Hi Has anybody ever done annn control arm relocationn, or does anyone know if the Shelby relocation on Mustangs will workkk on Mavericks?
Yeah we did it on our Mav. last year. Drilling the relocated holes is one problem. Another problem is that the control arm is wider than the shock tower when moved 1 inch lower. The control arm also hits some bracing that is underneath it. It's nothing that we didn't fix but it is not a straight forward bolt in mod. Don't know if handleing improved yet or not. We're having other bugs to work out. Here's a pic.
It is really not that hard to do. I have done this on the 70 Mav in my garage. Use the template for a 69/70 Mustang to mark the holes. Then drill the holes in several stages starting with a very small drill bit and getting progressively larger until it is the right size. I think this is 17/32". (Don't take my word for this.) The part of the control arm that makes contact with the sides of the tower is the bushing at each end of the shaft. (At least on my 70.) I solved that problem by buying and installing the Moog problem solver shaft and bushing kit. This replaces the original screw on bushing cap (that requires greasing every few thousand miles) with a press in rubber bushing. This makes the shaft about 1" shorter overall. More if you consider the space needed for access to the grease zerks on the original. The bracing at the bottom of the shock tower on the outside of the frame rail required notching at the front and rear to allow full range of motion of the upper arm. I used a 4" cutting wheel to remove the necessary amount of material. Start to finish was about 2 hours on a bare shell of a car. This included welding up the seams where I had cut through the bracing at the bottom of the shock towers. Putting the springs back in was a little easier and made the car sit about 3/4" lower than before. I moved the mount point down 1". If you move the mount point down more than 1.5", you will need to consider the effect this will have on the steering geometry. Look into using a bump steer corrector kit as well as a wedge above the upper ball joint so you don't run into ball joint binding. If you are planning to do this and you are planning more horse power also, this is a good time to check for cracks in the shock towers, rust, previous damage, etc. If you are planning to run your car hard, you might want to fully weld all seams on the shock towers and add extra bracing at the weak points.
Jayman I hadn't thought about using the different bushings. I agree that the job overall is not that big of a hassle especially in light of all the other changes I have made to the car. But all of the searches I did about the drop indicated that all that was required was to redrill the holes and bolt it back up. That is just not completely true and I wanted to make everyone aware that a little more is involved. It is definitley doable, just not a simple bolt on job though. Good luck to all on their projects. Here's the latest pic of ours. Still having ele. and power steering problems.
Does it make a significant difference in the handling of a Maverick. I know it did when road racing '65-'66 Mustangs (keeps the tire standing straight in a tight turn), but I've never heard if benefitted or was needed on a Mav.
