I'm thinking about doing adjustable strut rods while I have my suspension apart. What I have in mind is getting a bit of u channel or welding up brackets and bolting them in the forward mounts with appropriate spacers, threading the stock strut rods farther down their length and cutting them short, then using threade hex tube and heim joints from Jegs or such to create a new forward connection. Am I over simplifying the set up? What size rod ends would be sufficient for the forward mounts?
I made a set of these..only I drilled right through the factory strut mount.... Welded a washer on each side of the hole and slid a bolt right through the heim joint at the end. Cut down on parts count and no worries about the cast clevis breaking. http://home.bresnan.net/~dazed/adjustable
I have a 62 comet and can't understand where you or what you are talking about. The picture is nice but where does it go? Are you making a strut tower brace?
Sorry, it's a part that is somewhat unique to the Falcon chassis. I think some Mopar vehicles also used a similar suspension. It is what triangulates the lower control arm. On these cars the LCA is effectively just a rod from the frame to the ball joint. The strut rod is necessary to prevent longitudinal motion. The rod is rigidly attached at the lower control arm and goes into a large rubber bushing at the front of the frame. As the rod is fixed in position it is easier to do suspension alignments if it is made adjustable. Also replacing the rubber bushings at the front with rod ends prevents alignment changes under hard braking and such.
Hmm... I hadn't even thought about that. What size heim joint did you use? Did you modify the stock rod or fabricate a New one from scratch?
What size rod ends do those have? The one manufacturer that I found specs on said they use 5/8ths. I'm wondering how long those would last on these streets. The above are nice looking, but also look like around $350, if I can buy joints and modify my strut rods it'd make my wallet much happier.
I may be mistaken, as the last one I had apart were Cadillac (same thing, just larger), but the stockers ARE adjustable. Just run whichever nut up or down, and the other to suit. Cosmo
Depending what year comet..I had a 65' and they weren't adjustable, I think 66' up they became adjustable as my 72' they are..
Found some great info on TFFN. Looking at the stuff that came with my suspension kit I'm wondering if the '65 and so Mustangs had a bit of adjustment built in. The bushings and washers/cups match but the nut that came with them is too small. I'm thinking maybe ford went to a necked down strut rod and a spacer under the bushings? That'd allow for slightly more accurate adjustment by moving the inner and outer nuts? On mine you could do it that way but with as much as those suckers deflect it'd be hard to get it exact. I still want to do rod ends to keep everything accurate.
The strut rods on my '60 Falcon are adjustable. There is about an inch and an eighth of threads on EACH side of the bushing assembly, with nuts on both sides.
With fresh bushings snugged way down I'd estimate that I have less than an inch of thread sticking out now. The rear nuts are all the way back. The whole layout of these things gives a soft ride I'm sure but with everything else stiffened up now I don't like the idea is the lower control arm having wiggle fore and aft. Working towards my Trans Am handling goals I think they need to have a more defined motion.
Back in my dirt track days we used tie rod ends and tie rod adjuster sleeves on the struts. You can buy the correct tapered tie rod end shock eyes and weld them in some brackets. This set up was adjustable and it took the fore/aft movement out of the lower control arm. It was cheap, easy, and effective. I don't remember which tie rod ends we used. Too many years ago. Find the adjusters to fit your struts then you'll know what tie rods to use. Also, the TRE's are greaseable. They held up surprisingly well on 3000# cars on rough dirt tracks.
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