Rebuilding front and rear suspension

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remytherat

remytherat

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I'm looking to thoroughly get my suspension up to snuff. Rear suspension sags, front wanders when going over bumps, and overall ride quality and handling is lacking, in addition to general squeakiness.
Here is my plan:
New shocks all around
New bushings all around
Thicker torsion bars
New leaf springs
Looking for your guy's thoughts on this, specific parts, additional upgrades

Would a sway bars be a worthy upgrade? Need to save some dough for the brakes.
 
What car are you working on?

I did all four of your planned items to my 66 Barracuda. And...rebuilt the steering coupler. Made a heck of a difference.

I bought the front end kit from PST (they are a sponsor here and give a discount) as well as their 1.03 torsion bars.

ESPO springs for leaf springs. I just wanted to get back to stock height so I did their heavy duty stock height springs.

You can't go wrong with a sway bar...its on my list.
 
unless you're working on a restoration, i always recommend upgrading to the 73~76 front suspension. you get big bolt pattern brakes, cheaper parts and more options to build out upgrades from there.

budget really dictates a lot of choices here, and if you try and piece meal it you can wind up with sunk costs. for instance, if you do all of bushings and wear components, not much of that can be carried over to the 73~76 set up.

however, shocks, t-bars and springs will go right along. i don't know what end result you're ultimately after so i can't give much of a recommendation.

and yes, sway bars are a worthy upgrade. depending on your build you may only need a front, honestly.
 
66fyssh said:
What car are you working on?

I did all four of your planned items to my 66 Barracuda. And...rebuilt the steering coupler. Made a heck of a difference.
Click to expand...
Oops should have clarified..69 dart. And I actually just rebuilt my steering coupler because the thing literally came apart as in it disintegrated and disconnected from the column lol

junkyardhero said:
i don't know what end result you're ultimately after so i can't give much of a recommendation.
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I am mostly concerned with body roll in corners as well as just having the front end not wander when I go over bumps. Hoping to be able to take it up in into the angeles national forest eventually. Drove the 110 from pasadena to DTLA today and man was that an interesting ride around the curves...

Good to know about the 73-76 front suspension
 
I see you are a relatively new member. Welcome. I would definitely contact @PST. Like @66fyssh said, they are sponsors on this site and give a FABO discount. I would go a step further and say that if you encountered any problems, PST will stand behind you and make things right. They are great people to work with. Have you ever rebuilt Mopar front suspension before. With the strange Lower Control Arms (LCAs) and Torsion Bars, it may be different than what you are used to. But this site is a wealth of information. YES. sway bars are a GREAT upgrade. I put a front sway bay on my 69 Barracuda, and the cornering difference was remarkable. We have a bunch of traffic circles around here, and I went from wallowing through them to carving a path through them. I also agree with @junkyardhero when he says to consider going with the 73-76 suspension. I would also put Right Hand Thread (RHT) studs all the way around. I never liked the hassle of having RHT lug nuts on the right side and LHT on the left. While everything is apart, it is a good time to paint and or powder coat all of the suspension parts. It will never be easier. You might consider boxing up the LCAs. There are kits available with the plates you weld onto the bottom of the LCA. That stiffens the LCA and can provide better handling. You may as well at least think about it since the LCAs will be off. You might consider Polyurethane bushings also.
 
remytherat said:
I am mostly concerned with body roll in corners as well as just having the front end not wander when I go over bumps. Hoping to be able to take it up in into the angeles national forest eventually. Drove the 110 from pasadena to DTLA today and man was that an interesting ride around the curves...

Good to know about the 73-76 front suspension
Click to expand...

there's a lot of considerations. brakes, swaybars, rebuilding the components, each are their own system and each are or can be unique to years/production. for example, you can use any A-body lower control arm from 64~76. but, the 67~72 and 73~76 have their own unique swaybars that match their production years of control arms and corresponding k-frames, and the motor mounts are different as well. we're not going to talk about 64~66 sway bars and their LCA's because that won't work for what you've got.

however, the aftermarket is rife with swaybars and there's something that fits nearly any collection of parts-- yes, even arms that don't have the swaybar tabs.

so you can run the 69 K, an aftermarket swaybar, aftermarket or stock upper control arms with small bolt or large bolt discs.

there's lots of options, some are more expensive than others and there can be arguments that some are better than others, but none of adding disc brakes and a swaybar is "wrong". the magic is in selecting the components that all work together, and that's why i always lean toward upgrading to the 73~76 stuff, it's a known entity that all works as a system and has a ton of parts availability and aftermarket support.
 
