Clanking on drivers side over speed bump

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Bud27

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Working on a 65 Barracuda for my daughter and the front left side I keep hearing a clank .
I'm new to these cars and looked under and saw no springs . Read aliitle about the torsion bars and how they work . Off hand can one of you veterans explain how to to adjust the torsion bars? I would like to lower the front two inches add stiffer shocks and add torsion bars . My daughter s very competitive and needs this car to be able to hug the road . Later add front disc .any help is appreciated and Thanks Bud
 
Working on a 65 Barracuda for my daughter and the front left side I keep hearing a clank .
I'm new to these cars and looked under and saw no springs . Read aliitle about the torsion bars and how they work . Off hand can one of you veterans explain how to to adjust the torsion bars? I would like to lower the front two inches add stiffer shocks and add torsion bars . My daughter s very competitive and needs this car to be able to hug the road . Later add front disc .any help is appreciated and Thanks Bud

Clanking over bumps could be a lot of things. Worn out bushing, blown shock, the LCA bottoming on the frame, wiped out ball joint, the LCA pivot wallowing around in a broken mount on the K frame, etc, etc. Minor to seriously ugly and everything in between. And loose anything. I had a clank in my Challenger's suspension when I drove it home from buying it, turned out someone hadn't even bolted the bottom of the shock into the LCA. #-o

The torsion bars are adjusted with a bolt that goes up into the LCA from the bottom. You adjust it with weight off of the suspension. BUT, you won't be able to lower the car that much with the stock bars without constantly bottoming out the suspension. These cars were ridiculously undersprung from the factory. If you want to lower the car that much, you'll need bigger torsion bars (1"+), way better shocks, and a new alignment to go with it. The alignment changes as you lower the car, and to lower it that much you may need to install Moog offset UCA bushings (#7103) to get enough caster back into your alignment.

Find the clank first! If the suspension is still original, more than likely you'll need to fully rebuild the front end before everything is said and done.

There are a ton of "how to make my mopar handle" threads on here, and lots of good info. A little less for the early cars, but its still there. Find the clank, do some reading, come up with a plan. Good luck! :thumbup:
 
Ok Thanks , the more I Loki into this car the more work I have lol . What the heck atleast I know it's right before she hits the road . She learned to drive in a Volvo xc90 and thinks a cars handle that good lol . I'm sure I'll have more question after I get under it tomorrow .
 
Do you have a service manual for it?

There's a copy of the 65 Plymouth manual here that you can download free and read the suspension chapters. It will show you how the suspension goes together and how to adjust the torsion bars.

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=109
 
Also, when adjusting the torsion bars, jack the car up first and then adjust them.

Set the car back down and bounce the front end a little for the adjustment to "settle in" before taking any measurements.
 
Just bouncing doesn't do much. You'll have to roll the car back and forth a few feet before the tires and suspension settle at their new heightsetting.

Trying to read further than what the topicstart said here, I tend to think the daughter might want to have a real handling car, which could mean upgrading and replacing various suspension parts for better ones.
 
As stated "lots of things." MOST likely is probably worn out lower ball joints. Jack the tire up off the ground with the jack UNDER THE LOWER CONTROL ARM

This takes the strain off the ball joint. You can then tell by wiggling the tire what's going on. I believe there's a procedure in the shop manuals.

These are simple front ends after you learn a bit about them. "A couple" of special tools is all you need for separating tie rod ends and ball joints.

Here is where you get shop manuals

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=244981

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=31

Lots of us have aligned these front ends ourselves at home.
 
Lots of good info here . Yeah daughter was a softball player third base ,batted forth could out hit some grown men ! Played goalie in club soccer wasn't scared of anything now she's driving and we have a street with a tight curve with a good 1/4 mile going into it . I was sitting shot gun when a young boy came from behind her tried to pass her and she replies not this time son . Rocky (Raquel ) stomps on the gas turbo kicks in on the volvo xc90 and she replies I take this turn everyday ! Honda in the mirror slows down hitting the turn and she laughs as we do about 60 thru the turn hugging the curb ! Boy did get into her @ss when we got home ! after i changed my shorts lol. Her mom and my X drives the same way. It was learned from her mother who drives a 302 mustang and is crazy when driving ! I can't be with her all the time ,but I know she's going to be competitive out there and need to make this handle and stop as best I can !
Thanks for all the good info ! Krazy I did download the repair guide when I was doing the electrical thanks sir.
 
If you want better handling, consider 1.00" or 1.03" torsion bars, stiffer rear leafs (like in the 150 lb/in range), and front and rear sway bars. About 1"-1 1/4" diameter for the front and 3/4" for the rear...


That may wake it up a bit. We're doing that on a 71 Valiant 4 door with a 360....
 
If you want better handling, consider 1.00" or 1.03" torsion bars, stiffer rear leafs (like in the 150 lb/in range), and front and rear sway bars. About 1"-1 1/4" diameter for the front and 3/4" for the rear...


That may wake it up a bit. We're doing that on a 71 Valiant 4 door with a 360....

Ok sounds good . I'm also looking in to bigger wheels and smaller tires . Those 13's sway around turns too much tire note enough wheel . Gonna start shopping tonight .
 
If you want better handling, consider 1.00" or 1.03" torsion bars, stiffer rear leafs (like in the 150 lb/in range), and front and rear sway bars. About 1"-1 1/4" diameter for the front and 3/4" for the rear...


