SLA Front Suspension

[racebronco2]

If you have a chance, post up some pics. If there is a way to get these bennies w/o a complete conversion that would be very interesting.

Carlos,

It's true, 5% is more meaningful than I was thinking but with A47 at $5k, just can't go there. You're fortunate you got yours when the price was lower!! :rockon:

I just started a "I need an SLA setup" piggybank

buying the kit in pieces would definitely help, 4k is a big junk of money :uh oh:

Pictures and paret numbers would be great.

When i purchased mine most of the money came from someone hitting my daily driver ( with about 200,000 mile on it) and i used the money on the sla ..... got to put priorities in order. The rest of the money came from selling off the mm front suspension.

With the griggs you can buy peices ( most of the pieces interchange with the stock front end) but the a47 you must buy the whole kit and uses different mounting points.

 

[svtguy]

Here an early pic of the my SLA conversion.


Edit: will update when completed

 

[racebronco2]

Could we see the shock upper atachment point. Looks great by the way. It's hard to see but how is the strut mounted to the spindle still or is that a shock. If we could see on the back of the splidle that would help.

Just for reference i am running 450's in front and 700's in the rear with a steeda tubular swaybar in front and the eibach swaybar in the rear, it might help you out sorting the balance of the car.

 

[svtguy]

Could we see the shock upper atachment point. Looks great by the way. It's hard to see but how is the strut mounted to the spindle still or is that a shock. If we could see on the back of the splidle that would help.

Just for reference i am running 450's in front and 700's in the rear with a steeda tubular swaybar in front and the eibach swaybar in the rear, it might help you out sorting the balance of the car.

I'm reusing the coil over strut so the upper attaching point is the MM caster/camber plate.

I originally reused my 475lb springs and the front was way to soft. The lower strut attaching point is now on the A arm just inboard of the ball joint instead of on top of the spindle. I've bumped up the spring rate quite a bit to get back to my original wheel rate.

 

[svtguy]

Here is a pic.

Edit: will update when completed

 

[Wildman113]

Very cool setups.

I never understood why the 94+ or 99+ Mustangs never got SLA front suspension from the factory. The stock Modified MacPherson Strut setup leaves a lot to be desired, there is a reason the Mustang was the only car left using this setup when the platform was discontinued in '04. GM got rid of the MM in the 3rd gen F-body platform and went to coilover/SLA in the 4th gen, which is a huge improvement.

 

[mu22stang]

Very cool setups.

I never understood why the 94+ or 99+ Mustangs never got SLA front suspension from the factory. The stock Modified MacPherson Strut setup leaves a lot to be desired, there is a reason the Mustang was the only car left using this setup when the platform was discontinued in '04. GM got rid of the MM in the 3rd gen F-body platform and went to coilover/SLA in the 4th gen, which is a huge improvement.

$

Ford knows that the performance of the top of the line Mustang plays second fiddle to V6 sales. If they have to stretch a chassis for almost three decades to add to bottom line, so be it. If they can use suspension design and components from the V6 in a Cobra, so be it. The less money in R&D, the more in their pockets. At the end of the day, Ford hasn't stopped selling the Mustang since it began.

 

[gmsux]

Nice work on the sway bar endlink, simple design and will provide free movement. The SLA looks very good, how is the upper control arm bolted to the kmember or frame? Was some fabrication needed there?

The strut looks to be connected with a heim joint to the MM LCA which I was thinking was necessary but seeing how you did it makes sense. The wheel rate would be reduced from moving it inboard to clear the BJ adapter. Thanks for sharing!

 

[svtguy]

Nice work on the sway bar endlink, simple design and will provide free movement. The SLA looks very good, how is the upper control arm bolted to the kmember or frame? Was some fabrication needed there?

I made a bracket out of 1/4 angle iron that sandwiches inbetween the frame and K-member and then the control arm bolts to it.

Edit: will update when completed

 

[svtguy]

The strut looks to be connected with a heim joint to the MM LCA which I was thinking was necessary but seeing how you did it makes sense. The wheel rate would be reduced from moving it inboard to clear the BJ adapter. Thanks for sharing!

I removed the gusset from the MM control arm and replaced it with piece of 1/2 plate. Then I welded in a grade 8 5/8 x 18 nut into it for a 5/8 heim joint to screw into. Here is a bottom side pic.

The wheel rate greatly reduced by moving the strut attaching point from the top of the spindle to the lower control arm. I've upped the spring rate to compensate.

Edit: will update when completed

 

[svtguy]

Nice work on the sway bar endlink, simple design and will provide free movement. The SLA looks very good, how is the upper control arm bolted to the kmember or frame? Was some fabrication needed there?

I plan on building another set of upper control arm attaching brackets that have multiple vertical attaching points for the upper control arm. By moving the upper control arm higher or lower on the bracket, you can change the amount of camber gain/loss during suspension travel.

I'm still in the tuning stage of this project. My local track, Mid Amercia Motorplex, has been closed since june due to being flooded by the missouri river so the R+D time has been slower than I had hoped.

 

[racebronco2]

Great work, keep us posted.

 

[MGC]

thank you guys for sharing, VERY informative thread!

 

[KILRSVT]

svtguy that look really good.....keep us posted it would be cool if something like this was for sale at an affordable price...would really help cutting my times at infineon as well as when I go autocrossin

 

[svtguy]

svtguy that look really good.....keep us posted it would be cool if something like this was for sale at an affordable price...would really help cutting my times at infineon as well as when I go autocrossin

I've got a couple of track days remaining for the year to do a little more R+D.

Thanks guys for all the complements.


Paul.

 

[04svtsnke]

Could you possibly ADD pictures back? Sla may be in my future and I'd like to see some of your results.

 

[svtguy]

Could you possibly ADD pictures back? Sla may be in my future and I'd like to see some of your results.

I'll have to take some pics of my current setup. I'll post them later this weekend.

Paul.

 

[svtguy]

Here is my latest.

I made my own upper ball joint adapter that allows clearance for the 4 piston brembo caliper and the 2 piston PBR caliper without any bleeder screw clearance issues or having to add a stud to the upper mounting hole in the caliper.

Also made a multi position upper control arm attaching bracket that allows for different amounts of camber gain by lowering or raising where the control arm is bolted to.

Compared to a coilover strut car, I've gained more wheel to spring clearance. An 11 to 12 inch wide wheel should be no problem now.

I've got a couple of track days coming up to do some more testing.

If all goes well, I should be able to make some fixtures to duplicate these parts.

Paul.

Removed pics. Will updated when completed.

 

[04svtsnke]

Simply amazing. Some day soon I'd like to do this. Thank you for adding pics

 

[Almighty-One]

that is so cool. I'd love to run that setup on day