Adjustable strut rods post-install thoughts

[MopaR&D]

First I think everyone should get these ... I have a '70 Duster with poly LCA bushings and greasable pins, boxed LCAs, offset UCA bushings, and 1" T-bars. With the factory strut rods the lower arms were being visibly pushed back and the car had a sloppy feel in the front with a very annoying random clunk sound when turning and hitting the brakes. I knew I needed the adjustable rods for a long time but finally had the extra money and got some PST pieces a couple months ago. The installation was a bit of a pain as it requires some trial and error to get them adjusted just right but not too bad once you get the hang of it (the second side you do should go faster).

After install I was really surprised at how much better it felt. First thing I noticed immediately was the harder initial steering effort/return-to-center, no doubt due to the caster angle being improved from the LCA being pulled forward to its correct position. Everything feels much tighter regarding suspension as well; it soaks up bumps more easily and the braking feels much more responsive, I have manual brakes so it was very noticeable to me. The best part... that damn infernal clunk is GONE!! This car has made that clunk since I got it almost a decade ago and after tearing apart the whole friggin' front end four times... well you guys should understand that repairs like these can get personal LOL

Overall I'm very impressed with this upgrade and I obviously highly recommend it, even for cars with rubber LCA bushings I think they would still be an improvement. I can post pics if interested but my car's pretty dirty right now lol

 

[Dustert73]

Awesome! I just installed qa1 strut rods in my duster. How'd you measure/what did you measure them out to?

 

[75slant6]

Good to hear you finally got the clunk figured out! My duster has the same issues and I'm hoping to get some adjustable strut rods sometime in the next few months

 

[Oldmanmopar]

I frequent " Ray Barton Racing " On the SS Darts and Barracudas they must use all factory parts . They can be modified or from other brands of cars that is why they can run a 9 inch. The rules say factory production parts but do not specify that they have to be brand specific .

They must use Factory strut rods so this is what Ray did to prevent fore and aft movement on foot brake. These hymn joints thread right onto the factory rods. I have a bunch of them along with joints left over from the sprint car. So we copied his cars when we made the new K member. The movement is very smooth . The new cars use adjustable struts as in the last pic. I went with making my own because I am cheap.
One thing I noticed and he also corrected on his cars is they fastened the lower A-arm pin by threading the pin and putting a bolt from the rear to stop the a-arm from sliding off the pin. A must when using poly bushing on the lowers . We are making bronze bushings. we also cut the factory K so the pan can be removed in the car. Here are some pics so far and some of the hemi cars at Rays.

 

[jbc426]

Oldmanmopar, that is some cool stuff you have there.

I'm a fan of the adjustable strut rods and have put them on both my Mopars. It dramatically improves the road feel of the cars, which now track straight on down the highway and give the cars a planted fell even above 150 mph.

One thing to keep an eye on with the adjustable lower strut rods is that you can pull the front wheel so far forward that it will hit your front fender just in front of the tire. I actually trimmed my fender in the front on my '68. I chose not to do that on my '70 as it is a numbers car.

 

[MopaR&D]

Awesome! I just installed qa1 strut rods in my duster. How'd you measure/what did you measure them out to?

I didn't really measure anything I just bolted them in loosely with the LCA installed but no torsion bar; I basically started them long then adjusted them shorter to where I felt they were starting to bind up the LCA travel as I moved it up and down its full range of motion, then backed it off a bit. After they were in my suspicions of a poorly-made K-member were clear as the driver side strut rod is visibly shorter than the passenger side even though I made sure it wasn't binding or pulling the LCA too much.

 

[MopaR&D]

Oldmanmopar, that is some cool stuff you have there.

I'm a fan of the adjustable strut rods and have put them on both my Mopars. It dramatically improves the road feel of the cars, which now track straight on down the highway and give the cars a planted fell even above 150 mph.

One thing to keep an eye on with the adjustable lower strut rods is that you can pull the front wheel so far forward that it will hit your front fender just in front of the tire. I actually trimmed my fender in the front on my '68. I chose not to do that on my '70 as it is a numbers car.

