Sunday, October 17, 2010

Not according to Plan Series 2

Yesterday Chris2006GT dropped by Grand Touring Concepts for a Steeda control arm install on his 2011 5.0L. The aim was to mitigate some of the inherent axle hop found with the factory arrangement.



Ford has made some notable changes since the the 2005-2009 (possibly 2010) 3 link.
  1. The lower arms are now a closed I-beam design made of stamped steel, opposed to the open C-channel and gusseted C-channel as found on the old GT and GT500 respectively.
     
  2. The new lower arms are much stronger torsionally, but still have a compliance bushing on the body mount.
     
  3. The upper arm has a very revised bracket which uses a huge 24mm main bolt which required nothing less than a Snap-on 650 ft-lb Impact to break torque.
     
  4. The gas tank "skid plate" no longer inhibits removal of the upper arm and mount as an assembly, therefore you can do easy bench servicing on the upper arm and mount.
     
  5. Most importantly the upper arm to upper arm bracket bolt has been significantly up-sized leading to my final point;


An upper control Arm designed for a 2005-2009 Mustang will not work on a 2011 5.0L Mustang GT (and possibly other models) so make sure you get the proper unit. The lowers fit fine and work without issue.

Just another fine day of removing an OEM part to put it right back in LOL.