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Well...it's
partly out of the car! This pic captures the early stages of my
k-member swap. This thing is H-E-A-V-Y!!! |
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This
picture shows why tubular k-members are so light: there's hardly
anything to them! I'm going to give this piece a try.
Quality appears to be good. It is a D&D Motorsport mild steel
unit, as are the lower A-arms. My car doesn't see lots of highway
use, so this will probably be safe for in-town, occasional highway use,
and running at the dragstrip. If I decide to start putting more
miles on the car out on the highway, I may try lightening the original
k-member and put it back in. I'm not sure whether I would re-use
the tubular A-arms or whether I'd try lightening the factory arms. |
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Here's
a pic of the k-member installed. There's a TON more clearance to
get at the headers, starter, etc. That is definitely one of the
benefits of the tubular k's. I haven't decided how I'm going to
limit fore and aft engine movement with the new k-member yet. If
you look in the upper right-hand corner of this photo you can see the
heavy aluminum bracket that is attached to the motor mount bosses on the
block. I had an adjustable steel limiter when the old k-member
was on the car. The factory k-member had a bracket welded to
it. The k-members are so dissimilar in shape and size that I can't
re-use any of the frame-mounted part of the old setup. |
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Driver's
side view of the tube k-member and Pro Mustang headers. |
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One
of the biggest hassles I encountered during the installation of the
k-member was my discovery that the rear k-member mounting pad holes
didn't line up with the factory mount holes at the base of the
firewall. I had to take the k-member out (only once, thankfully)
to elongate the holes. I then used oversized washers to compensate
for the oversized holes. |