drop spindles

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Work hard play always

Work hard play always

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Im sure this subject has been exhausted on here but looking for some direction in lowering.

71 Valiant /6

I'd like to drop it two inches. I tried turning down the torsion bars and it just made it ride bad. So to keep some drivability I think drop spindles and blocks are in order. I can seem to only find one company who makes them for like 500 bucks just for the spindles. Any pointers?? I know she will be low and scrape but I need this.
 
In a nutshell, your ride quality is bad now because your suspension is constantly hitting the bump stops. The stock torsion bars are too soft to sacrifice any ride height, because lowering the ride height also reduces suspension travel. Since the stock bars weren’t really even stiff enough to keep the suspension from bottoming out at the stock ride height, you can’t lower the car with stock torsion bars.

You have two options. Buy the drop spindles. The car will be 2” lower, you’ll still have really soft torsion bars, and you may find that you end up with tire interference or even hard parts on the ground with that amount of suspension travel at the lower ride height. Also, if you don’t lower the car the full 2”, you’ll actually make your suspension geometry worse than stock- add bump steer, reduce camber gain, etc.

Your other option is to buy larger torsion bars. Something in the 1.03” to 1.06” range will allow for a modest drop in ride height, especially if you use a shorter LCA bump stop. Then you can lower the car with the torsion bars, because the stiffer bars need less available suspension travel. A 1.03” bar has almost twice the wheel rate of the stock bars. Plus, when you lower the car with the torsion bars, you improve bump steer and camber gain, which works better with the radial tires you’re probably running because the factory specs were based on bias ply’s. You will also want a good set of shocks to tame the larger torsion bars, but, even a really nice set of shocks and torsion bars will cost about the same as those drop spindles. And your car will actually handle better, not just look cool.
 
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Looking at my 'ol Valiant you would never know it has 2'' drop spindles. We did the disc brake swap and also installed .920 torsion bars. I was running 195/75/14's on the front and 205/75/15's. This was some time in the early 2000's guessing 2004-5 ish. The spindles came from a company called Fatman Fabrication.Yes they were $500 retail but were leftovers from another project that went in another direction.The car rode drove and stopped wonderfully.
Threequarter_rear.jpg


Threequarter_front.jpg
 
72bluNblu said:
In a nutshell, your ride quality is bad now because your suspension is constantly hitting the bump stops. The stock torsion bars are too soft to sacrifice any ride height, because lowering the ride height also reduces suspension travel. Since the stock bars weren’t really even stiff enough to keep the suspension from bottoming out at the stock ride height, you can’t lower the car with stock torsion bars.

You have two options. Buy the drop spindles. The car will be 2” lower, you’ll still have really soft torsion bars, and you may find that you end up with tire interference or even hard parts on the ground with that amount of suspension travel at the lower ride height. Also, if you don’t lower the car the full 2”, you’ll actually make your suspension geometry worse than stock- add bump steer, reduce camber gain, etc.

Your other option is to buy larger torsion bars. Something in the 1.03” to 1.06” range will allow for a modest drop in ride height, especially if you use a shorter LCA bump stop. Then you can lower the car with the torsion bars, because the stiffer bars need less available suspension travel. A 1.03” bar has almost twice the wheel rate of the stock bars. Plus, when you lower the car with the torsion bars, you improve bump steer and camber gain, which works better with the radial tires you’re probably running because the factory specs were based on bias ply’s. You will also want a good set of shocks to tame the larger torsion bars, but, even a really nice set of shocks and torsion bars will cost about the same as those drop spindles. And your car will actually handle better, not just look cool.
Click to expand...


So, would a larger diameter bar like the 1.03" PST bar be appropriate to drop a 69 dart with a 73+ k member with the disk brake set up?
1.03" Torsion Bar Master Kit - Polygraphite - A Body
 
roylerumble said:
So, would a larger diameter bar like the 1.03" PST bar be appropriate to drop a 69 dart with a 73+ k member with the disk brake set up?
1.03" Torsion Bar Master Kit - Polygraphite - A Body
Click to expand...

Very much so. I don't recommend anything under a 1" torsion bar, the reason the stock torsion bars were so soft had a lot to do with the original bias ply tires and shock technology at the time. Now with even a half decent set of radials and mediocre shocks you can have better ride quality than original even with significantly larger torsion bars.

The 1.03" PST bars are a good upgrade, a lot of people here run them. They're stiff enough to lower the car some, significantly improve handling and not rattle your eyeballs loose with a good set of shocks. They're probably still too soft if you're building a car for autoX, road racing or even just aggressive street handling. But for a street car that has a slightly lower ride height with improved tires and braking they're a great choice.
 
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