2003 Cobra Eibach Pro Kit, Maximum Motorsports Caster Camber Plates and Urethane isolators

As with any modification to a car - you do one thing and it leads to a handful of other aftermarket parts to install.  That is what happened when I installed the Rovos Pretoria wheel and tire package from LMR.  The Pretorias are 18x9 up front and 18x10.5 in the back wrapped in Nitto NT555 G2 tires.  See my other post about the wheel and tire install for some interesting tips!  Once the wheels were on the car, it was very obvious that the car wanted to be lowered.  There was about 4 inches or so of a gap between the wheel and fender.  It looked intentionally raised up.  That lead to the springs, which lead to isolators and caster camber plates.  Its a vicious cycle!  I also added some links to my instagram account @geargambler so you can see some pics.

Springs
The kit from Eibach for the 03/04 cobra is part number 3594.140 and retails for 285.  If you find a site wide 10% off coupon (black friday or some other sale) that will be your best bet.  You wont find them used anywhere and they likely drop ship from Eibach, so the prices are the same everywhere.  I bought mine 11/20/17 from LMR.

Isolators
The front spring isolators are the same for 84-04.  Part number is MM-U-5.  The rear spring isolators are for IRS.  The MM kit was the only one that had the upper and lower isolator for the rear.  Part number is MM-U-3.  I bought the isolators from Lethal Performance.  

Spring and Isolator install
The stock springs are NOT coming out without a coil spring compressor.  Don't waste any time - either buy it or rent it.  I rented it from Autozone.  The one to use is made by OEMTOOLS and the part number is 27035.  Here is a LINK to it on Amazon.  It works even better if you remove the snap ring and insert 3 weld wheel lug washers in between the hardened washers.  It just gives a little more adjustment.  With that tool we were able to remove the springs and isolators just fine.  When the stock springs were removed and the Eibach Pro Kit springs were installed, that tool was worth its weight in gold.  I re-used the stock spring isolators.  Read below about the ride height difference between stock and MM spring isolators.  With the Eibach springs installed and the stock isolators, I took the car for an alignment and they really couldn't get it close.  That let me know I needed the caster camber plates.  When I installed the caster camber plates I also removed each of the springs again and installed the MM spring isolators.  Each time we used some 3m electrical tape to hold the isolator to the spring so it wouldn't move.  The urethane MM isolators are much nicer than the stock rubber ones.  There is always something magical that happens when you do the same job twice.  The second time is much quicker! 

Caster Camber Plates on IG

Maximum Motorsports Caster Camber Plates
The part number for the plates is MMCC0304.  This is specific to the Billstein struts that are stock on the 03/04 Cobra.  The kit includes a dust boot specific for the Billstein.  The installation of the CC plates went EXACTLY like the instructions.  I made sure, and this is IMPORTANT, to take measurements from the fender to the strut shaft and from the firewall to the strut shaft BEFORE removing the caster camber plates.  After the install, these measurements will get me close to where they were before.  At least close enough to drive it to the alignment shop 30 miles away.  The only exception in the instructions was the strut shaft spacers (more on that below).  And I can honestly say it was a little weird drilling the 4th hole in the shock tower, but the method the install doc outlines is spot on perfect and very easy to follow.  You can find the install doc on the Maximum Motorsports site here.  Click the tab for instructions.

Strut spacers
The CC kit comes with 2 short and 2 long spacers per side.  The install doc recommends 1 short up top, 1 short and 2 long below for stock ride height.  For lowered cars the install doc recommends 2 long and 1 short up top and 1 short below the CC plate.  The lowered car configuration leaves a lot of the strut shaft above the caster camber plate.  I split the difference and used 1 short and 1 long above and the same 1 short and 1 long below.  From the context of the install doc I gathered that lowered meant 2 inches or more.  The Eibach pro kit states 1.4 inches lower.  I think with the MM spring isolators it was even less than that.  So I think that the setting for my application should be in between the lowered configuration and the stock ride height configuration.  I made sure the strut shaft didn't hit the hood (thank you SVT team for engineering reliefs in the hood for the strut shaft!), there is plenty of room. 

Ride Height
Here is the fender height with the stock spring isolators and the Eibach Pro Kit (this measurement was taken after a 60 mile round trip to the alignment shop and back):  Front measured 25 15/16 inches from the fender edge in the wheel well to the ground.  Rear was 26 11/16 for the Right and 26 13/16 for the left.

