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Suspension Upgrade

6TSEVN

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Jan 1, 2021
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Location
Ripon
Hey everyone, recently bought a 67 Coronet RT and wanting some advice on what suspension upgrades I should do. The car will most likely just be a street car but would eventually like to get about 500 ponies out of her. Everything is stock so bushings and shocks are **** but sway bar, torsion bars, control arms are fine from what I can see. I was originally just going with the Firm Feel Suspension upgrade with Bilstein shocks, but the shocks are on back order for 2 months so was thinking maybe doing QA1 or Hotchkis because I'm impatient. I don't need a pro touring suspension I just want it to handle really nice. Do you think those upgrades would be sufficient for street. I would love any suggestions. Below is what comes in the suspension kit

kits include: upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, all (4) tie rod ends, upper and lower bump stops and an idler arm.

Thank you
 
You’ve got some good ideas! Me personally I like larger torsion bars, heavier front sway bar, add a rear sway bar, urethane bushings, firm feel stage 2 gear box, new MP RT rear leaf springs with bilstien shocks.. heavy strut rods and box the LCA and call it pretty good.. if you want more tie the rails and box everything you can but I didn’t think that’s what your after... most of these won’t break the bank just buy quality made in USA parts!
 
The weakest link on the stock suspension is the lower control arm bushings. Inspect carefully as it's hard to tell with everything in place. A firm feel upgrade on a power steering car is good. The cars handled good in the day and are still good today, in my opinion.
 
Hey.....Ripon, CA ?
If so, I'm not too far north of you.....right near Folsom lake. That is where these pictures were taken:
2 Chargers aa1.jpg
2 Chargers G.jpg


Good to hear from another B body owner.
Depending on your expectations, your plan sounds solid. I have the Bilstein shocks and am happy with them. I had KYBs before so almost anything was a step up. I went for the more aggressive handling/braking/road course type route with the red car. BIG torsion bars and sway bars, wide tires and a 5 speed. The ugly car is being built as a 3/4 scale version with a smaller engine, softer torsion bars and sway bars, smaller tires, etc.
You may find that the car needs bigger torsion bars. These cars had decent leaf spring rates but the front of these cars were far too soft when new and they are even moreso in comparison to the ride and handling of newer cars. A popular size for replacements is the 1.03 version commonly sold. SOME people will try to tell you that big bars will deliver a harsh ride but it is as much of a matter of torsion bar to shock compatibility as anything. Big bars and cheap shocks are a bad combo.
I have 1.15" bars in the red car and it rides about the same as our 2015 Challenger R/T.

I love this car.JPG
 
Hey.....Ripon, CA ?
If so, I'm not too far north of you.....right near Folsom lake. That is where these pictures were taken:
View attachment 1075916 View attachment 1075917

Good to hear from another B body owner.
Depending on your expectations, your plan sounds solid. I have the Bilstein shocks and am happy with them. I had KYBs before so almost anything was a step up. I went for the more aggressive handling/braking/road course type route with the red car. BIG torsion bars and sway bars, wide tires and a 5 speed. The ugly car is being built as a 3/4 scale version with a smaller engine, softer torsion bars and sway bars, smaller tires, etc.
You may find that the car needs bigger torsion bars. These cars had decent leaf spring rates but the front of these cars were far too soft when new and they are even moreso in comparison to the ride and handling of newer cars. A popular size for replacements is the 1.03 version commonly sold. SOME people will try to tell you that big bars will deliver a harsh ride but it is as much of a matter of torsion bar to shock compatibility as anything. Big bars and cheap shocks are a bad combo.
I have 1.15" bars in the red car and it rides about the same as our 2015 Challenger R/T.

View attachment 1075920
Yea Ripon, Ca. Damn we are pretty close I know exactly where you are. Beautiful cars by the way. Did you upgrade your upper and lower control arms? From what I have heard from a lot of Mopar guys is that the stock upper and Lowers were built solid and should be fine.
 
