Duster
Well-Known Member
Anybody has picture of them install on a Duster. Any mod other than change the spindles. Thank you.
Robert
Robert
Magnum Force 2" Drop Spindle
- Thread starter Duster
- Start date
-
Duster
Well-Known Member
I see that PST & Fat Man Fabrication also have some is there one better than the other. Thank you.
70Duster440
Well-Known Member
I have a set of Fat Man spindles (which I will be selling). They were designed for F-body suspension so they're a little taller. In all, they work and function fine, however the lower inside edge needs some beveling or chamfer IMO just for better ball joint boot clearance.
mopowers
Well-Known Member
Stupid question- What's the difference between using drop spindles and just adjusting the torsion bars to lower a car with stock spindles to the desired ride height?
vitamindart
Well-Known Member
the amount of suspension travel you are left with, I would be willing to guess it would effect other things as well.
some want to go even lower than backing the Torsion bars off will do safely
yeah, stay away from Magnumn force. Not a big fan based on what's been posted about failures. PST is good and even gives a FABO discount to members as well.
I cranked the torsion bars down a lot. I haven’t lost any ride quality but make sure you use energy suspension bump stops and don’t put the body on them. I left an nice gap between mine and the ride is fine. Not bouncy or rough. I did adjust them a few times to get the clearance I needed after hitting the bump stops around town. I want to go with airbags but if there’s drop spindles that work I’m in! I want the front on the ground lol
Last edited:
prican_2000
Well-Known Member
WOW - That Looks AWESOME.
But Quick Question: did you mean to say Energy Suspension Bump Stops instead of Enters Suspension??
soon as I get some time I'll crank my torsion bars down some.
abodyjoe
Well-Known Member
pretty sure pete @GMachineDartGT tried the drop spindles and didn't like them and returned to stock ones.. may want to contact him and see what the deal was.
Hahaha yeah. Stupid phone. Energy suspension lol!!
Not a stupid question, The drop spindle gives you the ride height lower than stock,but retaining full range of suspension movement.
Would I buy some ? Not likely. The set I got were given to me along with the .920 T bars. I was doing the power disc brake swap and figured to used them and see what they were like. The combination of all new suspension parts front and rear made the handling very well and stopped great.
Would I buy some ? Not likely. The set I got were given to me along with the .920 T bars. I was doing the power disc brake swap and figured to used them and see what they were like. The combination of all new suspension parts front and rear made the handling very well and stopped great.
Duster
Well-Known Member
I have PST torsion bar, swaybar & all bushing. I like the way the car feel & handle at this time and would like to keep it at that, but would also like the front lower, so the front tire wouldn't look so small in the opening + stance, by dropping the spindle there wouldn't be no change to suspension except lower in the front.
Drop spindles are the best way to go. They raise the spindles up x amount of inches without sacrificing ride quality or wear out ball joints prematurely. Once you start lowering vehicles its very easy to see the difference a “stance” can make to a car. One thing I’m going to trying to do on my 65 Valiant is a skid plate. Before I go lower I want to make sure nothing is going to get the oil pan. Hit a trench in the road that wasn’t filled in all the way around Xmas and cost the contractor 3 grand to fix my front end. Just be careful when riding low. and enjoy the aggressive look of it!
mopowers
Well-Known Member
Nice looking Valiant. Do you have a straight picture of it?
Duster
Well-Known Member
Anybody with PST drop spindle?
Robert
Robert
Cope
Fusing with fire
I walked into magnum force about a week ago to pick up some parts, 3 guys out front smoking, 4 or 5 folks in there "show room" chatting, no one greeted me or even wanted to talk to me.... finaly I said " hello! Any one work here? " One of the guys looks up and says " yeah..."
I just walked over to the shelf and grabbed the parts went over to a lady on her computer and set them down in front of her. She looks up like I just **** on her key board.
If that's how they treat customers IN THERE STORE, think how they gonna take care of you......
Just sayin.....
I just walked over to the shelf and grabbed the parts went over to a lady on her computer and set them down in front of her. She looks up like I just **** on her key board.
If that's how they treat customers IN THERE STORE, think how they gonna take care of you......
Just sayin.....
mopowers
Well-Known Member
Did you end up buying anything? I would've walked out.
Cope
Fusing with fire
Yeah but it was like 60 bucks in small parts.
It's funny I live like 2 miles from them now and had never been there. I never hear great things but I was excited to go an see the place. Now i know...
Maybe i just caught them on a bad day you never know but it was super unprofessional, the show room looks like a tornado just blew through and the vibe was not great to say the least...
Maybe if I had showed up in my dart it would have been different but i almost think it would have been worse... (i can't stand condescending *** hats)
The only mopar in the parking area was a new charger.... if that says anything...
It's funny I live like 2 miles from them now and had never been there. I never hear great things but I was excited to go an see the place. Now i know...
Maybe i just caught them on a bad day you never know but it was super unprofessional, the show room looks like a tornado just blew through and the vibe was not great to say the least...
Maybe if I had showed up in my dart it would have been different but i almost think it would have been worse... (i can't stand condescending *** hats)
The only mopar in the parking area was a new charger.... if that says anything...
famous bob
mopar misfit
I `ve got a complete magnum force tubular front end and haven't had a bit of trouble out of it. I did build a pair of strut rods , much like the originals for it.
I did contact them about my coil over front springs, they were very helpful on the phone, to me ! ??????????
Good to hear. Still doesn't change my mind. The photos and such of the failures are around this forum and the rest of the web. Perhaps they've fixed the issue, hopefully. That said, I'm not ready to change my mind on it until we know for sure. You get what you pay for so I'll stick with companies that haven't had a major reported product error such as Gerst, Hemidenny, RMS, Hotckiss etc.
