Another question I am curious about, is how to lift the rear end without messing with the front end. Can I do a flip shackle, or a block lift or what? I only want a couple inches lift nothing major. This is for a 74 Dodge Dart and is a daily driver only so I won't be doing any racing. Thank you.

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We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart?

3 options for lifting a leaf spring/solid axle suspension:

1) Re-arched leaf springs

2) Dropped/Longer spring/shackle mounts (i have no idea if these are even an option for cars, requires drilling out rivets, pulling old mounts and welding new ones on)

3) Blocks and longer U-bolts. For 2", i think this option is the route i would take. Just make sure to get some wedge shims and re-adjust your driveline geometry.

-Aaron

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The "Silver Bullet"
87 Ram D150

Not recommended. If the car is sagging in the back new springs are about $50 apiece from various places.

With that said, you could use air shocks, or overload shocks with some shock extenders. I never had luck with the longer shackles. And air shocks, with excessive pressure will eventually break the top shock mounts. Either of these, will make your Dart tail happy. So be careful.

What is not recommended? The blocks? The springs are not sagging, but I have seen many Darts raised a little and I am only looking for about 2", so you think air shocks? This is a daily driver with a stock "Slant6" so I am not concerned about excessive speed at this point... Thank for the input folks...

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We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart?

Blocks won't raise a car, they lower it. Blocks do raise a truck. Adding a leaf from a junk spring set will be the lowest cost and gives a firmer ride. Re-arching the springs is a little more money but keeps the same soft ride. New springs is the best way to go and the highest price tag goes with it. Forget the longer shakles and air shocks, they will work but they are not a good solution to raise a car.


Cecil

Darts are light in the rear end. Raising the rear makes them even lighter. Even if you but larger rims/tires under them, you just lose the traction. I have raised several mopars with the above mentioned items. None of them were satisfactory. If you want the forward rake look, I would suggest lowering the front.

For instance, my '65 Dart rides at the stock height in the rear. I am running 15x7" rims and 235x60 tires. On the front I have 15x5.5" rims and 205x60 tires. The big/little tire combination gives a built in "tire rake" of 1/2". I have further lowered the front suspension so the front K-member/frame bolts are 11" from the ground. This gives my car about a 2 1/2" rake back to front.

To me, this looks right. The tires are properly framed by the wheel wells and the front stance is just right and the car handles better.

Most people want to raise a Dart because they bought those neat looking deep dish mags, with the extra wide tires, but darn, they don't fit into the wheel wells. Been there, done that! My 20 years of experience with A-bodies have shown me, that the above combo works the best. If you really want those big tires, then I would suggest you look into the MP spring relocation kit. I have done this too, and it works really nice!

As others have said, blocks on an A-body lower it. The axle is above the spring. Flipping mounts does not work, either - on an A-body, this will lower the rear about an inch.

Longer shackles are cheap, relatively easy to install except for the rusty bolts, but the suspension geometry isn't the best.

Air shocks will get the tail end higher, but, as has been noted, are tough on the shock mounts.

Two methods of stiffening the original springs can work: Adding a junkyard leaf, and clamp on overload leaves. Both have about the same effect. Cheap and effective.

Re-arching the springs will make the tail end sit higher and is effective if the springs are sagging and you want everything back to stock.

Mopar Performance Super Stock springs would be my choice for drag racing.

Me? I've gone with Kesteb's choice: lower the front and leave the rear ride height stock. This could cause bottoming out with stock slant six torsion bars though.

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

Extended shackles are a good way to flatten your springs.

I don't know if that is good...or bad????

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We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart?

Bad. The change in geometry can un-arc your springs.

ive used air shocks for years, never have a broken shock mount. $60 for a set of monroes. just remember it wont handle great in the twisties, but itll look way better than sitten low like grampas car!!

I have used air shocks in some applications with good success.
(mostly on wagons / trucks / vans where it is nice to have some adjustability for loads)

If you use air shocks, be sure to get an extra fill "bib" and put each air shock on it's own seperate filler.
Do Not use the "T" fitting, this promotes body roll by allowing the air to run from one shock to the other during a turn. (the loaded side's air pressure escapes to the unloading side, not what you want to happen.
DD

I Use rear coil over shocks with helper springs to get the required height. have used this combo on A,C,J bodies as far back as I can remember.