Got my FTBR IRS kit before all my other stuff showed up. I believe I'm the first paying customer for the new FT1291 torque brace. I am waiting on the other parts before I get busy with installation. Thanks James and Bruce.
Look What Arrived Today
- Thread starter 52merc
- Start date
To be honest I hate installing the bushings. But the difference they make is so worth it in my opinion.
I'm retired so I will be taking my time. This is a hobby for me. It will also be a learning experience.
Nice! What other parts are you waiting on what is your goal with the mods?
I've had Eibach Pro Kit springs and MM C/C plates installed for some time now. I have parts coming in to:
Front - Bilstein B6 struts; Energy Suspension swaybar bushings and shorter endlinks; Global West LCA bushings; Steeda X2 ball joints; MM rack bushings; MM bumpsteer kit; Prothane spring isolators.
Rear - FTBR FT1500 IRS bushing kit; FTBR FT1291 torque brace; Bilstein B6 shocks; Prothane spring isolators.
As cash allows, later I plan on adding the FTBR adjustable endlinks. The car is just a toy. No racing.
Front - Bilstein B6 struts; Energy Suspension swaybar bushings and shorter endlinks; Global West LCA bushings; Steeda X2 ball joints; MM rack bushings; MM bumpsteer kit; Prothane spring isolators.
Rear - FTBR FT1500 IRS bushing kit; FTBR FT1291 torque brace; Bilstein B6 shocks; Prothane spring isolators.
As cash allows, later I plan on adding the FTBR adjustable endlinks. The car is just a toy. No racing.
Hell yes man, best mod I ever did was install an IRS with FTBR stuff. Car handles like its on rails. I did not have to do the subframe bushings as they were already done with poly but everything else in the IRS is FTBR including the cross axis links. I don't see the cross axis links in there and they are almost always bad on these cars at this age so you want to check those too.
If you have any questions, LMK. The uppers came out pretty easy, the lowers actually were even easier and I am probably the only person in the world who had that experience, they literally popped out with hardly any effort. No idea. I froze all my bushings before installing them and it was a pain but not terrible, make sure to hit all the inner bores of the control arms with a wire wheel to get the ridge off and clean out anything to make the installation easier. Drilling the zerk fittings is easy with the included bit but MAKE SURE you completely immobilize the upper arms and use a drill press when you do it, drill press is recommended for the lowers too really. The uppers have very little material and you need to make damn sure you are dead center. 100% use cutting oil for the drilling and tapping. For tapping, don't tap all the way through for the angled zerk fittings, only enough to stop the fitting at the angle you want. FTBR has the angles that work well on their site and they are correct, you can get to everything with the IRS in the car.
Can't think of anything else except how much it sucked to get the front subframe bolts lined up when re-installing the thing. Oh, make sure you have a torque wrench that can do 250ft lbs. For the halfshaft retaining nuts and also you need to go to 184 on the lowers, this is really important to make sure you torque it correctly. A wrench that works really well to hold the bolts in place while you are torqueing the lowers is a 24mm box wrench which I did not have so order one from Amazon for like $8 if you don't have one. All torque values are on the FTBR site.
Can't think of anything else...
If you have any questions, LMK. The uppers came out pretty easy, the lowers actually were even easier and I am probably the only person in the world who had that experience, they literally popped out with hardly any effort. No idea. I froze all my bushings before installing them and it was a pain but not terrible, make sure to hit all the inner bores of the control arms with a wire wheel to get the ridge off and clean out anything to make the installation easier. Drilling the zerk fittings is easy with the included bit but MAKE SURE you completely immobilize the upper arms and use a drill press when you do it, drill press is recommended for the lowers too really. The uppers have very little material and you need to make damn sure you are dead center. 100% use cutting oil for the drilling and tapping. For tapping, don't tap all the way through for the angled zerk fittings, only enough to stop the fitting at the angle you want. FTBR has the angles that work well on their site and they are correct, you can get to everything with the IRS in the car.
Can't think of anything else except how much it sucked to get the front subframe bolts lined up when re-installing the thing. Oh, make sure you have a torque wrench that can do 250ft lbs. For the halfshaft retaining nuts and also you need to go to 184 on the lowers, this is really important to make sure you torque it correctly. A wrench that works really well to hold the bolts in place while you are torqueing the lowers is a 24mm box wrench which I did not have so order one from Amazon for like $8 if you don't have one. All torque values are on the FTBR site.
Can't think of anything else...
This. Not the most fun install, but totally worth it.
I just installed the full FTBR bushing set this winter on my 01. Getting the bushings out was not too bad. I think the lowers were the worst. I did get the tools from them, and would highly recommend them. I used the torch method on the subframe bushings.
I also did the cross axis joints as well. Mine were toast. Used their tools for this as well and make it a breeze.
I used an 03-04 front diff support to replace the stock one.
If you have not done so yet, watch all their videos on Youtube. they are very helpful as well. While I had mine apart I had everything powdercoated as well and installed 03-04 rear axles and new hub bearings..
Completed the rear suspension with Maximum Motorsports Toe links, Coil overs with Koni SA and poly sway bar bushings.
I also did the cross axis joints as well. Mine were toast. Used their tools for this as well and make it a breeze.
