Everyone at one time or another has considered or installed an aftermarket K-member for their Mustang. Choosing which one to buy is also a task. If you are like me and have read the posts on the Corral, there have been install problems with various manufacturers' K-members. Not everyone who buys one has problems with ith but keep in mind that most of the aftermakret ones are mass produced and allocated time for quality does suffer. This installation reflects my experience with installing a K-member.

I purchased a QA1 K-member from Summit Racing for $229. It seemed like the best price around and I didn't see an enormous amount of complaints on the Corral about it either. Another reason for choosing the QA1 K-member is, it looks just the the UPR K-member but painted black. I compared photos and in case you didn't know... UPR uses QA1 parts in it's coilovers... at least that's what I saw at UPR's display at FFW.

Ok, on with the install. My install was a bit easier than most in the beginning. My car is a rolling chassis, so I didn't have to deal with raising the engine. Jack the front end of the car up and remove the front tires and rims, easy enough. Next, the wrenching begins. It is very important that you obtain a "spring compressor" so to make the job a little easier but safe as well. You can get these from a local auto parts store on a "loan" basis with a deposit refunded when you return the spring compressor.

The first thing I did was remove the sway bar linkage. Next, I unbolted the two lower bolts on the strut. Slowly lower the a-arm until the spring falls out. If you are not using the spring compressor you better stand clear. A friend of mine told me awhile back he didn't use one and the spring shot out across the garage. Installing the K-member itself was a fairly easy task with only two things worth mentioning. When removing the stock K-member, make sure you have some WD-40, deep socket and combination wrenches in 19mm and 21mm sizes and a cheater bar or 250 ft. lb. torque wrench couldn't hurt either. When mounting the K-member install all the bolts with exception to two bolts on the rear of the K-member on both sides. I will explain that reason below.

Here is a shot of the stock K-member removed. I can honestly say this is the hardest part of the entire procedure!

THere is a shot of the spring compressor, probably one of the most important, yet under rated tools!

Here is the new K-member getting a test fit, luckily we noticed there was going to be a problem before we actually did the install. The next couple of pictures will show what modifications had to be done to get it to work!

If you look at the first two pics you can see that there are two problems right off the bat. The first problem is the bolt hole on the rear most tab for the A-arms on both sides of the K-member are up higher than they should be and the bolt will not connect to the opposite bolt hole evenly. It's a slight measurement off but lowering the bolt hole will be necesary.

The second problem is since the rear most bolt hole for the A-arm is higher than it should be, the stock A-arm bolt head tabs rub the plate of the K-member that attaches to the underside of the frame. The outside bolt for the K-member to the frame is also in the way, that will be bolted on last. Youare probably thinking why I didn't run the bolt through from the front? I tried that too, it didn't work either. So I stuck with how the bolts were installed on the stock K-member...bolt heads on the outside of the A-arm connections. If this doesn't make sense now, it will when you get under the car.

Ok, now that the rear A-arm connections have been taken care of the third problem is the front A-arm (if you are re-installing the stock ones). The forward A-arm joint, if you look at the back, the A-arm rubs the K-member a little. A simple fix, use an angle grinder and trim the back of the A-arm a little and that takes care of that.

This pic shows that I used a benchtop grinder to shave off two sides of the lip so it would clear the K-member plates.

Using a drill and a slightly smaller drill bit, I lowered the bolt hole so the bolt would be level and connect to the inside A-arm tab.

This pic clearly shows why trimming the A-arm bolt tabs were necessary.

Finally, the botl goes through and is flush on the tab.

Ok, now I double check to make sure the bolt goes through the inside tab and looks good.

Once the back of hte front A-arms have been trimmed, it's time to bolt them up... finally!

331 Stroker Part II