Warning long!
Hmmm, maybe so. I may loosen the allen bolt and try to tap them a little deeper up against the hydra bushing with my rubber mallet for a tighter lock to the bushing housing. It would seem they would need the support of the bushing housing to work effectively and the way they sit now it's only about 1/4'' of housing support. Then again, I'll give myself a week or two to see if I can feel any other subtle differences in driving situations before messing with them again.
When I first installed the Steeda front control arm bushing kit suspension wise I had the original 2005 five spoke funnel wheels and OEM Pirelli PZero Nero A/S tires, Tokico D-Specs front and rear, Eibach ProKit sport springs, Steeda G-Trac lower brace, Steeda adjustable LCAs and the original Steeda adjustable UCA both with poly bushings on both ends and the most excellent Steeda adjustable Panhard bar and matching H.D. PB brace. So when I first installed the Steeda front control arm bushing kit I used the red bushings and thought to myself that they didn't do anything. So I pulled out the red donuts and installed the black ones and like you thought I felt a slight improvement in steering precision. This was enough for me at the time as I did not want to ruin the car's decent street ride like I usually do.
But being the suspension whore that I am I soon decided that I needed more overall grip and in particular more front grip. So I bought a set of forged 18"x10" Roush wheels with 275/40x18 BFG KD tires all around. With the grip so much higher now the car was rolling much more than before and the once O.K. spring rates were way too low and the car now had developed a mild push.
So I installed a set of Steeda Race springs, Steeda HD adjustable camber plates in addition to a Steeda billet camber plate kit, Steeda 35mm front bar with Steeda adjustable comp/street links and original small Steeda 20.5mm rear anti-roll bar with billet links, Steeda front anti-roll bar mount brace to triangulate the front of the chassis and get the most out of the front bar. I also installed a Steeda bumpsteer correction kit, relocated the front control arms and the rear LCAs and upgraded my original Steeda adjustable UCA with Steeda's much improved longer competition/street UCA and UCA mount. This was a major improvement in handling balance and front grip was now amazingly good for a street car.
Some miles later I pulled out the D-Specs and Steeda Race springs and installed a set of Steeda coilovers with much higher spring rates than the Steeda Race springs they replaced, now we were cooking! I had also experimented with some other "sport" springs but the Steeda Race springs were the best for my purposes (hauling it through the canyons in and around Mulholland drive/highway) due to their better ride height and higher spring rate but I still needed more spring rate hence the coilovers.
About this time I was having issues with the rear axle due to the Steeda LCA bushing sleeves which are undersized and over time collapse (bending and making the LCA bolts loose) when properly torqued to full factory specs. So I machined some new bushing sleeves that were a bit larger O.D. as the O.E.M. inner LCA sleeves (HUGE) and drilled out a new set of Steeda poly bushings for a zero clearance fit. At this time I also took the opportunity to install a set of rod-ends on the axle side of the Steeda LCAs and what do you know, problem solved but with a bit more NVH than the all poly and skinny LCA bushing sleeves.
About this time the Saleen PJ Edition Boss 302 cars came out and I was lusting after the wheels which are very similar to the old Trans-Am wheels they used to use during the Tran-Am wars of the late 60's early '70's. So I found the company that supplied these wheels to Saleen and bought a couple of sets along with some nice new 19" rubber to go with them. But now the car was wearing staggered wheels and tires but I had set it up for a square wheel and tire configuration. I thought it was going to push which it did but after some careful tuning of spring rates and bar adjustments I had the car working nearly as well as with the square wheel/tire setup. The car still had a little bit of push but manageable.
Then one day I got to drive a Saleen PJ 302 in the canyons. At that point I had to have a Watts' link in my car! So I found someone who would sell a Saleen PJ Watt's link to me and I installed it one day out in my garage and all I can say here is WOW! With the slightly higher roll center of the PJ Watt's link the chassis was balanced nearly perfectly even with the staggered wheel tire setup. This is the way these cars should have come from the factory! Quiet, smooth and much better behaved with no weird rear axle jacking or different steering and handling feeling when cornering hard left or right in slow corners or fast! The only reason the car is a bit harsh now is the higher spring rates I currently have installed. I'm thinking about working up a dual spring setup once I get my E36 M3 project finished and out of the garage. The M3 has TCKline double adjustable coilovers setup using my own specs with a dual spring rate setup I am working on specifically worked out for the M3. I have to see how well the double spring system works before I try it on the Mustang but it should work just fine.
So here is where it gets interesting. I had a front ball joint that was starting to get a little bit loose so I bought a set of GT500 front control arms. I had wanted to install them when the GT500 came out for their much more heavy duty balljoints but also for the stiffer hydra bushings and now was the time as I had a long trip I had to drive. So I pulled out the S197 GT front lower control arms and installed the GT500 front lower control arms and did a quick garage floor camber and toe alignment and off I went. I later noticed that the car was not as sharp steering but thought it was just the alignment. So later I did a more careful alignment and found it was the same as before the lower control arm swap. Then I remembered that I needed to install the Steeda bushing kit and had a hard time getting them out of the old arms. But once installed using the black donuts I could feel them working after yet another alignment. So I know they work but it takes a lot of grip and well located control arms to feel the change in steering precision.
HTH!
. I saw zero improvement, nada, nothing from the STB. For that matter, I also installed the steeda control arm bushing kit on my car last night. MAYBE a bit stiffer steering, MAYBE. If you look at how they install on the CA's, there's only about 1/4'' of space they mount into pushed up against the hydra bushing. After seeing how they mount I can't see how they would have any effect. And I used the harder (black) durometer bushing.
