front suspension for 70 mustang fast back

just picked up a decent 70 fastback

what are the best options for the front suspension with bbf

i see all over the internet a lot of people dont like the fitment of the AJE kit that uses fox stuff
The mustang 2 kit some love it for room others have said not enough travel.

what are you guys using ?

going ladder bars in back or 4 link as well ....leaning towards ladder bars though and tubs to fit a 12 inch slick if wanted but use a 29.5 x10.5

Thanks

The 65 has a strut set up... It opens up a lot of room ... If you're gonna cut it up thats what i'd do.. Good luck

I have a ladder bar setup in mine. I have ran 29X13.5 MT ET streets with no problem after I minitubbed it. It currently has 29.5x10.5 on it now: for class rules. I have a AJE kit sitting here with the struts ready to go on this winter. As far as fitment issues ,I don't know but if there is I can cut,weld or whatever I need to do to make it work. I'll have to build headers this winter also because of the kit.
My car has the A429's and I'm struggling on why I should build headers when I want to go with the A460's. Money is tight though. I'll let you know how the AJE install goes but it will be a couple weeks probably.
I ran the stock front end the last 2 years on it. I mean original 1970 stuff. Only moroso springs and QA1 shocks on the front. And travel limiters.

5pointslow wrote:just picked up a decent 70 fastback

what are the best options for the front suspension with bbf

i see all over the internet a lot of people dont like the fitment of the AJE kit that uses fox stuff
The mustang 2 kit some love it for room others have said not enough travel.

what are you guys using ?

going ladder bars in back or 4 link as well ....leaning towards ladder bars though and tubs to fit a 12 inch slick if wanted but use a 29.5 x10.5

Thanks

sorry, I got your pm, meant to respond to it and totally forgot.... my bad.

The AJE deal might be the best unless you have some fab skillz...... I used a set of old AJE fox coilover struts, a Pinto rack, cut everything off except the stock front frame rails and fabbed the rest.

The AJE strut cartridges are junk..... I have to tune my strut settings with spring rate and its a pita. The cheap strut route might be to use a set of reg fox spindles and get a set of the cheap Strange front struts and a coilover kit.

better solution would be to get some Santhuffs but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

motor is out I can get some pics of my setup tomorrow.......

another thing, I dont care for the mustang II stuff its more of a street rod suspension and you still habe a damn crossmember to deal with.

richter69 wrote:The cheap strut route might be to use a set of reg fox spindles and get a set of the cheap Strange front struts and a coilover kit.

If you got the fab skills go this route and make it how you want. You can even score some PA or Racecraft spindles on the bullet every now and then for a good price.

One downside of using the AJE swap kits on the older shocktower Fords is there is a limit to how low you can set the car's ride height in the front without running into steep control arm angles. This is partly because their Fox/SN95 swap Xmembers do need to take up a given amount of room under the main frame rails to get all the assorted suspension & frame rail mounting brackets under there. Another downside is the Fox/SN95 strut body is a fairly long assembly, and at their stock lenght the available bump travel can get chewed up quickly when trying to set a car lower.  
 

The problem with using the Mustang II swap stuff & their so called "reduced travel" isues IMO depends more on what style of shock/spring assembly is used than any other thing. A stock MII setup with a stock coil spring/shock assembly does have a fairly decent amount of total suspension travel. The reduced travel problem pops up when a short coilover shock is used (instead of the stock spring/shock assembly), and is installed at a decent angle with it's bottom mount attached to the lower control arm real close to the spindle's bottom ball joint pad. The short front coilover shock is needed with the MII (in this situation) because allowing more c/o shock travel with this setup will allow the top spindle ball joint pad to crash into the side of the c/o shock with increased extension travel.

