Well I plan on lowering my cougar about an inch would I be wrong to assume that these upr brackets will allow me to run sn95 or fox shocks?
http://m.uprproducts.com/mustang-adj-rear-shock-mount-79.html
If you drill a hole you can flip the stock brackets for about an inch taller shock to use fox shocks.
If you are dropping the car anyways, I don't see why you would need to modify them.
If you drill a hole and flip the stock brackets, you gain 2" of the 3" difference between the TBird and Mustang shocks.
awesome thanks guys
By "drilling a hole" I mean enlarging the smaller upper tab hole to 1/2" and installing the bracket there, upside down.
Been there and done that on the stock shock brackets. Have a set of Chuck's adapters on there for years now and they are the way to go buuuuut Chuck no makey any more.
Thanks for clarifying Chuck I was a little confused about what to do
....sooooo, if the car is already lowered an inch, the stang shocks should be dead on in the sweet spot?
....BUMP.
So my car is in the weeds and the flipped stock brackets were not as good as Chucks brackets. These guys make brackets similar to Chucks and cheaper than the ones you have linked above.
https://tbirdcougarparts.com/
You will need to get them powder coated or painted.
Those brackets are made from the drawings I released.
The gain with the brackets is more axle droop. It isn't enough for it just to fit at ride height. The axle needs to be able to drop to allow the tires to maintain contact as the axle articulates over irregular road surfaces, or during turns, etc.
Am I correct in assuming this to be true? Would I be in the sweet spot then?
I don't know about "sweet spot", but it should work OK.
Shocks and struts for the '87-'88 Fox Thunderbird TC (same brakes as the '93 Cobra thus shock & strut mounting is the same) is now very limited in manufacturing brands and KYB seems to be the better performance (I use that word lightly here) of the two. So I went out to O'Reilly Auto Parts and pulled this data and in the past I have found their data to be pretty reliable:
Data on the 1988 TC Dampers:
Struts
Excel-G Strut (P/N 235008):
Compressed Length is 13.5625"
Extended Length is 20.5625"
Shocks
Excel Gas-A-Just Shock (P/N KG5556):
Compressed Length is 14.000"
Extended Length is 23.250"
Data on the 1993 Mustang Cobra Dampers:
Struts
Excel-G Strut (P/N 235009):
Compressed Length is 13.1875"
Extended Length is 19.250"
Shocks
Excel Gas-A-Just Shock (P/N KG5551):
Compressed Length is 12.625"
Extended Length is 20.6875"
From the data above the dimensional differences are as follows:
Struts
Extended Height - 20.5625" (TC) vs. 19.250" (Cobra) for a difference of 1.3125"
Compressed Height - 13.5625" (TC) vs. 13.1875" (Cobra) for a difference of 0.375"
Travel - 7" (TC) vs. 6.0625" (Cobra) for a difference of 0.9375"
Shocks
Extended Height - 23.250 (TC) vs. 20.6875" (Cobra) for a difference of 2.5625"
Compressed Height - 14.000" (TC) vs. 12.625" (Cobra) for a difference of 1.375"
Travel - 9.25" (TC) vs. 8.0625" (Cobra) for a difference of 1.1875"
So they make the KYB AGX struts and shocks as well as the KYB Excel-G shock for the Mustang but I wanted a direct comparison from the Bird to the Mustang so I did not list those lengths. They are a little different but they are expecting a lowered car i.e. performance based.
You can see that the TC shock is 2.5625" longer when extended and 1.375" longer when compressed and has 1.1875" more travel than the Cobra shock. This of course is just the one brand and model of damper and the aftermarket manufacturers will vary from OEM in lengths. This is due to if they already have a shock that is within 0.25" one way or another they are going to use it and just revalve or at least that is what I have been told.
No real conclusion on my end as to how far up you have to move the Mustang shock to get into the "sweet spot" but I do not profess to be a suspension guru and will leave that to Chuck. Maybe he can explain how he came up with the 3" as I am curious.
My rear was lowered a bit and I flipped the stock brackets with Fox shocks and they still maxed out in some driving. I put in Chuck's adapters and have been fine since, and happy.
Thank you Chuck.