Good luck and stay safe
famous bob
mopar misfit
I`ve been on this forum for 8 yrs. ??? I have heard a lot of bad mouthing of magnum force, but only seen one pic of a failure. How many pics have u actually seen ??
Drop spindles on the torsion bar suspension are a waste of time and money.
Think about this- the drop spindle lowers the car 2” without changing the angles of the control arms. So, if you lower the car 2” from factory, the control arm angles remain stock. That should be a good thing, but it’s not in this case.
The best suspension geometry for these cars occurs when the control arms are about parallel to the ground. Best camber curves, best bump steer numbers, best suspension geometry for radial tires. So, if you use drop spindles, you don’t get the best geometry. The CG is lowered, but that’s it. Your camber gain/curve is as factory designed for bias plies. And, if you don’t lower your car the full 2” for ride height your geometry is actually WORSE than stock. Bump steer is worse, camber gain is worse, roll center is worse.
But ok, the geometry changes aren’t gigantic, and driving moderately on the street maybe not everyone would notice. So then it’s about ride quality, you lower the car 2” without losing suspension travel with the drop spindles, unlike if you lower the car with the adjusters, so you can keep your floppy stock torsion bar right? Well, no, not necessarily. Because LCA to frame travel isn’t the only problem. If you lower the car 2”, another issue comes up. Tire to inner fender well clearance. My car is lowered just over 2” from stock. My suspension at full compression puts the spindle 13” from the bottom of the flat of the inner fender. That means with a 26” tall tire, at full compression, well, the tire would hit the inner fender. Keep those floppy torsion bars and you’ll bottom the tire on the inner fender at the same time you hit the bump stops. That’s worse than stiff torsion bars.
The other is wheel clearance. The drop spindle changes the relationship between the center of the rim and the outer ball joint. So, tie rod end clearance changes. Maybe not a huge deal if you’re running 15” rims and not a lot of backspace, but, if you’re running 17 or 18” wheels you lose some of that additional backspace clearance you gain by going to those diameters. Basically you’re stuck with skinnier tires again, not unlike using factory wheels.
Bottom line is, a 2” drop from factory is fairly close to the limit for clearance regardless of how you do it. Unless you like running short tires, which will also put your exhaust and K frame really low to the ground. If you use larger torsion bars and good shocks the cost will be about the same as the drop spindles, and your car willl handle great. If you use drop spindles, your car will handle like factory, and you’ll have spent just as much money.
And the ball joint angle thing is crap. I’ve never had an issue with them binding, and I’m pretty close to having tire to inner fender clearance issues.
The magnumforce spindles are fine too. They’re probably stronger than the originals. That might not go for all of their parts, but the spindles are plenty strong. The couple of failures I’ve heard about with their parts were K frames, and that was the old design and probably at least 6+ years ago. There’s no way in hell I would run fabricated spindles like the FatMan spindles on the street. JMO.
Think about this- the drop spindle lowers the car 2” without changing the angles of the control arms. So, if you lower the car 2” from factory, the control arm angles remain stock. That should be a good thing, but it’s not in this case.
The best suspension geometry for these cars occurs when the control arms are about parallel to the ground. Best camber curves, best bump steer numbers, best suspension geometry for radial tires. So, if you use drop spindles, you don’t get the best geometry. The CG is lowered, but that’s it. Your camber gain/curve is as factory designed for bias plies. And, if you don’t lower your car the full 2” for ride height your geometry is actually WORSE than stock. Bump steer is worse, camber gain is worse, roll center is worse.
But ok, the geometry changes aren’t gigantic, and driving moderately on the street maybe not everyone would notice. So then it’s about ride quality, you lower the car 2” without losing suspension travel with the drop spindles, unlike if you lower the car with the adjusters, so you can keep your floppy stock torsion bar right? Well, no, not necessarily. Because LCA to frame travel isn’t the only problem. If you lower the car 2”, another issue comes up. Tire to inner fender well clearance. My car is lowered just over 2” from stock. My suspension at full compression puts the spindle 13” from the bottom of the flat of the inner fender. That means with a 26” tall tire, at full compression, well, the tire would hit the inner fender. Keep those floppy torsion bars and you’ll bottom the tire on the inner fender at the same time you hit the bump stops. That’s worse than stiff torsion bars.
The other is wheel clearance. The drop spindle changes the relationship between the center of the rim and the outer ball joint. So, tie rod end clearance changes. Maybe not a huge deal if you’re running 15” rims and not a lot of backspace, but, if you’re running 17 or 18” wheels you lose some of that additional backspace clearance you gain by going to those diameters. Basically you’re stuck with skinnier tires again, not unlike using factory wheels.
Bottom line is, a 2” drop from factory is fairly close to the limit for clearance regardless of how you do it. Unless you like running short tires, which will also put your exhaust and K frame really low to the ground. If you use larger torsion bars and good shocks the cost will be about the same as the drop spindles, and your car willl handle great. If you use drop spindles, your car will handle like factory, and you’ll have spent just as much money.
And the ball joint angle thing is crap. I’ve never had an issue with them binding, and I’m pretty close to having tire to inner fender clearance issues.
The magnumforce spindles are fine too. They’re probably stronger than the originals. That might not go for all of their parts, but the spindles are plenty strong. The couple of failures I’ve heard about with their parts were K frames, and that was the old design and probably at least 6+ years ago. There’s no way in hell I would run fabricated spindles like the FatMan spindles on the street. JMO.
Last edited:
-