Good info. I'll see what I run into. I have a feeling this kit is going to have my junk sitting higher in the front. With the moroso springs ,they were cut 3/4 of a coil.

fastest i plan going is prob mid 9s

my next thing is i know its not the best how is the stock stuff up front is it tottally junk or could it work

i plan on doing ladder bar rear setup .

we can fab ect not the issue ......id like to keep this as simple as i can

It's probably strong enough.. There's a few stockers out there that are standing em on the bumper . Just put a good cage in it.

By the way. Who is that skinny kid playin the guitar in your avatar ?

Stevie ray vaughn .......one of my favorite guys to listen to

5pointslow wrote:fastest i plan going is prob mid 9s

my next thing is i know its not the best how is the stock stuff up front is it tottally junk or could it work

i plan on doing ladder bar rear setup .

we can fab ect not the issue ......id like to keep this as simple as i can

9.77's on the stock front end with moroso springs and some Comp E adjustable shocks with no problem. I only had to put the limiters on because the QA1 shocks I put on had an aluminum bottom mount. I broke one on the first pass. Probably because my spring pivot thing is still stock also. I put the limiter on to keep from breaking the aluminum one until I was going to this new setup.

Dave C. wrote:It's probably strong enough.. There's a few stockers out there that are standing em on the bumper . Just put a good cage in it.

X2. Mine has a cage in it.

5pointslow wrote:Stevie ray vaughn .......one of my favorite guys to listen to

lol Dave be messin w u, he know who dat kid is.......,,

if you go simple stock ....how tight is the bbf in there ???

can you notch towers at all ? maybe stock stuff at my goals would be fine for now

5pointslow wrote:if you go simple stock ....how tight is the bbf in there ???

can you notch towers at all ?  maybe stock stuff at my goals would be fine for now

You can notch/step the top half of the towers (above the upper control arm area) on a 69-70 and gain some extra sparkplug access room. But the lower part of the tower (containing the upper control arm & mounting bolts/holes) will have to stay & will still chew up header room making for some sharp bends in the headers.

You can modify the bottom of the tower by replacing all the "bulging" parts (where the upper control arm bushings sit) with a flat plate that has holes cut in it to clear the UCA bushings. This will gain you a little more header room by removing the bulges in the lower part of the tower. But parts of the UCA bushings that poke through the holes (and the UCA mounting bolts) will still chew up some header room.

You can also move the top of the tower it's self farther away from the car/engine centerline a little by moving the entire stock spring/shock assembly's centerline farther out away from the car's centerline. You do this by moving the bottom spring seat farther out on the upper control arm (closer to the upper ball joint), & moving the top of the tower cap/upper spring seat assembly farther out (aprox the same amount the lower mount is moved out). Doing this won't gain any more header room, but it will gain some more room around the top of the engine. And since the spring/shock is moved closer to the tire, a lower spring rate will most likely be needed to hold the car up at the same ride height.

waiting on to see if the fox sells , if it dont i will put in back of garage for now the 70 fastback

Lowering the upper control arm mounting point by 1 inch allows you to notch the tower a bit lower and helps to maintain correct camber when the front end pulls the wheels up.
The header primary tubes even with notched towers will have to make a pretty sharp turn coming off the heads, there's just not a lot of room.
The #8 header tube is pinched over quite a bit to clear a stock steering box.
A motor plate might make for a bit more room for the headers.

I need to start my own thread on this but I can tell you that the engine mounts that I bought with my headers will not work with the AJE kit. It has the engine sitting back farther. Which I'll move. Once I find out some more then I'll start my own on this kit deal.

I'm really digging your front sheet metal dolly 

Mike R wrote:I'm really digging your front sheet metal dolly 

I new it was a reason I kept those chairs besides passing out in them. LOL.

Nothing beats a comfortable office chair

I have the mustang II on my 67 Cougar, they were ok for a 10 sec car, if you are planing to go into the 9s or faster, better do it right the first time.
Run the bars out front, and put a strut deal on it, or something equal. And set that engine back right the first time, and you will be a happy man.
I am no suspension guy but learning thru trial and era.