What rear suspension is this?

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standup303

standup303

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I just bought my 69 Dart and it has this suspension I am not familiar with, can you tell me what it is? The shocks are air shocks you can fill up from inside the trunk to adjust ride height. Car has skinny wheels/tires up front too, definitely set up for drag racing.

I want to set the car up more for street use and have some brand new ESPO +1 leaf springs I was wondering if that would be a better ride quality?

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Those are slapper bars and they aren’t the right ones for your car, at least looking at the pictures.

In the pictures it looks like that rubber snubber is away from the front of the spring. That snubber should be hitting right on the front spring eye. Yours look too short.
 
Espo is a good choice. Air shocks are not for drag racing. You can probably toss the traction bars too.
 
Jesus... yeah.. put the ESPO's on... get rid of the "Slapper bars" and get normal shackles in the rear and the air shocks.. That setup looks like it's from 1985 honestly. Will be nice when you get done. I put ESPOs on my car +1s.. they are pretty stiff but i haven't driven it yet or broken them in at all..
 
BTW.. if it's not gonna be a full on drag car just get normal rear shocks.. i just us monroes from rock auto..
 
Stock rear suspension with traction bars that are ineffective because they are too short and shackles that are too long and air shocks that do more harm than good.
 
ESPOs with normal shocked and no traction bars... you can get factory replacement shackles for the back also.. and hopefully new bushings (got mine with the springs) will make a big difference in how the car feels
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We haven't seen how much tire clearance you have. ALL of those mods are to clear too big tires. The longer shackles and air shocks are to lift the body off the tire, and the traction bars probably became necessary because of the other mods.
So, if it now has tires that fit on the back, you can put on the Espos and whatever shocks you want.
If it's still got wrong offset wheels and too-big tires, we'll then.......?
 
Lefty71 said:
Espo is a good choice. Air shocks are not for drag racing. You can probably toss the traction bars too.
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I gotta lotta hardware using airshocks for pre-load.
How are they any different from coil-overs when you are familiar with them, - and pre-coil over ?
Slapper bars are more suited to single leaf to prevent spring wrap.
Think Ferd or Chubbie.
Leave them on, and see how many folks ask about your Chebbie .
 
Thanks for all the input. I’m going to install the ESPOs and QA1 single adjustable rear shocks.
 
inertia said:
I gotta lotta hardware using airshocks for pre-load.
How are they any different from coil-overs when you are familiar with them, - and pre-coil over ?
Slapper bars are more suited to single leaf to prevent spring wrap.
Think Ferd or Chubbie.
Leave them on, and see how many folks ask about your Chebbie .
Click to expand...

They are different because the mounts for coil overs are strong enough to handle the weight of the vehicle. The shock mount is not designed to carry the weight of the vehicle, it is meant to hold a shock in place to dampen the suspension.
 
72Duster440 said:
They are different because the mounts for coil overs are strong enough to handle the weight of the vehicle. The shock mount is not designed to carry the weight of the vehicle, it is meant to hold a shock in place to dampen the suspension.
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Do you have ANY idea how much pounding a shock mount takes . Do racing shocks say "Don't use on Darts?"
Yeah, what kinda weight do you think 10 -20 lbs each side puts on the upper shock mounts, c'mon .
You all assume every fkn body pumped the air shocks up to max pressure for looks !
I learned to use airshocks for pre-load back in the 60's, after studying race car suspensions .
I've had air-shocks on my Dart since about 3 weeks after I drove it outta the dealership, for racing, got the shocks outta the Mopar Parts dept.
I added air when I had fat friend in the back seat, I added air when I towed my ski boat, added more air when loaded with camping gear, and added even more air when we loaded both boat and car up with fruit in the Okanagan .
You know what, - those upper mounts are like the day they left the showroom ! !
Sure, there is prob some rusted out piece of east Coast chit, with upper mount damage, and there are cars that don't.
P.S. - Yes, I know the shocks recommend min air press !
 
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inertia said:
Do you have ANY idea how much pounding a shock mount takes . Do racing shocks say "Don't use on Darts?"
Yeah, what kinda weight do you think 10 -20 lbs puts on the upper shock mounts, c'mon .
You all assume every fkn body pumped the air shocks up to max pressure for looks !
I learned to use airshocks for pre-load back in the 60's, after studying race car suspensions .
I've had air-shocks on my Dart since about 3 weeks after I drove it outta the dealership, for racing, got the shocks outta the Mopar Parts dept.
I added air when I had fat friend in the back seat, I added air when I towed my ski boat, added more air when loaded with camping gear, and added even more air when we loaded both boat and car up with fruit in the Okanogan .
You know what, - those upper mounts are like the day they left the showroom ! !
Sure, there is prob some rusted out piece of east Coast chit, with upper mount damage, and there are cars that don't.
P.S. - Yes, I know the shocks recommend min air press !
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That’s what was done back then because that’s what we had.

Air shocks should be in a museum not on a car.
 
Rat Bastid said:
That’s what was done back then because that’s what we had.

Air shocks should be in a museum not on a car.
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Lol, my museum car has them .
I just get tired of these folks parroting that crap everytime they see "airshock" .
I've never seen an upper shock mount damage back then, or now .
I been under (feels like) a million cars, almost, lol

Edit
 
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A million Mopars running air shocks ?
Air shocks were never designed to support the car. They were used by most youngsters years ago because they were the cheapest/easiest way to put the wrong sized tires and wheels on the back of their cars. The old stink bug look.
No thought about being correct, safe or anything else.
Modern Coil over shocks are designed for support and adjustability. So are the mounts to attach them to.
 
MoparLeo said:
A million Mopars running air shocks ?
Air shocks were never designed to support the car. They were used by most youngsters years ago because they were the cheapest/easiest way to put the wrong sized tires and wheels on the back of their cars. The old stink bug look.
No thought about being correct, safe or anything else.
Modern Coil over shocks are designed for support and adjustability. So are the mounts to attach them to.
Click to expand...
Like guns right, it's not the gun/shock.

It's the operator ?
 
The correct gun for the application.
There is a reason that there is a minimum caliber required for African Game. Your safety.
You don't use a 22 lr to do a 460 Weatherby Magnum's job. Not if you want to hunt again another day...
 
inertia said:
Lol, my museum car has them .
I just get tired of these folks parroting that crap everytime they see "airshock" .
I've never seen an upper shock mount damage back then, or now .
I been under (feels like) a million cars, almost, lol

Edit
Click to expand...
I can confirm broken/tore up/shredded upper shock mounts due to air shocks on four California Desert cars... One of them I still own but I replaced the shock crossmember 30 years ago....

But I've also worked on hundreds of Mopars that had Air Shocks on them that the crossmember was still perfect...
 
Has anyone asked. "What kinda of power are you looking to put to your rear? That certainly dictates setup options. Today there are plenty street machines with 1k HP these days. Thus the options discussed above are too light.
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I'm guessing a better than stock 340 build? 350HP? (Maybe a tick more?) If so your spring and shock decision should work quite well.
 
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