After the MM spring isolators, the same measurements were 26 5/16 from the fender to the floor in the front, both sides.  That's a difference of +3/8 inch.  Rear measured 27 for the Right and 27 1/8 for the left.  That is a total difference of +5/16 inch.  I have to say I like how the car sits with the MM isolators installed.  It gives a little more clearance for the tires to prevent from rubbing and a little more ground clearance for the exhaust.  I'm very pleased!

Ride Height and Alignment Specs

Alignment, part 2.
The shop I took my car to is Mavis Discount Tire in Mount Pocono.  This was the only shop I could find in the area with an alignment lift that can accommodate a lowered car.  The lift is embedded into the floor, so the top of the lift is floor height.  Drive the car on the lift and it comes out of the floor and raises up the car.  NO RAMPS needed.  The manager of the shop is named Clint, who is actually a mustang enthusiast himself.  With his permission, I was able to work with the tech who did the alignment.  I can honestly say, it was a great experience and I couldn't be happier with being a part of the alignment work being done.

The actual alignment was an interesting story.  I probably did too much research on this, which landed me with a handful of different specs.  Eventually I fell back to the Alignment Recommendations that are in the install doc for the CC plates.  Here are the cliffs notes.  More details are in the install doc.

For Camber, Ford Prefers 0.6 Negative and Ford will allow 1.35 Negative to 1.5 Positive.  The install doc recommends 0.5 Negative for street cars.  Camber is now set to 0.5 negative on both sides after the alignment adjustment.

For Caster Ford prefers 3.6 Positive and Ford allows 2.85 Positive to 4.35 Positive.  The install doc recommends 4.5 Positive for street cars, with attention to bumpsteer.  We set the caster to 4.3 on the drivers side and 4.5 on the passenger side. This is the max adjustment.

For Toe, Ford prefers 0.25 toe in and ford allows 0 to 0.5 toe in.  The install doc recommends 0.5 toe in for street cars.  When I showed this to the tech and the manager, they were taken back by it and didn't like it at all.  We eventually set toe in the front at 0.13 and 0.14 in, which is practically straight.  They were pretty convinced that 0.5 toe in would not have the car track straight.  I took their advice, and the car goes straight down the road.  It is just fine.

One interesting thing about the adjustment for caster is that the plates are all the way forward.  The caster adjustment meant that the passenger side inboard nut on the caster plate needed to be removed because the camber plate was hitting it.  Once we did that we achieved 4.5 positive caster (maxed out on the plate), with the 0.5 negative camber setting.  I still need to think about this a little bit more.  For now, we left the nut off the caster plate - there's still three holding it in place (for reference, stock was also three bolts).

Caster Camber plates and stock parts

I'm extremely happy with how the car sits right now with the new Rovos wheels and Nitto NT555 G2 tires, the Eibach Pro Kit and the Maximum motorsports CC plates and spring isolators.  Its a great combination.  The ride quality is excellent and I don't expect any rubbing either. 

2003 Cobra Terminator Wheel and Tire Upgrade

I had a set of American Muscle GT500 replica wheels and tires on my 94 GT.  A friend of mine asked if he could buy them off of me.  He was in need of tires and I made him a pretty good deal.  I then took the OEM wheels and tires off of my 2003 Cobra and put them on the 94 GT.  This freed up the Cobra for a very nice set of wheels! 

I did some shopping and eventually landed on Rovos Pretorias.  I was shopping during black Friday 2017 and the deals were VERY good at LMR.  I bought the satin Rovos Pretorias with Nitto NT555 G2 tires mounted.  The Pretorias are staggered, 18x9 in the front and 18x10.5 in the back.  This means I could finally get rid of the spacer in the rear! 

The tire sizes are 265/35/18 up front and 285/35/18 out back.  They look AWESOME on the car.  I had to do a little bit of grinding on the rear halfshaft stud to get the center cap of the rear wheel to fit, but that wasn't too bad of a task. 

One problem now - with the bigger wheels and tires, the Cobra stock ride height needs to be lowered.  There's a HUGE gap between the fender and the wheels now.  Next up will be the Eibach Pro Kit!