I used an 03-04 front diff support to replace the stock one.
If you have not done so yet, watch all their videos on Youtube. they are very helpful as well. While I had mine apart I had everything powdercoated as well and installed 03-04 rear axles and new hub bearings..
Completed the rear suspension with Maximum Motorsports Toe links, Coil overs with Koni SA and poly sway bar bushings.
Thanks for all the tips. I watched all the videos some time ago long before I actually considered buying the kit and I will probably wathch them again. I should have all the tools needed to perform the install including a 300 ftlb impact wrench, drill press, and hydraulic arbor press. I want to get the IRS kit and all the other stuff I have on order installed, perform an alignment (in the garage with a caster/camber alignment tool, toe plates, and string) and then check bumpsteer tp see how it compares to the "before" bumpsteer..
Curious as to the stuff you bought to DIY your alignment. I'd rather do it myself here in Spain rather than trust some Spanish dude who's never worked on one of these cars before...
The chamber/caster gauge is a Tanner. I have (actually it is my son's) the magnetic mount. He originally bought it some years ago it to do the alignment on his Fox Body coupe after we did a rotisserie restoration on the body and then set it up for road racing. I need to figure out how to get this to work with with the aluminum wheels.
Caster / Camber Gauge
The toe plate are from Allstar Performance. They are available from Summit or Jegs. There are many suppliers of these (even Tanner).
These tools are used in conjunction with some string that you tie to jackstands and position parallel to the car on each side. Then its just a matter of careful measurements.
The other thing that is needed is some slip plates. You can buy these or make your own "poor boy" version. This allows the wheels to move around while they have the chassis weight on them. The trick I learned from a Factory Five builder's forum was to buy some cheap shiny floor tiles. Put one tile shiny side up on the floor, grease it up, place a second one face down on the first tile. Its that easy. You can't easily do the caster/chamber without them. Only thing is you have to push the car to get or jack it up to get it on the plates. You can't drive the car if you are doing all 4 wheels as it will just "spit" them out when you try to drive on them.
I'm not suggesting that this is better than an alignment by a professional with a laser rack, but it should get it close enough to drive the car. Like almost everything, it takes some practice to get the technique down pat.
Alignment is not a mystery. I would suspect any good European alignment shop could do a good job as long as you have added the parts to allow for the adjustments. Any shop that does race car alignment should be able to check and set bumpsteer, again, if you have added the parts for this. After all, there are many European cars with IRS that require a 4-wheel alignment.
Hope this helps you out a bit.
Caster / Camber Gauge
The toe plate are from Allstar Performance. They are available from Summit or Jegs. There are many suppliers of these (even Tanner).
These tools are used in conjunction with some string that you tie to jackstands and position parallel to the car on each side. Then its just a matter of careful measurements.
The other thing that is needed is some slip plates. You can buy these or make your own "poor boy" version. This allows the wheels to move around while they have the chassis weight on them. The trick I learned from a Factory Five builder's forum was to buy some cheap shiny floor tiles. Put one tile shiny side up on the floor, grease it up, place a second one face down on the first tile. Its that easy. You can't easily do the caster/chamber without them. Only thing is you have to push the car to get or jack it up to get it on the plates. You can't drive the car if you are doing all 4 wheels as it will just "spit" them out when you try to drive on them.
I'm not suggesting that this is better than an alignment by a professional with a laser rack, but it should get it close enough to drive the car. Like almost everything, it takes some practice to get the technique down pat.
Alignment is not a mystery. I would suspect any good European alignment shop could do a good job as long as you have added the parts to allow for the adjustments. Any shop that does race car alignment should be able to check and set bumpsteer, again, if you have added the parts for this. After all, there are many European cars with IRS that require a 4-wheel alignment.
Hope this helps you out a bit.
I've wondered if you can do the string method with an IRS car. I know it works with the SRA cars because the rear tires have 0 toe. But the IRS cars usually have some toe in on the rear tires. Wouldn't that mess up the string measurement?
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I'm going to do all the measurements and adjustments with 0 toe from and rear. The last thing I will do is set toe-in. I think that should work. Again, its just to get it close enough. I need new tires pretty quick and I'll get a real alignment then. I will, however, be very interested to see how close I can make it.
Started working on removing the IRS for the bushing install. I know I have some sort of grease leak on the PS which is either the half-shaft boot or the wheel bearing. As it was, I pulled the DS knuckle off first and found this grease between the wheel bearing and the half-shaft.
Is this normal or does this indicate a leaking seal on the wheel bearing? The car only has 81,000 km [50,330 mi] but these are the original bearings.
Is this normal or does this indicate a leaking seal on the wheel bearing? The car only has 81,000 km [50,330 mi] but these are the original bearings.
I'd suspect that is from the half shaft. Doubt there is that much grease in the wheel bearing to begin with and it would likely be toast if all of it came out like that.
When you do it can you document it? I've been interested in doing my own alignments after my last couple of experiences.
I've got the DS half-shaft out and it looks pretty dry. I'll try to get a picture and post it. To busy right now watching Bubba Wallace test the "Safer Barrier" at Pocono.
Yes, I'll try to document the alignment process.
Yes, I'll try to document the alignment process.
^^me too. That was a hard hit!
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