I don't think they're supposed to work like that if you pull the LCAs forward that far they must surely be binding a bit or at least angled as opposed to straight out.

 

[jbc426]

I don't think they're supposed to work like that if you pull the LCAs forward that far they must surely be binding a bit or at least angled as opposed to straight out.

"they must surely be"?, No, they are not binding and the car has been professionally aligned. Yes, they are farther forward than they were. My front tires nearly rubbed the fenders to begin with. Yes, I must surely have wide tires up there.

 

[72bluNblu]

I don't think they're supposed to work like that if you pull the LCAs forward that far they must surely be binding a bit or at least angled as opposed to straight out.

Barracuda's have shorter wheel openings compared to the other body styles, the lower front corner pretty much has to be modified in order to run tires that are close to 26" tall and of any kind of width. Moseleyme had to do it to run 255/40/18's, and I know autoXcuda did the same.

And with poly bushings and the heim joints on the adjustable strut rods there's less binding than with the factory rubber bushing set up, so the adjustable strut rods do end up shorter than the stockers.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

I put 15 x 7 wheels on the Duster from my 71 Roadrunner to put it away this year took it for a ride and I have no tire clearance issues at all.

I had very low mileage tight and straight Lower control arms when making these struts. With rubber stops in place and keeping the 1 inch space. The hymn joints can be adjusted so the bolt just slides in at this position. . As you can see we used a complete front clip kept to mock Headers and other fabrication of parts to do all measuring. There is no guess work . The free travel without binding rubber promotes weight transfer quicker.

The main reason for getting rid of the rubber is to prevent the wheels from being pushed back while foot braking the car. Preventing this movement allows for deep stage with less chance of turning on the red when the front tires lunge forward from the rubber band effect. We only took this advice from Ray because he has more experience than any one I know with SS cars. we run the car at 1/4 inch off the stops and upper arm stops to keep travel at 1 inch .

 

[MopaR&D]

"they must surely be"?, No, they are not binding and the car has been professionally aligned. Yes, they are farther forward than they were. My front tires nearly rubbed the fenders to begin with. Yes, I must surely have wide tires up there.

Gotcha more to it than I thought... mine probably moved too then I just didn't notice because I cut my fenders long ago to fit my 215/65/15s

 

[chillent]

Barracuda's have shorter wheel openings compared to the other body styles, the lower front corner pretty much has to be modified in order to run tires that are close to 26" tall and of any kind of width. Moseleyme had to do it to run 255/40/18's, and I know autoXcuda did the same.

So I am now trying to research why my car seems to be different than others regarding where the wheel is in the wheel opening on my car. Doing this as result of trying to get a 26" tire in the front which others seem to be able to do... I am coming across the condition described above and wondering how an adjustable strut rod works and if it would help this condition? I just can't wrap my head around the strut rod helping to push/pull the LCA fore/aft in the chassis? Isn't the LCA in a fixed position pivoting on the kmember? My front suspension is all stock '74 abody stuff

Please help me fix this!

 

[jbc426]

So I am now trying to research why my car seems to be different than others regarding where the wheel is in the wheel opening on my car. Doing this as result of trying to get a 26" tire in the front which others seem to be able to do... I am coming across the condition described above and wondering how an adjustable strut rod works and if it would help this condition? I just can't wrap my head around the strut rod helping to push/pull the LCA fore/aft in the chassis? Isn't the LCA in a fixed position pivoting on the kmember? My front suspension is all stock '74 abody stuff

Please help me fix this!

View attachment 1715071444

View attachment 1715071445

I chose to trim the fender there. My wheel opening trim was adjusted to make it hard to detect without measuring or something.

 

[72bluNblu]

So I am now trying to research why my car seems to be different than others regarding where the wheel is in the wheel opening on my car. Doing this as result of trying to get a 26" tire in the front which others seem to be able to do... I am coming across the condition described above and wondering how an adjustable strut rod works and if it would help this condition? I just can't wrap my head around the strut rod helping to push/pull the LCA fore/aft in the chassis? Isn't the LCA in a fixed position pivoting on the kmember? My front suspension is all stock '74 abody stuff

Please help me fix this!

