowercasesteve wrote:

Have you considered what the ride quality will be?  When I installed the TCP strut rods, I could feel every stone in the road, and the car creaked and groaned a lot to the point where I went back to stock.

With all of those solid joints,  Your car will handle a road course very well, but 2-tracking will be out of the question.

That's odd. My whole suspension is steel bearings, even the idler arm. Only if I specifically look for it do I notice anything. Otherwise it's a very compliant ride. No harshness or noise.

If you want a cheap excellent quality driveshaft you want one from a 94-01 Explorer 4 door 2WD. They are 50.5" long and typically use 1330 U joints. Mustangs many times use a 1310. You can get a 1330/1310 combination, they're pretty common. In my 66 Mustang I have a aluminum shaft out of a 94 V6 Explorer and that has 1310 joints. If you have a 9" you should measure your driveshaft. I believe they are slightly shorter and the Explorer may be too long.

The advantages of aftermarket control arms besides that 3° of caster is that they are much stronger, won't flex or crack and they do crack usually at the holes for the perches. Another is a better ball joint angle. With the stock arm, lowering it the 1" for better handling puts the ball joint right at the end of it's travel. With a worn bump stop you could possibly break the ball joint.

I would suggest looking at the Street or Track control arms. Not that Global West doesn't make a great product, they do. What I don't like is their bushings on the upper arm. They are proprietary and if or when they need to be replaced you have to ship the arm to them. The other is that they use a 9/16" stud instead of the 1/2". If for any reason you had to put a stock arm or someone else's, down the road for what ever reason, you'll have to weld up the homes, redrill them or go back to the stock location. The other issue. On my Street or Track I added a couple shims for a little more caster and fine tune camber. Even though 67-73 didn't use shims, no reason why you couldn't for extra caster.

What sold be on the Street or Track are that every part can be replaced with off the shelf parts. They use rod ends instead of bushings and they are adjustable. They come pre set to 3° but you can adjust them for more. I added extra shims for a little more caster. Excellent quality too.

MS wrote:

Ohms Law says if voltage is halved, current amperage doubles.  Wrong?

If you keep wattage the same and cut the voltage in half, you need to double the amperage and you do that by cutting resistance in half. Instead of having two resistors in series with each dropping 6 volts, 12 volts total, now you put them in parallel. Each resistor will still see 6 volts. With the 2 resistors in parallel, total resistance is 1/2 which doubles amperage. 12 volts÷10 ohms= 1.2 amps. In the above series connection each resistor has 5 ohms which adds up to 10 ohms total. Putting those two 5 ohm resistors in parallel gives 2.5 ohms. 6 volts÷2.5 ohms= 2.4 amps, 12x1.2= 14.4 watts, 6x2.4= 14.4 watts.


If you keep resistance the same and reduce voltage in 1/2, amperage is reduced by 1/2. Example. 12 volts @ 10 amps is 120 watts. 6 volts at 5 amps is 30 watts

Rufus68 wrote:

I'm going to throw in my 2 cents regarding the resistor wire and if my understanding is wrong then I'd like to know the correct information as well.

The coils that Ford used to use years ago would get too hot when operated continuously using 12 volts.  And since the engines would run just fine with the coil powered by 6 volts, the engineers decided to put in a resistor wire to drop the voltage to not overheat the coils.  However, they found that the engines started much easier when the coil was powered by 12 volts so they added the "I" terminal to the starter solenoid to temporarily power the coil with the full 12 volts while cranking the engine. 

With this in mind, one should use a resistor to drop the voltage if and when they are using an old style coil that overheats from continuous 12 volt operation.  If the coil is made to operate on 12 volts, then 12 volts should be fed to it to produce the intended spark.

I'm going to disagree with that. It's no problem designing a coil to work on full 12 volts and not over heat. There is a lot involved in designing a coil. In a nut shell running a resistor in line to the coil allows for a nice advantage. You can get the needed spark at 6 volts. If you ran a 12 volt coil, when you crank the engine there is a big inrush of current to the starter. As a result battery voltage drops significantly. If you had a 12 volt coil, while cranking the engine battery voltage may be in the 6-8 volt range. That would result in a huge drop in spark quality. But running on 6 volts on a 12 volt system with a resistor when the starter is engaged, the resistor wire is bypassed and the coil now gets what ever the battery voltage is. So if the battery voltage drops to 6-8 volts, it's basically the same voltage the coil normally sees along with a hot spark.

