suspension rebuild

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wellby

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My 94 mark viii is in need of a suspension rebuild. Last year I install a American air suspension 1.5" lower coil spring conversion with new shocks and mounts in the rear. I plan on keeping the car for a couple more years, only 74,000 miles on the car and is in great condition all around My local shop quoted me over $2,000 to rebuild everything in the front and new swaybar links in the rear, $1200.00 in parts alone. I know the car needs work because the handling and tracking of the car has degraded over time, the car gets very twitchy at highway speeds. Does this seem like too much money for the work or just the going rate.
 
No way. Not that much. All the parts are about $400.00. It is not all that hard with the help of a buddy, it can be done in an afternoon.
 
I just priced a new front end rebuild:

Upper control arms, lower controls arms with ball joints, sway bar end links, outer tie rods, strut rod bushings

Total, $519 using all MOOG brand. Im not getting inner tie rods since I am getting a new rack that will have them. If you want to replace the sway bar bushings, $25 more.
 
unity said:
I just priced a new front end rebuild:

Upper control arms, lower controls arms with ball joints, sway bar end links, outer tie rods, strut rod bushings

Total, $519 using all MOOG brand. Im not getting inner tie rods since I am getting a new rack that will have them. If you want to replace the sway bar bushings, $25 more.
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about 250.00 for all the parts on E-bay.....
 
Sure, go with the eBay crap, mostly OE brand, and end up with rusty parts - bent lower control arms and ball joints that last about 20k! There are more than a few members, including me, who have had NO luck with arnott OE Brand.

Then ONLY choice for the critical parts, like the lower control arms, upper control arms, etc. wil be TRW or Moog - TRW being cheaper and often you will open a Moog box and find a TRW stamped part!
 
make the parts cheaper, all t-bird parts since you no longer have the air susp you can even use bird uppers without the ball stud for the air ride sensor :)
 
I agree just did my uppers today on my 95 only took about an hour each side.

Lowers are easy also.... I haven't done any thing else but I'm guessing they wouldn't be anymore of a problem. All done in a day depending upon how many beers between parts. LOL...
 
Ya, T-Bird (LX) lowers and such are A LLOT cheaper and what I will be using myself.
 
wellby said:
My 94 mark viii is in need of a suspension rebuild. Last year I install a American air suspension 1.5" lower coil spring conversion with new shocks and mounts in the rear. I plan on keeping the car for a couple more years, only 74,000 miles on the car and is in great condition all around My local shop quoted me over $2,000 to rebuild everything in the front and new swaybar links in the rear, $1200.00 in parts alone. I know the car needs work because the handling and tracking of the car has degraded over time, the car gets very twitchy at highway speeds. Does this seem like too much money for the work or just the going rate.
Click to expand...

does this maybe include all rubber bushings including subframe bushings?

many people dont realize the subframe bushings get hard and need replacing,

if your mark hits hard on highway expansion joints and everything else is good on the suspension,then it needs new rubber parts too.
 
unity said:
Sub-frame bushings in the front?
Click to expand...

i dont think i said front,he was talking about a front end rebuild and i was trying to figure out his high quoted price,but i was mentioning that many people bypass the subframe bushings and wonder why they feel hard pounding after new shocks and other parts.i re did my whole mark and it felt harder on bumps than econo cars i have owned in the past,then i had the subframe rubber replaced and it felt like a new car again.
 
No you did not, but he was talking about the front and only the front - hence my confusion? So the rear sub-frame bushings then, right? Those big donut things?
 
Yea it's going to be all new uppers and lower control arms that include bushings and ball joints, strut rod bushings, swaybar bushings and endlinks new outer tierod ends. Going to look into the subframe bushings.
 
unity said:
Sure, go with the eBay crap, mostly OE brand, and end up with rusty parts - bent lower control arms and ball joints that last about 20k! There are more than a few members, including me, who have had NO luck with arnott OE Brand.

Then ONLY choice for the critical parts, like the lower control arms, upper control arms, etc. wil be TRW or Moog - TRW being cheaper and often you will open a Moog box and find a TRW stamped part!
Click to expand...

:slap: my "OE" parts lasted 145,000 miles, I think thats pretty damn good. but yeah Moog and TRW are at least greaseable.
 
O E != O E M ?? I hope you not saying OE brand are OEM! :)

Some have said they got OE brand but they were stamped TRW, those are the lucky ones and its hit or miss. I don't want to take a "gamble".

So I just ordered all my stuff to from RockAuto.com $400 for all Moog with shipping. Also got a $21 discount using the discount code. I think I did well, the Rock just lowered prices, better than I originally calculated.

Maybe this will help you out with you order too!


rock.jpg
 
When I did the front end on my 97 I got all Moog parts. I got all of mine from O'Reilly's. I referenced all parts from the 97 T-Bird since they are all the same. O'Reilly's actually knocked the price down better than Rock Auto. I need to get them again for GMANjr's Mark now.
 
Well my stuff came:

Everything I got from Moog was stamped TRW except the stabilizer bar links and tie rod ends. Everything came in Moog boxes:

This is what I spent without shipping and discounts: $423.08

Same parts, but ALL TRW from Advance Auto: $430.56

Factory in RockAuto shipping $12.26, then apply discount of $20 and I saved about $15 and have two parts, non-critical, that are indeed Moog.

I am happy, but if I did it again I would by local seeing as I will end up with TRW anyway.
 
Oh, and I just want to add that the only think I can think different may be the bushings and inserts. In other words, Moog buys the core parts and uses their own bushings, etc. But I would have to see a TRW arm un-instaled to check this theory.
 
Has anyone check what Maxx's price would be? When I purchased my plug wires he was cheaper than Summit for Ford Racing by about $10.

I never thought about asking him on control arms. I hate asking him for prices and then not buying from him if I can get it cheaper elsewhere.
 
I know what you mean. Price fishing sucks. I try to buy from one source unless its a big order.

But Max is at a Ford dealer, right? So those will be OEM upper and about $113 each last I checked. $76 for T-Bird uppers if ya converted.
 
unity said:
I know what you mean. Price fishing sucks. I try to buy from one source unless its a big order.

But Max is at a Ford dealer, right? So those will be OEM upper and about $113 each last I checked. $76 for T-Bird uppers if ya converted.
Click to expand...

Is that Maxx's quote or just standard Ford dealer price. If that is standard then Maxx will be competitive with Rock Auto for us.
 
Just got back from O'reillys, and they hooked me up big time on all my suspension parts. I paid $337.34 for Moog upper control arms, Moog Lower control arms, and Sway bar end link kits. This really helped out the budget.
 
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