IFS Suspension

I am debating on changing our front suspension next winter. What brand/company did you buy and are you happy with the outcome?? Did you have to make any mods to the front areas?? Our car was built in the late 1980s as far as I can tell. What suggestions would you have?? Thank you.

What are wanting to accomplish with the change?  Better ride and/or handling or are you just having trouble with the original setup?  Also, will you be keeping the crossmember that Classic built into the frame or just changing the control arms and/or spindles and brakes?

Another very important question is what is your ability and comfort level for doing the swap?

Answering these questions will guide you on the swap and allow us to better advise you.

Hope that didn't sound like I was be a smart a$$.

This is the second time I have had to replace the 5/8 nut on the suspension A-arm on the right side. I am thinking that it is in a bind somewhere and it is the old system. I am thinking of upgrading to a newer setup for a better system and ride. I am hoping to keep the frame setup that is there, just hoping for a removal of what is there and installing new. I will have a shop do the work. Thank you.

I used Fabquest control arms on my car, but I'm not sure my experience will help you since I have made so many mods to my car. I went with standard A-arms on the bottom to eliminate the strut rods. If you go this route, be aware that tubing will need to be welded to the rear of the cross member to support the wider lower control arm. This tubing will need to be well braced since it needs to resist a lot of impact load. I ran gussets from the 1x2 tubing on the chassis for this.

I can tell you that I chose their CA's because they advertised the lower's to be 3/16" wall tubing rather than the more common 1/8 thick.  These are light cars, but the lower arm still takes a lot of abuse from potholes and the like.  They also advertise that their arms are 100% American made if that is a concern of yours.  Their uppers are most likely 1/8 thick since they don't mention them.  That doesn't bother me since the upper CA's don't take the load that the lowers do.

The balljoints that came in the arms were generic parts with no brand name. I didn't use them, but can't say they weren't any good. I went with low friction aftermarket race parts instead because I was looking for the adjust-ability that the race parts offered. No reason for you to use what I did.

I would also recommend going with coil over shocks in the front. There is probably more ride comfort to be gained there than anything else you can do. These cars are too stiffly sprung with the stock MII springs. DrJ did a good thread on his shock replacement.

If you don't want to replace the control arms and eliminate the struts, just do a good rebuild of the stock parts. Use stock rubber bushings, not poly if ride quality is your goal. Over time the rubber bushings will harden. The bushings on my car were so stiff, that I could jack up the chassis with the springs removed and the bushings wouldn't flex! Rubber bushings don't turn, they flex to allow movement of the suspension. You never tighten rubber bushings until the weight is on the suspension. Some folks make the mistake of tightening them with the CA's in full droop and then they run out of flex when the weight of the car is on them. I think fresh CA and strut bushings combined with coil overs would give you a decent ride.

Just my dos centavos and probably not worth that much!

Thanks for all your info.

One thing to add. Some CA manufacturers sell a lower arm that is just wide enough to slip over the cross member. They claim that these do not need any additional bracing.

I don't buy that. Look under any factory car that has A arm suspension and you will see widely spaced mounts. Also, the cross members on the Classic Roadster chassis' are a little on the thin side. They maker of the narrow arms has a very thick crossmember and might be able to hold up. I wouldn't trust that style on a CR chassis.

The stock strut rods actually make a much stronger setup. IMO