1970 Mustang AJE front suspension conversion.

My purpose of this was for ease of working on it and safety. I also plan on going to a larger head later and wanted the room for larger headers in the future. It was to also just update the front suspension to something I felt a little more comfortable with.

This car was already setup with a BBF with motormounts welded solid. A midplate from Coan to adapt the powerglide to it.
I ran the 2" tubular automotive headers that cross under the oil pan. It had a front sump Canton pan.

I'll see if I can keep these pictures in order and explain the best I can as I remember. I'm currently half way through and will update as changes are made. Hopefully others will get a learning experience out of this as I definitely have.

I also have a few questions once I get to some certain pictures. I need some engineering opinions.

Thanks guys for the help. Now on with the pictures.

Here is a before picture before I got started.

The picture above is with the shock towers notched from a year ago. The notches made a BIG difference in getting to plugs and header bolts.

Here is a picture of the room after notching the tower.

Here is a picture of the old oil pan and the new Kmember.

Pretty easy to pull the front body work off these cars.

Here is one of the headers.

Cutting out the lower control arm mounts and the bottom of the shock towers here. I plan on installing forward bars from the cage and tie in the shock towers and motor plate.

Pile of parts. Sold all this pretty quick. The spindles and brakes were the Granada ones.

You have to drill some 3/4" holes through the frame to insert crush sleeves to prevent the bolts from squeezing the frame.

I ground the welds down later. Just didn't take a picture.

I wanted to keep the original shock mounts, hood latch and hood hinges for now.

AJE told me that just the kit changeover I would loose 130lbs. I hope to make that number higher.

This was just a quick mock up to see oil pan/header/engine plate clearances.

Who's mid-plate did you use?

Oil pan arrives. Its a Moroso 20625 pan for a fox body Mustang. Looks like I need to go lower with it.

Dave C. wrote:Who's mid-plate did you use?

Sorry Dave, I've left it out. It is a Coan setup. Midplate,flywheel spacer and powerglide all came from Coan.

A beautiful engine plate arrives from Keith at KFM. Nice piece.

I picked up a used set of Hooker headers for a Fox body with 2" primaries. Part #6224 I think. The headers would not clear the midplate nowhere close. I had to clearance the plate for the headers. They are a lot higher than the tubular automotive.


Trimmed now.

That is also a picture of the flywheel/converter pilot spacer from Coan.

Here is where I need some/help opinions on bracing the front end up.


The pipe insulation is simulating where my front bar would be. Its sitting on the bumper brace bolt so it will end up going on top of the frame. I will also be welding the top of the shock tower to it right where it meets the fender bolts.

First question. I want to brace the inner side of the top of the shock tower. I'm thinking of 2 pieces of 1" tubing to go from each corner of the shock mount on the inside,beside the CC plate down at an angle to the frame. Tieing in the old supports that are left. I still want to trim the inside of the tower up higher before I do that. That way the outside of the upper shock mount is solid welded to the froward bar and the inside of the mount would be tied into the 2 1" tubes going down. Any suggestions?????

I also have a question on the radiator support. On the bottom of the support where it ties to the frame is very weak. I can push down on it and it flexes. I want to support that vertically to support the weight of the fenders,headlights,buckets,etc. All of it is steel except the hood. Would I run a small tube diagonally from the forwardbar,/engine plate/frame spot up to the top corner of the radiator support??? Or just run a piece vertically from the frame straight up to the top corner of the support?? What do you guys think?

Those struts those put in those deals suck imo.... No adjustment. I found one of my spindles bent ghe otherday and im in the process of redoing it to use a reg bolt in fox strut.