1.03 PST Torsion Bars

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MrCuda68 said:
I've got the same bars installed 10-2011 in my 318 automatic 68 fastback. I to could not achieve adequate ride height. I was able to get some longer adjuster bolts and achieve proper height, with about only 1/8" of adjuster length to spare. Now that the bars have settled and been readjusted there is no adjustment left. I have contemplated cutting loose the torsion bar anchor and repositioning.

When I purchased the bars there was no warning on the on the website about not being able to reachieve proper ride height, atleast not that I saw. Numerous emails to there customer support went unanswered, and phone calls were either not picked up at 3pm or I was put on hold until I gave up. Needless to say these were the last product I have bought from them.

All I can say is if you plan on purchasing it's good to know what your getting into.
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I'm not alone on this one.
 
I suspect we won't be compensated for our mutual loss either because we exercised our "right" to complain to pose a question in this forum. I'm out extra shop labor time, the additional $100 cost for Firm Feel bars, expedited shipping to get the Firm Feel bars here in time. You are out proper credit for a defective product from one of your vendors. All told I'm out about $200 and so are you.

The bars do make nice hood props or "Jo's" for kata demonstrations.
 
superdve said:
Dan, wouldn't you agree that most street/strip guys use a 1" and under bar even for their big blocks? You must be able to pre load the bars for proper height.
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I will have to agree with you superdave. The reason I bought mine was that I got to see a 71' Duster at the carshow with PST's and I was sold...The car had an iron block 360 with Eddy aluminum heads, aluminum intake, and headers...believe it or not that engine weighs nearly the same as my slant 6 which is all cast iron. Therefore, I never really considered the pre load issue but I can see where it would be a very valid point. It seems that the RB/B guys, epsecially if they're all cast iron, would need the adjustment. I guess without the adjustment, these 1.03 bars are ample a pretty slim market (specifically related to front end weight). I do hope they take care of you and GMachinedartGt or at least listen to what real world customers are saying. For me, they're great but for others, you have a valid point superdave!:prayer:
 
I guess without the adjustment, these 1.03 bars are ample a pretty slim market (specifically related to front end weight). I do hope they take care of you and GMachinedartGt or at least listen to what real world customers are saying. For me, they're great but for others, you have a valid point superdave!:prayer:
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Dan, we hated to go off on the forum regarding this as it's a last resort.
PST is suggesting retaliation on our part but think about it. The bars don't work properly, we are not the only ones talking about the 0 offset and its lack of adjustment. As a result we deserve a refund on defective parts. The right thing to do is fix the bars and replace the bars for those that are having incident with their 1.03's.

I'd be happy to take a fixed set of bars and Pete or I will try them in a known car. If the issue is solved we would gladly say so. Seems fair to me but it will require PST to actually do something other than manage their PR presence here on the boards. We are still out time, money and labor.
 
dusterdan said:
I will have to agree with you superdave. The reason I bought mine was that I got to see a 71' Duster at the carshow with PST's and I was sold...The car had an iron block 360 with Eddy aluminum heads, aluminum intake, and headers...believe it or not that engine weighs nearly the same as my slant 6 which is all cast iron. Therefore, I never really considered the pre load issue but I can see where it would be a very valid point. It seems that the RB/B guys, epsecially if they're all cast iron, would need the adjustment. I guess without the adjustment, these 1.03 bars are ample a pretty slim market (specifically related to front end weight). I do hope they take care of you and GMachinedartGt or at least listen to what real world customers are saying. For me, they're great but for others, you have a valid point superdave!:prayer:
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i can guarantee the adjusters were BOTTOMED out on that duster! the scamp was on its bump stops with next to no adj. left with no front clip on it! i have installed many bars even .810 bars in big block a-bodies that had more then enough adj. left in the bolt. you need offset in the hex to get proper ride height not just a bigger bar. if someone asked my personal opinion on these hood props.. i mean torsion bars i would say stick with stock or a piece of re-bar because you will get better results. don't waste your money. if you buy them, put them in, and you don't like them, be sure you don't put a single nick or scratch in them because you will not get a refund even though you were sold an inferior product! :pukerigh:
 
Can anyone provide pictures of cars with this issue with our bars ? Like I have said if it is an issue we would correct it. The only picture here is of a car with our bars and he is happy with the stance. If it is an issue can someone please see the photos? We talk about it,but where are the photos?

