I'm planning out some suspension modifications for when I do the front disc swap. I've ordered some new KYBs and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on rebuild kits (ball joints and bushings, non-poly) and sway bars (Aftermarket as I dont have tabs on my LCA to fit a 64-66 stock sway bar).

I haven't had a chance to actually test out my balljoints, but if I go with my front end BBP swap, I'll be needing new ones as the ones that I got with the setup are pretty well whoooooped!

Thanks in advance

Menko

Well, the Addco 751 is supposed to fit '62-'66, but it comes up too wide for my '62. I swapped-in beefy torsion bars (think I've got 894-5 items in there, might be 892-3) and have been happy enough with the result.

Dan what's the width on that addco 751. The catalog I'm looking at says it shoud fit 62-66 (that's the one I was going to get). But the info I have here doesn't list a width. I believe the stock one is 42 1/2". Addco has a listing for 60-61 (142) but its a pretty wimpy bar compared to the 751. Its about half of the bar rate of the 751.

I'll need some help with tbars--i couldnt' find either of those p/ns (found 889, 891, 893, 895 though!).

DOH nevermind, I see how you were reading them. 890=.85" 892=.87" What do you guys recommend. Mancini, Summit and Jegs all have a bunch of sets for $140. Any other place they can be had? I saw a set on ebay, but I just worry about buying one that is bunged up

MJ

I got .99 torsion bars from Mancini racing, great place and the bars looked nice and have worked for 6 months now(so far they haven't broken ).
Your car's probably lighter than mine(mines a 73 four door), so .99 is probably a bit much for you, though it did allow me to lower my ride height a bit without getting anywhere close to a spongy ride.

I am wondering this same sort of thing for my 63 brake upgrade. I think I'm taking the same approach as you are.

My understanding is that the earlier sway bars will have problems with clearance of the calipers unless you swap the spindles and mount the calipers to the back. I haven't done the swap, so I am only speaking from what I have read, not out of practical experience.

So my question would be which sway bar will work on an early A body with the 73-76 disk upgrade?

Well that's a pickle. The 73-76 swaybar was moved to run through a new K member to avoid interference. Its much narrower, something like 37.5" or so. I'm curious of anyone has taken one of these bars sans K member and made a custom mount on the control arms for it. I dont believe you can swap in the K member from the 73-76 to any Abody that is older than 67. The front track is a little narrower and although it will go in, you will have trouble from what I have read. Never tried it in real life.

Anyone out there have some real life experience with this?

MJ

I took a '75 sway bar and modified the k-member on my '65 so that it would work. The LCAs were from that '75. The sway bar is nicely tucked up into the k-member and is out of the way.

kesteb, can you tell me more about this?

I have a set of LCA from a 75 valiant, so I'd be interested in more specifics on doing this. Sounds great!

When I get around to putting an aftermarket sway bar on my Duster, will I have to run it through the K-member also? Will I have to change my control arms too?

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

addco makes a swaybar (two actually) for the 73-76. Don't know how it mounts, but the 1" dia one is Model $186, and the 1 1/8" is 596. Maybe you can find them someplace and see what the connection setup is

MJ

I have a PST bar and 75 BBP discs. The bar is super and the mounts work but could use a little improvement. An hour with some angle and a welder would do it. I m lazy and never got around to it and mine works just fine. The bar itself took about an hour to mount. The kit included some really nice sway bar to control arm links and bushings. I have the stock torsion bars and really good gas shocks. The front is lowered 2" by cranking down the bars. This gives a good ride with aggressive handling with big tires (235/60/14 on 8" rims).
Before I bought the PST bar I looked at a lot of setups and liked the PST best because it was sturdy and required no other parts or mods. The links and bushings really set it apart from Hellwig or Addco.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Sometimes when you have more time then money, you do strange stuff. And I had this perfectly good swaybar that just needed to be used! Anyway, I once tried this on a '66 many years ago. I didn't have welding equipment at that time so I never really started. But it planted the seeds. Here are some pictures:

http://www.kesteb.us/album/kmember/

If I were to do this again, I would use 2x3" square tube instead of the 2". The bar will hit the tube when the bar is pulled all the way down. But this shouldn't be a problem when actually on the road. Another problem, is that you cann't really go much larger then the stock 7/8" bar. You would need one without a "kink" in the middle to go larger. I have thought about using a straight bar like they do on sprint cars, but I haven't really pursued that, and the AFCO online cataloge doesn't show pictures of those bars.

I do not currently have the bar attached. When I assembled the front suspension, I figured that I would install it latter. Well to do that now, I would need to raise the front end at least 36" for the bar the slide into the tubing.

Does anyone sell the factory style LCA sway bar tabs?

Here is a link to a page showing among other things how to make your own sway bar tabs.

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/radrodder/ ... nsion.html

The rest of the pages this guy has are also very helpful.

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64 Valiant

I followed this guys suggestions when I installed my sub-frame connectors. Very good site.