lildemonkid
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That looks amazing! what all did you have to do in the fron to fit those?
Wide Fronts on a 68 Dart
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That looks amazing! what all did you have to do in the fron to fit those?
lildemonkid
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i thought about a b-body rear because i have one of those too. but i found an a-body one that was reinforced for drag racing. But thanks!
roccodart440
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I run heim joints on my UCA's. NO issues, no change in driving comfort either.
tomswheels
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I took a pneumatic tool and pushed the top of the fender lip out about 3/4 of an inch, rolled the lips, and cut an inch out of the rear of the front lip and re-welded it. As you can see in the pic the 285/35 really fills it up, you could do quite a bit less if you went with a shorter 285/30...
nice. I'm not worried about driving comfort in the suspension, that's what the seats for O
roccodart440
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nice. I'm not worried about driving comfort in the suspension, that's what the seats for O
You'll hear a lot of people speak poorly of heim joint use on the street and how they ruin ride quality or are noisy. I've never experienced those things. My upper CA's definitely improved the handling, make no noise and didn't negatively affect the ride.
I got a set for my Dart. I haven't installed them yet, but I can tell you they way half as much as my Bilsteins.
Hopefully within the next couple months I'll have my car done. School's starting to kick my butt again, but I have and fixed all my parts so it's just a matter of bolting it all together. :banghead:
I have heims on the Hotchkis adjustable UCA's on my Challenger. I never had a problem with ride quality or noise, but the first set only lasted 7k miles before the heims ended up with galling and wear. Hotchkis replaced them and provided the "boots" that cover the heims, which weren't originally provided. So far no issues on the second set, but I don't think I've put much more than 7k on them again since I've been putting most of my miles on my Duster.
My personal opinion on them is that they're not at all necessary for street use, and that they will not last as long, even with the boots, as a set of bushings. Maybe if you only drive your car when its dry, sunny, and 70*F, but since I drive my car year round and in all conditions I don't expect nearly the same life span out of the heims. And pulling the UCA's and installing new heims every year isn't on my list of fun things to do.
autoxcuda
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Really?!
Seems to me like they should last quite a bit longer than that in ideal conditions. I would never expect them to last as long as a bushing just because of the design, but anything under 10k miles is a pretty big hassle. I figured mine went simply because of the use on wet roads and the tendency to pick up road grime when that happens.
On the A-body Hotchis UCA's do the heims sit in the middle with the arms perpendicular to the UCA mounts? Ie, do you think that the heims could be replaced with something like this?
On the E-body there's no way, the tube of the UCA is actually at a slight angle to the mounting bracket, and with the relocated front mount there's no way to put anything other than a heim in there.
autoxcuda
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Really?!
Seems to me like they should last quite a bit longer than that in ideal conditions. I would never expect them to last as long as a bushing just because of the design, but anything under 10k miles is a pretty big hassle. I figured mine went simply because of the use on wet roads and the tendency to pick up road grime when that happens.
On the A-body Hotchis UCA's do the heims sit in the middle with the arms perpendicular to the UCA mounts? Ie, do you think that the heims could be replaced with something like this?
On the E-body there's no way, the tube of the UCA is actually at a slight angle to the mounting bracket, and with the relocated front mount there's no way to put anything other than a heim in there.
It might have 7200 tops. I've got 6200 on this motor. And maybe 1000 tops before I put the new motor in.
I do have stiff 1.12 T-bars. But a little thicker sidewall than some 245/50/5 tires.
I'll probably just buy the more expensive heims.
Interesting.
I run 1.12" torsion bars on the Challenger as well, although that's a wheel rate of 270 for the E-body. But I wouldn't think the higher rate bars would have a huge effect on the UCA's, the primary suspension load is on the LCA.
Definitely doesn't bode well for the heims on my Challenger. And of course, with the boots installed its much more difficult to visualize the wear on the heims. :violent1:
SRT_DSTRHOLC
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Are you saying in this post that I could theoretically run a 18x10 in the front with a 275/35/18 with 25mm offset? OR 35 mill offset if I ran your brake system and 5mm spacer?
Should work, yes. My effective offset is 27mm, but I have more room to the fenders and I haven't rolled anything in the front. My own personal preference is to set up with about 5mm of "extra" backspace, because you can always add a 5mm or smaller spacer if you have too much backspace, but you have to cut or roll or buy new wheels if you don't have enough.
So, yeah, I would look for an 18x10 with about a 30mm offset and plan on a small spacer with the stock 73+ disk set up. Which might also allow you to keep your wheels if you upgrade the brakes later. A 25mm offset should work, but you don't have any wiggle room if it's tight on your car. If you're planning on aftermarket disks, you probably want to add their offset in before the spacer. Which is how I ended up at a 35mm offset for my set up, because the dr diff kit I run adds ~5mm per side.
And don't forget you'll need tubular UCA's to clear rims that wide.
SRT_DSTRHOLC
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Perfect. Luckily I will be running 3 piece wheels and can always go wider later. Is 18x9 widest without tubular uppers?
Yeah, I just got MP Offset shackles and I was calculating I could probably run a +25-27 mm offset with an 18 x 9.5" wheel all the way around with 275/35/18 tires. That would allow me to actually rotate my tires. I kind of want to buy new wheels and tires now. I found 2 sets of wheels that are 4 lbs lighter per corner. Lol. So much money would be wasted. :wack:
Depends on the offset and tire width. I have 18x9's with my 27mm offset and 275's, and my rims hit the stock uca's at full lock and suspension droop. So my 18x9's didn't even work without tubular UCA's.
But, that also depends on the steering stops on the lower ball joints, and those vary a bit depending on the manufacturer. I compared a bunch of the old lower ball joints I had and found that the steering stops, and even the angle of the steering arm, were a bit different on a lot of them. Which of course means that what clears on one car might not clear on another and vice versa. The steering stops on my current lower ball joints are pretty small, so there's a lot of steering range and I think that caused my issue. But it was very minor interference, I might have been able to stay with the sock UCA's if I'd used a thicker spacer and taken the offset out to 25mm. It wasn't much at all.
And of course if you went with 255's up front you could use 18x9's with a little less offset, which would give more clearance.
But I think it's safe to say for 275's an 18x9 is the max for stock UCA's, and even then some adjustments might be needed depending on the suspension parts and alignment.
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