Thanks
James
 
I dont have the PST 1.03 bars, but I do have Hotchkis 1.03 bars and they have the same issue, zero clocking, adjusters all the way in with no ride height.
They are going in the garbage can as soon as I can find a clocked set, it looks like Firm feel has this issue figured out.
 
So just came in from checking the used 1.03 bars I bought off a member here. No clocking, In the next month or so I will be installing and taking pictures with a factory stock 318 in a 71 Dart. Now I'm a little concerned, but I do like the car low.
 
Firm Feel all the way, I have their 1.06 bars in my A body and your height setting is easily adjusted and they are even easy to remove again when its necessary,
 
Wow! Glad I found this before I ordered some bars.
Someone please let me know where I can get the firm feel bars from.
Thanks
 
GMachineDartGT said:
This is the last time I will reiterate the initial post. The intention here was to find out if others experienced the same problem we did, no more no less. I did not ask PST to come on here to divulge any personal information about a transaction which is very unprofessional. If we were the only ones with any issue so be it, however, I doubt it.
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A few months back, I was gathering info from you guys on complete suspension system replacement. I got a feHw quotes from different companies (PST, Hotchkis, Firm Feel). And was originally going to go with PST but was skeptical.After reading this entire post, boy am I sure glad. Maybe its the lack of R & D that goes into the development of their products, lack of knowledge. Who knows, I'm not here to bash PST.I just want a good solid product, especially suspension, on my car. I don't want to have 2nd thoughts after spending a dime on that car. My .02. Sorry to hi-jack your thread GMachineDartGT. Just thankful for everyones communication on parts (Positive and negative). It keeps everyone in the know and informed. Thanks guys
 
Well I just installed some of the 1.03 PST used torsion bars on a 72 Dart. At this point the car isn't really a driver yet but does have all the major components installed like motor, trans, and hood it's almost ready to fire and drive.

I bought the torsion bars slightly used from a member here so I don't really expect much if any sag over time. As others and PST has said the bars are not clocked at all. They installed fine, I did have to screw in the adjusters bolts pretty far in to make contact with the bracket on the lower A arms while the car was on jack stands. There is no way around that as you can't clock the bars to compensate for this. I ended up with about a 1/2" of adjustment left after the adjusting bolts made contact with the bracket on the lower A arm with the car in the air. After letting the car down and rolling it around and bouncing on it a bit. The Dart settled in with the car right on the bump stops. That is actually right where I wanted it. Car looks good and the bump stops are pretty soft and have a lot of give so I don't suspect they will even need to be cut down unless I lower car more. I didn't try raising car as I'm happy with the ride height as is, but I would think it would be pretty easy to raise car at least 1/2" off the bump stops by bottoming out adjusting bolt if you desired to do so. I can't imagine wanting to go higher than a 1/2" off the bump stops the car would start looking like a 4X4 but if that is your need, maybe these 1.03 PST bars are not for you.

I'm actually pretty happy with these 1.03 PST torsion bars so far. I will hopefully report back in a month or two about ride and performance.

First three pictures below are of the 72 Dart with PST 1.03 Bars

Pictures four and five are of my 68 Dart with all Iron V8 and standard Mopar V8 torsion bars just for comparison purposes. I have about a 3/4" to 1" of bolt adjustment left on the 68 Dart with stock torsion bars
 

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No suspension travel, same as the hotchkis bars in mine.
I hope the roads are ultra smooth, because when you hit a dip it will be all over the road.
 
sireland67 said:
No suspension travel, same as the hotchkis bars in mine.
I hope the roads are ultra smooth, because when you hit a dip it will be all over the road.
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I wouldn't say no travel. My blue Dart is riding on the bump stop or pretty dang close and the car rides very well. Those bump stop are probably close to two inches thick and they do compress pretty easily. Just guessing but I would think two inches at the bump stop would probably equal about four inched upward travel out at the wheel and tire.

