What's up, everybody?
I'm Justin with americanmuscle.com, and this is gonna be my detailed breakdown and install
of BMR's Adjustable Rear Upper Control Arm loaded with their Poly Bushing available for
your 2011 through 2014 Mustang.
So, the BMR Upper Control Arm here, their poly option should appeal to S197 owners out
there looking to upgrade their factory piece, of course, but more importantly, we'd like
to correct and adjust pinion angle on a lowered Mustang.
Now, this is especially problematic on cars lowered more than one inch and when using
a one-piece drive shaft but it can still be an issue on cars with a two-piece driveshaft
as well.
Taking things a step further I would say the poly option would be better suited for S197
owners who spend most of their time on the street with an occasional strip or track mixed
in for good measure, and I say that because the poly material here with the rear upper
control arm gonna be a little bit better at soaking up any extra NVH or noise, vibration,
and harshness when compared to your other option in the category a spherical bearing.BMR's
Upper Control Arm is gonna be one of your pricier options in the category at $180 price
point, and it's gonna get two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter from me and
I'll explain a little bit more as to why later in the video.
But let's get down to basics here guys, and the S197's gonna teach us what is called a
three-link rear suspension design with a Panhard bar so you have your upper single here, and
the two lowers controlling your roll or front to back movement of that rear axle, while
your Panhard bar's gonna control the side to side or lateral movement.
The problem with the factory stuff, it's meant for the masses, you've got some soft rubber
factory bushings in there, which will soak up all that road noise and vibration, of course,
but they leave a lot to be desired when performance driving is first as your priority.
They can deflect under load or hard acceleration sometimes causing some poor traction and of
course that dreaded hop that we all know and hate.
And on top of that, the factory components don't allow for any adjustment or change to
the pinion angle to be made on a lowered Mustang which can cause a host to other problems,
the biggest being bad driveline vibrations and even speed up the wear and tear on your
pinion bearings or even your U-joints.
So now that you know why you might need something like this, let's talk a little bit more about
BMR and they are one of your premiere suspension options for your Mustang both old and new,
they really do focus their effort on improving the factory design, improving your car's handling
and traction in the process.
With all that said, let's breakdown the construction a little bit further here, guys, with the
Rear Adjustable Upper Control Arm and just a very solid piece overall.
One and five-eights inch DOM steel tubing loaded with BMR's 95 durometer polyurethane
bushing, guys, and this thing is internally fluted, and what that means is you're just
simply gonna be keeping grease on the bushing at all times prolonging the life of the bushing
itself but keeping things quiet in the process as well.
Now the center section here or the adjustable section you're gonna be looking at a really
strong chromally steel with rolled threads, just help make on-car adjustability a little
bit easier when it does come time to adjust your pinion angle.
And I do say relatively easy because you are still working in a very tight space right
above the pumpkin on your S197.
Now I do wanna point out that BMR strongly recommends installing their upper control
arm mount along with the arm itself during the time of install, otherwise doing so and
installing this with the factory mount can result in some clunking or some noises while
driving.
Now ultimately this is your call, right?
You can install the BMR upper with the factory mount, take a gamble on the noise, or you
can just pull the trigger on the corresponding BMR mount, it's definitely better off compared
to your factory mount which is this stamp steel.
The BMR mount, on the other hand, is quarter-inch thick steel plating so it's only gonna help
further solidify the rear end including your traction, and you can grab that on the site
if you prefer.
Now if you do plan on doing a lot of drag racing with your S197, then I would probably
steer you more towards the spherical bearing option which you can also grab on the site.
Ultimately, it's just gonna be your best bet in reducing any movement with the rear end,
but be forewarned, you're almost certainly going to introduce more noise and more vibration
with the spherical bearing option.
Also available on the site but not nearly as important is the fact that you can grab
both the Upper Control Arm here and the corresponding mount that we just talked about, and your
choice of Hammertone being shown here, or there is a red option available as well.
Well, let's switch gears and talk about the installation here with the BMR Upper Control
Arm and honestly gang there is a couple of things to consider here.
Now if you're only installing the arm by itself, you're gonna reuse your factory mount, I'm
gonna go a strong one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter, maybe an hour or
two of your time from start to finish.
Now if you do plan on installing the corresponding BMR mount, well then your install difficulty
will stretch out a little bit more to a two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter,
you're gonna spend a little bit more time on the install as well as there are more steps
involved, one of them being removal of the rear seats and the 27 millimeter bolt that
lives under there.
But since this video is focusing in on the Upper Control Arm by itself, let's just talk
about that from an install standpoint.
And as I pointed out earlier, yes you're gonna be working in some pretty tight spots above
the pumpkin, yes the car will need to be in the air so just consider that.
As far as your tools, well an assortment of sockets in addition to a very burly torque
wrench capable of reading over 200-foot pounds.
Now when it does come time to start wrenching the actual install for the arm by itself isn't
all that bad here.
You're essentially looking at two bolts here, a little distocker and set it aside.
Now before you install the BMR unit, you're gonna wanna make sure you start off with this
length here between the two holes to be nine and a half inches.
That's a good starting point, from there you can adjust your pinion angle which I'll talk
about in a second.
Reinstall the BMR option after you adjusted it to nine and a half inches, torque everything
down, and the installation is complete.
Now if you were to adjust your pinion angle, now would be the time to do so, you just simply
need an angle finder, magnetic angle finder or something like that or a protractor, then
make a few measurements, make your adjustments with the suspension loaded up, that's very
important.
Now stick cars you wanna be in the negative two to negative three range for your pinion
angle, autos probably in the negative one to negative two range, and you can find some
tutorials to do that on the site.
Well guys closing this thing out here, if you're looking to correct pinion angle on
your lowered S197, you spend most of your time on the street, and you wanna improve
your traction, the poly option from BMR would be a great choice, and you can grab one right
here at americanmuscle.com.