Running a 6 volt coil on a full 12 volts may not increase spark output and just make the coil run hot. For a given resistance, doubling voltage quadruples the

Probably better off putting torque boxes in. They'll do more in torsional rigidity then subframe connectors. I put torque boxes in and can definitely feel a difference. No squeaks or rattles

With shocks you get what you pay for. I splurged for Bilstein Sports from Street or Track. Cheap no, worth every penny, absolutely!

I've run both Edlebrock band Summit on my 66 Mustang. The Edlebrock is a 1405 600 which I bought used. The Seller highly recommend rebuilding it as it had been in his yard shed for a couple years. He took it off a Chevy truck he bought for a Holley. I ignored his advice and just bolted it on after checking the float bowls for junk. They were pretty clean. The carb ran great returning 17 mpg while beating on the car on a couple autocrossing events. Yes I did have some hard start after running. However after upgrading from points to Duraspark fixed that.

I had a 600 cfm Summit which I got a good deal on. Brand new in box never used. After sitting in a box brand new for many years I decided to try it. It's a very smooth good running carburator. It's a little apples to oranges comparing it to the Edelbrock since it was used and I never did anything to it. I haven't had time to really dial in the Summit since it was last fall before putting the car away. So comparing them with noted limitations the Summit seems a little smoother then the Edelbrock but the Edelbrock gave me the impression of running better on the upper end. The Summit seems like it falls off. Again spending time dialing in the Summit, maybe richer secondary jetting or vacuum spring may take care of that. Rebuilding the Edelbrock will probably make it drive smoother although it drove really well.

My summery as a Edelbrock fan, either or. Both are very good. It's six of one, half a dozen of another. You won't go wrong with either.

red351 wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised that CJ's isn't circling the drain. They expanded into other things that was already over populated by vendors. They keep very little inventory on hand. Five yrs. ago you waited your turn in line for showroom parts counter. The last time I was the only one there. The place looked like ghost town in side, just one sales person.
They quit coming to Carlisle's spring and fall shows plus the big one Ford National's in June 5 yrs ago. There biggest problem is their back orders that takes a month or more to get. They sometimes will say it's in their Henderson NV. store. They have no real store there, it's S. Drake.

I stopped buying from them close to 10 years ago. Too many bad experiences with them. One case I ordered something over the phone only to find out right out it was on sale for internet orders. The salesman never said anything. Now if you go to any store if a item is on sale if you order it or if it's about to go on sale, they'll tell you. So I'm a little pissed seeing it on sale and never told. I call them up, speak to one of the owners. The owner says to me " why should we tell you it's on sale, I'd loose money". Oh wow, great customer service. I ordered a set of MAC headers to pick up at there tent at Carlisle. I go to the tent, they sold my headers to someone else! Now they're on back order. After weeks of waiting they get shipped to my house. It literally looked like they went scrounging around their shop to find bits and pieces to complete the order then dumped into a big box with nothing wrapped. Holes in the box, I'm amazed nothing got lost. So I'm looking at the headers. Wrong headers. They sent me Fox body headers. I call them up. They don't want to hear anything about them being wrong. They insist I have the right headers period. So I asked them if these are correct, why do they have O2 bungs? Their response, 66 Mustangs need them because they came with O2 sensors! I'm not making this up. I cancelled the

I'm running roller bearing spring perches, for that matter everything on my suggestion is roller bearing including the idler arm. Ford originally used a bronze bushings. That is the right way. Ford switched to rubber for one reason, it cost less then a bronze bushing. Roller bearing is typically not the choice for static loads. Honestly I was very suspicious and hesitant to use roller perches. I took the plunge and bought a set after a fair amount of investing. I couldn't find people with problems. When I found a listing for roller bearings for static loads is what changed it for me. Besides I thought they'd last longer then stock rubber bushings.

Everyone says a steel bearing is going to be noisy, have a harsh ride. Funny I haven't found any of that to be true. I've found it to provide a supple, compliant ride that just seems to glide over bumps and pot holes. The only time I notice anything is if I specifically look or pay attention for it. Then it's more like a set of low profile tires. What I did see coming was how much binding there is with rubber bushings. They simply do not want to rotate freely. They store up energy and snap the suspension back. That feeling is gone with bearings. Without this binding it kills spring rate. I've actually had to increase spring rate substantially just to keep the suspension from bottoming out in normal driving

So to answer your question. Don't fear them from a comfort or life expectancy. They'll probably be the last set you buy and your car will ride much better and just as quietly