View attachment 1715071444

View attachment 1715071445

Your car isn't different than other Barracuda's. The wheel openings on the different make/models of A-bodies are different. Usually, on a Barracuda to fit a 26" tire the lower front corner of the wheel opening has to be modified. Member mosleyme shows this process pretty well on his Barracuda with 26" tall tires 1968 Barracuda Front Fender Modification for 26" Tires

As far as the adjustable strut rods, a few things to note. First, the LCA isn't nearly as fixed in place as people think. With the stock parts the LCA shouldn't be moving on the LCA pin, but those big rubber bushings on the strut rods allow the LCA to flex both forward and backward during suspension travel, braking, etc. The adjustable strut rods would reduce that some, but it's unlikely they would help you any with stock LCA bushings. You still need to set the length of the strut rods so that there's no binding. Now, with polyurethane LCA bushings thing are a little different. The LCA can slide on the LCA pin. That's why I think the adjustable strut rods are mandatory for a poly LCA bushing. You still tune the length of the strut rod so that there's no bind, but at least in my experience the strut rod usually ends up a little shorter than stock, and the LCA actually ends up a little further forward on the pin than the stock configuration. I'm not talking a big amount, less than a 1/4" or so typically. But that does add some positive caster, which is a good thing.

In your case though, if the adjustable strut rod made any difference at all it would likely give you less space there by pulling the bottom of the spindle slightly forward.

 

[chillent]

I chose to trim the fender there. My wheel opening trim was adjusted to make it hard to detect without measuring or something.

Did you trim a small amount or go to the extent of the work in the thread 72bluNblu linked above?

Your car isn't different than other Barracuda's. The wheel openings on the different make/models of A-bodies are different. Usually, on a Barracuda to fit a 26" tire the lower front corner of the wheel opening has to be modified. Member mosleyme shows this process pretty well on his Barracuda with 26" tall tires 1968 Barracuda Front Fender Modification for 26" Tires

There is no way I'm going this far to make them fit!! I've had several Barracuda owners tell me they fit them but maybe with aftermarket brakes? I wonder if different brakes would alter the track width?

As far as the adjustable strut rods, a few things to note. First, the LCA isn't nearly as fixed in place as people think. With the stock parts the LCA shouldn't be moving on the LCA pin, but those big rubber bushings on the strut rods allow the LCA to flex both forward and backward during suspension travel, braking, etc. The adjustable strut rods would reduce that some, but it's unlikely they would help you any with stock LCA bushings. You still need to set the length of the strut rods so that there's no binding. Now, with polyurethane LCA bushings thing are a little different. The LCA can slide on the LCA pin. That's why I think the adjustable strut rods are mandatory for a poly LCA bushing. You still tune the length of the strut rod so that there's no bind, but at least in my experience the strut rod usually ends up a little shorter than stock, and the LCA actually ends up a little further forward on the pin than the stock configuration. I'm not talking a big amount, less than a 1/4" or so typically. But that does add some positive caster, which is a good thing.

This is very helpfull thank you ... totally understood now.

 

[72bluNblu]

There is no way I'm going this far to make them fit!! I've had several Barracuda owners tell me they fit them but maybe with aftermarket brakes? I wonder if different brakes would alter the track width?

Different brakes absolutely can change the track width. The other thing is that there's a lot of factors involved in tire fit. Ride height, track width, backspacing, tire width, alignment and even suspension set up will change the clearances necessary for a given tire. Not to mention the body tolerances on these cars are somewhat variable as well, at least within a 1/4" or so. But that can absolutely be the difference between what clears and what rubs.

 

[MopaR&D]

This is my idea of a half-a$$ fix but maybe try unbolting the support rods that hold those corners of the fenders and see if pulling or pushing the fender would make it clear? Then fab up some longer or shorter rods to hold the fender in the 'proper' spot. I'd still be leary of going over bumps in a turn though.

 

[72bluNblu]

This is my idea of a half-a$$ fix but maybe try unbolting the support rods that hold those corners of the fenders and see if pulling or pushing the fender would make it clear? Then fab up some longer or shorter rods to hold the fender in the 'proper' spot. I'd still be leary of going over bumps in a turn though.

