Total Control Products Coilover Conversion Kit Front 1" Drop Shaft Quickset 2 Shocks 1968-1973

More and more classic Mustang owners are adding modern appointments to their cars. While there's definitely a time and place for a period-correct restoration, there's been a lot of improvements in the last 50 years that make your classic Mustang a lot more fun to drive. So far on our '70 Mach I, we've added 4-wheel disc brakes, 17" wheels and tires, and most recently a Holley Electronic fuel injection conversion kit. The next area of this car we're looking to update is going to be the suspension, and we figure what better place to start than with Total Control Products complete coil-over conversion kit.

While this Total Control Products kit might look intimidating at first glance, 1 of the best things about this kit is it's going to use factory mounting locations, making for a much easier installation. There's no crazy modifications required. Everything's going to bolt in place and give adjustability you would have never found in a classic Mustang.

The heart of the system is going to be these double adjustable QuickSet 2 shocks. These have dual adjustments for compression as well as rebound, give you upwards of 256 different options for adjusting anywhere from very firm to a very soft ride. They come threaded and ready for our coil-over, and are high-quality, lightweight billet construction.

These are the high-quality upper control arms Total Control Products includes in this kit. They can give you up to 6 degrees of camber adjustment, along with 5.5 degrees of castor adjustment, and a full inch of full range adjustment. They also include a high-quality, 4-bolt ball joint.

Depending on the weight of your car and how you use it, you have your choice of spring rates with this kit, including 450, 500, or 550 pound springs.

These are the True Center lower control arms that are included in the kit. These are going to improve your suspension geometry by controlling the ball joint travel arc. They also have an inner spherical bearing, which can help with deflection and won't move around like a standard rubber or polyurethane would.

These are the adjustable strut rods that are included in the kit. These are going to give you another 3 to 4 degrees of castor adjustment, again really allowing you to fine tune and dial in your front suspension geometry.

The Total Control kit's going to provide everything necessary to improve the geometry, which is going to improve the handling and performance of your classic Mustang. Every nut and bolt needed for installation is included. Now we're going to show you how to install it using our '70 Mach I.

For this installation, you need a lift or a jack and jack stands; an assortment of ratchets, standard sockets and standard wrenches; 5/32 Allen key; 7/32 Allen key; 3/8 Allen key; channel lock pliers; pry bar; needle nose pliers; spring compressor; drill; pilot drill bit; tape measure; marker; 1/2" torque wrench; 3/8 torque wrench; small hammer; and safety glasses.

To begin the installation of our Total Control Products suspension, the first thing you've got to do is remove all the factory components. That's going to be upper and lower control arms, strut bars, springs, shocks, and if so equipped with a Monte Carlo brace and an export brace you want to remove those as well.

There are a couple of small modifications you have to make for the installation. The first step is going to be to remove this factory spring plate from the inside of your shock tower. The kit includes a spot weld cutter to cut out the 3 spot welds holding this in place. We're going to start by drilling a hole through the center of them, basically to make a center point for the spot weld cutter so it works better.

Now you want to get a grinder. You'll want to grind smooth this whole area where the rivets came out, make sure it's flush. Once we're done we'll put a little primer on it. Before you paint, make sure you put something over the opening to the engine bay so the paint doesn't go through and get on your engine.

This is the mount for our coil over. We're going to just set it in place here and see how it lines up. You want to make sure the holes are large enough for the hardware to pass through and everything lines up properly. Some applications you may have to drill new holes or even enlarge the holes. In the case of our '70, it's good to go. With the mount in place, now we've got to install the hardware. We'll grab the lower piece and bolt it down. Now we can install the lower plate. Once they're tightened down, we have to torque them to 30 foot pound.

With the upper coil-over mount finished, now we can work on the control arms themselves. We're going to start with the upper control arm. We want to make the bolts and the bumps are facing up, and obviously you want the ball joint facing down. It's kind of hard to do with 1 person. But what we've found is just sort of lay the control arm against the sway bar. That'll hold it in place. So now you go to the engine bay and install the nuts. Now it is tough to reach both sides here. If you have somebody hold the bolt, it will make it a lot easier. Now we're going to torque to 55 foot pounds.

Now we can move on to the lower control arm. Because it's a bearing, it's going to be a very tight fit in there. You can put a little bit of grease on the inside to make it easier. You may have to tap it with a mallet to get it up into place. These are the bolts for the lower control arms with the optional center illuminator you're going to be using for this installation. It's part of how you're going to set up the camber and adjust the alignment on this car. You want to make sure all 4 of these are on the same orientation in the car. What we did is we marked the passenger side and the driver's side with a marker on both sides, so you can make sure they're in the exact same orientation on both sides of the car, making it a lot easier to align the car down the road. I'm going to torque these down to 65 foot pound.