I don't think my blue Dart is really that low. Makes me wonder how much clearance other members run on their cars. Maybe a poll thread is in order to find out what other member run for clearance on their bump stops.
 
I just wanted to give you a heads up.
You do not have enough articulation to handle bumps in the road.
The lower a-arm is going to bottom out.
Drive it slow for a while and you will know what I mean.
 
I can't fathom why you would think a bar with little to no adjustment is properly engineered when all it would take is to clock the bars and then you could actually choose your ride height and let the suspension work as designed.
I would bet that down the road at some point PST either clocks the A body bars or stops selling them all together.
It seems silly they are even arguing that these bars were purposely engineered this way.
 
Heres my two cents.... we race a 1/2 mile oval track with a A body, actuaaly the fastest 1/2 mile trioval in the country... and we set the currently held track record by a full 2 tenths using these exact bars, but the adjusters were bottomed out with no more adjustment...We have a ride hight rule, so after 2 races when they took a bit of a "set" we couldn't get the ride hight up to where it needed to be. We were gonna cut and reindex the rear torsion bar anchors to fix this problem, but we went back to a 30 year old set of direct connection bars, with the correct indexing, cause we didn't have time to do that between races....
 
Because I have no life and nothing better to do "joking of coarse". Had to go out and max out the adjustment on these 1.03 PST bars. 72 Dart stock 318 engine front tires are about 25.5" tall. I didn't even jack it up just tightened the adjuster bolts all the way up and rolled it back and forth a few times and bounced it up and down. The bump stops are off the frame minimum 1/2". Do you really need more adjustment? At this point I know I don't!
 

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Look at your adjuster in the last pic, almost maxed out, that's what we are talking about.... that is no good
 
There is no question in my mind that's a stock torsion bar or even one that is clocked can provide more adjustment. I would never run my car as shown with the car at that height in the post above being maxed out. Not because it wouldnt work, it would work fine. I just prefer a lower stance. People are saying there is no adjustment. With this dart there is more than I need. Things may change when I'm on the road and if that is the case I will document it. For now I'm pretty happy that I have more adjutment than needed directly contradicting what has been posted by other members and I backed it up with pictures.
 
Hersbird said:
I can't fathom why you would think a bar with little to no adjustment is properly engineered when all it would take is to clock the bars and then you could actually choose your ride height and let the suspension work as designed.
I would bet that down the road at some point PST either clocks the A body bars or stops selling them all together.
It seems silly they are even arguing that these bars were purposely engineered this way.
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Exactly
 
zhandfull said:
Because I have no life and nothing better to do "joking of coarse". Had to go out and max out the adjustment on these 1.03 PST bars. 72 Dart stock 318 engine front tires are about 25.5" tall. I didn't even jack it up just tightened the adjuster bolts all the way up and rolled it back and forth a few times and bounced it up and down. The bump stops are off the frame minimum 1/2". Do you really need more adjustment? At this point I know I don't!
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Good luck, I hope they work for YOU. The problem with the adjuster being that maxed out, among other things, is it can actually hit the frame rail on compression. My buddy had the Mopar .810 drag bars in his Dart and when it would come down from a wheelie those adjusters would once in a while catch the frame rail and get STUCK there and not allow the suspension to even return to ride height. He went with .890 bars as a result. NO BEUNO. I'll spend an extra $150 for FF bars that work perfect any day.
 
72BBSwinger said:
Good luck, I hope they work for YOU. The problem with the adjuster being that maxed out, among other things, is it can actually hit the frame rail on compression.
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I think you missed the point. His adjusters were only maxed out when he jacked the front end up to high heaven, as shown in the pic.

I think the point is that if you want stock ride height (which is too high in my opinion), go with different bars. If you want a lowered ride height, PSTs are okay. PST should probably mention that in their part description, though.
 
Just wait til it takes a set, a 318 isnt really gonna need max adjustment but still with it only having 1/2" of threads left at his desired ride is rediculous.
 
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