AJE Tubular Coil Over Front Suspension

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subcom

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Here's my write-up, review and lots of pics on this front suspension. I installed it over the summer on my 65 Valiant and have been putting plenty of street miles on it. Let's get the FAQs over with first.
Cost:
- A Body Mopar Street Kit (K-Frame, Upper and Lower Control Arms, Steering Arms) $2100.00 shipped.
A Body Mopar Street Kit - AJE Suspensions
These items you can buy from AJE or shop around and save some money like I did on a few.
- Rack and Pinion (Mustang Fox Body) Ebay $150.00
- Viking Double Adjustable Coil Overs $660.00
- Bump steer kit Ebay $100.00
- Misc steering shaft and couplers about $100.00 (Speedway)
Total $3110
Weight:
R&P 10.8lbs
Tubular K Frame 21.5lbs
Lower A Arms 5lbs/each
Upper A Arms 5lbs/each
Steering/Knuckle mounts 2lbs/each
Shocks 6lbs/each
Bump Stop kit 4lbs
Steering linkage and u-joints about 8lbs
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About 70lbs total
My old torsion bar setup with manual box and 82/83 bars was 122lbs.

Install
The overall experience wasn't too bad. The included documentation is really weak but AJE support was awesome, quick to answer my email questions and phone calls, even on the weekend on one occasion which was pleasantly surprising. They shipped me the wrong coil mount brackets (they were too long like for a B-Body or something) but quickly sent replacements without any fuss. I also wasn't able to use my Scarebird disk brake setup (bit of a disappointment) since those adapters are really large and interfere with everything so I bought the 73 11" disk setup from Doctor Diff which helped the stopping ability quiet a bit so that was a worthwhile upgrade.
The most difficult part is probably removing the lower bump stops and drilling the 4 holes in the frame to bolt the coil over mounts and inside frame plates for stiffening the frame. The rest is pretty much a bolt-in affair. Factory motor mounts lined up beautifully. Took the car for alignment at my go-to place and told them to setup as close to the specs they set me up with last time with the old torsion bar setup (straight-line, mostly drag) and I was pleased to learn that the AJE kit has more positive caster built in. Alignment was perfect. The ride is fantastic though I'm sure the expensive double adjustable shocks help that a lot. Still need to get it to the track and see how it performs but so far I'm really pleased with it. Also this kit accepts a 73-76 style sway bar which I might install at some point.

Pics...
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Steering shaft and couplers setup. I got kind of creative on this part.
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As she sits now except I've swapped out the front tires for some skinny BFG Radial TAs.

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did you weld the radiator support in place or leave it removable for easy engine removal?
Super nice looking car and clean!
 
So you use the stock style spindle? It looks like a fabricated steering arm. How's that work with the lower ball joint? Any pictures of that assembly?
 
Yes, accepts factory spindle. They have different steering arms based on whether you use the older small ball joint spindle or large ball joint one.
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thanks for the write up ive decieded to run the AJE set up in my 67 baracuda i have the 73 spindles looks great and seems very simple to install
 
@subcom

I'm installing the same kit on my '72 Duster and I'm wondering about the upper coil over mount. I removed the bump stops, but I feel like the upper mount doesn't sit at quite the correct angle against the shock bolt hole(maybe 1/8" gap on the inside), and it keeps the plate from meeting up flush to the frame rail below.
I feel like if I could heat up the metal around the hole and push the outside of the hole up it would correct everything, but now your post has me wondering if I have the correct upper mounts. They're really close, I'm just not sure. Any insight?

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I seem to recall mine had a bit of a gap also but not that bad and it mounted flush to the frame once the bolts were installed and torqued down. Make sure you leave that upper shock bolt a little loose also while fitting the shock mounts it does make a big difference. Contact their support if you get stuck. They’re really good about responding.
 
They must like you more than me. I sent an email both through their page and directly to their email address yesterday. Still no response.

What height coil overs did you need to buy?
 
racerjoe said:
So you use the stock style spindle? It looks like a fabricated steering arm. How's that work with the lower ball joint? Any pictures of that assembly?
Click to expand...

Exactly so. This is drag race only gear IMO, there's almost no chance at all this system has decent Ackerman for the street. The support of the upper coil over mount is also insufficient for the weight it carries for long term street use. For example, it has about half the strength of the HDK upper shock mount hoops just based on its mounting to the frame.

The design of the K makes it pretty lightweight use also. The entire strength of the K frame in torsion and other modes of loading boils down to only the strength of this section of tube, which has a really small cross sectional area regardless of its wall thickness.


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DustinsDuster said:
They must like you more than me. I sent an email both through their page and directly to their email address yesterday. Still no response.

What height coil overs did you need to buy?
Click to expand...
Sent you a DM with the email I have.
 
72bluNblu said:
Exactly so. This is drag race only gear IMO, there's almost no chance at all this system has decent Ackerman for the street. The support of the upper coil over mount is also insufficient for the weight it carries for long term street use. For example, it has about half the strength of the HDK upper shock mount hoops just based on its mounting to the frame.

The design of the K makes it pretty lightweight use also. The entire strength of the K frame in torsion and other modes of loading boils down to only the strength of this section of tube, which has a really small cross sectional area regardless of its wall thickness.


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I plan on running bars between my firewall down to the front section of my frame rail to tie the shock tower on to, as well as a motor plate, so no worries there.
 
abodyjoe said:
i've always read exactly that.
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Same here, but it seems like people keep wanting to use them on the street.

The weight savings is the interesting part for me, and I think shows that the AJE is too lightweight for long term street use. The biggest difference is the weight of the K frame, even compared to other coil over conversions.

For a factory 73-76 K frame I have the weight at 34 lbs even. And the rest of the stock parts with a manual box, 1" torsion bars and aftermarket shocks I had at 119.6 lbs for all factory suspension.

For an HDK I calculated the weight of the K by itself working back from the total and components, and was at ~31.6 lbs, so like 10 lbs heavier than the AJE. For a whole HDK with a manual rack the weight was at 88.5 lbs.

Denny said his manual rack weighed in at 16 lbs though, so that would mean most of the difference between the HDK and the AJE would be the K frame and the rack. I have no idea why the rack would be that much lighter unless Denny included some of the steering stuff that was separated out above, which is totally possible.
 
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