Ride Tech Strong Arms and Aftermarket Strut Brackets for 66 Mustang

[femurphy77]

Finally breaking open the many boxes of new parts I've collected over the years starting to turn wrenches. I'm currently working on trial fitting the Tru Turn and Strong Arm components I purchased from Ride Tech several years ago but have found that the lower control arms are not compatible with the aftermarket strut brackets I installed on the car because the brackets are much heavier gauge than the oem stuff. Hence the bearing retainers won't work as supplied by Ride Tech. I've already contacted Ride Tech and they responded almost immediately but they are waiting on me to provide them with some more info. I though I might try this venue to see if anybody else has run into this issue and how did you solve it? Thanks!

[TheJDMan]

This is one reason I don't buy parts until I'm ready to install them. RideTech will take care of you but that is not the case with every vendor.

[femurphy77]

This is one reason I don't buy parts until I'm ready to install them. RideTech will take care of you but that is not the case with every vendor.


Roger that! Life does have a way of changing plans occasionally though and yes Ride Tech contacted me within a couple of hours and we're working on it. You know how it is though, you think you're ready to "just bolts in" and hit a bump but that's part of the hobby! They're only a couple of hours down the road so I've offered to bring it in person if they'd like to see it so we'll see what happens.

[femurphy77]

For the archives; Ride Tech Strong Arm won't work on the 64-66 mustang using aftermarket strut rod brackets. The bearing retainers and the brackets both require extensive modifications to make them work so if you've installed dynacorn or any other brand (as they all seem to be made by dynacorn) know that they won't bolt right in. In my situation I've machined the bearing retainers to fit into the area of the strut brackets but once you machine them I feel that it weakens the retainers by removing material around the threaded holes that hold everything together. Another issue with machining the retainers is that the strut brackets themselves don't have enough meat a the bottom of the bracket where you need to drill the hole for the bottom bolt. The third problem is that the thickness of the metal that the strong arm goes thru in the strut bracket is just a little too thick to torque the bearing retainers to the proper preload which will result in slop in this area which will ultimately cause excessive wear and ultimately failure.

If anybody is interested in pics let me know and I'll add them.