Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Topic: Lowering 88 T Bird with my son (Read 5621 times) previous topic - next topic

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #15 – December 23, 2013, 09:14:08 AM

Quote from: 50tbrd88;425873

^ looks tough.

It's the blacked out police steelies.
I had to use 1" spacers to get those wheels even CLOSE to right. I think this year I'll see about having .250 removed from the fronts so I can run the same tires as the rear without hitting the fender.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #16 – December 23, 2013, 09:59:33 AM

Quote from: TheFoeYouKnow;426113

Actually, no. SN-95 springs are the go to choice on our cars, because they're dimensionally identical to ours. SN-95 front lower arms were carried over from OUR cars, which means you can transfer over the isolators you already have. Front and rear. You should never run Fox Mustang springs if you can run SN-95 springs. The Fox Mustang springs won't ride well and are usually overly harsh even at similar rates. I'm not an engineer, so I can't tell you exactly why, I think it has to do with our longer control arms placing the lower end of the spring out further. I was told it was a geometry problem. You can probably run Fox springs in the rear, but everyone (myself included) seems to run SN-95 springs in the rear, too.

Just to be clear, you CAN use fox Mustang spring isolators. You can also run Fox Mustang front springs. I am running some now with no issues...its the rear that gives problems. That being said SN95 springs are a better choice overall.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #17 – December 23, 2013, 10:46:26 AM

Like i said, i heard second-hand. I didn't even bother with Fox springs. The SN-95 are typically less expensive anyway. I went with them in the first place because when I dripped my K, I found both my fronts were (like most others') broken at the bottom. The stock SN-95s were less expensive than even direct stock replacements for 88 TBird. 2 birds with 1 stone (no pun intended).

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #18 – December 23, 2013, 10:40:04 PM

I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here and say that ordering a set of the Maximum Motorsports CC plates would be a smart thing to do if you are going to drop the car more than an inch. I know that most do not need them but what would suck is to have one of those cars that needed and and they did not have them to put on. Running a car around with a bunk alignment will tear up a set of tires in no time. I have no real experience lowering a Bird or Cougar with conventional coil springs. I did drop my 93 Coupe with some H&R Sport springs which was a 1-1/2" drop and ended up having to put the CC plates on it as we could not get the caster or camber to come into spec. It was not off a ton but I had to drive it to work and back so I ordered the CC plates that Monday and installed them on the car Friday night after work and had it back down to the alignment shop on Saturday morning. Had to cough up $$$ for the second alignment which pissed me off but time is money and I was the dumb ass who passed on the CC plates when I ordered the springs.

Darren

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #19 – December 23, 2013, 10:50:13 PM

I think CC plates would be a good idea. I've got -1.8 camber (although my caster is dead nuts on) and thats the best I can do without plates. Also, although I haven't had a problem with bump steer, my tie rods enjoy a rather large upward angle from the rack, and I know I'm asking for trouble.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #20 – December 24, 2013, 09:04:45 AM

I would say that if you have a bump steer problem (which I would bet you do) that it is small and you just compensate for it without really knowing. I have bump steer kits on both my cars and the base line is for the control arms and tie rods to be at the same angle which on my cars is almost parallel to the ground for some reason. Just weird with them being to different cars and all. I have never gone through the steps to accurately set the bump steer as I do not own a gauge and plates but one of these days I will make it down to Dallas and borrow my buddies stuff to do it. Again, both my cars are full coil over cars so its a bit different than what is going on with the OP's car.

I will say that I had Maximum's tapered bump steer kit on my car with the H&R Sport springs and it helped quite a bit and was super easy to install. Since both of my cars now have the SN95 spindles I use MM's through bolt kits which require drilling out the spindle where the tie rod bolts up to get the larger diameter grade 8 bolt through it.

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/MM-Bumpsteer-Kits-C348.aspx

Darren

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #21 – December 24, 2013, 12:44:20 PM

Anyone with an 87 or 88 car following that link should know that you're looking for the "79-93 w/SN-95 control arms" kit. If you've got 86 or older, just the plain 79-93 kit.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #22 – December 24, 2013, 01:37:43 PM

Foe, I really like the stance on your 'Bird. I've got '97 GT springs under mine and while it dropped it a bit, not as much as yours however, and I feel I can do alright with more. Will probably be looking for some new(er) coils when the warm weather comes back..

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #23 – December 24, 2013, 07:01:22 PM

Here's a closer look. Close enough even that you can see the door I need and the bad bondo I inherited.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #24 – December 24, 2013, 07:12:16 PM

That looks good I just put mine in the weeds and love it

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #25 – December 24, 2013, 07:30:12 PM

Looks pretty sinister, and it's not a look that you see everyday, much less on a rather uncommon Fox.

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #26 – December 25, 2013, 10:48:43 AM

Has anyone had a problem with rubbing? I wouldn't imagine so..

Lowering 88 T Bird with my son

Reply #27 – December 25, 2013, 02:30:12 PM

I had rubbing at the top of the wheel arch in the front with the 245/45ZR17s when I would corner, but my backspacing situation is a bit messed up right now. I switched the fronts to some 225/40R17s I had in the garage and they don't rub on compression. That's only because I have too much spacer in the front between the wheels and the Ranger rotors. The Police wheels have somewhere like 7 1/2" backspacing, with 1" spacers, it's 6 1/2" and the SN-95 wheels that fit so nice for everyone are 6 1/8" So I need to lose a bit more backspacing. 6 1/4" would be perfect, I think.