@BergmanAutoCraft can be a great help also. Peter Bergman is an honest, stand up guy whose not just in it to get in your pocketbook. He will shoot you straight on what you need to accomplish your goals.
 
Do you plan on doing the work yourself or have a shop do it?

Front end rebuild kit: 4 tie rods, lower ball joints, upper ball joints, lower control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, upper control arm bushings
New Idler arm
1" Torsion bars
Hellwig 1 1/8 front sway bar (has good attachment hardware)

I'd hold off on the leaf springs.

Do you have disk brakes up front?

Are you rims large bolt pattern or small pattern?
 
autoxcuda said:
Do you plan on doing the work yourself or have a shop do it?

Front end rebuild kit: 4 tie rods, lower ball joints, upper ball joints, lower control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, upper control arm bushings
New Idler arm
1" Torsion bars
Hellwig 1 1/8 front sway bar (has good attachment hardware)

I'd hold off on the leaf springs.

Do you have disk brakes up front?

Are you rims large bolt pattern or small pattern?
Click to expand...
Small bolt pattern rims.
4 wheel drums
As for me or a shop, depends on how far I go with it. I can to do the simpler things like shocks, sway bar etc

For all on this thread, I want to keep the car relatively stock and am not chasing utmost performance. I just need a solid daily driver that doesn't mind the occasional canyon cruise.
 
remytherat said:
Small bolt pattern rims.
4 wheel drums
As for me or a shop, depends on how far I go with it. I can to do the simpler things like shocks, sway bar etc

For all on this thread, I want to keep the car relatively stock and am not chasing utmost performance. I just need a solid daily driver that doesn't mind the occasional canyon cruise.
Click to expand...
things to keep in mind: going to factroy big bolt pattern discs requires control arms with the larger upper ball joint (stock or aftermarket) and the corresponding spindles. and going with the factory small bolt discs you'll need the corresponding spindle but can reuse your upper arm.

however aftermarket brake kits exist in both SBP and BBP that will work with your stock drum brake spindle.
 
I rebuilt my suspension with a kit years ago, factory sway bar, Espo rear springs, it was ok.

Redid it recently using QA1 upper/lowers/strut rods and Proforged ball joints, links, etc.
Added a PST steering box too.
Car drove way better than stock with the swaybar, goes straight, handles extremely well, can let go of the wheel and it tracked straight even with my initial alignment by eye.
Added a new swaybar front and rear and it's pure fun to drive.

Kept the original KH brakes/sbp, added 15" wheels.
 
remytherat said:
I'm looking to thoroughly get my suspension up to snuff. Rear suspension sags, front wanders when going over bumps, and overall ride quality and handling is lacking, in addition to general squeakiness.
Here is my plan:
New shocks all around
New bushings all around
Thicker torsion bars
New leaf springs
Looking for your guy's thoughts on this, specific parts, additional upgrades

Would a sway bars be a worthy upgrade? Need to save some dough for the brakes.
Click to expand...
If you're going to run modern radials, consider the Moog Offset upper control arm bushings, allows for more caster than stock, stock was bias ply tires

The Skosh Chart is a beginning reference point for alignment

A post in another thread, said
That for the type of driving most of us do, the factory style bushings will be fine.I agree.

Sway bars, yes the factory were either 13/16 or 7/8 ??

Leaf springs, yes

Great shocks, big difference but $$$
 
remytherat said:
Small bolt pattern rims.
4 wheel drums
As for me or a shop, depends on how far I go with it. I can to do the simpler things like shocks, sway bar etc

For all on this thread, I want to keep the car relatively stock and am not chasing utmost performance. I just need a solid daily driver that doesn't mind the occasional canyon cruise.
Click to expand...

This will start to log roll, but this would be a great time to upgrade to disk brakes.

