So I was putting in my upper control arms and then I was going to add a little reinforcement to the shock towers. I cleaned the metal a little bit and ran across a little anomaly. I had already looked all over the Mustang forums (and ours) to find as much info as possible about UCA replacement and upgrades, possible problems, etc. A lot of the Mustang forums mentioned shock tower cracking but they're older and not as reinforced as ours, at least I thought. On the rear of each shock tower where the reinforcement stamping is spot welded, I have developed a tear at the lower spot weld on each side and a significant crack on the drivers side and a smaller one on the passenger side following the reinforcement all the way down to the frame rail. I have run this car hard but it's a rust free CA car and I have never run it without the shock tower braces. I guess I know now where that pop is coming from that I hear on hard suspension compression going through the neighborhood and down the occasional mountain road. I guess that reinforcement I've been working on will have to get a little bigger and more robust to fix that. I thought I would add the reinforcement to prevent that very problem. Kind of ironic. I'll post pics as soon as I can get one that doesn't reflect directly back at the camera. Sux because I told the boss it would be a quick easy fix, no longer that a couple of days...:16suspect
It's amazing how these cars flex, so it's not surprising. I find my green car, from California really flexes. When I go around a corner, I can feel the doors move. Compared to my 74 that I've beat the hell out of. It doesn't flex at all....Plus, I guess we should factor in the age of the cars....
So glad I put the sub-frame connectors in before I modded the motor. The difference is so freaking noticeable. Especially going in and out of driveways. My friend with a V-8 71 Maverick found cracks in his too. His was raced with a mild 302 before he got it. But hey! Once it's fixed it will be better than ever.
