sugestions on what front suspension to use

[G3 Duster]

Hi, I,m a newbie here and to forums in general so please bear with me.
I am in the middle of converting my 72 duster from a /6 auto to a truck 5.7 hemi with an 833 4-speed. I purchased the TTI conversion mounts for the 67'-72' SB k frame an went to install them when the clearance isues started, the height of the motor is at too high of an angle in the engine compartment causing hood clearance problems and the back of the intake to hit the firewall. There is more than enough room to drop the front of the motor 1" to 1 1/2" down and solve these problems but there will be no room for the manual steering box. A simple solution will be converting to a rack & pinion setup and have looked at the Cap, Unisteer, and RMS Alterktion. The Alterk seems to be the nicest, but I want to stay with factory style brakes (73 up abody disc with 11 1/2" rotors) because I put a lot of miles cruising and going on long road trips and wish to keep the longivity and easy parts availability they provide. I,m unsure about the CAP tubular or the Unisteer products on their strenth or reliability since this car will see serious street use, so handling is a must. Any thoughts or info on these or other setups would be much appretiated. Thanks

 

[72bluNblu]

I have CAP upper and lower control arms on my Challenger, as well as the adjustable strut rods. I also run a set of 1.12" torsion bars, magnumforce 2" drop spindles and late model 11.75" rotors in the front with stock calipers. I've had excellent support and performance from both the CAP and Magnumforce parts and companies. There is a member on here that had pretty extensive problems with a CAP tubular K-member, and I really can't comment on the K-member or the rack and pinion set up because I don't have one. But, the UCA's, LCA's and strut rods are quality pieces that have held up great for me for over 2K miles at this point, and I drive plenty of back roads, paved and unpaved, pretty aggressively.

I would stay away from rack and pinion set ups that use stock suspension mounting points/geometry (I know unisteer does, not sure if CAP does but they use all the other stock geometry so they might) as the stock geometry is difficult to set up with a rack without getting bump-steer. If you won't have room for a stock box though your options are definitely limited.

 

[abodyjoe]

The alter-k is by far the best one. If you get the cheaper brake setup from them it's ford Granada or something like that. Longevity and parts avalibilty is no problem it's all over the counter stuff at your local parts store. Being they are mustang spindles you have a huge selection of brake options. I'm running wilwoods with my alter-k three years now and quit a few miles with no issues. I drive the hell out of the car.

Your best bet is to give bill at rms a call. He will explain anything you want to know to ya. Hell he may even have tips on how to solve your problem without selling you a system.

As far as the uni-steer goes I have read on various boards about geometry problems and header clearance issues.

Cap. I've read about bad welds numerous times and piss poor customer service. If you look around this site you'll find a thread about a member having a cap frame crack numerous times and the frame not being square. There is a thread about a set of their upper arms breaking at the welds right now over on Bbd. Read others have had no problems with their uppers or lowers. Me, I just couldn't trust cap from what I have read.

Go to numerous boards and I'm confident the only one you won't read anything bad about is the alter-k. The product and customer service is second to none

 

[joe440]

abodyjoe, do u have manuel or power steering with that set up? im thinking about getting the alterk over the winter

 

[HPP]

Whats your budget and driving intentions? Alter K is going to run upwards of a few grand to set up. Certainly you aren't the first to run into a 5.7 conversion issue. What other solutions are out there?