Front suspension options for 67

BarnStang

Founding Member
Mar 2, 2001
1,261
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Hagerstown, MD
Started looking at this Ron Morris kit:
http://www.ronmorrisperformance.com/01hot_new/index.html

I like this because I can keep the stock spindles. Already bought the whole disckbrakeswap.com kit from Dennis.

I haven't been able to find anything simular, but wanted to see if I missed something. Don't want to go to a Mustang II or anthing overly exotic.

Has anyone had a chance to try out this set up yet? And are there any other set ups I should look at. Thanks!
 
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Everything I've heard is great and it looks REALLY solid. Supposedly it's very adjustable and the one guy I've talked to who has driven the poop out of his car says it improves high speed stability and makes it HANDLE. From an engineering standpoint, it's probably the best out there.

I'm too poor and frugal so I kept the stock setup and modified the shart out of it.
 
I had forgotten about Global West. Wow. They are as expensive as TCP. I know, good stuff. Everone raves about the TCP stuff. Need to be a little conservative with this car. Shop project car. I read that the Ron Morris coil overs can be used with stock A arms. Might try that. Still $850.00
 
For $850 I'm surprised more people don't go with this option. It's easy to sink almost that much money into stock stuff - springs, roller spring perches, new shocks, not to mention the lack of adjustability once it's all on there. Is Ron Morris reputable?
 
After looking around some more, 850 is not too bad. I hadn't considered all the adjustability. We used some Ron Morris stuff on a 68 EFI project and wern't too impressed, but that was a few years ago. I'd like to know if anyone has this shock kit installed with the stock A arms.
 
The Morris kit is a pair of QA1 coilovers and custom plates. The coilovers run about $150 without springs, and the springs go from $40 to $80 each. Figure $500 total for coilovers w/spring, and you're paying $350 for some metal plates. I thought about doing this over a decade ago but I didn't see the point. What's the advantage, besides being able to change ride height, which is not as fast and easy as you think. Being able to dial in your valving? When was the last time you wanted to do that? This kit makes it easy, but is it really worth $850?
 
i guess it's up to the individual to decide if it's worth it. i think it's a cool idea myself, if it was cheaper i'd jump all over it. honestly though i've seen what these kits start out as for the original intended application and they are still about $800. the springs were original designed for a gm application, actually
 
Figure $500 total for coilovers w/spring, and you're paying $350 for some metal plates.


Good point. I wonder if you sourced your own QA1 coil overs, if Ron Morris would sell you just the plates (presumably for less than $350). For that matter you could just fab up your own plates and have coilovers for $450 - $500 bucks.

Would these coilovers on stock A arms perform better than say, 620 springs with a Edelbrock IAS shock? Or is it a draw, and adjustability is the main difference?
 
Good point. I wonder if you sourced your own QA1 coil overs, if Ron Morris would sell you just the plates (presumably for less than $350). For that matter you could just fab up your own plates and have coilovers for $450 - $500 bucks.

Would these coilovers on stock A arms perform better than say, 620 springs with a Edelbrock IAS shock? Or is it a draw, and adjustability is the main difference?



probably about the same but you do have some adjustability in the rebound/compression of the shock so you could feasibly make them work better to your tastes. i've heard varying opinions on the IAS shocks but if you were to use them with some of Opentrackers roller perches or his new doule roller perches and a nice set of springs you might get a better ride and handling with them. i have a set of the regular roller perches on my car with 750lb coils and KYB gas-adjust shocks along with a 1" front swaybar and it's not harsh at all, it's firm because of the springs and shocks but the roller perches made a huge difference in the ride from without the roller perches. in fact it feels about the same as when i had the stock small swaybar and plain old monroe matic shocks and stock perches but the front suspension now has more freedom of movement in addition to being stiffer.
 
I think the biggest benefit to the Ron Morris kit is the ease of adjusting the shocks.
In my case on one weekend I may be drag racing and the next going to an autocross. Because of where I live I drive anywhere from one to five hours on rough Saskatchewan and Alberta highways to get to these events. As you can see, shock adjusting is something I do quite often.
With a typical spring, perch, shock setup it is extremely hard to get at the adjusters on an adjustable shock but the Ron Morris kit would really make this a much easier chore. Being able to adjust ride height is just an added bonus.
David
 
I think the biggest benefit to the Ron Morris kit is the ease of adjusting the shocks.
In my case on one weekend I may be drag racing and the next going to an autocross. Because of where I live I drive anywhere from one to five hours on rough Saskatchewan and Alberta highways to get to these events. As you can see, shock adjusting is something I do quite often.
With a typical spring, perch, shock setup it is extremely hard to get at the adjusters on an adjustable shock but the Ron Morris kit would really make this a much easier chore. Being able to adjust ride height is just an added bonus.
David



well then this sounds like the kit for you.
 
I had forgotten about Global West. Wow. They are as expensive as TCP. I know, good stuff. Everone raves about the TCP stuff. Need to be a little conservative with this car. Shop project car. I read that the Ron Morris coil overs can be used with stock A arms. Might try that. Still $850.00

The link you posted to the RM website says $2495, which is much more reasonable for a coilover kit that mounts to the LCA. I didn't see anything for $850, but I assume you're referencing the kit that mounts in place of the stock shock & spring. I would think it would improve it about the same as the Open Tracker kit, eliminating the binding but that's about all, and $850 is a lot to pay just for that.

The RM design in the link is almost a carbon copy of mine, although I certainly wouldn't claim he stole it from me as we both just used what is readily available design wise to the circle track crowd. (My invoice for them is dated Oct 26, 2004 btw)

2387156_4_full.jpg

I'm using AFCO double adjustable shocks that run $375 a piece. I believe you get what you pay for (99% of the time anyway) and the AFCO shock is just a plain better shock than the QA-1 IMO. From my experience, the folks at AFCO are much easier to deal with if there's a problem also.

The light weight of my design (and presumably the full blown RM coilover kit as well) makes it more responsive than the TCP or GW designs. I weighed a TCP lower arm w/BJ and it came in at 6.8 lb. An older style GW upper w/BJ and spring perch came in at a whopping 12.0 lbs! My upper and lower combined weigh less than that. My upper arm weighs 4.4 w/BJ and the lower is just 4.6 w/BJ.

If budget is the driving factor, I'd just use the Open Tracker stuff. If you can afford the RM ($2495) coilover kit however, I'd say it's worth every penny. I wouldn't consider the TCP or GW coilover kits at any price as they are way too heavy.
 
69gmachine, yes, the RM coilover kit by itself that mounts to the stock A arm is $850. I know we want to do something to make an improvement, but I don't think we can streach to $2500 for this car. You refer to your design being lighte than the TCP or GW kits. Do you sell a kit yourself or is there some more info you can provide? I'm going to look over the Afco stuff. Thanks!
 
I am running the RM kit on my 68. It is very easy to adjust and works great. I actually purchased mine brand new on ebay. He said there was defects in the finish but I couldn't find any. I paid just over $1800 including shipping. Watch out for it there and you may be glad you did. I knew I wanted coil overs and when that deal came up I couldn't resist. I would pay the full retail price for them. I think RM runs ads in some of the mustang publications for $2295.

One major benefit of the design is the coils are only 450 lb. This is achieved by moving the spring mounting point closer to the spindle. You will have a much better ride quality than 620 lb coils and the geometry is improved over stock. All of this results in better handling. :nice: