My 74 Dart handles lousy and I need help

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California Dart

California Dart

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My swinger , like everyones, sways and bouces all over the road. Do sway bars and frim shocks help that much? On ebay they have a kit and would like someones opinio on if it's worth the time and money.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200671100267?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I'm going to rebuild my front end with all new bushings and connectors and install some firm Bernstiens.

Also, How do I lower my front end about 2 inches?

Thanks in advance for you're expertise.
 
This front sway bar fits a coronet, roadrunner, AND a Dart? I'm not 100% positive, so I'd do a little research first before buying.

Front sway bars make a huge difference, even on an otherwise stock suspension. New bushings will also help (I'd recommend poly or graphite). Also, never heard of Bernsteins, but new shocks will help alot too. I recommend factory Mopar HD shocks, or KYB/Monroes. I've also heard good things about Competition Engineering shocks.

You can lower the front end easily by backing out the torsion bar adjustment bolt located underneath each lower control arm, about halfway. Be careful though. You can easily ruin the suspension geometry by eliminating the already scarce amount of caster supplied by the factory setup. I'd recommend against lowering the car too much without corrective tubular upper control arms or offset upper control arms bushings meant to increase caster.
Good luck

-Mike
 
Front AND rear sway bars and good gas shocks go a long way....

RearSwayBarResults.jpg
 
Before you worry about sway bars, rebuild the front suspension and see if that helps. If you want to lower the car, you'll want to install a set of offset control arm bushings while you're rebuilding the front end, Moog #K7103. That will help you to get your car back to the correct geometry if you lower it some with the torsion bar adjusters.

Good shocks are a must, but before I bought sway bars I'd buy torsion bars. A set of 1" torsion bars will go a long way to improving the handling of the car, even without sway bars. Ma mopar seriously undersprung these cars in the front (and oversprung them in the rear!), and sway bars won't correct that entirely.

Set up the car with a modern alignment. You'll have to get it aligned after you do the front end, especially if you lower the car because that does change the alignment geometry. An alignment for modern tires will go a long way, think 0 to -.5 camber, +3 to +4 caster (as much as you can get), and 1/16" to 1/8" toe in. That alone will handle much better than the stock specs.

Once you've done all that and you still want to reduce body roll, then get sway bars. Putting sway bars on a stock car does help, but you're treating a symptom (body roll) and not the problem (undersprung front end).
 
Do all of it at the same time. Rebuild the front end (use rubber on the LCA, but poly is fine everywhere else). Any larger torsion bar will be an improvement, but .890" should be the minimum. Add, at the very least, a stock a-body front sway bar. I think you mena Bilstein shocks. At this point, any decent gas shock will help and not be as expensive as Bilsteins.
 
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