Yea Ripon, Ca. Damn we are pretty close I know exactly where you are. Beautiful cars by the way. Did you upgrade your upper and lower control arms? From what I have heard from a lot of Mopar guys is that the stock upper and Lowers were built solid and should be fine.

Damn Riponites....LOL
 
The uppers in both cars are stock but with Moog # K7103 offset bushings:

Moog 1.jpg


The lowers on both cars have reinforcement plates like so....

XH LAC 1.jpg
 
The red car has a 1.25 front sway bar. I'll probably use a 1.125 in the other car, "Jigsaw".
I named these cars to make them easier to identify. Red is "Ginger", the other is "Jigsaw" since it is being slowly reassembled from parts of several different cars.
 
Are the Moog # K7103 offset bushings similar to the Problem Solver bushings that Firm Feel sells?

Exactly the same.... There have been issues with Moog lower bushings not fitting properly the last few years but their problem solver uppers are the way to go...
 
Probably the same. Check the part # to confirm. They allowed me to get 4.5 degrees of caster from stock control arms. I seem to be the outlier though since not many others have been able to get the same numbers. Maybe my alignment guy lied? You know, like when MOM says that you are the best looking boy in the whole wide world...?
 
Probably the same. Check the part # to confirm. They allowed me to get 4.5 degrees of caster from stock control arms. I seem to be the outlier though since not many others have been able to get the same numbers. Maybe my alignment guy lied? You know, like when MOM says that you are the best looking boy in the whole wide world...?

I'm not??? :lol:

Oh, and I've gotten every bit of 4+ on a number of cars..
 
Exactly the same.... There have been issues with Moog lower bushings not fitting properly the last few years but their problem solver uppers are the way to go...
Awesome thank you. I ordered those with everything else initially so glad I did.
 
I'm not??? :lol:

Oh, and I've gotten every bit of 4+ on a number of cars..
Frequently, I hear from people that claim that they could only get 1.5 to 2 degrees even with the Moog bushings.
Bad tolerance stack up?
 
So do you think I should just wait the 45 days on the rear Bilstein shocks or scrap them and order some QA1 or Hotchkis shocks? Ive never had any so not sure what would be the best for my application.
 
Frequently, I hear from people that claim that they could only get 1.5 to 2 degrees even with the Moog bushings.
Bad tolerance stack up?

Possibly... Could be an alignment guy who doesn't know these cars too.... Before I found the guy I've used for 20+ years I would drop the car off at the local tire store, tell the guy what I want & when I come back I'd get a car set by the book... I want to see the front adjusters all the way out or damn close to it... I want to see the rears close to all the way in... You need to tweak them so to get the camber right but to get the max caster those adjusters are gonna be in close to max position..
 
So do you think I should just wait the 45 days on the rear Bilstein shocks or scrap them and order some QA1 or Hotchkis shocks? Ive never had any so not sure what would be the best for my application.

Bilstiens are very good, I've heard good reviews of QA1 & Hotchkis uses Fox... Any one of those is a quality part & should ride well & handle well..
 
Bilstiens are very good, I've heard good reviews of QA1 & Hotchkis uses Fox... Any one of those is a quality part & should ride well & handle well..
Yea that's what I have heard. Just didn't want to wait that long to do my suspension. Maybe Ill see if Matt at Firm Feel can send me the suspension kit and front shocks now and send the rears in 45 days.
 
Possibly... Could be an alignment guy who doesn't know these cars too.... Before I found the guy I've used for 20+ years I would drop the car off at the local tire store, tell the guy what I want & when I come back I'd get a car set by the book... I want to see the front adjusters all the way out or damn close to it... I want to see the rears close to all the way in... You need to tweak them so to get the camber right but to get the max caster those adjusters are gonna be in close to max position..

:thumbsup: Well stated because finding an alignment guy who actually knows that these mopar front suspensions actually can be “moved around “ has been frustrating. This can be like trying to get the kid at the parts counter understand what a common generic part is, and no It’s not in the damn computer.

Just my opinion and experience and that’s all. :BangHead: :BangHead::thumbsup:
 
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