1969 Dodge Dart Custom Sedan Slant Six, Father-Son Project

Upon test driving the car before purchase:

“Think it’ll need new suspension?”
“Nah, it seems fine. Maybe new shocks.”
“Okay.”

So of course new KYB shocks were installed on all four corners, but along the way we went ahead and installed new rear leaf springs and new torsion bars.

This forum coached us on what’s good and what’s not.
-PST provided the 1.03” diameter torsion bars (got the ‘master kit’). (Shout-out to PST! They gave me a 10% discount for being a member of this forum – thanks, guys!)
-Hotchkis supplied the leaf spring kit, despite some opinions on this forum that they maybe are not the best choice.

Everything installed without issue, after learning exactly how to do it all. Torsion bars were so easy to swap out at the same time as doing the front shocks. The old (puny 0.83") ones tapped right on out, and the new ones tapped right in.

Sure enough, getting the front stock ride height was a non-issue; the adjustment bolts under the lower control arms easily give you wiggle room on adjusting ride height, if needed.

We were worried that such BIGGER torsion bars would lift the front end too high, but after doing math on the new versus old spring rates, plus an e-mail query to PST, there was no more concern. Enough forum members have recommended these PST bars on Darts to the point that I stopped worrying they'd end up being too stiff-riding.

For the rear leafs, we chose NOT to use the newly-supplied forward brackets. The Hotchkis front bracket has the through-bolt hole positioned 1” vertically different than the stock bracket (which will lower the car by 1”). We heard that this A-body-specific kit may drop the car too much, so the original front brackets were simply re-used as a preemptive measure to keep the rear from being too low.

Back on its feet, the rear of the car actually sits about half an inch higher that it did with the original leaf springs. Both sides are within 1/8” of each other. Perfect. Know that the u-bolts that come with the kit are not for a 7.25” rear end (which needs 2.5” u-bolts, which we got from Mancini).

The car feels rock solid now, front and rear, and we're anxious to drive it to see how well it handles. It was a squeaky marshmallow before; what a difference.

The only glitch was the seized-on nut for the right side shock mount, which sheared the threaded part of the shaft off upon removal. Even after a soak in PB Blaster. Thank you again, eBay, for finding a New Old Stock replacement for a reasonable price.

Also, I painted the tips of the left hand axle studs red to remind us that they're left-handed threads.