69 Dart - relocate rear leafs ?

-
A Body 440 WHY NOT

A Body 440 WHY NOT

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2019
Messages
361
Reaction score
143
Location
Jersey
i am slowly working on my 69 Dart 440 project. One thing I am seriously considering is moving the rear leafs springs in. I am looking at the USCT kit for about 220 plus ship. It bolts in for location , then weld it up. I was under the car, giving it a look over , and it looks like if you move the pass side spring to the frame rail it will be VERY close to the fuel tank . Has anyone had this issue ? Any tips on what to do and what not to do ?
Thank you
 
A Body 440 WHY NOT said:
i am slowly working on my 69 Dart 440 project. One thing I am seriously considering is moving the rear leafs springs in. I am looking at the USCT kit for about 220 plus ship. It bolts in for location , then weld it up. I was under the car, giving it a look over , and it looks like if you move the pass side spring to the frame rail it will be VERY close to the fuel tank . Has anyone had this issue ? Any tips on what to do and what not to do ?
Thank you
Click to expand...

Will the wheel well be your limiting factor after relocating the spring? May just go for the offset shackle route. Exhaust routing is definitely an issue for clearance but the spring will not hit the fuel tank.
 
All depends on how big you want to go for a rear tire.

With a '69 Dart if you install a DoctorDiff 1/2" spring offset kit you can probably get a set of 275's in there. Which is a decent amount of tire. And all that's required is moving the perches on the axle housing and bolting in the new hangers and shackles. Pretty easy and a great "bang for your buck" mod that doesn't involve a lot of fabrication.

A full 3" spring relocation and mini-tub will allow you to run tires in the 335 range, which is huge. But that requires the mini-tub. Without a mini-tub you're still stuck with 275's, because that's about all the stock wheel tubs are good for regardless of where you put the springs. The full 3" relocation and mini-tub is a fairly common modification, lots of folks have done it and I have definitely seen it done with the stock tank. Exhaust pipe routing gets to be a pretty big issue though, and I have also see a decent number of those cars with turn downs at the axle. Not saying you can't get a full exhaust in there, but it gets to be pretty strategic with routing.
 
I'm about to move mine back to stock location, other than screwing with the exhaust there doesn't seem to be an issue. Is there a reason you want to move yours?
 
well, I wanted to get more rubber back there. Stock is pretty limiting as far as tire/wheel to fit in there. I am interested to hear that the offset shackle kit will accomplicesh the same thing with less work/welding....... I may go that direction. i am not looking to mini tub or anything with the wells.
Thanks,
 
Im running 235/60/15s on a 15X7 rim with a 4"backspace, could get another 1 1/2 it looks like with the springs in stock location
 
I have the USCT spring relocation kit and mini tub kit on my 69 dart and love it! They make high quality products, and yes you can put some major tire on after doing this. Personally I didn’t like the offset shackles, I just think they would possibly bind. I put a 275/60/15 under mine and there is stil a pile of room. Springs are 36” apart and I shorted my housing down to 48” flange to flange

Jeff

A867A6EE-21C3-48F2-8899-39230646FD3B.jpeg


39ADE35D-81DA-4439-AE9A-BAEC33234DF3.jpeg


57FCC403-4F30-41ED-B2B4-8755186589C9.jpeg
 
jtkaaa07 said:
I have the USCT spring relocation kit and mini tub kit on my 69 dart and love it! They make high quality products, and yes you can put some major tire on after doing this. Personally I didn’t like the offset shackles, I just think they would possibly bind. I put a 275/60/15 under mine and there is stil a pile of room. Springs are 36” apart and I shorted my housing down to 48” flange to flange

Jeff

View attachment 1715428623

View attachment 1715428624

View attachment 1715428625
Click to expand...
Very nice dart.
 
jtkaaa07 said:
I have the USCT spring relocation kit and mini tub kit on my 69 dart and love it! They make high quality products, and yes you can put some major tire on after doing this. Personally I didn’t like the offset shackles, I just think they would possibly bind. I put a 275/60/15 under mine and there is stil a pile of room. Springs are 36” apart and I shorted my housing down to 48” flange to flange

Jeff

View attachment 1715428623

View attachment 1715428624

View attachment 1715428625
Click to expand...

There’s no reason that DoctorDiff’s 1/2” spring offset would cause binding. If you offset the perches a 1/2” like you’re supposed to then the hangers, perches and shackles are inline just like they are with the stock equipment. Or with a relocation kit for that matter.

I ran a 1” offset kit on my Challenger for the 70k or so miles I put on it, it never showed any signs of binding because of the offset shackles. I have a 1/2” offset kit on my Duster too, although I replaced the shackles with spring sliders on that one. Not because of any additional binding, just an upgrade to sliders.
 
jtkaaa07 said:
I have the USCT spring relocation kit and mini tub kit on my 69 dart and love it! They make high quality products, and yes you can put some major tire on after doing this. Personally I didn’t like the offset shackles, I just think they would possibly bind. I put a 275/60/15 under mine and there is stil a pile of room. Springs are 36” apart and I shorted my housing down to 48” flange to flange

Jeff

View attachment 1715428623

View attachment 1715428624

View attachment 1715428625
Click to expand...

