Heidt's MII Conversion Kit

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benn3393

New member
I am looking at doing a MII conversion for my front end. Long term goal will have me with 5 lugs on all corners, so this is a good way in. Plus, I'll also get front discs out of the deal.
Has anyone done it? I've read the installation article, and they make it look fairly straight forward, but companies tend to do that. Also: is it just overkill to have that kind of suspension on a I6, or is there no such thing as suspension overkill?
Also, I live in Utah where rust is an issue........ I haven't looked at my frame in forever though, so I dunno.
 
Most guys do the MII conversion for the purpose of putting a big V-8 into the engine bay. Seems like way overkill if you are just looking to convert to 5-lug and disc brakes and running the I6. There are conversion kits you can get for about $600 that will do both. Check out the web site:

http://www.discbrakeswap.com/html/body_catalog.html

Or you can go the junk yard route to find a 5-lug donor car with discs.
 
Personally I never have been a big fan of the MII suspension swap onto classic stangs. I've never seen the swap done for handling performance in twisties... just as was said already... room for a bigger engine for drags. What I really dont like is the swap forces loads to be carried mostly by the thin frame rails rather than being distributed through the innerfenders/shock towers. So to do it right takes frame beef up ect ect.

Just swap your brakes out and relocate the upper A-arm
 
The MII conversions actually seem to work pretty well for a street rod/cruiser application and don't flex around much more than a stock setup, especially if you add torque boxes and subframe connectors. I think one of the reasons is that you're adding a fairly substantial crossmember that ties the car together better than before. The geometry is not bad, but is not really made for great handling either. Much more on corner-carvers.com....

But the biggest problem with the MII conversion is that it has a crossmember and steering rack where the oil pan used to reside. That means converting to a rear sump or modifying the front sump. You'll need to find a Fox-body oil pan and pickup or do some welding. 250's and crossflows are out of luck and will have to fabricate something. Additionally, you'll have to fabricate engine mounts.
 
If you just want disc brakes go with the adapter plate from scarebird. He has a plate that allows you to put on modern disc brakes from a nissan, chevy, and cadillac that just bolt onto your car - under $200!. The only problem with this setup is that it requires some machining of the drum hub to fit inside the rotor.
 
I'm thinking of going with a MII front end kit too, and here's why.... The MII kit will convert the steering to rack& pinion plus it will change the style of the front suspension. You can buy a R&P kit from NPD for about $1400 or Summit for around $1,200. This will get the sloppy OEM likage out of there. My NDP centerlink has worn out in less than 5K miles. You can also buy a new factory style front end suspension kit for around $600-700 with poly bushings. MAybe cheaper, I haven't priced one is awhile. Next you can buy a disc brake kit swap kit. I haven't priced that out because I went with a junkyard Granada swap awhile back. But you would have to do all three to give you what a MII kit would give you.

The advantage of staying with the OEM style uspension is that the kits are bolt-in. And you cna do one at a time. The MII will require welding and fabricating but give you all three upgrades at once. The other drawback is the oil pan issue mentioned earlier.

tanx,
Mugsy
 
No, the NDP centerlink for an OEM style 6 cylinder linkage is worn out. All in approx. 5K miles. That is why I'm looking into some type of *upgrade* as well. I don't want to put on a $100 link every 5K miles or so; plus I hate the slop of the OEM steering design.
 
I installed a rod and custom motorsports crossmember in my 61 Falcon and found it a very nice design. The reason I went mII is I found a junk yard set up to donate parts, and a good deal on the 11" discs. The crossmember with stut rodd eliminators costed me about $500, donar parts $85, disc set up $200, and rebuild 140. adding this up I don't think it was any more than a full overhaul and up grade. the extra space is really nice. If money was no object I would have gone with the strut type kit. I have not driven the car yet but it got to be better than the old set up. the biggest problem I had was I kept the 144 and had to install the rrear sump oil pan so right now I need to figure out what to do for a dip stick. I used the stock mid mounts and motor mounts and welded 1" plate to the crossmember the set up is simple and clean. also if someone down the road would want to go v8 it would be very simple.
 
Don't mean to steal the thread,
I have a MII suspension I cut from a MII a fire dept tore apart. I was going to do the swap, found a web site that shows how to mate the stock MII to a falcon but now may sell it for parts. My question is, has anyone ever thought about fabn' some brackets to at least use the stock MII R&P? on a 64-66 falcon/mustang
 
the problem with the rack swap idea is the MII is a front stear rack and the small ford is a rear stear set up. the other idea you mentioned was my first try at MII. I stopped after cutting out the towers when I measured the frame vs the stock crossmember and found that in order to install a stock crossmember I would have to cut off most of the frame rails. All that would have been left was the inner verticle side of the frame rail. this worried me since I really do not fully understand completely what's structural on the front of a unibody car. infact I was seriously afraid to cut the shock towers out. this is why I would have loved to go to a strut style conversion. Someone should figure out how to graft a strut setup to these early cars from a fox mustang or fairmont. It pained me to spend $500 on a crossmember but in the end i feel that it was the best approach in the end.
 
I saw that kit before and thats what gave me the idea about someone comming up with a home made set up. that kit looks realy nice but at1995 + junkyard parts I don"t feel that its worth it to me. If I could have made such a conversion for about $1200 or less I would have gone that route. I know that you get what you pay for but...
 
I agree with you Iceman, if Fatman fab can make something like that, why can't some one drum one up from a foxbody car for a ton cheeper
 
the mustang II and FOX racks are basicly the same. the EARLY MII racks had a narrower mounting but then went to a wider mount (they only moved the passenger side mount farther out) so they do interchange.

I would say find a cheap tubular fox K member and trim it and weld it into your falcon/mustang and locate the struts into the shock towers on smoe plates (simple drilled plate mount) and run coil over struts. would be a pretty cheap setup and I am sure would yield good results.

there was a post on HAMB on how to make and layout our own MII setup (how to locate the rideheight and all properly...even how to make spring cups for coils) if you are handy with a torch and welder it would be a simple project. I do like the grafted on stock frontend as it make it look more factory like.

I have never heard anyone mentioned that their car handled on rails with it though.....just handled better and road better than their stock setup (which normally is worn out and sloppy)

do some layout and look into putting the MII spindles on some cirlce track arms using the stock suspension points on the falcon chassis (you might need to lower the upper arms though) that would be a pretty straight forward swap also only needing to convert the rack into the car.

I did my sr project on building a fox based double a-arm setup (all 3-d modeled and all) and when researching parts it can be done pretty cheap if you have the fab and layout skills needed. Circle track arms run about $80 a pop (so $320 for arms of your length) and then whatever spindles you want. My setup used an upper bracket (my design but factory five sells one) on the stock strut spindles. I front halved the car (new fabbed frame rails and crossmember) the little things eat you up though. I think I have about $3k in my setup for front AND rear. This includes spindles, front and rear disc brakes, master, booster (hydraulic) arms, steel for frame rails, bushings, wheels. The only thing I am short is shocks/springs which will put me up to about $4K total for all new braking and suspension. the thing I found is you could do it on the cheap for about $2k...but going ALL out is only about $4-5K (I am talking splined swaybars, coils overs in all corners that are adjustable, full framing the car and all) I have all this stuff drawn up and in boxes...just waiting for a garage to do it all in.
 
BTW splined swaybars are pretty cheap IMHO around $150 for your first bar (after arms, links, bushings) but then you can change bar rates pretty easily for about $70 a bar with many rates available.
 
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