Rear Suspension… Going Back In Time.

By: Bob Goodson
June 16, 2020

This Bleakley Ford Saleen Mustang has some really good parts on it that a previous owner installed.  The shocks and struts are from Maximum Motorsports and are their brand of shocks set up for coil overs on all four corners.  The front suspension has coil overs and the rear has a conventional spring with the Maximum Motorsports shocks.

Without a doubt this suspension improves the cars handling characteristics and gives the car a more modern feel.  But, this isn’t what the car would have come with.  So we’re going back in time with the suspension to bring the car back closer to its original specification and parts.

How far were we able to get with the suspension swap on the first day? Take a look below…

Below are the Maximum Motorsports coil overs and caster camber plates that were removed.

Below are the Maximum Motorsports rear shocks and springs.

As you can see, these are great parts.  But they aren’t original Saleen parts or Bleakley Ford Dealer installed parts. This is why we’re going through the effort to change them back to as close to Saleen spec as we can. 

Below you’ll see the stock quad shocks that were in our parts stash.  A little wiping down and they looked way better.

The rear suspension is completed and now looks Saleen Spec (minus decals) and quad/horizontal shocks.

Sidenote: There is an insane amount of  paint overspray on this car.  The underside  and inside the wheel wellls show it too. You can see the red overspray in the pic below.

As you can see, there’s a lot of cleaning to do. This will be done at a later date. But for now we’re getting this Saleen back closer to a factory original spec. We are anxious to drive this thing. 

As you can see below, the rotors that were on the rear of the Saleen were not correct. In the pic below the bottom rotor is an aftermarket replacement.  The one on the top of the pic is what I’ve seen and documented on low mileage Saleen’s.  This rotor is what the Saleen would have come with through mid 1992.  The Saleen used Lincoln Mark VII/SVO rear rotors and calipers from 1987 to 1992 mid-year. So these rotors on the top of the pic are from an original Lincoln Mark VII axle that we have in our stash.  These will go on the Saleen. 

The other rotor in the bottom of the pic will be going on the race car.                                       

The part numbers for the Monroe Shocks and Struts:

Front struts: Monroe OE Spectrum 71803

Rear Shocks: Monroe OE Spectrum 5845

After doing a lot of shopping around it seemed that Rock Auto had the best deal on these at the time of this writing.

2 Comments

  1. Mike Foley

    Do you have a source for Monroe Formula GP decals Bob?
    I would be very interested in a complete set.

    Reply
    • Bob Goodson

      I’m looking for them Mike. Someone in one of the Saleen groups on Facebook had a stack of them. I can have them remade if needed. I’ll make it known on all the Purist Motorsports channels if I do have them made or find a resource with multiples already made.

      Reply

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