Hotchkiss Leafs Installed

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GMachineDartGT

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Some pics of the new springs. A little lower than I was anticipating, but I will be measuring the anti squat angle and changing the front eye location if necessary. I have offset front hangers so I could not use the pieces provided by Hotchkiss. My current eye location is 3/8" above the location of the Hotchkiss bracket, probably changing the height 1/4"-1/2".
 

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Thats the ride height im lookin for! That looks sick man! Had to wipe off alil drool, lol
 
Its close at the top of the outer wheelhouses, but the tire is a 275/40/18 on a 9" rim. Once I install the dropped spindles I'll set the final heights.
 
Interested in seeing the final height. Looks great so far.
 
What did you have before? Have you driven it hard enough to notice a difference?
 
Some pics of the new springs. A little lower than I was anticipating, but I will be measuring the anti squat angle and changing the front eye location if necessary. I have offset front hangers so I could not use the pieces provided by Hotchkiss. My current eye location is 3/8" above the location of the Hotchkiss bracket, probably changing the height 1/4"-1/2".

The hotchkis hangers are 1" higher than stock. So if yours are 3/8" more, thats way up there.

What the ground clearance of your headers? And what brand are they?

I had to raise the car because of header clearance. IMHO, that is the lowest thing on the car. And all ride heights come from that critical measurement working backwards.
 
holy crap did the rear drop. for the turns i'm sure it will be better, but i liked the looks of it where it was sitting before.


just curious.. why those springs over the XV springs?


when did the Dodge on the rear quarters appear?
 
I haven't had stock eye hangers in so long I didn't know what the "stock" position is, just relative to what I have. I do know that I may need a shorter shock in the rear which is available in Bilstein. The driving impressions so far are excellent. My track experience tells me these cars are sensitive to rear height as it throws off the balance of the car dramatically if the rear is too high. You notice this more at higher speeds and corner entry. I like the way the springs are made, because they are beefier in the front segment which is important for wheel hop and they are fairly flat. The geometry part comes mostly in the bracket. Lowering blocks and changing the eye height will do almost the same thing for guys who don't want to spend the $$ on the springs. As it sits the front K is 4.5" off the ground. The headers and exhaust are TTI.
The front suspension is stock configuration with nothing exotic, 1.04 t bars, 1.125 bar, heim jointed strut rods, nylon lower arm bushings, stock upper arms with offset bushings and bilsteins. I am waiting for the dropped spindles which will help pick up the front roll center, as it has to be underground the way it sits now..I am also looking forward to proper lower bump clearance and feeling the proper preload on the front bars which should increase the perceived rate considerably. From there I am switching tires to Nitto NT-05s. An alignment and I'm ready for Thunderbolt in April.
I've had the Dodge decals on for some time. I took them off briefly as I repainted the sides a couple years ago. I have an extra set if anyone is interested. BTW, XV doesn't make anything for the As.
 
My friend has a 70 dart with Duster / Demon wheel openings, It doesn't look bad at all. It fits alot bigger tires on it. What is cool about it is he has wheel openng trim on it so it looks like it came that way.
 
Ok so the Hotchkis bracket puts the front spring eye closer to the ground by an inch? I have circle track springs and the front segment is 1/2" longer than stock and ive been considering drilling new holes 1/2" forward and 1/2-1" closer the ground in my front spring boxes.
 
Thanks thats what I needed cleared up. Report back on those drop spindles, and how they would interfere with a 18" wheel with alot of backspace.
 
... As it sits the front K is 4.5" off the ground. The headers and exhaust are TTI. .....

I couldn't go that low in the front with TTI's and still drive around town without bottoming out the headers.

IIRC, I'm about 5.25" to the lowest part of the Kmember. I still scrape headers on ridiculously high speed bumps and some driveway entrances. I'll get a measurement to the lowest part of my headers (collector flange).
 
I haven't had stock eye hangers in so long I didn't know what the "stock" position is, just relative to what I have. I do know that I may need a shorter shock in the rear which is available in Bilstein. The driving impressions so far are excellent. My track experience tells me these cars are sensitive to rear height as it throws off the balance of the car dramatically if the rear is too high. You notice this more at higher speeds and corner entry. I like the way the springs are made, because they are beefier in the front segment which is important for wheel hop and they are fairly flat. The geometry part comes mostly in the bracket. ...



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You have nailed the stance on that, not sure if I would mess with it.
 
The TTIs are the lowest part of the whole deal. However, once the dropped spindles are in, I'm expecting a pretty good jump in rate due to preload on the t bar. If the header thing becomes a problem, I would probably switch back to manifolds and take the hit on the power....If I'm feeling spendy, I'll make the worlds first A body header that accepts a long pitman - anyone listening?? And no Joe, XV never made A body suspension parts.
 
I also have a similar setup on my duster with the Hotchkis springs and Magnaforce drop spindles. My car has 225/60/15 and it's barely gonna work, looks awesome though lol. I'll try to remember too take a picture to but my stuff still has to be adjusted from putting in the new motor. Btw the car looks great man.
 
If I'm feeling spendy, I'll make the worlds first A body header that accepts a long pitman -anyone listening??

Trust me they aren't listening. Lol..

A buddy of mine made a set if tri y headers for his dart in order to run the longer ARM. They look good.
 
I'd like to see them.


I think the way to get around the long pitman is a Coleman gear reduction steering quickner deal.

I'd like to see a Tri Y small block header that gave the ground clearance of or near stock exhaust. Even Just 1 3/4" more clearance would work. Like if bottom two tubes of the 4 tube TTI collector were not there (Tri-Y headers).

I thought Schumacher was working on a small block Tri-Y at one time.
 
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