[AMC-List] Mustang II Suspension?

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

SNIP
The only thing I can say is if'n I was cuttin I would likely committ
sacrilege and install the heavier mustang II system. Tha extra room you
gain
and the incredible availability of bolt in parts plus the rack just
plain seem
to me to out weigh the dissadvantage of it being heavy.
 Anyone know how much heavier the MII is???
SNIP
 
The simple Mustang II suspension conversion (probably more politically
correct than referring to it also as the Pinto conversion or Mercury
Bobcat conversion) has become almost the standard of the industry as
basic parts in fabricating a some what modern front suspension
alternative to knee action, solid axle, hard to find or antiquated front
suspensions of a wide variety of modified cars in the hobby. It too has
a single bushing lower control arm with a strut rod that goes forward
rather than rearward in the car leaving the lower control arm to go
through a weird pivot motion of one bushing and a funky strut rod
location. 
 
The following is from a web site that sells Mustang II suspension
options. 
The Mustang II (MII) suspension geometry originally came from the '70
Pinto. It was designed in the late '60s specifically as a cheap-to-make
setup for a four-cylinder car with. This made the MII system relatively
inexpensive for rodders to purchase and fairly simple to install in
their rods. The real bonus was that it had a narrow track, making it
perfect for rods, plus it had rack-and-pinion steering-possibly the
first American car to come so equipped. The system was simple and
compact, and offered pretty good geometry. Perhaps best of all, the
crossmember could be purchased separately from the local Ford dealer
while the remaining components were readily available at the local
wrecking yard.
 
The rest of the article can be read at the following URL;
http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/techarticles/custom_mustang_II_suspe
nsion/
 
Since than the basic Pinto parts have been supplemented by aftermarket
with a full lower control arm supported by 2, not 1 bushing and this
gets rid of the strut rod!
 
By the way a simple web search using Yahoo and Mustang II Suspension as
an exact phrase came up with 9200+ web sites while the same search using
the words Trunion +AMC came up with 188. Do I detect a difference in
popularity?
 
I do not know anyone that has actually adapted a Mustang II suspension
in any form to any AMC automobile. Probably at least one reason is no
matter what type of suspension the AMC car has for street use, they are
rebuildable and functional when done and probably with an all ball joint
suspension well under $250.00 in parts for almost everything and with
trunions probably well under $600.00 in parts. While most people I know
do it them selves I am sure a number of people have it done. I have
rebuild about 2 dozen '70 and newer front suspensions. If that is the
case my guess that you may see $1500 or so bills on it. Maybe more.
 
Now the previously mentioned number does not include adding hubs and
brakes to the cost but that can be done in parts generally for a number
between $100 and $500 in parts and once again is usually handled by the
owner and how good a scrounger he is and what he or she will re-use
rather than re-place. 
I have a whole usable disk brake system on a shelf that can be bolted
onto any AMC car I own that I got for nothing by just stripping a car
that was going to be crushed. 
 
The question was, what is the weight of a Pinto Suspension. That may
very a bit depending on the source but for the sake of argument let us
identify the source as Fat Man Fabricators. 
Url is www.fatmanfab.com <http://www.fatmanfab.com/>  . Their affordable
IFS starts out as a $1495.00 cost plus shipping. The stage II with
polished A arms start at $1795. The Stage III with polished stainless,
pro style shock towers and GENUINE PRO Coil-overes slides in at an even
$2195 with air suspension only $2795.00. Notice the operative words
"starts at"!
Now I am not sure the above numbers are related to weight or not, but
that seems pretty heavy to me. 'Specially when I can not sell my
completed and modified Spirit for much over $900.00 and these parts have
not been installed yet. 
Now granted these are hub to hub units and the cross member can probably
substitute for the AMC unit and become the motor mount too, but I have
not included the cost of welding all of this together, or learning to
weld or buying a welder. A tool I will bet that many of us do not have.
I just got mine 5 years ago and I have been in the hobby since 1956.
 
An alternative to Fat Man is Street Rod Engineering, URL
www.streetrodengineering.com <http://www.streetrodengineering.com/>   in
Lake Havasu. This leaves about 9,198 others to check out to determine if
this is the type of money that needs to be spent to correct something
that is not currently broken or if broken can be repaired for something
under a grand for the most part. 
 
I dunno, but I don't see this solution becoming to popular! Is it
doable? Yuh, I think it is and probably easier than most people realize
but of course there is the matter of installing the rack and pinion
steering and getting the steering box hooked up to the steering column
the power steering modified to work with the rack and pinion and a few
other minor foibles but I think when said and done it ain't agonna be
much better than what is in there already. 
 
And that seems pretty heavy to me.
John
 
 
 
 
 
 
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