Moparts Tech Archive

Front Suspension

handling A bodies??

.98" T-bars, all poly bushings, XHD springs, Addco 15/16" front sway bar (to be replaced with Quickor 7/8" front, 5/8" rear bars soon), Koni shocks, C-body tie rod ends, C-body pitman (NOT a bolt-in) & idler arms, NOS firm feel P/S box, 11" disc/10" drum brakes, & the biggest, widest, stickiest tires you can fit under it, 16" or 17".

If that REALLY was a road course I saw in the spectator parking lot @ E-town, & it's in operation during the MAN's, we'll see how my heap handles! See ya' there Jim!

I have 205/55 front & 245/50 rear tires on 16X7 Torque Thrust II wheels. Since your Duster has larger wheel openings, you shouold be able to fit 8" rims on it easy with wider tires than mine.

A couple things I neglected (forgot) to mention: 3/4" off-set spring mounts & welded frame connecters (home made).

Firm Feel Inc sells the "fast ratio" pitman arm with the correct end to fit your center link without modifying it (as long as it's a 73-76 center link), & use 74-78 C-body for the rest of the steering (idler & tie rod ends).

Forget to mention, I built my own (Tri-Y) headers to clear the moved center link. When I built the car 4 years ago, Firm Feel didn't offer the correct pitman arm (why I used the C-body piece & modified the center link) & there were no headers that would clear a moved center link.

-------------------- DB

Good working order or rebuilt suspension components (bushings,
balljoints)
Widest and lightest rims and tires
biggest T-bar you can live with. .99 is decent compromise for street.
Poly: sway bar, strut rod, leaf bushings (LCA aren't that necessary)
Offset upper control arm bushings Moog 7003 to get 3-4 degrees postive caster.
Adjustable rear brake proportioning valve
factory 11.75 conversion
aftermarket sway bars
sure grip
shocks (less costly: KYB's. More costly and better: Konis, HAL, etc)
Power steering
Quick ratio power steering if it can fit with exhaust. Only Spitfire headers on A-body or stock hi-po.
stock rear drums don't need heavy 11" drum

ON RIMS:
To get the maximum width FRONT rim in the front of your mopar
WITHOUT flaring the fenders, you must run the most backspacing you can.

This is the max backspacing with 66-72 E/B/A body disk brakes and 73-
76 A/E-body spindles/disks:

For 15" rims 4.5" backspacing
For 16" rims 5" backspacing
For 17" rims 5.5" backspacing Some rims can go 5.72 backspacing and you should check outer tie rod and upper ball joint clearance.

autoxcuda
Moparts Super Stock

Reged: 01/20/03
Posts: 275
Loc: So Cal

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Well.... My car is a little extreme.
Its being prepped for SCCA Street Modified autocross. Its not together, yet so no idea how this is going to work.

First I did everything I could to lighten the car within my rule set. Especially in the front of the car.
1.20" Torsion bars
Large balljoint UCA's with moog offset bushings
73 disc spindles with 11 3/4 reinforced hub rotors
Wilwood dynalite billet calipers with polymatrix D pads
Urethane shortened bumpstop
Urethane thinned down strut rod bushing
Aluminum strut rod
Large aluminum tie rod tubes
Addco 1 1/8" solid bar and a slightly heavier rate in a tubular bar custom bent off the Addco unit. Much lighter weight with greater roll resistence.
s/s brake lines. Braided hose in flex positions to s/s hardlines.
1 1/16" MP Aluminum M/C
Wilwood adj proportioning valve
SSB Rear Disc Brake kit
MP Oval track rear leafs with zero arch
Custom adjustable front hangers
Custom adjustable rear hangers
Sub Frame Connectors
Urethane LCA bushing
Koni shocks
Enkei RP-01 "Racing Series" 17x9 wheels (18lbs)
Kumho Victoracer V700 275-40-17 tires front and rear
FFI Firm Feel stage 2 steering box
FFI Firm Feel fast steering ratio long pitman arm and idler
3/4 and 7/8 inch rear addco sway bars

Coming changes under consideration
custom drop spindle to raise front roll center
Hollow torsion bar style front sway bar (contact Firm Feel, Inc)
Custom Adjustable rear bar

I forgot a few things....

I'm setting up a 67 B body 8 3/4 for the rear. The goal is to be able to run the same offsets front and rear. I'm not positive whether I'll leave it stock track or have it cut down .6" per side.

The off the shelf Koni's won't cut it for my app. Many are using the SPAX shocks from England. I'll probably go with something more exotic and a lot more expensive. At the extreme end are Penske's at $750 a corner. An option under consideration is NASCAR style take-a-part Bilsteins with Fox remote resevoirs. I'd just have to learn how to take them apart and change valve stacks to adjust.

With the short MOOG UBJ and the right grease fitting (or no grease fitting) I can get away with 6" backspace on my Enkei's. When I add 1" to the bottom of the spindle upright, I will make a taller spindle and drop the ride height with out having my front roll center go below ground (bad). However, in doing so I will also move the point of concern with the wheel backspacing. Instead of worrying about jumping the ball joint I will now be hitting the bottom of the tie rod end. The solution there will probably be to drill out the steering knuckle and run heim joints to the top.

I'll also come up with some solution for a tubular and adjustable rear sway bar. In general, once you pick the front roll stiffness you like, adjustment is easiest to make with an adjustable rear bar.

I'm using Andy's billet adapters in order to run the light Wilwood calipers in front. I'm using the SSB kit in the rear which is not my favorite, but it does have an integral parking brake which is required in my rules set.

I run the Spitfire Headers to get around the long pitman arm problem.

I can raise the front eye of the rear leafs up to 2" and leafs have zero arch under load. That's pretty low. To get as low in front and have any travel I'll have to go with the drop spindles.

I did have to trim my wheelwells in front to clear the 275-40-17 tires. The key is the big backspace moving the tire in. As well as having at least 3 degrees negative camber and I am limited to 9" wide wheels in order to keep the tire centered properly (since I can't increase backspace anymore--any additional rim width goes outside and hits the fender). The 40 series tires is also fairly short. Tire diameter tends to be the limiting factor on an A body front fender.

My scrub radius is greatly improved with the nearly 6" backspace. Also my wheels are fairly light weight.

There is a picture of the car on my website, www.conemangler.com

It's a 69 Barracuda Notchback with a very healthy Edelbrock headed 360 and a ProTrans built racing 904. Also a 3000 stall converter, low gear set, full manual reverse valve body, etc. The 8 3/4 I'm building has a 4.30 gear set and an Auburn Pro posi.

The car is set up for autocross, but I'll probably take it to some track days. It doesn't really have the brakes for hardcore lapping. It also won't have a serious top speed with 4.30's and short tires. But it should pound the parking lots.

If the car proves competitive I'll get fiberglass fenders for the front and blend in flares so I can move to 315-30-17 Hoosiers on a 17x11 rims. I'll also be more willing to shell out for the aluminum bodied, remote resevoired, double adjustable Guy Ankeny valved Penske shocks (about $3600 including Guy's setup help and tuning).

I also feel its imperative to move over to fuel injection. The high g loads and quick on-off-on inputs aren't a carb's forte.

The car has lightweight Corbeau Forza II race seats and 5 point harnesses in front and the rear seat removed.

--------------------
Steve Ekstrand
aka Dr. Conemangler
www.conemangler.com

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