If you lowered the car, both ends, and expect to drive that way, you are going to have to re-engineer the front end completely.
- Chrysler engineered the front end to operate at a certain ride height +/- about 2 inches, for suspension travel.
- As you lower the car, the upper control arm moves up and back, carrying the top BJ with it. This moves the wheel back in the wheel opening. Of course all the operating angles go for a dump.
-You cant drive it like this.Camber change, bump steer SAI, ackerman, anti-dive, everything is wrong, and will put you in the weeds plenty quick.Or worse you will hit something or someone.
-Since you dont seem too savvy about any of this, re-engineering that front end is probably beyond your ability.Heck its beyond almost everybodys ability.I strongly urge you to put the ride height back to where it belongs, before somebody gets hurt or killed.
-To properly lower the car would require drop-spindles. I have never come accross those for A-bodies.Even with those it wouldnt be 100%.
-If youre really after the lowered look, you might try an after-market complete front replacement assembly. Youre looking at something like $4000 or $5000 or more, installed.
This is not correct. Almost any of it.
I've lowered all of my cars over 2" from stock. I actually raised my Challenger back up slightly because it was too low to clear speed bumps. It's still lowered at least 2" from stock.
The factory torsion bar suspension DOES allow this much height variation. It does require higher spring rates to adjust for the decrease in suspension travel, but that's pretty easy with the selection of aftermarket torsion bars now available. A drop in ride height corresponds to a loss of suspension travel, and compensation with a higher spring rate is needed to keep from bottoming the suspension.
Some cars will require offset bushings to regain the proper alignment specs if they're lowered that much. Or tubular UCA's, all of which have additional caster built in.
They do make 2" drop spindles for A-bodies. All of the platforms (A/B/E/F/M/J/R) use almost identical spindle geometry. C-bodies were the only one's with their own spindles, and some years aren't actually that different. The difference in the FMJ spindles is minor, and usually beneficial (do not listen to ehrenberg on that point, he's wrong). Regardless, drop spindles are WORSE for suspension geometry than just lowering the car with the torsion bars. I ran them on my Challenger for a couple years. I removed them, lowered the same amount, and was still able to achieve the proper alignment. No issues. I put over 10k miles a year on my Challenger like that. Drop spindles increase bump steer slightly, and you lose the roll center improvement when lowering the car with drop spindles compared to with the torsion bars.
In fact, lowering these cars actually improves a lot of the suspension geometry. Roll center improves dramatically, as does bump steer. Especially if the suspension is lowered to the point that the UCA's and LCA's are parallel with the ground. Anti-dive on these cars is overkill from the factory, especially if you've done the right thing and increased the diameter of your torsion bars when lowering the car. Camber change is ideal when the UCA and LCA are parallel to the ground. Literally, almost as perfect as you can make it if you were going to design a suspension. Lowering the car also has the added benefit of adding negative camber on these cars, which is helpful for modern alignment specs. Ideally, if you're on radials you should toss the factory specs in the trash and use something like -.5* camber, +3* caster (or more for power steering), and about 1/16" to 1/8" toe. The factory specs are for bias ply's, and are a disaster for radials.
The OP does need to get an alignment and see where he's at, and we really need to see a picture of this wheel location to decide if something is wrong.
. Please help.. Could the wrong spindles be in the car? I don't see a cast number on them.