I believe Dr Diff has a kit that offered small bolt pattern rotor. I would check with him is the rim center register diameter is smaller for the stock small bolt rims. And with that kit you can later bolt on large pattern rotors that you can get at any parts store for cheap.

You'll need to add 73-76 A-body upper control arms. Or use the Dr. Diff ball joint taper adapters.


10.95" Front Disc Brake Kit (Stage 1)

1692718593888.png


1692718604526.png
 
Best recommendation I have is to stay as close to factory spec'd parts as possible.
Meaning to use upgraded Factory disc brake/suspension rebuild parts.
This allows you top use factory service manuals to refer to and over the counter parts for any future service/repairs and complete compatibility with the rest of the car.
Remember that there were many improvements made after 1973 on brake specs and suspensions especially since this was the time that radial tires began to be used widely.
***CLICK ON THESE LINKS TO GET THE DETAILS YOU NEED.***
www.allpar.com

DISC-O-TECH: Stop on a dime

www.allpar.com www.allpar.com
 
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MoparLeo said:
Best recommendation I have is to stay as close to factory spec'd parts as possible.
Meaning to use upgraded Factory disc brake/suspension rebuild parts.
This allows you top use factory service manuals to refer to and over the counter parts for any future service/repairs and complete compatibility with the rest of the car.
Remember that there were many improvements made after 1973 on brake specs and suspensions especially since this was the time that radial tires began to be used widely.
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Click to expand...

That's what the Dr Diff brake kit is. But he offers a rotor that's Small Bolt Pattern that fits the factory large bolt spindle.
 
junkyardhero said:
things to keep in mind: going to factroy big bolt pattern discs requires control arms with the larger upper ball joint (stock or aftermarket) and the corresponding spindles. and going with the factory small bolt discs you'll need the corresponding spindle but can reuse your upper arm.

however aftermarket brake kits exist in both SBP and BBP that will work with your stock drum brake spindle.
Click to expand...
what about if you have a '73-76 A with 4 wheel drums/SBP like I do? do I still need new UCA's, or just spindles for discs?
 
michiganpat said:
what about if you have a '73-76 A with 4 wheel drums/SBP like I do? do I still need new UCA's, or just spindles for discs?
Click to expand...
You just need the spindles for a large-pattern swap. All the A-body upper control arms changed to the big ball joint in '73, so they're not disc-specific. '73-'74 E-bodies use the same upper control arms, for the record.

On the flip side, if you wanted to use the '65-'72 Kelsey Hayes 4-piston disc brakes, you'd need '72-older upper control arms, but again--they're not specific to disc brakes.
 
michiganpat said:
what about if you have a '73-76 A with 4 wheel drums/SBP like I do? do I still need new UCA's, or just spindles for discs?
Click to expand...

if you're doing a "factory parts swap", verify that you have the large upper ball joint UCA and then just get spindles from 73~76 or from a F/M/J and then the brake bits you want to run.

if you don't have the bigger upper, then you'll need UCA's

if it's aftermarket, somebody makes a kit that bolts to whatever it is that you've got.
 
NoCar340 said:
My mistake. It's the steering knuckles (spindles) that are the same, not the control arms.

Thanks for the correction.
Click to expand...
word. it's a grab bag of parts and it's easy to get mixed up, especially with all the vernacular.

i generally don't even mention 73~74 E spindles because they're just not that common.
 
rebuild what you have
if you like it, no more expense..
if you don't like it you have better baseline in order to decide what you need.
which won't be everything discussed here

minimum for the front all bushes, lower balljoints and track rod ends. lower balljoints wear out uppers not so much.

The mopar world is awash with perfectly serviceable upper balljoints sitting in the scrap bin, along with mangled upper arms from abortive attempts to swap balljoints.

fix the bits you need to fix first. the bushes and joints involve a total removal
anything else does not involve a total removal and can be added changed in a day.

rear. i had mine re arched and i made a set of zinc interleves from pure zinc 0.9 mm plate off ebay $25 some snips a drill and some time... sure beat $100 a spring for zinc plated steel crap.

shocks will always be your choice, its dependent on spring rate car weight expectations and use. Basic would be KYB gas adjust from rockauto, work fine in a standard setup wait until holiday time and they are usually on offer for a set of 4

Dave
 
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