That's what I did on my Duster to clear my 275's. Granted, not a Barracuda. But adjusting the lower fender to bumper brace makes a difference for tire clearance on that lower front corner of the fender. I did exactly what you described. First I maxed out the brace, then I unbolted it altogether and pulled the fender corner out, and then I decided how long the brace should be and made it longer.

Here's the modified brace (I had a few extras)

And here it is on the car. I cut the corner back as indicated as well. 275's up front are big.

 

[AJ/FormS]

Just FYI
To fit 245/50-15s (about 24.6 tall),onto the factory KH brakes, I had to pull the bs way in until the wheels just hit the Upper BJ at................full droop I think it was. I installed poly every where including the strutrods, and except installed the Moog Problem-Solvers, and 1.03 bars and the big 1.125 S-bar.. Then when I backed off the alignment rack, the tires rubbed where you indicated, so out came the tin snips. Then the UBJs tore off the wheel weights so I got the stick-ons. Then the tires hit the frame-rails in one direction and IIRC the strutrods in the other direction. lol, what a hoot those were.
This on a 68 Barracuda with Wheel-Vintiques custom bs Rallys.
I set the alignment to 3.6* caster and -.5* camber, and whatever toe to get the tire face temp even across the tread when traveling in a straight line. Was it worth it? Heck ya!; I wore those tires out driving city streets in about 5 weeks.Man did it corner! But those tires were too expensive to run off like that for this cowboy. The replacement tires were 235/60-14 BFGs (25.1), and of course I now had to slow down for the turns. A lot

 

[chillent]

This is my idea of a half-a$$ fix but maybe try unbolting the support rods that hold those corners of the fenders and see if pulling or pushing the fender would make it clear? Then fab up some longer or shorter rods to hold the fender in the 'proper' spot. I'd still be leary of going over bumps in a turn though.

Half a$$ or not this is the route I'm going first ... Funny thing is, there are no strut rods holding either fender! We're they there from factory? If so, mine are missing. I've seen a lot of racers use adjustable heim joint rods to push/pull fenders in out (basically a small tie rod). This car is drag strip only so not as much of a concern about bumps and cornering!

That's what I did on my Duster to clear my 275's. Granted, not a Barracuda. But adjusting the lower fender to bumper brace makes a difference for tire clearance on that lower front corner of the fender. I did exactly what you described. First I maxed out the brace, then I unbolted it altogether and pulled the fender corner out, and then I decided how long the brace should be and made it longer

Thanks for the info gonna give it a try!

Just FYI
To fit 245/50-15s (about 24.6 tall),onto the factory KH brakes, I had to pull the bs way in until the wheels just hit the Upper BJ at................full droop I think it was. I installed poly every where including the strutrods, and except installed the Moog Problem-Solvers, and 1.03 bars and the big 1.125 S-bar.. Then when I backed off the alignment rack, the tires rubbed where you indicated, so out came the tin snips. Then the UBJs tore off the wheel weights so I got the stick-ons. Then the tires hit the frame-rails in one direction and IIRC the strutrods in the other direction. lol, what a hoot those were.
This on a 68 Barracuda with Wheel-Vintiques custom bs Rallys.
I set the alignment to 3.6* caster and -.5* camber, and whatever toe to get the tire face temp even across the tread when traveling in a straight line. Was it worth it? Heck ya!; I wore those tires out driving city streets in about 5 weeks.Man did it corner! But those tires were too expensive to run off like that for this cowboy. The replacement tires were 235/60-14 BFGs (25.1), and of course I now had to slow down for the turns. A lot

Lol, I will see how the fender option goes and it's back to 24" tires if not!

 

[RedFish]

So I am now trying to research why my car seems to be different than others regarding where the wheel is in the wheel opening on my car. Doing this as result of trying to get a 26" tire in the front which others seem to be able to do... I am coming across the condition described above and wondering how an adjustable strut rod works and if it would help this condition? I just can't wrap my head around the strut rod helping to push/pull the LCA fore/aft in the chassis? Isn't the LCA in a fixed position pivoting on the kmember? My front suspension is all stock '74 abody stuff

Please help me fix this!

