The Silver Bullet is a Control Freak (2024)

Well, I finally got around to installing the complete IFS from Control Freak in the Silver Bullet. I have had the set-up for a month or so now, but just haven't had the time to work on my own cars. So, this weekend I finally made the time to put it in the car. The Bullet only has about 500 miles on it since we "finished" the car last year, so everything was pretty clean and easy to come apart. We did the car the first time with WSC coil-overs, which are a nice set-up, but the car is lowered signifigantly from stock and the stock suspension just wasn't designed to have be that low. I couldn't keep an alignment on it, and it was putting a lot of stress on the stock ball joints. So here are a few pictures of the project, along with the details we dealt with during the installation. The CF IRS reguires a perfomance oil pan to clear the tubular crossmember. You can use Canton, Aviaid, or now the new roadrace Milodon pan. I have the very first Milodon pan produced, in fact it was the one on dispaly in the Milodon booth at SEMA last year. Below are a few pictures taking the "old" stock suspension out of the car...

I chose to keep the engine in the car, so we fabbed up a way to hang the engine from the lift. Worked swell.

Here is the stock suspension removed from the car:

This is the issue I had with the Canton pan; the external pick-up bung is right up against the headers. As you can see, I had to wrap the headers to keep as much heat as I could off the external oil line...ugly. The Milodon pan fixed that issue, so I had the opportunity to change out the pan at this time.

This is the CF motor mount, eliminates any of the stock mtor mount hardware

Here are the CF parts ready for installation

Next comes the crossmember...boy what I nice unit, lots of new room to work under the car...

Next comes the steering rack...

Then the upper and lower control arms. Excellent fit on the lowers, although per instructions from CF, I had to spread the uppers to be wide enough to fit the towers. Very easy to do, and it made installation much easier.

I installed the brakes back on the car, but had to move the calipers from the front of the wheel to the rear to clear the steering arm that attaches to the new spindles. I didnt purchace the brakes from CF as I already had the Aerospace big brakes, and didn't want to throw away that previous purchase. I just called Aerospace and they sent me the new brackets for the Mustang II spindles as well as new bearings toreplace the AMC spindle bearingsand everything went together like it was made to...how often does that happen? Maybe next time Wilwoods or SSBC???

Here's the complete unit in the car...

Here are some pictures of the steering arm from up top.

I have Bulltear's sepentine pulleys and had to put a smaller belt on now that the power steering pump is gone. Notice how clean the car looks with the Saginaw power steering pump gone. The rack really looks cool

Weight on the wheels. Same stance as before, although the adjustable coil-overs are all the way down to get this ride height. It would be nice to get a little more adjustability, but I can't imagine wanting to go lower. The CF has Afco Racing ball joints, Flaming River Rack and pinion, and Howe Racing ball joints., so it is a serious piece of work.

It seems there is always a gotcha in any project. Since I have the Milodon oil pump adapter for the external oil pick-up, it lowers the oil filter about 1.5". With this there is not enough clearance between the filter and the crossmember for the big oil filter. The smaller oil filter works, but it is very tight. I am using a WIX filter, which is smaller, and that works just fine. The real fix if using the Milodon adapter is to go with Bulltears remore filter kit. That's next for this aplication

So, the car goes to the alignment shop in the next few days. I did drive it a couple miles, although not too much because I didnt want to scrub up the tires before the alignment. I noticed right away, the solid feel the front has now...VERY noticable. It just feels smoother going down the road, but I will only be able to tell the performance benefit after the front end is set up properly. Its now a manual rack and pinion rather than the effortless 1970's power steering, so that will take some getting used to. I'm looking forward to Control Freaks new sawy bar to go with this...aparently it will be available in a couple weeks As a side note, I put the complete set-up in the car all by myself...Javelinman wasn't around this weekend. I wouldn't rwecommend doing alone, an extra hand is better and this is not a one man installation. I also want to say; this is not a project for the in-experienced, or those faint of heart. It is a lot of work, but can be done with time and patience. I had it a little easier because the old parts were only recenty installed and nice and clean, so that saved a lot of time for me.

This set-up is more eye candy that I am used to on a AMC for sure!! Makes the Ford and Chevy guys look twice because they've all been at the shop drooling this weekend.

Edited by Coloradoamx - May/30/2011 at 11:26pm

Wow.

Usually I am proud just to have an AMC that is road worthy and driveable.

But sometimesI see something so nicely done it makes me cringe with shame.

And this is one of those sometimes.

Incredible job, that is an amazing ride.