Mustang II Style Suspension System Install - Project Generation Gap

The upper arm installation is a little trickier in that the arm's adjustment for caster and camber comes in the way of threaded end bushings. These must be rotated in or out to adjust the arm's position, meaning you have to remove the control arm to change your alignment specs. Due to their angle, they must be in the proper orientation or the pivot bolt will not slide through-something that is easy to see when you're actually doing the assembly work.

The Superide II system, as well as all of Heidts' Mustang II front sus-pensions, uses a steel 2-inch drop spindle. The spindle is stronger than a typical cast iron drop spindle (Ford used steel in their spindles), and the 2-inch drop offers better handling and ride height appearance without negatively affecting ride quality like a lowering spring might.

When assembling the Heidts spindle to the control arms, ensure that the castle nut, when tightened to specs, allows for proper retention by the cotter pin pass-thru hole in the ball joint. If the castle nut is past the hole, the use of a ball joint shim might be required. A hardened washer of the proper thickness will get the castle nut properly aligned for the cotter pin to do its intended job of securing the nut.

The aluminum adjustable coilover shocks that Heidts uses in its kits do not come preassembled with springs, as the spring choice is dependent upon desired ride quality and overall weight capacity requirements. Heidts has several spring choices to choose from. To allow spring installation, the shock adjustment knob must be temporarily removed, but don't worry, there's no shock oil or anything that will leak out.

Once the adjustment knob is out of the way, the threaded spring collar is unthreaded from the shock. Before reinstalling the collar be sure to apply anti-seize compound to the threads of the shock body, otherwise the force of the coil spring under compression could gall the shock's adjustment threads when turning the adjuster.

The completed shock assembly is shown here ready for mounting onto the crossmember and lower control arm. Don't forget to reinstall the adjustment knob too.

Attach the completed shock to the upper mount on the crossmember first, then position the spindle/control arm assembly to line up the lower shock mount with the lower control arm and secure with the proper hardware. Orient the shock adjuster to your preference (we have ours facing inboard) by rotating the shock body to position the knob where you want it, facing in or out.

With our suspension mock up complete, it was time to move on to our brakes. Heidts offers Wilwood products currently, and like any manufacturer, is constantly looking at enhancing its portfolio of products with additional product lines-in this case, brake products from Stainless Steel Brakes. We love the SSBC Tri-Power setup so much on our Factory Five Roadster build that we opted for the same hardware on our '68 Mustang project. The Mustang II-specific adapter bracket from SSBC is shown being bolted up to the Heidts spindle here. This bracket allows the standard Tri-Power caliper assembly to simply bolt on.

While our Roadster pro-ject used the standard slotted rotors, we opted for SSBC's latest rotor offering from its "Big Bite" program. Our Big Bite 13-inch rotors are not only slotted and zinc-washed, but include a cross-drilled pattern between the degas slots. The rotors are side-specific (direction indication cast in) and come assembled to the proper Mustang II spindle adapters with all bearings and grease seals. Simply pack the bearings in fresh grease, install the grease seals, and they're ready.

Just like a traditional tapered bearing rotor installation, the SSBC Mustang II-based rotors require tightening the retaining nut and then backing....

....it off and retightening to 15 in-lb before installing the nut retainer and cotter pin to lock everything in.

Now for the final piece of the braking puzzle (down at the wheels anyway)-the SSBC Tri-Power three-piston caliper. These calipers take up only a little more room than the common two-piston OE Mustang PBR "Cobra" calipers, yet offer an amazing increase in braking. Their facing is near flush with the rotor hub too, offering plenty of room for a large selection of wheel choices. Try that with a more traditional four-piston caliper.

The finished installation looks nothing short of automotive art. Knowing how well this setup stops from firsthand experience in our Roadster project, we can't wait to get the hydraboost system installed and brake lines run to so we can brake-check a few unsuspecting passengers! Oh, like you've never done that!

We're all about modern convenience, safety, and features around here so it pretty much goes without saying that we're going to be running power steering on our Heidts Superide II setup. Heidts offers a standard power rack upgrade as well as a chrome rack for the showy types. We felt the standard power rack would be fine. Bolting it up with the included hardware takes mere minutes. Note the steel spacers between the rack and crossmember to properly space the rack.

Tie-rod ends come next. These are standard cast pieces, nothing fancy, but they get the job done. While not noted in the instructions, you might have to trim some of the inner tie-rod end's threads to get the proper overall rack width. Be sure to have the lock nut on the tie rod before cutting the tie-rod end to length, as the lock nut will aid in clearing/dressing the threads on the end of the fresh cut when you remove the nut after the cut.

The rack that Heidts supplies is a Ford rack, and as such, it requires a "pyramid" style joint for the steering shaft. A Flaming River....

....installation kit for our Flaming River collapsible tilt column included everything we needed to connect our steering rack to our yet to be installed column.

While we'll have to tear it all back apart for painting and powdercoating, the front suspension and brakes are complete and we can check something else off of our "check and fit" list. Of course we still have brake lines to run, braided hoses to measure and have made, and more since we won't be using OE brake line routings for this custom setup.

While the offset was all wrong, and frankly the wheel style doesn't go with the body lines, we couldn't help but grab a coworker's take off late-model Mustang GT500 front wheel and throw it up on the wheel studs for a quick glance. We thought 18s might be a bit much for the front of the car, but with the right wheel design, it might just look right.

Flaming River's new Billet-Power rack is designed to work in Mustang II mounting configurations and we had the company send us one to test fit on our project. Being made of all new components with a special ratio, it's worlds above your typical parts store remanufactured unit. It bolted right up to our Heidts crossmember and the overall height was very close to the power rack body Heidts supplies. We were very impressed with the rack's fluid transfer line location, which will aid in oil pan clearance for sure.

The only issue we came upon was that the rack's input shaft was close enough to the inner wall of the crossmember that a standard U-joint wouldn't fit onto the shaft. In speaking with Flaming River's engineers, they said they will offer a short extension/adapter to clear tight applications such as this. Once our engine is in place, we'll know for sure which rack will get the nod for final install.