View attachment 1715071444

View attachment 1715071445

Man that first photo is screwy looking to me. The badges say front fender. The wheel/tire looks too far forward in that wheel well. Then the upper right corner of the pic suggests rear window, sail panel angle area. Optical illusions I guess. Anyway...
With OEM lower arm bushings being press fit bonded rubber construction, the lower arm position is fixed until that bonded rubber fails. It's those aftermarket toss it in plastic bushings that allow the lower arm to move around, slide rearward. The adjustable strut rods draw the arm forward at the lower ball joint end creating resistance at the bushing on pin end.
The one post above shows a bolt holding the arm on the pin but the hex socket for torsion bar is MIA. We'll assume coil over suspension there.
I wonder if anyone has tried a mod to push and hold the rear end of the torsion bars where factory placed a simple wire retainer? So long as I avoid plastic bushings, I don't need answers to those questions.

 

[AJ/FormS]

While I had my Barracuda on the alignment rack with the sensors installed, I checked the readings with the LCA pushed to the travel extremes on the pin, and I found little to no changes. Which made sense to me, cuz the pivot point is at the strutrod attaching point, and the lever ratio is about what? 4 or 5 to 1. So 1/4 inch at the pin is .050 or less at the LBJ. I hammered my .103s all the way forward anyway, and they stayed there. I also modded my poly strut rod bushings to pull the LCA forward a bit, and installed a spacer up there to secure it in that forward position. My wheelbase is no longer 108",lol.

 

[72bluNblu]

With OEM lower arm bushings being press fit bonded rubber construction, the lower arm position is fixed until that bonded rubber fails.

The rubber in the OEM bushings is not "bonded" to the shells. It's just a friction fit that holds them in place. Nothing fancy. The rubber is just so lousy in shear that it usually tears before the surface friction lets go. The strut rod is still what keeps the LCA from moving around on the pin. Without them the rubber would just fail when exposed to the additional suspension loads.

Nothing bonded here...

It's those aftermarket toss it in plastic bushings that allow the lower arm to move around, slide rearward. The adjustable strut rods draw the arm forward at the lower ball joint end creating resistance at the bushing on pin end.

You've obviously never installed a set of polyurethane or Delrin bushings. Or maybe not properly?Yes, it's a different installation process and the length of the strut rods is more critical, but that shouldn't be surprising because it's an aftermarket part made out of a completely different material with different properties. There's less flex so the strut rods must be the right length. Properly done there is less binding with the poly or delrin bushings, the LCA moves through its range of travel with less resistance, and is more accurately located. If the installation is done properly.

So long as I avoid plastic bushings, I don't need answers to those questions.

I suggest you do avoid them, since you don't seem to understand the difference between "plastic", polyurethane and Delrin, or how they're suppose to work when you install them properly.

 

[MopaR&D]

Ok cool I guess it's not a half-*** idea then lol... @chillent check the bottoms of the fender lips to see if a hole is drilled, if so there was probably a rod there at some point. I know the ones on my Duster had the bolts fall out and I didn't notice what the rods hanging there were for until years after I got the car.

 

[RedFish]

So maybe I'm an idiot. If so the OEM engineers were too. The rubber bushings remained the same and worked just fine for what? 40 year models? Maybe there is a legitimate "curve carving" need for plastic bushings, along with the greasable pins, and adjustable strut rods. Aftermarket will fill most every need one can imagine, fancy shocks, low ratio steering gear, etc.., etc... None of that is for me. My 67 A drives just like a 67 A on the street, and I enjoy it, manual drum brakes and all.
If my memory serves, the Barracuda fender had only one brace, made of flat metal, near top center of the wheel well. Should be simple enough to add a brace from front lower corner toward the bumper brace bolts on frame rail. Oh wait... Does the aftermarket not offer that too? If not, Most any pickup truck in the bone yard will have braces under their rear fenders. Good luck with it.