88Roc350TPI

Hi Guys,

Got a BIG problem. Somebody who owned my IROC before me got into a wreck with it. I knew this when i bought it and it appeared to only be a cosmetic problem. The hood, nose, and right front fender had been changed. Well I put it up on the lift at work the other night and the front subframe assembly appears to be severly f***** up. It looks like the nubs the A-arms mount to got broken off and/or bent and they fixed em up and welded them back on. Also, it appears that the left tire sticks out further from the fender than the right. I get an annoying rub when making a hard left turn with it as well. On top of that! They used a bolt longer than they should have on the rear mounting point for the RH A-arm and compensated for that by crimping down the Y-pipe so I'm sure my exhaust is constricted a little bit. At any rate...This whole suspension/crossmember/motor mount assembly appears to be bolted in? Has anyone ever changed one of these before? It doesn't look like the unibody of the car is bent at all, just looks like Gomer got happy with his torches on the A-arm mountings. If any of you have ever worked on this part of the car and have any pointers let me know please. Thanks

RB83L69

Yes, I've done that, it is in fact a bolt-in. Basically you need to support the car body (the body half of the "frame"), lift the engine up an inch or 2, take out the struts and springs, undo the steering, and the whole thing will come right out. If you have experience with front end type work it should present you no problems.

Tubular K-members are available from several sources now. I sure wish I had one of those...

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

Belker

FYI my y-pipe has a dimple in it to clear a tight spot. I've seen other (brand new, for other cars) exhaust pipes that had this same feature. That part of your problem may an intentional (although poor) factory design.

88Roc350TPI

Maybe it was dimpled somewhat originally, but you can clearly see that they crimped it off some more to get this ridiculously long bolt to clear the exhaust pipe. I guess my next step now is finding a subframe. A tubular one sounds nice and all but I think I'll stay with stock pieces if I can. If any one else has some tips let me know Thanks.

89GTA5spd

Can anyone detail how to replace the front cross-member? Mine is kinda messed up too (the passenger LCA bracket came partially off it's weld and moved the caster waaaay back.. I can get the caster back to normal but it would require moving the strut mount waaay forward) and since you can get a good crossmember for free from someone parting out a car (I am assuming they were the same on all 3rd gens) I figured I might try to replace mine this summer. I have compressed air/impact gun etc.. would I need anything else besides that a big jack/jackstands and normal tools? can I do this in my garage? Or is it only possible to do it with a lift?
I don't mind having my car out for a couple weeks while i do it so time isn't an issue.

Would it be a better idea just to repair it?

RB83L69

89, judging by what tools you have, you can probably do it yourself. It's not all that hard. In adition to what you say you already have, mostly you'll need some way to suspend the engine from above without interfering with working under the car, or sliding that huge thing around out of there and back in. That is to say, a cherry picker is probably out of the question. A chain hoist would be a better deal.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports