Steering ratio doubler advice.
"Looks great except for the KYB's. Those will be absolutely atrocious with 1.14" bars if that's what you've got there, I thought PST only made 1.03's. Either way the KYB's are awful. I ran them on my Challenger with 1.12" bars and when I swapped them out for Bilsteins it was like a whole new car."
Thanks for taking the time to respond and give your advice. I measured the outside diameter of the torsion bars with a dial caliper, which is by no means accurate. But it will get you in the ball park. I made the assumption of that the powder coating adds .015" to the diameter because if that is subtracted from the diameter of both bars, you get nominal numbers. The stock bars being .875" or 7/8th and the PST bars being 1.125" or 1 and an 1/8th.
I don't remember what the largest size bar PST sells. I bought them at least four years ago. I do remember coming to a decision on size after reading several threads on this and other forums.
I'm running KYB's all the way around the car with Super Stock springs on the rear. It doesn't seem to bad, but I haven't really driven it aggressively before taking apart the front end. The decision on shocks was more of a price point, since QA1's and Afco's are a bit out of my price range. What is the part number of the Bilsteins?
As far as I know the only bars PST has sold in that timeframe were 1.03's. Firm Feel, Sway Away and BergmanAutocraft sell larger bars, and MP used to sell larger bars like that.
KYB's with factory torsion bars don't feel terrible, because you're experiencing the combination of too soft a spring with a really stiff shock. As far has handling goes its not ideal, but the stiff shocks band aid the soft torsion bars. When you combine them with stiffer springs, their cheap internal construction just gives a really harsh ride. I ran my Challenger with KYB's for most of the 70k miles I put on it, with 1.12" bars, blaming the bars for the stiff ride. The bars are fine, the KYB's are trash.
For large torsion bars, the RCD Bilsteins are probably the best bang for the buck. There are better shocks, but the price goes up fast. They worked well with the 1.12" bars on my Challenger, as I said earlier the comparison between the ride with the KYB's and the ride with the Bilsteins was night and day, a massive improvement with the Bilsteins.
Bilstein Shocks - Front - A Mopar Body - Bergman Auto Craft
Bilstein Shocks - Mopar - A Body Rear - Bergman Auto Craft
@72bluNblu, My 66 Valiant wagon had a factory installed 16:1 steering box and 245/60/14 tires. It was very heavy but responsive driving down the road. It just wasn’t for me.
I totally understand that not everyone wants to run 16:1 manual steering, that's fine. Where you lost me is when you're saying that A-bodies don't need power steering, than also say that 16:1 manual steering on an A is too heavy. Seems like power steering would be the solution to that problem without sacrificing steering ratio don't you think?
I ran a 16:1 box with fast ratio pitman idler for a few summers. I think it was 12 something to one. It wasn't horrible with skinny front tires and a big block under the hood.
For reference a fast ratio p/s box is 14:1.
A 16:1 box with the fast ratio pitman and idlers out there would be 12:1.
But the fast ratio power steering box itself is 16:1, then uses fast ratio pitman and idler arms to get to 12:1. The box itself for the T/A and AAR cars was still 16:1, they were different because the inner stops were reset to match the travel of the longer steering arms. All of the factory power steering boxes for these cars were 16:1, if you put a standard pitman arm on a T/A box the ratio is the same as the standard power steering boxes.
The aftermarket Borgeson power steering box conversion gives a 14:1 ratio, but that's not Mopar parts.
