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LateModelRestoration.com’s New Fox body Front Control Arms

With the youngest Fox body Mustangs on the road being over 21 years old, there are a lot of parts and pieces in the stock suspension system that are well past their prime. While rear control arms, shocks, and struts get all the big attention, the front lower control arms have been a trouble area for these cars for years. At one time, Ford offered a full replacement version of this arm, but that has since been discontinued.

So owners have been left to scrounging junkyards to replace damaged control arms, or rebuilding their old ones, replacing the damaged bushings and ball joints. The rebuilding process takes several hours, and from personal experience we can tell you it’s no fun. As usual, the team over at LateModelRestoration.com saw a need in the marketplace and has come up with a solution.

Being released this week is part number LRS-3079A-K, a set of front lower control arms for 1979-93 Mustangs. These are new stamped steel pieces, just like the factory originals, and come with new bushings and new ball joints already installed. If you have ever fought with replacing the factory bushings and ball joints, then you’d probably gladly pay the $349.99 asking price to not have to do it on your next Fox project.

So why is replacing the front lower control arms a good idea? Over time the factory rubber bushings deteriorate to the point of sagging, or even beginning to come apart. This places additional stress on the control arm, steering components and front struts. The ball joints also wear out, and we’ve even seen them fall out of Mustang control arms after years of abuse. Some arms that have had bushing on ball joint replacement in the past may also be worn to the point where the arms won’t safely accept replacement parts again.

Any of these problems can cause tire wear issues, handling woes, and some can even lead to a potential safety hazard when driving. So if you’re restoring a Fox, and using stock style front control arms, we’d advise you to pick up a set of these from LateModelRestoration.com while you’re replacing everything else on that front suspension.