68 barracuda T-bars ???'s

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318fish

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318 non a/c,auto. I want to lower the front end about 1 1/2", what other vehicles/t-bars can be sourced, that will fit. Not sure if other a-bodies had big blocks, I know they need to be larger diameter so wheel travel won't be so excessive. New ones are $350-$500 whew! too high$$$
 
Hey fish,

ANY A-bdy t-bar will fit... BUT, you'll play he-- finding a set of original big block t-bars. I agree with your comment about the price of bars. PST has the .890 and .920 at $439/pr. Firm Feel (personal friend) has seven different sizes from .820 to 1.180 in the $325 to $370 range. There are other sources as well. Probably the very best deal right now is the 1.030" from PST for $219. Maybe you should post a parts wanted ad, might be someone with a set to let go of. Good luck,

Mike in FL
 
lowering the front has nothing to do with different bars, or maybe I misunderstood. You can adjust them. But if you want stiffer ones, you need bigger ones. Simple as that. Any A body 67/ later fits. B-C-E, others, do not
 
Not to be a stickler, but I'll repeat, ANY A-bdy bars fit, not just '67-later. Same bars, upper and lower control arms, etc were carried forward from the '62-66 early A's, but the '67-76 front track was wider by 1.47". Upper and lower control arms were changed (but are still interchangeable) in '73-76 with the larger upper ball joint and different steering stops on the lower arm.

Mike in FL
 
my 2 67 383 big blocks and my 67 273 FS small block both have 892-3 bars and were considered the HD bars. These numbers are right off of the build sheets and parts manual. There is also a std duty big block bar listed. While I have heard the big block bars are thicker at .890 as opposed to .870, I do not have a set to actually check them, But for HD (formula-s) it lists only one bar set.
As mentioned though the torsion bars don't have a heck of a lot to do with ride height. To adjust height you loosen the control arm adjuster for the torsion bar and the front will drop.
 
I'm kinda new at suspension, here's my goal, and y'all point me in the right/correct direction of achieving this. Lower the front about 1"-1.5" ! Also reduce body roll while cornering (after) it's been lowered.

I thought the stiffer the bar, the less wheel travel (articulation/body roll) when the pre load is less. We have cranked the factory T-bars on a friends Nissan 4x4, and raised the front 1.5", but there was less wheel travel, rode like a horse and buggy and ate the front tires in about 3months! That was funny! I just figured loosening the factory T-bars would create to much wheel travel, and bounce like a rocking horse.
 
What the OP is trying to do is to lower the car but not have the suspension bottom out as easily as it would with just backing out the adjusting bolts with the stock T-bars. Hence the reason to go with thicker (stiffer) T-bars.

To the OP: The 'bounce' won't change with ride height if you just lower with the present T-bars (if I understand what you mean by 'bounce'; please explain more). Your idea that the body roll will be reduced with the thicker T-bars is correct; the stiffer T-bars will not only increase the suspension spring rate (reduce suspension deflection with a given 'bump') but will also increase roll stiffness and reduce body roll (which is what an anti-sway bar does without the increase in suspension stiffness). The antisway bar may be cheaper if you just want to reduce body roll.

BTW, your 'preload' ultimately the same; the body weight is not changing. The Nissan incident is because you lost overall wheel travel in the droop direction; you WILL lose wheel travel in the the bump direction when you lower this car; make sure the bump stops on the lower control arms are there! (Maybe hitting the stops is what you mean by 'bounce'?) And, you will change the alignment and will have to reset that if you don't want the tires wearing out; hopefully, there will be enough adjustment range.

And, be ready to change the shocks to a stiffer type if you stiffen up the T-bars'; the shock damping rate and spring rates are matched to some degree in all cars.
 
thank you nm9stheham, exactly, bounce meaning (bottoming out the lower control arm) when hitting bumps/dips. My car doesn't have an anti sway bar and doesn't appear to have ever had one, IDK not sure. I've only owned it 2 months, overall everything seems to be the the way the factory built it. Car has not been modified in any way

I'll look into a thick sway bar for the cornering. I guess I still need the T-bars for bumps/dips in the road, pulling into and out of some parking lots, correct? To help reduce bottoming the LCA's
 
Yes IMO if you are lowering it that much, then stiffer (thicker) T-bars seem to be in order to reduce the amount of bottoming; I think you will still experinece it some. If you stiffen the T-bars, then I would put $$ into stiffer shocks first and see if the stiffer T-bars also give enough roll stiffenss that you can forego an anti-sway bar.

Trimming the lower bumps stops a bit may also be helpful to also decrease the bottoming out, but IMO don't overdo it.

I cannot tell you if the alignment will work out OK with that amount of lowering.
 
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