69 Barracuda vert
Active Member
What shocks do you love?
Torsion Bars
- Thread starter RustyRatRod
- Start date
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vitamindart
Well-Known Member
I am running the 1.03 bars on my 66 with a slant. they are awesome, I cheaped out on the shocks for now ( KYB's ) will do some Bilstien's at some point.
no sway bar yet, the bars made a Huge difference. car drives Much nicer, can go around a corner and feel planted.
no sway bar yet, the bars made a Huge difference. car drives Much nicer, can go around a corner and feel planted.
j par
Well-hung Member
Congrats.. down to the high 300's now..
...
...I've lost 25 in the last few months as well..
..Sounds like the consensus is the larger tortion bars..
..
DrCharles
Well-Known Member
I have the PST 1.03 bars in my iron-headed (for now) 451 low deck, and they feel perfect. Firm but not harsh ride.
67dartgtgo
Well-Known Member
PST 103’s working great for me. Great ride in a v8. Firm feel sway bar. Drives like a modern car.....unlike before any upgrades.
I love your new avatar rrr. Makes me smile.
I love your new avatar rrr. Makes me smile.
I have a lot of it already. All I am after is a fun to drive street car. A tight cruiser. No canyon carving. Simply simply something that handles as good as it can for a stock suspension everyday driver. I'm not opposed to maybe a blast down the track sometime. Probably won't happen, but always open to it.
The 400? All I need is a bellhousing and I can do the full mockup. Fully assembled engine on the stand, transmission I am going to use is on the floor next to it. Drive shaft leaned up in the corner. Ford 9" narrowed to A body specs sitting in the other side of the shop. The car already has XHD +1 springs. I have disc brake spindles, calipers already and rotors on the way. So yeah. All that's missing is the decision to do it. But honestly, I'm having so much fun with the slant sixes, all I may end up doing is doing a how to on early A big block swaps. Seriously, there's so little information out there about it. Really ZERO details on how to do it. And I plan to do it using all factory parts, which I already have.
All THAT said, I am getting ready now to put a stock bore and stroke 225 in the car, along with the heavy duty A 230 three speed. I have the good rebuilt engine I got from @RAT ROD AL and I am going to put the Offy four barrel intake and QFT 450 on that.....along with a fer other mods and put that in the car. So, realistically, the 400 is a ways off. It may or may not happen......BUT, it WILL get mocked up at some point, if not installed permanently. I just don't know and honestly, that's a lot of the fun of it, is not knowing ultimately "what" I will end up doing. That's why I'll probably go with the 1.03 bars since they'll work with any of the engines I choose.
Congrats.. down to the high 300's now..
I've lost 25 in the last few months as well..
Sounds like the consensus is the larger tortion bars..
No queer, I've never been that heavy. I'm down from 287 on December 1st to 259.2 as of this morning. So eat it. Dummy.
That I don't know Rob. I know some of the basic dimensions on the early A's but since I've never owned one I couldn't tell you for sure. You might try asking @vntned, he has some pretty sizeable tires on his early A.
Depends. For torsion bars under 1.06" I'd say the Bilstein RCD's. They're a great shock and as far as performance shocks go pretty affordable.
For bars larger than 1.06" I like the Hotchkis Fox shocks I have on my Duster. I ran Bilsteins on that car for awhile with the 1.12" bars and my 18" wheels. They worked well, don't get me wrong they're a great shock. But I got a chance to buy some lightly used Hotchkis Fox's so I bought them and replaced the Bilsteins. The Hotchkis Fox's are a noticeable improvement with the 1.12" bars. It's not night and day, they're just a little bit smoother with the large bars when you start pushing the car harder. Which makes sense, the additional valving allows them to adapt a little better. The more aggressive you get with the suspension set up the better the shocks have to be.
It's really about matching the shocks to the wheel rate. The Hotchkis Fox's should be great on the 1.03's too because of the way they're constructed with additional valving, but I don't think the difference between them and the Bilstein RCD's would be as noticeable with the slightly smaller bars. So it's a "bang for your buck" decision for me. With the 1.12's the difference is noticeable enough for me to say the extra money for the Hotchkis Fox's is well worth it.
vntned
Well-Known Member
26" tires on the front of an early A are a tight fit. I'd recommend something a little shorter in the front. 24"-25" is about as much as I'd do, but I generally do run my car lower than stock. My clearance issue tended to be the tire catching the lower front edge of the fender.
I HAD planned to run a 255 60 15 in the rear, but that won't fit in the spare tire well. A 245 60 will. I like running the same height on front and back. So I'll "TRY" a 195 75 15 on the front. I have the Percy's wheel tool, so I can see if they'll fit. Since that's a little work, I wanted to see of someone had done it. Thanks for your input. It's greatly appreciated.
I may have to back off to a 235 60 15 to be able to run the same height front and rear. I'll just have to see I guess.
mopowers
Well-Known Member
I must've gotten lucky. I've got 205/70/15s on the front of my 66 Dart. It's tight, but I really wanted a taller front tire to better match the tires in the rear. They clear just fine.
j par
Well-hung Member
That's encouraging.
chinze57
Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
Rusty I’ve got 25.5” tires on my 64 Dart. There’s room there for half an inch more I think. I plan on putting 225/60/15’s on 15*7’s in the rear. Maybe the front, worried that’ll be too wide for the early a to handle.
Thanks man! I think from the look of that second picture, you have more like an inch. Mucho grassy ***.
mopowers
Well-Known Member
A lot of it depends on how much caster you run. It's amazing how much it changes with a simple caster adjustment.
chinze57
Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
I feel like my front wheels sit too far forward in the wheel well. Is there a fix for that?
chinze57
Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
There’s loads more room in the wheel well for a bigger tire. My wheels sit forward of where I think they should be, which I don’t understand, but even so, I could fit a bigger tire in there.
mopowers
Well-Known Member
Do you know how much caster it has? Do you have the numbers from when it was aligned?
chinze57
Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
I don’t. Got it aligned a couple months after I got it but have no clue what the numbers were. I’m about to change out upper control arms with some tubular ones from PST and put on new shocks and then get it aligned. Not sure what numbers I’m shooting for in an alignment though, so if you have any recommendations. It’s a daily driver if that changes anything.
If we're voting, I think they would fit. There can't be much difference between a 64 and a 66, and I have 215/65-15's on the front of my Valiant. They rubbed a hair at full lock for starters but fit fine once I got the car at a decent height (original soggy bars cranked up properly). No more rubbing issues.
Here's what I would really like to do. I would love to put 235 60 15s all the way around on 7" steel wheels. I guess I need to get out my Percy wheel tool and start measurin. lol
mopowers
Well-Known Member
If it's close, you can always extend the brace at the front of the wheel opening pushing the fender out a tad. A lot of it will depend on the BS of the wheel too.
Not with a lower valence I can't.
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