I want to beef up both the front and rear suspensions on my son's '68 Dart project car. The car was sagging in the rear, when we bought the car. I have had other mopars and have noticed a tendency with all the old Chrysler products to start sagging at the back. As a temporary measure, I had installed a cheap lift kit, but the leave-springs are now almost turned upside down. Rather than the springs bowing down, there beginning to bow up. How is this problem remedied?

Also, what can we do to beef up the front?

And, where can we pick up some anti-sway bars for the front and rear?

The problem is easily solved with new springs. Mine were beginning to bow the opposite direction too as yours when I replaced them. Check out www.espo.com They deal with all sorts of suspension components. They have 5 and 6 leaf springs, also availible in +1 and 2" arc.

You can have a local spring shop re-arch the rear leaf springs for less than the cost of good quality new ones, from what I've heard. But if you have 4-leaf ones, you might want to get new 5 or 6 leaf units anyway.

The front may be stiffened with larger torsion bars to increase the spring rate, and sway bars to increase only the roll resistance. I have 0.870" torsion bars up front - they've eliminated bottoming out and pavement scraping, while not giving it an unduly harsh ride. Sway bars can be purchased from Addco, both front and rear. I have a front sway bar and intend to get a rear one sometime soon.

By the way, you may very well have the original shocks on there. I'm pretty sure I did, and they were definitely shot. I replaced them with a set of KYB's, which at about $30 each are a relatively affordable upgrade. There are other options out there if you want a truly hardcore handling machine.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Sagging in the rear isn't a Chrysler tendancy, it's a leaf spring tendancy. But then you have to think that it takes probably a good 8 years on most cars to start sagging in the rear, and leafs are only $150 and easily upgraded. Coil springs on a modern non-leaf suspension probably will sag sooner, but are cheaper. When the bushings in the rear suspension go bad on a rear leaf spring suspension you have a fairly small amount to replace, in a modern rear suspension they're everywhere. Oh, and if you are unlucky enough to have a strut tower assembly as your rear suspension that's going to cost you as much if not more that leafs to replace.

For sway bars go to : www.jegs.com or www.firmfeel.com
For torsion bars go to: www.manciniracing.com
For rear leafs: www.jcwhitney.com(I hear you shouldn't use their bushings)

Other places have the items, like firmfeel has torsion bars, but mancini racing gives torsion bar size, firmfeel only gives descriptions.

-Shivadart

I've heard bad stories about rearching, the springs sagging soon after again. With $150 you can get a new pair, I wouldn't bother risking re-arching if its a few bucks cheaper.

Thanks, folks, for all the great input!

I have to strongly disagree with the myth about springs sagging soon after rearching. I did mine on my 1976 Valiant back about 1998 and got a little too much arch (inexperiecned helper). Used a Hossfeld bender at work, did another pair several years before too and those were about right.
Anyway, the '76Valiant was a bit too high in the back so I put some wood timbers in the trunk to transfer weight to over the frame rails and put a 1000 pound piece of steel in the trunk using the forklift at work. It pushed the back end of the car down to the ground and then I jumped on the bumper too, I then took the weight out and the car came right back up. Now it's 2004 and the back of the car is still a little too high and I finally swaped in a different pair of springs a few months ago.

I recommend new springs, and polyurethane spring bushings (Summitracing.com). The poly bushings will make the handling crisper with minimal ride compromise. Probably good to get new shackles too (or make your own).

KYB shocks are also an affordable upgrade from other gas shocks.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Hey Matt - I read your article on installing an aftermarket swaybar, very good! Did you ever get any solutions to the problem of the brackets hanging too low?

I'm going to put a swaybar on my '66 Dart and hope to avoid tagging too many speedbumps and driveways. I've already swapped the stock .830 torsion bars for .870s.

Cheers,

Steve

I have a possible solution - a set of Energy Suspension brackets that I stuck in a vice and bent into a sort of "-J" shape like the pipe under a typical sink. The leg that is in the original shape (the dash) mounts to the front of the K-member and the one that has been bent forward mounts under the K-member. These look like they should work and this could be done just as easily to the hardware that comes with the Addco kit. I just haven't gotten around to installing them. I'm glad you found my write-up useful.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair