Dart 72 vs 73 susp dilemma

72bluNblu said
It's like backward world in here. The spool mounts are better. The don't separate like the original mounts and they positively control the engine from moving forward and back. I mean, you can not like them if you want, but performance-wise they're the superior mount. And like AndyF said the sway bar is tucked up inside the K, better routing and more ground clearance.

You could order disk brakes on /6 cars. The single piston slider calipers were an upgrade over the 4 piston KH calipers, not a downgrade. You can argue that a fixed caliper is better than a slider in general, or that in general multi-piston calipers are better, but with leaky seals and parts that are very difficult to find the KH brakes are not better now. The 73+ single piston sliders are simple, work great, and take a lot more abuse. Just because the Kh brakes were multi-piston does not make them better, they're different than modern multi-piston calipers. Just because multi-piston calipers are used in higher performance applications does not mean that EVERY multi-piston caliper is better.

If someone has a full KH disk set up on their car already that's one thing, but the OP already has a single piston slider set up. Tracking down all the parts for the KH disks would be a pain, not to mention expensive. And then he'd have to convert it back to small upper ball joints and figure out the SBP vs BBP thing by either doing the mustang rotor conversion or buying new wheels. He already has the better set up.

Nope. Not true. The tie rod diameters were the same for all A-bodies, 9/16". C-bodies ran 11/16" tie rods, and while that used to be a nice way to upgrade the strength it's unnecessary now. The weak part is not the 9/16" tie rod end, it's the spit tube adjuster. Now you can buy tubular adjusters that aren't split, which eliminates the flex in the tie rod adjuster. So you can stay with 9/16" ends

Exactly. Everyone swaps their cars to the 73+ parts- BBP, large ball joints, larger wheel bearings, better brakes, better mounts, better sway bar set up, etc, etc.

We have to agree to disagree. The spool mounts move all over the place. You can feel it when you drive them. I can at least buy solid mounts for the early K member. And, I’ve seen the spool mount mounts be off and there isn’t anything you can do about it. With the early K, you can move the engine in the mounts a bit if you need some room for headers.

The 73 single piston caliper isn’t nearly as good as any opposed piston caliper. That’s why all aftermarket brakes worth a damn are opposed piston calipers.

Like everything else, the spool mounts and single piston calipers were changes made for money. It’s not the mounts fault if the stooges who drive these cars don’t replace the engine mounts every 100k or so.

My first car was a 72 Demon. Has the K-H brakes. Didn’t stop worth a ****. Rebuilt the calipers. Still didn’t stop. Everyone said go to the 73 stuff and don’t look back. Except being young and dumb, I didn’t replace the mounts in time and not only lost a street race because of separating a mount, I broke my shroud.

So I just bought steel mounts. I knew backing out of the driveway how much better the steel mounts are. So...to pick up the story I got on the phone and called some people. The answer wasn’t change the stuff over to 73 stuff. The fix was to convert it over to manual brakes. My shop teacher lost his mind and wouldn’t let me do the work in shop class without my parents signing a waiver that if I crashed the car or something went sideways, the school and himself wouldn’t be liable.

I had him drive the car and he agreed it didn’t stop. So I converted it over to manual brakes and it was a WORLD of difference. Not even close. The junk 73 I have now had power brakes. It now has manual brakes, and even my wife likes how it stops.

So yes, I hate spool mounts and the sloppy drive they give, and I’ll take opposed piston calipers over a single piston caliper any day of the week. With the exception of using the small bolt pattern.

In fact, I have a line on an early K member and I will get it and get rid of the crappy spool mounts. I can’t wait. Should have done it when I had the engine out in 2014. But I listened to all the gurus who claimed a Poly bushing was the schizznizzle. It ain’t. It moves around like anything else that isn’t solid.