They don't bind if done right--
I have offset hangars and ''295'' 60 d15`s on mine , they don't stick out of the fenders either , fastback, not a dart tho.
 
If you aren't going to mini tub there is no point to relocating the springs. Use the offset kit which allows a 26x10.50 sportsman pro
 
I have 245/45/17's on the rear with nothing more than the correct offset rim. Its about 1/2" from the spring at the closest point and the inners need a bit of a roll.
 
jtkaaa07 said:
I have the USCT spring relocation kit and mini tub kit on my 69 dart and love it! They make high quality products, and yes you can put some major tire on after doing this. Personally I didn’t like the offset shackles, I just think they would possibly bind. I put a 275/60/15 under mine and there is stil a pile of room. Springs are 36” apart and I shorted my housing down to 48” flange to flange

Jeff

View attachment 1715428623

View attachment 1715428624

View attachment 1715428625
Click to expand...

You don't even have to use the offset shackles. Just drill one hole on each side to move the shackle mount over the 1/2", and use the stock shackles.
 
mopowers said:
You don't even have to use the offset shackles. Just drill one hole on each side to move the shackle mount over the 1/2", and use the stock shackles.
Click to expand...

How can you move the rear shackles using your method?
 
roccodart440 said:
How can you move the rear shackles using your method?
Click to expand...

You can simply move the small shackle mount over 1/2" by drilling one hole per side. I think you have to rotate the shackle mount bracket 180*, or maybe swap sides. I can't recall as it's been a few years since I did mine. Dr. Diff actually gave me the idea because he was out of offset kits at the time. The best part is that no offset shackles are needed.
 
A Body 440 WHY NOT said:
i am slowly working on my 69 Dart 440 project. One thing I am seriously considering is moving the rear leafs springs in. I am looking at the USCT kit for about 220 plus ship. It bolts in for location , then weld it up. I was under the car, giving it a look over , and it looks like if you move the pass side spring to the frame rail it will be VERY close to the fuel tank . Has anyone had this issue ? Any tips on what to do and what not to do ?
Thank you
Click to expand...

It is a domino effect. Once you start moving stuff around you have to keep moving stuff until it all fits again. Don't start the project unless you know what you're getting into. It took me two years of work to get this A body back up and running after moving everything around.

DSC_4021 (Large).JPG
 
AndyF said:
It is a domino effect. Once you start moving stuff around you have to keep moving stuff until it all fits again. Don't start the project unless you know what you're getting into. It took me two years of work to get this A body back up and running after moving everything around.

View attachment 1715428818
Click to expand...

So true. Once you open that can of worms, you have to eat all the worms or you end up with hacked up junk.
 
AndyF said:
It is a domino effect. Once you start moving stuff around you have to keep moving stuff until it all fits again. Don't start the project unless you know what you're getting into. It took me two years of work to get this A body back up and running after moving everything around.

View attachment 1715428818
Click to expand...
Do you have any pics of how you routed your tail pipes? What size are they, i have 3" in and out mufflers with dumps, i want to add tail pipes to mine.
 
yellow rose said:
So true. Once you open that can of worms, you have to eat all the worms or you end up with hacked up junk.
Click to expand...


Depend's on your skill level, my car is far from hacked up or junk! I didn't need to go as narrow as I did with my housing, but did it because I may go with a wider rim and tire setup in the future. In my opinion these car should have all had the mini tub's from factory, that stupid lip in the wheel tub makes no sense. And as far as offset shackles go, your rear end is still the same width, so what are you gaining by going with an offset shackle?? I gaurantee you would never have got any bigger than a 245-255 under my car with the offset I had, the problem is with the axle housing length. If you don't feel that you are capable of doing this, than by all means don't, and try the other options. All I can say a lot of Dart's I see at car shows have the the mini tubs done.
 
This is a general idea of what any good exhaust guy can do with your tailpipes. We have an A body guy that owns an exhaust shop locally who can do whatever you want. I have dumps on mine, always did, so I never worried about tail pipes.

70DartTailPipesSmall.jpg
 
AndyF said:
It is a domino effect. Once you start moving stuff around you have to keep moving stuff until it all fits again. Don't start the project unless you know what you're getting into. It took me two years of work to get this A body back up and running after moving everything around.

View attachment 1715428818
Click to expand...

Don't feel pregnant , it took me 8ish yrs to get mine in its currant state.
Are thy ever done ? lol
 
mopowers said:
You don't even have to use the offset shackles. Just drill one hole on each side to move the shackle mount over the 1/2", and use the stock shackles.
Click to expand...

This is the craziest thing I ever read , DRILLING A HOLE WOULD BE PUTTING THE DAM THING INSIDE THE FRAME
What kind of car are u talking about ??

We need pics -----------
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top