silverado

[attachmentid=37707]I have Steeda sport springs on my Mustang. The installer said I needed no other adjustments for these springs. Is he right or do I need to purchase an adjustable panhard bar to re-center.

jwgroovin

Don't know about the bar (I'm about to do the Steeda spring install too so I'll wait for answers) but what tire size are you running?

John

silverado

[attachmentid=37708]I Purchased the Mustang tuning deep dish set (18x9 front,18x10 rear) and bought Bfgoodrich g-force KDW2s (255/45r18 front and 285/40r18 rear). They dont stick out beyond the wheel wells and no more fender gap.

Eleanor Dreaming

To see if you need the Panhard bar looking for behind the car. See where the outside edge or the rear tires align with the body. I have the Steedas and I can see the rearend is shifted about 1/8 to 1/4 of inch to the left. That is little bit is making it not a priority at this time. Just an observation and it may well just be the picture but, that right seems to tucked in there to be that wide a tire. Check the left to make sure the rearend isn't shifted left.

My nephew owns a pickup truck upgrade business and makes all kinds of adjustable stabilizer bars and brackets for the trucks he lifts. So he will be making me an adjustable Panhard bar to pull it back as well as Lower Control Arms and LCA relocation brackets.

OK now the front looking at the front end at a slight angle to the side is the top of the tire leaning in? I was told by Steeda I would not need a camber adjustment kit with the springs. The alignment guy at Ford said he had not seen any that did not need the kit. If you can see the negative camber you will need the camber kit for the front. I can see the negative camber in mine with the naked eye. Either way you should get the alingment checked to make sure you are not going to wear the tires unevenly.

jwgroovin

I have 275/40r18s up front and am somewhat worried, although I think the Steeda Mustangs run 275s up front with springs and no problems. Hmmmm....

Firedude

I have the Steeda springs installed. I have my own gauge to check alignment. Before springs -1.3 Left, -1.4 Right. After install -1.4 Left, -1.5 Right. Your car can usually take more neg. camber without problems. Talk to a Performance Shop about it. I have a couple thousand miles with no unusal wear. Also do a search. The tow will need adjustment though.

Imatk

I was told that you really would need to replace your shocks and other such suspension stuff if you lowered the car... to do it right that is, and not just springs.

As for the bar I remember Adrenalin saying you would need that I think and some other stuff to properly adjust the camber.

Fman67

Get the adjustable bar...i have same springs on my car(same color by the way) and my rearend shifted to left at least 1/2 inch.

mikeelia

I have the Steedas with the "ford" camber plates [not the expensive Steeda plates] , and no panhard rod. It seems to be fine. My suspension guy customized the alignment a bit to improve tire wear, and so far it has been perfect. Nearly 5k on since the springs with no obvious uneven wear.

I posted my alignment specs previously.

I've seen those posts about the panhard rod and if I were going to do it [doesn't seem necessary, for me at least] I would also add the stiffer support /mount that some vendors sell. I think all cars are a little different, so some need it and some don't. Luck of the draw.

I'm waiting to see if the 1-inch plus or minus different height blows the shocks before I replace them.

Mike E

StangNut

As I've said many times before, the rear end (the axle, not the body) is off center to the left from the factory. Most people just don't notice it until they lower the rear and/or put on wider tires.
I installed Steeda rear springs only and it actually helped bring mine back to center. Most guys who think their's shifted to the left, don't realize it actually shifted to the right, but not enough to get it to the center. So now that the tires are close enough to the body to notice the discrepency, it appears that lowering the car shifted the axle to the left.

Take your own measurements, If it's off-center enough to make you uncomfortable, by all means, get an adjustable one. But don't spend the money because other people think you should. Oh, and by the way, the stock panhard bar CAN be moved over slightly to correct a small misalignment.

SteedaGus

That is correct. Every 94-04 car we set up here that has camber plates also left here with more negative camber from factory, but only after we added caster.

The 05 Mustang has alot more caster than 04-prior cars. Over 7 degrees versus only about 3 1/2 degrees. The most you would see is about 5 degrees with camber plates on 94-04, and up to 6 if you included offset A-arm bushings.


Adding more caster allowed us to run more negative camber without the bad tire wear effects. My old 96 Cobra used to run 1.2 to 1.4 degrees negative camber. I also had a staggered wheel set up so I could not rotate the tires, and still saw around 17-20,000 miles before I had to replace them, and I didnt drive that car easy.

The 05's with over 7 degrees of caster also tolerate negative camber like the specs shown above by Firedude without adverse tire wear. This is why we say in most cases camber adjusters are not required with our springs.

Most alignment shops just set up cars to "factory spec" and dont really know the effects the alignment settings they are adjusting will really have on performance or tire wear. They work on hundreds of different cars and simply "trust the machine" to set up a car.

If you car is lowered more than 1.5 inches, you still dont have to take out all negative camber to get good tire wear. Setting up a car with close to zero camber is unnecessary and will really limit the handling performance of the vehicle.

Gus

u-got-stang

I also installed the same Steeda Sport lowering springs... They dropped my car approximately 7/8 inch in the front and 1 1/8 inch in the rear... I had absolutely no problems getting my car aligned back to Ford specifications after installation. I did, however, install a JMP adjustable panhard bar to bring the rear end back to center (my car shifted approximately 1/4 inch after the Steeda springs were installed). I'm running a set of 20" Staggered Big Lip AXIS MOD wheels, 20x9 (front) and 20x10 (rear) with a set of Hancook Ventus Sport Tires, 245/40/ZR20 (front) and 275/35/ZR20 (rear)... No problems or issues encountered at this time....