Will new torsion bars correct that POS, bucket-o-bolts feel I have?
Thanks all.
More info however, so after the complete front end rebuild, including pitman and idler with bearings, and a slight tightening adjustment to the power steering unit which suffers from what I would call mild slop.....I had it professionally aligned. She steers straight and true. New shocks too. Mild bumps don't upset it bad, but when it seems to go bonkers is as you are slowing down for a turn at an intersection where the roads are often not smooth. The combination of mild braking, turning and bumps throws it into a tizzy.
What can I expect with new stiffer torsion bars.
Mmmmm.. just thinking about this from the opposite end of the car... the best I can make of the car's description and the symptoms above is that your car's rear springs are far too stiff for the shocks, making the rear suspension is seriously underdamped. That would cause the rear to bounce and jump around a lot, which may equate to what you call 'a tizzy'. If you have stiffer rear springs and just stock type shocks, then this underdamped rear springing will be the case. Using oddly mismatched up and down shock rates could cause issues on the road too.
And a high rear ride height will just add to that problem. A high rear ride height will take weight off of the rear, and this will become even worse under braking, and the rear will be light in corners and bounce around even more easily; the underdamped suspension will exaggerate that even more. High, stiff rears springs with soft shocks are about the worst you can do to cause these sysmtoms under the condtions you describe: braking into rough corners.
It would be useful to know what shocks you have in the rear. It would also be useful to see pix of the rear springs to see if there are any clamps or extra bolts that are making then non-linear. If you can ID the brand/model of the rear springs with a link, that would be good too.
Stiffening the t-bars will not do anything to cure an underdamped rear suspension. You need to either put the softer springs back into the rear and try that, or upgrade your rear shocks. With the stiifer rear springs, I would move to Bilstein's not KYB's.
In general these live axle, leaf sprung rear suspensions are decent for straight line racing, but suffer a lot when put into turns, especially rough ones. The springs when clamped can become non-linear and so become hard to match the shock rates. And the rear roll centers tend to be high, and get worse with a higher rear stance.
Do you drag race this car? Or do you want this car to be it's best in cornering? These 2 uses are fairly opposed to each other when it comes to rear suspension parts and set-up.