With the upper and lower control arms mounted, now we're going to move on to the adjustable strut rods. The first thing we want to do here is adjust the nut as a starting point and make it an 1-1/16" from the end. With the nut in place, we'll put a little Anti-Seize on the end here. Now thread it into the strut rod. With that in place, now we're going to replace the screw on the other side and unthread the end cap. And a little more Anti-Seize on these threads here. We're ready to put it on the car.

We're going to put it through the factory strut rod location. If it doesn't fit, your car may have a little retaining ring in there that you have to pop off with a chisel before you install. Tighten it down by hand, and as you're installing it, make sure the grease fitting stays at the bottom where it's accessible. This is optional, but I've found it makes the next step easier. We have to torque down the strut rod. What I'm doing is I'm grabbing the hardware that's included to mount the lower mount of our coil-over.

All you do is line this up and put the hardware in place. This makes it a little bit easier to get it in once you have the strut rod tightened down. You don't have to tighten it down, just enough to hold the place. Now we can torque down the strut rod. There's no socket needed to torque down the strut rod. As you can see, the end of the bell here, this accepts a 1/2" ratchet. This is going to be 150 foot pound. You don't want to use an impact gun because you can damage this. You want to do it by hand. It'll take a little bit of work to get it there. This is the right way you'll want to do this. With the torque rod torqued to spec, reinstall the end cap screw and torque to 30 foot pounds.

We're going to remove the hardware now that everything's tightened down, and install our lower mount. When installing the lower mount, you want to make sure the arrow faces forward, and we're using these 2 bolt holes here. You want it inward, not outward. These are going to be torqued to foot pound.

Now you want to grab your shock. We're going to mock up everything to make sure our clearances are good. Spread the shock out till from eye to eye you're 14-1/4". You want to go all the way up and leave 3/4" clearance at the top for your spring clearance. Make sure the strut rod is not touching the frame. We have clearance. We're okay. Now we can take it apart and start assembling our coil-overs.

Now that we've verified fit and clearance, now we can actually put the coil-over together to assemble it on the vehicle. First thing you do is grab the lower collar, and you thread it all the way down. I'll put a little Anti-Seize in the threads above it. Now we can extend the shock if it isn't already, and install the spring. Press this rubber O ring down a little bit, and I'm going to install the top. Now you'll spread this up until it puts pressure on the springs. It doesn't have to be really tight. Just make sure it's got pressure so it's not going to move.

You want to make sure the lower spring seat, you want to go 1/2 turn tighter. You want to hear it pop. You'll hear a little click when it goes into the grooves. Once it's in here, now we can tighten it down and install it on the vehicle. Don't go crazy with these. Just get them snug. And we're ready to install.

When installing the coil-overs to the upper and lower mounts, these little bushings are included. Basically they're going to sit over the bearing and take up the space before we tighten it down. Then we're going to torque the mounting hardware to 55 foot pound.

I want to mention, when you mount your shock, make sure your brake line goes around the front of it. If it goes behind it, it creates a little bit of a kink in the line. This is a much better way to wrap it.

With the suspension in place, now we can reinstall our spindle. It comes with a spacer and a washer in the bottom. Make sure you remove that before you try to put it on. Now we can reinstall the spacer that came off, then the washer and a castle nut. We're going to torque the lower to 60 foot pound. Torque the upper to 55. Once you torque them down, you want to make sure the cotter pin hole lines up with the castle nut. If it doesn't, tighten it a little bit more. Whatever you do, don't loosen it to line it up. Make sure you make it a little bit tighter.

Now we can reinstall the brake caliper. Now finally we can attach our tie rod end back to our spindle. Once everything's together, you want to rotate your steering side to side and make sure you don't have any clearance issues. If you do, this little stud right here off of the strut rod includes nuts and bolts to put a steering stop in place. We don't have any issues with our '70, so we're going to leave it out. With everything in place, we can reinstall the original inlays for our sway bar. Then we want to reinstall the outer shock cover, repeat the entire process on the other side, reinstall your wheels and tires, and your installation is finished.

That's how you install Total Control Products front coil-over suspension kit on your classic Mustang. A few things with this installation. You'll notice we didn't reinstall the factory brace. It's not going to work with this setup, and we actually have plans of adding a Total Control brace in the future, so we left it off for now. The other thing is the alignment. After an install like this, you will need a professional alignment done. I suggest not taking it to one of your normal tire chains. Take it to a professional alignment shop, and you need the specs provided by Total Control to really balance the suspension. Overall, the installation's pretty straightforward. Only a few minor modifications are required. For the most part it's a bolt in, take you 5 to 6 hours, and you'll be back on the road in no time.