How To Make Your Classic Mopar Handle! Suspension Upgrades, Modern Alignment Specs, And More 

🥲 I can’t help there, but - find a mechanic or classic shop you like, and maybe point them toward my videos. I’m always available to share information.

Leave the shitty side of the country

Yes! It really does wonders. The weld on tabs are an option, or there’s always the shock mounting bolt bracket - but as seen on this car, those can lead to funky end link to strut rod fitment problems.

Hotchkiss is the way to go. I did the tvs on my cuda and it handles better than the new challenger lol.

By the way, do you think a Borgeson box would fit my 66 Power Wagon? The guy I bought it from did a home job power steering conversion using a Toyota box. It's pretty sloppy but better than no power steering.

I don’t think Borgeson makes one that fits those, but I can’t say for sure. Obviously with a welder and enough ingenuity all things are possible. The steering assist ram is the only correct factory setup for the Sweptline trucks, as you may know. Our gold truck has one and it works well enough.

I’d definitely bump the sub frame connectors up on the need list for doing jumps. Haha.

Oh hell yeah! It’s all happening. Thank you!

I’m not an expert here, but I do own the Direct Connection performance manual, which covers several types of racing and might shed some light. I’m not well versed in cop car equipment either, but I’m sure Tom is. My basic understanding is, cop cars got heavy duty components similar to what an R/T would get. Sway bar, big brakes, big torsion bars, extra coolers. I don’t think there are any cop specific components that would help us as much as the aftermarket stuff does today.

@@DeadDodgeGarage I think Police spec steering boxes had a quicker ratio.

I have questions. Pulling the rails inward at the front would tweak the upper control arm mounting slightly in the direction you wouldn’t want, taking away caster. The lower control arm and strut rod are mounted to the K frame and wouldn’t be affected. Toe is just about endlessly adjustable and wouldn’t require that. A good camber spec is easy to achieve in stock form. At the same time, you’re changing the bumper mounting positions slightly, and potentially goofing body panel mounting and alignment. This seems like a bad idea, when the changes needed for radial tire alignment can be made with bolt on parts. Unless I’m not thinking about this correctly?

@@DeadDodgeGarage I'm not an alignment guy. This was 30 years ago and I don't recall aftermarket parts for changes like that. Thinking about it, my alignment guy came up with the solution and I think it was for caster change, which might affect camber too. Anyway, it worked and he got the alignment he wanted. On circle track Mopars, he would weld an extension on one control arm, buy welding two control arm pieces together. The bumper ends could be spread back apart, after reattaching the K-frame and that doesn't even require a frame shop. Whatever way he did it, he got it work on a few of my cars. Bias ply tires were getting hard to find and there wasn't the Internet to order parts or look up mods and parts. He had the front squeezed for caster most likely. The other thing is, Mopar front end rails actually spread with time over the years, so an old car is going to have the front rail spread apart more than originally. Squeezing the front addresses age and tire type.

Truth Teller 👍🏻🇦🇺💯⛽️

I’m sure it’s a diminishing return sort of thing, and eventually does more bad than good. More than 5 is pretty much unachievable in these cars anyway so I don’t think it necessarily needs to be said. The handling guys always just seem to say “as much as you can get.”

I find the ride in my Mopars to be plenty “compliant.” Take the front shocks off of a Mopar. Then take the front shocks off of a Chevy. Let me know which suspension system you like better 🙂

Oh hell yeah. If you want straight line action, ignore all of this 😁

@@DeadDodgeGarage I don't , I just don't have the money or time yet to touch it ! I get in it and drive it 20 minutes and shut it down . Best car I've bought in my life yet !

