New here. Lowering a 71 B body on the cheap?

[rustytoolss]

Thinking of lowing my 71RR all the way around. Has anyone removed the lower leaf springs/ and just kept the main leaf. Then added air bags for support/ and adjustability ? Just askin ? Is it possible ? Would it work ?

 

[PurpleBeeper]

You can lower the front almost down to the ground my just unscrewing the torsion bar adjustment bolt. You could also put in some lowering blocks from Autozone/O'Reilly (aka truck lift blocks)....all this for maybe $50..... but don't forget the alignment.

 

[Moparstyle]

I totally agree with purplebeeper use lift blocks to lower the rear less of a headache

 

[Kern Dog]

In every instance where you lower the front of a Mopar by unwinding the tension on the torsion bars, you have reduced the suspension travel by the same amount. You also took stiffness out of the torsion bar/spring so the front will bottom out easier. It is a much better idea to install bigger torsion bars to resist suspension bottoming along with a high quality shock absorber. Of course, nothing is cheap.
I went with 1.15 torsion bars and Bilstein shocks. The rear is a 6 leaf arrangement with a 1 inch lowering block.

 

[Kern Dog]

 

[Zeppelin264]

2" Lowering block in the rear. 1.10 Hotchkis T bars, lowered the front a bit and had it aligned.

Kern Dog's response is on point!

 

[rlem1977]

Drop spindles front, -2 or -3 inch leafs in the rear. This keeps everything else working the way it should. Not necessarily the least expensive.

 

[67belvedere/225]

your car is. too cool turn dog

 

[Photon440]

The leaf spring front mounts should look like this. Turn them upside down for about one inch of lowering.

 

[dadsbee]

The leaf spring front mounts should look like this. Turn them upside down for about one inch of lowering.

Not that simple... as the bolt pattern is different widths.

 

[Kern Dog]

Years back, I took some drag racing type spring hangers and drilled a hole in them up higher. A position 1 inch higher results in about 1 3/4" lower ride height. It also alters the differential pinion angle in the wrong way. THIS can cause strange vibrations, rapid U-joint wear and ultimate failure. I Pulled them out and put stock ones back in with the 1 inch lowering blocks.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Kern makes a few good points. Yes, if you just unscrew the torsion bars you will move the frame itself down low & the springs will feel soft/bouncy. I ran a car once with the screws ALL the way backed out and my front cross member was only 2"-3" from the ground and it was bouncy (a lot of sparks off the frame when it skipped off the road)

I also lowered my car in the back by using the upper holes of super stock front leaf spring hangers and it did throw my pinion angle off like crazy. If you could cut/weld some rear leaf spring perches in a new location yourself it would be relatively cheap. I tried 3-degree rear spring wedges and it wasn't nearly enough.

 

[rustytoolss]

Thanks guys for your ideas.

 

[wyrmrider]

if you take leafs out you will have tremendous spring wind up this ain't no nova
you would need some control arms
even lowering blocks encourage extra leverage for wind up
if that turns out to be a problem re-arch the springs
you can lower the front so much that you can't get the camber even close

 

[rustytoolss]

if you take leafs out you will have tremendous spring wind up this ain't no nova
you would need some control arms
even lowering blocks encourage extra leverage for wind up
if that turns out to be a problem re-arch the springs
you can lower the front so much that you can't get the camber even close

The spring idea ,was just that " an idea". As for spring wind up, my car is a 318 driver not a torque monster by any means. But I do understand what your talking about . Thanks