73 Plymouth Scamp - Torsion Bars Adjustment

[koufax]

I am new to the Mopar scene. Just recently got a 73 Plymouth Scamp with the slant six. I’ve been doing some front end work on the car. Car was sitting to low in the front. I’ve replaced both upper and lower control arm bushings. When replacing the lower control arm bushings I had the torsion bars out. I’ve read when clocking the torsion bars to remove the upper control arm bump stop to gain more drop during clocking. I did this. Once I put everything back together I adjusted the torsion bars by tightening the torsion bar adjuster bolts on the lower control arms. In order to gain clearance between lower control arm bump stop and k member of the car, I pretty much had to run the adjuster bolt all the way in. This gave me about a half inch of clearance. When I took the car out for a test drive, I did not hear or feel any bottoming out. After returning back from test drive, the car seemed to settle and now lower control arms are resting on bump stops.
Torsion bars are original to the car and I did not mismatch left and right sides.
Could this simply be weak torsion bars? I believe I followed correct procedure for clocking torsion bars. Anyone else experience this? Just didn’t want to spend the cash on new torsion bars if there could be a simple fix.
Also area where torsion bars index into body is solid.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[67Dart273]

Sounds to me like they still must be clocked wrong.

 

[cudamark]

Since you have to pull those torsion bars anyway, do yourself a favor and get some stiffer ones. Add a sway bar and the car will handle SO much better.

 

[72bluNblu]

I am new to the Mopar scene. Just recently got a 73 Plymouth Scamp with the slant six. I’ve been doing some front end work on the car. Car was sitting to low in the front. I’ve replaced both upper and lower control arm bushings. When replacing the lower control arm bushings I had the torsion bars out. I’ve read when clocking the torsion bars to remove the upper control arm bump stop to gain more drop during clocking. I did this. Once I put everything back together I adjusted the torsion bars by tightening the torsion bar adjuster bolts on the lower control arms. In order to gain clearance between lower control arm bump stop and k member of the car, I pretty much had to run the adjuster bolt all the way in. This gave me about a half inch of clearance. When I took the car out for a test drive, I did not hear or feel any bottoming out. After returning back from test drive, the car seemed to settle and now lower control arms are resting on bump stops.
Torsion bars are original to the car and I did not mismatch left and right sides.
Could this simply be weak torsion bars? I believe I followed correct procedure for clocking torsion bars. Anyone else experience this? Just didn’t want to spend the cash on new torsion bars if there could be a simple fix.
Also area where torsion bars index into body is solid.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

The torsion bars are just worn out. The slant 6 bars were pretty inadequate to begin with.

Also, just FYI, it’s almost impossible to clock factory torsion bars incorrectly when using factory lower control arms. The hex offset and range of travel just doesn’t allow it if you’re letting the control arms hang down.

 

[koufax]

Thanks for the information.
Do most guys go with the 1.03 bars? Assuming these would be adequate down the road when I do a V8 swap?

 

[72bluNblu]

Thanks for the information.
Do most guys go with the 1.03 bars? Assuming these would be adequate down the road when I do a V8 swap?

The PST 1.03” bars are a pretty popular choice and they’re a good wheel rate for a street car with a V8. They definitely add some handling performance but they’re not crazy stiff, the wheel rate is more in line with more modern cars.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Do the come with black fenders and hood?