Hotchkis makes rear leafs specifically for handling. The pro of the poly LCA is that it can rotate freely. It definitely won’t have much side to side give as you are describing. I haven’t heard of this causing any issues, but I could see how the arc of the strut rod’s travel could potentially strain the bushing. I wonder if those aftermarket adjustable strut rods (with heim joints) could be set up to avoid this. I’m far from an expert here. My main interest is in cars that work well on the street. I’ve never had to think about the lower bushings this hard. Haha. The modern hemi swap Challenger I’m working on currently has just about all of this same stuff done already. Braced lower arms, tubular upper, adjustable strut rods, subframe connectors, sway bars of course, and big torsion bars. I have added the inner fender and radiator support braces, and I will be adding torque boxes soon to complete the chassis stiffening package.

@@DeadDodgeGarage I did a lot of reading since earlier and there are folks who say both urethane and delrin (Bergman) LCA bushings are ok as long as you use a quality adjustable strut rod preferably with a heim joint and get it set perfectly. Apparently the effect of the different arcs of motion of the LCA and strut are minimized with the right adjustment but you may not be able to get that 'perfect' setup with stock struts. More research needed. Still seems like there has to be _some_ motion absorbed at the LCA pivot or the front strut to K-frame connection, and most of the posts seemed to lean towards the OEM type rubber bushings/isolators on the strut to do that so it didn't occur at the LCA pivot; I'm not familiar with the adjustable struts or if they use isolators. At lot fewer folks seemed to want urethane strut isolators compared to bushings on the control arms. Heim joint must be in specific orientation, but I don't see how that deals with the movement unless there's still the rubber isolators. So much to catch up on. I have the Mopar Suspension book but its packed away... wonder how vastly things have changed since then (1984, where does the time go!)

I have read about it but have never done it. I know some people go all out, backing up all of the factory’s crappy K frame welds, adding braces, etc. If you’re building a track car you should probably look into that. Personally, for what I’m doing, it sounds like overkill - but I completely believe that flexing occurs there. I haven’t seen a sector support on a classic Mopar yet. I’ve seen them on Cummins trucks though, where it’s a really good idea.

@@DeadDodgeGarage 30+ year hiatus on car work has changed the hopes and plans (read that as lower expectations due to price shock and getting older), but I am going to go over the K-frame for any cracks or failing welds; as I do that I expect I'll still do basic reinforcement, because why not? Newer larger stickier tires may require more force to turn at stop/low speed especially if fast ratio steering is still on the menu so loading on the steering box mounts/K-frame may be higher than stock. I bought one of those Firmfeel sector support kits long ago (sadly it is packed) so going to use that too. The reviews when it came out were pretty good.

I think someone over here buying one and shipping it to you would be the easiest way. I would offer to do this myself, but then I have to remember that Stacey has been waiting for me to mail him a shirt for quite a while now 😅 because all of my stuff is made to order by a third party I don’t have them in stock. I need to fix this at some point.

​@@DeadDodgeGarage you got a link as to where to buy one , might have a stateside contact

@@linwoodlane7006 go to www.deaddodgegarage.com and click the button that says merch! And thanks!

There sure are! My brother has some on his Fury.

@@DeadDodgeGarage I bet they make a giant difference with roll around corners

@@geebopbaluba1591 Seriously - it's nuts. The front bar alone does a lot, but once you add the rear bar too, the body roll is just gone. It's amazing how well they corner that way. Well enough to find the next weak point... the sidewall of the rear tires 😄

Even the modern ones look very, very similar. Haha. This one was cutting edge with Windows 98. It’s old enough to drink.

Interesting… I’m in western Washington state. Haha.

LCA bushings suck,finally figured out how to take apart easier. Only took about 6 times.😂

@@trojan440 I remember what a pain the first set I did were... That was years ago. I just did the front end in a '73 Charger here and was dreading the LCAs. It...took me ten minutes or less a side. I guess I've learned a whole lot about how to do stuff in the last decade. I'm glad that's where we're at now, because both my Charger and Demon pretty obviously need them. Haha.

I’ll stop short of that… but it just seems so wrong to me.

Avoid…radials? So what, use ancient bias plies?