That may wake it up a bit. We're doing that on a 71 Valiant 4 door with a 360....

Torsion bars are right on, but the rear springs shouldn't be that stiff, especially if you're going to use a rear bar. The front end was undersprung from the factory, but the rear was not. I have 121 lb/in springs on my Duster. Duster's a 108" wheelbase vs the barracuda at 106", but it should be fairly close. Most of the "handling" leaf springs are ~130 lb/in (Hotchkis, Bergman's custom Eaton's, etc). Even autoXcuda, who runs the Hotchkis springs, unhooks his rear sway bar on tight courses.
 
Gonna start shopping tonight .

Look around the site and web for (advice on) handling parts first before you break out the plastic. A lot of good stuff out there but it's easy to make (expensive) mistakes.

If she's having that much fun with the Volvo, there is quite some upgrading to do on the Barracuda before it about reaches the same level.
 
Look around the site and web for (advice on) handling parts first before you break out the plastic. A lot of good stuff out there but it's easy to make (expensive) mistakes.

If she's having that much fun with the Volvo, there is quite some upgrading to do on the Barracuda before it about reaches the same level.

x2!!!

You'll definitely want to figure out what's going on BEFORE you start buying parts. The clunk could just be a bad ball joint, or anything all the way up to an LCA pivot that's broken free of the K frame.

Sure, there are parts that you'll want to swap no matter what, but it also depends heavily on what your plans are. For example, there's no point in rebuilding the current front end if you're going to swap to BBP disk brakes in a few months. You'll just end up throwing out a lot of brand new parts, because you might need to change your UCA's, spindles and ball joints to later pieces for the disk swap. But that depends on the brake kit you're going to use. And you might want to figure that out first, because a lot of the aftermarket disk brake kits require different spindles, both from what's on your car now, AND from each other depending on the kit. Making a choice on rebuilding parts of the front end, or keeping a certain set of spindles will limit your options later. Not to mention that your rim choice will also be heavily influenced by what brakes are on the car, and how much they change the track of the front end.

For example- the 13" rotors I run on the front of my Duster from Dr. Diff require a minimum 17" diameter rim, and add 3/16" to the track width (on top of the additional distance added if your going from drums to 73+ disks). They also use a 73+ disk spindle. Some kits use the early drum spindle. Some only use the later 10" drum spindle that used large ball joints. It all depends on the kit. But just to throw out a scenario for you, I had to swap my brakes, rims, and tires all at the same time, and I didn't even change bolt patterns. The rims that fit my 13" rotors would not fit the car without those brakes already installed because of the extra offset of the brakes, and of course the tire size was dramatically different, so there was no re-using of anything. Your 13" rims will mean a similar scenario, no disk brake will clear those. So, you'll have to go to new rims with your new brakes. And since the new brakes will likely change the both the bolt pattern AND the front track width, the new rims won't even fit on the car without the new brakes.
 
Its GOT to be a loose muffler bearing. . .

^^^^^^^when was 17 my dad worked for Porsche dealer and I got a job as parts driver.
The oldest guy and experienced guy sent me from Hollywood to North Hollywood they sent me to santa Monica looking for the last one in stock ! The memories that brings back .

Thanks for the laugh ....
 
Torsion bars are right on, but the rear springs shouldn't be that stiff, especially if you're going to use a rear bar. The front end was undersprung from the factory, but the rear was not. I have 121 lb/in springs on my Duster. Duster's a 108" wheelbase vs the barracuda at 106", but it should be fairly close. Most of the "handling" leaf springs are ~130 lb/in (Hotchkis, Bergman's custom Eaton's, etc). Even autoXcuda, who runs the Hotchkis springs, unhooks his rear sway bar on tight courses.

For now its getting Torsion bars and shocks and whatever's not right along with front and rear torsion bars . I did find a local set of 14 inch wheels and my neighbor hooked her up with a almost new set of Kelly white letter tires from his Shop called American Motoring Memories .
They still had Blue dye on the letters from 50 bucks ! He took'em off a Mustang that he put BfG's on and that's about it till I get more cash . It Should hold her till I can do the brakes and she's going to buy some nice 17 and 16 wheels with low pro tires . We could do that all at once . Then sell whatever we took off in the classified cheap to who ever can use them .
 
I took the car out again today and the Clunking was when I went off a three inch lip as they were redoing the street in our neighborhood from what I have read could it be the torsion bars unwinding ? And maybe whatever lower bump stop could be worn ? The noise wasn't from speed bumps it was only driving off the lip . Sorry for my mistake .didnt get a chance to get under the car today .
 
I took the car out again today and the Clunking was when I went off a three inch lip as they were redoing the street in our neighborhood from what I have read could it be the torsion bars unwinding ? And maybe whatever lower bump stop could be worn ? The noise wasn't from speed bumps it was only driving off the lip . Sorry for my mistake .didnt get a chance to get under the car today .

Really doesn't clear it up any. You'll have to get under there and take a look. It really could be almost anything.
 
Really doesn't clear it up any. You'll have to get under there and take a look. It really could be almost anything.

I finally got to the suspension and the upper control arm bushings on both sides are bad .the drivers side the rubber is completely gone . How do I tackle this ? What do I need to know about removing the control arms safely . Going to replace what ever needs replacing .
 
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