Front A body suspension help please
$10 says you're riding on the bump stops. Even the V8 torsion bars you should have with that 273 car are small. If they're original they've sagged, and if the ride height is anything less than stock you'll be constantly bottoming the suspension out. That's why the ride is horrible, you're bouncing the control arms off the frame with any large bump in the road.
Replace all the worn out bushings. Check to make sure the K frame is solid, the LCA pivot tubes are known to break free in the K member so rule that out while you've got it apart. If you've been riding around on the bump stops for awhile you should inspect everything to make sure nothing is cracked or broken. With new bushings, a proper alignment, and the 1.03" torsion bars you shouldn't bottom out the suspension as long as you don't set the ride height too low. With the 1.03" bars you can go lower than factory but you may need a shorter lower bump stop. As I mentioned before you'll want a good set of shocks with the 1.03" bars, none of the old shocks are set up to handle the higher wheel rates of the larger bars.
Uh, first off he has a 273, so it's not a /6 car.
And actually, the 1.03" bars might make the ride less rough. Because more than likely the ride is rough because he's bottoming the suspension out all the time. Which means the larger bars might actually help solve that problem, not make it worse.
I daily drive my Duster with 1.12" bars. If you don't want your car to handle like a 70's land yacht, you need torsion bars larger than 1". The 1.03" bars are the smallest I'd ever go, I ran 1" bars for awhile and was still totally underwhelmed with the handling of the car. And that was just with 225/60/15's on it, nothing fancy.
$10 says you're riding on the bump stops. Even the V8 torsion bars you should have with that 273 car are small. If they're original they've sagged, and if the ride height is anything less than stock you'll be constantly bottoming the suspension out. That's why the ride is horrible, you're bouncing the control arms off the frame with any large bump in the road.
Replace all the worn out bushings. Check to make sure the K frame is solid, the LCA pivot tubes are known to break free in the K member so rule that out while you've got it apart. If you've been riding around on the bump stops for awhile you should inspect everything to make sure nothing is cracked or broken. With new bushings, a proper alignment, and the 1.03" torsion bars you shouldn't bottom out the suspension as long as you don't set the ride height too low. With the 1.03" bars you can go lower than factory but you may need a shorter lower bump stop. As I mentioned before you'll want a good set of shocks with the 1.03" bars, none of the old shocks are set up to handle the higher wheel rates of the larger bars.
Uh, first off he has a 273, so it's not a /6 car.
And actually, the 1.03" bars might make the ride less rough. Because more than likely the ride is rough because he's bottoming the suspension out all the time. Which means the larger bars might actually help solve that problem, not make it worse.
I daily drive my Duster with 1.12" bars. If you don't want your car to handle like a 70's land yacht, you need torsion bars larger than 1". The 1.03" bars are the smallest I'd ever go, I ran 1" bars for awhile and was still totally underwhelmed with the handling of the car. And that was just with 225/60/15's on it, nothing fancy.
